freedom

New Beginnings – Left Behind

/ inkspeare
Photo by M.A.D.

A new year is just around the corner. The past two years have been difficult for almost everyone around the world. Each country with its own challenges. I usually like to focus on a theme (a word or phrase) during the new year. This year, it will be New Beginnings. My attention to whatever I do will be centered around it. For me, new beginnings mean leaving behind many things that don’t serve growth. I have decided to leave fear behind – fear that is being promoted all over this planet, and behind I will leave the shadow of Covid as well. I refuse starting a third year in this way. I refuse to be controlled by media, and giving in to doom and gloom. I think it is time to reevaluate many things in my life and household, and take a hold of the reins.

God has not called us to live our lives in fear, but instead, He gave us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline (2Timothy 1:7). Two years of doom and gloom everywhere you look takes a toll on people; it breaks people’s spirits. I am not on board with it. One has only to look at free countries that have turned into dictatorships of fear and its citizens under it. God did not intend for us to live that way. He gave us free will for a reason. If the Creator of everything gave you freedom, who is man to take it away? Think about that. In a fallen world, Jesus came to give you back what had been taken away from you (and this is my perspective as a Christian). If He was willing to die for us, who is man to take it away? I realize that I don’t have to let anyone influence my days, and that I can decide how I wake up in the morning and how I live that God-given day. I can focus on the blessings, beauty, or not. Free will is about that as well. I am excited about this new year because I want to be, and I am looking forward to new beginnings, with God’s blessing. I wish for you a beautiful and loving year and a fresh start as well, with all the blessings that God meant for you.

Blood and Metal

/ inkspeare

A poem of the times.

Blood and Metal

You can break my skin

but you won’t break my soul

A second, a pinch,

my freedom lies within.

*

Blood against metal

Machine against soul

These bones won’t break

These eyes won’t shut

Free Will is in my blood.

Leave Behind What Does Not Fit

/ inkspeare / 1 Comment

Life is a cycle. We are born, grow up, mature, age, and die, but during that time, we are being reborn over and over, not only physically as our organism regenerates, but also, mentally and spiritually. We go trough many experiences that shape and mold our thinking, our souls, leading to spiritual growth while developing our humanity. This growth is as personal as it can get, individual and unique. What may seem unfair for someone is what the person/spirit needs to advance to the next level.

Imagine a perfect life where everything is in balance at all times, where there is no conflict and things always work the way it is expected. How can there be growth? Many times, we observe the person who seems to have the perfect life according to our definition of “the perfect life” and that person seems to be going through a rough patch. Immediately, we put on our judgement glasses and we cannot understand how is possible for Mr. or Mrs. Perfect Life to even feel challenged in her/his environment. Our human minds cannot accept or comprehend it. However, if we take off our judgement glasses and put on spiritual glasses we see that the person is going through his/her own growth cycle and the experience is unique, and at a different level than our own. What that person feels and experiences is what is necessary for the spirit to move along the journey. Sometimes there is growth and sometimes there isn’t, and that is a decision that every soul in the planet has to make according to the choices presented and the opportunity to choose. The adage, “To each, its own” says it well.

When we are experiencing the challenges of life, the opportunities to grow spiritually and humanely, we get the chance to reevaluate our lives, the challenge, past and present experiences, and look into the future with new eyes. We are given the opportunity to leave behind what does not fit anymore, and change armor. We all do it throughout our lives, at our own level and pace. In order to grow, it is necessary to leave behind that which does not fit our Now.

Why We Follow? Why We Lead?

/ inkspeare / 4 Comments

Why we follow? Why we lead?

The fact that we are social and gregarious might seem to answer the question, and to a point it does; however, whether you consider yourself a follower or a leader is only important because of the Why. I think we are a bit of both throughout our lifespan. Sometimes we lead, sometimes we follow. If we discard the image of the big leader followed by a multitude we do ourselves a favor. Many people aspire to be leaders; other people get offended if they are labeled as followers, almost as if one would cancel the other, when instead, we must be open to be both if we want to grow our humanity, and our spirituality. There will be times in our lives when we will have to step as leaders, and other times we will yearn to follow, and even the leaders will find themselves after the path of teaching by learning the yearning of the followers. We have been taught that one is better than the other, or greater than the other, when it is just a different side of the same coin, a different tonality of the same color. The only thing that will decide which side it is at a particular moment in our lives is the Why.

Why we step to lead or yearn to follow? In the Why we found the meaning, and it must be powerful enough to move us, otherwise, we end up pursuing illusions whether we lead or follow. Whatever we look for, the nourishment we need, or need to give, becomes the reason, the fuel, the dream … Somewhere in the process, what developed inside us, and has been there, we manage to transport it outside ourselves, and the search for it starts, and we lead, and we follow, and we keep searching, and leading, and following – and living.

Bovine Rant

/ inkspeare / 4 Comments

Poetic rant.

 

Photo by M.A.D.

Photo by M.A.D.

 

Bovine Rant

 

It was at times when I did not follow the herd that I was ignored.

At times when I walked to the beat of my tune that no one heard my voice.

When I painted my picture that eyes were shut.

When I opened my door that other shut theirs.

It was at times when I disagreed, that silence befell.

The rest of the time, the pasture was green.

It was the hardest lesson I understood,

Stepping into my journey did not make me bad,

And refusing to judge got me out of the barn.

 

Maria Antonia Diaz

In Between the Lines – Betrayal

/ inkspeare / 2 Comments

Betrayal – I don’t like to hear or even say the word. It is sour, pungent, and yes, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and soul. If you have ever been betrayed and never saw it coming, then you know what I mean. Unsuspected betrayal is one of the hardest things to forget and forgive.

Betrayal is present as a secondary theme in one of my novels – Ramblings of the Spirit (The Dinorah Chronicles). What intrigues me about betrayal is that it comes in many degrees, however, leaving the same feeling, and contributing to an array of other feelings/emotions that attach to it – distrust, anger, pain, desire for revenge, disappointment … all far away from our true nature of loving beings. What makes us depart from that nature? Different paths for different people on different journeys crossing paths in one big journey.

Betrayal is defined mainly as treason, as committing an act against … . In movies, and stories of all kind, the heroes are the good guys/girls, but most times they are betrayed. Yes, “good guys/girls” sometimes finish last (a temporary illusion). It is not the goodness in the hero that makes him/her so, but the way he/she bounces back and deals with the emotions/feelings that are packaged in with the betrayal. How we react after we open the package makes all the difference. Do we let it make us less than heroes or do we go through mourning of the self in an array of emotions (because we are human and not super-human) and decide who we want to be? Do we want to honor our loving essence or ignore it? It is a process, not an easy one, but eventually, the hero will rise, that is, if you let it.

As You Become

/ inkspeare

Prophecy – An inspired utterance of a prophet, viewed as a revelation of divine will. A prediction of the future, made under divine inspiration. Such an inspired message or prediction transmitted orally or in writing. The vocation or condition of a prophet. A prediction. (Definition by The American Heritage Dictionary)

 

The topic of prophecy is found in my novels, and I find it very interesting and compelling. Our history is filled with prophecies (good and bad), although I find that our fascination for Doomsday supersede the good examples. From apocalyptic predictions/revelations to hopeful promises of a new Earth, and heaven, our curiosity extends as we try to make sense of the world(s) that surround us. Whether we belief on prophecy or not, of any kind, I think that it begins with us, and the extent of our minds in the material world – what we believe, what we entertain, and what we do or how we react to natural and man-created events. As I ———-(fill the blank) I ———— (fill the blank). As we believe, think, focus, and act/react we become. We create and fulfill our own prophecy.

People might argue that some things we cannot control and are beyond our manipulation – Acts of God/Nature – we call them. However, every step we take (before or after) leads to a path. Nothing happens “just because” (that would be called God/Universe). Science looks for explanation, so it falls outside. What about a natural disaster? We do not control natural (not manmade) events; however, why were we in the vicinity when it happened? Certainly, there where steps that took us to reside there, travel there, born and stay there … it is called “the free-will” to decide our lives (without knowing the future and under present circumstances) – it is Life! It is the steps that we take (how we react and act) when natural or unnatural events occur in our lives that determine how the story unveils. As we write the story of our lifes, we become.

Most of us cannot read minds, foresee the future, or are psychics. We rely on our senses, information, intuition, and emotions to decide. We create our own prophecy as we go, but what we cannot do is expect different results from obvious or predictable behavior. We might have a revelation along the way that will serve as warning to change our behavior and set on a different path to obtain different results. Free will is not so much set on the absence of future events but on how we constantly create the future in the now, and how our past has become our future for the same reason.

In living we prophesy as we become.

Photo by M.A.D.

Photo by M.A.D.

My husband keeps this on his desk, and I will add that the game goes on and on and …

 

Picking Up the Pebbles, Carrying the Rocks, and Embracing Boulders

/ inkspeare

Present Universe/Earth – The location

Human – The vessel

The Material – The physical state, the condition in the vessel

Change – Fuel, motivator

Target – The journey, the material experience in the vessel at the location

Goal – Growth through the experience, enjoyment, discovery, being, creation, union … to each its own journey, One as Many

Time/Space – Now (always Now, other measure of time is irrelevant)

Report – Ongoing

 

Although life might seem a weird experiment at times, it is a journey, a destination in itself, and a different experience for every person. It presents its challenges as a way to keep the journey going in the now. Without challenge, conflict, unfortunate events, fortunate events … without change, there cannot be movement, journey, growth. It is necessary as fuel to keep us going. Imagine a life of perfect harmony, everything goes one way – perfect, and nothing happens that will let you have/create a frame of reference that serves as a compass to evaluate your journey. If everything is as perfect as it can be, how would you know the difference? Simply put, without a compass/navigator you might be lost.

Many times, change (fuel) will present itself in various degrees of difficulty, as much fuel as we might need to propel us to the next level. I truly believe that. Sometimes, the size of a pebble, other times as a rock, or even a giant boulder. Sometimes even as the entire quarry. However, if growth is the goal, the natural way would be to keep walking the path, pick up the pebbles, carry the rocks, and even embrace the boulders, and if we have to go inside the quarry, may we find the message in its walls. And when we do, evolution continues.

Photo by M.A.D.

Photo by M.A.D.