Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream
From my favorite song written by John Lennon (never mind what the credits say):
Tomorrow Never Knows - I can spend a whole post on this song, and God only knows how such a horrible song (Got to Get You Into My Life) written by Lennon's horribly inferior song writing counter part, could come before it on the album, but that is a whole discussion in itself.
For those familiar with our daughter's struggles last year, they have not entirely gone away. We have finally figured out over a period of time that her digestive ailments and painful stomach conditions are all related to her stress, but a recent consultation took it a step further, and gave the diagnosis that it is directly related to her nervous system, that her nervous system is not equipped to deal with the stress that just about all of us face in our lives, so that what it does is to in essence shut down, and then comes out in extremely painful stomach symptoms, or at one time even came out as what appeared to be food allergy symptoms (later food allergies were ruled out). It is Easter vacation now, but last week she barely attended school, and the two times she tried she barely made it a couple hours, when the reaction to another child there who has hit her caused her to get these symptoms, and even a fever, so that she had to leave. One of the times her condition instantly improved as soon as she walked in the door, but then knowing she had to (possibly) return to school the next day they came right back, so it is clearly situational. It is not to the extreme that it was last year, when we could not sleep at night and made several trips to the hospital emergency room at horrible times to be doing that, but if left unattended it could very well get to that point.
Although I see this in her at an extreme, as I never left school with stomach ailments, I remember plenty of stress in my life as well and when it cumulated in college, my own "medication" was getting high, and when I tried to break off that, my break down emotionally into a depression to a certain degree is kind of the same idea as what my daughter is now going through. Looking around and seeing how many of us are dependent on some kind of substance - be it alcohol, marijuana, and even the completely evil crystal meth, I think it is evident that what my daughter is going through on a very intense level is a symptom of what many of us in our society experience - we are overwhelmed with stress, stimuli and pressure and we need to medicate ourselves one way or another to deal with that. I saw in the paper today that football running back Ricky Williams says he got stoned to deal with the stress and pressure, but now appears to be confident that yoga can take the place of marijuana and that he will not need to get high any more. Even with all the bad press he has gotten, I can completely relate to this - since I have been there.
For me if there was anything good about the days that I turned to the herb to medicate myself was that they showed me a place I could go to that got me away from the stresses of the world I was living in, a beautiful place where I could float in a womb-like state through beautiful sunset canvasses while the music I would be listening to provided that backdrop. Later on, all my Grateful Dead shows took me into that same dream like world, and although I experience a few of them in a chemically altered state, I also realized I was capable of "getting there", getting high so to speak - in a completely unaltered state and that just the music itself could take me there. I kind of touched on this on my last post about Durga, but now I find that at certain times of the day, my favorite being around the time the sun is setting and the sky takes on a beautiful dreamlike quality, that when I pick up the guitar and face the west through my window in this room, I can get there too. Music is my form of meditation, although I know meditation has the same potential. My friend Kirk once had the idea that my mind was racing so much with internal agendas of its own that music was the only thing that could quiet it down. During my long trips throughout Northern Nevada, my CD player fueled me and gave me the energy to keep going. There are times when the right music is on at the right time, combined with the natural landscapes and scenery that this area has to offer, and then just driving can take on that meditative state. This is why I know I personally would go crazy in a big city, I need a place like this - scenic, calming, spiritually soothing - to relax me. This is why despite the differences we have here, this is where I need to be - and unfortunately that is not a shared sentiment. When I pick up the guitar in that state, anyone who does not know better might think I am "high" and the truth is, I am high - but it is not a chemical state. The same happens at the drum circles, it is like a slow wave that is pulling me somewhere, to that alternate peaceful world where the presence of the spirits, the God and Goddess - whatever you want to call it - and words don't even give it justice - but when I am there, the world is a magical place and then I find it is hard not to believe in something very powerful above and beyond me, something that feels very warm and loving.
I briefly reference and link an interview on Fresh Air where Richard Dawkins has scientifically and rationally dis-proven the existence of God. And although I could not technically and logically dispute one point of his, at the same time, these experiences point my heart to believe that there is in fact something way beyond the notion of logic and science. My heart tells me what my rational mind does not. And I always allow the possibility that I am wrong, that the world is in fact nothing but a bunch of chemicals, without any spirit of any kind - but even if I am just deluding myself as this interview suggests, I know that this form of medicine centers me, give me faith in myself and the world I live in, and this keeps me going - keeps me there and ready for the challenges and pressures that my job and my relationships place upon me. I know there is a way to get from here to there, because I have gone from a world view of feeling that life was impossibly overhwelming and demanding, to one where I recognize that despite its demands and pressures, that there is a spiritual beauty from without and within that makes it all worth it. I have gotten from here to there - my daughter is a part of me - I believe that with my help and help from others, she can and will do the same.
Tomorrow Never Knows - I can spend a whole post on this song, and God only knows how such a horrible song (Got to Get You Into My Life) written by Lennon's horribly inferior song writing counter part, could come before it on the album, but that is a whole discussion in itself.
For those familiar with our daughter's struggles last year, they have not entirely gone away. We have finally figured out over a period of time that her digestive ailments and painful stomach conditions are all related to her stress, but a recent consultation took it a step further, and gave the diagnosis that it is directly related to her nervous system, that her nervous system is not equipped to deal with the stress that just about all of us face in our lives, so that what it does is to in essence shut down, and then comes out in extremely painful stomach symptoms, or at one time even came out as what appeared to be food allergy symptoms (later food allergies were ruled out). It is Easter vacation now, but last week she barely attended school, and the two times she tried she barely made it a couple hours, when the reaction to another child there who has hit her caused her to get these symptoms, and even a fever, so that she had to leave. One of the times her condition instantly improved as soon as she walked in the door, but then knowing she had to (possibly) return to school the next day they came right back, so it is clearly situational. It is not to the extreme that it was last year, when we could not sleep at night and made several trips to the hospital emergency room at horrible times to be doing that, but if left unattended it could very well get to that point.
Although I see this in her at an extreme, as I never left school with stomach ailments, I remember plenty of stress in my life as well and when it cumulated in college, my own "medication" was getting high, and when I tried to break off that, my break down emotionally into a depression to a certain degree is kind of the same idea as what my daughter is now going through. Looking around and seeing how many of us are dependent on some kind of substance - be it alcohol, marijuana, and even the completely evil crystal meth, I think it is evident that what my daughter is going through on a very intense level is a symptom of what many of us in our society experience - we are overwhelmed with stress, stimuli and pressure and we need to medicate ourselves one way or another to deal with that. I saw in the paper today that football running back Ricky Williams says he got stoned to deal with the stress and pressure, but now appears to be confident that yoga can take the place of marijuana and that he will not need to get high any more. Even with all the bad press he has gotten, I can completely relate to this - since I have been there.
For me if there was anything good about the days that I turned to the herb to medicate myself was that they showed me a place I could go to that got me away from the stresses of the world I was living in, a beautiful place where I could float in a womb-like state through beautiful sunset canvasses while the music I would be listening to provided that backdrop. Later on, all my Grateful Dead shows took me into that same dream like world, and although I experience a few of them in a chemically altered state, I also realized I was capable of "getting there", getting high so to speak - in a completely unaltered state and that just the music itself could take me there. I kind of touched on this on my last post about Durga, but now I find that at certain times of the day, my favorite being around the time the sun is setting and the sky takes on a beautiful dreamlike quality, that when I pick up the guitar and face the west through my window in this room, I can get there too. Music is my form of meditation, although I know meditation has the same potential. My friend Kirk once had the idea that my mind was racing so much with internal agendas of its own that music was the only thing that could quiet it down. During my long trips throughout Northern Nevada, my CD player fueled me and gave me the energy to keep going. There are times when the right music is on at the right time, combined with the natural landscapes and scenery that this area has to offer, and then just driving can take on that meditative state. This is why I know I personally would go crazy in a big city, I need a place like this - scenic, calming, spiritually soothing - to relax me. This is why despite the differences we have here, this is where I need to be - and unfortunately that is not a shared sentiment. When I pick up the guitar in that state, anyone who does not know better might think I am "high" and the truth is, I am high - but it is not a chemical state. The same happens at the drum circles, it is like a slow wave that is pulling me somewhere, to that alternate peaceful world where the presence of the spirits, the God and Goddess - whatever you want to call it - and words don't even give it justice - but when I am there, the world is a magical place and then I find it is hard not to believe in something very powerful above and beyond me, something that feels very warm and loving.
I briefly reference and link an interview on Fresh Air where Richard Dawkins has scientifically and rationally dis-proven the existence of God. And although I could not technically and logically dispute one point of his, at the same time, these experiences point my heart to believe that there is in fact something way beyond the notion of logic and science. My heart tells me what my rational mind does not. And I always allow the possibility that I am wrong, that the world is in fact nothing but a bunch of chemicals, without any spirit of any kind - but even if I am just deluding myself as this interview suggests, I know that this form of medicine centers me, give me faith in myself and the world I live in, and this keeps me going - keeps me there and ready for the challenges and pressures that my job and my relationships place upon me. I know there is a way to get from here to there, because I have gone from a world view of feeling that life was impossibly overhwelming and demanding, to one where I recognize that despite its demands and pressures, that there is a spiritual beauty from without and within that makes it all worth it. I have gotten from here to there - my daughter is a part of me - I believe that with my help and help from others, she can and will do the same.
posted by Zook at 8:06 AM
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