Earth’s shadow kissed the moon early this morning.

I went outside to watch it and this is what came to my mind.

EEK! LIPS!
Earth’s shadow kissed the moon early this morning.
I went outside to watch it and this is what came to my mind.

Has that ever happened to you?

Anyway, I’m really pleased with the graphic I made to go with my quip. Feel free to download it and share it around.

I plan to use the graphic as the calling card for my upcoming SEO business. Words are what drive search engines and if you’re really good with how words work (and I am) then you can be good at SEO if you also know the ultra-techie geeky stuff (which I will).

But for now, I’m just showing off my clever quip and the graphic that goes with it.

“Imagine living the life you imagined.” A most profound sentence. My most profound sentence. For now.

Today is April 1, April Fool’s Day.

Today is also Holy Thursday in the Roman Catholic Church, a moveable feast. Holy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter Sunday which is the first Sunday after the first full moon (which was last night, March 31) after the Vernal Equinox (which is March 21). Last night’s full moon was a blue moon, meaning it’s the second full moon in a month, an occurrence so rare that it happens only once “in a blue moon.” Rarer still (only a few times a century) is the occasion of two blue moons in one year, but that is the case this year, 1999, the last year before the odometer of human endeavor turns to Y2K. That makes now an extremely auspicious time.

Holy Thursday commemorates the last supper and the origination of the Christian priesthood – “Do this in memory of me” and all that. I was born on Holy Thursday. Being raised Roman Catholic I took that as a sign that I might be a priest. However, two years of study for the priesthood, sequestered in a seminary, cured me of that illusion.

I still celebrate Holy Thursday as an extra birthday though. That it falls on April Fool’s Day this year is fitting. That way I can claim both the priest and the fool as alter (altar?) identities.

“Imagine living the life you imagined.” is the magic of the magician. In the Tarot’s Major Arcana, the magician is card number one, the card of creative power, depicting a robed figure transmuting inspiration from the heavens to manifestation on earth. I identify with the magician, where “the white lilies of pure abstract thought intertwine with the red roses of desire” to direct the generative powers of will.

We are what we will. We possess the magical power of will. We have creative influence in our lives. Since the seventh of April marks my fiftieth birthday I am indulging myself in this exploration of imagination and will. I’m inviting you to accompany me. Humor me, it’s April Fool’s Day and we have just witnessed the last blue moon of this millennium. Now is an auspicious time. Always.

Ask along with me: Is this the life I imagined? Yes? No? Somewhat?
Ask along with me: Could I imagine it differently, more beautifully?
Ask along with me: Will I believe in my ability to make it so?

Upon the mention of belief, the priest bursts into our inquiry. “Faith,” he intones, “is a gift from God.”

The magician, choosing to believe that belief is a choice, responds, “Faith is the first act of creation. You have faith once you have decided that you are guided.”

The fool, with the mind of a child, blurts out, “It’s simply make believe. Everything is make believe. You make what you believe. You make believe, that’s all.”

Ask along with me: Will I make myself believe? Will I imagine living the life I imagined? Will I conceive it? Will I believe it? Will I achieve it or receive it?

In the Tarot deck, even before the magician, comes the fool – card number zero, with the meaning: A choice is offered.

Imagine living the life you imagined.

© Ned Buratovich       April 1, 1999

Twelve years ago, on April Fools’ Day, I penned this piece to remind myself about magic, manifestation and imagination. Twelve years later, it’s time to remind myself again.

Back when I wrote this piece, I honestly didn’t know that Henry David Thoreau had already coined the phrase, “Live the life you have imagined.” I guess I wasn’t as literate as I thought, but maybe it’s better just to be a creative conduit for universal intelligence.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” -Henry David Thoreau

Not really “baring,” maybe more like wearing one of those peek-a-boo thingies that leave some of the naughty bits covered and some peeking out. What you’re in for, then, is not so much a “soul baring” as a “soul peek-a-boo.”

Or maybe it’s time for me to just start being stranger or at least behaving a bit more strangerously. I’m going to start telling people that I’m a make-up artist, because I make things up: words like “strangerously,” for instance.

Made up words like that are fun, you kind of know what they might mean, but then again you might not. That’s just about the way I’m feeling about life about now: kind of knowing what it means, but maybe not. You know the feeling: like being in a leaky lifeboat, adrift in a sea of uncertainty.

What a way to start a new year!? Certainly a kick in the creative pants of this make-up artist, making it up as he goes along, semi-baring his peek-a-boo soul to strangers and embarking upon his year of living strangerously.

I’m in the midst of a major reorganization and of all my websites and re-shuffling of content amongst and between them.

Many of my web design posts here will be migrated to my web design portfolio site: imagiNed-Web-Design.com. My social justice commentary will go to new website dedicated only to that, Im-agi-Ned.com, and this site, imagiNed.com, will become a repository of my conceptual, funny, silly, zany creations.

As I’ve said in the sidebar for the last few months now: I have over 100 essays, imaginary characters, comedy bits, and other conceptual artworks just waiting for me to redesign this site so they can fit in. It looks like it’s all going to come together in January 2011.

World Peace and Social Justice are extremely important issues to me. I do as much as I can to encourage others to work towards both. Some of my creative artworks and written commentary in that realm are angry and insistent and important enough to warrant their own website, which I’m also launching during this winter of 2010.

imagiNed.com is meant to be creative and fun and lighthearted and silly. Unfortunately, agitating for change in our nation and in our world doesn’t feel so lighthearted, even if it can be done creatively, so therefore: Im-agi-Ned.com