Creativity on the road

Creation is ready to serve you, if you just be you.

Yogi Bhajan

Three years in the Washington DC area: Italy, the dearest ones and a job left behind. A still life between the scenes of a movie, living the narration among the ups and downs of this new life.

Having too much time to think is like inviting your mind to an overcrowded party where you don't know anyone, with alcohol and maybe some heavy drug.
Philosophical questions start popping up, like: where is my place in the world? What will my future be? What am I missing from this side of the ocean?

Pressure is on us both when there is too much time available and when there is not enough.
Too little time to dedicate to ourselves provides stress, too much time lets us feel how much bored and depressed we can be.
It happens to everyone, because we are human beings and we live in an imperfect world and because time and space give us a life in that world.

This is how we sit on this bus on the road, terrified because we can't see where we're going, instead of driving ourselves or at least enjoy the view from the windows.

Changing seats and adjusting our view would be nice.

I visited the National Arboretum in Washington DC some days ago and I saw these beautiful trees:

Have you guessed they are bonsai?

Depending on the point of view, things can look bigger than what they really are. We put many burdens on our shoulders which make us feel smaller but, if we only allowed ourselves, we would be able to look at the trees from above.

What prevents us to fly? The fact that we keep on looking outside, without realizing that we can just be ourselves and be served by the entire creation. We can seek our own truth, not the others'.

Creativity is exploration, a journey towards ourselves, no matter where in the world we are located.
It is dancing with our eyes opened to see that we are shrugging off blocks, rigidity, fears and depression and also dancing with our eyes closed to feel that it is happening for real.
It is being ourselves, flexible and full of possibilities.
It is accepting what we can't change and finding the inspiration to build what we had not imagined.
It is pure freedom, inner strength, so much transparence that any evil passes through us without touching us while any good stays and blossoms within. Sooner or later, after the winter.

The journey is long and we don't know what there is going to be beyond the hill?
Let's keep on walking towards ourselves, not towards something outside: naked columns which don't need to carry burdens to be who they are.

Thanksgiving: angels on the road

FL-5 North, Florida

In Italy I lived in Milan for several years. Back then I was far from home for the very first time, completely on my own. I was looking for the job of my dreams, jumping from a train to the other, running next to other people. I worked hard, spent the most of my time between an office and my small apartment on the Navigli. I have been butterfly in every rainy day: little drops like waterfalls, my wings shaking every time I missed my island, the sun of Sicily in the south of Italy, the smell of the sea. I looked at the giant cathedral, Duomo di Milano, and I grew up.

They were there, even in Milano. In the subway, behind a desk, in the office, at the park, while riding the bike, in my 30 squared meters apartment.
Then in Rome, next to my bed at night, they were tall, winged and so bright that I couldn't see their face.
They were in a church to be married, next to me, in my spouse's eyes.

They have always been here in fact, since I cried for the first time, when I was born.

The sky and the ocean, flying over Peru

Today I don't run anymore, like a snail I carry my home, even in this America where there is enough space for everyone. And they are still here, on the road. You don't need to call upon them, you don't need to beg them, but if you pray you can feel those soft and white clouds pampering your heart.
They tingle at home, they lift me up from the bed and from the couch, they write messages on boards, magazines and TV, they save me twice in the same day from a too fast car, they inspire me, they attend the yoga class, they invite me at a party, they wake me up from nightmares, they talk to me, they blow on my head when it is too heavy and they refill my heart when it gets flat under pressure.

They are always there for us.
Why do we have to remember them only when there is a reason (or a festivity) to give thanks? There is no conditions in love.

Be grateful every moment, for every moment. Grateful, here and now, in opportunities as well as in challenges, focusing not only at the heavens but also at the Earth. Catching every subtlety, every spark, every divine message around us which is source of inspiration and creativity.

Thank you people I know, I have just met, whose hearts I didn't touch yet but you already smile; thank you people who give me so many possibilities, turn your eyes on me along the street, send me love from across the ocean; thank you people who pray to possess, live in my nightmares, disguise your innocence: you are people who take the worst off from me, so that what remains is the best; thank you people who give unconditionally, accept to be helped, open up and trust; thank you people wearing a t-shirt with butterflies on it and I had foreseen coming, people who see the light in my eyes, who squeeze water from the stone and smiles from my heart.

I thank you God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirit of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes. - E. E. Cummings