THE PROPHET … and some thoughts it dislodged or reminded me of.
I read 20+ pages of The Prophet last night in bed and now I know why
others had suggested I read it.
My goodness. You have changed the course of my life by encouraging me to
immerse myself in the wisdom held between those pages … and you have
set forth a charge of inspirational energy in me that relights a fire I
feared had near gone out.
(Obviously) I can’t claim and would never claim to share even one breath
of the wisdom nestled within the pages in The Prophet but … well …
the writing style, the simplicity of the prose, the choice of emotive
and descriptive words … and the passion in the words and delivery …
… reminded me of someone I knew … someone I know.
Going back a few years, BEACH captivated his online audience of
thousands on an international forum … by writing … by discovering
… by relating … by exorcising his unique experiences of dealing with
his own ‘human condition’, asking, (not telling or stating), how others
viewed or explained what he was pouring out on threads and posts
relating to his own emotive journey of self discovery.
No topic was ever taboo and in lifting the lid on such subjects, in
liberating himself, Beach was also able to liberate others who, for the
first time, saw an opportunity to publically share their own hurt, loss
or confusion online.
… and once those trains of thought started hurtling down their steely
tracks of self discovery, Beach became the voice and leader of a rag tag
group of online folk now inspired to evict all their own fears.
So … you know the style of the narrative in The Prophet? The masses
asking the one individual for his thoughts?
Beach can relate to that. 🙂
I am only into page 20 of The Prophet but already it has become yet one
more piece of the jigsaw puzzle of books I treasure as waypointers I can
recognise as being helpful to understand who I might be or what I might
become.
I can’t thank you enough for encouraging me to read it because, already,
I can make sense of something I could never get my head around.
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can
contain”
“When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is
only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy”
Wow! I was aware of the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you
stronger”, (Neitzshe) but the idea of sorrow being carved into your
being becoming a good thing explains something quite personal for me.
I have always referred to my ‘inventing’ phase as a time when I was
compelled to ‘clear the mental decks’ of my mind in preparation of the
idea and concept that was hurtling into my consciousness like an
impacting meteor exploding in the earth’s atmosphere.
Though warned by work colleagues at the time, (I was then an Inspector
with a local authority), I failed to check my enthusiasm, unwittingly
nudged Jackie and the family aside, (to allow additional mental
processes more room), and, like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, set in
motion the series of events that would ultimately consume and destroy
me.
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can
contain” today equates to me having a cathedral sized amount of free
space in my head where there was once family and later a mental workshop
for the invention to be perfected.
Today … that space remains … and I use it ENTIRELY for the crafting
and perfection of my new, far simpler, far calmer, (if precarious),
existence.
A further comment in the book also hits home.
“”When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see
that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight”.
That sentence, that thought, that comment helps me see that yes, ‘Losing
Jackie’ brought a torrent of heartache that near destroyed me but, as I
can now appreciate, (since reading that comment last night), the huge
VOLUME of love displaced, spilled and soaked into the Sahara of my
folly, (in the breakup of my relationship), was merely equal to the vast
plains of fertile territory that our love bloomed and blossomed in for
nearly 20 years.
The Prophet, as EARTH by Frank Townshend also states, makes it clear
that EVERYTHING is in harmony, everything has balance and everything in
this life is happening exactly as it should and that we can no more
control events in our life than we can control the winds or the tides.
Similarly, the Bhuddha (Siddhartha) referred to a winding river leading
down to the sea with not one drop of said river being able to avoid the
placid depths, the treacherous rapids or any of the waterfalls, bends or
diversions on the way.
Townshend reminded us that a crystalis will eventually turn into a
butterfly … but only in its own time and at it’s own pace.
Ha. I was fretting about sending this very long series of mails to you
but … well … some force – or fate – or serendipidy has kept me
pinned in this chair all morning … creating these words … and I
haven’t seemingly been able to stop the process … until now! 🙂
I guess you’ll either pull the lever marked ‘nutter’ and send me down
the shute or … well … I won’t presume to guess. I’ll just say, hand
on heart, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relaxed and comfy chatting to
an online contact.
Thanks for your creative writing. I share your love of all things Wicca,
as I call it. (I actually have a (real life) Pagan friend who I
occasionally chat to about such spiritual beliefs and musings. She is
the most gentle and lovely human being … simply looking out to Mother
Earth … so I am quite well versed and in tune with such thoughts.
I loved your prose. Your poem. Your thoughts. Beautiful words. Thank
you. 🙂
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