Flirting with Existence

Do you want to feel more alive than everyday life?

...
More alive?
Can you?!

You know you can, you have felt it, maybe it’s not living, maybe it’s something else, a deeper/lighter/bigger/expansive, an unscope feeling of breathing, moving and I guess, something closer to existing.

... I know what it is to exist. I live, and exist in a palpable way, but I wonder if I shouldn’t be closer to the stars, to nature itself if I want to affirm and believe that I exist. Scientist will tell me that obviously I do, but with some imagination, even that can be discussed. I can’t understand it using its opposite, to not exist, as I also don’t know what it feels like.

Do you think that to exist you need to feel, and once you stop feeling you cease to exist?

... Well, dead people don’t feel.

So, the more you feel, the more alive you’ll be?

Seems to fit into it.

A lot of people think or believe or know they feel — but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. To be alive is feeling — not knowing or believing or thinking. No one can be taught to feel, it takes courage, for it’s a one-self private experience that comes with many risks, but I’d say, risks that are surely worth taking, or so I feel

“We must assume our existence as broadly as we in any way can; everything, even the unheard-of, must be possible in it. That is at bottom the only courage that is demanded of us: to have courage for the most strange, the most singular and the most inexplicable that we may encounter.”

_

Rainer Maria Rilke

To be alive is an amazing feeling, and look at some of the synonyms for the word “amazing”: surprising, bewildering, stunning, staggering, shocking, startling, stupefying, breathtaking, perplexing, confounding, dismaying, disconcerting, shattering; unbelievable… scary, isn't it?
A mystery walk into the woods of the unknown.

But it's this flirting with the unknown, the urge to go beyond the boundaries of the established, taught, that feeds our creative impulse, that's makes us want to feel more, and strive into feeling more alive. Yes you can feel more alive, if you allow yourself to feel and embrace all the feelings that come with the openness and courage to be vulnerable to feelings. Feel them, talk about them, but don't keep them. Let them fly free as water!

In a silent space.
I hear a voice
It whispers...
It sings...
At times it even cries out...

Like a wave
When it breaks on the ocean shore
It falls into pieces
Of that, which is called "me"


Particles of "me", particles of "you"...
Particles of "we"
The endless facets of a diamond
United in one breath

The beat of my heart echoes yours
A rhythm that resonates in every living thing
What if this voice that speaks in me
Is a key?
For a non-existing door...
Careful and unsure....
I take flight...


What do I know?
So much...but somehow nothing...

And if I'm honest with myself
All those memories
Short ones and long-lasting....
Are just dust....

What if I start from scratch...the empty page...
Stop running...
YES! This time, I'm here...
And to all those years...months'...and days..
I give thanks... I give thanks...

I stand on the cliff of my mind
It cries out in fear:
"Don't jump! You'll die"...

Those whirling thoughts....
As autumn leaves lifted by a wind
They dance... and sing:
"What will happen if you dive deep within?"

Face these guardian demons...
That are holding souls in chains..
As it seems...

Beliefs... dogmas... ideals... standards...
Theatrical performances...
Such fear games...

Who is that "true me"?
Who's hiding behind all these masks?
Absorbing the whole world
Who's writing all those stories?
It's like someone created a game and lives in it...

What if I stop for a moment...
Take rest from all these thoughts
Letting the world "be"... as it is...

Trusting heart's purity..
Into a Great Sea I dive...
Who am I?
Please answer!

I'm falling again...
Doubts are crawling in...
My wings got twisted...

Despair, disappointment...
Because of these questions-answers...
Mind games...

Loneliness and sadness...
These old companions...
So demanding...

I'm tired of myself, fighting…
Illusionary symbols...
Pretended sharing...
If you give, we give...
We are more and they are less...
Defining whites, blacks...reds....yellow...blue...
Only some are useful ...
But...is it all really true?!

All I believe in...
Just like passing clouds
Only stories...
All kinds...

I let them go...
And the need to know...
What...when...and why....

I lay down upon Mother Earth...
Trusting... she knows it all!

We give her names...
Dividing her by visible lines
While…
She is undivided and One!

Why not to choose peace…?
The choiceless peace!

I'm trusting this moment, opening...
My heart is opening...

Where is this meeting place with myself?
Yes! I know…it's inside...

But a soul...
No age...or race...or situation...
She smiles...
Smiles...she is...
And fear disappears when I'm BEING THAT!

Standing on Earth...
And also in the skies...
It’s quite effortless to die...knowing...
And to be born again...
Without dying...


How to describe in words what I feel?
Just smiling...
Breathing into joy...

Each dawn I'm born
Each night I die...
Dissolving "the who" and "what" and "why"

I'm a man...and a woman also...
I'm a bird...a child...
Clouds...and a sky...
I'm a stone in a stream
And a wave...that whispers to a shore:
Here...I am...

The sun is setting...
A gentle breeze is caresses my skin...
All senses are resting...
And calmness...is here....
Loving heart's space...
I exist...
Me doesn't

All is...
And every change is just a new beginning...

From the Inside to the Outside

Because

"There is nothing inspiring about a person's imperfections on display."

We have all been there (or are).

Life feels empty of any content, and the question, why we're here, does not get any answer. I'm here for my family and kids, I'm here for my job, I'm here because my parents did what nature intended them to do...  but we don't get the "why" behind the facts. This "why" is what we call the "Meaning of Life"

Starting in a simplistic way, Life does feel many times as that first day at school...
Why?! Mum? Dad... don't leave me...
Who am I here? How should I act?
Hum... Ok, I'm not the only one... but this feels strange.
But then you find out the things you like the most and you focus your attention on them, becoming the fastest runner, or reader, or a great storyteller, or a quiet observer, and not because you though of becoming one, but because you followed your gut, you followed what gave you pleasure!

As we grow, we also learn that life is even better when we're not just focused on our self-pleasure, and we get motivated by engaging in groups and later on, in making someone else happy. First our parents, teachers, best friends and one day, that one person we start dreaming about.

If we had gotten stuck on being upset and frustrated, no way we would have reached this far. We would be stuck in kindergarten! Complaining and acting as victims of a world that does not understand us.

So, in the most simplistic way, it all comes down to our choices. And where do we make them? Inside. Inside ourselves. We can be driven, suggested, manipulated even, but in the end, it's always our inner self that makes that last decision. So workout that muscle!

We're always searching for meaning, for that self drive. That inner power that breaks through our fears and insecurities. But here's where it gets confusing.
The search for meaning, much like the search for pleasure, can't be rationalised, for meaningfulness is a by-product of engagement and commitment. We have to live and experiment to find meaning.
Only when we go for it, trial and error style, do we know what really drives us into the right direction, to what gives us an identity and beliefs.

“However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”

_

Stanley Kubrick

But don't just jump and see. Get to know yourself by caring of your health, your social life, and so importantly, your mind. Read, write, think things through, don't let your brain get lazy in the same old same patterns, challenge it! This is called (again, in a simplistic way) to care of yourself.

Not caring for yourself leads to loneliness, and loneliness it's the saddest of feelings.

When a loved one passes away, it's the loneliness of not being able to share with them any more thoughts that hurts the most. When Love breaks apart, it's the loneliness of questioning what that love really was that keeps us in the dark, be it between lovers or children and their parents.

But if we care for ourselves, we find out what it is that we particularly like, what it is that makes us laugh, jump, sing, and we do it, ultimately finding space in our life to give to others who didn't care for themselves. We feel pleasure in giving and being compassionate.

So, what's our purpose here, and why are we here? Blank hard truth...
We are here to let the "sunshine" in, grow, love and share ideas, thoughts or feelings, and give fruit!
So, find your self strength, and get out of that cave you've been in.

"Plato then supposes that one prisoner is freed. This prisoner would look around and see the fire. The light would hurt his eyes and make it difficult for him to see the objects casting the shadows. If he were told that what he is seeing is real instead of the other version of reality he sees on the wall, he would not believe it. In his pain, Plato continues, the freed prisoner would turn away and run back to what he is accustomed to (that is, the shadows of the carried objects). He writes "... it would hurt his eyes, and he would escape by turning away to the things which he was able to look at, and these he would believe to be clearer than what was being shown to him."[3]

Plato continues: "Suppose... that someone should drag him... by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, and never stop until he could drag him out into the light of the sun."[3] The prisoner would be angry and in pain, and this would only worsen when the radiant light of the sun overwhelms his eyes and blinds him.[3]

"Slowly, his eyes adjust to the light of the sun. First he can only see shadows. Gradually he can see the reflections of people and things in water and then later see the people and things themselves. Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally he can look upon the sun itself (516a)."[3] Only after he can look straight at the sun "is he able to reason about it" and what it is."

_ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave

Don't be afraid. We are all in the same boat. We don´t live separated from anything, we are all part of something. We are all part of a "one" thing, and if what we choose to give to this "whole" are only negative feelings and sad thoughts, we're not only hurting ourselves but others also. So don't allow yourself to get stuck in fear and frustration. Follow the sunshine, the positive, the poetry and contemplation.

“To lose the appetite for meaning we call thinking and cease to ask unanswerable questions [would be to] lose not only the ability to produce those thought-things that we call works of art but also the capacity to ask all the answerable questions upon which every civilization is founded"
_
Hannah Arendt

That's why...

"There is nothing inspiring about a person's imperfections on display."
Don't remain as a victim. Heal. See yourself from a loving and caring you.
Take the risk and be surprised with the beauty inside yourself and how it reflects on others.


TheButterflyCircus - HD from The Butterfly Circus on Vimeo.

The Soul

Imagine a Soul, with no sensations, no memory or reason. Only conscious of itself and never aware of any other object beyond itself. Moving through the World without ever connecting with anything outside, following only its own necessary path.

This Soul it's only a word to us, that once was released into the air, and, as any word, became reflected in multiple bodies, with minds, feelings and a past.

And that's where we live, attached to sensations, memories and a constant need for reason.

A terrible thing that happens to us is sad, but it's worst if it controls who we become.

That's why there are so many forms of Art. We know we can be lift up to higher states of mind through contemplation. We can abandon our clothes, our bodies and be lift up into a state of pure simplicity and deeper understanding through Music for example, or a poem, or by letting ourselves immerse in Natures's delicate strength.

Action is a shadow of contemplation. If only one could keep himself in that unifying feeling of contemplating the amazing act of existing. No dispersion, but pure ecstasy of releasing ourselves from the physical world and contemplate the no absence of anything, for in letting ourselves rise up we become one with everything. Maybe the body is inside the Soul, and not the other way around.

“Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. So do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiselling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine. (...) The world is knowable, harmonious, and good. (...) The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.”
_
Plotinus

You do it to yourself...

"... and that's what really hurts".

We can blame so many things for what we believe to be an injustice, a failure, an unlucky moment or a stupid choice. Yes, we can blame ourselves too, but even then, we will blame something outside ourselves. Our education, society, traumas, hormones, negativity or something else, like money or disease. And we go along, complaining and blaming, blaming and complaining.

What if someone you consider above the majority in eloquence, intelligence and intuition, told you that you are the sole responsible for where you are. That you and only you can be accountable of where you are, who with and in what mode or manners.

Well, immediately you'd disagree, but then, remember I said it was someone knowledgeable that was talking with you, so imagine that this person or entity had the power to intervene in your simplistic idea of what you are, and ignite it into something bigger, wider, expansive.

It could start as simple as just by asking you how many senses do you believe to have? Five, or could you actually defy Aristoteles and after some delay, respond that maybe there could be six or seven...

We sort of know this. There's so much left unexplained when we reduce our perception of the world to only five senses. You can come up with the sense of intuition, of cinestesia or proprioception, of light or space.

Our problem in this challenge of broadening up our views is that, as we go along into opening our perspective of the world, we also realize that nothing happens separately of anything. That the main principle's basis starts with a unifying force, conjuncture and not so much trough the diversifying concept that we so much love to highlight. We love to point out the differences between us, between concepts and ideas, it simplifies, excludes things, and we feel more in control of the mess we're all in, but when we want to get closer with someone, with something, that's when we search for commonness, resemblance, and one feels the connection, the link that had been missing. We all want and search for that union.

So, back to our five senses, we can feel something just by seeing it, or imagining it. We can taste or feel it through the idea of it. We don't have only five senses, and the reason why it's hard to measure them it's because it all correlates. Our brain, our tongue or sight. Nothing in us stands just by itself. It's a whole system where everything interconnects.

... and that's where it all gets complicated and we give up and decide to go back to our methodic systematic way of understanding the world. Our single, enclosed perspective.

Yes, we do it to ourselves.

"(...) Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love."

Try to understand.

Conventions, rules, opinions… how much they invade and take over you.

To learn it’s an amazing thing. We learn in school, we learn with friends and life, we learn from mistakes and successes too, but if we just stay there, paused in a controlled and assumed way of thinking, we will not be ready for Life’s real challenges. When Life demands of us, a fast straight forward response. Usually our response ends up in tears, screams or a total system shutdown, but where does that lead us? Only to regret. That “I should have known better” feeling. Should you? Yes, we should. But for that we need to erase some of the things that have been taught to us. Yes, we have to question and search for other alternatives. We have to challenge and rebel against man made assumptions, and go back into the wild…

We have a nature that is getting override by ideologies that instead of really moving us, they paralyse our real natural call for thinking and feeling. Knowledge is great and the more one invests on it the further his views can reach, its fundamental to materialize and experiment on our thoughts, but if we don’t own any intuition, or creative open thinking, in times of trouble we will not find the right answer, or at least a good one.

So we really need to reach back into finding our nature, our five sensed being that understands Life’s rhythms, that incorporates in his thinking the patience to wait for the right season, the need to grow in order impress and call attention when one must, to know when to recoil and wait for better peaceful times, instead of blindly demanding all for now, I want it now, I want it like this, I, I, me, me.

We know we are losing connection with what we most value, but there are so many names, concepts like morals and values telling us to what we should obey that we no longer think beyond the rules, and sadly, many times in a unhealthy way, we stop feeling and stop being true to our nature, we loose the ability of being intuitively sharp.

One way we can realize what we are, is to go back to nature, and watch how things follow a certain order, but never without an astute vigilant state of existing. This is so important.

This astute vigilant mental state can work for moments of crisis, of fear, but should also be present in purely enjoying the pleasure of being alive, of being in the world, but note, not on a solitude state, instead. exist involved in a community. Yes, we need to feel confident in our own strength, abilities and capacity to defend what’s most vital to us, but don’t exclude yourself from being with others. We need, in every way, to be involved in a community. We need to exist in community.

Heard this term not so long ago, “intellectual humility”, which is when one keeps asking himself, what can I learn from this, how is it that this could be different? For fear of showing ourselves vulnerable and fail, most of us choose to almost always act as having the right answer, but we know where that leads us… fights, war, crashes and very sadly, to blindness in forgiving and the lack of openness to change and grow.

The inspiration for these thoughts comes from some sad past events, that I so wish could be changed, but also from the richness of having met a country and people that pursue their inner wilderness. Þakka þér fyrir (Thank you in Icelandic)

FOR PICTURES CLICK THE LINK
Iceland Photo Album

Heartily altogether

Because our best friend is Love. Whenever we feel lost, disoriented sad or angry, frustrated and disappointed, think about it, who could be your best friend?

Who can step above reality’s artificial nature, who can embrace you, no matter how you feel, and make yourself forgive your flaws, your mistakes. Who can make you feel safe and forgiven.

And because questions are actually answers, where can you find Love?
… take some time, feel it, and ask yourself, where can you find Love?

Stop trying too hard. We try too hard. We concentrate too much on the problem of not achieving, of not improving, but here on Earth, you can’t be perfect. If you’re too good there’s high chance of you becoming a stuffed prig and you can get lost, you can’t be too bad either or you’ll be punished. Be halfway. Soft, gentle. To be halfway means to be tolerant, to be respectful of other people rights and respecting your owns. Let yourself be in Love.

When we’re just focusing on being great, we can easily fall into a state of confusion and uncertainty, because we create the need to be great. What’s a great person, a flawless person?

Instead, just fall into the arms of Love. Where are they?
Feel it. That’s where your answer will be.

Each of us has it’s own source, but for everyone it starts by feeling it. Allowing yourself to feel. In letting ourselves relax and melt in Love.

“At bottom the whole concern of both morality and religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe. Do we accept it only in part and grudgingly, or heartily and altogether?”

_

William James

Strong & Fragile

… And she looked in his eyes and said, in a trembling voice, “I’m sorry” and after turning away and walking a few heavy sad steps, she turned back, and with eyes full of tears, she said, “Thank you…”, for this is what Life is, a series of lessons that come as waves, some are scary and crushing, others take us into a flow of connectedness… a powerful loving gratitude takes over everything we know and you & me are no longer distant, no longer strangers, we are part of wider and brighter existence, one we cannot understand being stuck in one single, controlled perspective.

… release yourself, don’t be afraid…

When we are afraid we judge and compare, we imagine how everything can be lost, and for must of us, the easiest response is to run away and hide, and we close our eyes and deny everything that was seen, said and thought. And then comes regret. Regret for not having said what we really feel and believe.

We should really say, a lot more often, that we Love the people we have as warm shoulders to rest our heavy heads. Please say it… it’s ok if they’re afraid to reply back, it’s ok. You will not get sick from saying something you deeply feel and are grateful for.

And then, accept change. Accept sudden unacceptable situations. Accept irrational, bewildering, confusing life happenings… they have a reason behind them.

Laws of physics, everything changes… "Constructal Law: all of nature is composed of flow systems that change and evolve their configurations over time so that they flow more easily, to create greater access to the currents they move…" * Life is strong and fragile at the same time.

We are strong and fragile at the same time.

*Adrian Bejan

E depois da queda, repousar

São as mesmas caras de sempre, apesar da curiosidade. Com vontade de se aventurar de forma reservada.

Criatividade com cautela…?

“Não me levo nem a sério, nem a brincar”

Somos livros dentro de livros, histórias que se sobrepõem, que se apagam na ilegibilidade de não se conseguir mais as compreender, e ainda assim, restam tantos espaços em branco.

Magoamo-nos mais quando o fazemos sozinhos, mas a culpa de fazer nascer dor no outro, também pesa.

E neste não sermos nada para ninguém, sentimos tanto peso.

De costas deixa-se de ver, talvez se pressinta, se oiça ou cheire, mas são os olhos que ganham nesta luta entre o que aconteceu e o que foi dito. Se escolhemos estar de costas é porque a antecipação de sentir já nos assusta.

É isto que é preocupar-se. Ocupamo-nos do outro, que é dizer amar, ocuparmo-nos um do outro. Mas depois, porque isto de viver civilizadamente introduz-nos leis que a nossa natureza não entende, deixamos de conseguir sentir.

Não resisto transcrever as palavras do Chefe da tribo Tuiavii dos mares do Sul, sobre o Papalagui, o Branco, o Senhor.

“Como nunca fui capaz de entender isto… julgo que se trata de uma doença grave. 

- «O tempo escapa-se-me por entre os dedos!», «O tempo corre mais veloz do que um  cavalo!», «Dá-me um pouco mais de tempo» - tais são os queixumes do homem branco.

Dizia eu que se deve tratar de uma espécie de doença... Suponhamos, com efeito, que um Branco

tem vontade de fazer qualquer coisa e que o seu coração arde de desejo por isso: que, por exemplo, lhe  apetece ir deitar-se ao sol, ou andar de canoa no rio, ou ir ver e sua bem-amada. Que faz ele então? Na maior parte das vezes estraga o prazer com esta ideia fixa: «não tenho tempo de ser feliz»"

Is God real?

Do you believe God is real?

Or that you’re the product of someone else’s imagination?

It’s all perspective isn’t it? To look into the void and feel it’s immensity, or to be surrounded by richness and feel the emptiness in it all.

Can we be and not exist?

Usually we ask our own heart to answer these questions, as the brain immediate starts reporting error. There’s always a difficult jump to be given when we wish to join what’s on one side to the other. A jump that really scares most of us. If you become too emotional, you might lose sight on things, but if rationality is your walking stick, then you're not having any fun. We need to dance while understanding the lyrics of the song, hey, if we can even sing it while dancing, top! Don’t get shy about it… But then we do. We feel shy for showing our feelings, to show what moves us. Shy or scared? Can we be scared of what we Love? Yes, very.

Knowing that we Love is scary for it’s our highest point in Life. You can only look down from that awareness. But it’s always the very purpose of existing.

The only way to face that we don’t exist forever physically is by embracing our true colours. We are much more than what we can see. We are attachment, we are promises, we are dreams and jumps into the void, and we are a collective, like an ocean, not uniformly mixed but structured in layers with distinct properties. But all within a system. A system we did not created, invented or even put it as hypothesis. 

“You with the sad eyes

Don't be discouraged, oh I realize

It's hard to take courage

In a world full of people

You can lose sight of it all

The darkness inside you

Can make you feel so small…”

The darkness inside ourselves can make us feel small, remember that. Don’t succumb to it. There’re other levels in this big ocean. Where there is sunlight there is life, there’s creation and exchange. Is God real? Yes, but maybe in a way that you & me can't imagine. Like so many things we have never imagined or that we can only suppose, well, to get any answer we can’t be afraid to ask. So ask! Go on, don’t be scared.

and... 

Zaagi

Speculative belief = rationality

Belief speculated = spirituality

... It's here on Earth that there's weight, volume, physical sensitivity. Beyond, all we know its that theres no air or gravity. We float and die if there isn't any artificial oxygen given... Two different worlds part of one single Universe. Could this be used as a metaphor for ourselves? Our inner and outer existence?

Well, long time ago, in our evolution, palaeontology period (5th bC), man in it's evolution did start to think more outside itself, and more in terms of group, expanding to rituals that marked important stages in one's individual Life, especially, it seems, in that finishing moment: death.

Painted rocks, shells, animal bones, caves, to say goodbye and celebrate the moment of one's passage into another world. This is when artists actually began evolving into carrying an important role in society, by creating group union and meaning, meaning in the natural known space and beyond.

Were they conscious of that spirituality necessity?

So little do we know about our evolution, despite the evidence that we respected values and based our whole evolution in the strength of group union and faith.

We had no idea of machines, and we grew stronger than never. Nowadays, we act as machines, but how many of us truly feels strong in their hope and faith in Life, in our neighbour, in our beliefs...

From the Aboriginal people it has been passed the legacy of important values such as in the Ojibwe People and their Seven Grandfathers: Wisdom; Love; Respect; Bravery; Honesty; Humility and Truth... just a quick side track, Love is described in the word zaagi'idiwin and represents the concept of treasure, you treasure someone, or you are treasured by someone.

... money and competition are separating us more than ever. This addiction of constant social "pings", brings us to the level of any dog in a Pavlov conditioning test, we wait and expect for a message, a like, a new feed. And we loose track of what really matters: to be and engage in reality, in a way that matters to the next generation.

Unfortunately emptiness is starting to rule most of our actions, but even though it is said to be important by meditation and yoga teachers, its not emptiness that connects you to this world, it's not emptiness that opens your arms to give care and shelter. It's Love. It's Respect. It's Honesty. It's empathy and understanding over our ignorance and repeated attempts to grow and evolve. It's Love.

Love that forgives and accepts mistakes. Love that leads you into enthusiasm, passion, excitement and joy. Love as hope. Let's not wait to make sense of things one day. The real sense for everything should be: because it feels right, it feels good and no one is hurt by your choice. We are still part of a tribe, humankind. Ask any parent, friend who has lost all they had, what is the one thing that would destroy them if gone.

"'It would not be much of a universe

if it wasn't home to the people you love."

_

Professor Hawkings

Birds flying high...

- Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!! ... she screams in silence.

Frustration.
And the realisation that once more, you did it again.

There's no possible positivity wave to be caught when, right in front of your eyes, you see that nothing changed, no growth, no freedom conquered. Where have you been? How come nothing was learned, how could you let it all happen again?...

Well, that's Life. Or our childish way of living before thinking.
It's a risk one has to take, to either follow their pseudo-intuition, our imperfect knowledge.
We know so little.

Knowledge can be read and listened to, but to actually discover life, we have to make mistakes.
Discovery is made with tears and sweat, by people who are constantly getting the wrong answer. To discover is too explore, to go beyond what/who we are supposed to be.

Why do we know more now than we knew ten thousand years ago, or even ten years ago? Is it really just because we could be smarter? Or because we have actually evolve through error and failed attempts?

Yeap, we have to go for it, for what we are searching for in order to really know ourselves.

As artists so claim, better to die of passion than to follow a Life of boredom, but pain will be your companion. Be prepared for that.

“However meaningless and vain, however dead life appears, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth steps in and does something (…) If one wants to be active, one mustn’t be afraid to do something wrong sometimes, not afraid to lapse into some mistakes. To be good — many people think that they’ll achieve it by doing no harm — and that’s a lie…”
_
Van Gogh

Life truly is about taking risks. When we are little it's the most obvious thing, that's why there's no day like the previous and the next day to come is a daunting task! We go through innumerable tries and fails, and do we really get discouraged? No. We expect to fail, but we also know we will get it one day!

Unfortunately all too often parents, teachers and society push us further away from taking risks by instilling fear, by punishing failure or by making success seem way too precious. 

Remember those first bike attempts? Scary! but one day we started riding them and going further way and trying new tricks. With people, and especially with Love, it's a bit more complicated than learning how to ride a bike, but it's still an adventure that can lead us into sweet trips.

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."
_
Bertrand Russel

Unfortunately in today's society seems that people are no longer being loved and things just being used. Feels that things are instead now being loved and people used, all with a push of a button.

If we really don't want to feel lost, frustrated, sad, we need to follow our interests and risk making bad choices, as long as the reasons behind our choices are based on Love. But this Love can't be just a curiosity, an itch, a "we'll see what happens" sort of a thing. No, first you need to know yourself, and figure out what vibrates in you, for the best trick to making good mistakes is not to ignore them, especially from yourself. It really is "a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves.”
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Simone Weil

This applies on loving someone or following a life style passion.

"What makes Heroic? — To face simultaneously one’s greatest suffering and one’s highest hope (...) There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!"
_
Friedrich Nietzsche

It really seems that the most fulfilling human projects appear inseparable from a degree of doubt, fear, anxiety, loss... Why? Because no one is able to produce without experience, nor be a great lover at the first attempt. We need to take the risk, and once we know ourselves well, follow your dream, immerse yourself.

Birds flying high

You know how I feel

Sun in the sky

You know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by

You know how I feel

It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life

For me

And I'm feeling good

I'm feeling good

(..,)

Jockey - Feeling Good from Katelin Arizmendi on Vimeo.

We are not Individuals

"To survive you have to look good or talk good. But to end your story well - here is the truth - you have to talk yourself out of it.”

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Chris Cleave

Such big truth on a world where everyone is making their best at pretending their happy, fulfilled, in peace, in tuned with some Life purpose, and pretending that the rest of the million of people around them, are OK and don’t disturb them, don’t get on their nerves.

Separation, segregation, individuality… yes, all concepts that have been dwelled upon and debated after the misuse of the idea of community. After slavery and some sort of “we’ve found the wheel” revolution, we’ve found solitude and individualism, but what have we gained from it?

We are not individuals.

We are human beings that, as other beings, need the knowledge, the energy, the sustainability of living in a group, with a deep respect to our ancient history. We evolve, but only when we understand the path that lead us into being where we are today. To be futuristic just by the pleasure of the rush and speed that it involves, is the same as going to work just because you’ll make money. If you don’t want to find yourself empty and pathless, you need to feel a deeper meaning to the Life, you need to find joy and love (or passion) to your choices.

We usually pat ourselves on the shoulder and say to each other “just do it!”, “yes you can!”, but, most of us end up choosing out of fear, instead of Love. We will choose what seems to be the right option when faced with the fear of losing or getting hurt. Get hurt and learn from it! Get hurt, cry, feel the pain and learn. Learn about yourself and how close you actually are to others, We are not individuals, we are human beings that need to live together, need to listen and be listened, and love one another, as we should Love ourselves.

Take off you mask, show yourself, immerse yourself in the multitude of situations, problems and solutions, be part of the whole.

"... How we measure the light of a life as it nears its sunset."

When we are little, any spare time we've got is to play, is to fall in Love with the littlest things around, from a gentle weed on the ground to a new game with our best friend. Time is something that adults measure, but not kids.

Time?

We all wish he had had the time to do, say or change something. We all wish we had the time to imagine, think and build some dream. We all wish we had the time to not feel time, but instead feel it's absence.

But we chase, non-stop, who we are suppose to be, ignorants of our continuous inner lies, that lead us into believing we must abandon our existence and chase a mirage instead.

We should just simply be. But what is this thing? To be.

"The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today… The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

_

Seneca

To be. Where we put our intentions we become. Our attention is the focus of our choices, and if we only focus on our to-do lists, never will we feel complete, in peace. How many of us finishes the day, falling into bed, proud of having completed the day’s lengthy to-do list, yet still feeling incomplete as a human being.

It's the chase...

Instead of chasing, what if we flowed like a river, and when facing an obstacle we just changed our course and went around it, still flowing where it is natural for us to be/go.

"I believe what we lack is joy. The ardor that a heightened awareness imparts to life, the conception of life as a happy thing, as a festival… But the high value put upon every minute of time, the idea of hurry-hurry as the most important objective of living, is unquestionably the most dangerous enemy of joy."

_

Herman Hesse

But it takes courage to say no, to miss an event, and finally, to just be on our own, in a healthy, playful solitude.

Please lets take our eyes of our "smart" phones, and lets appreciate the value of walking, of feeling and ultimately, of appreciating the experience of living.

"Accustom yourself every morning to look for a moment at the sky and suddenly you will be aware of the air around you, the scent of morning freshness that is bestowed on you between sleep and labor."

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Herman Hesse