The Green Man and others...

I don't recall ever hearing of the Green Man until the end of last year when I bought a namesake candle at our favourite 'woo-woo' store in Town....I read the label - death, rebirth, seasons, all that - and it nipped me.....I don't attribute magical qualities to candle burning as Fred, my quasi-wiccan wife, does, but I do find it useful for helping me hold a thought or belief or concept at the front of my brain while the candle's burning....

The latest quarter century has arrived for me, and even for an optimist it seems likely that life is now well and truly into the second half....yeeee haaa.....I'm more than mildly surprised that I've made 50 after all the things I've done to my body over the years....so it seemed fitting to use this anniversary as a watershed between the never-time-to-scratch-your-ass years from 25 to 50, and the more leisurely pace to which I'd like to become accustomed....AND the whole concept of the Green Man fits well with my hodge-podge of Buddhist, Taoist, Christian and Neo-Pagan beliefs, not to mention the tribal polytheistic religions of the tribal Aborigines I lived among for a couple of years....

A side consequence, or benefit depending on your viewpoint, of the last few years has been the opportunity to make a clean break from my Life So Far. It's not everyone who gets a clean slate, who has the chance to leave everything, the good, the bad and the ugly, thousands of miles away, on the other side of the world in fact.....hard to believe that 5 years ago, I was depressed more often than not, too many square pegs in round holes....these days, I have a lot of people tell me how calm and relaxed I am, that nothing seems to get to me.....I could point them at a few people from my past who would assume they must be talking about a different person....selling up everything you own and stepping off into space isn't for everyone, but I'm confirming for myself that the more I trust the Universe/Big Giant Head, the more consistently It provides.....something always comes up....always...

Fred insists that I have the best acquisition karma she's ever seen, and over the last few years (and probably before, without my having eyes to see it at the time) every time something has come along to knock me over, there's been something at hand to set me back on the path....given my high levels of fat and alcohol consumption and the fact I smoke too much, it's hard to believe that I haven't had a sick day in years....someone or something is looking out for me, if only I could more consciously manifest what I can do for the Universe in reciprocation.....I imagine It will be in touch when It feels the need, although it's been somewhat busy with the Global Economic Crisis and an unseasonal run of civil unrest and armed conflict......I'll try and keep myself out of mischief in the meantime.....

Although I'm currently doing an impersonation of 'settled', I've still got my nomad on....I love America, always have, and living here is still an exotic adventure for me.....if you have been born and raised in the Village it's not really very exciting to be a minimum wage bartender there....but when you've left all that's familiar in the Bush to travel several times around the world and back, winding up working as a barman in a Village in the Pacific North West is pretty quirky, in my view....

But, now it's dice-rolling time again.....the bar job is behind me, getting the house and garden beaten into bloody submission in the next week or two is in front of me, as is a new riding season on the Harley....it's shaping up to be a good summer.....and another very interesting quarter century.....


Jack the nomad