Round and round we spiral... Year of the Dragon

The Dragon is a powerful year, one of attainment and strength... double down - not over a cliff or into the dungeon - but on character building and how better to live, learn and love! Read on or listen here.

The Dragon Egg of Lion Lane, London 

Dragons, old and wise, fearsome, and terrible, magical, and mysterious… beware of expecting too much too early from this year… as no matter what … not even a dragon is born with knowledge… everything must grow up… so bide thy time, build, and wait… lurk and learn…
 
Oh – you can of course play … and chase that tail in joy at life and love … but combine seriousness with immaturity and the infantile will swallow themselves self-destructively and entirely… tail first.
 
Nurture the dragon so by the time it's grown not only does it love you, but it is rich and full and ready to provide the adventure or protection you need and beyond that the greatest and unexpected such that your wishes are filled far beyond your wildest dreams.

Oh … and EGGS… keep an eye on them… not only are they kind of everywhere… they’re our greatest treasures… containing all the promise of tomorrow. A place we old cannot hope to explore. Some of them really are dragon eggs and dragon eggs really can hatch… and other things that can be hatched are plots… and plots and dragons mix very well … so not to scramble the metaphors but you’ve got to break a few eggs to rear a dragon…

Pay attention to those who stand by your side, it is they who slay not the dragon but the tin can tosspot wanting to battle you – for it is YOU that are the Dragon and the sooner you accept that role within yourself the sooner inner peace will spread through your soul.
 
However sometimes along comes a real reason to stand up and be counted… the act of tossing a Molotov cocktail from a barricade can be the dragon-flame of resistance. Be ready to be noticed…
 
Much Love
 
Doctor Lobster

By fire and brimstone, some Dragons will stand firmly with you... watch that egg! 

A surprisingly close relative of Dragons... the Anteater.
Fie... you would deny this fine fellow some part of the year ahead?

There was an egg... the child grew... the egg remained... the child grew... the egg disappeared...
the child was concerned... the egg reappeared... the child rejoiced.
The dragons observed it all. 

Run, Runner-Rabbit, Run!

The Year of the Rabbit is a Warren of Opportunity, Endeavour, Duty and Delight ... so welcome to it... listen here or read on...

Always considered lucky The Rabbit is more a year when doing what needs to be done gets rewarded whether in verdant valley or up savage mountain. Engagement and actions which benefit the many not the few doubly so.

There are simply all manner of rabbits with an extraordinary range. And one lives within each of us…What type of rabbit will you be?
 
A brave 'Runner', out, risking life and limb to lure the baying hounds and redcoats of misfortune so as to  save from cruel fate even a terrible fox? Or freeze, stiff in the face of your challenges to be crushed beneath the inexorable bulldozer of Daily Life? Say it isn't so and make the most of it by taking many many many many lovely little hops to joy. 

Even though we climb the mountain alone, we can do it banded with the softest companions, together and seperately capable of the steeliest acts, great and small. 

"Rabbit with Lady ... on tables..." Lorelei (Aged 4) ink on napkin

Complacency will be punished with the firm chastening hand of personal insecurity in the years to come! Beware your future self’s cry of “Oh what could have been”. So get to it... proud rabbit… Spring will come and spring you will have. You are worthy of both and so much more.
 
Much love
 
Doctor Lobster

All manner of rabbits...

Grrr-owlarama

And so we return to the Great Cat Year... Read on here... 

Whether stalking your future or fleeing it’s might, energy abounds. Rather than containing the evenly balanced though extreme yin and yang of light and dark, the Year of the Tiger is the yin and yang of the dark and the less dark. 

The energy of these years is great and their power terrible. Balance the desires of gut and ego by maintaining order over chaos. There will be flurries of mayhem but remaining in the eye of the Tiger’s storm one can ride the wave to achievement instead of harm. If you feel caught or stuck… close your eyes, open your heart and feel rather than see the path … the deeper you feel into your own darkness the happier you’ll be once back in the light. For what you learn about yourself in the dark will be what makes you thrive when examined in the light!!!

Rarely do we consider this but… what is your coping strategy if things just keep on getting better? 

It’s hard at times to know who is the hunter and who is the prey when it’s your ego that’s on the move. It is the predator that either hunts you or for you, lose control of it and someone, probably yourself will be torn to pieces. 

Much love

Doctor Lobster

The unbearable oppression of existence in Tiger form. 

And then there was Mojo... he is much better than a Tiger

It's the OX-you-moron

It’s the Ox-you-Moron, (in the vein of "It’s the Economy, nay Pandemic Stupid)

Chinese New Year predictions ... read on below or listen here or if you dare watch here. 

Oh ‘tis a time of great burden, where only the stoic will thrive, unless you count dancing on the backs, nay graves of others… the sociopaths after all, still seem to find a way to reap the external trappings of success that society so often uses to measure happiness… if only deep down it was not so shallow they might actually be happy… like the Dunning-Kruger Effect shielding the thick from their own understanding so too being sociopathic shields those lacking empathy from the horror and hollowness of their dastardly deeds. Yet in daily acts of fighting the good fight meaning can be found…

Each steady step can be understood as along the Noble Path of Manure where moving from shit to fertile growth is planted seed by seed, and nurtured one act of kind service at a time.

 
For one thing is sure, selfishness will serve you even less than usual in this fine year we have in front of us beginning on February 12^th with the new moon. Connection and relationship more than doubles your luck when halving it. Share of thy sinews to relish the joy of community you have contributed to. 

Much love

 

Doctor Lobster

Ps For a bit longer form a laager of your ox wagons rather than go for a lager with your mates and don’t end up the dead yak of your pack – vaccinate!

Finally - here's a really great film to watch... a Himalayan Western! Plenty deep, plenty yak's (and I don't care if yak's aren't oxen, this is my party and I'll write what I like) 

But wait... there's more... your mantra for this year... 

And also - check out how epic Ox wagons have become in the 21st century... 

Hot Cross (with myself) Buns

A catch up of sorts... to 'write' the wrongs of recent Easters, in the nick of time... Read on, listen here or for a slightly odder experiment that sort of just popped out watch and listen here.

I love writing, I talk a lot about loving it and wanting to do it but I sure don’t do enough of it to match my pretensions. For example I’ve had an idea for a novel since I was 19 and have written 90% of it yet I fail to keep my bum in the seat to finish it. Meh. 

To partially make up for this, over the past 17 years I’ve written a number of quirky items about various adventures under the name Doctor Lobster. I email these directly to people like you that I have met, liked or connected with in person. I get a lot of joy from this. Even more so when I receive responses - to which you would receive an individual reply (hint). I used to write up to 5 items a year. Of these, two are mission critical - a Chinese New Year ‘prediction’ and a Hot Cross Bun missive. And yet…for not one, but two years I have not written that Easter edition.

WHAT. A. LOSER. Certainly in my own eyes… for is failure or success not only that we judge ourselves thus?

You’d think I’d have many other things I could feel more of a failure around. I’ve been in love 5 times and 5 times those relationships have ended (still love you though). I came from a split home and now my daughter has a split family. I wanted to act, direct and run for office at some time in my life – haven’t of course. I also wanted to be an astronaut. Those all pale into insignificance compared to the prickly abject feeling I suffer having not found the will to write those two simple articles. My excuse has been that it’s hard to be creative while struggling for survival and yet they also say you have to suffer for your art. Apparently I am much more creatively productive when delighted and happy.

Anyway going into space is not the big deal it once was and hey, it’s still quite possible. My first choice as a 2 year old was to be ‘an archaeology’ anyway… didn’t do that either (though I have dug up a triceratops femur). Acting, directing and running for office were part of a plan to be better at each successive one yet were really driven from a desire for the experience of these things. And I’ve not lacked for other interesting experiences in life.

As for the relationships … I regard each and every one of them a success despite their ending. While those endings were not always pretty they were all necessary and in all cases both parties are flourishing quite nicely out of each other’s shade. I have the joy of deep friendships with the first four and share the most amazing aspect of existence with the last - our wonderful daughter Lorelei … and because of her, the mother and I must achieve the alchemical equivalent of transmuting base emotional angst into golden emotive content for the good not only of our daughter but of all who move within our spheres, which has been of the grumbliest variety for the last four years. Very challenging - I’ve failed the test many times. Now, my personal Philosopher’s Stone is the Healthy Limit. Through the magic of maintaining and honouring such boundaries, transformation may occur and the light at the end of the tunnel can open into a lush, wide and verdant valley. Wide and tranquil enough for peaceful co-parenting! No doubt there will be thorns and undergrowth on the path down the mountain. Clearing that path so as to better enjoy life's picnic in the green and pleasant land that is our daughter’s hoped for future will be worth it.

Now to the buns… you see dear readers, I did indulge both times with every intention to write (there's that pathway to hell...). The events may seem prosaic compared to previous editions but so it goes and perhaps that is something that happens for parents with buns recently out of the oven…

2018 - A first for The Noodle. In Johannesburg with my mother who I thought had instilled this Hot-Cross-Buns-on-Good-Friday tradition in me. Turns out it’s only a Good Friday-specific thing for me and not even her, our family or the Catholic Church (from which I have long since fled). Which goes to show the level of meaning we can ascribe to life by blissfully instituting our own ceremonies through ignorance… along with a healthy dose of really not caring to dispel an innocent falsehood! Invariably I prefer my own imagination and path than that of others - thanks very much. There is no reason to think the world religions offer access to anything in the afterlife. Certainly no more than a belief in Odin, Athena, Zeus, Cybele or The Flying Spaghetti Monster does. I do think spiritual belief can offer us heaven on earth in the form of a peace of mind and faith that there is meaning to this life and existence. That doesn’t work for everyone but for those it does, it is a helluva gift. Of course I acknowledge the rampantly stupid stuff delivered upon us as individuals and a society by the foolery of dogma and faith-based ignorance. On measure I sense the things done on the parish level make religion a marginally more useful thing than not for humanity. ON THE PARISH LEVEL I stress. For what is that but just community and don't we really like being part of one of those!?

2019 – An Easter with my sister who by remarkable coincidence made a life and family in Sweden many years before me. A surprisingly sunny spring day it was a rewarding experience for the joy of being able to relax and chill into the familiarity that presence of family can bring in unfamiliar surroundings. At the time it was a haven in a storm as my nuclear family dream detonated Chernobyl-style. The white wine flowed while the crawly, stumbly, Lorenoodle, just returning to being joyful post chickenpox scoffed her 2nd hot cross bun in the presence of welcoming and wonderful cousins.
First Easter Egg hunt and first trampoline... ain't that a thing.

I’m happy to know that despite last years darker than normal cast, for it was indeed the crucible of agony separation can be, I remember that time for the wonderful months I spent with my daughter in Stockholm as Daddy day-care before she began nursery.

For those who do not know, I split my time between London and Stockholm and remain committed to living a life worth writing about. Even in its normality for normal is a wonderful thing - one rung above ordinary, inspiringly apart from crazy.

And yes you’re getting another one of these in the not very distant future because its almost Hot Crusty Bun-a-rama day again and I’ve just barely redeemed some small part of myself in my own eyes… and isn’t it easier to love others when you appreciate yourself?

Next up to finishing that story about that pesky Spider McGee - The Legend Lives On.

Much Love

Doctor Lobster

Captain of Your Ship, Rodent of Your Soul

Round and round the Sun we go and here is the guidance for the next swoop we do! Chinese New Year of the Rat ... Starting 25th Jan with the New Moon!

Watch out, for there is a threat, this year or next, of terrible proportions. Quite possibly it will come from within and is likely to be as obvious as the ship’s cat. Stoically facing it or preparing to will ensure this obstacle becomes The Way. Summiting even a mountain of garbage counts as scaling great heights. Often dealing with the worst garners the greatest benefit … even if you don't find the pirate gold, avoiding the greatest of all weevils will be far more important. The lessons learned in challenging times prepare us better for future calamity.

So it's time to take a really proper look at the state of your ship. Scuttle, scurry, rustle, rummage. Dig deep down, into the very bilges of your life. It might be murky, dark, wet, damp or dank but it is your soul so best measure it for yourself. Experience reality with and through your own senses. Even if you aren’t eating honey or wearing silk, you won’t be abandoning ship if you learn about the leaks and stem their flow. Then you will be far better placed for the strange seas ahead. 

Rats are the most pragmatic of the years and even though Life is not always a party, one sure can have a lot of fun along the way with a loving and kind attitude of curiosity.

Much love

Doctor Lobster

Signing off with this lovely Mummy Doe with her brood - isn't life and the cycle thereof just wonderful?

Merely a Truffle - Year of the Sow

Round and round the Sun we go and here is the guidance for the next swoop we do! Chinese New Year... Starting 5th Feb with the New Moon! Similar to the dark age conceit ‘As above so below’ the Year of the Sow embodies, ‘As outside, so inside’. Read on or listen here.










In the seeking there is always a finding. An inner adventure and purpose, for is the source of all things not deep inside oneself? A proper rummage in the wildest woods will change your life forever. The danger too, to learn so much that the life you live, will no longer succour you the safety of complacency. That is its own reward too!

Sense, sense hard … and you will smell it, through the undergrowth… the fat of the land calling... Snuffle you must, down in the dirt to find the treasure in richest earth… otherwise you will seek or sink forever in this land of Hungry Ghosts, knowing you have not suckled marrow from the bones of love. 

Be like the precious little dung beetle neatly rolling up that which happy pigs wallow in… compartmentalise yours and make it useful for something, anything! Rather than smearing it over others…  

Much Love

Doctor Lobster