Listening to a podcast last week I found self affirmation in the statement that, “the opposite of courage is conformity.”
I have always been fiercely individualistic but at the same time community minded as a shepherd with a flock. I never played team sports like football and if the music is playing I’ll dance alone. It only takes one jump to break the ice and when one person is enjoying the water they soon get joined by another. Then pretty quickly every one wants a part of the action.
Most people face the elevator doors, either as it’s “the done thing” and this is conformity. Enter the full elevator, face the back, smile and look everyone in the eye. By the time you get out of the elevator everyone will be smiling. My point is that in general, we are a global society of conformists following arbitrary rules, laws and social norms without even questioning the origin of the “norm”
I had a cat called “Norm.” I never wanted a cat but my friend died and I reluctantly took Norm and fed him the best food that I could afford, kangaroo meat and fish. Norm was fiercely individualistic but Norm was also everyone’s friend and would comfort many of my friends from overseas and all around the world during parties around fires. Norm would rub against their legs and they pat and scratch his chin. Norm would sit on their laps and keep my friends warm and Norm would comfort them in their loneliness.
There is confort in what we get used to and there is comfort to be found in the norm. However there is one constant in the universe and that constant is “change” and it takes courage to be a nonconformist and to embrace change. It’s through change that we grow, drop old habits that don’t serve us and in the process become better people.
Over the past 10 years some of the no serving habit that I have dropped include, smoking tobacco 9 years ago, drinking alcohol 6 years ago, and in the past months I have stopped eating meat and replaced it with nuts, seeds and mushrooms for a source of protein. However the one thing that I have stopped, I was not physically addicted to, I had developed a repeative pattern of behavioral cannabis smoking and for 35 years had smoked cannabis, eaten it and even rubbed cannabis oil on my skin. I had developed an extreme tolerance to the THC in cannabis and no matter how much I smoked, I didn’t get high and I could fully function in society. It’s now 10 weeks that I haven’t consumed any cannabis and I now get “high” from my daily breathwork, yoga and exercise regime which releases endorphins like oxytocin and human growth hormone, metabolites T3 and T4. I feel strong , fit, fast and most importantly I feel that I am a positive role model for my three sons and my community.
I just got off the bus and thanked the driver Scott. He said, “I didn’t recognize you without the hair.”
I’ve just recently cut my dreadlocks and beard off after seven years of growth, I replied, “most people haven’t.”
He said half joking and half serious, “You look smarter without it”.
My point is that conformity is so pervasive that some people find it difficult to accept anyone that’s different to the norms of society so they wear the latest fashion, get married, stay in abusive relationships, go to school, “get a haircut and get a real JOB”, put their fork in the let hand and knife in the right and all the time they are compromising their ideals and all the while they can’t even clean their bedroom and make their bed in the morning, metaphorically speaking.
In 2014, I took a Nazarite Vow from the book of Numbers, chapter 6. Many people passed judgement and made assumptions about me because of how I looked with long dreadlocks and an uncut beard. The Nazarite Vow is a vow of separating oneself unto “the Lord.” It was taken by Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist, James the Brother of Jesus and Jesus Himself. This Nazarite Vow say that my knowledge of the Spirit inside all of Us is strong, unwavering and true. It’s the spirit of no judgement and not eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
After I first took the Nazarite Vow, broke it by drinking wine, eating grapes, sultanas and by approaching a dead body of a friend who had died in the street in an attempt to resuscitate him. His Spirit/Soul had left and I failed my test but I let my hair grow due to my vanity. In my meditations I came to the realization that I had broken my Vow and seven days after on the morning of the full moon before Easter, I took of my hair, burnt it and reaffirmed my Nazarite Vow.
I am not my hair, nor am I my wardrobe. I am a biochemical quantum physics meat antennae full bacteria and I am a vibrating community of living organisms absorbing and emitting light through my DNA. Most of all, I am that I am, and I am a Soul, a Spirit, a tiny piece of the All Pervasive Energy of Source and You are too and when you open to your Higher Self, you can become anything you dream. Please enjoy my accompanying poetry.
You don’t have to be a poet to enjoy poetry You don’t have to be a bird to love sitting in a tree You don’t have to be famous to wear fancy pants Or Young beautiful and sexy to enjoy a dance
You don’t have to be young to listen to hip hop Who’s business is it if you only eat the muffin top And abundance or not, it’s fine for you to share Some of the best people that I’ve met never brushed their hair
You don’t have to be young to enjoy a Doof or rave It’s nobody’s business whether or not you shave You can enjoy your life with no husband or wife The inportant thing is that you live your own life
You can’t be a bully and be a gentle man Immerse yourself in love and you’ll be the best you can Every cat can become friends with a dog And enjoy the sunset sitting on a log
When there is no fear nobody feels forced You don’t have to whip a horse running round a race course Every one know that you are what you eat Mushrooms and nuts are protein and we don’t need meat
You can get a tan by sitting in the sunlight Not only sunscreen companies sell products by fright In a darkened room you make no vitamin Dee When you do your research this is what you’ll see
Pharmaceutical companies manipulate your fear You can go to a pub and drink water, not beer When you are uncomfortable you can change your position Processed and fried food have very little nutrition
You don’t have to be a genius to question marketing Coke doesn’t “add life” and is not “the real thing” To be well change your diet to alkaline from acid Lack of sleep makes your balls small and dick flacid
If you want to grow your hair take B17 You can still be fit and strong after you’re a teen And if you decide you can live 200 years When a loved one dies you don’t have to shed tears
Every one can shine and every one can be a poet By making your words rhyme and rhythm flow it You don’t have to love football just to be a man If you do what you love you’ll become the best you can
If you have wind, it’s ok to fart Cancer can be cured, so can a broken heart Anyone can learn to dance, anyone can sing When you chase your dreams you can become anything.
Recently, I have had 40 days and nights of deep self-reflection and introspection. In this time I rediscovered my faith in Spirit and Source and have grown immensely as a human in both strength, patience and spirit.
In November 2014, I came home from my employment as an English as a Second Language teacher. I had stopped at the green grocer to buy two big boxes of fruit and vegetables for my family when the storm hit and fist size hail smashed my car. I went and picked up and my young son from child care and it was also smashed up. I arrived home and I called to my older sons to come and help me carry up the fruit and vegetables that I had bought and as they came down to greet me they said, “Dad, the roof blew off.’
I replied, “thats a good chance for a change.”
That was the last day I shaved and the last day that I cut my hair. I took a Nazarite vow from the book of Numbers in the Old Testament and began to grow my hair to affirm my faith as a Rastafarian and Nazarite. On reflection, I believed this gave me the right to smoke cannabis too. I was wrong. I was vain. The Nazarite vow requires that I don’t touch a dead body, don’t cut my hair and don’t drink wine, alcohol or eat grapes from a vine or raisins. I stopped drinking alcohol in 2015. I bought a double decker bus and created the Free Blue Library, giving away donated books as I travelled. However in 2017 I arrived in Nimbin for the Mardi Grass Help End Marijuana Prohibition Rally and met a talented young artist named Daniel. Six weeks later I was going for my morning run when I came across Daniel dead in the street from and overdose of something as he’d chocked in his vomit. I selflessly began resuscitation and his cold blue bare feet began turning pink, but after 30 minutes the police and ambulance arrives and they tried too before he was pronounced dead.
According to my Nazarite vow I should have cut my hair off seven days after that. I didn’t. I was vain. I was selfish. In my recent self reflection, I realise that I had lost my self respect and integrity. I had lost respect for the law and although there may be things in this world that we not agree with, it is still important to offer respect of all things, all people, and all situations and this means to be without judgment and ego.
One important word that I learnt while living in Nimbin was a Bundjalung word, “Gurrimah” meaning: to care for and nurture, to have respect, no judgement and no jealousy. I have embraced this word in my life.
While I was in my deep self-reflection I wrote the following piece of poetry titled “Respect” and I would like to take this opportunity to share it with you as this is a time when we can all benefit from more respect of all living things, and people as respect is a right of all and thus by default it is also a responsibility of all.
It begins with self respect and respecting this sacred vessel of light that Our Spirit and Our Source incarnated into so that we can experience life in this Paradise, This Garden of Eden we call Earth where our temptation is “to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” This fruit is named “Judgement” and with respect, there is no judgement. We all make mistakes. I know I did, and I know I have made many mistakes. So in keeping my integrity and in keeping respect of my faith and my Nazarite vow, I shall be cutting off all the hair from my head, reaffirming my Nazarite vow and being born once more as a child of Source and Spirit YHWH הוה
777
Respect
Respect begins with respect of self, when we nurture our bodies into health
Respect has many elements of compassion that we may never know how another’s life was fashioned
Respect of others has no judgement. Respect of all is like ointment
Respect of women and of men, as the bee, the flower and the rooster, the hen
Respect acknowledges other’s pain, as farmers and fishers respect wind and rain
Respect ancestors, grandfathers and mothers, babes in arms, cousins, sisters, brothers
Respect sees that we are all different and each life incarnate is heaven sent
With respect we all are free to grow and learn, let others be
Respect acknowledges cause and effect, if we disrespect others, others disrespect
With disrespect we fall from grace as disrespect is a loss of face
Respect acknowledges another’s grief, suffering, trauma and belief
Respect is when we quietly listen and learn from others and are not dis-ing
Disrespect is speaking to others bad, makes ourselves look bad and others sad
Disrespect is when we decide to laugh at others and deride someone else’s truth and way of being, disrespect is judgement that we are seeing
Disrespect denies another’s truth, disrespect is judgement and abuse
With respect we learn and know, Respect is how we learn and grow
Respect the guest and the host. Respect accepts and does not boast
Respect others and they will respect you. Humility grows respect in you.
When you make mistakes apologise as it builds respect in other’s eyes
We can’t know everything, all can learn, with respect we are humble and then respect is earned
With respect we self reflect, drop ego and we self direct
As disrespect leads to hurt and pain, grief, loss suffering and is no one’s gain
As sure as Thunderclouds bring us rain, respect leaves rainbows after pain
Respect the rich and the poor, welcome both at your front door
There is no judgement with respect and to judge another is disrespect
Respect is when we listen quiet but disrespect can cause a fight
Respect is free from arrogance and is to walk in another’s shoes and pants.
Copyright 2021 Thundercloud Repairian aka James Arthur Warren aka Mooganaar
5:30am I wake up, meditate, do yoga, walk down stairs and listen to the inner voice.
7:30 walk down stairs, pee, breakfast banana, mandarine, and orange juice I ask myself, “who is Effin the Geffin and Niffle the Whiffle?” In that moment, that instant of inspiration, I know there is something to be written and shared. I grab my phone and begin to write.
Stanza one finished, makes little sense, so the decision is made to write the second stanza using the same “nouns” mixed in a different way to bring about completion of an idea, a scene, a description of some imaginary far away land. Invent new verbs, and add to poem.
8:30 am Having completed two stanzas, I begin to think, “what the actual fuck have I just written?” and “I think this needs a drawing to put it into context.” A quick search comes up with a long piece of paper, pen and watercolours.
Begin to draw. Efin the Geffin with very big feet and Niffle the Whiffle, tall and thin, road, Spifle Wople Woden tree, dick. WTF? Dicks are are funny, especially with an animal head and caterpillar legs. Kunts with big feet are funny too. Mountain range, watercolours splashed on quickly. 8:50 new employee arrives early for work, text message please give me 10 minutes to complete this art work.
8:58am BOOM Publish. What the Actual Fuck is this?
Dittle Tiddle Ditch by Thundercloud Repairian
Effin the Geffin loved Niffle the Whiffle,
Where the Spifle Wople Woden grew in Dittle Tiddle Ditch
They danced about the Foddle Frop
,and the learning of the Derms,
while Mafle Bapple Twadle Po swilshed in Fardle Berms
Niffle the Whiffle said to Effin the Geffin,
The Fardle Berms are hilshy wadleshop the knowdle Derms
The Foddle Frop hashbo titch wop
Mafle Bapple Twadle Po
In Dittle Tiddle Ditch where Spifle Wople Woden Grow
Thundercloud Repairian 