The ground shifts beneath our feet..

Do you not feel it? In the early hours of this morning, before the Sun came to rise in Israel, before the day was new in the Americas, the hearts and minds of men were moved en-masse. And as the light of day came to shine upon the Truth of such a misguided and yet-unfathomed tragedy, nations and peoples were shown to move in similar fashion.

Note that this is just the very beginning, and that which was hidden in the darkest before the dawn still needs to be chronologically brought to Light. But that still very much being the case, this world will no longer seem as it did yesterday.

Not to me.. Not to many.. The blight on humanity that has transpired in international waters, 40 miles off the coasts of Israel, forces the hand of the international community. Their civilians are slowly growing aware of an ugliness that has come to pass, with ever few excuses providing ample justification (to those, at least, sans significant - read: religious - bias) for the killings of 10-19 civilians (with batons, metal bars, and crude slingshots shooting marbles) by military forces (with live fire via automatic weaponry). The people of nations all over, almost devoid of their respective national interests, are now more inclined to ask questions about the situation that is Gaza.. More interested in answers as to the "Why's" behind such a dramatic, "disproportionate", and illegal response to the threat of humanitarian civilians reaching those lands with aid.

I'm about as unaware of the Palestinian plight as many another American, and today I feel all the more inclined to apologize for my ignorance. We're brought to understand here that there are people that attack us in so-and-so general area, and thus naturally, they are our enemy. We see, too, that those enemies of ours are setting upon another in that region in similarly savage fashion - and so the enemy of our enemy is our friend. Personally, that is not the fullest extents of my understandings, nor are they my particular views.. I, in fact, acknowledge just how little beyond our borders, already plagued with brutal and subtle discrimination and cruelty and hardship, that I am Aware of.. In no manner can I blame a country, My country, for all the knowledge that I've not sought mySelf.. But it seems to be the undertone of the message on these shores, and based upon the commentary of many a conservative and/or ignorant individual with whom I share these lands, it seems that is, too, the capacity of their understanding.. But as a man Free to think and believe as he so chooses, I am left today only asking what the fullest details are, and why... Why, everything, really..

It seems the floodgates have been opened in the hearts and minds of many, now. There's a portion of the world where likely injustices have been brought to light, caused by a force that seeks protections from similar injustices by the national community at large. That decries 'villain!!' with a pointed finger at the entirety of the Muslim world.... And today it almost feels as though we were adults that caught a child in the act of bullying others, the very same child that has always said to us, 'Help me, they're hurting me!' - the very same that we've stood in front of and protected from those others - and having to watch this child, desperately, try to sway us and convince us that Israel is not to blame. That Israel did Not start this. That Israel did Not just make those other kids eat sand and mud as we Thought we saw, but rather that Israel was trying the damnedest that they could to avoid a struggle and to protect themselves...

So we stand today with what seems to be an opportunity for the Muslim community to smash Such shame into the faces of those allied to Israel for whatever interests they hold within..... OR, such an Opportunity to connect with a part of the world - nay, with All of the world - to right wrongs and prove ourselves intolerant of such ugly and condemnable behavior - from wherever it spawns.

The grounds upon which we stand are, indeed, shifting...

Will they change for the better? Time will tell. The Jewish community in the US is Incredibly powerful. From Washington to Hollywood, they've a hand (and quite a few dollars) placed firmly. To attack any one portion of that form, that practices beyond any other I can even think of an essence of true solidarity, attacks any and everywhere that hand has touched. Most assuredly this Truth is being heavily weighed as our nation develops its official response(s) to this fiasco.

But right is Right, and wrong is Wrong. The world perceives this as an Israeli attack, in open waters, upon civilians and artists and diplomats and misc. other humanitarians of different stripes and creeds and nationalities. Men and Women who only sought to stand against a wrong the world would otherwise ignore by refusing to take 'no' for an answer and bringing its aid and Love Directly to a peoples Obviously and desperately in need, if only to be absolutely certain that it gets there. If it is indeed proven/widely accepted that this is the case, then to do nothing and not have those accountable held to the consequences of their actions is an egregious step or 20 backwards for every man, woman, and child of this species.. As is any injustice to humanity and Life that is allowed to stand.


Peace and Light,
Cory H.

Still, and dreaming of playing guitars..

The events of these last few days have been affirming my place. I am coming to a space where I better Understand and am more capable of presenting to the world my Gifts. It took all the time necessary for me to find True Love for mySelf to realize what it is that's really there.. I'm not really one for affirmations (I don't like the idea of repeating mantras just to 'trick' my Self into feeling how I do not - I'd much rather work through to the reason behind my state and treat it's core), but I believe that the Self these days has been whispering affirmations to me.. Through all of you.. Through Aiyana Jones. I'm finding my Truths in song lyrics and answers are being revealed to me through my dreams.. And I have been listening.. I've been growing. I am thanking my Self through you, and thanking you from the deepest pits of my Self.. If that makes any sense.. I suppose I should explain a little as to where I am right now.

I've just been listening.. That's what the goal for this year has been. I've found such profound Truth throughout and behind the words I've heard. Sometimes you're just so constantly bombarded with the chaos of words and emotions and whatnot that it never really seeps in.. It just washes over you, and you're responding more to the words or the moment's emotion than you are the truest sentiments behind either. I've sipped of some profound and beautiful minds.. I've choked on many a toxic and destructive mindset.. Most importantly, though, I've come to see where I stand amongst all of this noise. I've found it so much easier to align myself with mySelf..

I see this Truth when I'm enraged by the ignorance that the world around me spews at times. I feel my passions blinding me, feel my opinions and biases building up.. Then I step back. It's so much easier to see from a dispassionate perspective. Not to suggest that I don't care - I care to no end, it seems. I'm constantly beating back my opinions. I'm always going off on "I can't stand this bullshit" rants.. But when I finally step back (after whatever damage is done), I See. I may not always Get it, but I Understand.. I may not always like this person's views or sentiments or mind - but I see all there is to love and would feel foolish not to. And through such a mind I am more assured of my own.

And then there are the glimmers of light in the hearts and minds of many I've come to acknowledge.. The Truths that we all share - the ones we find along our respective Ways. And such light shocks me to no end. Such love astounds me to no limits. I grow through respecting these Truths or refining them, applying them to different portions of my existence. I think on them when I feel in the back of my mind that I'm slipping from a better path for mySelf..

Such is the way the Light of this world has shined upon me.. Such is my (and every other's) blessing.

Aiyana Jones proved to be confirmation of my path. Her tragedy spoke to many a heart and I was touched - both by her and by those who love her. The passion within the 'conscious' community has amazed me. Where I differ from my counterparts, however, is how I feel such passion should be applied. There are broken hearts all over the nation, now.. To say that I am not worn by such a despicable scenario is false. But I feel more that what has passed should make us more eager to allow and accept the change our world needs within our very Selves, not in any heart and mind that we assume isn't paying attention. To acknowledge her and to be Aware of her story - and to feel to the core for this child - makes Me aware of the changes that need to be addressed and lived within myself.

There's no prejudice that I can hold worth an innocent child's life. There's no hatred worth maintaining at the cost of someone's sweet and purest Love. There's no enemy I can fathom that hasn't ever experienced my pain. Surely the rest of the world will seem set to make this a challenge for me - maintaining such love for all and everyone in a time and space where such Love is the very depiction of weakness. But I am a happier man as I've come to allow myself that love. Get that. Allow MySelf. It's like stumbling upon a Self-Sufficient energy supply. I don't love others looking for love - in the echo chamber between my ears there's so much love for Self that I cannot but help to have it radiate beyond me, to anyone that my light touches. In so doing I promote the bests in those around me, in all that they wish to achieve, and I watch the world at which I find mySelf epicenter of blossom into beautifully positive plains of Self Love and Contentment.

If that's not using the Self to create a better world around me - for myself and all of my past and current struggles, for my friends and all of their youthful growing pains, for my future children and the world I leave to them, and for any other Aiyana's out there that genuinely deserve Better - then I don't imagine that I have thus far been able to find a better way to do so.

The Self speaks to me in my dreams. I just recently had a dream where I was playing the guitar. Now let me first note two things.. 1. I do often (enough -whenever I catch hold of them) translate my dreams. 2. Although I do often (enough) have dejavu experiences (where some scene will play through, and some months later I will live through that same exact scene), this was not one of them. The translation reads:

"To dream of playing a musical instrument forecasts a sudden and surprising change in your lifestyle"

That said - it also speaks to sexual connotations in other references.. I dunno.

I guess my point is that I have a better understanding of exactly where I am and where I'll be than any other or some book chock full of generic interpretations.. Either way, I've never felt as great as I do now about taking my own steps.

Recall Your path, fair ladies and gentlemen - and Walk it.

Infinite Love, and all the positive energy that I can Fathom and we can Foster.

The sky is indeed blue..... Right?

Yet another stream of thought that seems more practically addressed via a blog than on Twitter. This time I am calling into question 'the obvious'.. I am curious as to how the light of Truth might reach one who gazes through the fog of beliefs.. Which may or may not be wrong.. I don't know if that's as far an assertion as I am willing to make.. I guess it is best that I go back and address where this comes from.

I was having a conversation with a really close friend of mine, recently. To give you a better understanding, I will say that the conversation was with regards to what people are told to believe all there lives and what they see as 'reality' in all of their days. The first example that had been used was the ever-blue sky.

This friend said essentially that we all know what the color blue is, by association, by name, by wavelength, etc. We know the color blue. And we all have been told, and can very well see that the sky is, indeed, by very definition, blue. You won't look at the sky and say, "oh, you know, maybe it's purple. Or green. Or maybe even yellow." However you look at it (or define blue, blue-cyan, or any more specific color of similarity), you know, as you well see and have infinitely been told, that the sky is blue. In fact it is not even really questioned. Such is belief, and such is Truth in the common eye of all men.

But being so eager to play devil's advocate as I am always, the very first thought that came my mind was this:

Ok. So everyone around me and everyone I've ever known has told me the sky is blue, and I have since agreed and considered this a Truth. But if someone (probably from distant lands or far away mind) suggested to me, "You know, the sky may not actually be blue - what if it appears to be blue just because sunlight refracts through our atmosphere in such a fashion that it appears blue, when really, it isn't. There is no entity 'sky' with the attribute 'blue'..." I wonder if such a simple glimpse of Light in this regard would open my thinking to the possibility that "the sky isn't blue". Or even, and I think this is important, that there's more to it than just that..

I just think that's an important question to ask.. Were someone to posit to you the possibility that there's more to things than what you see, what you read, and what you've been told for all of your days, would you shut out the ideas presented? Even if you don't fully believe them, at first- would you consider using such Light to find your way to greater, more encompassing Truths?

Another brought up the point that this person would need to provide some foundation of proof, before she were to accept it - a point I would to very large degree agree with. But what if the conversation revolved around not the sky, but religion? Is there ever enough 'proof' as to there not being a God, or that one is more real than the next? Are there ever enough facts to sway you from such belief? And at risk of being an asshole and ending this blog with a litany of questions to which I have no real answers, if you are as sure about anything as the believer is their Almighty, will any thought or theory ever bring you to change your mind?

Or will you wait until everyone else accepts it as Truth?

When were you last thoroughly Inspired?

To the grown (and of course, sexy) - have you ever had that one conversation with someone that you knew would be a pinnacle in your life? Ever hear that glimmer of advice so profound that you knew that the decision to heed or squander it is the difference between your absolute success and failure?

I am a 23 year old (kid) Man Youth, and I heard those words last night.

Now I don't imagine that my life will just change, instantly - not in any simply obvious or physically realized fashion at least. But my heart and my soul were filled that evening. My Way toward my destiny re-lit.. And to think, I thought that the Way before me was growing clear enough, as is. I don't really know what I'm trying to write, here.. I'm still rather rattled (ha like how that sounds) by the force of the words I had been given..

Just... To that special person.. Thank you. Thank you for believing in me to some degree that only I've, the Self, ever believed in me. Thank you for being that external voice so succinct and in such harmony with that voice that calls to me from so very far within. If what I believed before was indeed never to pass, then your inspiration will prove to be the catalyst to my explosion upward. Up, away, and beyond toward that which lies just beyond my horizon, that in this eve I do not see.. Toward what I couldn't even fathom, as though I've rebirthed that night and never saw a sunrise..

Thank you, for helping to Light my Way.

"Floating on the Sea of Aspirations"

An amazing observation in Quantum theory: Light, depending on how you look at it, can be seen and measured as either particle (photons) or wave, at the same time.

That has randomly come to mind this evening. I've been thinking a lot, lately (enough, in fact, to finally write a freakin new entry for the bloggo :), on a mental image of sorts that came to mind during my 420 week.. (Ha Just follow me)

I had been thinking on what it is to have dreams and aspirations, what it is to seek Truth and wisdom, or to otherwise set any other goal. Not the goodness or badness of such things.. But the nature of them.. What it is, this force that so eagerly pulls us in by urging every man and even every child into having a dream to focus on - a light at the end of some tunnel. I've deliberated on this for some reason for quite a while, now.. One of those random things where there might have been a thought in a dream, or a whisper of a lusty secret to life, or anything.. The point is, it ended up being the thought that every song, inspirational tweet or conscious word brought to my mind via this image. After a while it seemed to lend a visual to yet another facet of my perspective.. You'll forgive me if in my following attempt to portray this image here I horribly fail.. Ha. If this is so then I hope at least that you see the idea behind my words.

Picture a man on a boat on the sea. See this man ride the open waters, solely focused on and directed toward the light of this impossibly bright star. It is a cold night and the waters churn but even at his most desperate he pushes that damned boat through those seas, guided by his aspiration. His Light. Be it fame or fortune or Truth or happiness, or Love or religion; man is born to seek out and bask in his own Light. Imagine if you will, this man on this boat (I'd recommend applying your Selves to this mental image - me, personally, I see this Moses-like character ha), in this cold, dark night, standing fast against forceful winds with malicious and bitter intentions, that blow only to drive him away from his Light and his Way. To be enfolded and caressed into death by the darkness. Look upon this cold and lonely and battered man with all the love and compassion and respect that you (ought) pay yourSelf for the travels on your seas for all of your years.

Now, as this image develops within you, consider all that there is that you are impassioned by, and on those nights when there's nothing but darkness that surrounds you, is it not too your Star that you look to for direction? For Hope? For your next heartbeat? Recall how Focused you were/are on that Light - as only a plant knows to love the Sun, you know to love your Star. So your eyes become transfixed, as do those of the man battling those seas. And in contrast with the light of his loftiest ambitions, the world surrounding him falls ever darker and more sinister..

But here's the thing - as we step back from the plight of this weathered man to gain some new perspective, there's something to note that perhaps he cannot. As you step back and look upon the waters surrounding him, they seem much less sinister... Indeed, these waters are not as murky as he sees, and in fact reflect all the light of his beloved, in every direction surrounding him.. And lo! The winds blow and fill his sails and serve to unnerve and displace, but not to his demise and utter undoing - he has even learned to better control and navigate.

I remember when I was 7 years old I decided what I wanted with my life. I didn't want to be famous, not being the largest fan of the idea. All I wanted.. Well, was to be omniscient. Ha! I wanted to know "every single thing there is to Know" when I grew up. It's a pretty big driving force to who I am and how I come to understand things. So this image of sorts (that I really wish I could paint) has hit me pretty sideways as perhaps a notice of some sort of growth in my thinking: If Truth is my Star, then I'll sail these seas for all of my years in pursuit of that devotion, never thinking to look around on the seas I traverse to see and be amongst all that I've sought - Truth(, Love,Faith Happiness - insert drug of choice, here) shines refracted on the lick of every splash and wave these waters hold.

And in the end your Light is just like a mirage, anyway - a ghost of your hopes of a brighter daylight in the seemingly not too far distance. The Oasis in the desert is a figment of your imagination based on the manipulations of your deepest desperations on misconstrued visual information, and as you step closer and reach out, it dissolves away into the sands of all that is and all that has ever been. So too is it with the man and his Star - to try to grasp it means to clasp only the waters that surround him.

And I think that's a pretty damned Beautiful thing.

That Light isn't meant to be captured and imprisoned - it is You, and it is Free - forever and brilliantly reflected as the Light that guides you along your Way. And as you come to meet your aspirations and Grow, so too shall the Light within that guides and further illuminates the waters you float upon. So - I guess the point of this whole exercise is to say... Well, look around, not just forward and certainly not just backward..

Just Look..
It's the most amazing thing, Ever, no?

Your Light touches Everything.

Peace,
Cory

Haikuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!

A list of Haiku from twitter (@coreman2200):
The Air is light, free ~ The Sea flows, seeking balance ~ The Stone, tangible..

~The Air

Floating boundless seas ~ expecting chaos , to find ~ flow and harmony #haiku

A breeze takes the Leaf ~ not cursing the winds embrace ~ whilst carried to death #haiku

Oh, the troubled sea ~ turbulent, ever ready ~ to return to Peace #haiku

The blind man looks up ~ finding no sky that IS blue ~as will he that sees #haiku

flowers in the Sky ~ not in form but in Essence ~ on a cool, light Breeze #haiku

I'm each shining star ~ and all our soul's reflected ~ in every last breath #haiku
 
A lens so fragile ~ that to peer through thoughtfully ~ warps the whole picture #haiku




~The Sea

Guide me to the Noon ~ dear shadow of yester's Eve ~ I shall lead til Dusk #haiku

Now ignites always ~ into before.. thereafter ~ forever's Big Bang #haiku

Set alight a candle ~ watch light and dark dance and sway ~ as were they lovers #haiku

All that one does own ~ as true now as forever ~ he will not pay for #haiku

Light is just a Part ~ there is also the darkness ~ that helps define us #haiku

taking a step back ~ the darkest blights bring contrast~ to The masterpiece #haiku

Dance in our season ~ to our harmonious Light ~ as though our waves Sing #haiku  



~The Stone

We live in today ~ looking over our shoulders ~ to blame yesterday #haiku

I am a Free man ~ not for the lack of your chains ~ but the lack of Mine #haiku

sing of tragedy ~ take my mind and bitter heart ~ to where they feel safe #haiku

dancing with shadows ~ romantically entwined ~ as Light sits and waits #haiku

Food's stirred with malice ~ tainting all that sustains us ~ with poisonous thoughts #haiku

drawing lines in sand ~ warring against them for rocks ~ at a mountain's feet #haiku

So blind is the man ~ who looks into a mirror ~ and sees not himSelf #haiku
  

"A Brief Thought" Series - #1

Ok, so the first of the series is a thought I had last night that I feel that amongst trying to relate via Twitter's 140, I hugely failed at accomplishing.. lol So here I am. A very quick back story, I watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" for the first time, Finally, last night. I thought the movie was rather brilliant. The emotionality of the presentation of such an amazing concept struck me at my core; I felt it.. I hurt a bit.. A good bit. Ha.

So with me having been seeking some sort of balance within me, and such pain being a very.. Different experience from that neutrality that I've sought, I thought on the pain (and really, a way for it to just go away). The thought then came to me:

Do you feel this pain? Can you place it? Yes, that is it.. Now cherish that feeling in that space, Cory. Because forever before and forever beyond this moment you are Infinite - you are truly One with the fabric of all energy and all things. So take this all in, and love it all, for this is your time as your Self to experience this; via your senses, through your perspective. For all that one could imagine good or bad, you've the chance now, in This One Life, to taste of it, feel of it, to partake..

The pain didn't go away, as I realized that it'd be cruel to me to ask it to.. But in that one thought, my understanding of that pain changed completely. I had never been so happy with what I felt, irrelevant of what the emotion was - just because I felt it so very necessary to acknowledge the blessing that such an experience was to have.. I've this one life to live in the world as I See fit.. See.. And it seems so trite and ridiculous, upon thinking about it this way, to narrow my view to only how "I don't like" the pain, or any other thing.. As long as I am here, I will find within every frame something to love.