Friday, December 31, 2010

Finding My Moment

Today, New Year's Eve, I am floating on an even keel.  I see the majestic nature of this moment.  I honor my creative power by inking this meditation.  The sun is shy today, but I am not.  My life is not a game, but I still feel like I am winning.  I have trained to see, with amazement, the beauty of balance.  I feel genuine gratitude and awe. 

Living with the bipolar ailment challenges my sense of endurance.  I am forced to let go of the events of mania that evoke shame, and dig deep to enjoy this time of peace.  I can realize that I am holy and lovable.  Being happy is a blessing, but can feel like a curse if I entertain the fleeting nature of this prosperous period.  I feel a sense of freedom and wish to live an eternity of this state.

The field looks so green before me.  I run in my mind to the very center and breath in the pure, abundant air.  I call out to the butterflies and birds and wish to join them in flight.  I feel my being, my core become enchanted and surreal.  Powerlessness has faded away and my temprement is solid.  The malestrom of recent weeks has eased and I run through the grass in wonder.  Playfulness is a subtle ally, and I resist being cognicent of any foes.  I shall ring in the New Year with a calm and anticipatory air.  I drink in, with sober reminicense, the ease of this holiday and look forward to a new chapter in the approaching new year.

Love and light begets serenity.
Angels dance upon my shoulder.
I see as others see and I am emancipated from my figurative incarceration.
Butterflies will be my guide as I entertain the voices of past wisdom.
There is time for a regal breath as I view my waiting kingdom.
I will live with my head level and see the army of light driving forward.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Days Without Sun

In the depths of despair we can empathize with the sun staying behind the clouds for a day or two.  We can find solace in the moist, dewy air and wish to embellish the state we are in.  Productivity halts and we long for the feeling of mania that begets all things.  As we rest snuggled or hostage in our beds, thoughts can turn to guilt and shame or even to the ultimate solution.  Remembering that this is just a thought and the moments of tedious drowning in our own affairs and states is eventually going to give way to a time of greater ease must be placed on the dashboard of our minds.

The drudgery of depression is quite convincing and the endlessness feels like sitting through an opera rather than the latest hit song.  I live in this zone for years at a time, and pray for the next great pharmaceutical to be a panacea to all my ills.  There is a backlash from the past that chimes in and I cannot eat or sleep it away.  I find that the lack of empathy and understanding from others feeds the dark knight who lords over me.

I am feeling my footing in this time and space and finding the strength to put this collosal monster on the page.  Doing seems impossible when the anhedonia sets in and I court the order of the grave.  I now understand that the world holds love for me and my absence would be felt.  Even if we are in a time of seemingly having nobody, our energy is part of that which holds this world in balance.  We are unique and there is a need to find the unfortunate meaning in our suffering.  I see that as a challenge and a birthing process.  Peace can result from the road less traveled.  As I sit before the grand television screen, I rub my head and deign to know that none of God's creatures are perfect.  My mind is set by that which I am, not by that which I do.

Take this day to realize, whatever you are feeling, there is something in the way you move.  Know that you could be a creature or person's lady (or gentleman) in red.  Find the place where you can even be buried in lifelessness and still be a monument to the grandeur of spirit.  I am proud of all of those who soldier as I do and give me a loving mirror to my feeling of being expendable and worthless.  Be an example of goodness in the ashes.  Smile to yourself as if you know the secret answers.  Love a part of you that simmers beneath the surface waiting to bloom in the spring of your disease.  Put faith in a remission.  Be a part of God's solutions in your sadness and listless untidiness.  This will bring you to the place on the block where you can see the busy streets again.  Rest, and believe that the snow will melt and the green grass will finally be reveled.

Seasons exist as a great analogy of life.
Being confused of their outcome is human.
Self hatred glazes our gaze to their source of wisdom.
Pick up the shovel and move the snow.
See the icy surface reflect your pain and glory.
Rest in the comfort of home on a cold day.
Know the time ticks to a different drummer.
Travel the streets when you are finally ready.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Bending of the Body

I find myself sore, of late.  My body talks to me by signs of progess and signs of distress.  At this time, I turn a cold ear to this intell.  Willfulness exists in my denial.  I find elation in moments of sound mind.  This cannot happen in the suppression of spirit that is denial.  I am a flower with a bent stem.  No one can see my splendor and glory.  I face the earth instead of the sky.  The message of change is that which my body speaks.  Remaining in the present state will only guarantee more pain.  I am ill in mind and body.  Balance is off and the process to achieve it is off-putting.

Dominoes are falling.  My eating and exercise have strayed.  I have become lethargic and gluttanous in my deepening depression.  I look to the sky and wish for a bolt of lightning from the heavens.  Instead, the stars shine and my eye hits the constant state of Mars.  Little bits of this beauty sink into my blurry inner vision.  It is challenging to see this greatness when I am filled with disgust.  It marrs my progress and fills me with the deafening sound of thunder.  I must trudge through and bring my mind to my breath as my thoughts betray me.

Filling this page I see the warring within me.  I seek to surrender and garner a treaty from both sides.  I will move today as if I walk in the land of Eden.  I will stretch and know that movement will come as my malady eases.  Shame of my position floods into my heart as I seek to unburden it.  This is a time of rising.  Like enduring a wave, I must lay back and let the water carry me.  Relaxing I release the need to be perfect and I grasp the sword of Camelot in my imagination.  Excaliber is my new friend who will cut through the mire to eventually rest in an honored position on my shelf.

Seeking, I tiptoe through the crypt. 
I see death around me, but my eye rests on the illuminating flame on my torch.
I peak at the surroundings and feel the earthy remnants beneath my toes.
I am here of my own volition, but the timing is not the best.
I turn and open the door.
The moon shines upon me and I feel peace.
I am now open to the stars in all their glory.
Breathing in the life of floral displays, I release the thunder in my heart.
Tonight I rest in silence in preparation for a new placid dawn.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Loss is Gain

I am trying to adapt a challenge attitude to a loss situation.  Someone got into my email account and my three blogs and cancelled and/ or changed the passwords.  I have five years of writing that are unaccessable because I had most of them unviewable by others.  I was able to access the third one and that is what the former entry is.

How do we find light in the darkness?  Where is the wisdom in loss and pain?  These questions buoy in my mind as I contemplate a clean slate.  Feeling powerless can lead to a surrender to God in one's life.  Living with anger and resentment can be devastating.  Blaming self or others can lead to a victim attitude that is far more than just unproductive.

Carry your shoulders high and your negativity low.  See possibility in the release of attachment.  See spiritual purpose to events that are associated with harm.  Learn to love your imperfections and release your mind to the meditation of every day.

There is a simplicity to these statements and a difficulty to their execution.  I will be the power that I give to the heavens.  I will find strength in the pain as I acknowledge my loveable weakness. 

There is purity in even chaos.  There is a new beginning and independance to the release of even the most loved possesions.  Living in the light can seem impossible when you feel the overwhelming power of a black hole.  Doing what seems counterintuitive can be a way of shedding the patterns and restraints of the past and finding footing in a land of creative laughter and symbolic genuiness.

In a world of indifference, this can be the time each being finds connection and communion with spirit.  Love yourself through the storm and you will see and feel an unconditional greatness rising through your core.  See the creatures around you as guides to being in this single moment.  Find the place where pity fails to exist.  With these words, I commence to discover and march towards my destiny.

Disappointment and wripping away.
I see even the wallpaper falling off the walls of my soul.
Living beats with the movements of an obsurd grandfather clock.
I feel a difference from others and a sameness to that which is lowly.
Muddied reflection darkens my view and I see mud in my mind.
I look up and feel the rain on my face.
Washed clean, I start again.
Vengeful actions will never destroy my spirit.
Hope returns and the night gives way to dawn.
Gratitude lights my way and the drum signals the end to the battle.

Posts From the Past

Eat the Apple, Save the Seeds

There are experiences that nourish us to the core.  Memories of these moments can be the seeds.  It is important to hold these times close to our hearts so that we have a powerful weapon against hopelessness and despair.
In this moment, I am experiencing the challenges of a medication change.  My thoughts are all jumbled and my mood seems to be stuck in quicksand.  The more I move against it, the deeper I sink.  It is difficult to get outside the far reaching affects of the chemical scary carnival that is in my head.  Through the chaos I endure by keeping the thought that I am safe and loved by God.  I am not only what I do.  There are seeds in me that will grow in time.  Isolation is the boat I am riding, so it is important to jump in the water a little each day.  I need the shock that that change of venue can provide.  Doing things outside my comfort zone may not feel as rewarding as it once did, and may seem scary, but I burrow into a book bag that God is wearing and stay near to him in this time of restlessness, lethargy, and despair.
At times I write to see the sound of my inner voice on the page.  Experimenting with words can show me the life that lies within me.  I will now give an example by writing a short poem that grasps the wheel of this vessel and moves it into imagery.
I am a seedling in a storm.  My thoughts are wicked and not the norm.  As the winds blow, I bend to the ground.  In this position I marvel at what I have found.  I feel the earth holding my head.  After a moment I rise to the occasion and get out of bed.  My branches are sluggish, but not broken by the gale.  I look in the mirror and see that I am pale.  This pain is real, but the maelstrom will eventually cease.  I must acknowledge the illness if I want to find peace.

Creating the Branches That Will Endure

I am a tree that must grow in any storm or drought.  When the soil is faulty or the wind is too great, my branches are in peril.  Months of these conditions can bring about a hopeless dilemma.
I strive to be the tree that grows wonderful branches even in foul periods.  I seek the sparce sunlight between the clouds to feed and grow.  I find the bits of fertilizer and moisture between every magnificent root branch.  During this time of famine, I gather from the smallest places to glean a healthy growth among the enduring branches.
Dealing with the days of darkness, it can be important to get miniscule and find the crumbs of growth and silent sanity that can help our branches to lengthen, thicken, and multiply.  We are important and worthy even when we feel we are not.  We are part of a greater forest that needs our cover and hearty beauty.  We are a breed that is a seed.  Our time of down can help all to know what up actually is.
Take this day to be a magnificent tree.  Stand tall and stretch your branches.  Breath in the light as you draw peace in to your heart.

Moments to Endure

Living a daily existence with a chemical imbalance would challenge the most hearty of all humans.  I am enduring in this moment and am asking myself to find the blessings.  If I had reached all of my goals daily, yearly, or even in my lifetime, I would not be writing this in this moment.  I would not be making a friend with an unknown reader.
Pain is quite a task master.  By meeting the meter that it doles out, I can find out more and more about the recesses within me.  I can know myself in triumph and in tumult.
All of the things I am saying can fall on deaf ears or a cold heart, if I refuse to acknowledge the pain of everyday and the agony of chronic disappointment.  These things are very real and poignant.  They must be faced with a quiet and unwavering courage.  How few of us with bipolar hear that we are courageous?  As anyone who deals with The Perfect Storm is, YOU ARE.  The maelstroms will continue to collide with our dreams and seem to become our destiny.  Moments of peace may be fleeting, but we can have the sanity to collect them in our heart and display them in a daunting and fashionable Easter-like basket.
Find your moments and build your dreams.  Images can lead the way.  A waterfall can begin a beautiful deluge of tears down our face.  An astronomical view of the sun can lead our heart to burn with desire for a trip to a field to pick the most fiery bouquet of wild flowers.  Find moments to collage together and build the perfect basket.  This little Easter Bunny just calls you to try.
States in the bipolar life can leave one with a yearning for greatness.  Find the greatness of images and begin to paint your masterpiece with the fingerpaints you find in this moment.  Tomorrow will then have a moment to build on.  Seeing these things together can open your heart to a quiet joy of the magnificence of your private colors within.

Bringing the Sun on a Blue Day

When the clouds are in the sky and the wind in blowing hard, why not just make friends with the doldrums.  Why not enjoy the moment of snuggling under the blankets for a few extra minutes, very consciously.  In depression we may linger there all day, but in mindfulness we soak up the sensations of the covers against our skin and the warmth emminating in our body.  We can move our toes and fingers and feel a bit mischievous in our actions.  Go ahead and put your head under and hide from the world for a bit.  We can be a rebel for just a few stolen moments.  When it is time to emerge, do it with intention.  Feel the cold against your skin and feet.  Move toward the bathroom with awe for the changing and challanging sensations that they are.  Then stand before the mirror and see your eyes for a brief time.  Connect to the soul that is inside and coax it to come out for all to see.
This is what we can do to bring a brief time of knowing meditation to our day.  It can be simple and kind to ourself.  There can be a footing for the day in the knowing that we journeyed in before we journeyed out.  Praise the goodness that is the authentic you and move into a day that may hold great or small challanges before you.  Do not eschew up or down.  Greet it kindly and continue to move forward smoothly as a contented and confident belly dancer would.  Isolate your hips and arms and use your eyes with intent.  The wave is now you and no longer is an instrument to buffet you against your will.

Humility is Sanity

Bouncing from one extreme to another was a way that I lived.  I hated myself for judging others and just plain hated myself at other times.  There was no miracle to my madness.  Issues of hierachy have plagued me my whole life.  Tonight I sat and listened to others verbalize this bounce at a meeting.  Peace washed over me and I came upon humility.  This has been something I have longed for, but never understood.  I have always wanted to walk hand in hand with this characteristic as best friends forever.  When I found peace in that moment, I found this elusive quality.  I now know that I have been very sensitive to lack of humility from others my whole life, and thus I went to delusional levels, in mania, to escape egotism’s clutches.
I will now just take this seed and foster its growth.  I will know that it is life’s conditions that give us a true opportunity to live and become humility.  There is no more grasping at straws, there is peace.  I know waves will buffet me in both directions, but I will use genuine gratitude to steady my ship and save me from sinking.  With the knowing of basic realities, I will drink from the silver goblet of wisdom.  Life can then become grand in its simplicity.  I will live in the forest and become one with the trees.  Squirrels can then use my limbs as a home and I will support all of God’s creation.

Breathing Out the Shame

I feel an almost emotional pneumonia in my chest and body due to the daily shame that I am breathing in.  All creation stops when I become this infection or virus.  My life becomes about the past and about being defunct in the present.  This is an excruciating way to live.  Concentrating on this moment and doing mindful actions seems to be quite the antibiotic for this malaise.  Timely connection to others is another great panacea.
There is a growing anxiety within me that bubbles up as a result of this shame.  Knowing that there is a wellspring of love in the universe for the imperfection that is me can be a great comfort.  My words on the page can help to guide my action in life.  There is a concrete flow between the world of here and there.  I can have idiosyncrasies and be loved for them instead of constantly fighting against them.
I see a storm brewing outside, and my words help to quell the storm brewing inside of me.  I can be great in my simplicity and not have to climb or build mountains.  I can be a gentle natural force and not be caught in the images that most media provides me of agony and ecstasy.  Being bipedal can leave my hands free to grasp at the simple leaves while my heart can still yearn for the stars.  It is all within me.  I am without nothing and am connected to everything.
For me, this day can be a meditation and the trumpets can blare or just simply play a divine note.  Me and them can truly become we.  Zen can become tao and move to us all walking in the footsteps of Christ.  Images can bleed into reality and the story will begin to unfold.  Take my hand and let us journey to the unseen land of where the butterflies begin.  Our cocoon is more like a five person tent.  We will muddle through the wonders of the world together as we drink the dew of the fresh new morning.

Meditations on my Mind

I have been thinking more and more about writing an actual manuscript for public consumption.  I had the idea of writing a meditation book for bipolar people.  I could call it something like, The Uneven Keel or Seeking the Even Keel.  I am going to try and write a little ditty along those lines now.
I wake up every day and my heart looks for the sun.  My eyes are cast downward when I see there is none.  Why is it always a mood rising in me each day?  Why can’t I just cast off the covers and go on my merry way?  It is as it is, but I become bewildered inside.  More and more I know that I need God as my guide.
Being bipolar is like receiving thorns one day and blossoms another instead of the ritual bouquet of flowers.  I am now beginning to live with this challange with some wit and wisdom.  If my mood becomes my everything, I will be in bed, or possibly in jail, based on the great decisions that nemis can make.  I must separate myself each day from the feelings I am feeling and finally pray for a little help.  Focusing on the wisdom of the universe, I find myself a little less absorbed by the chemicals in my head.  I can get right with the day and find a “wise mind” focus.  This is Buddhist for combining our heart, mind, and even soul.  With this empty and well meaning space brought forth, I can shine with intent reguardless of what the feeling chef has served up for the day.

Making the Day Stand for Something

I guess I live with this sentiment deeply ingrained in the recesses of my mind.  I feel that I fall short of an invisible, yet indelible, quota.  I am not enough.  What I do is not enough.  There is a hole that I live in.  When I try to describe it, even to myself, I find that the lights completely go out.
I know that I am in discomfort and pain and that an inner reality affects my outer reality.  It is as if I am not fully formed and even if I were, no one would care.  I remember screaming to a boyfriend once that no one seems to care what I am saying, and he replied that what I have to say is boring.  That sticks with me like spaghetti noodles on a ceiling.  I will have to scour the hidden shed to find a rake to remove it piece by piece.
How do I remove all these words and things from within me that hurt me every day?  My sensitivity to things is so evident and I try to hide it and not react.  It still hurts and bars me from truly fitting in or living a life comfortable in my skin.
I guess I am lost in translation.  My chemistry makes me insane and my life makes me to blame.  This is not a carousel that I like riding.  It is riddled with pitfalls and creepy music that blares over and over in my mind.  I don’t know if I will ever have a true friend.  A deep and eternal loneliness both seers and freezes me.  I am a mermaid in Antarctica who does not speak penguin, seal, or polar bear.  It is cold and I am horrifically ugly to all I see.
I guess I am tripping on the grit in the pit of my stomach.  I pray nightly to be less aware and affected by all the people on Earth.  Everyone has her level and I ultimately always exist in the realm of the landfill.  If only I could have the realm of fantasy that existed in my time without walls.  My mind protected me from all that had pained me.  My environment fed me, but did not slice me with the precision and depth of a chef’s perfect blade.
It is in this moment, alone, that the sirens of shame can rest for a moment and I can pick up a fishing rod and start to fish.  I can see hope in the placid waters, for they can hold a plethora and variety of fish.  I can be at one with another realm and I can see the heartbeat of the resting dove.  God is in the details and the smirking squirrel does agree.
Is there anybody in there?  Is there only a soul who needs repair?  Can we dance with the wind without our toe shoes on?  To the people of the Earth, am I only a pawn?  Is the question resounding already with an answer?  Can I live a day and not feel like the planet’s worst cancer?
Well I guess that depression is dipping my pen in blood today.  There are these things that exist in me daily that rise while my mood falls.  It is the silence of the sounding board that leaves me playing with daggers today.  Writing (especially online) is a way for me to put on the princess costume and pretend someone is looking.  The downbeat of my baton has lost the violins today, but the sad basoon is definitely following my every sagging stroke.  It is time to close this piece in piamissimo (sp?) and hope that tomorrow brings some soohing metso for all to hear.

Going Through the Dirt

When one thinks of dirt, a negative connotation is envoked.  It is somehow unclean and messy.  When one really gets down to it, she may see the sunshine that is this blanket for the growth of life.  Right now I find myself looking back at my life and finding a lot of dirt to dig through.  Some of it has the potential to be rich soil, and some of it is almost sand.  The feelings I have toward my past expereiences still affects my everyday.  The water that is emotion makes just a big mass of mud and it is difficult to deal with.  When I come in contact with it, it seems disgusting.  I need to become Sally O’ Mally the pig.  I can then glean the mud’s usefulness and move forward with my personal renovation project.
This project entails writing about the seed in the dirt, but the mud as well.  I now become the worm of extraction.  I move through the dirt mixing it and also bringing morsels to the surface.  Hopefully, at the end of the day, I will smile a good worm smile, and feel that I have done something productive.
I will start with a time line of my experiences and then begin to weave a story through this wormy soil.  The flow is not with me today so I feel stunted and dry.  I will just keep my soil dry because I cannot deal with the emotions from the now or the then.
Drip drop.  I am a cat.  What sound is that? Fear evades the reality of safe dryness now and worries about the then.  My paws are scared to pick up a pen.  I will curl up into a ball.  I will slowly move down the dark and dreary hall.

Once Upon a 5 AM Dream…

The billowing drapes of green and black encase the canopy bed I journey upon.  It lies temping a cliff and I jump on to find it travels.  I come upon oceans and ocean lands.  The waves crashing against the shore bring me to a halt on a beach.
I find myself sucking in the Sandman’s potion, and an Asian man has rolled up beside me.  Something is attached to my right arm and legs.  There is a pleasurable feeling and then a sharp pain.  The man encourages me to remain still and silent.  I finally venture a glance and see that it is two snakes biting and sucking me.  As I relax, they turn into harmless velvet.
My bed begins to travel again and I find myself in Jamaica.  I come upon a slew of cabins encrusted in clams and covered with crabs.  A showy man comes out and puts a black horse costume on a crocodile and the costumed croc begins to dance like a horse.  The man exclaims that he is the only dancing crocodile in the world.
I do not know where these dreams came from, but I feel like a world traveler this morning.  I just wanted to give you a taste of my night time matters, as I begin to do my own open eyed journeying for the day.