What are you waiting for?

Do Not Hesitate To Live

Do not hesitate to live.

Give in to Life and to Life give,

Every ounce of strength,

Every gram of passion,

Every sticky length,

Every far out fashion.

Do not pause to ponder,

If you are allowed or not!

Do not stress or worry,

On what you have or have not got.

Just remember to be grateful,

For every breath you draw,

When Life takes your breath away,

Cry out for more More MORE!

For one day you'll be leaving Us,

That is guaranteed.

So do not hesitate to live,

Is my advice and creed.

To Build Again (another piece of allegorical flash fiction)

As they followed the ageing grey haired Man of the Hill they took in their surroundings and started to realise the scale of what he had built here, tucked in the rocky mountain's feet away from any prying eyes and any obvious resource that would attract too many visitors. It was huge, almost big enough to be called a town in it's own right. Just how this one man had achieved all this, working alone and from what they'd seen of him using only stone tools and his hands.  He clearly must have had access to an energy source that they didn't understand and could not see. The same question seared through all their minds as they gazed around themselves in awe; how was this possible?

"Welcome to my home." He suddenly announced, waving his right arm back in a grandiose gesture of invitation. "Such, as it is." He added.

"I...I..." Geoff stammered.

"Fuckin' wow!" Said Claire, "how did you find this place?"

"Find it? I was told where to come by the visitors." They all slowly turned their gaze towards him as he continued," When the change came to us all. I was visited by some strange folk. I do not know if they were people from another time, or another place. I am not sure that they were even people as we understand the term.

"I had been living in a shelter I'd bashed together out of bits of wood and tent canvas and the like. They arrived in what I can only describe as a craft made from light. Not solid you understand? Not made from matter as we would make something, but made from light. I can think of no other words to describe what I saw.

" They approached me, seven of them in all. They appeared as humanoid figures yet oversized and somewhat overwhelming in their attractiveness. At first I was afraid of them, yet they soon calmed me without recourse to any words, and then they circled around me and each in their turn came forward and placed first a kiss, and then their finger upon my lips.

The friends had now huddled in close and were listening very attentively. This was what they had all come to find, this was the story from the old man himself, the truth about what had happened here.

"In each kiss, " his eyes glazed as he stared, as if into time itself, and recalled the wonder he had felt. The old man continued " I absorbed a great store of knowledge and wisdom that comes from that 'other' place on the far side of the abyss. There are no words adequate to explain what was transferred to me with each kiss from those beings.

"Yet with each finger that they placed," his tone and countenance darkened as he continued his recount of events "I was restrained, limited, forbidden from communicating, transmitting or recording in any form what they had given me. With that knowledge I am permitted to apply - I have begun to build again."

When you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares right back into you.

I Looked Into the Abyss and Asked.....

I awoke to the awareness of my own existence.

Marvelled at the infinite forms and manifestations of beauty and horror before and around me.

I heard the clamour and arguments of explanation and found them wanting.

I called out into the Unseen Abyss of the Infinite Mystery,

“What are you?” 

I cried.

*******

My question travelled out into time and space.

For a thousand aeons it reverberated throughout the cosmos,

Caught in the orbit of stars and galaxies for millennia,

Colliding with the debris of long destroyed planets and slingshot free

 Off it went hurtling at trans-dimensional velocity.

Lost within the beauty of nebula for an age beyond counting,

Finding star systems where life thrived,

Mingling and mixing with the forms of intelligence as they emerged from their own primordial slime,

Studying the books and thoughts of countless worlds countless civilisations,

Performed on stages,

Told in jokes,

Discussed in universities,

Fought over in wars,

Bought and sold in markets,

Shared in acts of love and passion,

Witnessed in life and death,

Expressed in the music of the spheres.

*******

Finally....

 After countless lifetimes and incarnations,

I heard with a voice distinctly not my own,

The answer to my question echoed back across the cosmos to my point in time and space,

From the wisdom of the Unseen Abyss of Infinite Mystery.

“WHAT ARE YOU?”

It said.

I Weep

I Weep.

Death stalks our streets, death rains from our skies,

Our home destroyed we've no time to cry.

Weep world, weep those tears,

Of the innocent victims,

Of the Innocent dead,

Whose tears were never shed but swallowed up by dread.

We pilot drones, serve command on high,

Protecting nation is duty no cause to cry.

Weep world, weep those tears,

Of the innocence lost

Of the internal cost

Whose tears were trapped inside by nationalistic pride.

Family taken by waves at sea,

Does the world shed even one tear for me?

Weep world, weep those tears,

That cried from babes

That no one saved

Tears that failed to meet intended ears.

There's no room here and no jobs,

We can't take in all these desperate yobs.

Weep world, weep those tears,

As your souls become corrupted

By creatures thought constructed

Weep for the blood that every dollar costs.

The vampryic over-lords now grinning,

While politicians hands keep wringing,

All the starry heavens are singing....

Weep world, weep those tears,

Every life that calls you home

Every child born of your sphere

How long must they continue weeping here?

What am I grateful for?

The Paradox of Gratitude in a Burning World

It can be difficult to remember to say “thank you” to this Universe.

Living as we do on this little sphere of rock, water and gas in the face of Infinite Mystery can be a tad overwhelming at times.

Watching the suffering of millions unfold before our eyes, feeling frustrated at the machinations of thought forms, and projections of our own shadow, run amok with violent intentions and cruel policies, can be depressing and scary.

Watching myself fail to live up to my own standards time and time again.

Seeing and hearing the fear and hatred in people's hearts and minds, spoken in vicious words and performed through murderous actions.

Feeling deep in the core of my being the pain of our Mother Planet groaning under the strain of sustaining Her unruly children as they make this transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Chemtrails full of noxious dust filling our skies and nobody seeming to know why they are being injected into them, or admitting responsibility for them....am I grateful for that?

Seeing people who are supposed to be the protectors of Truth and Justice and the family of Humanity act in a way that serves only to sabotage the meaning and reality of these ideals....am I grateful for that?

Watching as bodies, in their hundreds, keep washing up on the shores of Europe.....watching as those trained and employed to protect the rights and safety of the people become murderers, with impunity, of black people....seeing the reality of children being bought and sold to serve the unrestrained and perverted desires of people whose predatory instincts are out of control....watching hell-fire being launched and dropped from the skies onto whole cities of people and knowing that behind that display of incendiary magnificence is a world of pain, death and grief....knowing that I am contributing to these things simply by existing within a system of control and manipulation that it seems almost impossible to escape from....can I honestly say I am grateful for these things?

What kind of heartless monster could do so?

A man of faith?

Am I honestly grateful for the personal challenges in my life? Am I grateful for this blight of addiction that has dogged every step of my journey through life, and continues to hold me back from being the creature and creator I know myself to be?

Am I grateful for the pain that courses through my body and soul on a daily basis?

Am I grateful for the amount of effort it takes to convince people to part with a pound to help save lives, when they part with hundreds and thousands every day just to convenience their own, to indulge their desires?

Am I grateful for the loss of relationships with people whom I love?

When I hear that my friends, who have already suffered so much, continue to suffer at the hands of, and be in constant danger from, unreasonable authority and criminal mentality?

Am I grateful?

Difficult isn't it?

Yet I say “Thank You” to That Which Is (whatever you conceive That to be) every day.

Not for the pain of others, or the suffering or death of others. Not for the confusion and emotional turmoil of those I care so deeply about. Not for the pain and struggle of my Mother Planet and Her Children.

I say “Thank You” because I have been given another day in this time and place. Another day to breathe the rare atmosphere of this beautiful world. Another day to enjoy the companionship of the most amazing and mysterious creatures....

I have been given another day in which to shine, and express my heart, and seize every opportunity to make the experience of life both joyous and desirable.

Another day in which to be this “me” that I seem to be. Another day to get it right.

Given the unavoidable fact that one fine morning I won't be here, on this planet, or in this life. One fine day I won't awaken to these apparent realities. A morning will dawn when this mental construct called “Alan” will be over.....

...given these facts, and given this situation in which we find ourselves and the opportunity it presents for us to determine and choose what it means to be a living being in a beautiful and mysterious world....how can I not be grateful?

Love Courage and Strength to you all.

A

xxx

Are we all not Just People?

Hello to you all.

Many of you who do me the honour of reading these intermittent blog posts will know from previous entries that I am involved and committed to doing humanitarian work as a response to the current refugee crisis Europe, and the world, is facing.

You can read about the time I spent in Dunkirk earlier this year in some of the posts on this blog, and you can probably tell from the nature of those posts how much this work has effected me emotionally, and how dedicated I have become to continuing in this work.

All of the work I do in this context, along with many folk some of whom I count as close friends, is voluntary. We do not get paid, or draw any kind of salary. Many of us have lost jobs, savings and benefit claims to this work. And yet we go on. Because we feel it is the right thing to do. Our Governments won't do it. The big NGO's are struggling to do it. Therefore it is down to us, the people, to do it.

One thing I realised from my work in Dunkirk was that if we are going to be of genuine help and support to these displaced people, then we need to able to offer a sustainable long term effort. It is with this in mind that I have joined forces with some like minded people and we are attempting to put just such a long term humanitarian aid project together, on a grass-roots non profit basis.

We are called "Just People".

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/just-people

You can contact this group  on Facebook at this link.

https://www.facebook.com/justpeopleaid/?fref=ts

To make this project sustainable in the long term we are going to need all kinds of support. One of these is financial and there is a link to our crowdfunder here:

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/just-people

Of course we will need ongoing funding support but our target of £2000 is for seed money to get the essentials in place.

If you think you can help us in any other way (for instance with equipment for our crews, aid items for the people we are going to help, social media promotion or as a volunteer yourself) then there are a number of ways you can get in touch with us.

You can use the facebook link above.

You can email us at:  justpeopleaid@gmail.com

Or you can phone our UK number 07581018079.

If you are going to any festivals this summer then look out for us as we will be recruiting support at some of these.

Peace and plenty to you all

Alan