AXEMAN

What is there in your life to live for without question? I think of a handful of deep sources of joy & redemption. Music is the cathedral, the gentle rivulet, the abiding theme, the great tapestry that confirms the majesty of the Divine Creation. No contradictory words. No conflicting ideology. From the simple reedy voice of a solo flute to the gnarling crash & cacophony of metal guitar it is music that manifests the sublime beauty of eternity. My friend Michael is a brilliant guitarist. He plays Tom Petty. He plays jazz chords. His songs are seminal. He writes licks & riffs in the frequency of Wodin. He teaches the little children where the fingers go on the frets. I fire one glass arrow for him & all the musicians I know & love. Without music life is not worth living. D.C al Fine.

SENSEI

There are several human activities that are of unquestionable merit for the human soul. The practice of martial arts is one such activity. Choose a martial art. There are many choices. Like many of the great awakenings, they all involve a meeting of the East & the West. To achieve mastery of a martial art takes thousands of hours. Like any great accomplishment the more you learn the more you realize you need to know. You will need a Sensei...  someone “born before you”, a master... a teacher. I work with Clint, my Sensei in Tae Kwon Do. My Sensei embodies the ideals I seek for my physical presence.... preparedness, flexibility, speed, agility, strength, fearlessness, loyalty, patience devotion & above all calm. As always I am the novice. I submit myself to a higher authority. I am here to learn.

THREE ARROWS

My theme as always: what is it to be a male in this complex post 2012 world? No, let me expand... what is it to be human in this dawn of the new age of consciousness. Please stop kidding yourselves: the world we knew... the world you knew is over. It has ended. The Newness is upon us. Embrace it. Let it come into being. It happens whether you are ready or not. It is all around us. We are not Human Beings... we are Human Becomings, each & every one of us in different stages of awakening. I commit to being a warrior of the Light. I commit to embodying the Light. I am beyond fear. I have already died. I am reborn. Born into the light. I pull from my quiver Three Glass Arrows & launch them into the Stillness. The Center holds. Silent & clear as Mountain water.

WARRIOR

Death is the boulder sitting athwart the path of my destiny. I define myself as warrior. A warrior is not afraid of death. A warrior overcomes fear. For, it is fear that thwarts me.  Fear hinders my claiming of my true self. I accept the discipline required. I accept the skill needed. I make the proper atonements. I harden my body, my resolve. I divest myself of encumbrances. Lean as a hungry wolf, I see with my soft eyes. Alert. On my feet. Toughness is my virtue. I plant my stake. Patient as a shadow, I am willing to act. To live as if already dead. My leader Crazy Horse said it best... “Today is a good day to die.”

THE WIND

I know a horse. Two-Step. We have a deep understanding.  I ride him bare-back in the wind of the western mountains. A slender strap of leather connects us. The gentle pull of my wrist. The sensitive mouth. The muscles of his back ripple & tense below my thighs. The long horse hair of his mane & tail whips across my skin. Balance. My body moves, responds to his shifts, accelerations, veerings. Walk. Lope. Canter. Gallop. Go like Hell. Our bodies become one. Is this the ecstasy of love? It is the ecstasy of final friendship. Telepathy. He knows. I know. We know. Grace.  Speed. The great release of speed. Untethered like a kite without a string. Like two RedTails in the sunrise. Flight. I am ready for my destiny. I know a bond like no other. Rider & horse. Flow. Two Step & I. We are the wind. I am the Wind.                   The Wind.

SOL... OUR STAR

I am living in the mystery. That is my main modus operandi. When I stop needing to explain... needing to know, when I stop the endless process of analysis... the why & the wherefore then I approach the true awe of my existence here in the time-space continuum. The simplest statement of this mystery: there is an astral body so bright in the everyday sky I cannot look at it without going blind. The energy that drives all of nature from the point of view of the physicist, the chemist, the biologist is light. The prime source of light in our life is our star... Sol the Sun. I make the spiritual quantum leap to say that the source of my divine spark & of the Divine centre of this whole luminous creation is no more & no less than that Light. My human mind comes up with any number of different words for that brilliance. The Divinity of the Universe is Light. The Sun exists. Light exists. I am living in the mystery.

THE SUN

 The Sun is for my little brother & close friend Anthony Masuskapoe, who is both a talented artist & brilliant musician. I met him on the day his best friend died & Anthony, in his mourning, had cut off his long, raven, warrior hair.  He told me of a recurring nightmare. He is a swaddling child in a thunderstorm. He leaves a scene of domestic devastation behind & in terror walks naked out into the golden fields. A white stallion eats the scattered, shattered glass from the battered home. Lightning & hail crashes all around him. The horse terrifies him. He awakens in a cold sweat. I am a painter of dreamscapes. I interpreted the dream for my warrior friend. The White Stallion is Anthony. The White Stallion is you. The White Stallion is me. The White Stallion is who we really are. Pure. It is time we mount & ride the horses of our destiny.... warriors of the Light.