The trouble with leaving….
Footnote: Often the girls arrive with a whole pile of questions. And from the sorting, comes a degree of clarity, direction and understanding. Questions are like openings…. Where’s she going? Is she leaving?… Or going? … Taking off… To where? Moving on …or getting away? Are these actions all the same or are there subtle differences? What’s holding her back? Keeping her there?
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Art, Joanne Nam found at MONA (original in colour).
If we better understand those who have narcissistic personalities maybe we can be less affected by their cruelty – and more accepting that there is little (or nothing) we can do to make them change or have empathy and compassion for another’s feelings and experiences.
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The above campaign was released back in 2007 but it still sends an accurate message about our toxic culture and media, and of the cleverness and manipulative nature of advertising. But let’s not be fooled …..this beauty product company’s ultimate agenda is to sell more beauty products to us from the exposure this campaign gave them -and the feel good it gives viewers. And yes, posting this, gives more exposure but alongside a message about critical thinking.
Comes and Goes .
This condition of mind. It comes. And it goes. And it comes back again. So if I have nothing right now. What do I have? The knowledge that it comes. And it goes. And it comes back again ….
Footnote: There’s something deeply consoling about the notion of endlessness. It’s the opposite of being STUCK. And the understanding that things come and go. And if you replace the ‘condition of mind’ with … good and bad times; anxiety and fear; happiness; sadness, grief, despair; relationships; worries and so on – it is the transient (cyclic) nature of things that provides reassurance for getting through – coming out the other side.
(Clunk & Jam book 2019. Art by Harley Manifold, original in colour)
Who Holds The Mirror .
Sometimes the reason we feel so bad is because we allow others to ‘hold the mirror’. To alter how we perceive ourselves. Influence and determine how we feel. One of the hardest tasks is to be able to see and hold onto a clear and positive view of ourselves because we’re being constantly bombarded with toxic messages. An overload of choice that can tie us up in an endless spin of decision making. Add to this, the noise and the race to be and get somewhere and the fatigue all of this causes.
Question …. amidst all of this, how do we recognise and keep a firm grip on the good in ourselves? How do we maintain the energy it takes to stand firm in our own place and resist negative influences and all that makes us feel less, pulls us off course, interrupts our progress? What happens when you hold yourself still, in your own space for long enough to see through the fog and smog. What do you see? What’s real? What’s a product of your experiences and circumstances – those around you? What’s worth keeping – and what’s way passed its use by date?
(See also ‘A Date With Use-By’. Image by Harley Manifold from book, In My Room.)
Away With The Cows .
I’m off….to a place free of billboards. Buses wrapped in something to sell. Drive-throughs. Being stalked by bargain hunters circling for your spot. Pushed and shoved by commuters thick who’ve left their manners at home. Blasted for taking your time. Fingered for errors along the way.
No. I want to stand in hot, steaming cow poo in sloppy boots that scuff along gravel tracks. Sniff the coats of horses. Toss fans of grain to bossy chooks. Squirt full cream milk from an udder warm to touch – save some for the snow white cat. Poach an egg of bright, bright orange plucked straight from a nesting hen (which seems a touch cruel for a city slicking, supermarket savy sort). Doesn’t pay to think to long, so on and on I’ll go…
Bottle feed the orphan lambs yet to lose their tails. Stick grubby fingers into mouths of calves to fee the suckle of a spiky tongue. Dodge the hungry pegs of pigs in mud and mosh and slush. Say ‘hello’ to sweat and dirt – say ‘goodbye’ to clean. Wake to cock-a-doodle-do and moo.
And I’ll come back home feeling pleasantly stripped of all things urban and clean. With a John Wayne walk from long forest rides. Feeling oh, so pleasantly sozzled from lazy long days free of clocks and diaries oh so full. And no internet connection – eeeh haaa!
