The Spider

A spider glides down from the ceiling and lands on my desk.

I’m afraid, I want to kill this little creature; she dares to suggest the possibility of being able to hurt me. What if she bites me? While I am sitting and writing, lying and sleeping; I won’t share my home with a poisonous animal.

Fear is the strangest thing. It makes us ruin our life and that of others, desperately trying to avoid precisely such ruin. But it’s not the only option.

Without hesitation, she makes her way towards my keyboard, walks straight over it, and hangs herself from the border of the desk, where she remains suspended in the air.

I’m taken aback, I gaze at this little creature; she dares to suggest the possibility of beauty, wonder and compassion. While I am sitting and writing, lying and sleeping, I share my home with an angel.

She poses herself on the ground. A sound outside distracts me. When I look again, she’s gone.

Pulse

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Below all layers, below even the deepest barriers we use to keep us from ourselves, life keeps pulsing, keeps living, keeps singing; oblivious to our needless complications.

Seed of Simplicity

Do we need complexity to create beauty? I think not. The most amazing shapes emerge from the simplest of patterns. I wonder why  we have a tendency to hang onto complexity as if it had value in itself? It takes a conscious effort to move in the opposite direction; back to the roots of beauty, to a seed of simplicity carried by the wind.

Heart of Fire

An old friend has come to visit again… but this time, he speaks of power instead of beauty. Stronger, a bit darker, with an almost overwhelming presence; challenging me to do more. I hear the sound of his wings as he sweeps by, inviting me to take flight.

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Rising Spirits

Through the night we rise, almost touching the brightest stars. There is truly nothing out of our reach.

Awakening

And so the soul within is brought to life again…

Cutting to the core

You can always go deeper, even if you think you’ve already learned a lot about something, specially in any creative endeavour. It becomes neccessary to stop all distractions and to fully listen to a particular voice that calls you from within. This may mean leaving things undone, focusing just on this one thing you’re trying to understand, explore, discover.

This kind of single-minded focus is sharp and powerful. It may not always seem correct to take such a strong stance, but it’s often the only way to get anything done. This is how you develop as a human being, this is how you remain true to yourself, this is how you honor your spirit. The rest can wait, at least for now.

Secret Garden

Into this fractal garden you can always retreat, surrounding yourself in calm, dim light and listen to the deepest heartbeat of the world, to the rhythm that sweeps you away gently into your own dance, your own ritual; unique yet connected to the steady pounding of this inner core.

This place is real, I can feel it deep within me. So can you, if you only care to listen to the subtle but constant drum that marks this most sacred spot, the very center of the world.

Do you believe in magic?

A little over a year ago, I had a dream. “Do you believe in magic?” they asked me. To my surprise, I found myself unable to respond, and woke up feeling very strange.

I’ve said before that reality is a very flexible substance, but it’s something entirely different to have an experience confirming it firsthand. I strongly dislike the terminology and vibe associated with concepts like intention manifestation and the law of attraction, but when I say “magic”, I actually mean something pretty close to it, though it’s a bit harder to describe exactly.

Anyway, a couple of months ago I decided to conduct a little experiment. I’ve always wanted to see a Beethoven sonata playing live, So I decided to will it into existence. Just like that. I made that decision and then forgot about it and went on with my life as usual. Nothing happened, for quite some time, which was not very surprising. But then a couple of days ago, being at a friend’s place I saw a flier which just happened to be lying around, advertising a piano function featuring a famous soloist playing sonatas by, you guessed it, Beethoven.

Of course I wanted to go, but I was a bit concerned about the money. Tickets weren’t very expensive, but considering my current financial situation, the amount wasn’t meaningless either. But I couldn’t let that stop me, so I decided that the money issue was going to resolve itself, somehow.

This was scheduled for wednesday, so yesterday I got online to get my ticket, only to find out that they had moved the function to that same day. This meant rescheduling a lot of stuff, so I was tempted to back off again, but I the end I pushed through that inner resistance and decided to go no matter what.

I finally couldn’t get tickets online due to a random technical hurdle, but I had come way too far to give up, so I just headed to the venue to get one right before the function. I was already standing in line when a complete stranger, who had unsuccessfully tried to exchange her ticket, walked up to me and offered it to me, for free. So much for having a financial excuse to justify letting myself down.

The evening was amazing. The music moved me to my very core. It was every bit as great as I had imagined it. And it happened, all by itself, just because I wanted it to and acted on the opportunities that arose.

So, what does this entire thing mean? Well, it depends on your worldview. The circumstances are innocent enough for a skeptic to offhandedly attribute them to coincidence, and perhaps I would have done so too a year ago. But I don’t feel that particular version does this series of events justice. Belief is a thing of fabula, the personal experience we create around the things that actually happen (to paraphrase Corvus). I don’t care anymore what anybody else thinks, because from my entirely subjective point of view, the world just bent over backwards to make a little dream of mine come true.

Do you believe in magic? In my case you don’t even have to ask anymore, but what about you? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Shattered Realities

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Sometimes, it’s reality that fades away when confronted by your dreams. Which side prevails, the rougher, more real one or the subtleties of the imagination – that is just a matter of perspective.