Mythos & Marginalia

life notes; flaws and all

etcetera

  • from darkness to light

     

    We will soon leave this day, the shortest of the year, and surrender to the darkness. Knowing that each day forward we will experience more light, this is the optimum time to sit and find the stillness that comes with the night.

    Embrace the darkness and set your bearings, check your needs, your wants, and desires; we all have them, yet too often the pace of everyday life denies us opportunities. Or we deny ourselves. Today, as we honour the winter solstice, find a moment to find your purpose, even in the midst of whatever conflict or confusion you may find yourself in.

    Don’t be afraid of shutting your door to allow silence. You know when you need isolation to quell your thoughts and feelings. Just remember to open the door once in a while to take note of what’s going, or to let somebody in. Keeping a door shut is to disallow a view of the true you.

    Communicate mindfully, speak or write your words with purpose and intention. Say what you have to say, and believe it to be the truth. Know who you are, or try to understand why you are the way you are. It is by fostering a deeper understanding of your self that you will develop greater compassion for others; and there are many people around you. Be conscious of your place on the planet while accommodating and being respectful of those who share this beautiful space. There are millions of us residing on this earth, and while our time is temporary, our words and actions are permanent.

    Listen to others, especially when the words seem genuine or heartfelt. Sometimes communicating is difficult, particularly when emotions are involved. It takes a lot to open up and share certain thoughts with others; remember this as you listen, remember this as you speak.

    We are all dealing with issues and events, decisions and disruptions on this ever-changing place. The times change; the world changes, and you may change, just as those you have come to know are certain to evolve. Remain aware of those who rely on you to keep the balance in this fragile world. Strive for consistency and, above all, be yourself.

    Remember the value of kindness, and forgiveness, and acceptance. All of us maintain core beliefs, and they differ from person to person, but our true measure as humans is how we accept the opinions and ideals held by our fellow beings.

    Take time to celebrate the achievements, big or small, of others. Everybody is out there trying, or managing, and sometimes even the slightest acknowledgement of another person’s progress can make a difference. Don’t forget to acknowledge your own advancements as well. Your strides forward may not be recognized by anybody else, but that should not stop you from celebrating each step.

    These are times when the vividness of our world is overwhelming. The colors are bright, the volume and velocity of information is thick and fast, the truth is pure and distracting, and the depth of our emotions is humbling as we endure the transience from darkness to light. On this, the longest night of the year, dawn will take its time arriving, allowing us a additional time to contemplate who we are, what we want, and what we can do to make this a better place.

     

    © 2015 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: from darkness to light

  • is it ever as it seems

    December rain sneaks into a sleep that may

    or might not have been. Gentle, with enough of a breath

    to be noticed, yet crafty enough to remain unknown. 

    Window open slightly, the world from 

    the other side of the curtains 

    seeps into your space. If sleep is sleep, or has it been?

    Wide-eyed now, hands reaching upwards, grasping at clouds

    and the residue that comes with the season. Emotions,

    struggling with premonitions of silence, you attempt 

    to fashion thoughts into dreams

    of what you want or where you’ve seen

    or what you wish, or what might have been.

    It’s not bright, not this time of day. There can’t be a moon, 

    not one you can see anyway. 

    Clouds and thoughts, and your restless ways 

    fighting the fever for hours and for days.

    You might seem so strong and still, right now, who can say.

    Lucent thought, lenient waves, comfort you enough to stay 

    tangled in the life you knew

    in this sleep, just not all the way through.

    Who you are, or what you want

    the raindrops fall, the memories taunt.

    Night is only a time for precious remembrances. No one can hear 

    what you think, perhaps no one can know. Not even you.

    A life imagined. You can’t turn it off, or 

    turn it down, or see your way to shut out the view. 

    The only one is you. Trying to speak the words 

    you need to feel, you come up silent against 

    the rain’s steady peel. It’s takes over, it always does. 

    December rain. It’s not the same. The chill 

    cannot be the temperature, you are wrapped in the blankets, 

    pillows pushed aside in a heap, as they are when you sleep. 

    A rest that is not now, for if it were 

    would you hear your heartbeat, or remember 

    all that you dream? Or is it ever as it seems.

    The steady rhythm never forgets, patterns of the past 

    come back slowly. It’s wet, its cold, the memory is old 

    but it is right there. Remember.

    Of course you do, of course you have, 

    you cannot spend all those waking hours in

    wonder, and not have it come rushing back. 

    When you’re ready for mercy,

    December rain seems to know.

    It crashes against the silence and the mystery it holds.

    © 2015 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: is it ever as it seems

  • you have enough

    It gets harder each year to sort through the mixed messages we are bombarded with in this highly-commercialized season of greed.
      It’s not just the non-secular selling of goods and gifts destined to end up in the landfill, but the promise of perfection woven into each message; as if we are not complete without this or that. 
      It is the message, the method, and the madness of advertising.
      Of course, it’s nothing new (it never has been), and soon you learn (as you always do) that the bigger the promise, the harder the fall.
      No matter your age, there is always something they are selling you. 
      No matter your stage in life, there is always something they are telling you.
      Get past the bullshit.
      You have enough. 
      We all have enough stuff.
      What we need is the resilience to say we have had enough, and the confidence to enjoy what we have.

    © 2017 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: you have enough

  • continued commitment

    There are now fewer pages left in my journal than there are days in this year.
       Perfect timing, really, for a new decade is approaching and I will begin the New Year with a brand new journal.
       I’ve been keeping a journal with solid regularity for well more than 25 years. 
       I had tried before, at different points in my life, to maintain some sort of journal, diary, or account of my life, but those attempts always ended up incomplete. The books got lost, or I got lost (or lost interest), or couldn’t really find the time.
       Life is often like that, you find it hard to find the time to do things you really want to do.
       It takes more than commitment; it takes continued commitment.
       My journals are full of life, as it happens. Trips, trials and tribulations, events attended, tales about people I’ve met; people who have died, people who left, and those who are still with me.
       It becomes personal history. For me.
       It is important to me.
       I write every day, but not always in my journal. I’ve got a several manuscripts on the go, in varying stages of undress, and there is something on this site every day. Then there is poetry, and letters to friends and family scattered across this amazing planet. 
       I write every damn day.
       The journaling is different, always by hand, always by pencil, I write both the consequential and inconsequential in my journal, as it happens and usually when it happens.
       Sometimes I will glue in an article from the newspaper, other times a postage stamp or concert ticket, or include a quote from somebody that has inspired me.
    It’s pretty random, at times it is messy (like life), at times my thoughts are not complete, but the journal has a purpose.
       This current journal is the second book I have filled this year. It began with a move back to Winnipeg and continues to describe weekends out and about as I continue to rediscover a city I thought I knew well. The pages are full of deep thoughts, random considerations, and memories of people, places, and music. 
       You learn a lot about yourself as you write, and you continue learning as you write. That is the value of a journal.
       Journaling is sort of like the quote I jotted down in one of my journal’s from the past:
         “Learn from yesterday, live
          for today, look to tomorrow,
          rest this afternoon.”
                             -Charles Schultz

     

    © 2019 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: continued commitment

  • winter will

    Winter will come
    without warning, but 
    it is not unexpected.
    Winter will know when
    you are at your weakest.
    Winter will weaken 
    you further. Willingly.
    Winter will wait and 
    winter will know.
    Winter’s will arrives
    with spirit and snow.

    © 2019 j.g. lewis

    Leave a comment: winter will