Photo by Niranjan _ Photographs on Unsplash

Grumpy grateful

I’m grumpy.

Grumpy with
the world
and how it is so
out of balance.

Grumpy at how
we helped make
it this way
with our greed
and need
to own
more
&
more.

Grumpy with
the constant
demands of
big businesses
and their
profit hungry
kingdoms.

Grumpy with
how we get
lost and used
in supporting
the system
for little
or no gains
to our lives
or the earth’s.

Grumpy at
how this makes
me feel
which is
just plain
grumpy.

I’m grateful.

Grateful for
all the things
I have in my life
that so many
others don’t have
and never
have
had.

Grateful
for the moments
in amongst
the madness
and busy ness
of life.

Grateful
for the human
touch,
the soft word
spoken
in kindness,
the love
of others
in my life.

Grateful
that I am alive
here and
now
with the
chance to
surrender
unconditionally
to all that
is.

The duality and challenges of life.
The reality and dreams of life.
The intersection between them in moments.
All there.
Ever-present.

I am constantly challenged by the shit of life. And appalled by the actions and greed of others.

But I am constantly replenished here on Medium with the words and support of all you writers. And by the love of those closest in my life. And by the words and work of others — especially the love-bringers Green Renaissance.

Their latest work — featuring the deep wisdom of Egbert van Bart — is so profound.

I share it here in love (as I have already done a few times this morning with Natalie and Benighted)

Egbert’s words from the video (above) are here below for those of you who prefer to read — rather than watch.

I make no claim to them — just humbly sharing them again in love:

Everybody knows the secret.

The secret is surrender.

To really surrender to the unconditional state of life… of creation.

That is something to think about.

The whole of creation is just waiting for you to surrender…

realise that you are part of this all… that this is you.

You may leave it. You may become estranged from it.

And alienated from it.

But it’ll always be there in the present

until you rediscover it.

That’s part of the wonderful mystery of creation.

Nothing happens in some past place or in some future place.

Everything happens exactly in the present.

I like my mental body to just remember to be here now.

That I am here now, in this.

If your attention is caught up in the world’s doings

then it drifts off the whole time.

Most of the time we are either in the past or in the future.

It’s just our mental bodies that distracts us

and alienates us from being here.

Well, I think I’ve experienced quite a lot of things

that man is prone to experience.

Being in public

and feeling the awareness of people and their projections,

there was a time in my life when these things disturbed me

and really put me off course.

The world consists of these stories that people tell each other.

These stories tend to pin you down.

And we pin each other down with our stories as well…

our judgements about others and our judgements about ourselves.

And a lot of it is unconscious.

It’s projections that you receive from the world around you,

building a reality which is not real at all… it’s totally illusionary.

It’s part of our mental ability to go on automatic

and to instil stories inside ourselves which will keep on reinforcing

certain negative perceptions.

You nurture this victimhood and you nurture this suffering

as though it belongs to you, as though you’ve identified with it.

If you can get out of that paradigm and realise that

you must take responsibility for everything that happens to you

because it’s meant for you.

Other people can’t help you.

You must take responsibility for your journey.

Where I am and what comes to me, I must deal with that.

Unconditionally… I must just deal with what life is bringing to me…

putting on my plate.

Everything that life deals you is a gift.

If the word ‘love’ has any meaning, that’s what it means…

it’s an unconditional surrendering to what is.

You must unconditionally accept everyone and everything as it is.

The moment love is conditioned, it is no longer love…

there are strings attached, there are agendas behind it.

So unconditional love is something that brings one to a standstill.

It means not being judgemental.

It means not reacting immediately to something

that you find unacceptable or uncomfortable at that moment.

But to look again.

Love is that intangible constant of the eternal present.

I don’t know if you know the music of Dollar Brand?

He says…

‘Behold the night and day.’

‘Gently, gently, they give way to each other dear brother.’

‘I met him of the night, with his arms full of love light.’

I can’t recall the whole poem just at this very moment.

But it’s really beautiful… really something to listen to.

I’m grateful to be alive.

I think life is a marvellous gift.

And it’s a great paradox and a great mystery.

I just have these feelings of gratitude.

It’s part of realising that this is the gift of life.

And it all comes back to love, which is the foundation of creation.

The answer is to just be there unconditionally….

knowing that love is all there is.