Atum

02/20/2025

Praying with another is a profound act of humility and openness. It honors the sacredness within both individuals, creating a shared space of reverence and unity. Through this gesture, we acknowledge the divine in one another and the power of mirrored positive intention. There is an energetic bioplasmic connection that becomes possible, that acts as an accelerator of compassion.

The theologian Martin Buber wrote a book entitled I and Thou. Buber said that human life finds meaningfulness in relationships. He believed that all our social interactions bring us into a relatedness with God, the ultimate and eternal Thou. In an I-Thou relationship there is awareness of a shared oneness of being. Love and compassion is the foundation of the I-Thou relationship bringing a sense of respect and caring. The I-Thou relationship finds unity within the self and nature, between the self and God, between people, between nations and the unity of God and Cosmos.

Buber differentiates between two kinds of human relatedness. The first is I-Thou and second is I-It. I-It means acting self-centered and treating people as objects, exploiting others and maintaining a sense of separateness and detachment. The I–Thou relationship is characterized by mutuality and undefended directness, empathy and honesty. One listens and can appreciate the other's perspective. Throughout our many interactions with people, may we be open to creating space for the sympathy and sacred relatedness of I-Thou.

Right Relationship, 2023
charcoal and chalk, acrylic on paper

02/18/2025

How brave you are for slowing down. For not finishing that to-do list. How courageous you are for not crossing that finish line, because your body said “enough.”

How fearless you are for choosing the quiet of your soul over those voices driving you always towards more.
How bold, how rebellious -
you, out there,
honoring your own natural rhythm,
going against the culture’s breakneck speed.

I want to make heroes of those who slow down.
I want to make heroes of those who listen to their bodies, and do not strive for more than what the soul truly needs.
I want to make heroes of those who do not force or push, but surrender to each moment as it opens.
I want to applaud those who may not be driven towards success as we know it, but instead are nurturing something deep and subtle and needed.
I want to celebrate those brave enough to cease all doing, even for a second, and sit with the ache in their hearts. A task many find harder than summiting the highest peak.
I want to make heroes of those who honor their limitations. Who are unable to keep up with the busy-ness of our times, yet show up to each profound, necessary moment.
Truly, it is an act of courage and rebellion to do any such thing,
in a world demanding you resist your own self, your own rhythm, your own soul.
The paradox is that often when we cease our incessant doing, even for a minute, and listen to that quiet voice within, we discover what it is we absolutely must do, and what instead can fall away.
We finally hear the call towards what serves our soul,
and what then will serve the world. Nothing more, nothing less.
A hero is simply someone brave.
So come, be softly brave.
Be a new, quieter kind of hero.
Few may applaud, it’s true, but your soul certainly will.

Author : Leyla Aylin

Artwork: Sarah Treanor

02/16/2025

There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment.

Hunter S. Thompson

02/15/2025

02/13/2025

In The Adolescent, Dostoevsky writes:
"When a person suffers from great sorrow, when he endures immense distress, all he desires is to sleep."

As for Tolstoy, he describes one of the characters in War and Peace:
"He longed to sleep, but he knew he could not, for the darkest thoughts besieged him when he lay in bed."

Anton Chekhov, on the other hand, writes:
"My grandmother always used to say before bedtime: 'My children, never go to sleep feeling depressed, even if life is miserable.'”

And whether a person sleeps or not, the outcome remains the same—at least according to Thomas De Quincey in The Spanish Nun, where he states:
"But sleep does not always restore our vitality as it once did; sometimes, it is like a secret chamber where death prepares its equipment.
Sleep, at times, is that mysterious space where the soul slowly spreads its wings, ready to take flight from the earth."

12/28/2024

“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His mistakes are volitional and are portals of discovery.” ~James Joyce

I do not make mistakes. I make portals of discovery. Life is a canvas and though my art is fallible, it IS art. My ‘mistakes’ are a part of this art, even the most grievous. They are doorways that transport me to new experiences, some of them extremely uncomfortable.

Through mistakes I sink as low as a bug or soar as high as an eagle. Through the portal of a mistake, summit and abyss become one within me.

The brightest gold is found in the darkest abyss. The hardest diamonds are forged in the heart of the most ruthless demon. The clearest wisdom is discovered in the deepest wound. If it takes making ‘mistakes’ to fall into discovery, then may Fate and Destiny forever set a tripwire at my feet.

Written by Gary Z McGee

Image: Midjourney by Aleks7

12/24/2024

12/10/2024

“You never were the body and you will never be a body. You are pure awareness, the absolute reality. As you think about these things you become them. The worst thing you can do is think about troubles and worries. Always think about the heart. Always think about the Self, which is forever. If you think about anything else it is only temporary, it comes and goes. The good things, the bad things of this world, they come and go. Think only of the Self, the heart. This is your reality, beauty, joy. This is being-ness. This is the 'I am that I am'.”

Robert Adams

artwork by Stephen Taylor

🤖🤠

10/15/2024

"The fear we do not face becomes our limit."

~Robin Sharma

(Art by 'the_real_theory')

09/15/2024

When life breaks you, it is because you are ready to be put back together differently.
Every piece of you that feels shattered is a piece that will find a new place, a new purpose, a new meaning. Trust that the cracks are where the light gets in.
And sometimes, in our brokenness, we find our greatest wholeness.
We find the courage to rebuild, to reimagine, to redefine what it means to be strong.
You are not broken; you are breaking through ..

Unknown ✨

Artist Credit : Kat Fedora