Don’t be afraid
To speak your mind
To share your voice
To give those with ears to hear
Hope and encouragement
That freedom of thought
And friendly debate
Are allowed and ok
The universe within aims to expand outwardly
And soil from a flowering mind is often
Dissenting voices
Burial forces
Derangement jealousy and hatred
Come with shining your inner light on the world
It’s like you can’t have one without the other
But don’t let it stop you
Your soul expands with sharing your light
Your soul and mind will blossom
When you give your inner voice flight
There is no neutral ground though
If you silence yourself
You don’t stay even
Your universe and soul and mind will shrink
Under the weight of repression
And that makes sense when you consider
You are a seed
You here to blossom into the full expression of who you are
And that expression is a weapon
Against dark forces that will find you bizarre
And chastise your ability to walk without fear
It’s just the rules of the game
On planet earth now and here
But it always has been this way
It’s just exaggerated now
Fear is turned way up
And even these writings to you
Have been scattered on someone else’s social media and circled with messages of hatred
Even tho I’ve chosen to post these on my own domain away from all that
Except for tiny pieces I choose
Alerting people who could get something out of them
For the good of their own freedom and perspective
A chance to know they exist
I would have assumed
That if you disagreed with my perspective
You wouldn’t disrupt your day
By actively going to my site and reading what I’ve got to say
I would assume you would simply unfollow me
And pretend I don’t exist
Job done.
But that’s not how it worked out in this case
Me your mama were on the swings
There’s a Mitch hedberg joke about pancakes
He’s says they’re good at first
But quickly you get sick of them
(It’s funny when he says it)
But swings are like that as well
Fun for about five minutes and then it’s time to go
I’m sure however you will disagree
When you’re finally here
I imagine you’ll want to run and play for hours
Expanding your joy
In the sunshine of childhood freedom
Me and your mama were swinging
After sungazing the red sun dipping into the horizon
Saying prayers to Jesus
Asking for direction and guidance
And thanking him for the day
There is great power in prayer
You can find salvation and strength there
We made a video for the end of day four of this fast I’m on
(Day five today!)
I didn’t have a long inspiring message for day four
It was more
I’m glad it’s over
Day four was hard.
We had walked barefoot again all over Brooklyn
Picked up cbd from a shop
And some baklava and dates for your mom
And later some coconut water and pineapple
All agents which are natural labor inducing remedies
That’s what the long walks are for
So that we can get you here
And start the next phase of our journey.
Both of us choosing to be barefoot
Because we thought the other wanted to go that way
I asked your mama before we left
Are you going barefoot?
She smiled big and said yeah
And even said
I’m excited to go barefoot as we walked out the door
I had thought about putting on shoes
Because my feet were slightly tender
But instead I accepted the challenge
Building up callouses with the idea of going on runs
Barefoot in the city
Your feet are miraculous machines
But stymied by the traditional cages they are in
Don’t get me wrong
I love a good pair of rock n roll boots
And one can go along way with a fancy pair of those
You don’t need much else
A decent pair of jeans and a cool t shirt
And you could steal the show anywhere
With your rock n roll boots
But don’t let that reality hinder the full expression of your feet
Chinese foot massage places all over the city
With diagrams of pressure points
And their corresponding organ
Should alert you to their magic
And running on bare feet
Or with bare feet running shoes
Protects the knees and the hips
Because you run softer or gazelle like
Than you would with big padded clunkers on your feet
The full expression and capabilities
Of the machine of the human temple
Known as the body
Can be explored
The mind engages in a different way
You become more tapped in
More present
The perfection of how you were made
The divine design
Is reflected everywhere
From your feet on up
Your immunity
Your soul
Your spirit
Your heart
Your mind
Your hands
Your eyes
Your ears
Your dreams
Your courage
Even your fears
It’s a wonderful and perplexing place you are coming too
The forces turning you away from the knowledge of your power
And your wonderful design are many
It’s a war of spirits
Of darkness and light
Of faith and fear
Or love and hate
Leaning towards love is our duty
And how we show God gratitude for the gift of this life
Your mama and I were swinging on the swings
And I made a little video of it to post to my stories on social media
Scrolling through thoughtlessly
I saw my writings to you
Scattered all over another persons page
Circled sections with messages of hatred beneath them
I passed my phone to your mama
And said look at this
I watched her face grow into shock
And then jump to defense and my right for me to speak my mind and express myself
It was great to see. Your mama is a warrior.
I told her not to worry about it
And in cases like this it’s best to move into prayer towards the disruptive spirits who choose to attack
Those that allow themselves the freedom to write
Sing
Think
Speak
Make films
Whatever
No creative human endeavor ever gets met without resistance
Like a plane taking flight against resistant winds
Don’t let negativity stop you
Use it instead as a sign that you’re moving in the right direction
Spiritual Kung fu
It was bizarre though
To see writings taken out of context
And scattered like that
Like walking into a deranged persons room
With ripped up pictures of yourself
All over the walls
Frightening actually
How empty and desperate someone would have to become to do that.
Who has time for that?
If you disagree with someone or hate what they say and what they stand for
Simply move on from their reach
It’s not that hard to do. Not hard at all
This person had to goto my site
Off of social media
And take these examples
And then put them all over their social media
With messages of outrage and hate.
It baffles the mind.
When your mama and I do morning prayers
We will put this man in them
We will pray that he finds peace
And clarity
And love in his own expression
To release him from keying into the expression of others
Particularly ones that he hates.
It’s not that hard.
But people have become addicted to outrage
We live in outrage culture
We live in outrage times
You could call it
The outrage age
Or the age of outrage
That sounds like a song I need to write.
No weapon formed against us shall prosper
Never dim your light
Never be afraid to express yourself
To share your voice
Even in a threatening world
Because the cost of repression is greater
Than cost of expression
Always and forever.
Barefoot running
Over Gods great earth
Your voice shining and singing for everything that it’s worth.
And if people laugh and point
Understand that that’s often a sign
That you’re on the right track.
The first ever demo tape I made
Got reviewed in a local music rag down in Georgia
The critic was known to be harsh
And so a positive word from him was enough to elevate you significantly in the scene.
We all wanted his seal of approval
It represented the seal of approval over the whole scene.
Group think you might say
My guitar player called me
When the review came out
It isn’t good he said
Oh really I said
My heart sinking
No not good at all he said
You want me to read it to you
Sure I said in a panicked hurry
He read it
In full it said
“Learn how to write songs before you try and sing them”
That was my first review
Before I made a record
Before I got a deal
Before I toured the world for over twenty years
Aggressive dissent sucks
For sure
But when I got that review
Something in me woke up
The fighting spirit
Do everything you can to wake that up within yourself
And use voices of dissent
As neon signs
That you’re heading in the right direction.
Grow your spirit and your soul to the skies of his perfection
And let no weapon formed against you prosper.