i've been called - 'different'... should I not be different?
you?
(That 'different' was a criticism)
"different" derives from a word meaning "to be apart" but that is appearance - no one is apart in fact, the more different i've become the more i've sensed at-one-with
i've been called - 'strange'... should I care?
you?
(That 'strange' was a humorous observation)
"strange" derives from a word meaning "external to, without, foreign" yet, the more strange i've become the more i've sensed at-one-with
what is not different? what is not strange? who decides? is it strange not to be strange?
i think a lot of people are strange for refusing to be strange
lazy conformity is strange!
are we to live like being pressed upon by a cookie cutter with only one shape - my mom used to have one of those cutters and out came cookies with the shapes of different animals
should everyone be an elephant a squirrel a monkey a someone else - then who?
i was born a wonder to evoke wonder - how about you?
have you chosen to be a wonder-ful being?
even if seen to be different strange
i'm not here to fit anyone's idea of anyone - how about you?
i'm dancing my dance a few may join me... likely no more than a few
still i'm i and so what i do is i
there is no space between i and i doing
when born, i am i dying, i am i between, i am i
i'll be i with or without applause or approval - how about you?
i'm not here even to try to be a Jesus or a Buddha - i is not into imitating
nothing in all nature imitates
the real i is inspired by others never mimicking
does a flower care if anyone notices its beauty or smells its scent?
the flower is i
few stop to adore the sun though benefiting from its radiance yet, the sun keeps shining
the sun is i
no "Hey! I'm up here. Stop ignoring me!"
the flower is being the flower it is not the flower another flower is or a non-flower is
the sun is being the sun it is not the moon or any other star
all beings in nature are and do what each is - in that 'it is'
what is that 'it is' i don't know... but i enjoy being it - how about you?
i pray to be a flower i pray to be a sun - how about you?
signed... wonderfully different wonderfully strange
P.S. i invite you to join me whatever your 'it is' is
*brian wilcox, 'it is,' 10.3.2026
*
Parrots live in the Western Lands; forest huntsmen net them, bring them here. Courtesans love to play with them, and so they are well known at Court, in and out all day. They're given golden cages to dwell in, but bolted in, their robes of plumes are ruined. Better a swan, or a crane . . . riding the winds high up, well known to the clouds where they fly.
-Han Shan - (Chinese: 寒山, "Cold Mountain")
There is a certain can-be-terrifying freedom about "riding the winds high up." Easier, yet less fulfilling, is living in a "cage." But you can have many, many friends there. You can have many friends in jail, but I do not recommend going there.
There is only one "winds high up." There is only one open sky. You were born with wings. You may meet few who understand you, for they do not understand themselves.
There are many cages. They are disguised, so they do not appear as cages. Yet, all are cages, no matter how bare or ornately adorned. All promise you something in return for paring your life down to be a captive to others' wishes, to fit in. One can live in a cage so long, they will not leave, even if the door is left wide open. They can adapt so well, they no longer remember they are in a cage.
To fly high up, we fly to our music. It has lived in us all along. And we dance our dance. Spirit likes to dance. Spirit is Breath, Wind.
We do this, not in opposition to others. Not with an elitist mentality; elitism belongs to cage-dwellers - ignorant people are the most prideful of all; the intelligent, wise among the humble.
Cage-dwellers look down on sky-flyers. Sky-fliers do not look down, they keep their sights above the ground.
*
When I began posting writings 25 years ago, I was a pastor of an evangelical church - that seems like worlds ago, a face I no longer wear. I started sending short writings by email to church members and others drawn to my meditation classes. I would post daily. A close friend was not pleased with the writings. She said people just needed me to write something to encourage them through the day.
I never followed my friend's advice. I kept writing what I was passionate about at the time of writing. I have been doing that for the last 25 years.
My writing, public speaking, teaching, and spiritual mentoring have always flowed from present experience, not from what is in a book or what some so-called authority said needed to be said or done. I have wanted people to feel the truth, not just hold to some ideas about it.
I have wanted to drop out of my head into my heart, and from that I have spoken and lived - yes, sometimes fell down, but always got back up. So, this has shaped my life, and my work with others - encouraging them in a heart-ful way, too.
What I have done - and do - is invitational, not to fit what others want, but to share with those who need what I have needed. I have written, not for the crowds, not even the religious or spiritual, but for those who do not follow the crowd. I have written to encourage and inform persons willing to be different, to be strange. I acknowledge that those who do not likely will not enjoy my work, or give it any attention. They may even think it is crazy stuff, so I am a nut, too.
I have no regrets about this way. Even though another friend, about 15 years later, told me I had only a small following because few people could understand what I was offering. Yet, unlike the first friend, she affirmed the work. She was strange and different, too. Different and strange is drawn to different and strange.
This second friend sent me a video to watch. She sent it to uplift me, to celebrate flying among the clouds and winds of lofty currents - the video opens this posting.
*
I have learned that being true to myself is what others most need - God shows up as you and me, as we are. A tree fits in with everything for being a tree. Everything is like that. Have you ever seen a hawk trying to be a turtle? Trees do not grow feathers, but chickens do, and birds do.
By being myself, I honor my ancestors, and I celebrate Spirit. By doing so, I love in the way no one else can love, while others love in the only way they can. By doing so, I do what I am, and who I am is the doing. In being myself, I am being true to everyone - to you. I am inviting others to have the courage to soar high in the skies: higher, higher, higher. The sky has no ceiling. The House of Love has no roof or walls. The Beloved is not somewhere else.
I cannot say this makes life easier - it may well not; it certainly has not made my life easier or more comfortable. I have lost two careers and almost everyone I was close to. My birth family did not support the changes they witnessed in me. I left a professorship, then left the pastorate, and later the church.
Yet, to live in a cage, one misses the joy known only to those who ascend into the rare air. Those who do ascend discover, at the same time, they have become more here in this world. Intimacy expands with ascent, and one finds that, to ascend, they have never gone anywhere but here.
*
Hopefully, by living yourself - not in conformity or mediocrity, not to fit in - others will see that is how you love them, and they will aspire to leave the cage and fly - even before they know what it means to do so. No one knows what it means to do so, until they do so: and, then, we may still not know. The skies do not mind our not-knowing. Our wings will still lift us up, and we will soar with the wafting of the winds. We were born for this. The sky loves us, welcomes us home, and we become lovers, inviting others home.
