Caesura and The Enjambments : 13th Anniversary of The Second Chance Dance

  

"My cousin has great changes coming...someday he'll wake with wings.

My cousin as you see

Takes his changes so easily

O happy we

Could take each change so easily..."

- Cousin Caterpillar, Incredible String Band

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Caesura and The Enjambments

Well, they say it took Ulysses ten years to get back

To where he once belonged,

Something Sergeant Pepper could not achieve.

For a wandering wounded soldier and unwed father

It would be a year locked down in ascetic solitude

For Ignatius to wake.

Sometimes constant busyness

Becomes the master distraction ,

A rationalization in believing attachments,

Rewards and material worldly goals

As the promised treasures of paradise.

Lives can easily become one big run on sentence.

Lost in the maize of the promise of identifying purpose

Pilgrims and the ignorant wander barren desserts aimlessly

Searching for the lost land of milk and honey.

No oasis discovered , only mirages.

Whatever happened to calm and deliberate?

What ever happened to pausing 

Allowing the peace to wash away the grime

Cleansing the spirit allowing one to become

Precisely who the divine intended ?

One's who preach their own self perfection,

Charlatans in sheep's clothing,

Keep themselves at bay from the barricades of heaven.

No thing stays the same.

No thing is perfect.

No algorithm, navigation system, spread sheet

Or the best laid plans can accurately predict.

Carefully positioned dominoes don't always fall

As designers and players anticipate.

Therapists and patients believe

Personal control is possible.

Can we really learn from the Venetians and

Their belief that the rising ocean can be restrained?

Sometimes the tiniest and grand events alike as well as

People of all types and sizes

Influence which road to take or what rabbit hole to go down.

Sometimes that mystical spiritual energy gives birth

To that caterpillar who might become that butterfly

Flapping her wings, that would start a breeze, 

Becoming the wind moving the chimes to sing,

A song whispering the truth 

While refreshing the pilgrim who had paused

To be mindful while letting go.

Many mystics , poets and a few songwriters appreciate

the power of the pausing , presence and hope.

And so it was thirteen years ago

The Pilgrim's Odyssey

Was about to blow up his plans when

He found himself crippled retreating into a pause.

His true companions lowered him through the roof.

His heart healed and mercy washed across his spirit.

And, he flew away.

          - JF Sobecki

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The Way Through The Woods - R. Kipling ( R. Fiennes)

https://youtu.be/Bolzk3MT2yQ

Isn't it a Pity-Take 27  (2020 remix) G. Harrison

https://youtu.be/nFxYsWCT6_k

Cleveland Heart - J.Browne

https://youtu.be/7M4BUIidfxs

Cousin Caterpillar - Incredible String Band

https://youtu.be/B_gZu1xK29s

The Holy Longing - Goethe

https://youtu.be/3xnTdpJyWxI

Hope For the Flowers - Trina Paulus

A story for Caterpillars, pilgrims and children of all ages

https://youtu.be/g6CaBnO5e0Q

July 1 - Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Anniversary of the Pilgrim's Healing 7/1/2008

 

"Teach me to be generous, to serve as you deserve, to give and not count the cost, to fight and not heed the wounds, to toil and not seek for rest, to labor and not to look for any reward, save that of knowing I am doing your will."

 - St. Ignatius of Loyola

(Thank you to the companions - Dan, Lou, Tom, Gerry, Bill, Ed, Bob, Dick, Carolyn, Herb, Kirk and Pete)

AMDG

Copyright 2021 JF Sobecki LLC All Rights Reserved

Coda: Even Jersey bar bands and their singers need a Caesura

From "Eddie and The Cruisers"

(and Thank God for English Majors!)

https://youtu.be/QUO_E7noTTg

The Way - A Reflection on Life Journeys

                              

                                      “You don't choose a life. You live one.”

                                                   - The Way (movie 2010)

                       “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”

                                           -  “Beautiful Boy “, John Lennon

“What is it in many sentient beings that compel them to construct elaborate contrivances in order to maneuver themselves to form what they believe to be self- defined actualization? Often the perceived ambitious intention and step by step action plans contain a significant expectation of an achievement resulting in self serenity that in reality is rarely satisfying.”

                                             - Unknown

As a young boy I was asked to write a paragraph on where I saw myself in twenty years. Of course I wrote a few paragraphs. It was first person account of the musings of a truck driver with a job that took him from town to town around the country, a picaresque hero of sorts. Sister Bastinda wrote a note to my mother saying how that I needed a direction, a realistic goal and how I wasn’t living up to my potential, whatever that was.

The only real personal dream I had was when in high school was to play the guitar.I loved playing music. It was and still is a Zen experience for me, losing all sense of time as I played. (I have a similar experience now when I write.) Back then I fantasized that my friend, David, and I would be singing and playing our instruments on some family entertainment program on television, Actually, we asked our reliable Ouija board and it confirmed that we would someday be on TV. Still waiting.

Over the subsequent years I meandered the maze of education and career paths. Half listening to Frost’s choice of travelled roads and half listening to the Cheshire Cat’s retort to Alice’s query I took the path that seemed most interesting and adventurous at the time. It wasn’t until I met my Obe Wan, Kirk, who told me of his own accidental Odyssey that led him to becoming a medical doctor and eventual therapist. His Ulyssian episodes highlighted for me the power of being present and letting go as well as the importance of how we live while on the journey. What really mattered he said, “was how we responded to those we encountered, how we loved and lived with compassion and integrity.” My spiritual guide who advised on the Ignatian way of living as a loving grateful faith-filled contemplative in action complimented this counsel. I then added to my lesson mantra “never take myself too seriously.”

So it is no wonder about how upset I can get at times when I hear or see the great marketers preaching the promise that buying into their special unique goal and how achieving it will result in personal success as defined by them.

Though I never became a truck diver nor did I appear on TV playing my guitar I am grateful for the paths I followed, my family ,  people I have encountered, the places I have been…and the life I have lived…. so far.

Sub note: It is not unusual then that I like journey poems, books, songs and movies. I have often fantasized about taking a pilgrimage on the "El Amino de Santiago." Recently I saw a simple movie called “The Way” about a man’s journey down the El Camino de Santiago. It seemed coincidental that I saw this as I planned this blog post. 

The Journey by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice--

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do--

determined to save

                                                           the only life you could save.

Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien ( Smart phones click on link)

https://youtu.be/fFtGfyruroU

‘Til I Die – Beach Boys ( Smart Phones click on link)

https://youtu.be/46IQu0yuJzU

The Way – Movie Trailer (Smart Phones click on link)

https://youtu.be/o5VZKWcgw6c

Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous; 
teach me to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to seek reward,
except that of knowing that I do your will.
Amen.  

 - St. Ignatius Loyola

amdg