The Higher Purpose of Organic Blackberries

Everyone is talking about organic these days.  Everyone seems to be dialed in on how to get the purest nutrition, how to put only goodness into our bodies. 
We are focused on where our fruits came from, and if the meat we bought lived a healthy and honorable life.   
We want to know who harvested our coffee beans, where our quinoa came from, and if our blackberries were grown without synthetic pesticides.   Suddenly we have a culture very intensely interested and preoccupied with consuming the "right" things.    I see stickers that read: "GMO free, ORGANIC, PURE, WHOLE, SPROUTED".. etc.  People are caught up (and I believe rightly so) with how a product was made - what makes it decent and worthwhile.  
There is the sense of pride about the whole thing.   We feel like superior people for buying, growing, or ingesting sustainable, high-quality deliciousness.   


Well, I happened to be eating some pesticide-free blackberries a few days ago. 
And I began to consider how much focus is invested on the input side of what goes into our bodies. 
There is often such an assumption about the quality of a person simply based on what they are feeding themselves.  
I think somehow we forget that this input has a purpose.
Sometimes, I think we believe that the only purpose for eating goodness is for our "bodies".   In a lot of ways, yeah, it totally benefits us to munch down on some organic kale, or devour some broccoli sprouts.. 
But we are more than just bodies.    
I asked myself..  personally...   what is the purpose of eating organic blackberries?   
If I'm so intent on going out of my way to invest in better food, and holding myself to a higher-standard of dietary stewardship...  then shouldn't I hold myself to that same standard on the other end?   
I mean..  after we buy all these bags of organic avocados...  is there anyone checking up with us later to make sure that those delicious, nuggets of perfection went to fuel an equally impressive purpose?   No.   There isn't.
After we buy this higher-minded food, we are sort of left to our own.      
There is all this forethought and wisdom that went into the act of input...  but no one is really holding us accountable for happens afterward. 
I want to believe that we eat honorable food...  because we want to become honorable people.
I want to believe that we value what goes into us because we also value the energy and output that leaves our bodies.  

Maybe we should consider a new agreement with our food.
Maybe we should give thought, not just to what we eat..  but also to the purpose of why we eat it.  
If we're slurping up some sautéed Brussel sprouts, maybe we should also take a moment to think about how this (superior energy) is going to be used in a superior way. 
If we are intent of eating foods whose origin has helped make the world a better place..  then maybe we should also be intent on using the energy from those foods to create a better place. 

...thoughts while devouring organic blackberries. 



Andrew Tipton

Traditions

Tradition is the adherence to an unconventional and daring decision from the past.
When we follow tradition, we are taking part in a legacy of remarkable, rebellious and provocative choices.  

I want to make my own traditions.
  To see the world in a way that is open to intimate and personal interpretation.

I want to celebrate and remember life, in my own way.  

Andrew Tipton


    
     




 

Our Universe Adores Us

Our Universe Adores Us

I believe that when we talk about love, or we talk about someone (or something) in love with us, then we are driving this subconscious narrative that it is a love that has peaceful and gentle way about itself… safe and in many ways predictable.       Often, I think we want to believe in love, but we want to believe only in a love that fits our own narrative.   We want love that is coherent with our human timeline,  moral code, and practical / reasonable / logical perspective.      That construct of imagined love….  I am certain is not fully love.        If we keep walls surrounding what is possible for a universe's love… then we limit love to a very unimpressive and suffocating box -  one that refuses to expand beyond the perception of feeling of our present human moment.    It keeps love small,  it keeps us saying,  “Yes!  No!  Yes!  No!”       Deciding what IS love,  and not allowing love to crush us  from all sides.       To maintain this sort of love..  or demand that the universe adhere to our fragile construct of love..   is like standing knee deep in the ocean, demanding that the waves only lap gently at our shins.    You are in the ocean!   Give way to the ocean..   experience what the ocean is capable of -  or step out of it.     

I believe the Universe absolutely adores us.    I think it is head over heals for us.  
But I believe that its loves staggers the mind.   It operates outside of a congruent timeline, outside of an amiable code of conduct, outside of logic and practical assumption.   
It’s a love that can break you, it can tear away your safety and your efforts..   it is not a delicate, fluffy love (as my brother calls it).   Maybe it can be gentle and sponsoring..  but it has no allegiance solely to those qualities.   
Isn’t that exactly what we would want from a love? 
A way of affection that isn’t delicately wound taunt around our emotions or our fickleness.    An uncontrived, consuming, roaring love. 
I am ending this year convinced even more, that the universe is secretly plotting our victories..    but my vision for how that happens has been entirely re-imagined.   

Andrew Tipton

OBEY YOUR INNER LONGINGS

Reclaiming our identities in a world that seeks to normalize our human experience. 

 (thought) - When we rise up in the mornings, we should take a moment to recollect what it is that we adore about life.. and what we adore about ourselves.  and whatever we discover, we should pursue it, in some way, without exception. -  

I was driving today, cruising my way down the mountain on my way to create new music on the dulcimer.  I have the overwhelming urge to find an empty space and get lost in the deliciousness of my own musical inclinations.   In the scruffy seat beside me sits my Fender amp, and my small gourd of yerba mate tea.    I'm heading to the studio loft in Southside - the autumn washed leaves are hanging heavy from the branches overhead.    Reds, oranges, dusty yellows.  Clinging to the warmth of early November.     The winding turns of the Ochs highway, whips my old jeep left and then right and I can't help but grin wildly.     
I begin to realize, on this twisting commute, what my soul is aching for...   exactly what it is that, somewhere deeply, I tremblingly crave from existence.
"I want freedom,  I want creation, I want to write music, I want sincere dialogue, I want true love, I want perpetual intrigue, I want to build treehouses in California,, I want to live simply and eloquently.... "      Spontaneously I find myself repeating this list of "desires" to myself.   The essence of who I am.. and who I seek to be,  flows from my lips.    it feels like there is a direct line from the intensity of my heart, straight to the physical world!  I feel ferocious, joyful, vibrant, complete.   The burst of energy that comes from simply "speaking" what I believe about myself, feel intense and clear.  
I realized it has been so long since I allowed myself to SPEAK outwardly (loudly) about my intentions ... and when they spilled out... each one felt 'certain' and 'clear'.     
Perhaps WE always know what we are made of.  

We MUST speak to ourselves about what we DESIRE.   We MUST say to ourselves (EVERYDAY) what it is that we are built from, tell ourselves the story of our captivation with life's mysteries - whatever those my be.    We must speak up during our driving, or walking, or daily normalcy.. and scream inside our hearts to shake loose the dust that gathers on our dreams.  

We live in a place that seeks to limit our expectation and affection for ourselves.   We are taught that we must choose from stories that already exist.    I do not agree to that!    
Our identity is not tethered to the life story of anyone else...  not in the past or present.  
We do not have to agree to the life-choice of anyone else. 
We are making the future right now..   we are the edge of the unknown, the edge of "never-before".
Obey the part of yourself that you ADORE..  pursue it relentlessly! 




Andrew Tipton

The Path to Santeelah Lake

Remain open to intrigue and intuition. 

Follow the path that ignites your heart.  
Take uncommon paths
and
constantly remain uncertain of why you came,  and what you expect to find.  

Andrew Tipton

Bioluminescence

Swimming in the ocean near Cape San Blas.    





Come roam among my secrets.
Grasp
my warm hand in yours,
fingers intertwined,
and become the
fox,
the hunter of God's subtleties.
Be the one
I turn toward in the midst of my dismay
and perfect aloneness.. 
and
be the one
I say,
"Here, look at this magic here!!!"
And they will be our secrets. 
The ones that only belong to us.
Two.
We will swim in the them.
Have you considered this? 
:GODLINESS.   Ohhh0ooh.. 
it's reconsidering what to make of us. 
WE.  You + Meeeoowwww. 
it's the OPEN MIND.  the wide sprawling ocean in the night,
The concoction of stars
shimmering, enchanting, encircling our skins. 
Bio-Illumination. 
Supernovas for another galaxy.
Thrust, swim, arms and whole selves.
Drip drip drip... a million flecks of tiny light cascading from our bare
shoulders
Splendidly from our chests.
The fox sees these things. 
These are the secrets.  For my partner, lover accomplice;
eager and longing for subtle and astounding ventures.
The deep and unseen moments,
where I privately feel god's warm kiss upon my neck
(and I want you there),
upon the sea shore.
The two of us among god's mystic spells..  ahh..  
the gentle enormous smile
of
supernatural adoration.






Andrew Tipton

For the Ones who Take Up the Empty Spaces