High Impact

       When’s the last time something, or someone, gave you goosebumps? When’s the last time something you saw, or heard, or did, or experienced, moved you so much that your whole body went into auto response and just took the rest of your being with it? Do you know what I’m talking about? To quote the movie The Warriors, “Can you dig it?”.
       When we are in a receptive state, when we are open, we allow ourselves to be impacted and moved and touched. Maybe it’s not always goosebumps for you. Maybe it’s some other cue your body gives you that lets you know something is being deeply moved by something in your life. Chills up your spine. Tears. A smile that seems to have a life of its own. Simple laughter. When we are available to ourselves and to our lives emotionally, all of that and more happens to us. Regularly. It certainly does to me. And it’s fuckin’ beautiful.
       I want to feel that alive all the time. I want everyone to. For a while now, I have felt a little like a raw nerve, but in a great way. Life is touching me, and I’m touching it. I’m responding, touching back, giving back. It’s like an energy loop. It’s not linear, but circular; a beautiful feedback carousel of emotion, discovery, passion, love, and vibrancy.
       As I allow myself to be so impacted, I am also impacting that which impacts me, because I’m putting myself into it, giving myself to it. We’re feeding each other, myself and my life. The more I nurture it, the more it nurtures me, and vise-versa. Just like any great love relationship. Just like making love.
       What I want is to maintain that state as much as possible, rather than come in and out of it, which is how it usually is. The more we self-identify ourselves as artists, as artists of our own life, the more connected to that state we are. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. You are an artist. Whether you know it or not. You are an artist of your own life.
       Let me see what you’re creating from your soul.   
 

©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

Childhood Tree

When I was growing up, this Maple tree was in my yard. Now it's technically in my sister's yard. But no matter who lives on the property, this tree will always be a vestige of my childhood that represents everything that was beautiful about it. Thank you, Majestic Maple, for your timeless beauty and powerful presence, especially this time of year, when, as you prepare for a long nap, you are at your most magnificent.

Real It Out

       We live in a world where we are constantly pressured to reel it in. Don’t say “that”. Don’t do “that”. The pressures to conform, to fit in, to keep up with the Joneses, and to do it the way it’s “supposed” to be done, are enormous, especially in American culture. America may be the land of the free, but it’s not necessarily the land of the free spirit.
       There are all types of cultural and societal conditions to being a free spirit. First and foremost, there are the almighty qualifiers of money and status. If you can make a lot of money being a free spirit, a la Ted Turner, Richard Branson, or a platinum selling rock musician, you’re maverick ways are “justified”. But if you are a maverick because that’s who you are, with no particular monetary or status gains attached, it can be a very different story.
       We are moving past that, but there is still the omnipresent media onslaught, puritanical paradigms, conventional mindsets, and a host of other constructs in place that impede our freedom of expression, our freedom of spirit.
       So if we are constantly told to reel it in, where do we let it all hang out? Where do we live freely? Where are we unafraid to show the world who we are, what we are, without apology? The more places we find for that, the more avenues we channel that energy into, and the more vibrantly we do it, the more we experience a freedom of spirit. How, where, when, and how strongly, do we flip the finger to convention and conformity?
       I’m not a fan of flipping that finger just for the sake of flipping it. Because that’s not exercising your spirit. That’s rebelling. And rebellion for the sake of rebellion is what teenagers do, and hopefully we move past that. When we rebel from our nature, when who and what we are do not fit with what’s already established or accepted, then we are doing it for the right reasons. We are being real.
       I’m not unconventional for the sake of being unconventional. I’m unconventional because my sensibilities often do not fit in the confines of convention. If I paint outsides the lines, it’s not because I’m trying to be different. I’m painting outside the lines because what I want to say, what I want to express, what I am, doesn’t fit within the lines. If I paint outside the lines, it’s because I feel that the picture is far more beautiful painted that way. And I do what makes my heart sing. Sometimes that spills out over the page, out over the frame, and out over the whole fuckin’ wall. But to me, it’s beautiful.
       That can be scary to some. It can seem unpredictable. Contradictory, even. I get that. And I welcome discussions and interactions with anybody where we can explore that. But I get my fair share of people who just write me off because of it too. But I’m not here to convince them. They just aren’t my tribe. That’s the reality of being real. Those who get you, really get you, and they absolutely adore you for it. And those who don’t, well they don’t, and there’s nothing you can do about that. Give me one real friend over 1000 fake ones. Give me one true love over 1000 one night stands. I certainly didn’t feel that way about love and sex in my twenties, but I’m not twenty anymore.
       Where can you live more freely? Maybe a little more at work, maybe not. Certainly, in your personal relationships, you can create room for that. If it’s important to you. Where does your wild spirit get to play? In the bedroom? In your journal writing? Your sport of choice? Your painting? Your music? Where do you say “Fuck reeling it in. I’m Realing It Out.”


©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.  
    

She's My Water

she’s my water
sweet
soft
delicious
fluid
nourishing my insides
caressing my outsides
she mixes well with me

she’s my water
i gulp her down
relishing every drop
of what she is

she’s my water
i am thirsty
for her
all she needs to do
is gaze my way
touch me on the hand
stroke my face with her tender heart
and i am quenched

she’s my water
i swim in her
she keeps me afloat
when all around me is stormy

she’s my water
the rain of her being
gently touches my face
again and again and again
each drop of her
bathes me in a most precious way

she’s my water
and i have drank many a well
but now i will drink
no other water but her

she’s my water
we are
thicker than blood

                                    - clint piatelli

©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

Swimming Lessons

Let’s go deep
Let’s not spend all of our time in the shallows
Let’s swim together in the unknown depths of each other

When you find yourself over your head
Don’t be afraid
I am right there with you
I will never let you drown
I will never leave your side

You will feel my strong arms around you
You will hear my tender yet powerful words
You will feel the beat of my heart
Right next to yours

This ocean is so vast
This ocean is so beautiful
All the more so
If we go
Together

        - Clint Piatelli