Not on a house, not with a mouse

Not with a mouse, not on a house...
Dr. Seuss got it right.
Sometimes you just have to say
"No" to people in a million
different creative ways for them
 to finally get it...
and then in the end, you find out
they were right all along and you
we're wrong...
Saving face may be no small task
for us, but for Dr. Seuss, he took
it all in stride not missing a step.
So his world expanded and he
was no worse for wear--Green
Eggs and Ham were on the menu
and it only took him a whole
children's picture book to say yes
to life, to retract his stubborn
unwillingness to try something new
and in the end he was rewarded--
but it took a while--a short while
compared to the way the machinery
of our world changes to new ideas
and potentially better ways of doing
things.  We all learn a little bit in the
living and making inevitable mistakes
along our journey to wisdom and
happiness, patiently waiting for us all
along.


Copyright © 2013 Gary Frates

The Door Opens

Like a caged bird
my spirit longs for freedom.
It longs to sing to dance to play.
It longs to dive deep in the rivers
of joy and passion and pleasure.
It needs full expression
unhindered by outside approval.
It wants to show it's brilliance.
Just be as bright as it is--
a blinding light for good for what's right
for the underdog and oppression in general.
Let the door swing open
I'm ready to fly
and not look back
for so much is waiting 
to do to have to be
I'm ready to moult
and transform into a
a new day a new me
birds of a feather...


Copyright © 2013 Gary Frates

Listening Within

Listening within
most often
provides wisdom...

There are rules,
guidelines,
socially
accepted behavior.

We fear veering
from the standard
course
when inspiration hits.

The need
to be courageous
whispers
ever so silently...

We want to be free
to do what we want to do
what we feel
to have fun
to be (true to) ourselves...

Like little kids who don't
really know any better,
sometimes it seems
we get into trouble
at every turn.

But how do we learn if
we don't try new things?

How do we learn
who we are,
what we want
if we don't listen inside
when it comes to
making decisions
about our lives?

How do we learn
to trust in something
greater, higher,
deeper
as our source
of wisdom?

We don't...
unless we practice
strengthening it
in all our choices. 

It can help us
know
what's best...

this powerful force
for good
in our world.


Copyright © 2013 Gary Frates

Reemergence

On the way out
of the cave
stumbling in the void
so unwittingly entered
a sense of possibility
as yet untried
leads a little further
toward the light
promising liberation
from the
endless darkness.

The path less
traveled
seems the right
one.

Each new juncture
fork in the path
offers another
possibility
hastening progress
to see and feel
wholeness
in the light of day.

Life's a rip and a trip
when your on
the right path.
So many dead ends-

so many steps back
seeking the light
we already had.

Not paved for sure
since almost
no one's traveled it,
the fun of discovery
and innovation
creates an original
outcome.

This way
the sign says
barely made out
in the dimness.
Try this path.
It promises
an ultimate shortcut
though fraught
with more challenges
than the previous one,
but worth it.

To finally head
the right way
instead of endlessly
circling in the dark
feels good.

The Dark Ages...
giving way to
The Age of
Enlightenment.

At last.


Copyright © 2013 Gary Frates

Tapping The Power Within

I continue to amaze myself

by tapping into the power--

maybe I could call it the

power of belief or faith--

that has always been there

for me waiting...I guess, for

me to take the next move--

to sort of ask for help, and

what is working for me is

to write it down, or out, on

paper so there's no confusion

about what I'm communicating

or asking about.  When it remains

in my head, it gets lost with all the

"other" thoughts/feelings in my

mind/heart and I become

untethered from that source of

power.

I can still feel it now.  And I trust

that feeling, whereas before I

didn't trust it, even though I knew

it was there, was aware of its

potentially powerful influence

on the unfoldment of my life,

yet my faith was misplaced and

I was fighting it every step of

the way.

It seems easier now.  I hope I can

develop a positive, trusting

relationship with this power I feel

is there for me within.

It wants to help.  I don't have to

fight it. (I would lose anyway--it's

stronger than I am).  So why create

all this upset and resistance to

something I inherited at birth

really, but have denied and not

accepted or used it to any

great degree, I would say,

throughout most of my life?

It's there within all of us for the

using and taking, and the world

and myself are only enriched

by my tapping into all that I've

been given and starting to use it

to the fullest.  I really don't know

how I could do any less now that

this awareness is dawning on me.

So here's to fanning the fires of

faith in the expression of  my

gifts and talents to the benefit

of others, myself included.

My light needs to be unshackled

from the bush that shrouds it.

Since I have really not tapped that

source fully, I have no idea

of what it contains or how far and

wide it can go...so we'll see...



Copyright © 2013 Gary Frates

Tread lightly

Around I go chasing my tail...
nowhere to GO really.
The law of ATTRACTION
is whirling everything I could
ever need or want with FED
EX speed directly to my
front door.
THE COURSE IN
MIRACLES says:
"You need do nothing".
Nothing indeed!  I'm usually
doing "stuff" all day long--I'm
not a bench sitter.  If I can't
play, I'm not on the team.   
Although, I just arose from
a nap which you could arguably
pose is NOTHING, but felt
pretty good when I got up,
anyway.
DO NOT pursue--no hot
pursuits--as I understand it.
Just a welcoming attitude
and a willingness to receive
OR give that which needs
to keep moving in my life-
i.e. those things I need and
use now, at the time I need
them, will be there.  So,
as Alfred E. Neuman use to
say: "What, me worry?"
So, I'm off to enthusiastically
to do nothing--or maybe just
focusing more clearly on
what I'm wanting or needing
mostly these days.
May the force be with me.
I have a feeling a failed plan
is in the making
and I end up doing
SOMETHING
just maybe not wringing the life
out of every moment in a feverish
chasing down of my outrunning
desires.
The tail my prove a
more fruitful option.



© Copyright 2013 Gary Frates

A great day

Such a long
full day
with a rainbow
of emotions
swinging to
and fro
like a kid
on a playground
enjoying the ups
and downs
spending energy
earned at rest
to once again
give birth
to the
possibilities of
tomorrow.



Copyright © 2013 by Gary Frates