In the beginning

"I USED TO HAVE a cat, an old fighting tom, who..."

These are the first words from the book that inspired the title for this blog. Unlike those sages who go into the wild or seek solitude to reflect on life and living, I want to get lost in the city, among people, among things, in the social and cultural landscape that surrounds me, and I want to find peace, calm, an ability to experience life fully in the present.

It's not so much that I want to disregard the past or ignore a possible future. I want to let the past dim itself and the future be dark enough so that the light of the present will be throughly understood and, if understanding isn't achieved, I want to be able to say I lived it!

I am this inquisitive mind that meanders through the landscape of understanding constantly, restlessly, furiously. When I was a child, I used to think that I wanted to pursue knowledge, I wanted to know everything there is to be known. Now, I know there is a difference between knowledge and information. Information is all those details that describe, define and outline the world around us in the minds of people. Knowledge is a feeling, a deep-rooted feeling in your subconscious, almost like an instinct, that let's you be at peace in the midst of apparent chaos. True knowledge lets you look at the world with respect, awe and wonder.

I am this sensuality. I live through my senses. I like the feeling of texture, firmness or softness, and even the roughness of certain things. I like certain sounds; others I utterly dislike. I like certain flavors, smells, and sights. I am constantly marveling at this wondrous combination of senses that allow me to experience the world in its organic state as well as the creativity of humans. I am these senses.

I find my inspiration mostly in the written word so much that it's no surprise I aim to write myself. I am hoping that, in the process of expressing myself in writing, I will discover the nuances of life. I am hoping I will bring them forth and I will be able to savour them even more.

As a child, I found the first words from the Bible simply misterious: "in the beginning..."
And then there was the voice of God, imagine that, a voice saying something.

Joseph Campbell used to say that "everything begins with a story."

We all have a story. Sometimes our story seems ordinary, particularly to ourselves. What we need, I think, is to learn how to see the extraordinary in ordinary things, the beautiful in the mundane, and the deep in the superficial.

This blog will attempt that.

Here's to new beginnings !