Autumn Comes

and then Autumn comes…

When Autumn comes the leaves change their hue

and the sap of their attachment loses its viscosity…

When Autumn comes 

leaves fall from branches like superfluous words

from tired tongues that must now rest 

so that they may be revitalized again…

Autumn comes as a time of quiet that precedes the season of dormancy

Which will in turn give rise to a Spring of Wisdom.

… and then Autumn comes

The meaningful pause that life imposes in the course of our hurried journey through our days is an existential necessity. In the day-to-dayness of our routine oriented march through time and space, we sometimes ignore - or we forget - the real needs of our essential selves. 

Like unmaintained machines, our bodies eventually suffer the breakage that results when we bypass its need for rest and rehabilitation. Like unfiltered air, our spirits become polluted and reflect a certain fog-likeness… a lack of clarity. To see our way through the many challenges that are part and parcel of our life experience, we must do what is necessary to remediate the obfuscation that unclear perspectives present. 

The dysfunctions that come as a result of our physical exhaustion and our lack of clarity, become obstacles in our path. We do not think straight when these factors become the source of our actions, and thus we find ourselves stumbling from one unfortunate circumstance to another. 

Autumn comes to save us from the perils that upset us when we do not take a needed break when we should.

The leaves change their hue and the sap of their attachment loses its viscosity…

Autumn comes to remind us of our need to do what is necessary to recover the vitality of the sap of our lives, without which we are not able to maintain our connections to our own internality, to each other, and to the universe. We must pay attention to the signs that indicate the occurrence of changes in us that speak to our need for rest and rehabilitation. The most immediate indicators are health signals that we do well to not ignore. It is critically important that we do not ignore the signs and symptoms of dis- ease within ourselves; we do so to our own peril.

The  dis-ease within is just one of a number of indicators that we must pay attention to. Among the other signs that we need to pause for meaningful reflection and personal repair, are the manifestations of the negative impact that tired/broken bodies, dulled spirits, and unclear perspectives have on our various relationships. 

Our internal states are reflected in the quality of the various relationships that define us and our roles in the world. Unhealthy persons have unhealthy relationships. Broken people express their brokenness in terms of dysfunctional behaviors that have consequences outside of their own skins. 

Existing in a state of disrepair can have devastatingly disastrous consequences for everyone and everything around us. We owe it to the world to make sure that we are doing all that we can and should to take care of ourselves. We do. Our partners, our children, our homes, our communities, our co-workers - all require the very best of who we can be to always be present. Always.

When Autumn comes, leaves fall from branches like superfluous words from tired tongues that must now rest so that they may be revitalized again…

Despite the insecurities that inform our discomfort with acknowledging the need for repair within ourselves we should acquiesce to life’s demands. In the interest of healthy selves and healthy relationships, we are advised to  let go of the reduncies in ourselves and in our routine that have run their course and are now existential liabilities. We must allow for changes that unburden us of the superfluous parts of ourselves. We must separate ourselves from those agencies in our lives, and in our routine, that no longer serve us and our need to live our best lives. 

As an essential aspect of our ability to grow, we must develop the capacity to reflect and to engage truthfully - in a meaningful way that is - about what we need in order to achieve the worthwhile goals that we must continue to set for ourselves and strive toward. We must no longer engage in the futility of rehashing ideas and pursuing objectives that no longer serve us.

Autumn comes as a time of quiet that precedes the season of dormancy which will in turn give rise to a Spring of wisdom.

The exuberance of summer will run its course; and we, and everything around us, are summoned to usher in this season of reflection. In this season, we are urged to prepare ourselves for a time of essential  dormancy during which we can sort through and flesh out our thoughts regarding those things we need to do to maximize our human potential. 

Accommodating the demands of growth and change requires us to first acknowledge the signals in and around us that require our attention. The conscientious among us will embrace the messages embedded in those signals and act accordingly. When we ignore those signals we imperil our own lives, and become spoilers to the efforts of those who would do otherwise. We may resist the wisdom of Mother Earth and Father Time; but their guidance remains steadfast, and their counsel is enduring. 

Let us pause, look around and about us, and listen to and submit ourselves to their regenerative processes. In the course of time, and in our lives, Autumn comes. Embrace the essentials of her wise counsel. Do what she instructs, and let the leaves fall where they may.

ISOSCELES REALITIES

Two sides… That stand together

Equally… Against a third…

One reality… Seeking survival

Against two dissenting thirds…

A triangular truth… Examined… And found wanting

One side

That must decide

Itself to save from a certain crush

Discovered in its infinity

It does not need to be

One of three

To survive

And realize

Its hundred eighty degrees…

Disequilibrium

 

A distant aching in my mind

Circumscribing my world…

Remnant pains gathering to haunt

The empty bowels of my senses…

Contrary voices screaming at my every nerve…

Shattering to its core

A now fragile equilibrium…

Headache

Heartbreak

Brutal pain

A soul violently divided

Wrestling insanity…

Voices…screaming hurt…hurt…hurt

□         □         □         □

For the distant aching in my mind…

For the remnant pains that would overwhelm

And divide with their violence

The core of my world…

For the screaming voices

That indulge in the ugly orgy

Of what appears a pending destruction…

A firmer…more potent voice

That speaks in a divine restraining order…

Saying…“Peace…Be still…

This is my beloved child…”

I Saw God Today…

(Reflections on life from a place of wonderful simplicity in Jamaica … years ago)

I saw God today

In simplicity of life

In the hopefulness of people

In smiles from the heart

In embraces that last

In tears of parting

In simple things shared

I saw God today

In hills that challenge

In tumbling waterfalls

In song and dance

In the locks of the Rastaman

In the sounds of night

In the multitude of stars

In sunrise and sunset

I saw God today…in an unhastened moment

Excerpt From  “Of Paradise Despised...”

Roy Alexander Graham

https://books.apple.com/us/book/of-paradise-despised/id574445446

Unshackle Thy Soul!

 “Laughter…

Like rays of sunshine 

bursting through clouds

on a face now telling a story of hope…

Like the blooming of roses 

in a garden unkempt 

and full of thorns after the rain…

Like the singing of birds 

after the murmur of the lightning and thunder

preceding the pain…

Expresses the release 

that comes with relief…

Unshackles the soul.”

~ R.A.G.

Like rays of sunshine…

Spring  is the season of awakening. The state of frigid dormancy all around us dissolves, and is replaced by a refreshingly exhilarating sense of being. The new season induces a breathgiving/breathtaking yawn, followed by a fatigue-eliminating stretch of our physicality that are precursors to the imminent rejuvenation of our bodies, our minds, and our spirits.

The enlivenment of Spring prods us to rid ourselves of the bulky coats of a season of frigidity and somnolence. Bid goodbye to the unsympathetic bite of frosty days and nights that is characteristic of Winter. Welcome the wonderful stimulation of a new season of sunshine and showers. The partnership of these two life-giving agents potentiates our growth and our longing for new experiences of joy and fulfillment.

Wonderful … as in full of wonder… is an apt description of the awakening that can happen in and around us. Something or someone that seemed not just dormant, but lifeless to some, rises again from the depths of apparent existential despondency and ascends to the haven of an invigorating newness of life. 

It is a glorious thing that we, like the proverbial Phoenix, can shake off the residues of the various sources of grief and failures of our existence and rise to new heights of  being and achievement. Some of us feel trapped in the quicksand of sorrowfulness and an abiding sense of inadequacy. 

There are those who are in relationships that are oppressively unprogressive, who only know a life of  uncreative drudgery. Some of us are in places that we desperately need to leave so that we can find ourselves again, and realize those ambitions that give energy to the kind of person that we long to be. 

We long to have the opportunities to cultivate the truths that transcend the facts of our lives. There is a yearning to break free of the uninspiring definitions of our lives - those that are self-imposed and those that others have implied in their interactions with us. To all who would take an active role in the process of their own resurgence… embrace your newfound passion for life, and live into the very essence of this new season. 

Like the blooming of roses…

Know yourself as a resurrected being. Become one with the examples of resurgence that you are witnessing in the flora and fauna all around you. Go to a place where you can breathe in and absorb the rejuvenation that the lilies of the fields and the roses in our gardens are witnesses to. Find a good book and fall asleep reading it. Discover and enjoy different kinds of music. Learn to dance. Pay attention to someone inspiring. Take a vacation. Go somewhere you have never gone. Fall in love. Fall in love again.

Let us free ourselves from the depression-inducing influences around us. All of them. Be they persons or things, family or acquaintances. Develop new interests, and find new ways to express your talents and abilities. Reach out and encourage someone who needs empowering. Keep in mind that the good we do returns to us a thousand folds. The seeds of compassion that we sow will contribute to the harvest of a more fulfilling life.

In a hypercritical society it is easy to pass judgment on things and people we do not fully understand. It is convenient in this respect to write off the lives and efforts of others in the perpetual projection of our own shortcomings and our insecurities. However, we learn in this season of awakening that where there is life there is hope; and conversely, where there is hope, there are myriad possibilities for a new and more abundant life. That which is dormant is just that… dormant… not dead.

Like the singing of birds…

And so as we come into a new season, let us recognize and celebrate the many possibilities for our lives. Let us embrace the new and oh-so-many opportunities for our resurrection and resurgence. This is the season to leave behind the limitations, inherent or superimposed, that prevent us from being all that we can be. Let us open ourselves to the abundance that can come with an all-pervasive insemination of hopefulness and love. Open the windows that have been closed to keep out the cold. Hear the birds sing… again.

Embrace the new season with all the joy your heart can call into being! Let us let go of the sullenness of a season of frigidity and the sense of sorrowfulness that is its agent. 

Come to know the exhilarating abundance of that new season in which laughter replaces the hollowness of that pervasive numbness that you have suffered for so long in body, mind, and spirit. Yawn… and stretch… and breathe in the life-enriching breeze of a new season of growth.

It’s Spring again… . Let the joy of being alive envelop your whole being again. 

Unshackle thy soul… .

We Are The Masters Of Our Destinies

 

The journey through life is essentially a journey through our imperfections. Honest reflection on our experiences grows us, and contributes abundantly to making the lives of others on this journey less precarious. From beginning to end, there are circumstances that make us who we are that are at times uncomfortable to talk about. The instabilities we experience are mostly rooted in this truth.

We must all, every day, squarely face the stories that have gone into making us who we are. If we do not, we will find them staring us down at the most inopportune moments of our lives. For better or for worse, they are there. It therefore becomes our wise duty to face them, and in doing so, free ourselves from them where necessary.

The tyranny of those experiences can be broken. Our discomforts about them can be relieved. The dysfunctions that they breed can be aborted. The dis-ease they generate can be resolved, and we do need to engage in this very necessary process of healing.

If we do not, the possibility that we might be able to engage in positively creative relationships is vastly diminished. The truth does set us free. The courage to face our truth is the most force-full stimulus in our liberation both as individuals, and as communities.

We can overcome the potential stumbling blocks in our personal histories by facing them with open and contrite hearts. A creative retelling of the stories of our experience enables us to courageously declare the truth that can potentially transcend those facts. This truth is, simply stated, that regardless of the circumstances of our beginnings, and regardless of the experiences that have brought us to where we are now, we remain able to determine what we will become.

An interesting thing happens when we engage in the liberating humility of truth telling: we find out that our stories are not unique. There is a sense in which our lives are the proverbial comedy of errors. It is one of the secretly appealing things about the experience of humor.

We laugh about the mis-steps of others because we are able to see ourselves in the mirror of their shared experiences from a comfortable distance. Pause for a moment and think of the possibilities for our lives if we were to not get stuck in the rut of taking ourselves so seriously, especially with regard to those experiences we would love to forget.

We are the masters of our destinies. Say that loudly and laugh. Yes, laugh. Relieve your chest of the burden of merely being able to wish that things were different. Make the essential difference in your life. Take a deep breath, engage all your senses, summon all the energies of your soul, and make this the first day of the rest of your life. 

Virtue… The Essence Of Greatness

 

~ But let justice run down as waters, and righteousness (Virtue) as a mighty stream ~ Amos 5:24

Those who set out to pursue greatness often reach for the heights of fame and notoriety. These being the twin stages on which they seek to establish the notice they seek in the bid to validate their vaingloriousness. In characterizing this kind of pursuit as vainglorious, I am suggesting without any apology that there is nothing virtuous about it. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the well known American poet, philosopher, and essayist, reflected a resounding truth in his declaration that - The essence of greatness is the perception that … Virtue is enough! In the absence of this comprehensively insightful  observation, I am in total agreement with the preacher in Ecclesiastes when he reflects about the virtue-less pursuit of greatness -  “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!. 

Virtue, being defined, is moral goodness; upright living. It is the conduct of one’s life in accordance with principles of Righteousness. Virtue is that course of living where doing to others as you would have them do to you is the way of life. 

Virtue challenges us to lift each other up in the face of circumstances that are down-pressing. It is that light in the darkness that warms the cold, comforts the afflicted, reassures the frightened, and points the way to those who may be lost and alone. Virtue is the idea beyond all our words and actions that informs the compassion which breeds civility. Virtue is the essence and the very substance of what we mean when we say we ‘love’. It is the vital expression of that intention.

Virtue moves us toward each other. It makes us care in a culture where one person’s mis-step and another’s misfortune are treated as nobody else’s concern. Virtue opens our eyes where it is more convenient to be blind. It makes us listen when we would otherwise carelessly ignore the voices calling out from those desperate circumstances all around us. Virtue stops us in our tracks as we insist on moving on to the next unremarkable moment that beckons at us. It forces us to hear the voices of the voiceless… of suffering widows and wounded and dying orphans in Palestine… and Haiti… and all the other places in our world where being and suffering are one and the same. In such places raising a white flag does not spare one’s life from the harsh destructiveness of indiscriminate bombings, and bullets released by the press of the trigger-happy fingers of calloused souls… .  Virtue forces us to pause… it makes us give a damn…

Virtue makes us care; and when we care we align our lives with the cause of Justice. When we align our lives with the cause of Justice, we find ourselves in solidarity with the purpose of working to liberate our fellow persons from all circumstances that are dehumanizing. That work is wide in its scope. It includes, and is not limited to circumstances that range from culturally oppressive beliefs and practices in various countries and cultures… to personal habits of drug and sexual addiction… to  the corporate cultivation of inhumane working conditions… to the corrupt political machinations of those who seek to deprive people access to the humane treatment that is an essential dimension of the soul of civil societies. Virtue calls us to call each other to personal and corporate accountability. It challenges us to let our light shine as a guide to others. 

In this season of “Peace on Earth… Goodwill to all…” - Virtue reminds us that an authentic love is not a function of anyone’s simple-minded heroism. Let us be conscious of the fact that - Peace on Earth - is always a function of goodwill to all persons. Goodwill must first be a personal desire in each of us toward ourselves. We cannot project that which does not exist in us. It is therefore an expression of a certain enlightened self- interest that calls us to design the same good for others that we desire for ourselves. 

So, as we enter that season when we celebrate the prominence of Light in our lives, let us cultivate in ourselves and encourage in each other that light which is Virtue … a lasting foundation of the greatness which one generation can establish for the next. Let us hope in this season of reflection that the virtue we seek in others, may begin in us. With this in mind, we are reminded of words from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, Chapter 4 vs 8: “Finally brethren, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things”. May our focus be on these things, and may we let them be the hallmarks of our walk with each other in this Life. 

In a time when the calls for Peace on Earth, and Goodwill toward all People is being drowned out by the incessant noise of war and strife in so many places; we need to do all that we can to emphasize the need to make Virtue the underlying principle by which we judge the intentions of those seeking to lead. Too often the lack of any moral compass is the preeminent quality of those seeking the mantle of leadership. In desperate attempts to save themselves from the consequences of their immorality, gaslighting has taken the place of the light that is Truth. 

We are in an existential moment when the need for a Season of Virtue tugs at our very being. That season must come, and none too soon, because without it we are doomed to a destiny of despair. The cultivation of Virtue in our lives and our relationships is the way forward if our desire and our goal is to usher in a brighter and more prosperous future. 

In the midst of our season of merrymaking, the voice of the prophet Amos resounds among us as he channels the Creator’s rebuke of those who continue to ignore the call to virtuous living while pretending to join voices with those who want  peace on earth, and goodwill to all …

“I hate, I despise your feasts,

and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them;

and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,

I will not look upon them.

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness (Virtue)  like an ever-flowing stream.”~ Amos 5:21-24

So Jah say!!