Author Archives: C.J. Birch

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About C.J. Birch

I was born on Thursday 13th July 1972 in Harare, Zimbabwe, to an English father and a South African mother. I was christened Catherine Jane Birch and - from the outset - I've been inquisitive about most of life's elemental questions; its myriad paradoxes and unpredictable anomalies, their sources, solutions and their propensity for unmitigated change. From a very young age I was captured by the enigmatic life process, the challenge of living and what it 'means' to be alive. I spent countless invaluable hours in nature, watching the world at its work. I had a fascination for everything around me, curious about what things were, how and why they worked, what they represented in relation to one another. I began writing at the age of 5. Journals, stories and poetry, illustrations, have been a constantly evolving source of quiet self-reflection, expansive expression throughout my life. I'm fortunate to have travelled many miles, to have visited a variety of differing destinations and though I've learned a lot about life in the last 50 years, my questions about its complexities are neverending. I currently live in the south-east of England, having returned to the United Kingdom after a particularly harrowing period of 7 allegedly 'invisible' or 'non-existent' years of absolute hell in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. I've decided to erase those memories, altogether. My 15-year-old son lives in Switzerland, with his father.
13 Jul 2015 · 14:30

Hello World! Thankyou for today – Blog No. 1

Happy Birthday

Mantras are vital to your wellbeing.  That means it is important to choose wisely those affirmations that will get you from A to B.  What you choose to get you from B to where you need to be is your business.  It is a good idea to start your day with an affirmation of gratitude.  For instance:

‘Thankyou that the earth did not explode last night.’  Or, ‘Thankyou for creating this time in which we find ourselves alive.’  Or yet still, ‘Thankyou that I have a strong body and mind and that I chose to wake up today.’

Any such affirmations, mantras, will see you through your day.  It would seem that the humans have become accustomed to taking everything for granted.  That is, they have forgotten – or pretend not to remember – how much energy it takes for Nature to wake up every morning.  They assume the sun will rise.  They assume that the air they breathe will keep cleaning itself.  They assume that they reserve the right of ownership, i.e. that it means everything to ‘own’ things.  Considering that is their way and they will not easily be dissuaded from it, at certain times it pays to be a commodity of sorts.  Being bought and sold is what human trafficking – slavery – is all about.   It is not what humans were made for, hence they find it uncomfortable.  Both the subject of their indiscriminate selling of each other, and the object.

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11 Jul 2015 · 08:21

The Luck of the Draw – Blog No. 37

luckofthedraw

The luckiest is the one whose gun works.  Whether it is sunrise or dawn, or somewhere therebetween, a working gun will always be handier than a sword – or a gun that backfires, for instance.  You cannot be sure at the moment of firing whether the gun will work, or whether it won’t.  That is half the reason for using a gun in the first place – an accurate shot has at least a 50% chance of hitting its target.  Those are particularly good odds, given the windage, etc.  An inaccurate shot can also hit bull’s eye.  It depends on the bend of the trajectory.

If you choose your numbers with intent, your outcome will be one thing.  Lucky for some, not for others.  In that way luck of the draw means selecting the correct numbers that come up.  How you do that is up to you.  If you should choose rather with presence of mind, your end result will be better than predicted.  Remember that better is where to be, before you get to best.  When you can improve upon what was projected, predicted, without undue concern for the outed repressions that attempt to get in the way of said betterment, then it becomes clear that life – as it should be – is on track.

Should you be choosing a card from a deck, I would suggest deciding to be lucky before you take your pick.  That way, you can feel your way into the divide that will guide you either forwards or backwards to the card that needs reading.  Then luck of the draw is in the number that presents itself to you.  You need to realise that the energy expended in the direction of selection is returned twice-fold when the selection is correct.  That is how.  The why?  Why not.

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10 Jul 2015 · 16:49

Dogs – Blog No. 36

walkies

Walkies

So much the sideline
on a straining leash,
Brought to heel
Time and again
With a swift kick in the ribs.
Winded, panting, and
In pain,
But still straining
Against the guideline
Blindly
Obeying the wild inside.

I am tempted to yank that choke chain
With brute force
Every single time
I find myself trying to teach this old dog new tricks.

I have subsequently learnt:

The dog of desire can lend us some manners.
Some real community manners.
Those that do not over-consider one man against another
but
Those that see the expanse for what it is.
Because what it is, is important to know.
Like why a dog can lick its own lipstick.

The rooster of lust can tend our handlers.
Like pitbulls fight,
Cocks fight.
Handlers must be handled in the first place.
Then they can handle their lust.

To become at ease in one’s primal hide
One must wear it first.
To understand a dog, a cat, a duck in one’s home
One must first open one’s home to all these creatures.
Even to a snake, a pig.  A whole family of cockroaches.
It is a good lesson in who is bigger than who.

A heart feels desire, lust, passion, primal truth.
Imagine what a job it must have keeping these secrets.

©

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10 Jul 2015 · 09:53

Transgression – Blog No. 35

transgression

For one thing, transgression is better than either regression or aggression.  It suggests a daring.  Courage.  A questioning.  Transgressors are those who will ask questions and receive answers until they come to a clear understanding of why and how this life is like it is.  Transgression does not suggest to me evil intent.  Evil intent is not mischievous, it is sinister and vicious.  Transgressing is basically stepping out of your bounds.  You cannot half-transgress.  You either do or you don’t.  It is like parachuting.  Your ‘chute either opens or it doesn’t.  You find that out when it happens.

Transgression tends to cause stress.  Not only for those who are prepared to buck the system, but also for those who are obliged to witness said bucking.  If your transgression should involve an other, or others, you can be sure that there will be an implicit trust between said members.  They will be well-attuned to one another, to their environment.  They communicate – demonstrate – an actuality – a firm standing for sound principles and a refusal to be subjugated by corruption.

Transgressions happen.  That is not to say that they are acceptable, accepted.  Transgressing will often result in frowns, lectures.  Tut-tutting and the big one – complete disapproval.  An attempt at tightening the head-screws, if you like.  Luckily when there is a reason for transgressing, transgressors do not pay attention to head-screws – or fuckheads, even.  There is no time left in mind to listen to a bigot’s one-sided opinion, or the whining denials in an idiot’s lies.

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06 Jul 2015 · 09:32

Bleeding – Blog No. 34

Bleedingout

Bleeding is all very well.  It has been practiced for centuries.  It has traditionally been seen as a kind of purging, a ridding the body of contamination.  Contamination is a big word.  It should not be thrown around without respect for the fact that without the de-contaminant the contamination will spread like wildfire.  That is the way with disease.  In an equation that looks the way that does, I would suggest that the best place to find yourself is inside the de-contaminant.  A contamination is a negative.  A de-contamination is a positive – and positives give you wings.  Negatives tend to get you nowhere.

Bleeding is not the only way to find out that you – and others – are alive.  There are quite a few alternatives.  Now and again I choose search and salvage over destroy and discard.  It yields the most remarkable truths – perhaps truths that are truer than those extracted using force or manipulation.  This exercise in restraint takes extraordinary self-control.  If you should be in any doubt about that you are wrong.  Should you try your true self on or take your reality to task, you will then understand the reason(s) for your being and the need for total exposure when it comes to yourself and the speaking of your truth.

Truth – in part – is our life-blood.  Denial of the truth is like a clotted artery.  A cluttered socket.  Before truth can bleed out – which at this pace will take a million tomorrows – the clots need removing and a wound needs opening.  Once the clots have been removed and the truth has bled out, the coagulant will step in and seal the wound.  I was once told that open wounds tell love stories to the sky.  I believed it, not because I am naïve or gullible – but because it is true.  It always was.

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03 Jul 2015 · 11:10

Fantasy – Blog No. 33

fantasy

There are days here and there when I wonder what fantasy actually is.  Apart from being a state of mind, it is clearly an ideal place to be at some stage in your daily thinking.  Fantasy can be anything from reality right through to illusion – and everything in between.  Fiction is not fantasy.  Fantasy is very real.  It takes an extraordinary level of concentration to maintain the purity of thought required for the creation – or the construction, if you like – of a flawless fantasy.  It takes some practice, too.

Fantasy requires minds to find a steady stream of consciousness through which their ideal can be projected.  To find the ideal you need to be a positive thinker.  To find a steady stream is essential.  Fantasies do not travel well under bumpy conditions.  They are delicate in nature.  Nature does not have fantasies about killing, or causing suffering to living things.  There will be fantasies found about eating, feeding frenzies.  About sex.  That is perfectly natural.  Nature takes time to build a fantasy with the reality; she does not waste time dreaming about pain.

Fantasies are for the bravehearts.  For those that dare to think big.  Small fantasies are not necessarily smaller than any bigger ones you may have along your way.  It depends how deep small goes.  How shallow your perception.  When you understand the motivation behind a fanciful way of choosing to live, you will understand how absolutely essential the propagation of fantasy is as a very real – and viable – reality.

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29 Jun 2015 · 08:43

A good day for a Zulu wedding – Blog No. 31

culture

Culture is important to those that have one.  A culture develops through the centuries and is dependent on its people living, its ancestors.  We all have ancestors.  Some are just better remembered than others.  There is little that is interesting about those people lacking a fundamental history about which they can feel personally proud, no matter what that history entailed.  We have all experienced exploitation and violence in our times.  We have all had to swallow our pride at one time or another.  Should your culture be dull and empty of resonance, that can be considered a problem of sorts.  There are ways to remedy this deficiency, but they are few and far between.

A good way to begin the remedying of a dying culture is to give it a place in your future.  Find out what you are, who is in you.  The coding of your DNA can give you this information.  Once you know the scope of your coding then you need to contemplate how much of your person has evolved through nurture – and what percentage of you is a given from Nature.  These kinds of names and numbers are important if you wish to survive a cultural extinction.

There is an absolute strength and a deep humility in an established culture.  It is the balance of these factors – amidst others – that determines the success and reach of a culture’s influence.  A beautiful people generally have a beautiful culture.  If you can recognise beautiful people you will intuitively understand that.  Those with beautiful cultures live with the knowledge that the connection they have with their past is what will carry them into the future.  We can all learn from those people.

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26 Jun 2015 · 17:26

Revolution – Blog No. 32

revolution

Revolutions are occasionally necessary, despite their untimely arrival.  The hows and whys of their happening are perhaps obvious to some, to others their actuality is a surprise.  A revolution can be a pleasant surprise.  It can also cause a nightmare for those who will circumvent change.  Change comes when it is ready.  It cannot be subverted.  It can be delayed, naturally, but it cannot be prevented.  Change inspires fear in the hearts of those who need the order of the old establishment to conceal their misdeeds.  Misdeeds are misdeeds – they stand out in the barren landscape of inescapable lies.  Lies are lies – nothing can hide their devastation from the truth.

Some people would prefer not to have to revolve.  Or evolve, it would seem.  That is unfortunate when those people have no choice.  Some will go around and around and around, for eternity.  Others will pull their particular revolution straight and leave themselves an open passage to the future.  There will always be a future if you choose to believe that it exists.  Knowing it exists is one thing, the other is finding it.  If you do not know at this point where you are in your own future then it would be safe to say that you probably won’t have one to speak of.  If you were alive inside your future you would not have to find it – and nor would you still be searching.  You would instead be sitting – and waiting.

The purpose of any revolution is to show you something new.  New is interesting, no matter how you may feel about it personally.  You can be part of a revolution or you can stand on the sidelines and watch it roll by.  Either way it will happen.  Revolutions don’t tend to ask for permission.  They always come at exactly the right time.  They know what their work is and they know why it needs doing.  Revolutions are worth the effort needed to set them in motion.  When they are successful, they take ideas and their people to new places.

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25 Jun 2015 · 14:28

Solitude vs Transference – Blog No. 31

moons

It is challenging to prevent yourself from practicing transference.  In your every exchange with another there will be energy expended in the direction of the other and there will be energy from the other that will find its way to you.  It is necessary to be selective with your energies.  It is wise in this life to interact with energies that bring out your best.  In this regard it is helpful to be of a positive mindset – optimists tend towards energies that lend themselves to development rather than destruction.  An important learning is which energies you are willing to accept and which energies you need to deflect.  Under no circumstances is it necessary to accept every energy that comes your way.

Solitude for many people is a plateau.  A place of repose.  It is not to say that solitude does not lend itself to development, but the nature of the progress made with yourself on your own is perhaps slower than the advances that can be made in relationships.  Naturally, it does depend on the status of the relationship you find yourself in.  If there is unnecessary stress in the relationships through which you choose to learn, it is better to take yourself out of those particular relationship equations.

Whether it can be said that solitude is preferable is a matter of personal opinion.  It depends on what kind of a relationship you have with yourself.  At times it is far more pleasant to be alone than it is to be with idiots.  That is not insulting to people in general, it is just how it is.  How you get ‘alone’ is your business.  Some can take themselves to that place and some cannot.  For those that cannot, it is a pity.

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24 Jun 2015 · 09:58

Stealing – Blog No. 30

onelittleprincess

If stealing is something you rely on for a living, you need to realise that the system has its hands around your throat.  When a person is forced – or chooses – to steal from another, no matter how much or how little the other has, it is a devastating sign that the world of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is going to implode.  A situation that exists which entices people of all descriptions to believe that they are better off in life – and the after-life – for their stealing from another, is not a situation I would choose to venture into.  I just wouldn’t.  Call it morals.  Call it values.  Call it whatever the fuck you like.  Labels matter to some people.

Shop-lifting is not a word many of us are unfamiliar with.  It is part of the capitalist system’s development.  Why shops that sell products that few can afford wonder when their shrinkage is annually fairly substantial is beyond comprehension.  That people should not steal is a commandment that has been around for a very long time.  That shops should be prohibitively expensive for most of the populace is not a commandment.  It should be.  Temptation is a dangerous pastime to foster.  As is envy.

Taking is not stealing.  As long as you take what is given.  When you take what is forbidden that is called stealing.  You don’t have, of course, to take a given – but at least in that situation you are given a choice.  It is when people are never given the choice that problems arise.  And problems that arise – particularly those that have been hidden beneath the carpet – are guaranteed to trip up the idiots.

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