Malik Watkins's Bloglines

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose…

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (from the Artist’s Way-Julia Cameron)

I am quite sure there are many that would wonder, “why go to a cemetery.”  I wondered the same thing before I moved to Savannah, Georgia.  In Savannah, there is a cemetery – if you want to call it that – called Bonaventure.  Many tourists go to see the ornate architecture of the markings and experience its history…its feeling and/or communication….  But, it also sits on a river, so over time I would go there to relax, study, or to explore my pensive nature.  The ‘Recoleta’ is a similar place – although, quite exponentially more….

Walking into the ‘Recoleta’, I am reminded of ‘Beatriz’ – “there is Tango in There.”  Immediately, I am reminded of the experience of places I have been.

The cultural similitudes with the carvings in west Africa, the temples in South East Asia, the Canal de Panama, the works of the universe to shape volcanoes of which their majesty can be witnessed when the sun rises over the mountains in the morning to illuminate them as their steam rises in honor of the heavens; the scenes of the Pacific Coast Highway (1) in California; being at home feeling the presence of the twisting live oak trees, or surprisingly witnessing the occasional sighting of an otter at play in the saltwater rivers in the Isle of Hope; the sense of amazement of being on Broadway (New York) and feeling the commitment of the artists singing/dancing/demonstrating god-like levels of talent – without the manipulation of technology – I previously had not imagined; or even the magnitude of peace and appreciation that comes with experiencing a kind and gracious human being.

As I enter, my mind’s eye sees some history of a people – sitting, talking, questioning life, laughing, singing, loving, crying, hurting, dancing their own expression, living through the many vicissitudes of life we all can experience – but also the nature of life viscerally shared with each other.…not just them, but people overall…how dedicated people can be to what they love!!

Reminds me of commitment, artisan-ship, and the price that sometimes must be paid in exchange….when a certain kind of love bonds with a certain kind of place in a person; and, raises the question of curiosity about the nature of people and even more importantly….the nature of the characteristics of the process of creation.

A side thought occurs – beyond the judgement, self-aggrandizement, absence of the depth of insight, lack of compassion/empathy, callousness and ignorance witnessed daily – maybe those instances are simply an inability to connect/feel the process of human evolution simply posing as ugliness….never-the-less….

Feeling a certain permanence of structure, my soul becomes silent – this is about feeling….the type of silence that comes when our soul is seeking the awareness of the substance to satisfy what it needs.  There was a time when I felt – let the dead bury the dead.  Now I am more inclined to understand that the dead are not really dead when we seek to learn the lessons of their life and use them for our own.  Those reminders allow us to always carry them with us…in our minds eye.

Below – ‘the chamber of the revered ‘Eva Peron’

Personally, I am not a zealot of any thing to the degree of being blinded to the value of all the other streams of life that represent and point us to what is sacred…I will allow you to define for yourself what is sacred to you.  In these days of reflecting, I feel a sublimation of my basic instincts…as I move from only considering specific contexts and memories…to accentuating my wonderful experiences by adding in additional contexts to expand my own history and memory – for the purpose of creating….walking out of the Recoleta…I walk in the Basilica de Nuestra Senora Del Pilar….to sit, meditate, reflect…to consider….

Aye, a stream of life that activates and empowers a higher consciousness and plane of existence…In this ‘stream’…I am reminded of many wonderful experiences, but also how easily they can be repressed under the weight of the expectations of life, disappointments and all of those other nasty distractions.

This ‘Stream of life’ – sometimes we kill it in how we compensate for our day-to-day grind of life…and it distracts us from what life is…I won’t tell you what it is but, being reminded of the ‘Great Gamora’ again…I am reminded to grow…simply, to grow…

So what Tango did I find here? Well…although there are commonalities…we each have our own….and it amounts to something much more than steps….:)

Abrazos!!