walk the path of enchantment

Eccentric, bombastic, soulful, ferocious, tender, and profound. 

- to become these
in addition to others. 



Andrew Tipton

The Art of Rebellion

I have named this month, "Rebellious October" - is the month of challenging my identify of self.
 This is the month for rebelling against the "learned" idea of who I am.  what I do,  the way I feel comfortable interacting and arranging my life.   It is a month of re-invention, of experimenting with my edges,  the lines that keep ME contained and defined and organized, and...  sane.  

I began this practice a few years ago..  with one idea:
"What if we took a month...  and rebelled, not against anything outside of ourselves,  but against the idea that we hold for "who we are" or own "definition" of self?       What if we took a few weeks to reconsider the way we perceive our story, our direction, our intention, our interaction..   accepting ourselves as malleable, and pliable.     
WHAT COULD THIS DO FOR US?  

 Each time this season rolls around, I find new ways to feed the rebellion. 
 I anticipate it.. I avoid it..  I get twisted and brooding about it.      This is not about "dismantling" myself..  but rather challenging the routine of my lifestyle; the habits which are practically, permanent staples in my character.  
ANDREW.   Is more than he thinks he is.  
 ..and it takes a month stepping outside of the "ONE" that I am familiar with..  to literally, viscerally experience that truth. 

Rebellion is the fundamental uprooting of leadership, it is the undermining of order, the symbol for rebirth and the symbol of inner conflict.   
And if used with intention... it becomes the art of self-reinvention.  


This October.. for myself.. is the rebellion against my tolerance.  
I am practicing the intolerance of "apathy".  
I am practicing the intolerance of "disregard".  
I am practicing the intolerance of "whatever-ness".
I have agreed (just for this month) to be intentional with my self on a higher level.  
This is affecting the way I dress, the attention I give to the simple details of my surroundings, the time I spend attending to details of life. 

What I have noticed year after year...  is that everything I am doing to myself  is also affecting life beyond my borders..     it isn't a contained rebellion.. 
inadvertently it bleeds over into the lives of others 
and they get to be part of it too. 

I dig it. 





Andrew Tipton

speak slowly to me

"I am in the mood
to dissolve
in the sky."

-  Virginia Woolf




Andrew Tipton

Intollerance

 "Make the best out of what you have."  

How many times have we heard that statement?   
Somehow as we were growing up,  hearing those words always sounded suspiciously like a "cop out",  like a suggestion to get away with doing less, or a half-assed job because you weren't exactly dealt the "better hand".        
"Make the best out of what you have." was a way to say,  "yeah,  we know this isn't ideal..  but just make it work... somehow,..  no pressure.. no expectation of actual goodness.."  
Jesus... what a terrible concept. 
Doing your "best" wasn't really..  your "best" at all... it was pushing "barely".. if that.    
But its a common phrase..
I have to admit,  I became pretty damn exhausted by the way it sounded to me.    And the false sense of dumbed-down humility that accompanies it. 


...So, recently gentlemen,
 I have been playing with the idea of adapting life in a tangible, literal context to that phrase..   with the attitude of "YES!  Why not make the best of out what you're given?"  
 NO.  NO... Literally..  I dig it.  Lets do it!    
This mantra.. that I have considered such a disenchanting statement... has actually got some, downright awesome  validity to it.. and some balls.   Yes - that's right..  this statement has balls.
If we were to actually to live this way...  it would take some very dedicated, masculine intensity.
But what would happen?    How is it to live with an approach that says, (literally) "MAKE THE BEST OUT OF EVERYTHING YOU ARE GIVEN. LITERALLY."      Damn.. that is a challenge of the highest degree.  
    

I remember contemplating life for a month straight in Costa Rica..   I literally, set aside hours in my daily routine to go for a run,  and then sit and meditate.   I would clear my head, and focus seemingly every drop of my energy and intention on the parameters of existing.  For myself.   
And it was a fantastic, unbelievably perfect use of time..   it was a way to assess my body,  my spirit, my lifestyle,  my outlook,  my living arrangements,  my attitude, my purpose,  my perception, and the perception of myself that I offer towards others..   to observe it objectively, and to agree to it,  or to build a new agreement with a different way of existing. 
   And the more time I set aside to meditate on "Self" (godliness),  the more that phrase, "Make the best out of what you have."  kept wandering into my thoughts..    just nudging me,.. teasing me with the potential.   I began to admire it...  the idea that we are to take the fragments of our daily routines and build something with them...  not just "something",  but the "BEST" that they can be made into.     That is a powerful way of living..   and I want to be a part of it. 

This is very personal..    our BEST, is very personal.    
And that is what intrigues me the most...  "our best" involves a number of masculine qualities..
Integrity.  Intention.  Dedication.  Action...   things that I greatly admire. 
  "Make the best out of what you have.",  is this very intense, personal question..   it threatens our apathy, and challenges us to rise to OUR own version of BEST.
I like that about it.
I like that it doesn't leave room to look anywhere else,  or at anyone else's interpretation.
I like how it directly challenges us to consider and agree upon our magnificence..   either the muchness of it,  or the absence. 
What we make out of this moment...  is a metaphor for how we perceive ourselves.  



October is always my month of rebellion... trying things that I have not yet tried before. 
So I am trying this..  
"MAKE THE BEST OUT OF WHAT YOU HAVE."  

I am.  I dig it. 







Andrew Tipton

Entitlement

Does this come out of the essence somewhere deep inside or is it the assimilation of goodness that we are building.   I feel strongly about these things, I feel strongly about the work that I do, and now... I feel intolerant of the lesser-ness: of myself and of others who would draw it out of me.
 To be god is to be intolerant.   Not to suffer ourselves to the whims and distraction of ulterior softness.  This place wants to soften our will and our intention, until we lazily roll over and comfortably perish; but we are made of more substantial things.
 We, if we desire purpose, must keep our energy safe!    Our efforts deliberate!
 "Walking the straight and narrow" is not a clichéd metaphor for politeness, or nice-ness,  but the instruction for maintaining Godness.
 Our sorcery (our muchness) find itself when we allow our reflection to resurface, our attention to move towards our own ferocious intention.   Again and again.  
Our Godliness is often dumbed down and softened by our human condition -  the belief and our identity rooted in trivial activities.   
GODNESS is a current, an actual feeling that begins to provoke our energy - a brilliant, caffeinated source of clarity that you literally feel in your face and in your eyes.   It is the clearness of true-self, raging, intense, wild, fearless, knowing, intuitive, creative, intelligent, long-reaching... 

Before I move, I have been praying,  conjuring up the center of the universe..
in my throat, and then up into my mouth, and finally behind my face.
Every time, I feel as though the bones of my cheeks are going to disintegrate and come to pieces. 
And once this feeling exists, the parameters of the world shift, all things become possibilities,
all possibilities become liquid/movement, tangible and concise, and I have neither doubt
nor question, that I am the author
of all of it. 




Andrew Tipton

Divinity

 

 

Andrew Tipton

In case we die / part II

"Whatever comes through the door...  see it face to face."  



I am stroking the walls.
 Paint is coming off my brush and leaving a dark gray trail across the pale yellow that it is viciously replacing. 
I pause...  and a huge grin crosses my face..    this is it.   THIS IS IT!

I am 12 ft up..  high on the scent of Iron Mountain paint..   and high on the feeling of being intimately driven into the heart and bones of the moment.  

In case we die.   I rather be HERE.
and
In case we die.  
I rather be pouring my essence / my goodness / my muchness into my actions.
  every action deserves that doesn't it?
WHY NOT?   

This is the secret of life,  and I kid you not you better listen closely because it all starts and ends in this very simple yet magnificent answer: 

"that we are as perfect and as wonderful, and as powerful, and as worthy, and just, as the moment we are a part of."    This moment is everything.    And it all sits and waits for us, welcoming our kindness, or our godliness, or our apathy..
 and whatever we make out of it...
OF THIS MOMENT..   is what we become.   

I stand 12 ft up..   with a brush in my hand, and gray paint splattering my body, 
and
There is NOTHING past painting this house.   And there is NOTHING better than painting this house.  
And when you realize this... and FEEL THIS,   then you believe in it..    and every brush stroke isn't a brush stroke to get anywhere,  or to move beyond THIS,   it is rather just another sacred moment in the experience of THIS. 

WE speak of godliness.   We speak of greatness.   
Here is what I say: 

Whatever comes through the door...  see it face to face..  
 .welcome it, know it,  kiss it,  fuck it, taste it, challenge it, hold it, set it free, learn it, become it, wonder about it, press into it, scream about it,
love it. 




Andrew Tipton