Thursday, December 22, 2011

Reclaiming the Soul Filled Life

"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be.
There's no time limit, stop whenever you want.
You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing.
We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it.
And I hope you see things that startle you.
I hope you feel things you never felt before.
I hope you meet people with a different point of view.
I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."


I was painting last night and had the pleasure of hearing this quote while my paintbrush made effortless gray circles..
there is an echo inside all of us I think that resonates this same truth.
The message of hopefulness.
Hope in ourselves, hope in the tangible and the unseen, hope in the mystery and the vastness of our world, hope in the simple and mediocre things too.
We give life its soul and heart and lungs. We breath strength and substance into the crevices and the rough edges. I resolve to believe that beauty is seen through my own eyes and equally given through my own words and touch.
Today on the walls and tomorrow in the ocean.


Andrew Tipton

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Monday, December 19, 2011

Priorities

"If you are afraid of death, you are afraid of life, for living your life leads to death. Until you face death and see its beauty, you will be afraid to really live - you will never properly burn the candle for fear of its end."
- Doris Haddock


Sunday, December 11, 2011

The Spoken Existence

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." (Proverbs 18:21)

Recently I have become fascinated with the idea of spoken words altering our living existence. The thought that when we vocalize our intentions, we are actually creating a bridges between our desire and our reality.
This not a new concept, the idea of sounds altering an environment has been studied and analyzed before.. even the Bible talks about "speaking" and literally changing our environment (moving mountains, healing, etc.). I have to admit that I am naive in my own practice.. It has simply never occurred to me that speaking our reality into existence could really hold some truth.

I remember watching the cartoon of Aladdin when I was younger.. In the story Aladdin speaks to the desert the words "Abra Cadabra" and behold the sand opens for him and he is rewarded with a vast treasure. I have always loved that story! The idea of speaking to a desert, or the ocean, or a forest and being granted access to extraordinary secrets and power.. what a seductive fantasy!
Perhaps though it is more than just wishful thinking.

When we speak, we use language, which is merely sounds strung together to form words. We have learned to control our sounds over time to articulate emotions and thoughts.. when they are spoken, they convey the vibration of our consciousness. When words come out of our bodies, they are filled with intentional energy.. this energy does not dissolve, but expands outward - its the same force that grows plants, that fuels volcanoes.. the same energy to which other people respond.

People respond to our voices. This is sort of a huge deal I think.. one that I have not truly grasped. It happens so much that I probably the magic of what's happening is taken for granted. It is incredible to me that we can "speak" with intention and vastly change the physical human environment around us. We can walk up to another person, share a few sounds (intentions) from our minds through our mouths, and "Abra Cadabara" the world has shifted! It is not necessarily the words that are affecting, but the meaning behind them.. the vibration of our consciousness letting itself be known in this physical space. Vibration is at the base of everything.. it is life, it is motion. I believe that we do have the power to create new realities with our voices.. we can already see it happening everyday on the human level. That same vibrational energy is woven into everything.. so it makes sense that the world will respond to us. To our words.



-Andrew Tipton

Monday, December 5, 2011

What Happens In Montevallo


Nothing stays here.
The words leak out of bounds and the sounds go with them.
The music from the guitar strings and the fierceness from songwriters' lips.
All the love and the anger or the affection you can throw at a person never stay in that one place.
Words are never where you left them,
our actions grow wings, and travel to a thousand different places.

I've seen a beautiful thought make it to Kai'lua,
I've seen sadness start here and fly all the way to the Alps.
The world's growing on our motion,
Cross-pollination. Starts right here..
In your town,in your house, in your room,
in your mind,
Nothing stays.



Andrew Tipton,