Escapism, pure and simple

As lovely as reality can be sometimes, I guess I'm an escapist at heart. That's something I've known for awhile, but revisited this weekend. Two of my favorite forms of escape seem to be looking at art and reading. I do the second one more than the first, just because it is usually more convenient. This weekend, my parents were in town for Thanksgiving. We spent most of our time with the children, but then, on Saturday, looking for something to entertain ourselves with, we went to the museum, just the three of us, and floated in our own reflective orbits, shedding the worries and cares of our lives for a while. I got to take a break from having to fish for topics of conversation...always a challenge for me as we just walked from room to room. Dad had his commentaries on what we saw, but it was nothing really intrusive to the peaceful, soothing quality of the experience. Looking at art is my drug of choice.

I live in a house without a TV. Most of the time, I am determined to keep it that way. TV is full of nothing much as far as I'm concerned and I'd much rather, read or write. Both of which I do in large quantities. But writing is often a form of analysis. It's reading that can offer pure escape, especially fiction. I love time travel and alternate reality books the most and have just started one called The Time Travelers (vol. 1) by Caroline B. Cooney, who is a YA author, it seems. It's not particularly great literature but it is escapist and that seems to be what I crave!

Time to fly!

Do people actually find the time to write every day? And what to say? I've just realized today that I can write different things for different types of audiences. I need to expand my horizons. Think global, act local. Or act global too, as the case may be. As noted on my Facebook page, I've joined Heifer International. I just love the idea of donating live animals. I also love the idea of their study tours to distant and remote places. I've been feeling the need to start traveling for a while now. I will have to support myself as I go, which is why I got certified to teach EFL, English as a Foreign Language. If there is anyone reading this who has traveled and taught, get in touch, okay? Thanks!
Of course, if I want to get philosophical right now, there's always the idea of travel within, Rumi's kind: Keep walking, though there's no place to get to. Spiritual growth on the inside, transformation and all of that. God says our souls journey on from plane to plane and the successful one is the one who helps here soul to grow, not to let it stagnate. God always knows what we need, even if we are too blind or stubborn to see it!

#2

I have written in so many private places over the past umpteen years. There are journals and notebooks full of my ramblings. I want it all to amount to something, like an autobiography. Is this blog a way to start acquiring a reading public? I wonder.

The yearning is for connection: connection to God, and through His love, to each other. We are all drops in that ocean, as Rumi says. The Sufis seem to do the best job of trying to express those ideas and even to live them, at least some of the Sufis I've known. Its the way they interpret faith and spirituality.

Everyone suffers some pain and fear in life, no matter what their age or circumstances. Self-hatred, low self esteem, feelings of being inferior to someone else in some way, or even in many ways. God is there to tell us we are not forgotten or forsaken. He says in the Quran, Surat Duha:
By the bright whiteness of noon-tide
and the calm shrouding darkness of night
You are neither forsaken by your Lord nor are you detested
And the ultimate end is better for you than the first beginning.
And yur Lord shall give to you and you shall be satisfied.
Did He not find you an orpahn and provide refuge?
Did He not find you astray and guide you?
And did He not find you without means and provide sustenance?
So as for the orphan-do not oppress him.
And as for the beggar- do not drive him away.
And as for the grace of your Lord - proclaim it!

Allah is (SWT) talking to Prophet Muhammad, but at the same time to us, through the prophet and his life story. As a convert, I connect with this surah on many levels, but also just as a human being who's going through my own shit, every day in my own miserable or joyful way!

Reaching Forward, Reaching Back

Welcome to my blog! This is my first post ever, something I'll never be able to say again. It's purpose, like the spider's is to launch filaments and make connections. Blogging is one of the newer ways to "reach out and touch someone" as the phone company commercials used to say. Way back when the phone was actually attached to the wall. I'm dating myself already. Here's the poem. Try to look past the archaic language forms and get to the real meaning. And to think, Walt Whitman was the avant garde blogger of his day!

A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark'd where on little promonotory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile
anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my
soul.