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.