The Shell

When we have questions about existence, we can turn to nature for the answers. The answers to life are in the air, the clouds, the trees, the mountains, the streams, the fields, the caves, the landscapes and the nightingales song.

The answers are sprinkled throughout the pens of writers, the paint brushes of artists, the minds of inventors, the calculations of scientists, the eyes of photographers, the voices of singers, the breath and motions of musicians, the rhymes of poets and the rhythm of dancers - they all move with the flow of nature.

Nature allows knowledge to adjust the telescope of consciousness. We can’t pick a flower and wait for someone else to construe its beauty. We can’t feel the rain and ask someone else what it feels like.

We can’t pick up a sea shell and wonder where its insides went. We must realize that it is more than a beautiful shell - it reflects a life that has traveled back to its beginning.

Just listen to a sea shell and it will tell you its story. A life in reflection is a life in harmony - when nature meets our nature, it informs us that beauty is in our hands.

We must experience the flow of nature as it appears to us. When we wait for answers to be given to us from others, we don’t trust what's in our Soul. It all comes down to trust and knowing that we exist for a reason - to explore this human space.

We are more than a shell. We must explore the answers inside of ourselves.

Dead Wrong

“Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light. Give thanks for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. And if perchance you see no reason for giving thanks, rest assured the fault is in yourself.”

~Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Indian Chief

The Highest High

When I researched Mount Everest, I discovered a very fascinating fact. So fascinating, that by all standards it is unbelievable. If you read my prior posts on Mount Everest, you would know that at the summit, it is a death zone with an atmospheric pressure about one third of sea level pressure, meaning there is about a third as much oxygen available to breathe as at sea level.

So what if I told you that there is a life form that can survive in that hallowed air space where other life forms meet their demise? It would hard to believe wouldn’t it? It is hard for me to believe and I saw it in print.

Flying high over the would-be record breakers and human debris are bar-headed geese - the highest-altitude flying birds in the world. They migrate over Mount Everest.

At 29,028 feet, Mount Everest can provide an arm’s length to heaven and every spring, flocks of these high flyers fly from their winter feeding grounds in the lowlands of India through the Himalayan range, directly above Mount Everest, on their way to their nesting grounds in Tibet. They fly 1,000 miles a day - one way.

These stunning birds with two horizontal black stripes on the back of their white head slightly resemble a Zebra just starting to get stripes. Being powerful flappers, as opposed to soarers, they are masters at utilizing tailwinds to propel them to their destination and can fly 50 to 100 miles per hour.

Bar-headed geese have such a determination that they can even fly in crosswinds without being blown off course. It’s all in their grand design, especially the flapping. They propel themselves across the skies and over the mountains by sheer will. In doing so, they generate body heat, which is retained by their down feathers. This heat, in turn, helps keep ice from building up on their wings.

Their stamina and tolerance for thin air gives them an efficient oxygen uptake as they circulate inhaled air through their lungs twice. Their unique hemoglobin absorbs oxygen quickly when they are at high altitudes.

Isn’t the universe perfectly calculated? More than Sir Issac Newton’s second law of motion that states, the rate of change of momentum is proportional to the resultant force producing it and takes place in the direction of that force - but in a way that is beyond all science and all reason. An equation entrenched in the wonders hidden in the sky and the mastermind behind that wonder.

It’s a mystification that dares to be demystified, a puzzle with undefined pieces - a labyrinth of consciousness and spiritual refinement.

For the same reasons man cannot survive at Mount Everest altitude are the reasons the bar-headed geese can survive - universal perfection.

Somewhere between the spiritualists and scientists are uncharted answers. Answers that lie there without explanation. Answers that just are. We can’t explain them, we can just accept that there is a force behind the curtain directing the show.

Why else would one man’s meat be another man’s poison and one man’s descent be another man’s ascent? It is perfectly calculated as the cycle of life - birth - death - rebirth. At any given moment, we are all experiencing them.

The bar-headed geese are unsurpassed in their ability to survive. They have conquered that sacred space, that corner of the sky which we can all master - between self and God.

Life teaches us how to fly. It gives us wings so we can rise above situations. We fly when it's good, we fly when its bad. Even when it’s bad, it’s not really bad - just a shift in perception. We just have to keep flying.

Seasons Of Love

When the musical, RENT debuted ten years ago, I was blown back by the evocative music; the score; lyrics; singing; the entire production is gripping. It is arguably one of the best musicals ever.

One song in particular, Seasons Of Love, is often playing on my mind's soundtrack. It is a highy profound and spiritually sound song with the underlining message that life is measured through love and life could take any one of us at any given moment.

It couldn't be any simpler than that. Life is a series of various moments and the moments that stand out are those laced in love. The moments of camaraderie, comfort, laugher, hope, realization, even disappointment are the very moments that build our foundation and our strength. Those same moments are precious -- priceless.

Since it's debut, RENT has won a Pulitzer prize for Drama and the 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book?

"RENT is the musical hit on Broadway which tells the audience to come celebrate the seasons of love despite all the insurmountable pitfalls of life. This drama is a modern day version of Giacomo Puccini's classic 1896 opera, La Boheme. Dealing with today's controversial issues such as homelessness, AIDS and drug addiction in such a manner as to fill the audience with feelings of hope and compassion. The tale being told is seen through the eyes of a group of New York City East Village artists struggling to survive and find love and hope in today's world."

One thing we can learn from RENT is that love is always in season, so let it bloom!

Seasons Of Love
Book, Music & Lyrics
by Jonathan Larson

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?
How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love

Seasons of love Seasons of love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned, or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or the way that she died.
It's time now to sing out, tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love! Remember the love! Remember the love!
Measure in love! Measure, measure your life in love

Seasons of love Seasons of love

In diapers, report cards in spoke wheels, speeding tickets
In contracts, dollars in funerals, in births
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you figure a last year on earth?
Figure in love Figure in love Figure in love Measure in love

Seasons of love Seasons of love

4 comments:

Ariel said...

Virtually everyone would agree that love is a good thing, but very few can agree what love is. I'm curious what your take on this is, Alexys. How do you define love?

Does it ever involve pain? Self-sacrifice? How can we know that love IS love, and not, say, lust or ego dressed up?

2:25 PM

FreeThinker said...

Some people love coffee!

5:22 PM

Alexys Fairfield said...

Ariel,

It really depends on what type of love we're talking about? If it is human love, it encompasses a myriad of sights and sounds. As we evolve our needs, reactions, tolerance, emotional stamina and evolutional fortitude change. In the case of two people who love each other or think they love each other, I think every relationship is unique to those individuals. As we change it can be painful, frustrating and seem somewhat bleak, that's when our spiritual motor is kick started; it carries us to the next level, whether it turns into a deeper love for that person or the death of the relationship. Anything worth while takes sacrifice and tremendous labor. Any bed of roses has thorns. You know it IS love when both of you are still standing and the shrapnel can be removed with little pain. Love is growth. Spiritual love is God letting us grow to come home.

3:19 PM

Alexys Fairfield said...

Freethinker,

Whatever blows their hair back. Coffee is cool. God is cool too.

3:22 PM

Riddle Of The Sphinx

I was speaking to an associate the other day whose grandmother had just died. Understandably, he was rather distraught. He kept saying, "Where do we all fit into the scheme of life.? What does it all mean? Are we just living to die?"

Those questions sparked a memory for me. When I worked at a magazine, I had my share of celebrity interviews. One question I used to ask them was,

"What's the meaning of life?"

That question would almost always floor them. They would either sit there in silence, look up in the air, stare into space, have me ask an easy question or completely shut down and end the interview.

Whatever their reaction was, the question always shook them up a bit. Although I didn't do it to shake them up, it was an interesting experiment in the human psyche.

Life has a different meaning to everyone because our experiences differ greatly. Can most people answer the meaning of life question? Can you answer it? Can I answer it?

We're not living to die, although that is the end result. I think we are here to evolve. Evolution, not revolution is key. How do we evolve? Certain experiences causes some of us to want to evolve, other experiences forces some of us to evolve.

Although we may fight the urge to evolve, I think that when it comes down it, everyone truly wants to evolve.

In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travelers who passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, the Sphinx killed the traveler. If the traveler answered the riddle, the Sphinx would destroy itself.

Can you answer the riddle? What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?

Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed itself. The answer is man. Man crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age. Morning, noon, and night are metaphors for the times in a person's life.

My take is that answering the riddle meant that one was at a certain consciousness. If one were killed, one would have to start another life. This cycle would repeat itself until one understood the karmic principles.

By answering the riddle, one is thus killing an old consciousness and proceeding to God consciousness. We are constantly faced with riddles. When you an answer the question, "What's the meaning of life?," you will know why you are here and you will have solved the riddle of the sphinx in your own way.

2 comments:

Charlie said...

The meaning of life is the age old question. It is different to most people like you stated, but also far less interesting to people because they are faced with their mortality. They don't want to answer it even though they may know how. For me it changes as my experiences change. For now I am just happy to have my wife and children. They define the meaning of my existence.

7:28 PM

Jeneane said...

I think the meaning of life can be measured in love. Quality not quantity. How many people do you truly love and how many people truly love you.

12:13 AM