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This is the Trip

08/30/2020 by Aruni

This is the Trip

This is the Best Part of the Trip

One-hundred-thousand years ago, I lived in a sorority house.  
One-hundred-thousand years ago, I smoked pot incessantly
In a magic hash-pipe.
One-hundred-thousand years ago, 
I was positive that pipe was magical;
No substance was needed
It seemed—
The pipe herself, 
When lit,
Released
My head 
From my body,
Which seemed 
A good idea,
And floated me
Away from
My pain.

One-hundred years-thousand ago, I was obsessed with the album (remember albums?),
The Soft Parade
By The Doors.

The opening song, once I lived through
the Wildness of the lyrics,
Rantings of a drug trip?
Brilliant snippets of poetry?
I didn’t know
Or care.

Perhaps I didn’t 
Really listen,
A skill
Well-developed,
Being there
And not.

I waited,
Oh!
How I waited
For
The
Best
Part.

Wild lyrics,
A rift of instrumental,
And then,
Jim M. would say, 
With such
Assuredness,
The
Words:

THIS IS THE TRIP.
THIS IS THE 
BEST PART 
OF THE TRIP.
THIS IS THE TRIP.

Waiting for it.
Being forever surprised by it.
Jumping in my chair
To its invitation,
Elated that 
It came again.

I loved those words.
I cherished them.
I had no idea
What invitation
They
Offered 
Me.

I just dove in,
Pot-enhanced
1969
Freedom
Of sorts.

And here we are, a thousand-hundred-billion lifetimes later, and indeed,
As I watch
The light
Softly
Seep
Into
This day—see above picture— 
This is the trip.
Right here and
Right now.

This is the best part of the trip.

It’s easy enough to see the Glory of The Trip when it’s a lovely dawn,
A stunning sunset,
A dog smiling,
A tiny delicate
Bird
Singing
The day
Alive.

What about the other stuff?
99.9999% of the other stuff
Of life?

The lies.
The COVID.
The unknown.
The fear.
The uncertainty.
The loss.
The betrayals.
The heartbreaks.
Etc.
And
Etc.
And
Etc.?

It’s all the trip, dear folks.
It’s all the best part of the trip.

For those of us struggling with shifts in self-care during this time of unending upheaval,
For those of us battling with the obstacles that block us from practice,
For those of us eating the Frankenstein-like-Food,
That which is NOT EVEN FOOD,
For those of us who Know Better,
For those of us who don’t:

The obstacles are the practice.
The resistance is the practice.
The Fraken-Food is the doorway 
To loving
Knowing
Supporting
And
Feeding
Ourselves.

This is the trip.
It is all grace.
It is all
Grace.

I just doesn’t feel like it.

Bill Wilson, a co-founder of AA, a white guy wearing a suit in the 1930’s, through the horror of his alcoholism and the strength of the fellowship he created that kept his ego contained, said:

“Either God is everything or God is nothing.”

Take your pick,
Dear friends.
We just
Can’t have
Some of it.

We get
It
All.

The sacred isn’t something different,
Something elsewhere.
It is right here,
Right now.
We must
Choose
Simply
To 
See 
It.

~~~
I cannot believe I am actually linking this song because it is rowdy and intense and riotously noisy.  Nevertheless, here is The Soft Parade, a la 1969.  The announcement of “the trip” comes in at about 3:30 minutes, good luck listening if you choose.  Lyrics are included to support your grappling.

~~~
On a more current note, to support our challenged, 2020-pandemically-impacted immune systems, here is probably one of my more favorite tunes, of the same-yet-different-ilk, Leonard Cohen, 2009, on his London tour:

And, if you care to, Blessed Leonard’s lyrics:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=leonard+cohen+lyrics+halleluhah

~~~
Dear Friends,

I write this on the eve of my sober anniversary.  On August 27, some years ago, I was literally taken off the floor of my apartment, carried to my telephone, and literally deposited across the street to a Twelve Step meeting that was starting in a few minutes.

For every single moment of these years, the ones I liked and the ones I did not, the ones I celebrated and the ones I ran from, for the entirety of green kale I consumed and every bite of the Crap-Franken-stein-Food, for every single moment I was able to practice and trust and remember, for every single nanosecond of my lapsing and forgetting and acting out and being terrified–for all of it,

I am grateful.
This is the trip.
Right here
And
Right now.

With gratitude for you all,
For us, all,
Be well and safe,
Aruni

~~~
ONE SINGLE ANNOUNCEMENT

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