Monochrome Monday ~ Big Bear
The goal of life is to make your heart beat as one with the Cosmos.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Big Bear is a cool place to spend a long weekend
in the summer
no way I’m going up there at this time of year
I hate snow
Scenes on Sunday ~ Dramatic Clouds
There are no rules of architecture for a castle built in the clouds.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
I heard their evils sounds
as they all tried to clip my wings
and keep my feet back on the ground
I don’t care, I’ve already burned my bridges
so don’t even look for me, I won’t ever be around
Back to Square One
You can’t do the job if you haven’t got the proper tools.
Yesterday I was very tempted to book a trip to Agadir in Morocco, even though I’ve just returned to England after my recent vacation on Crete. (You would like Crete.)
The Moroccan adventure would have been for a week, departing England on October 11th. The whole deal would have cost me less than it’s costing me to fly the Atlantic for my trip to New Mexico in early November. And, that upcoming trip is one reason I’ve decided not to take the Road to Morocco just now ~ I would probably have spent my whole time in Morocco thinking about going to New Mexico.
That, and the main reason for travelling right now is me not wanting to be here on my own, me escaping from what’s going on inside my own head, not wanting to face the fact that I’m the world’s biggest screw-up, me running away…..
I don’t think I’ve shared that each day I pray to my Goddess, and that I write these prayers on slips of paper about the size of a personal cheque, (check). I save these prayers, and each day I take an old prayer from the found vase I keep them in, and contemplate what I was saying in the past.
Today, the old prayer is from December 1st 2015; …..please help me to learn a way to stop finding the bad things in Life.
That is just as appropriate right now as it was then. I am still right back at square one.
In my life there has been heartache and pain. For most of my life I suffered from undiagnosed and untreated Borderline Personality Disorder ~ a seriously dangerous mental illness. For the past few years I have been striving diligently to be a ‘better man’. And, it would seem that I haven’t had that much success.
Here’s the thing, no matter how hard you try to achieve something, no matter what you do, you cannot succeed if you don’t have the right tools for the job.
Today I have come to realise that I don’t have the right tools to achieve enough significant personality changes to become the better man, the superior man.
And then Serendipity kicks in. This New Mexico retreat I am attending in November has the strapline From Chaos to Coherence ~ The Power To Thrive In Life Extremes. If you know anything at all about BPD, you will know that I go to extremes, but perhaps this retreat will put some more and better tools in my psychological toolbox.
Some say that all prayers are answered, but sometimes the answer is ‘no’. And, that if the only tool you have is a hammer then you see every problem as a nail. All I know is that if you’re fighting with the alligators, it’s difficult to remember that you’re supposed to be draining the swamp.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Right now the alligators are winning,
so fuck the swamp.
Scenes on Sunday ~ Knossos
The last Western Society to worship female powers was Minoan Crete.
The palace at Knossos dates from 1700 BC
Knossos is Europe’s oldest city, dating from perhaps 7,000 BC
Many legends surround Knossos ~ the Labyrinth, the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus.
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Minoan Art is Fabulous
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The site was eventually abandoned in Roman times.
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
This bull’s head is in the museum in Heraklion,
seeing it is better than my picture.
Scenes of Crete
The people of Crete make more history than they can consume locally.
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The history of the Mediterranean island of Crete Crete goes back to the 7th Millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilisation by more than 4,000 years. The Minoan civilisation was the first civilisation in Europe to build a palace and roads.
Crete is a very beautiful Island and a great place for a vacation.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Vacation’s Romances
If you can’t find sex under a blue sky, you can’t find it anywhere.
beach
heat relaxing
sunshine good times
high clear deep bluest sky
new friends open conversations
food wine music party suntanned girls
strolling sightseeing swimming sunbathing
dancing talking kissing friends romance love sex
late summer Mediterranean vacation’s fond memories
seem mostly of fleeting romance, transient love, casual sex
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
not that casual sex on vacation is to be approved of
Deal Me Again
If you’re weary of Mediterranean sunshine, you’re weary of life.
Heading home to England from Crete today. Looks like that’s the last of my Mediterranean vacations for this year. I think I’m having far too much time at home in the garret, and not enough time travelling, enjoying sunshine and good weather, exploring interesting new places, and generally relaxing.
In the rest of this year I only have one more trip organised, (mostly organised). In November ‘the girl riding shotgun’ and I are going to New Mexico, principally to attend a 4 day retreat lead by Gregg Braden and Dr. Bruce Lipton. I am adding a couple of days in Albuquerque to that trip, and I will by flying in and out of Orange County in SoCal from the UK. So maybe a couple of weeks vacationing in all.
I would take a cruise over the Christmas Holidays – if I could find a cool travelling companion to go with me….. Although I don’t object to being a solitary traveller, I really do think you need to be with someone, if you’re taking a cruise – maybe especially over the festive season.
So, I need to re-prioritise my life; spend more time being in the sun on vacation, spend more time planning and arranging vacations, put more effort into finding that ideal travelling companion, and spend much, much less time being miserable in the garret during the cold, dull, miserable English Autumn and winter. And, I need to continue my worthy studies into philosophy, psychology, and the Meaning of Life – especially when I am on vacation.
Some say that life can’t be all about having fun, that we have to suffer in order to fully enjoy the ‘beer and skittles’. And, that into each life a little rain must fall. All I know is that I’ve suffered my fair share of fucking damn downpours.
It’s time to reshuffle the deck and deal myself another sunshine Mediterranean vacation.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Sunshine and a great pool, what more could a guy want other than a pretty woman?
Time is Running Out
Time is probably infinite. Your Time and my Time is very finite.
Time goes by, after all that’s the basic job of Time. What Time does best is pass. And, the ordinary scientist, working in an ordinary universe, will tell you that time passes at a constant rate. To all practical intents and purposes that’s true – except for when it’s not.
For a start, perfectly respectable physicists can prove that Time passes at different rates depending on things like how fast you are travelling, and how much gravity is affecting you. As it goes, that’s only interesting to people who fly a lot and astronauts.
What’s more interesting to everyone is how fast time seems to pass in different situations, with different people, in different places, when we are doing different things. For example, in airport departure lounges Time crawls by like a wounded fly – unless you are late for your flight, and then Time just blasts past.
If you are with the one you love, and she / he loves you too, then each moment lasts a delicious eternity, but eternity lasts just a heartbeat. Conversely, if you are in an abusive / dysfunctional / one-sided relationship, then the minutes last forever. Trust me, I’ve been there more than once.
When you are having a brilliant vacation, (as I am on Crete right now), then the days pass in a blur, and all to soon it’s over. Then Time brings you back down to Earth with a bump when you’re in an airport departure lounge again.
As we get older, we come to realise that our personal lifetime is short, finite, and will end probably sooner than we would like. That’s Time’s final cruel joke.
Some say that we have commitments and responsibilities…… that we should spend our Time doing what’s expected of us, to the best of our abilities. And, that sometimes Time drags through boredom, ennui, and lassitude. All I know is that the rest of my time on this Earth is going to be filled with adventure, fun, love, sex, and really wild things.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Time for me to leave my comfort zone behind forever
Scenes on Sunday – Mediterranean Seascapes
The Mediterranean breathes a new life into the world.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
the sun, a beach, the sea, a jug of wine, and thee…..
Crete, the beach at the bottom of our street
Chania is an historic Venetian City
There are no modern beachfront resort hotels here. The hotel I am staying in has only a dozen rooms, and for this kind of singles vacation, (where the group dynamic is important), small is indeed beautiful.
But there is a park and beach right at the bottom of our street.
The park sits between our street and the beach.
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At this time of year the Mediterranean is calm and warm.
I will show you a lot more cool pictures when I get back to the garret and I can connect my camera to the computer.
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Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
This beach is popular with overseas holidaymakers and locals alike.
