Photography by Scott Chaffee | Sand Dunes 2016

From an early age we are taught to be something else, something different other than who we are, to conform to the "norm" and to not be authentically ourselves. It is carried on into adulthood. When one reaches their breaking point, they exude silent screams of the soul. Suppression, of any kind, has the potential to penetrate deeply, bleeding into the lives of humanity, through terrorism, abuse, and even through karmic family history.

We slowly suffocate ourselves, being force feed into our minds with the intention to distract and numb our existence. 

Do you remember what it felt like to be a kid? Going outside to play ball or having a birthday party where nothing else mattered than stuffing cake in your friend's face? The joy of meeting a new friend or secretly spying on your crush on the playground? Maybe you remember when your parent promised you time together and let you down on more than one occasion? Have you felt left out because you looked a certain way or didn't dress like everyone else? How did you feel when someone blamed you for something you didn't do and felt no one believed you? These are all experiences. These are all Real. A moment we feel, we think, and are taught something about ourselves, the people in our lives, and the many shades of the behaviors and tendencies in the world. Even the seemingly simplest or "stupidest" things are still something deep in our memory, "stuff" we carry inside our backpack of emotional negligence and internal suffocation. 

Memories or emotions that have yet to be dealt with can often spread into various areas of our lives, intoxicating  the root of our beliefs, sabotaging our relationships, poisoning our thoughts, and influencing our habits.

There are programs everywhere.  From the words of society, fashion trends, movies, music, corporate advertising, generational and cultural "norms'', we subconsciously are being trained to believe what is beautiful, what is sexy, what is success, what is acceptable.. and what is normal. What are you buying into?  What are you still holding on to, and why?

As a friend of mine says "Question everything, especially your questions."

People get caught up in the distraction, reality becomes distorted. We begin to loose ourselves because we don't want to stand out, to be seen. We might be judged and thought of as weird or not normal. The thing is, we are all weird, yet we all share a common ground. We are Humanity. We all have felt pain, fear, sorrow, grief. We have felt excluded and unheard. We all have quirks, desires, tendencies. We experience joy, love, and peace even if it's only brief; that too is real, regardless of time and space or expectations.

For centuries, we have divided ourselves for the sake of religion, politics, and land that we buy into the distorted illusion that we are something different and overall better than another living being.

We Are Humanity. An evolution of the Trinity: creation, maintaining, and destruction. Even the ant has a purpose no less than a horse or tree. Creatures co-exist to evolve in the Trinity. 

Let us not sabotage our evolution from the plastic words that are shallowly being repeatedly. Take a moment to reflect on who you were before you were brought into life, before you were taught to be something different. If we can express ourselves from that space of purity and innocence, we can reconnect humanity.  


Taryn Artistry

Re-experiencing a letter unknown, 
Unseen by the one of interest. 
The flood of emotions once felt
When my beating heart rushed for you.
And the mind?
Captivated.
A failed attempt to not fall for you. 

Re-introducing the attachment that had been transcended
Invites a hopeless idea to attain something that doesn't hold true. 
Something many wish to experience with me, 
but only desired with you.

I took myself back within the beautiful memories, 
Short in time but full of love,
And gave myself false hope.
Perhaps my recent path has sacrificed what I thought I wanted, 
And what you weren't ready for. 

Tonight, I set fire to the once burning internal flame,
Setting free my hopes and desires.
Naturally, In return, I set you free...

Narration to A Letter Unseen

Taryn Artistry 

" Happiness, even the tiniest particle of a grain of it, never leaves one again; and when one attains to the essence of things... This is supreme happiness. When it is found, nothing else remains to be found, the sense of what will not awaken anymore, and the heart's torment will be stilled forever. " ~ Sri Anandamayi Ma (Saint of India) 


I had this thought, you know that list of "things to save up for" or sometimes known as 'Wish List'? Ever notice how though some items may be checked off, it remains endless? Perhaps "I'll be happy once I get ________." Once you got it, do you remember the happiness you felt? Did that happiness slip away or has that happiness stayed with you? 

Now reflect on a conversation you had with a good friend, a moment you found peace and clarity in a walk or hike in nature, or even experience that moment you realized 'this is what my whole life is for', whether it be during travels or the time you let go of the mind and followed the guidance of your own heart beat..


Notice what each of these experiences have in common. "When one attains the essence of things... This is supreme happiness." or as I like to call Joy. Unlike things, "...nothing else remains to be found."

Nonetheless, moments, memories, and experiences in exchange are the essences of joy, or happiness. With monetary and materialism, that happiness may fade or become dull until something more is attained, which is not the usual case with experiences. Yet of course, when someone experiences joy in different outlets or people, one would like to continue to experience that joy, but it should not be the endless hunger as with objects; the moment in and of itself is satisfying, for it is unconditional, without expectations that are beyond that moment in time. One can always revisit that moment, dive in to that essence and be embraced within the timelessness and spaciousness of the waters of emotions. 

As it is said, "It about the journey, not the destination." that is because we may not end up at that ideal destinations, however, if we do, it is rare it is everything we hoped for and made it out to be. {Being in the journey leads you to where you are meant to be and experience what are of benefit for you, more or less than you expect, nonetheless, exactly what you ultimately and divinely need.} What is remaining? The memories and experiences. That is what is remembered, the feelings.  Time and memories cannot be taken away. In a moment, your life or the ones you love can no longer exist in this realm. Every physical attainment will inevitably become dust on this planet; your essence carries the vibrations of it's journeys beyond this realm we call "Life".   

​ Taryn Artistry