Friday, May 20, 2011

The grunt work of lust



I'm jonesin' y'all, oh yeah, I'm full of desire. I want, therefore I am.

What do I want? My new sofabed. I want an iphone, a piece of media I feel would enhance everything. I want more herbs for my potted herb garden.

That's just about the stuff, though. My lusts run so much deeper than a desire for things. For instance, I long to touch the essence of the divine - how presumptuous of me, eh? That particular spiritual lust is why I pray every day. I pray with a passion because if I can sense the greater wisdom of it all even for a split-second, I am resplendent with happiness ... until I start longing for the connection again. That's part of what is so arduous about lust; it can only be temporarily satisfied. yeah.

I could get into how I jones for conversations and interactions with the people I love. But I think everyone knows how that feels, yes? It's enough to simply admit I am a human being with a passionate nature. The Buddhists suggest letting go of desire. Probably they're right about that. Jonesing for whatever or whomever is rather enlivening up to a point. It becomes a bit oppressive after awhile, or if I'm tilting too intensely into it. My guess is that it's the over-the-top aspect of desire that the Buddhists try to release. Those Buddhists are so smart!

Today I am in love and in lust with this beautiful day, the clear air, the blooming roses, all the different kinds of clouds floating around overhead. Oh man, what a day. I'm going to work in a little while. Letting go of my desire to possess this day, instead going into the office to work on clients, will be strenuous. Ah the grunt work of lust ... it builds character, right? I hope so!

15 comments:

ellen abbott said...

how could you not? all that beauty all around.

Jo said...

Goodness, Reya, when looked at in the context of your post subject, those photos look rather...well, lustful!

Enjoy the beauty around you and bring some of that 'desire to possess the day' into the office with you.

Carpe Diem, right? Enjoy!

Susan Carpenter Sims said...

Lust has been in the forefront of my life lately too. One of the things I've discovered about lust is that by embracing it and simply letting it be, the experience of it becomes satisfying in and of itself. I'm really glad I learned that too, because I used to let lust lead me around by the libido. Not good.

Reya Mellicker said...

Lust used to lead me around as if I were leashed to it, Susan. I know exactly what you're talking about. I've been making a lot of space for all my feelings lately. Give 'em inch, they take a mile, oh yeah!

Jo - yes - did it on purpose. You have a sharp eye, very cool that you picked up on it!

Linda Sue said...

want not


your photos as usual are OHHHH worthy!

Fresh Garden said...

Absolutely fantastic!
Thanks for sharing, you're wonderful!

Elizabeth said...

What a very rude flower in the second picture.
Poor things --desire is their very all.......

Without desire we are very dull indeed.
Most good stories are about DESIRE one way or another


without desire we are dull as dull

well, what would you like to do today?

I don't mind

What we need is: I MADLY DESIRE TO GO TO THE MAIRA KALMAN SHOW
or I madly desire to save the world
or get new shoes......
or in fact anything.

Happy w/e, Reya

Reya Mellicker said...

It's a rude flower? It's the bud of a magnolia, just about to unfurl. All of y'all who are seeing other things in that magnolia, well ... tsk tsk!!

Just kidding.

Desire is good to kick one's ass and get things going, but it can be onerous. I wonder if I spelled that correctly.

California Girl said...

I miss the magnolias in the South. So large, white & soft. I miss the dogwood, azalea, camellia, gardenia. The northeast generally doesn't grow any of them well. Sprng in the South, Summer in the West, Fall in New England and Winter...the Rockies or Sierra Nevada I guess.

steven said...

i like the heated feeling of desire for anything. i read sufi poetry and feel the edge of their humanness and then their not-of-this-worldness all swirling into some marbled rendering of the human condition and think yeah my boy i've been in that moment of seeing the entire thing be as shallow or as deep as you can manage. my dad assured me that at some point i'd know what it was like to not think with my dick. to hear that from him was so reassuring and so frightening at the same time. i remember wondering, what could that be like? how do you manage that sort of messed up way of living?! so i can tell you, it's like standing on the fulcrum of a teeter-totter tipping this way and that! fun and unbalanced all at the same time!!! oh so cool post reya!! steven

Reya Mellicker said...

Steven!!

Jo said...

Steven!

(ha!)

steven said...

reya! jo! wha!!!!! ha!!! steven

C.M. Jackson said...

it has been a long winter...enjoy the feelings of spring springing into summer...beautiful photos-c

Reya Mellicker said...

I am dancing in alignment with the season, for sure. It's grunt work I tell you!!

Steven and Jo!! Ha!! Par-tay.