Category: Meditations

Of natUre

It is far too vast to ever grasp meaning or purpose. There are only questions that we may ask. what is its function? We speculate, pontificate its existence. Is it beneficent or other? We wander through life wondering what we will discover. For who can say, why sound is found or darkness lights the way. Who gave the snake a rattle as bait, to fill his belly with rabbit’s fate. And why does water sustain all order, in life and death? Would it be odd if water was God and we were he or her? Is death a thing and what does it bring, that disguise it from the living? Why is the weakness of one the strength of another, for both predator and prey – and is it good to end a life to feed another day? Or does it matter in a dream, whether we scream or obey?  Where does existence end or begin? What is infinite or finite, why does nothing not exist, yet everything does? Why does dark appear in light or light appear in light? What is dark about the night? 

by K. Osei

of CalmnesS

There are some, who in refusing to accept a calm response invite you to partake in fits of excitement and hysteria — yield not. For no good solution is ever discovered through rage and fractious emotion. To do so is to snap like the rigid oak resisting the tempest.  In the end, years of growth and grace are laid to waste, and though you may have prevailed your point, it was for naught. The rift becomes greater, words are unheeded and you are left shamefully gathering the splintered pieces of inner thoughts.

Only through calm surrender does the timber survive the storm, harmoniously swaying like the solitaire palm, to the gushing sound of the wind, yet remaining firmly rooted to its source. Calmness is clarity, it is absent of competing concepts – and stillness is sovereignty. Mastery of inner thought reduces outer noise to fleeting echo. As stated in a less known proverb, “No matter how loud the wind howls, the mountain can not bowl to it.” The energy reserved from petty squabbles and wasted thought is harnessed and redirected, creating an indomitable impetus of fulfillment in all directions. Fortifying mental strands is the beginning of personal liberty and the path to true reign. The inability to self govern disqualifies one from leadership. The life of self restraint reduces regret and, or fear of embarrassment. What we often like to attribute to impulse, originates in thought and acquires momentum through repetition, until impulse becomes the final automated expression.

Calmness is a tree rooted in darkness. Shading the weary mind from worry. It gathers splintered energy to a single streaming force. It demands balance in all things. Nature does not contend with itself. The misuse of energy in a particular direction withdraws it from its opposite. It is impossible to be simultaneously calm and hysterical, strong and weak, or an honest and dishonest person. Emerson referred to this principle as the law of compensation.

Calmness is a natural human state, It is the state of nature. Nature always proceeds from and returns to serenity. Even the raging tempest and earthquake gather their strength within the dark stillness and what may be perceived as rage is the correction of balance. Like the storm, the temperance of man is the abiding energy behind every good and undeniable force. The incorruptible law of the universe is good and or beneficial. The familiar and often, overused adages of good conquering evil are etched in time. It is an abiding principle of the abyss; that can neither be penetrated nor exterminated. The reality of life is that of virtue, to see it, we have only to quiet the beckoning noise and dissolve our daily fiction. The world without is the world within, “ as above so below, as within so without.” The conquest of internal conflict renders one unshakable to external chaos. The battle of life has always been so — all else is distraction; once resolved, so too is distraction.  

by K. Osei

upOn a time

What would you give to feel the beauty relived in nature for the very first time? To see the sheen, glean from the leaves of a cluster of trees on a bright Sunday morning shine. Or dancing particles beamed through a stream of light from the bedroom window. To still be charmed by a touch of breeze easing across the hairs of your arm. To inhale the soft, sweet moisture in the air before a storm, or pick a grape from the vine; or a juicy peach from a tree you’ve climbed. To chase behind a fire fly on a cheerful evening in the mid of July — or ponder the wonder of the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning in the midnight sky. To slip and slide along a hillside covered in snow. What would you give to enjoy the rain, enough to remain under the purging shower from on high? To have adventure in your eyes, from the moment you rise, in the morning from savory sleep, or to rip and run, under the sun with friends along the way – and imagine the shape of dragons in the trees as you play.


by K. Osei