Arbitrary Lines
I had to laugh the other day, how funny my mind is the way it likes to organize things such as the passing of time, into neat, convenient little blocks. Because really, when one thinks about it, is not New Year just an arbitrary line in the Sands of Time? Lines are logical, and a male invention I suspect, their linear nature giving some comfort to the mind always struggling to understand a vast, mysterious Universe it can never quite grasp. Indeed it is, a very funny thing, this eternal flow of days and years.
In my last update, I tried to give some words to the gaps I experience when the Valley yawns and swallows me up after a tour, especially one so high and as exceptional as last year’s. How, just as there are seasons on the outside, there are inner ones, like autumn when the inner muse becomes quiet and my movements around the world cease; when even my guitar sits idle (albiet content) in the corner. I received many concerned letters from friends who, after reading my poem became worried, asking: “Are you sick? OK? Depressed or something?” All I can say is, creativity has its seasons. After many years of playing, I know this. I have learned to see these gaps as something valuable. They are restful, of course. But they are creative, too, because they give me space to explore new dimensions and horizons. I try to embrace the gaps when they come now and see them as natural, not as bad or wrong, nor something to fight with nor become frustrated by. I have learned they are an important, even necessary, process which prepares me, inside and out, for the next splash of colors-on-canvas.
I started out January 1st exactly as I wished: meditating and celebrating. I welcomed in the New Year with friends in Dallas, Texas, where together we all helped in the renovation of the old Zorba Studio, transforming it into a beautiful new Osho Dallas Meditation Center.
It is late February now as I type these words and the year is moving fast. My birthday recently whizzed by in the blink of an eye. With March fast approaching, I start to worry that by the time I get this update ready, it will no longer be relevant. Winter is howling outside, and my house and car are still buried in knee-deep in snow. The tall, grey trees sleep as if nothing is happening — no dreams stirring, not even of Spring. Such is their trust. But there are signs to seen, harbingers of good things “just around the corner”, as Osho is fond of saying. On my walk the other day, I spotted the first flowers poking-up their brave colorful heads through the snow, while just as miraculously the tours and year ahead take shape. Year 2014 marks twenty-one consecutive years of the tours. I can only marvel the way things continue to unfold. On the horizon, new music beckons along with new band constellations, places to be visited, and new peaks of celebration. A few musician friends who often travel with me have other callings this year to attend, so new faces will be joining the caravanserai. I am happy to announce Nivedano will be on-board for the USA events. In the words of Teerth, this is epic. And so it promises to be, 2014, an epic New Year.
