Saturday, April 14, 2007

An UnWinding

The past still matters.
It lives in a different way.
But it's there.
I'm not sure if this is singular to me, or if everyone feels this way but sometimes I feel as though I am a mandala of my experiences...or a patchwork quilt.
The people that have touched me in my life are written in small stitches, or large sloppy sewing that is part of what builds me and is a layer of who I am.

The art of life intrigues me - the danger, or adventure...certainly the connection and chemistry of people. The way one person's hand feels on your arm versus another.

And in these ways all loves stay within us...each with their own kind of home and mark -
I don't believe that it has to stay that way - I think you can do some cosmic cleaning and rid yourself of the strings that will hold you back, or keep you from true love....

Snip, snip.......

The difficulty of course, is knowing what to cut, and what to keep.
(Mandala pictured above is from The Mandala Project)

6 comments:

Dame Wendy said...

"The difficulty of course, is knowing what to cut, and what to keep."

I couldn't agree more.

Unknown said...

And damn if it isn't hard to figure out!

Good to know I'm not the only one - thanks D.W

Patrick said...

I know some philosophies/faiths/cultures believe we should cut ALL the threads, all the time (the whole non-attachment thang). I've always interpreted this to mean a) the now is all we have and b)the things that matter will always come back. This latter thought is probably missing the point in some key way. In any case, I still find the idea of snipping everything just a bit too scary to attempt.

Unknown said...

I believe that the truth is somewhere in the middle - I don't think all should go away - I feel like there are people who have shaped us, and are still good and strong influences....
Is our goal to fill ourselves with life and include those we live it with, or is our goal to empty out life every once in a while -
I think mine is more about the first one.

Patrick said...

No no, snipping all isn't the same thing as "all will go away", those are two separate ideas. Even as I admit to being wary of the non-attachment idea, I don't think it's suggesting that we deny or forget our histories, just that we allow ourselves to stay in the moment, and respond without filters. We are definitely shaped by our experiences, we just don't want to let those experiences become prejudices or dogmas.

Unknown said...

mmmm... to that I agree completely.