Imaginal Journal
Imagination is Medicine
Below
In response to this time in our social-political climate, I am diving into the night, pooling energy, feeling the collective and intimate pulse that is below.
I am ready to move forward and do all I can to support healing and awareness in this world. And when I say I am with Her, I mean the planet, and the Her in every human being that carries the secret hurt in their feminine nature felt sense/intuition/body/emotion, that has been subjugated by a culture of patriarchal distorted values and immature polarized thinking. Since a majority of our collective psyche has chosen to face the shadow of consumerism/greed, narcissism, sexism/misogyny, racism, classism, religious intolerance, homophobia, and xenophobia in this leader, I welcome this temporary guest to show us what it truly means to uprise for the otherness in ourselves and integrate what we have long rejected within and projected onto others. We have been initiated to see how every American feels marginalized and deepen into that compassion and complexity to write a new mythology that supports global responsibility and unity for the human narrative of truth, hope, justice, and equality to thrive.
Making Conscious
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
We the People by A Tribe Called Quest
Chappelle and A Tribe Called Quest nailing a moment in time.
Mr. Cohen, Thank You
In my life, I have been cynical about many a great deal of people but never Leonard Cohen. His charisma, wit, and voice are singular. His sincerity and poetic resonance gave me a sense of how I am valuable in this world just by being true without an egoic agenda or persona. His music and lyrics touch the depths of my heart, unlike any other artist. To me, he was and will always remain a soul ambassador. Thank you, Mr. Cohen, you are my man.
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
If you want a partner, take my hand, or
If you want to strike me down in anger
Here I stand
I'm your man
If you want a boxer
I will step into the ring for you
And if you want a doctor
I'll examine every inch of you
If you want a driver, climb inside
Or if you want to take me for a ride
You know you can
I'm your man
Ah, the moon's too bright
The chain's too tight
The beast won't go to sleep
I've been running through these promises to you
That I made and I could not keep
Ah, but a man never got a woman back
Not by begging on his knees
Or I'd crawl to you baby and I'd fall at your feet
And I'd howl at your beauty like a dog in heat
And I'd claw at your heart, and I'd tear at your sheet
I'd say please (please)
I'm your man
And if you've got to sleep a moment on the road
I will steer for you
And if you want to work the street alone
I'll disappear for you
If you want a father for your child
Or only want to walk with me a while across the sand
I'm your man
If you want a lover
I'll do anything you ask me to
And if you want another kind of love
I'll wear a mask for you
The Invitation
The Invitation
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Silent friend of many distances, feel by Rilke
Silent friend of many distances, feel
how your breath enlarges all of space.
Let your presence ring out like a bell
into the night.
What feeds upon your face
grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered.
Move through transformation, out and in.
What is the deepest loss that you have suffered?
If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine.
In this immeasurable darkness, be the power
that rounds your senses in their magic ring,
the sense of their mysterious encounter.
And if the earthly no longer knows your name,
whisper to the silent earth: I'm flowing.
To the flashing water say: I am.
by Rainer Maria Rilke
English version by Stephen Mitchell
Original Language German