Follow the Journey…
'Alone' in the Judaean Desert, Year 29, The Dead Sea, Being Chased by Armed Israeli Soldiers, Tea with a Bedouin and Finding Wadi Qelt... "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."And so I came to this place... brought [...]
I began a journey at the end of Spring that set a great and terrible tremour in my foundations, sparked a fire in my spirit beyond all imagining... pyres are made to burn, and ashes make fertile even tired, wintered soil. Even a desert becomes a delta in the rains... What my eyes and soul witnessed in those days I will never forget.
I thought, there, where all this began, I might find something of before. Some treasure, some sign... some relic of a former life. In a way I was totally right. In a way I couldn't have been more wrong. I found a skeleton, all flesh decayed and returned to dust. It seems time does not preserve [...]
Isn't it fascinating how different places call forth different energies from within? Complex beings we are... I find it amazing how it seems our inner being, or our soul, is apparently greatly affected by our environment, the people and the energy around us. Long have I been bewitched by this phenomenon... I've tried many things, breathed [...]
You could spend an eternity this way... floating between folds of time, no more a traveller or sage, years of searching simply washing away... nobody's man and yet prisoner of the elements, caught up in a war between swirling waters and burgeoning skies... perhaps this is eternity? ...not a destination, but a hidden place between, nearly impossible to [...]
A whole new day has dawned in my life! And I couldn't be more grateful, more alive, or more in love. This most recent 'journey' has brought me so much peace and illumination. I feel so blessed to be alive, to be given another chance to roam this earth and carry on my journey as [...]
Everybody knows I love me a bit of England from time to time. Catching up with family, old blast-from-the-past friends, sentimental places and nuances of English life I'll never fully shake off as the self-professed Aesthete I am. Cities like Oxford and Cambridge are no exception. Seriously, I have much overlooked these absolute golden [...]
Morocco. North Africa. We've been here before. This time we will see it through new eyes. Since my first trip back in 2017 I haven't quite been able to stay away. So vivid, alive - its landscapes, winding cities and warm-hearted people. The place is crazy! In the heat, the bustling medina; weaving in and out [...]
Florence. Italy. 2013-2019. It's been a long, winding love affair. A lot of poetry, a lot of tears, a lot of cigarettes and laughter. Forever, somehow, will that city be associated with this aesthete... and what was. (and, of course, this diary) I'm always drawn back, somehow, even when I think it's finally over. Life speaks [...]
A little poem and a little visual. Today's musing... Film clips from Ghana and Morocco, 2017 and 2018 respectively. Words from my mind, circa 2011. Jx *** all inquiries: diary.aesthete@yahoo.co.uk ***
Welcome to 2019 one and all! I am so happy to write those words. What a privilege to be alive and well and still moving forward in my journey. Each new day and each new step up the tall ladder of my dreams is a day well spent, and I regret not. To celebrate the [...]
☩ ירושלים Even the very name fills me with a certain hope, a lightness; an awe. Heckles spontaneously prick up all over my body every time I think back. A place of deep fascination for me since I first knew it existed at all. And yet, somehow, I feel it's always been with me. He [...]
...and that's my promise to the world ~ to keep it that way. As time goes on, I find the same thoughts and feelings coming back to me, sentiments that I have had from the very beginning. Strangely enough, right now as we approach the end of 2018, I feel very similar to how I [...]
...and Believe in Your Heart "Believe in your heart that you're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.” - Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart ...even if a thing feels totally and wholly like an ending, perhaps even the very 'end' itself, quite often, in time, you will see it was [...]
* Ghana, Year III - l'épilogue White mists clear, revealing a horizon of pure gold. The spirit beckons you forth, as your journey reaches its final end. Moons have waxed, ebbed and waned. Many suns have risen, eclipsed and set... as is the nature of celestial bodies. In time you will learn to accept their failings... [...]
