trust

From where I sit, the world is at my back. The circling, spinning, confused, anxious, incomplete thoughts that get distracted midway through expression, and fleetingly directed by the next untethered, unresolved "must-get-it-done-but-I-have-no-priorities" stream of consciousness that seems to be all too common over the holidays.

Is there a tactful, yet forceful, way to tell someone that no matter how fast they spin - they can't leave stuff behind?

Stuff... when we consider how to talk about our stuff, we select public icons, and they fit the times. The Material Girl (remember?) got overtaken in popular expression by the Spice Girls (although what spice they thought they were baffles the imagination); they in turn got replaced by general confusion about what ANYONE should feel about consumerism. The histrionics of Jade Goody seemed to somehow strike a major chord; the melee she stirred up post Big Brother (part one) then devoured her. The whirling dervish of media feeding consumed her just as surely as the dis-ease which she manifested and with which we all felt/feel/empathise(d). Happily, materialsim is not so easily bypassed: it can transform - and the Material Girl is still among us; moving to the mystical: wearing the Kabbalah and speaking such truths as she sees. Oddly - she is trying to be serious, while in the silliest of industries, and to the most mercurial of audiences. Her clothes and jewelry still get more airtime, despite masonic symbolism surrounding her. Her journey though, is just as valid as your father's, whatever it was that he thought he was/has been doing. Or mine. Or G.I Gurdjieffs' (he has the moustache of a titan).

Journey is what we do, whether travelling 10,000 miles or staying where we are (a la Harry Chapin). Even changing countries periodically is more about what the "I" finds curious than any intrinsic or extrinsic value about the life being lived. The destination is the same; the joy is the journey. No joy? It's the wrong path. Feel the force: There is no path to copy, there is no path to envy, there is no path to feel jealous about - there is only the path that feels/vibrates/resonates at a finer tune than yesterday.

Things in life will go well, and the things that don't make great stories. Nurse the stories, grow the stories, give life to the stories; let them gain maturity and bring them out in public whenever possible (let them order pudding). Let the stories evolve and give them independence; they may come back to teach you things.

A brilliant chain of stores in the former Soviet Union (remember?) still goes by the name "Consume." Nowt more straightforward. Go in, and be a consumer. (Or be consumed. Your choice.) They kept their "consumers" sane by limiting options, fairly dramatically. They sell /sold milk, among other things. Just milk. Unlike in the USA: there is .5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3%, and 4%, plus flavours (naturally sugared or aspartamed; your choice) for the children; - no, Consume just sold milk. Not much anxiety about dietary considerations when choosing milk (want to lose weight? Drink less milk). It's a lesson learned. I apply it to the world behind me. No mere figure of speech - it really is behind me - reflected in the window. In the day it's the back garden (yard). Now, it's a moving image (like a Hogwart's portrait) of a family in the kitchen. Enjoying themselves certainly, as laughter evidences. Earlier in that room, thoughts were not finished, anxieties erupted and the logistics of the coming visitation brought all the material requirements to light: a virtual volcano, as logistics lay atop mountains of disregarded feelings, avoided truths and unacknowledged wishes for time to roll back just a little bit to say goodbye properly. (How can stressful logistics not leak whatever they are displacing?)

Opportunities to trust each other: met after trusting ourselves. Trusting our journey is the one we want; trusting a feeling is ok; trusting a priority really ought to be a priority (ignoring the voice of your parent/sibling/ grandparent/partner projecting THEIR journey onto your roadmap); trusting your story really is YOURS, and you can let it go out to the cosmos at the time you (and only you) determine. Trusting. Trusting that you are as materially focused as you need to be and that you can let those around you be on their path, without your interference. Trusting that the issues that bug you can be released and good vibrations can take their place. Find the groove, be the change. Yoda was right.