Skipping Stones

some. ones.   become our skipping stones, make splashes, on our surface and sink deep. deep. deeply. inside us.   we are not THE arm or THE toss..  but the water that resides in chiseled spaces.  attempting the discovery of our reflection.        

Andrew Tipton

Going There

We talked about making it. Up.
about taking the world's ways and shifting them around to fit, our delightful messy thoughts
, new ways that take us to places that nobody has ever been to.   And we did. 
Do you remember?   Going there.    Where nobody else has taken anyone along.  For the ride.
Open- ended.   
Never demanding more than the afternoon had to offer..   because the moment was always better than somewhere else with someone else.    I could believe in a thing like that.    
Laughter beneath the shade of pomegranates..   laying on our backs and sipping
strawberries. from each other's lips we both found truth and virtue.   And ourselves came alive too, that year.   I wandered free of the trees.. and found an open mind to play.inside you. and me       
We came up with the origins of life and defined the appropriate distances between strangers. to touch
   somewhere deep inside.   felt good.  
oceans melted,  the moon covered its eyes, the years turned into thunderstorms.  we got soaked
up with each other.  all the way through and through. 
a human.  never fully heals from such goodness.
blessings leave scars on your heart.  too 
and I feel them now.  clearly.
 because
it was never like this.
there is always time.
until there is no
more. time. 
 

           
Andrew Tipton

Full Circle. Love.

There are reasons we begin - Reasons why we start  doing things.

For a while, as we plunge inside our first experiences, we exist as outsiders looking inwards at creativity, or a person, or concepts with our own fresh, open-minded affection.  What we behold seems limitless and breathtaking,  and its that initial captivation that drives us towards love and creation.    It is such a good place to be..  on the edges moving inward, because we do not see ourselves as "attached" yet.    From the start, we pursue an interest because it intrigues us, because there is an open-endedness to it - which means it can take us anywhere.    In the beginning, we do not see ourselves moving linearly, more so, its as if we are expanding in many directions at once.  This expansion feels incredible and brings us joy..   it is the driving force behind our desire to grow. 

I think this changes..  I think as we become more accustomed to a person, or to an experience - it narrows our view, and slowly erodes our affection.   Some might say that this is because we more fully "realize" what it is that we were so intrigued by - that perhaps the object itself does not offer anything new, and so it becomes dull.   I disagree,  I think it is us that begin to remain stationary.   We subconsciously make ourselves permanent in regards to our interaction - our expectations become permanent and our level of depth and creativity become permanent.   It is this illusion of permanence that strips away our ability to continually see a thing's boundlessness.  

An experience will only become what we bring to it.    I am returning to the idea that I am not fully realized and that my love and creativity are not as well.   What I have known, the ways in which I am Andrew Tipton, are not only malleable, but also permeable.   I can bend them to become something else and I can even move through them altogether.  This creates "reason" again..  this creates a lack of burden, and an overwhelming sense of interest and fascination.  I think a lot of us long for that return - experiencing the familiar (the people, the interests, our life) with new eyes.    We should hope to remain transitioning outsiders; always falling in love for new reasons - neglecting our attachment to straight lines.      


Andrew Tipton

Pursue Goodness

 

I beginning to admire myself from the inside out. 
The creation of wholeness, of strength and well being come from our attention to the lonesome spaces - the deeper quiet side of self.  
When we hope in people, we are truly hoping in that unseen part of them.       "My god," we say to ourselves, "I hope they are truly the way they appear to be."      When we say this, we must in turn look back into ourselves.    
     Life truly becomes for us what we are.    Pursue goodness.


Andrew Tipton

To See the World As It Is

There is a quiet warmth to her lately, a gentle thoughtful look that brings you inside and makes you want to stay longer than expected.  She says she desires stillness and I admire that..    She says these are the last of the good years, the last of the young ones.  

  I've always thought so too.      It is a strange thing to think about not climbing the steps up to her apartment - the scent of sandalwood and paintings of nimbus clouds.   The coffee plant that was once so fragile has outgrown its space..  And maybe us too.       

The leaves that surround her tiny balcony in the summertime have all fallen from the branches.  You can hear the trains in the winter.   The prayer flags tattered and faded..  Now have character.     The walls are covered in the stories of the past few years.   Letters, maps, poetry, sadness, joy. 

I come up here to grow sideways.. to practice my synonyms.    

I come up here to listen to music and to perfect my smile. 

  Truth starts over mid-sentence..  even while we're still speaking, we begin to see things differently.   Not because we choose to, but because we want to.  Always be growing.  Recreating. 

I admire that about her.  To see the world as it is..  you must always be changing too. 

Andrew Tipton 

Cape San Blas

 

 

We are gifted at rare moments to an awareness of all our senses at once.  at those times the world becomes like a dream -  intimate and possessing. 

 

 

 

Andrew Tipton

In the days that follow.

We fail, and we die,
We are victorious, and we die,

We are families, and we die
We are vagabonds, and we die,
We are lovers, and we die,

We suffer, and we die,

We are creationists, and we die,

We laugh, and we die,
We teach, and we die,
We learn, and we die,

We are enlightened, and we die,
We are prophets, and we die

And the world takes notice just before it dissolves into the birth of a supernova.
The sweet incandescent thoughts we whispered and the wars we waged
Dissolve.
All things balance in the stillness that follows,
And the stars breathe loudly,
A sigh that wanders infinitely through time.

And we were before we began.
As much as we'll ever be.

We live,
And we die.




Andrew Tipton.