Among the clouds

Parasailing on Rotorua lake ....

Jetboating on Rotorua Lake .....

 

~~~

Christmas for Mystics

A great post by Marianne Williamson about the true meaning of Christmas.

Read Christmas for Mystics here

"We're preparing for the birth of our possible selves, the event with which we have been psychologically pregnant all our lives." - Marianne Williamson

Wedding Night

MAWLANA JALAL AL-DIN AL-RUMI passed away on Dec 17, 1273. This date is known as Sheb-i Arus (Wedding Night). Every year the 17th of December is celebrated as the night of Rumi's reunion with his Beloved.





When I die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
i am missing this world

don’t shed any tears
don’t lament or
feel sorry
I’m not falling
into a monster’s abyss

when you see
my corpse is being carried
don’t cry for my leaving
i’m not leaving
i’m arriving at eternal love

when you leave me
in the grave
don’t say goodbye
remember a grave is
only a curtain
for the paradise behind

you’ll only see me
descending into a grave
now watch me rise
how can there be an end
when the sun sets or
the moon goes down

it looks like the end
it seems like a sunset
but in reality it is a dawn
when the grave locks you up
that is when your soul is freed

have you ever seen
a seed fallen to earth
not rise with a new life
why should you doubt the rise
of a seed named human

have you ever seen
a bucket lowered into a well
coming back empty
why lament for a soul
when it can come back
like Joseph from the well

when for the last time
you close your mouth
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time.

~ Rumi

In Praise of Sparklets

In Praise of Sparklets – My book of poems on Amazon (Kindle). 

The incredible lightness of flying

One more story on Stuff -

The incredible lightness of flying

:)

The sure-fire life purpose

If I had the chance
I’d be a dessert spoon
the bringer of delight

Imagine,
tucking into delectation
every time

brain to hand
sending frantic messages
hurry hurry hurry

mouth closing in
tongue in rapture
lips in melting caress

imagine,
transporting pleasure
every time

how could you go wrong
with a life purpose
such as that?

(written for the Bentlily prompt - write a poem about an appliance you love or love to be)

Enchantment

Found this flower blooming in our garden today. I was totally enchanted by its unusual pattern and of course, it's unique beauty!

Pain - haiku

some aches can be seen
others eat up the insides
just the shell remains

~~~

let me feast on joy
as pain slinks ‘neath the table
awaiting its turn

~~~

bruised purplish-black
amidst bright yellows and pinks
warp and weft of life

~~~

Haiku Heights / Pain

Rain cloud Mother

I felt it the moment
I let you go
bursting my birth sac

and you rushing headlong
to meet that other mother
that steadfast one

singing as you fell
black-slapping
racing each other

like little sperms intent
on meeting those seeds
waiting for your embrace

that sweetness of release
for I, the surrogate
had only held you for her

~~~

(written for the Bentlily prompt - Rain -from the perspective of the clouds)

Storm - haiku

in the aftermath
among the deadened rubble
little shoots spring forth

~~~

heart lacerated
night in the grip of a storm
ends in glorious morn

~~~

my muse brews a storm
of words, plot-lines, characters
a novel is born

~~~

The Modern Da Vinci's 5 rules of success

A fascinating read! Mind-blowingly inspirational!

The Modern Da Vinci's 5 rules of success

Just being

There is great happiness in not wanting, in not being something, in not going somewhere.
The mind is not tranquil as long as it is traveling in order to arrive.

 ~Jiddu Krishnamurti

NaNoWriMo

November was National Novel Writing Month at nanowrimo.org A site where every November novelists and would-be novelists congregate and write a novel of 50,000 words or more in a single month.

I found out about this around the 3rd of the month and decided to give it a try. The first few days went swimmingly well and I even wrote a couple of thousand words. And then I hit a road-block. The plot just wasn’t going anywhere. It wouldn’t even move. It had turned into a cul-de-sac. I fretted and fumed, but to no avail.

Then finally around the 22st of the month, it all fell into place all at once and I was faced with the prospect of writing around 45000 words in about 8-9 days. What followed was frenetic writing, sometimes belting out almost 8000 words per day.

And, I’m happy to say that yesterday, just before midnight, with a few minutes to spare, I crossed the 50000 mark and also completed the novel. So, now I have on my hands a first draft. 

I must admit, writing a novel is like being caught in a tempest. Thoughts, words, plot lines, characters, they all churn up within you demanding to be written. It begins to live inside you, all the time. It blots out everything else. Its characters living and moving and scrambling over each other, talking, fighting, falling. And you, like a shepherd, have to herd them, align them, put them in place, and make sense out of it all. Quite an exhausting experience and even more so, quite an exhilarating one.

And to add to the fun, I got it into my head to design the cover as well. And so, precious hours were spent designing, editing and creating a cover.

The novel, of course needs a lot of work, plots have to be straightened, characters have to be fleshed out, emotions, motives, explanations all have to given. It might change, might morph into some thing else. Who knows? Even the cover might change, but here it is the cover of the first draft of my first novel - Dharma.