Chris Duel

Broadcaster, Soul Provider

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Equinox

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Equinox arrives

From the heavens
Amid the starry sky
Flashes of lightning
Illuminate awakening
To the season of Spring
And the end of Winter
With its loss and grief
Days growing longer
But for this moment
All is equal
Light and Darkness
Hope and Fear
Pleasure and Pain
Chaos and Serenity
The unseen world appears
Translucently amid the twilight
I open my arms
Gaze to the sky
Listen intently
To the music of the spheres
And I am equal
To the bliss
To the fear
To the love
Welcome Equinox

 

Many Paths To The Mountaintop

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Many Paths To The Mountaintop

So many times you’ve been told

There’s only one way to get there

And for so long you believed

The admonitions of those who spoke with authority

As if their chosen path were the only way

Yet somehow their directions did not ring true

Something inside you whispered otherwise

Their maps weren’t meant for you

Your navigation comes from within

An internal guidance

Revealing the way

That only you should travel

Knowing that even if you drift off this path

There’s another

And another

Even the perfect path

That is always a breath away

When you release the māyā

And feel

Your one true path

Of many paths to the mountaintop

Happy Mid Year! – 183 Days Down, 183 Days To Go

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Happy Mid Year

Happy Mid Year

We are halfway through our yearly circle around the Sun.

While we celebrate the New Year by ringing it in, making toasts and singing Auld Lang Syne, are you taking the time to celebrate the Happy Mid Year?

Shall we make Mid Year’s Resolutions like so many do on the New Year?

This is no longer a new year, but a middle-aged year. It’s day 183 of the year with 183 days left, we are perched upon the year’s midpoint.

If we compare the phases of the Moon to the progression of the year, we start at a New Moon (New Year) and the midpoint would be represented by the Full Moon.

The midpoint is now.  With maximum fullness, light and reflectivity.

After the Moon is full, like the year, it will wane, retreating from fullness into inevitable shadow, death and rebirth.

So will our lives and the lives of all whom we love and will ever know.

The circular cycle of birth, growth, fullness and disintegration mirrors every aspect of our lives, our years and the heavenly bodies in the sky.

If we choose, the midpoint of the year – like the fullness of the Moon – is just as appropriate a time to reflect, take personal inventory and begin again.

While you can certainly choose a New Year or a midpoint or a Full Moon as the auspicious moment to make changes in your life, you can also choose any day, any moment, any moon to grow, to evolve, to do the right things.

A day or night like this one is a reminder for us to look at our calendar, look at our lives and look into our souls.

Sometimes the New Year or the mid year or the Full Moon whispers to you that your time is now. And like the year and the ever-changing Moon, your days are full, but also waning.

Perhaps now is the time to choose to become more of the person you came here to be.

Ring it in.

Raise a toast.

Sing Auld Lang Syne.

Even in July.

Happy Mid Year!

 

 

 

 

Autumnal Equinox

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AutumnalEquinoxPic

 

(2am 9/22/2013)

summer has ended

i felt this coming

light and warmth waning

portending the fall
and the coming winter

while days draw shorter
and the chilly darkness grows

but for this moment

this one moment

this Now

all is equal

balanced

sublime

light and darkness

hope and fear

pleasure and pain

chaos and serenity

laughter and tears

koyaanisqatsi and bliss

the unseen world appears
translucently amid the twilight

i open my arms

gaze to the delirious sky

listening intently

to the music of the spheres

and I am equal

to the love

to the fear

to the euphoria

to the yin and the yang

of the great unknown

and I surrender

to the autumnal equinox

Happy Mid Year!

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Happy Mid Year

 

We celebrate the New Year by ringing it in, making toasts and singing Auld Lang Syne. Our resolutions vow that this year will be different. We will be different. We aspire to be better versions of ourselves.

It feels good. And for awhile we believe we can live up to our ambitious New Year’s resolutions.

But old habits die hard. Within days or even hours, our resolutions fall away, along with our hopes of becoming the best versions of ourselves.

Which brings us to now – July 1st – the year’s midpoint.

It is no longer a new year, but a middle-aged year. At 182 days done and 183 days left, we are perched upon the year’s midpoint.

And this year, through a gift from the cosmos, we have a celestial, metaphorical representation of the calendar’s midpoint in the form of the Full Moon, which shines in tonight’s sky.

Full Moon

(In my hometown of San Antonio, the Moon becomes full at precisely 9:20pm on July 1st.)

The phases of the Moon parallel the progression of this year as we reach midpoint from New Moon to New Moon just as we reach the halfway mark of the year.

This year was born new, slowly waxing to fullness, as was the Moon.

The year and the Moon are full at precisely the same time.

After tonight, the Moon and the year will wane, retreating from fullness into inevitable shadow, death and rebirth.

So it is with our lives and the lives of all whom we love and will ever know.

The circular cycle of birth, growth, fullness and disintegration mirrors every aspect of our lives, our years and the heavenly bodies in the sky.

The New Year’s resolutions we made seem so long ago. We assume we cannot get them back.

Or can we?

Why isn’t the midpoint of the year – like the fullness of the Moon – just as appropriate of a time to reflect, take personal inventory and begin again?

I believe it is.

While you can certainly choose a New Year or a midpoint or a Full Moon as the auspicious moment to make changes in your life, you can also choose any day, any moment, any moon to grow, to evolve, to do the right things.

Sometimes the New Year or the mid year or the Full Moon whispers to you that your time is now. And like the year and the Moon, your days are full, but waning.

Perhaps now is the time to choose to become more of the person you came here to be.

Ring it in.

Raise a toast.

Sing Auld Lang Syne.

Even in July.

Happy Mid Year!

 

May You Live In Interesting Times

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May You Live In Interesting Times

Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a changin’.”

That was in the early Sixties. Those of us old enough to remember that era recall tumultuous change, clash of cultures and a rift between the generations.

Recent events in America are rivaling the changes witnessed in the 1960s.

On Friday June 26th, the Supreme Court made Marriage Equality legal in all 50 states.

The next morning, female civil rights activist Bree Newsome evaded security guards, climbed the 30-foot steel flag pole at the South Carolina Statehouse and removed the Confederate flag, which has become a more profound symbol of controversy in the aftermath of the Charleston church murders.

I woke up this morning and looked at the image of the LGBT rainbow flag being waved on the steps of the Supreme Court along with the photo of Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag in South Carolina and a memorable phrase occurred to me…

“May you live in interesting times.”

Curious of the phrase’s author, I googled it. According to Wikipedia, it has been regarded by many as an ancient Chinese curse, although no actual historical Chinese origin has ever been found.

In 1966, Senator Robert F. Kennedy used the line in address to the people of Cape Town, South Africa on the “Day of Affirmation.” It has since been used in novels, films and television series.

I am surprised that some regard these six words as a curse. It seems more like a blessing to live in interesting times than in mundane or stagnant times.

If indeed the phrase dates back to ancient China, perhaps it is both a blessing and a curse.

In the Chinese language, many linguists point out that the word “crisis” is created by the use of two characters – one representing danger, the other representing opportunity.

Interesting times.

Curse.

Blessing.

Crisis.

Opportunity.

Take your pick.

And enjoy the ride.

We truly live in interesting times.

 

 

 

Your New Year’s Resolutions Will Fail

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"Fall Down Seven Times, Stand Up Eight." - Japanese Proverb

“Fall Down Seven Times, Stand Up Eight.” – Japanese Proverb

 

 

Your New Year’s Resolutions will fail.

Count on it.

Either today or tomorrow or in a few days, you’re toast.

At least if you are like vast majority of people who make resolutions.

Change isn’t easy.

Old habits die hard.

For some reason we’re wired to believe that Day One of the New Year is the ideal time to make a change.

And when we revert to our old ways we stay there for a long time.

But remember this…

The calendar doesn’t determine the new moment, the new day.

You do.

This is your life, this is your dance, this is your movie.

And every moment is the new moment.

Every moment is your opportunity to become the best version of you.

Your quest is heroic.

The epic battle is you versus you.

Will your higher self or your lower self prevail?

A lifetime of trends can be vanquished with your will, your heart, your faith and your refusal to play small.

So when your New Year’s Resolutions fail…

Forgive yourself.

Trust yourself.

Remember the Japanese proverb: “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”

Stand up.

Dust yourself off.

And begin again.

This is the sacred moment. 

 

 

My New Year’s Wish for You (and for me)

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My New Years Wish

My New Years Wish

 

The clock strikes midnight

Are you ready?

Do you realize

You are given a gift

 

 

A new day

A new year

A new chance

 

 

To begin again

To wipe the slate clean

To see the world with new eyes

 

To trust your heart

Instead of the tired voices

In your head

 

To take the leap of faith

That has always beckoned you

 

My new year’s wish for you

(and for me)

 

Is that we realize

That the most precious

And sacred moment

Is not in the distant past

Nor somewhere in the future

 

Because

That moment is here

Now

 

May we embrace it

May we surrender to it

 

At last

 

May this new year

Shower you

With outrageous blessings

 

May you discover

Delightful magic

In each of your days

 

May your fondest dreams

Come true

 

Such that you pause…

And ask yourself,

 

“Is this Heaven?”

 

Before hearing

 

A still, small voice

reply,

 

“Yes, it is.”