About once every year or so, I take a critical look at the design of my web site and now our popular newsletter and wonder what I could do to create a theme background for them. The site has been changed several times over the last four years, but it doesn't really have a theme backdrop. I deliberately keep it simple for easy viewing and administration. Once again it is screaming at me to do something. I have spent some time looking over ready made themes and theme pages, but nothing has come up New Age. Today the light bulb lit up over my head, what would be a New Age Theme? If you log onto my site you will find several text definitions of New Age, but when it comes to the real world that we live in how would I picture it? There is always a tendency to use esoteric, abstract or religious symbols, angels, trumpets, clouds, butterflies, or symbols of ancient generations. Then I had a thought, what if we all had the chance to change the theme of the world how would we paint it differently than it is now? Would we be walking around in long robs, with hoods in our bare feet? Would the world be painted in pastels with fuzzy outlines or would they be bright contrasting colours with dark borders? Would there be no roads or vehicles because we had finally mastered the art of travel without machines. Then would our backgrounds be painted with empty fields, rolling hills, trees and butterflies. Would we have come to terms with the over population issues and now live in small communities without the background of noisy cities and skyscrapers? Would our villages still be silhouetted by church steeples and statues and our skies painted in vapour trails from high flying aircraft? One might create a little smirk on one's face right about now as he/she tries to picture the new world. If you were to take a minute or so to reflect on your childhood and the surroundings that you were raised in and then look around you now, it would not be the same. Over the years of your life you have changed the background of your physical existence. You have done it individually and en masse. You have co-operated with others to create the backdrop for your new play, for the life that you are experiencing at this moment, and for the most part you have done it subconsciously. There are a few dreamers that envision these changes and then seek to make them happen, builders, architects or city planners etc. are some of them. But for the masses we simply accept them as a part of change. The change is a physical manifestation of a collective thought that we have about how our environment should be, and we are always arguing and fighting about it. How many of us actually spend any quiet time and imagine how we personally would paint the world. What would be your personal image of the New Age? No one's image would be exactly like another's; the images would be as diverse as the individuals that are making them up. As whimsical as these thoughts may be, we all have the opportunity and power to create the world that we envision. We are making it up right now, so why not do it the way that we want with some forethought about how it should be on a conscious level. The first step for change comes from your imagination, then a thought about change and then speaking your thoughts and watching them manifest into the finished piece. A painter has the image in her/his mind first, as does the sculptor or the architect and the planners, all things that you see now came from someone's imagination. The funny thing is, is that you do not have to be anyone of those people in order to make the changes happen. But what you have to do is think about it first and have it in your mind. Your thoughts along with similar thoughts of others will manifest what you have imagined. This is how it has always worked; this is how you can make it happen in your lifetime. It is not too late just because you are old, your thoughts know no age, and they are added to the thoughts of others to create your imagined world no matter how old your are, the circumstances of your life, or the wealth you may have or not have. All thoughts carry the same weight or relevance. You can create the New World, but first you must take the time to see it in your head and it has to be your focus, that's all you need and that's all you have to do, it is really that simple. For me I have moved past the angels and trumpet symbols and my world is very simple and uncluttered. I do not see the need to work my butt off twelve hours a day for technology that is sitting at home talking to each other and partying it up while I'm away trying to support them. New Age is now, it is the farmer in the field ploughing the earth and it is the ambulance racing down the street screaming to get the hell out of the way. It is the skyscraper moving up and tumbling down. It is the gun and the knife; it is the hand of love and friendship stretched out to help another. It is what we are and what we are doing now. New Age is not about something that is going to happen in the future, that will never come. It is about the starving and the waste, the poverty and excessive abundance. New Age is what you see, hear, feel, taste and smell at this moment. The world is a physical representation of your thoughts and your position relative to your environment and the others around you. If you are to create a Future Age then take a few moments every day to imagine it, hold that image in your mind and then make it your New Age, now. How am I going to paint the background of my New Age site? I don't have a clue, it is already New Age. Possibly I could create a mosaic of now images flowing into the mouth of a gigantic blender. The issues with "now," are that by the time you start creating it, the image is old news and is no longer "now." I have been on this ride many times and I am just not that great of an artist. I may be in contradiction with myself as a New Age Writer, but my feet are firmly planted on the ground and spirituality is all about my daily life in the physical world. I definitely know that I do not want clouds, angels and trumpets (Not that there is anything wrong with that). I want to accept the way that I am now, change the things that I do not like and make way for improvement. I have been able to do that all my life, I am doing that now and perhaps just I want to create change just for the sake of change and that is reason enough. After this entire mental workout, the issue of my site's background remains at a stalemate. |
