Surrender: 27,740 Days

 

"All spiritual maturity is about 

letting go."

 - Richard Rohr

"You admire the man who 

pushes his way

 to the top in any walk of life,

while we admire one who 

abandons his ego."

- Seven Years in Tibet . H. Harrier

"The spiritual journey is non- denominational."

 - a Jesuit priest

Inspiration:

 During certain times of the year the public 

submits to 

an avalanche of college and professional athletic 

"playoffs." Winning is everything!

Winners receive the honor , rewards and crowns 

of olive leaves.Losers are left in the cold

with crowns of thorns.

The global culture promotes hard work 

and success with awards and recognition and 

those who qualify are adored regardless

of their integrity and morality. Chapels and 

cathedrals honor the divine mystery

promoted by the self made witch doctors dictating 

dogma, canons and dance steps

for pillaged pilgrims to subscribe to without questions. 

Confused, one potential pilgrim lost as to what candle 

to light and what course to chart hears that

whispering wind lifts a voice from ancient theater 

where a player could be heard

"You don't choose a life. You live it."

-----------

The Writing:

Surrender : 27,740 days

Almost 27,740 days on the worn out 

overcrowded Camino,

the seeker carried collected maps and 

books by mystics

and soothsayers charting the course

to discover the great promised treasure.

How many revolutions on the great circle

does it take before an anxious meandering

Bedouin wakes up to the truth 

about his passage?

Scholars say that Homer's Odyssey 

was a fable about the search 

for one's soul. Disguised teachers dressed 

in sherpas rags lift the baggage carried 

by pirate pilgrims and just like that 

a great burden weight evaporates. 

Why didn't the solo seeker learn from 

Bosch's "Death of the Miser"

or from his part-time partner who 

practiced at emulating

the actions of Richard Cory 

who lived on the hill?

It was that old salt who 

anchored in a lost cove

while mentoring the seeker secretly on

all things of the great sea, 

Including the ins and outs of 

sailing by rigorously

having the seeker practice the art of 

letting go of the tiller

when confronting rolling rough waters.

The vessel somehow rights herself 

as she heads into the wind.

Some imperfect learners are slower 

in letting go of their worldly attachments , 

their desire for control, 

... refusing to surrender ,

 but somehow they remain completely loved .

- JF Sobecki

_____

The Poems and Such:

"Poetry is a gateway into intuitive 

consciousness. 

It knocks on the doors

 of the heart and the heart opens" 

 - Mirabai Starr

"Poetry is an Act of Peace . 

Peace goes into the making of a poet

as flour goes into the making of bread."

- Pablo Neruda

When you are Old - WB Yeats 

( read C. Murphy)

https://youtu.be/dEHjBPS21A8?si=k6OIo82cNUVIyaLc

My Wish - R W Emerson

The Music:

Seasons of Love - Rent

https://youtu.be/UvyHuse6buY?si=_96m5eeta_KzgNY4

I Release Control - A. Rose

https://youtu.be/6HdIEfWC0xA?si=S15Pff0yFWykRMCC

Pacing the Cage - B. Cockburn

https://youtu.be/dqfWoLIwJsk?si=CYF8FYYGxxwvny71

Moment of Surrender - U2

https://youtu.be/I6WAFy63RGQ?si=_-tzwLRJnrFeF05O

Music Videos for Meditation 

For Readers:

Random Prompts:

Another Story- The Head and The Heart 

https://youtu.be/VKI818uXrgw?si=zTSqNybXfHWvLeu8

Ten thousand Words - Avett Brothers

https://youtu.be/WDNQFiWRZnE?si=3Yk0oicYHq03kf4Q

Death of the Miser - H Bosch

What is happening here?
Who is this miser?

------------

"No thing can bring one total peace."

- Hindhu Saying

"Everything that we preach is what we

 need to hear."

         - Bono

"One day I will find the right words , 

and they will be simple."

- Jack Kerouac

"The most important thing is not why we 

write but how we write.

Write dangerously , Beckett.." 

- James Joyce ( From the new biopic on 

S. Beckett " Dance First."

AMDG

Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved 

JF Sobecki LLC

                                                     

Stargazing: An Ascetic Contemplation

The Milky Way

"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the Now the 

primary focus of your life"

- E. Tolle

"For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business."

-T. S. Eliot

“You admire the man who pushes his way to the too the top in any walk of life, 

while we admire the one who abandons his ego.” 

              - Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrier

The Inspiration :

* Recent outer space probes indicate to scientists  that our galaxy

 is made up of 100-400 billion stars ( each star  an equivalent size of our own sun )

 and that the galaxy is about 100 million light - years across. Our galaxy being

much like a grain of sand in the universe the size of the Sahara desert.

"Two important days in your life are the day you are born and 

the day you know why " 

-David Johnson , Director of the Global Owl Project

" Your grandfather once told me it was ok to think about what you 

want to do until it was time to start doing what you were meant to

be."

- Jim Morris Sr, ( To his son Jim Morris Jr.. from biographical film

 "The Rookie" )

The Writing:

Stargazing : An Ascetic Contemplation

Artificial Intelligence , the headline news of the 21st century.

Doesn't three thousand years of ignorance prove other wise?

Wondering while wandering the ascetic monk-in-training contemplates

The majestic cosmos : 

"Why do so many continue to try convince the lost

Wayward sheep that all that these sheep experience and know

Is the result a random accident or coincidence?

Is filling up one's trunk with wordly treasure

A true measure of one's worth ?

Earthly accomplishments are expected to be rewarded by most

When their Odyssey in that the earthen vessel in which they ride is finished.

Does it matter what name is given to the eternal spark,

The divine DNA, the source that gives all things life

and continues to reside in every aspect of creation?

"Make your life your prayer and your prayer your life, '

Read a faded script discovered on a subway wall . "

The novice monastic's stargazing 

Abandoned all the spiritual and material  busyness by letting go,

Showing compassion to everything and trusting the majesty .

    - JF Sobecki

-------------

The Poems and Such:

"Poetry is a gateway into intuitive consciousness. It knocks on the doors

 of the heart and the heart opens" 

 - Mirabai Starr

" To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower.'

- Wm. Blake

Buddha's Last Instruction

"Make yourself a light" , said the Buddha

before he died.

I think of this every morning

as the east begins

to tear off its many clouds

of darkness, to send up the first

signal-a white fan

streaked with pink and violet,

even green.

An old man , he lay down 

between two Sala trees,

and he might have said anything,

knowing it was his final hour.

The light burns upward,

it thickens and settles over the fields.

Around him, the villagers gathered 

and stretched forward to listen.

Even before the sun itself 

hangs , disattached ,, in the blue air,

I am touched everywhere

by the ocean of yellow waves.

No doubt he thought of everything

that happened in his difficult life.

And then I feel the sun itself

as it blazes over the hills

like a million flowers on fire _

clearly I'm not needed,

yet I feel myself turning

into something of inexplicable value.

Slowly , beneath the branches,

he raised his head.

He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.

- Mary Oliver

The Music:

(Musical reflections on the inspiration)

Part Of The Plan - Dan Fogeberg

https://youtu.be/V1imSzUwy9g

The Soul of a Man- Bruce Cockburn

https://youtu.be/xUqFP3kGMZg

Love Comes to Everyone - George Harrison

https://youtu.be/LfpoQoHVnPo

Across The Universe - The Beatles ( World Wildlife Fund version)

https://youtu.be/iotagMCkJRE

Coda: For your listening and viewing pleasure if you desire:

Seven Psalms - Paul Simon

https://youtu.be/ANtntuDslnk

The End of The Line - Traveling Wilburys

https://youtu.be/UMVjToYOjbM

admg

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC

The Advent Gift

Charlie Brown asked Lucy why she was so happy. Lucy explained how it was "Christmas" and explained further that this was the time of the year to " spread joy, caring, compassion. giving , peace and love."

Charlie Brown wondered to Lucy "What do we do these things at "Christmastime" and why can't we do these things and be that way all year round?" Lucy yelled at Charlie Brown. " What are you some type of religious fanatic?"

 

--------------

The Advent Gift

So he sat in the stillness with silence,

Letting go the contemplation, 

Surrendering to the sanctifying serenity..

Gazing through the ancient windows

Blurring all that magnificent gift of nature

Wondering if there would be one leaf

That would refuse to fall.

The noise of the world slowly 

Fading into nothingness.

His earthly vessel lost 

As the consciousness welcomed the light.

The soul slowly slipping 

Into the mystical cosmic void.

No conjuring analysis of the now,

Floating and free .

The eternal spark rekindled

Growing the flame warming the soul.

A secret voice of an unknown source

Seemed to speak softly to his spirit

"Who will love if you don't? 

Are you the selfless creation

Unafraid to to serve those pilgrims

Struggling to live in blessedness?

Are others aware of the abundant

Unconditional  perpetual grace?

What is your contribution to the solace?

How does your authenticity shine 

The light that has been gifted so

Every aspect of creation

Waking all to the great illumination,

The Divine DNA residing in every thing?

My gift to you :

Is that you are to give freely

All times - all ways.

All life is sacrament. All time is sacred.

All days are holy-days."

Eyes and  mind clear, heart and spirit filled.

He thought "Maybe this is heaven"

Advent complete.

- JF Sobecki

--------------------------------

Some different music for the Holidays

You Got The Love - The Retrosettes Sister Band

https://youtu.be/fMEgZiCTW0M

When Love Comes to Town( w BB King)- U2

https://youtu.be/_TGU35i8czo

Long,Long, Long - Beatles( G. Harrison)

https://youtu.be/e9vUCdfwlgw

Peace Train - C. Stevens - Playing for Change

https://youtu.be/0QpjR6-Uuks

Do They Know its Christmastime- Band Aid

https://youtu.be/j3fSknbR7Y4

Field Of Dreams - "Maybe This is Heaven" (watch til the end)

* Warning: Men grab that box of tissues

https://youtu.be/lXjz-M_6eN8

Scrooge ( A Christmas Carol - Full Movie)

https://youtu.be/zvEMd7WLoew

amdg

Copyright JF Sobecki LLC All Rights Reserved 2022

The Green Flash

 

"It is said that once you have seen green flash , you'll never go wrong in matters of the heart"

" Another great difference between our civilization and yours is ...you admire the person who pushes their way to the top in any walk of life, while we admire the one who abandons their ego"

                          - Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer

" Often the reason why some do not believe in God is that they have often ceased to believe that God can love them"

  - Thomas Merton

-----

The Green Flash

Consider the turtle and the hare

They say the turtle is calm and deliberate, no rush

Making progress when he sticks his neck out.

Consider that every day has a night,

Every competitive sport has an opportunity for a break-

A time out , a time for the athletes to take a breath.

Long duration competitions give the athletes

A time to recover and get reinvigorated for the next game or race.

Musicians have measures and and rests.

At the close of a composition there is a time for a break.

Notes without silence in-between is not music

Books and poems end, don't tell Joyce

Long distance hikes and solo global  sailors 

Seek the opportunity to nourish themselves.

Eventually sailors seek to secure serenity of a safe harbor.

Le Mans and Nascar drivers consider their fuel

And wear and tear on their vehicle.

Pit stops are critical .

These are the days that can last forever.

Zen monks patiently create sand mandalas 

Then rest and wipe the creation of the colored grains away.

The art is in the doing not the completing.

The constant busyness distracts from the essence , the truth.

Pilgrims seem to learn all this a little to late sometimes.

Slow down, relax , regroup , be mindful,

Listen to the children play ,

Breathe slowly when sitting on the beach at sunset

The blessing of witnessing and savoring the green flash

Is reserved for those who are present,

Those who stop and just be .

- JF Sobecki

---------------

These are the Days- Van Morrison

https://youtu.be/_lyve_egY8o

Children - Kahil Gibran

https://youtu.be/z8DSOpsNkt8

Murder In The City - Avett Brothers

https://youtu.be/cr420Jwr14U

I remember everything - John Prine

https://youtu.be/L21Tc_DtL6M

Across The Universe - Beatles

https://youtu.be/iotagMCkJRE

Daughter - Loudon Wainright III (for Lindsay and Leigh)

https://youtu.be/kgEePOfWMuc

                                           The "Summer House" in The Safe Harbor of Cape May

Copyright JF Sobecki LLC 2021 All Rights Reserved

amdg

Spring Murmurations of The Heart

         

 "The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, 

and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love 

only the reflection\n of ourselves we find in them."

       - Thomas Merton

                                   

                                                 Ok one more time...

Did I mention I gave up worrying for Lent?

....................

                                                                

Spring Murmuration of the Heart

The Cape's Bird Man outlined

The chapters of his forthcoming book,

Of how trench warfare of words and attitudes

Grows deeper and more adverse

Between the right and left 

Leaving the marginalized drowning in the wake.

Yet , he observes how birds come and go faster than people

And how they don't act worried.

Even the the Great Teacher observed how sparrows and other 

Winged messengers don't seem overly concerned 

As somehow they know they are loved.

They say it is instinct for starlings to fly in murmurations ,

Communal constructing of complex spectacles 

Swirling in seemingly aimless wild group flight.

Their secret mission is their common welfare, their communal preservation,

Their collective love and mutual selflessness in unison.

Iconoclastic stragglers and prodigals become vulnerable

To hungry hawks and those mischaracterized predatory eagles.

Other feathered paracletes mimic the starlings .

Who did it first is not of concern nor competition.

Meanwhile sentient beings have possibly devolved to be more lost by being locked down

And  continue less concerned about who really inherited the earth or the wind.

Starlings and most likely most of the divine's creatures may not worry about

Or miss the absence and demise of humans . Many of the Homo Sapiens really

Don't seem to care much about the common good....

Hiding in their own nests, filling them up with this or that.

Or maybe, just maybe these two legged creations forgot their own murmuration

Or maybe they just don't love themselves or each other 

As much as they say they do or

As much as the poets and mystics speculate.

    - JF Sobecki

__________________

What the World Need Now - Jackie DeShannon 

This song is still quite relevant

https://youtu.be/YUaxVQPohlU

Give me Love - G. Harrison

https://youtu.be/s-KAvPbO8JY

What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding - N. Lowe

https://youtu.be/Oy3LpV0THB0

Change Myself - T. Rundgren

https://youtu.be/dCU4P5EQNFs

We Can Work it Out - The Beatles

https://youtu.be/IgRrWPdzkao

Quote from "The Princess Bride" - Mandy Patinkin

https://youtu.be/s_t3uDVPiRc

                                                            Family Promise - LINK below

                                                         https://familypromise.org

                                                Habitat for Humanity - Link below

                                                          https://www.habitat.org

amdg

Copyright 2021 JF Sobecki LLC All Rights Reserved

"The Love you take is equal to the love you make"

 - Lennon and McCartney

Force Majeure : A #GirlDad Lament

WARNING:CAUTION! 

As you open this blog and begin to read and listen please consider this:

• If you have a loved one , friend or know someone in need you want to talk to…do it now
• If you are putting off contacting that long lost acquaintance do it now
• If there is someone you know needs a hug do it now
• If you need a hug tell someone now
• If there is an unresolved conflict with someone you love , move to resolve it now
• If you haven’t taken a moment to reflect on the people and things you are grateful for …stop…and do it now
• When you are ready....I hope you find this post worthwhile

______________________________________

Force Majeure : A #GirlDad lament

Hardwood giants wept uncontrollably

With the news that The Black Mamba , his princess

And seven others without warning went down in flames.

One of the wounded warriors spoke

Of how he admired the Mamba Man and was also guilty of

Being obsessed with and addicted to working hard

To achieve success at any cost.

“I wish I had been more addicted

To my wife and family,”he sighed.

The pilgrim recalled the week before

Launching out again with his partner on

Another passage of love

The road travelled was a familiar one

Then as their eyes blinked , suddenly they were ambushed

Split second memories flashed in a nanosecond

Jolted and shaken they walked from the wreckage

No blood was shed....no bruise , scratches,no regrets

The distracted driver who unwittingly drove into them

Was not as fortunate

The first one thought what if we left a minute earlier

Or what if we departed a few minutes later?

No time for what ifs when life just happens.

Words like “you two were lucky” and

"Your car did what it is supposed to do and saved you."

Who would have thought?

His father suddenly had his first and last heart attack

Passing 40 years ago this month,

9/11 and the second chance healing of his broken heart

All had shoved him into conviction, to metanoia.

He was warned that “amnesia” of the awakening would 

Eventually prevail.

A soft consoling voice whispered “One more time- 

Time is a gift.

Sometimes we don’t think about the 1,440 minutes each day

That we have been gifted.

The distractions and mindless meanderings 

Get in the way allowing ourselves to become complete…

To pay attention to what and who is really important
In one's life”

That voice he heard- was his own…

 - JF Sobecki

  

                                            #GirlDad

                       

--------------------------------------------

“… There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: 

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners, 

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me— 

That ever with a frolic welcome took 

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old; 

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; 

Death closes all: but something ere the end, 

Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: 

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep 

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 

'T is not too late to seek a newer world. 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 

Of all the western stars, until I die. 

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' 

We are not now that strength which in old days 

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

   - excerpt Ulysses , Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Buddha's Last Instruction by Mary Oliver

"Make of yourself a light"

said the Buddha, 

before he died.

I think of this every morning

as the east begins

to tear off its many clouds

of darkness, to send up the first

signal-a white fan

streaked with pink and violet,

even green.

An old man, he lay down 

between two sala trees,

and he might have said anything,

knowing it was his final hour.

The light burns upward,

it thickens and settles over the fields.

Around him, the villagers gathered

and stretched forward to listen.

Even before the sun itself

hangs, disattached, in the blue air,

I am touched everywhere

by its ocean of yellow waves.

No doubt he thought of everything

that had happened in his difficult life.

And then I feel the sun itself

as it blazes over the hills,

like a million flowers on fire-

clearly I'm not needed,

yet I feel myself turning

into something of inexplicable value.

Slowly, beneath the branches, 

he raised his head.

He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.

Give me love, Give me Peace - The Avett Brothers (G. Harrison)

                                              https://youtu.be/qDSNxDV8grk

                                     What Happens to the heart - L. Cohen

                                        https://youtu.be/2AMMb9CiScI

                                         

                                    Got To Get Better - E. Clapton

                                              

                                            

                                      https://youtu.be/efFo-Clq844

                                     Sometimes We Cry - V. Morrison

                                             

                                                  https://youtu.be/LqkrGPEdt34

                                     Salt Of The Earth - Rolling Stones

                                      https://youtu.be/eOiLH-2hTPQ

                  Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End - Beatles

                                              

                                                 

                                              https://youtu.be/aqhPsah6ECI

                                              

                                           

                                     March Winds in February - V. Morrison

https://youtu.be/jTo8sxJeNTI

Ok How about one more From Van to take us home?!

St. Dominics Preview 

(You can turn it up and stand up as you watch this one)

                                                                       

                                             https://youtu.be/V8oBVhVNWjg

             (shhhhh-  don't tell anyone but when I dream about performing I see this !)

amdg

Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC