Prefaces
Aluah Preface I
‘Aluah -- Keeper of the Vine’ is a collection of my personal writings and experiences about how we relate to Nature, others, and self.
While I have enjoyed many blessings, gifts, and talents in my life; my greatest challenge has been and still is confronting my own personal behaviors, traits, and attitudes that influence and control my responses to life situations.
We all find it difficult to confront ourselves, and we expend so much energy protecting and building up who and what we are – and mostly think of ourselves as being quite right on most things and maybe even a bit elevated above or simply better and wiser than others. The amazing thing in life is that we persist in this orientation, even when consequences show us differently – even though consequences may not always be expressed as a negative outcome but simply as a minimization of how good things could be.
Confronting oneself requires awareness, acknowledgment, and taking ownership of our behaviors, traits, and attitudes. To progress, we must try to understand where they came from, how they came to be, why they continue, and the part they play in life’s consequences. The goal is to develop positive responses to the situations that we encounter throughout our lives. The outcome is to live life more richly, fully, and happily.
So as you read my writings, I hope they speak something meaningful to you but certainly do not think that I wrote them about you. If you do, then join me in my struggle in trying to live this life that we have been given.
As you will see, I write without giving answers – just expressing where I’ve been and what I’ve been through – maybe not unlike you.
While I have enjoyed many blessings, gifts, and talents in my life; my greatest challenge has been and still is confronting my own personal behaviors, traits, and attitudes that influence and control my responses to life situations.
We all find it difficult to confront ourselves, and we expend so much energy protecting and building up who and what we are – and mostly think of ourselves as being quite right on most things and maybe even a bit elevated above or simply better and wiser than others. The amazing thing in life is that we persist in this orientation, even when consequences show us differently – even though consequences may not always be expressed as a negative outcome but simply as a minimization of how good things could be.
Confronting oneself requires awareness, acknowledgment, and taking ownership of our behaviors, traits, and attitudes. To progress, we must try to understand where they came from, how they came to be, why they continue, and the part they play in life’s consequences. The goal is to develop positive responses to the situations that we encounter throughout our lives. The outcome is to live life more richly, fully, and happily.
So as you read my writings, I hope they speak something meaningful to you but certainly do not think that I wrote them about you. If you do, then join me in my struggle in trying to live this life that we have been given.
As you will see, I write without giving answers – just expressing where I’ve been and what I’ve been through – maybe not unlike you.
Aluah Preface II
The poems, essays, stories, and drawings in ‘Aluah – Keeper of the Vine’ encompass my love for poetry, nature, philosophy, psychology, and learning what I can about myself, others, the natural world, and a Spiritual realm.
I write about what I have lived and thought, and in some cases with enough empathy to write about what someone else may have lived and thought.
My writings were written from 2006 to 2012, but represent my life experience of living in the world’s timeframe from 1950 to 2012. Throughout that timeframe, I have found that all people are uniquely different; yet each of us must deal with who we are and how we relate to ourselves, others, Nature and the Spiritual mysteries of the Universe.
While none – or at least most -- of my writings are not intended to provide answers; individually and collectively, I hope they stir some type of ponderance and thoughtfulness.
In sharing my writings with others, I have found that after reading only a few of them or maybe only one, we go off into various tangents and depths of introspection and exploratory conversation. Most often, we reach no conclusions – just expansion of thought. For that reason alone, I think my writings are worthy of your time and consideration. Enjoy what you find out about yourself in them.
I write about what I have lived and thought, and in some cases with enough empathy to write about what someone else may have lived and thought.
My writings were written from 2006 to 2012, but represent my life experience of living in the world’s timeframe from 1950 to 2012. Throughout that timeframe, I have found that all people are uniquely different; yet each of us must deal with who we are and how we relate to ourselves, others, Nature and the Spiritual mysteries of the Universe.
While none – or at least most -- of my writings are not intended to provide answers; individually and collectively, I hope they stir some type of ponderance and thoughtfulness.
In sharing my writings with others, I have found that after reading only a few of them or maybe only one, we go off into various tangents and depths of introspection and exploratory conversation. Most often, we reach no conclusions – just expansion of thought. For that reason alone, I think my writings are worthy of your time and consideration. Enjoy what you find out about yourself in them.