14a - No-thing is the Key to Something

Within one’s life there comes an important moment.

It is the moment of NO-THING

It is easily confused with NOTHING

They appear very alike. Yet while one is doing NO-THING, the wheels of indolence are grinding away deep within the well of one’s creativity. Grind grind grind they go, revolving and machinating. It’s a curiosity that even while one is doing no-thing there is always something going on. If it were not so then why would it be so pleasurable to rest after doing no-thing?

So. Just so in fact.

This all brings one to wonder what NO-THING is. Well, I believe it’s a threshold state. Those indolent wheels are doing whatever mysterious work they need to do to make one simply stop the nothing and start the something. Indolence does not answer to the laws of societal gravity. Instead Indolence revolves in the dim light of Languid Languishing. And by that light many a fancy is considered and laid back down to rest, stillborn as an idea of the world. Until one among them all provides a spark to ignite the fuse, blow the keg, burst the dam and flood across the realm of action. Whether enough water has flowed under a bridge, off a duck’s back, or a coil is wound, a bridge crossed, an empty glass half-filled who knows. But the period of no-thing ends in a flurry of activity.

Becoming ok about being in a state of NO-THING is a necessary precursor to returning to the world of SOMETHING as an inspired contributor.

I have thrived this year by having to hand a ready clutch of handy yet flexible plans. Its meant my course has had motivation. This course has led me to munch my way through one tasty experience after another just like the hungriest of caterpillars. It is no surprise to me that this period has contained many references to The Little Prince. It is my favourite book. And within it my favourite line is: “Everything that is essential is invisible to the eye”. Caterpillars only feature in it quite early on when the author speaks of the questions that adults find important. He ridicules adults as being interested in things such as a person’s age, or how much he earns and so on whereas adults ignore the most interesting questions about a person such as whether or not someone likes caterpillars or what their favourite colour is... Mine is normally a deep emerald mossy green like in this picture of these stones...



Thus far, this year I have been in all 4 hemispheres of this Earth. I have been under the Moon, ridden the waters of 3 oceans, climbed a mountain, paid tribute to my tribe, established love within some stones, buried the ‘parents’ of my childhood and loved the parents I still have, forgiven everyone and myself, faced death and ‘died’ only to rise refreshed and aware that I am able to use my past to brighten my future. In doing this I harmonised the 4 parts of my being and received planning permission for the necessary character building still to come. All of this has added to an understanding that there are alternate realities. And the knowledge that one can move between these as required. It’s an exhausting list and I feel like a crazed prospector dusty from blasting dynamite yet laden now with the chore of collecting and refining many tons of experience-bearing ore. But being so used to blasting I was a little uncertain of doing this NO-THING.

You see, right now I have no specific plans or goals, I am waiting to hear news of a film, which if it happened will provide the necessary emphasis for another phase of life. Oh sure I have SOME plans but they are just a week in Shanghai area around 22 July next year for another eclipse and Burning Man at the end of August but other than that I am shamelessly lounging in Los Angeles. But here’s the catch… the loot is running low so I am accepting that another film is a good idea in order to restock the coffers… and it does limit me somewhat in where I can go and for how long…

But now I know the way the spot a valley - having nothing to do but everything to choose from. Thus I hold in one hand my powerlessness and in the other my destiny.

So, for now, I really am going to do NO-THING. And I am going to feel good while I do it.

Provided I stop eating so much dried mango too... My tummy hurts. I wonder if a caterpillars tummy hurts before they cocoon themselves? Maybe I should have just one more piece of mango…

But as I wrote above I believe NO-THINGNESS is an exciting threshold period. It’s just like being a pupating caterpillar. Its lethargy could be the hallmark of succumbing to banality or death or it is the prerequisite stage before an improbable metamorphosis to a creature wholly and entirely different. Time will tell. And if it is metamorphasis it will also be interesting to see what emerges – butterfly, moth or fly!



Seems like i do not have a shot of a moth with which to represent that possibility...

Now move on to Scales of Reality