STEPPING INTO THE MYST

MOMENTS IN THE MYSTICAL MARGINS

We are all part of the mainstream to one degree or another, rather we like it or not. Some want to be in The Mainstream as it's usually seen as the final authority in all things and where all the money is. Getting recognized for your participation in it and contribution to it seems like one of the goals. Of course, grasping all the power and privilege you can get has to be a lofty achievement as well. 

One of the first questions people usually ask is, "What do you do?" The answer is most assuredly met with a lot of assumptions, presuppositions and judgements, rather intended or not. It's the placement question that put's you on a scale or in a classification that may or may not be changed. I think it's a natural product of human evolution. 

It takes some longer than others to get the difference between how everything is said to work and how everything actually does work. I'm not sure if you're supposed to be more impressed or less impressed. I do know there's much that I like about our modern way of life, particularly when I have to go to the hospital. Yet there's something deep inside me that  is aware of other streams of life that have no scales or classifications.

Over the years, the most enjoyable times have been when I was drawn into nature when it seemed to be a portal to a place that only my soul and spirit could really appreciate. There was an extra something there, a sense of peace and aliveness.

It doesn't always have to be where such might come naturally. In the cities where I have lived, the parks had few if any, people in  them when it was snowing hard. The falling snow seemed like a barrier or enclosure that created the illusion of being insulated from what the city was doing.

Driving in the falling snow can often feel very similar and is particularly satisfying if you have that one special traveling companion with you. 

Perhaps the best was when my wife and I were driving over the pass to Durango in the falling snow. I think we only met one car. When telling a friend, she asked, "Didn't you think there might be a reason?" I guess we didn't because it was later in the winter and the snow level was fairly high which created a whole new look. It was a spectacular spiritual wonderland that needed to be enjoyed and taken in. Unless we went off a cliff of course. Then it would have been a true portal to the other side.

These moments were only one of the many ways to sense something special in life that runs counter to the mainstream. Mystical margins exist in many different places, forms and experiences. For me, becoming more aware of them has been essential. I've learned not to define life by the final authorities or in a way that still fits in somehow. I am grateful for the moments where convention has no place and other possibilities arise.

More and more, I am drawn to the hope that lies in what is never considered.

MAKING SOMETHING OF SOMETHING MORE

It's hard enough to get some agreement on what is in the physical realm much less the metaphysical. Some are content with a material universe, some are satisfied with a particular immaterial construct that explains and defines everything and some, perhaps the majority, have a combination of both held in varying degrees, ratios, and emphases. Common phrases like we're all alone, he's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good, and the opposite of that, plus in the world but not of the world similarly I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger, which in more modern times does not apply to many religious, and God is on our side are just a few expressions of or approaches to living. There are also sayings about saying anything about the areas that even angels fear to tread. But when the options don't satisfy, help, fit, make sense or get you to where you need to go, further explanations are sought.

The universe, and the part of it that we get to live on, is a wonderment as are all the creatures except snakes, mice and flies.  The human body is a masterful construction that has an integrated economy of function on the highest level. To be able to contemplate and explore how humans came to be, along with other classical questions, points to a dimension that questions if such complexity could come from a singular source or modality. It seems as if some have made the answer to that a sole determinate. Which comes up short when you consider how many more mysteries need to be explored. But in doing so, a couple factors are in play, the limit or capacity for man to know and understand, and what he has done with what is already known.

However, you can't discount all that humans have accomplished and the amount of civility they have been able to obtain. It appears that humans do well with all things physical noting the many changes over time and especially the last couple centuries. One can only imagine someone who was born in the last of the horse and buggy days and lived long enough to witness the landing on the moon. Likewise, imagine someone who started first grade with a thick pencil and a Big Chief tablet and lived long enough to make the most of all the electronic devices that have changed the way we learn and communicate.

Cities symbolize and contain so much about humanity. Most include nature in someway, but it could never be compared to standing on top of a 14,000ft. mountain or finding a forest meadow that for a moment is all your own. Yet there is something to the bright lights of a big city and what they provide even with all the problems that have been a constant.

In all of this, there is the something more that is considered in many, many ways. You would think that would be enough and to add more or in a different way could easily be seen as a fool's errand. But the place between the physical and the metaphysical doesn't seem like a boundary but an expanding zone from which one can develop an understanding that includes something more in a more mystical way and the harsh realities and neglected wisdom from the margins of life. Such an approach will be discussed in this blog, but for now, this painting attributed to Bansky answers the question of why one senses something more and why it's important to make something of it.

It is not necessary to eliminate others in order to have a place to be.

Credits: Huff Post, Bansky, Wikimedia, Digntaswpp