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elementalgarden

Our Pinocchio Lives



The past is full of treasure from the fairy tales and stories of mythology that are packed full of lessons and human problems still common to us all today.


Pinocchio is the story of a wooden puppet, who tells lies and therefore is unable to become real.


Along his journey he gets distracted for a time in Pleasure Island.


How many of us today have become stuck and distracted on Pleasure Island, thinking that's all there is, keep us isolated yet together on an island of experience. Each of us in our own state of unconscious numbness, yet knowing deep down that we’re telling ourselves lies and that our existence feels wooden and numb?


What we’re really looking for isn’t on the web or in a cafe or the bottom of a wine bottle. It’s not in the stuff we acquire or even the perfect relationship. Those little pleasures are certainly a part of life but they’re distractions from the real Quest and if they’re keeping each of us locked into a solitary Pleasure Island daze until we turn into a braying donkey, or a total ass - maybe it’s time to make a break for it?


One day I realised Pleasure Island was sucking my humanity out of me, I didn’t have the first clue how to escape. No-one around me was showing me signs of anything different, so I looked for some light and plunged into the waters of the unknown, anything that might offer escape. Life offered me doorways too. It was impossible to know where they would lead, but doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is just insanity right? So I may as well walk through one of those doorways or start swimming away from those temporary distractions that promised such pleasure at the beginning.


I came to remember that Nature’s Wisdom invites movement and change and the making of a journey, it’s not a static destination called Pleasure Island that keeps one moving in the same circles. It’s the ultimate adventure of life. Sometimes another person holds up a signpost for you along the way, but they can’t make the journey for you. It’s unique, unknowable to another. The world has never seen this pathway before. And neither have you. You have to create the pathway as you go and at times be willing to journey through all kinds of terrain, from vast oceans to dense jungles and often be plunged into formidable caves to go mining for the treasure that can only be found within. Those parts of the journey are deep, dark and dirty and doubt is lurking behind every corner. Yet you have to keep going because when that treasure is unearthed, you and everyone you come into contact with, will be grateful that you didn't give up. That your belief was strong enough to carry you through a testing phase of the Quest.


When we meet people along the way and they believe in the Quest too, it's wonderful to enjoy their companionship for a while, but eventually you have to return to your own solitary journey, not falling to the temptation to cling to anyone or anything along the way.


I’m in my personal version of the cave when I’m writing. Digging around in the mines of the human psyche looking for that glimmer of treasure, the gold hunt may seem fruitless to others but I surface again eventually. After all, we can't stay hidden in the cave forever either. Life will demand your presence.


These creative pleasures experienced in the cave are different to those I experienced on the Island.


I think of writing like “righting”. I start to make sense of things for myself that were just a tangled muddle before. And I emphasise, FOR MYSELF. I fully understand what I’ve decided to share is not ‘right’ for others. But like I said in the intro of these ‘Leaves’, I just wanted to offer something back to nature, a display of my own effort to put my roots down deep in the earth and grow something with my life. It might offer temporary nourishment or shelter to others, as they pause for a moment of sustenance or respite before they carried on with their own personal Quest.


Questions always help on the Quest. But they have to be your own questions and you have to be willing to listen to your own answers, even though they can sometimes take a while to be delivered.


These are some of the questions I've asked myself.


Where is this road taking me? Am I stuck on Pleasure Island going round and round in circles or am I wandering along an unknown road, looking for a signpost or two? Have I found a place of temporary respite to enjoy a rest for a while, knowing I’ll have to leave and resume my journey eventually or have I discovered the home of my heart? A piece of the natural world to call my own, one that speaks to me of destiny? Have I planted at least one tree for the future generations to enjoy? And what is my Tree of Life producing?


I hope one day to wander past your space in our forest and discover something amazing that you’ve grown. What a delight it is to take temporary shelter along the journey of life, enjoy and marvel at someone else’s offerings - because they stopped lying to themselves long enough to uncover their personal treasure and find a meaningful way to share it with others.


I truly hope to meet you along the road somewhere and sample the fruits of your life.


And if you should happen to wander past here one day, I hope you discover not a Pleasure Island to get stuck in, but a temporary pleasurable encounter that nourishes you for the rest of your own journey ahead. I hope your time at Elemental, whether in the real world, or the virtual one, reminds you of your own creative destiny waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

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