Love Must Find a Way
One more inspiring song from Kim Margolis. Turn up the volume! Enjoy!
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2023Nothing Lasts Forever
Gorgeous song by Kim Margolis from his new album. On steady rotation in my home and car. Thanks, Kim! Keep putting it out there! Love your music and the feeling behind it.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2023Home Is Where the Heart Is
When I was a small boy, I used to lay in the grass outside my bedroom, look up at the sky, and think one thought, "I want to go home."
Though my parents tried their best to love me (allowance! grilled cheese! dog!), I was certain I came from someplace else very far away. I felt like an orphan.
It wasn't that I was unhappy. I wasn't. I just felt displaced.
As I grew up and translated my boyish sky-prayers into a more classical spiritual quest, I began to notice a pattern in the books I read. Beyond the jargon and the all-too-common habit of implying that their way was the only way, a central theme was emerging -- the home I was looking for was within me.
My unquenchable thirst to have the experience of arriving was not going to be a matter of traveling to exotic places. It was going to be a matter of finding home inside myself.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)
All I'm Doing Right NowAll I am doing right now is writing these words to you,
small helium-filled balloons
I offer for all those birthdays I missed.
I really don't know where these balloons will take you,
it all depends on YOU --
the way you hold the string
(or maybe there is more than just one string).
Well, of course there is more than one string --
we're talking about balloons,
multiple, not singular.
lighter-than-air-transportation devices.
They may seem to be words, but they are actually balloons.
Go for the ride!
Wherever you end up is the right place to be.
It is! And you are!
Always remember that
and the way butterflies move in a breeze,
and, please tell me, kind madam or sir,
how in the world did butterflies ever get created in the first place
and am I still expected to pay my taxes?
What if I forget my name and wherever I go
gardenias spring up all around me,
hoping as only gardenias can hope,
that one day the one they call the "Master"
will find his way there for no particular reason,
he being completely "of the moment" or perhaps I should say
(and please forgive me if I mess up the translation,
but it goes a little something like this:)
"You were made in the image of God.
You were, you are,
of that you need not have any doubt.
As you are you are."
How great is that!
How simple!
"As you are you are."
I may have to make a t-shirt with those words on it.
Nothing has to change with you!
You don't need to get better
or work smarter or be worthy of anything.
As far as I can tell, you are worthy of EVERYTHING,
though it's always useful to
remember George Carlin's perspective on it:
"If you had everything, where would you put it?"
And now, one last thing before I take my leave:
the best book I've read in quite a while is
Hear Yourself: How to Find Peace in a Noisy World
by Prem Rawat.
So much love! Heaps. Tons. Buckets full.
What Rumi, Hafiz, Mirabai, Kabir, and YOU,
on a good day, are plugged into full-tilt boogy,
walking the high road home to the essence of who you are.
Welcome to the fountain of laughter and tears, my friends,
welcome to remembering and forgetting
and then remembering again,
opening like a lotus
or a clenched fist
or a window.
And with that, dear brothers and sisters,
daughters and brothers, wizards, fools, home run hitters,
flash back Frankies, and little Joey from Brooklyn, I take my leave.
Yo, Joey, how did you find your way into this poem?
Wait, don't tell me. I know why. I really do.
This massive, bodacious love and presence is who and what you are.
How could you be anywhere else?
Welcome Frankie! You da man!
Praise the Lord! And praise the praisers, too!
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:22 AM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2023Once Upon a Time There Was No Time
Once upon a time there was no time. No time and no space. No heroes, no plot, no drama, no obstacles, no twists, no turns, no hero's journey, no redemption, nothing to learn, nowhere to go, and no one needing to be saved. The sky was blue. The trees were green. People danced for no reason, sang like the birds, and looked up at the sky and down at the ground with the same reverence. This was the time before story, before the need to understand, make meaning, convince, persuade, teach, transmit, entertain, distract, or make a single point.
The point? It was already made. And everyone already understood. Hmmm... I thought about writing THIS story, but then it dawned on me, how presumptuous that would be, how full of paradox, contradiction, Facebook Likes, Tweets, lists of things to do, copy edits, me, cash projections, reviews, complaint, business, and all the other assorted flora and fauna of life AFTER the story needed to be told. So I took out the garbage, washed the dishes, and walked the dog.
This is not available on Amazon, nor will it ever be. But hey, in the past month I cam across a really good book that gets at this feeling in a really beautiful way. Worth a read (even if there is no time).
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:49 PM | Comments (1)
