Wake Up Calls

Welcome to my Wake Up Call Page!

Check out the following opportunities that life provided me to shift my perspective on what is possible.

Just completed my second Human Reset Challenge in 6 months. Gruelling mind body spirit detox of everything and everybody that is fucking one up and holding one in toxic patterns. This poem is a glimpse into what it takes to move to the next level of consiousness today. Anyone with me? Not surprised. Carry on living in your false constructs.

Roll the Dice

if you’re going to try, go all the
way.
otherwise, don’t even start.
if you’re going to try, go all the
way. this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.
go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or
4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the
worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.
if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the
gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.
do it, do it, do it.
do it.
all the way
all the way.
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter,
it’s the only good fight
there is.

by Charles Bukowski

“Evolution is the great impulse, inherent in the kosmos, to unfold toward ever higher levels of complexity, consciousness and goodness”  by Marc Gafni, “Your Unique Self”

Way back in 1989, a movie opened called “Dead Poets Society.”   Having graduated from a private high school myself, I was curious about this movie, which is set in a 1950’s private high school.  I was not prepared for the profound effect that this movie would have on me.  I found myself crying for some unknown reason and was drawn back to watch it again and again.  I became obsessed with the poem below.  Deep inside myself I wanted whatever this poem was talking about.

I now see that this experience was calling me out from behind my limitations and beliefs about predestination.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

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I discovered the following poem a number of years ago during a time that I was overwhelmed with life.  I taped it to my kitchen cupboard, and read it every day, wanting what this poem promised so badly but feeling it was way out of reach.

“There is no way to Peace, Peace is the way.”

Peace is already within ourselves and in the world,

and just as we practice mindfulness in order to experience the peace that is already

inherent within us, so too we must be mindful of

the obstacles that we ourselves create that

obstruct the experience of peace in the world.

Peace is a practice, a way of being. We do not do such and such in the hope of attaining peace.

When we practice the way of peace, we have already arrived.

Peace is… it is not a destination.

By Mahatma Gandhi

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I came across the following poem a couple of years ago.  Each time I read it I am struck by how deeply it describes what a journey it was to decide to come home to myself.  I now see each time I choose to believe that the people in my life and their issues, their emotions, their problems, their successes were greater than my own, I disappeared a little more from my canvas of life.  The author gives words to my path.

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice–

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do–

determined to save

the only life you could save.

By Mary Oliver

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I came across the following quote in 2007 while working at the University of Calgary.  I could feel the truth of it, and at the same time felt that my contribution would never be more than working for someone else and being kind to others.  That made me very sad because I felt there was something more in me but had no idea how to access it. Nonetheless I printed it out and had it posted at my cubicle for years.   Little did I know that this quote was a wake up call for me and everyone who reads it.  Blogging is just the start of my big picture contribution.  How about you?  What does this quote call to inside your heart?

“You are not here merely to make a living.

You are here in order to enable the World to Live more Amply, with greater Vision, with a finer Spirit of Hope and Achievement.

You are here to Enrich the World, and you impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.”

By Woodrow Wilson

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The quote below was pasted to my fridge about 6 years ago because the concept was so fascinating.  It touched a note of truth in my heart concerning the chaos I was experiencing internally and externally in my life.  I was able to conjure up some hope for a peaceful future if what I was experiencing was a revolution.  Turns out I really am an agent for change!  Yay!

CHANGE

Change often causes conflict; conflict brings about change.  There is a cycle in human affairs when things need stirring up, and when the hint of dramatic change is in the air.

In order to succeed, revolutions must be in alignment with certain immutable laws.  They must being at the right moment, gather support and be guided by sincere and capable leaders.  The strength of the forces of change will always be in proportion to the urgency of the need being championed.

Revolutionary change points to a time when chaos arises from order.  It is important to realize that not all order is good, not all chaos bad.  Chaos, in fact, is an integral part of the way of things – as any parent and modern science will confirm.  Have the courage to radically change and renew the way you present yourself.  In this way, you can summon chaos to your cause, and you will unleash a new power on your behalf.  If engaging in a negotiation, change the rules.

In periods of drought, even wild storms are preferable to yet another sunny day.

– Anonymous