Don’t Feed the Monster

It’s Never Going to Thank You.

Dear friend,

The bells of a local church finish tolling, I hear a child’s voice call “Mamma” in the town square off to the right of our hotel room balcony.

Chiara is at the Teatro Olimpico for the penultimate performance of the opera. I’ll be there tomorrow with Peter and my brother. The shows have sold out.

Vicenza is full of dogs and art.

It’s wet here too. So wet you can see where the humidity has soaked into the walls and the statues. The parasols for the street bars are mossy and black with mould. The shops full of gold and meticulously displayed clothes.

There’s hardly a car in the town centre and all around is renaissance architecture. Stone carved balconies. Ornate courtyards and the work of Andrea Palladio.

I was tasked with taking a family photo which I did under fire of numerous instructions. There was pressure to ask a passer by to take it, but I really didn’t want a standard snap. This was the first time my brother and his husband had met Chiara’s family and I knew we could have something epic to mark the occasion.

Angelo, Chiara’s father had once spoken with our Mam over the phone. She said hello in English and Angelo said a few words. When he put the phone down he said she sounded sweet.

I didn’t know then that they’d never have a chance to meet in person.

I’m more aware of important occasions now.

I used the timer on my phone and hoped for the best.

Here it is:

I’m delighted with the result.

Our lives, no matter how humble are in reality epic.

We worry about one another.

Sometimes we feel provoked and sometimes hurt.

Some families are awfully hard on the sensitive ones.

But we can’t help but love one another.

We’re helping each other to evolve.

Humans are doing that; evolving into ever more peaceful, aware creatures.

We all play our parts in the cosmic play.

When our ego’s come out to feed and they are looking to cause pain, do whatever you can, not to feed the monster.

If you can be aware of the story the false self is weaving even as your nerves are on fire, you’ll at least avoid giving it more fuel to burn.

The picture below is of the shadows cast by the lighting on a sculpture in the Gallerie d'Italia - Vicenza. For me it kind of hints at the grabbing hands of the false self, when it’s looking for a good story to swallow.

I felt momentarily harassed trying to get the family photo. When it was taken everyone insisted it was too dark and it was a bad idea to shoot it against the light.

Sometimes you just have to keep your cool and follow your intuition.

Maybe.

Always.

Till tomorrow

Love

Mikey