#62: Quote - Dreams

Dream on! For success was never born from anything less than dreams.

~ Wayne Visser, 1993

#61: Painting - Dick & Harry

DICK & HARRY

By Wayne Visser

Watercolour, 2005

#60: Poem - Dream Shaper (Gaudi)

A tribute to the architectural genius, Gaudi:

DREAM SHAPER

By Wayne Visser

The very first glance took my breath away
Turning hungry night into thirsty day
With explosions of riotous colour
And swirling ideas like no other
With stone and glass curving
And wood fronds unfurling
On rooftops with teardrops
And courtyards with light-shards
You crashed in waves on my empty shore
And shook the caves of my hollow core

You stir the memory of ancient trees
And rouse the longing for restless seas
You bend and refract
My courage to act
To sculpt and create
My fusions of fate
You round my sharp edges
And speak my soul’s pledges
To fill my life’s ocean
With colour and motion

Your great gleaming spires
Hang suspended like wires
Between heaven and earth
Between magic and mirth
They echo creation
And spark revelation
To break with convention
And live with intention
To be builder and breaker
To become a dream-shaper

(2007)

#59: Quote - Change

Change is a process, not an event.

~ Wayne Visser, 1991

#58: Prose - Doubt

DOUBT
By Wayne Visser

What is the place of doubt in your life?
Do you question your abilities or potential?
Do you nurture insecurities about your desirability?
Are there lingering doubts about your relationships?
Or perhaps some niggling uncertainties about your beliefs?

Many see doubt as a disease, an unfortunate affliction that is best avoided, or if infection has already set in, a condition to be cured.
But doubt is a prerequisite for good health.
Like the friendly bacteria in yoghurt, doubt helps us to fight off life’s more serious threats.

We all have doubts, because they are the by-products of living and learning.
When a child burns itself on the stove, it has doubts about what is safe to touch - and that is a good thing.
When we have been let down by friends, we think twice about relying completely on others again - and that is a worthwhile lesson.
When we have been hurt in love, we are more cautious in our choice of future partners - and that is a sensible approach.
When our religious beliefs have failed us, we question their infallibility - and that is a wise perspective.

Doubt is the path to awareness, while certainty is the road to naivety.
Doubt is like a mountaineer with a walking stick, which she uses to test the ground ahead before stepping into the unknown.
Certainty is like a blind man without a stick, stumbling forward in the misguided belief that all obstacles will be cleared from his path.

Without doubt, there can be no questioning.
And without questioning, there can be no discovery.
Without discovery, there can be no true knowledge.
And without true knowledge, there can be no progress.

And yet, when doubt turns to despair, it becomes our prison, rather than our sky.
When doubt overwhelms us, it keeps us in shackles, rather than giving us wings.
For the purpose of doubt is not to paralyse, but to catalyse.
Doubt should encourage us to test the water, not scare into a fear drowning.

Doubt and trust are partners in time.
To have trust without any doubt is to be foolish and to court disaster.
To have doubt without any trust is to be paranoid and to invite madness.
And yet, each moves opposite to the other, like tango dancers.
As trust increases, doubt recedes into the shadows.
But break the trust, and doubt returns stronger than before.

Doubt is not an absence of hope
And faith is not an absence of doubt.
In the same way as bravery is not an absence of fear
Hope is seeing the light in spite of the shadows
And faith is trusting the unknown despite the dangers.

So let us be bold in our hopes, but not foolish in our footsteps.
Let us be brave in our faith, but not blind in our beliefs.
Let us listen to our doubts, but not be deafened by their cries.
Let us be healthy doubters
Not stuck in the mire of fear and disbelief
But en route to the horizon of living and learning and loving

(2008)

#57: Quote - Synchronicity

Synchronicity is a sign that the universe is working with us, or perhaps more accurately, that we are working in harmony with the universe.

~ Wayne Visser, 2007

#56: Poetry - Names

NAMES
By Wayne Visser

Names are tangled pathways to meaning
And secret tunnels to hidden treasure
Names are skeleton keys to sacred symbols
And enigmatic codes to scrambled messages

Names connect together
And affirm uniqueness
Names resonate with power
And quiver with subtlety
Names build bridges
And break down walls

Names are echoing voices of the past
And shimmering visions of the future
Names are the silky touch of the now
And the delicate breath of all eternity

(2005)

#55: Poem - Skylight

SKYLIGHT
By Wayne Visser

Sky of mauve
Clouds alight
Pink and peach
Pure delight!

(2007)

#54: Quote - Certainty

Life comes with no guarantees; nor does love.

~ Wayne Visser, 2007

#53: Prose - Dancing

DANCING
By Wayne Visser

Why does dancing feel so good?
Could it be that we were all born to dance?

Dancing is as natural as breathing and no less vital.
It is not something we have to be taught when we are young.
Yet we learn to stop doing it as we get older.

Dancing is music in motion.
It is what happens when we hear the beat and feel the rhythm.

What is your favourite dance music?
What gets your finger tapping and your head bobbing, your hips shaking and your feet stamping?
When can you no longer resist the urge to get up and dance?

Dance works as a universal language because it is so diverse.
One size never fits all.
But dance comes in infinite shapes and sizes.
There are cultural dances and national dances, traditional dances and modern dances.
You can choose jazz or cabaret, Latin or ballroom.
Do you love ballet, or are you a disco diva?
Maybe you can break-dance or whirl like a dervish?

Each tide of music makes its own waves of dance.
Like the gravitational pull of the moon, we feel the tug of dance on the sea of our emotions.
We move to the music not because we think we should, but because we feel we must.

Dancing is not an instruction of the mind, but an expression of the heart.
We dance because it allows us to let go of something inside, to give vent to our inner wildness.
Dancing lets us be a child again, footloose and carefree.
It gives us permission to connect with that part of ourselves which does not question, which acts rather than thinks, which moves because it feels right, not because there is a good reason to do so.

Dance is the quintessence of harmony – harmony between time and space, music and movement, beat and step.
Dance is an exhibition of beauty, the perfect choreography of resonance – motion is in tune with emotion, sway echoes sound, pattern weaves design.

Dancers are the living expression of Tao, the way of flow – they swirl to the eddies of song, glide to trickle of composition and churn to the whitewater rapids of the beat.

When music plays and we stand still, we are out of kilter.
Sound demands motion.
Music without dance is dissonance, an unnatural stemming of the tide, a dam wall cutting off the river from its source.

Why then do we so often ignore the call to dance?
Have we become deaf to the music?
Perhaps we have forgotten what moves us?
Or are we simply afraid of what others might think?

We have been tricked into believing that there is a right and a wrong way to dance, a better and a worse way.
How tragic.
We should be celebrating our own unique style of dancing, making our footprint on the sands of time, like all those before us since time immemorial.

Just as no one can tell us what kind of music moves us, so no one can judge the way we dance.
Dance in a crowd, dance with a partner, or dance alone – whatever makes you feel good.
And if others think we can not dance, it is only because they do not understand what moves us.

Dancing, when it happens spontaneously, is a match made in heaven.
It is a state of pure being, of oneness with the universe.
When we dance, we hear the echo of the primordial drum beat, we dip our oar into the river of rhythm through the ages, and we throb to the very pulse of life itself.

Do you know what music moves you?
Play it now, even if just in your head, and watch yourself dance through the day.

(2005)

#52: Quote - Theatre

Theatre is where we go to let others expose who we are.

~ Wayne Visser, 2005

#51: Poem - Look Up!

LOOK UP!
By Wayne Visser

When you’re feeling brown
Look up, not down
Don’t fret or frown
Don’t dig a hole
Don’t be a mole
There’s nothing much that’s up
When you are underground
Instead, the thing I’ve found
Is that if I build a mound
I’m already much more such more up
Than ever I was down

And if you’re feeling sad
It’s not so bad
So don’t get mad
Rather think of all the good things
Like chocolate books and magic rings
And flying without feathered wings
Or think of something really fun
Like playing in the sparkly sun
And belly laughing with someone
Or anything makes you glad
Just not what makes you sad

And if you’re feeling low
Don’t stop, just go
Go fast, not slow
Go with the flow
Or plant a seed of happy thoughts
And watch it sprout and grow
Then climb your wavy happy tree
And from the top you’ll see, you’ll see
You’ll almost touch the sky
And when you are so high, you’ll know
That you’re no longer low

So when your sky is cloudy
Be bright, not dowdy
In fact be downright rowdy
Jump and dance and scream and shout
Don’t keep it in, just let it out
And if you’re loud and clear
The sun might even hear
And come out from its hiding place
And show its warm bright shining face
And say to you a sunny “Howdy …
Look up! It’s clear not cloudy”

(2007)

#50: Painting - Life of Pi

LIFE OF PI

By Wayne Visser

Watercolour, 2005

#49: Poem - Listen As She Hums

LISTEN AS SHE HUMS
By Wayne Visser

All the world’s in harmony
A thousand beating drums
When I wake up in the morning
And listen as she hums

All the world’s a symphony
A thousand chiming gongs
When I’m walking past the bathroom
And hear her singing songs

All the world’s a carnival
A thousand samba feet
When I catch her in the kitchen
Hips swaying to the beat

All the world’s a canticle
A thousand chanted prayers
When I lie at night beside her
And breathe away her cares

(2007)

#48: Quote - Believing

Suspending disbelief is not nearly as powerful as believing.

~ Wayne Visser, 2005

#47: Prose - Dignity

DIGNITY
By Wayne Visser

Which leaders do you admire for their dignity?
What is it about their attitude, or their behaviour, that distinguishes them?
What does it mean to live, and to die, with dignity?

Dignity implies being able to hold your head up high, to be proud of your actions, to be unashamed of the way in which you carry yourself in the world.
Not because you are better than others, or holier than thou; on the contrary, because you are the same as others, equally worthy.

Dignity is the worth we bestow on ourselves and others when we affirm our common humanity.
Dignity draws on what is good in human beings – our generosity, our compassion, our selflessness – not because it wishes to deny what is bad, but because it believes that we have the choice.
Our higher nature can transcend our baser selves, if we cultivate the strength of our principles.

We respect the world’s great moral leaders, past and present, because of the difficult choices they made.
They chose forgiveness over revenge, love over hate, service over success.

The worst embodiments of evil in the history of the world – whether people, or political regimes or religious doctrines – were all attempts to strip people of their basic human dignity, their inherent worth as people, their intrinsic value as citizens.

Prejudice is the destroyer of dignity.
When we are prejudiced against someone because of their colour or creed, their nationality or sexual preference, their looks or weight, we are denigrating them, devaluing their personality, degrading their humanity.
We are judging them on artificial scales and sentencing them on superficial grounds.

We all have prejudices.
They are drummed into us by our parents, taught by our schools, and ritualised by our religions.
We are blinded by our cultures, brainwashed by the media and seduced by our hubris.
Dignity is the ability to recognise prejudice for the false god that it is, and choose instead to affirm each person’s inherent value as a human being.

Ironically, it is often those whose dignity is most assaulted who find it within themselves to respond to their persecutors in a dignified manner.
Many of our most admired icons are those who refused to treat others in the same dehumanising way in which they themselves were treated.
Mahatma Ghandi responded to active violence with passive resistance, Martin Luther King responded to racism with a dream of harmony between black and white, and Nelson Mandela forgave his captors and sought to unify those whom apartheid had rent apart.

At the heart of dignity is the unshakeable belief that no one person is better, or worse, than another.
Delusions of superiority, even under the guise of self-righteousness, are a poison in the blood of dignity.
Likewise, feelings of inferiority are a malignant cancer which eats away at the body of dignity.

We should not think that dignity is only a task for the heroic amidst the melodrama of historical injustice.
Every moment of the day, in small yet significant ways, we affirm or deny dignity in our lives.

Dignity is all in the way we regard others.
Do we judge them superficially, or do we look beyond surface appearances?
Do we see them through the tainted lens of prejudice, or do we treat them as equals?
Do we build them up based on their strengths and potential, or do we break them down based on their weaknesses and failings?

Treating others with dignity, however, is impossible unless we have discovered our own sense of self-worth.
Do we believe in our own fundamental value as human beings?
Do we have faith in our own ability to make a contribution in this world?
Do we feel connected to a source of inspiration that guides us in the realisation of our divine potential?

Dignity is not a free inheritance, but something we have to work at.
It is not a miraculous gift of the saints, but a habit which we have to nurture with intent.
Yet, unlike prejudice which is learned, dignity is an act of remembrance.
For our original state as humans is one of dignity.

We all share the same dream on this day, and throughout our lives, and that is to be treated with dignity and respect, to be valued for who we are as human beings.
So let us give as we hope to receive – because you’re worth it, and so am I.

(2005)

#46: Quote - The Third Way

The Third Way is that elusive road joining the divergent paths of growth and development, ownership and sharing, competition and co-operation, confrontation and consensus, material and spiritual.

~ Wayne Visser, 1994

#45: Poem - Chronic Rhyme Disease

CHRONIC RHYME DISEASE (CRD)
By Wayne Visser

I swear I will not bow to rhyme
(this time)
For I must learn to let words flow
(let go)
And not to drum with sonic beat
(like feet)
Or try to net the perfect match
(to catch)

But now I see I’ve failed once more
(my flaw)
To scatter words like falling leaves
(from trees)
Instead like hiccups in my chest
(no rest)
I search for words that sound the same
(this game)

They call it Chronic Rhyme Disease
(don’t tease!)
Or CRD in doctor-speak
(I’m weak!)
The illness isn’t hard to spot
(it’s not!)
And leaves the victim quite distraught
(in short)

I guess I’m one such hapless bard
(it’s hard)
Still trapped within a cage of words
(like birds)
A lover of the lilt of lines
(like chimes)
An addict of the rhyming mode
(this ode)

(2007)

#44: Painting - The Sea

THE SEA

By Wayne Visser

Acrylic, 2008