©Aliana Alani 2017
Behold,
How long it can often take
To build a dream into a reality,
And how little time is needed
To tear it all apart.
Behold…
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Category Archives: philosophy
Ask only…
By Aliana Alani ©2016
Ask not of others
to be what you want
them to be.
Ask only of yourself
to be who you
truly are.
Poetic Musings…
©Aliana Alani 2015
Soft in the light I wander
Angels hovering – waiting, protecting
‘To be or not to be’ sing the strains of Hamlet
The air ripe with questions
Perhaps even possibilities
And I, riding their undulating waves,
Await answers – but from where
To be –
what would that mean –
exactly?
Remember …
that deep within
You are the love you seek.
Warm wishes for a wonderful 2015 coming your way! May all your fondest clearest and most empowered dreams come true, and may they always be filled with love.
We are almost at the end of January (how quickly it goes) and already it’s been a whirlwind of a time in our world. I’m coming to you late in this as are my good wishes to you. New Year’s found me flat out with that flu/cold virus that has swept across North America and so it’s taken awhile to rise up from that bed and catch up with, well just about everything.
So here’s goes … a bit of news on the work and a few thoughts re what’s been going on.
TEMPLATES FROM THE GARDEN – the sacred geometry artwork I’ve been doing. There’s a new one available. It’s called – Awakening Creativity. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s powerful. If you feel drawn to see it, to perhaps become a Keeper of its Focus or to buy it as artwork, send me a quick email c/o 22shangrila.com or leave a message here and I’ll get back to you with images and info.
IN THE REALM OF SKY – the small children’s book I wrote and posted here last year – has been available for you to read free-of-charge for awhile now. I want you to know that I’ll be taking it down from this site within the week. So if you want to read it before then, do so now. After that, the book will be available, hopefully late this year, but in print form. Hence you will need to buy it. I’ll update you as that happens.
SESSION WORK – For buckets of time in the not-so-distant, I was available as a spiritual facilitator for private sessions, workshops, retreats, and speaking events. It was a potent time. I ended up taking time out, partly to go to Ireland and follow a yellow-brick road that took longer than one could possibly imagine (okay maybe you could), and partly to focus on writing and exploring our world. Recently I have started being available for session work again. This is often long distant work, so by phone or Skype. And it is always with a focus of coming home to your true essence and to the Garden of Love & Light. You are welcome to email me if you feel this work might be for you. At present I am only available to see a few clients at a time.
There are new projects beginning, new artwork, and hopefully a bit of poetry. I’ll update you on those as they happen. And thanks for taking the time to check it all out!!
THE WHIRLWIND … If the beginning of 2015 is any indication of how this year will be, at least in the world-at-large, then hang onto your hats and get centered because that’s what we’ll need to be to either ride out the storm or shift to a new paradigm. Shifting is definitely in the cards – we have been moving toward it for awhile – as is living in The Garden.
So balance, kindness, and compassion are key now, as is that ever constant – love – which ultimately allows us to prosper in the best of ways.
It has always been my sense that to truly live in The Garden of Love, one must surrender attachments; to old ways of being, old stories, perceptions and judgements. One is often called to forgive what was in order to love what can be. The term ‘wiping the slate clean’ comes to mind.
Non-judgement (& no one said this one was going to be easy) also requires a tolerance of being; to look beyond the histories and stories (ours or another’s) to the Spirit that lives within (whether you call it Spirit, the Divine, God, or the Eternal); remembering that the essence of all Spirit is the same – that when I look at you, I am indeed looking at Spirit. When I allow that, I am able to recognize that we are all truly one.
At the level of Spirit, freedom is a way of being. It is meant to be that way in our world as well, just as we are meant to be the conscious expression of Spirit in our world.
With that in mind, freedom becomes a right, not a privilege. So when we in this world attempt to inhibit freedom – whether that be freedom of speech, freedom of expression, or any of the other freedoms we should be holding dear, we are in fact inhibiting a path to the conscious manifestation of the essence of our own being here on earth.
So here’s the thing – It is easy to allow freedom when it’s all going according to your own take on things; when what you say or believe matches what I think. It is when you speak, write, or parody in a way that seems to counter what I have chosen to believe, that the challenge arises. Will I still recognize your right to freedom of expression or will I damn it?
Voltaire, a French philosopher, writer & historian has been quoted as saying, “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” From time to time, I remind myself of this gem of wisdom, especially in moments like those in Paris recently.
I am as well a storyteller. Stories come in many forms, one of which happens to be satire. Satire has been around for longer than you and I can remember. It has always been a way to poke fun at or shine a light on that which is out of balance in the world. Just as art in its myriad of forms has also been a way for us to rise above the mundane, to dare to dream, to live beyond the expected, to change, to laugh, to cry, and again, to shine a light on that which is or is not working.
It is through story that, consciously or not, we end up creating new worlds. How sad if the world we ended up with would be but a tiny crafted box only big enough for infinitesimally small experiences and even smaller expressions of being; a box with no freedom and very little light.
Which for some reason brings me to William Butler Yeats who wrote in a now famous poem – “I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
So in this year of 2015, let us dare to dream a world of harmony and love into being, beyond the hatred and fear. Let us reach beyond those boxes to the skies and dare to live with passion. And most importantly, let us dare to love.
Blessings and love to you all.
like a mantra –
As the dust of the world’s chaos swirls around, tempting us to enter its fray, this is what comes – like a mantra –
Every moment is an opportunity, even a blessing
Every breath is the breath of love
Every view is of the Eternal – no matter who,
no matter what,
no matter where
Within & beyond all – only Love
Every garden, whether it’s the garden of your heart, your life, or your world requires nourishment to grow. For it to flourish and to truly blossom, it requires love.
Love the best of you and your garden into being now.
You deserve the very best and so does your world.
Sometimes…
©2014 Aliana Alani
Sometimes there are moments
When I wander through the galaxies at night
Or feel fear on the tips of a child’s hand
Sometimes…
Sometimes the cry is too great
The anguish, the longing too large
Sometimes the cacophony overwhelms
And I long to rest
Sometimes…
Then somewhere the sun rises in a woman’s smile
A world turns and finally knows its own name
Joy surfaces in atoms and particles for no apparent reason
Sometimes…
Sometimes thoughts circle like tumbleweed
Along the vast landscape of the Eternal
Bumping into each other
Cascading or colliding
But sometimes they dance
In harmony, in union
Sometimes they love
And when they do, when they do
I breathe a sigh and relax
Sometimes…
Raining Sapphires …
I wrote most of this a couple of years ago. Suddenly woke up yesterday knowing I had to dust it off, edit & update it a bit, and share with you. I hope that in some small way it touches a positive chord in your heart. Blessings to you, Aliana
RAINING SAPPHIRES (c) 2014 Aliana Alani
It was raining sapphires along the sands and beaches of my heart. The sky kissed the air with perfumed stardust and the earth trembled, shivering like a fragile expectant lover. It beckoned as lovers often do in a strange hypnotic fashion, its rhythm enticing and provocative, its inner smile illusive and tempting. Yet somehow I could not follow, not fully, not yet. Perhaps it was the dust that clouded my vision. Perhaps it was fear, of the known and the not. Perhaps it was the one thing I frequently chose to ignore, to dance around, to two-step, to tango, to fox-trot, from there to here and fro; the one thing I knew would eventually happen, and yet … Perhaps it was all of these, and more.
This was, after all, my story, hence my world.
The picture comes in fragments. It is unstable and will not hold. That is its illusion, and to some, its reality. It appears increasingly bleak and fond of monochromes, especially shades of grey and black, as though its creator had decided to cast it all in shards of steel and bones of white ash, with a dash of startling midnight blue. Its waters pound against timid shores. Its winds blow like hurricanes of ancient memory. It does not speak of tomorrows, only what was, what might have been, therefore by lineage and association what could be, today. It tantalizes through threads of adrenaline pumped with escalating chords of anxiety. Its song is of flight and fright, of dread and fear. Its clothes are many layered, yet its costume remains the same. If it has its way, soon wherever we turn, this will be all we see. It will be all we feel. It will be all we think we know. We will be wrong but…
For this is a road of dissolution and dismembering that ultimately can know no air.
Within the fragments reside people, lands, countries, and stories. Within the fragments are hearts capable of soaring yet feeling broken, their worlds crumbling around them – security, sustenance, love – all seem to vanish within one large long cosmic breath. The classic, Poof, and there is no more. The cause varies but the result appears the same. The world watches in horror, its compassion tinged with a hidden worry that any minute the breath will turn in their direction. What then? What happens after that? So we begin to speak in apocalyptic terms, with words and gestures both large and expressive. We speak, often forgetting the power of thought, the energy generated by sound and intent. Forgetting what many of our ancestors knew; that by doing so, we may indeed be calling our own little apocalypse into being. We may be helping to magnify its possibility.
For it too travels a road that ultimately can know no air.
Like the many sides of a fine diamond or those sapphires on the beaches of my heart, inside each facet of the stories that make up our lives, no matter what appears to be happening in the moment, no matter whether we love it or hate it, lives an inner jewel that hovers like a secret key waiting to be discovered, a key that can unlock untold mysteries and bring with it endless peace and happiness. A key that is ours to have and use; that has always been there and always will be. The key may appear unique, perhaps even exotic, yet one thing that it carries is a link to beauty for beauty is a corridor to the heart, and the heart is one giant door to love. Love, as many have waxed poetic, is all there really is. In case you have forgotten, as many of us do.
Beauty is often said to be in the eye of the beholder. Where one person sees devastation, another observes within its skeletal midst an awe-inspiring splendor. Where another perceives garbage, someone else sees a dance of wonder hovering midst an air-floating plastic bag. And where some envision approaching death with fear and horror, others see within the light of life waiting to be reborn.
If you track this thought with me, you will perhaps find that hidden key. That lingering midst despair and devastation, no matter how impossible or painful it may seem (and it often seems totally impossible and incredibly painful) is an opportunity to view hence feel the beauty of existence, even if it is only for a moment, a seed of possibility blowing in a wind of turmoil. That in so doing, you may find yourself bringing that solitary seed of beauty to the fore more and more each day until one day, amazingly, within you only it will exist, having now blossomed, as seeds are apt to do, into a magnificent abundant garden of life, your life, and death, whatever form it had been taking, will have vanished mysteriously into the endless unknown.
Every moment is an opportunity, especially for love.
With that those sapphires sparkle and glitter, tossing their brilliance into the centre, into the heart finally, sprinkling their ethereal wisdom like starlight upon the ocean of my soul. A door within blasts open.
And I am home.
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”
… Francis Bacon
22shangrila 