Growing up without the concept of family has been an interesting journey of constant reflection, introspection and wonder on the meaning of blood relationships and lineage. Growing up without a family of birth has been even harder. I grew up creating the concept of family and keeping a disconnect between the virtual family unit that bounced around in my subconsciousness and the adult caregivers paid to destroy my soul. I grew up understanding that actual bonding and connecting to the immediacy of people who interplayed in the darkest recesses of my consciousness was to be avoided at all cost.
The child desired the connection and yet the child feared the connection of want that left deep rooted scar tissue around a heart that learned to beat to its own rhythm; find music in its own pulsation of life. The child learned that adults destroyed life and childhoods. The teenager understood that adults were complicated and yet emotionally simplistic as they gabbled about life trying to survive a world moving at its own momentum irrespective of their needs, wants and desires. The teenager became the invisible child turned into the masked adult.
The adult made the mind connection of self-care and self-introspection translated into stepping beyond the world's exactness and extraction of soul, spirit and fortitude of character and fulfillment. The adult understood finally that the world is a Universal magnet of connectors that draws and repels the human connections in ways that both complicate and simplify heart and soul connections.
The adult learned that creating family is a deliberate connection of the human spirit. It is a vital bloodline of the desire to become visible in a world masked by human invisibility. It is a conscious human connection of heartbeats and racing pulses to join like minds and interrelatedness of thoughts and feelings into deliberate intentions and possibilities. It is filling the void in the need to belong and be visible within the human connection of care and revelation. It is creating a family of intention and heart.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Parting Your Own Waters in LIfe
Last night as snow settled once again on the planet, it was time again for the inward reflections that part the waters on my life journey. Such beauty and awe, an unexpected snowfall brings into the consciousness. It creates a consciousness of thought and reflection about the moment of time that defines our collective existence. New snow parts the waters and sometimes redirects the journey for each of us.
Sometimes during the redirection along the rivers of life, we are provided with insight on the next phase of our journey. Part of that redirect includes inviting those from our past into our present and revisiting those moments of shared existence and mentorship. I was blessed this weekend to have that experience of inviting a former student back into the shared existence we had over a decade ago. It was indeed a mutual invitation for both of us.
I found our meeting to be both surreal and real as we broke bread together or in our case, fries and salad in the busy interior of diners whose conversations co-mingled along the edges of ours. She was a former student who has blossomed into an educator speaking the depth of truth and direction to students who will someday bless her as she has blessed me with her life experiences and her commitment to service. Watching her part the waters in young lives as she shared her teaching experiences was an incredible sharing of our collective commitment to education and educating students. What we both realized is that our passion for educating young lives may someday impact the student who will someday become the next President, the next teacher, the next think-tank recipient of how to stop global warming or bring peace to a a world that is hurting for connection and a deep rest.
I am grateful for those who touched my life with their friendship, teachings, mentorship and belief in my greatness of purpose and resolve in creating a life of service and becoming an educator to serve. I was grateful to share a moment with someone whose life I touched in the classroom as I realized the power of her teaching on the lives she was now impacting in her own classroom. What was even more powerful was knowing that someday, she would be sitting across the table from one of her students marvelling at the connection of former student and teacher. She would be party to a similar conversation of shared collective experiences in understanding how she would someday help her students part their own waters in life.
We are all the bearers of our life stories and the tools needed to part our own waters in life. It is within our collective humanity that we are the most powerful vehicle for change and promise of a new world and a new day. It is within our own waters that we are the most reflective and the most committed to creating new venues of opportunities and challenges that grow us deeply rooted to the intention of connection and sharing of our life experiences. This weekend, I was able to share a parting of the waters with an incredible and inspiring teacher who will always be my incredible and awesome student.
Sometimes during the redirection along the rivers of life, we are provided with insight on the next phase of our journey. Part of that redirect includes inviting those from our past into our present and revisiting those moments of shared existence and mentorship. I was blessed this weekend to have that experience of inviting a former student back into the shared existence we had over a decade ago. It was indeed a mutual invitation for both of us.
I found our meeting to be both surreal and real as we broke bread together or in our case, fries and salad in the busy interior of diners whose conversations co-mingled along the edges of ours. She was a former student who has blossomed into an educator speaking the depth of truth and direction to students who will someday bless her as she has blessed me with her life experiences and her commitment to service. Watching her part the waters in young lives as she shared her teaching experiences was an incredible sharing of our collective commitment to education and educating students. What we both realized is that our passion for educating young lives may someday impact the student who will someday become the next President, the next teacher, the next think-tank recipient of how to stop global warming or bring peace to a a world that is hurting for connection and a deep rest.
I am grateful for those who touched my life with their friendship, teachings, mentorship and belief in my greatness of purpose and resolve in creating a life of service and becoming an educator to serve. I was grateful to share a moment with someone whose life I touched in the classroom as I realized the power of her teaching on the lives she was now impacting in her own classroom. What was even more powerful was knowing that someday, she would be sitting across the table from one of her students marvelling at the connection of former student and teacher. She would be party to a similar conversation of shared collective experiences in understanding how she would someday help her students part their own waters in life.
We are all the bearers of our life stories and the tools needed to part our own waters in life. It is within our collective humanity that we are the most powerful vehicle for change and promise of a new world and a new day. It is within our own waters that we are the most reflective and the most committed to creating new venues of opportunities and challenges that grow us deeply rooted to the intention of connection and sharing of our life experiences. This weekend, I was able to share a parting of the waters with an incredible and inspiring teacher who will always be my incredible and awesome student.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Diving into the Deep Waters of Self
We live in a world of chaos and constant change that impacts our lives personally and professionally. There are both shallow and deep ends of the chaos and change that challenge us to dive in and take risks or remain the cautious and steady bystander taking in all of the action unfolding before us. Either way poses its own consequences of self-reflection and outward exposure. Either way requires an action or contemplation of a reaction to a proposed set of events that are ever present and ongoing.
Diving into the deep waters of self requires each of us to go deeper into our life thoughts and seek greater understandings of how we impact the world and how the impacts of the world affect us. It requires a soul-searching that creates answers and reflections that we may or may not be ready to address or answer. The dive may take us out of the comfort zones that keep us stagnated in place, time, event and life experiences. It may force us to sort out the familiar and dive into the zones of discontent and disconnect. It may require us to face the ugliness and the beauty of truths we hold dear and true to our character and our existence on the planet. It may force us to change or dive deeper into our sameness.
The dive creates the ripples of change that challenge us to change our lives and our ways of viewing the world from the sometimes narrow confines of our realities and historical legacies of truths believed and passed on as gospel unchallenged and unconfirmed. The depth of the dive forces us inward into our core, the center of our reflections and our beliefs. It stirs up discomfort in our collective comforts and exposes our vulnerabilities and fears. The very foundation of our being is called into question as the depth of the dive takes us to the heartbeat of who we are and who we project to be to ourselves and to others.
Diving into the deep waters of self is about the introspection of life thoughts and the assessment of our place in the Universe. It is only then that we can dive respectively into our authentic inner selves and grow from the depths of our core in creating the foundation of who we choose to be in this life and beyond.
Diving into the deep waters of self requires each of us to go deeper into our life thoughts and seek greater understandings of how we impact the world and how the impacts of the world affect us. It requires a soul-searching that creates answers and reflections that we may or may not be ready to address or answer. The dive may take us out of the comfort zones that keep us stagnated in place, time, event and life experiences. It may force us to sort out the familiar and dive into the zones of discontent and disconnect. It may require us to face the ugliness and the beauty of truths we hold dear and true to our character and our existence on the planet. It may force us to change or dive deeper into our sameness.
The dive creates the ripples of change that challenge us to change our lives and our ways of viewing the world from the sometimes narrow confines of our realities and historical legacies of truths believed and passed on as gospel unchallenged and unconfirmed. The depth of the dive forces us inward into our core, the center of our reflections and our beliefs. It stirs up discomfort in our collective comforts and exposes our vulnerabilities and fears. The very foundation of our being is called into question as the depth of the dive takes us to the heartbeat of who we are and who we project to be to ourselves and to others.
Diving into the deep waters of self is about the introspection of life thoughts and the assessment of our place in the Universe. It is only then that we can dive respectively into our authentic inner selves and grow from the depths of our core in creating the foundation of who we choose to be in this life and beyond.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
The Metaphor of Winter's Snowfall
I love snow and its inherent symbolic meaning and that smug way that it polarizes geographical communities with its blanket of insecurity. Ah, winter's snowfall puts an icy coat of generosity on the land and tempts those who dare to venture out on its icy road rinks with the thrill of sliding vehicles, the jack-knifing of Metro buses, the invisibility of trains and planes that never arrive and never depart to and from destinations unknown...interesting metaphor of snow as temptress and smug.
The metaphor of winter's snowfall the day before the start of school in the new year leaves its own irony of meaning and impact on a world again unprepared to salt the wounds of the deepest snowfall's gouge on the earth and its roadways. Snow falling on a barren planet creates its own destiny of choices and life thoughts. There is something about the multi-layering of winter's snowfall that slows time and invites introspection and reflection.
The beauty of a sudden snowfall is that begins with the flittering of a few flakes which compound into masses of translucent whiteness spreading its wings of flutter over everything in view. Our thoughts are like the flutter of reflections that are present without invitation and absent when inner inquiry is truly needed. As I watch the snow continue to fall tonight, I am reflective as I was when the first snowfall happened in December 2008.
I'm reflective on world need and world peace. I reflect on war and devastation and the hatred that spurs violence and disconnect. I think about children who are abandoned and left to grow through childhood alone surrounded by their innermost wants and needs of connection. My thoughts wander into global apathy and atrophy where the brilliance of life and creation are mere afterthoughts in political polarization and human genocide. I think about the homeless and the life decisions left to ponder for hundreds in tents and under the viaducts of life. I think about when I was homeless and I am grateful for life's circle and the resiliency of youth.
I don't miss the metaphors of winter's snowfall; I embrace them with full heart and life thoughts. What I know is that life is short indeed and like the flutter of snow wings, it comes and it goes. It is so important to appreciate the grandeur of life's offerings and the samplings of its bounty. Within the sweet sanctity of winter's blessings, the snow offers us a chance to reflect on the beauty of our existence and on the tenuous bond of our connection with the Universe.
As the snow continues to blanket my gratitude and my yard in my precious nanosecond of life on this planet, I am grateful for each flutter of snowy angel wings. I am at peace with my own life thoughts and my journey. It is the snow that dusts my joy with millions of snowflakes and the fullness of a snowy embrace. I love the snow and always will.........
The metaphor of winter's snowfall the day before the start of school in the new year leaves its own irony of meaning and impact on a world again unprepared to salt the wounds of the deepest snowfall's gouge on the earth and its roadways. Snow falling on a barren planet creates its own destiny of choices and life thoughts. There is something about the multi-layering of winter's snowfall that slows time and invites introspection and reflection.
The beauty of a sudden snowfall is that begins with the flittering of a few flakes which compound into masses of translucent whiteness spreading its wings of flutter over everything in view. Our thoughts are like the flutter of reflections that are present without invitation and absent when inner inquiry is truly needed. As I watch the snow continue to fall tonight, I am reflective as I was when the first snowfall happened in December 2008.
I'm reflective on world need and world peace. I reflect on war and devastation and the hatred that spurs violence and disconnect. I think about children who are abandoned and left to grow through childhood alone surrounded by their innermost wants and needs of connection. My thoughts wander into global apathy and atrophy where the brilliance of life and creation are mere afterthoughts in political polarization and human genocide. I think about the homeless and the life decisions left to ponder for hundreds in tents and under the viaducts of life. I think about when I was homeless and I am grateful for life's circle and the resiliency of youth.
I don't miss the metaphors of winter's snowfall; I embrace them with full heart and life thoughts. What I know is that life is short indeed and like the flutter of snow wings, it comes and it goes. It is so important to appreciate the grandeur of life's offerings and the samplings of its bounty. Within the sweet sanctity of winter's blessings, the snow offers us a chance to reflect on the beauty of our existence and on the tenuous bond of our connection with the Universe.
As the snow continues to blanket my gratitude and my yard in my precious nanosecond of life on this planet, I am grateful for each flutter of snowy angel wings. I am at peace with my own life thoughts and my journey. It is the snow that dusts my joy with millions of snowflakes and the fullness of a snowy embrace. I love the snow and always will.........
Saturday, January 3, 2009
The Baggage We Carry In Our Lives
Let's face it, we all have baggage. Those portable containers that pass through airport security are not the only baggage we carry through life. We all have that clutter of baggage from our past and present that threatens to block the goodness and bounty from getting inward into our hearts and into our lives. It is that silent and sometimes not so silent baggage that is triggered by life thoughts, ours and others that is allowed to wander as actual manifestations of what defines us.
The baggage we carry in our lives is ingrained within our cellular structures, light and life-giving, invisible life forces that direct our life journey. Yet, that baggage can also be as weighty as a two-ton truck barreling down on our existence bringing to our fore, the power of life's reckoning. It is a constant delusion if we walk through this world asserting that we are devoid of what comes with the first cognizance of thought and reflection, "baggage."
It is those delusions of life sans baggage that stifles our creativity and innovation and devoids us of our most precious internal motivation to embrace the fullness of life's opportunities and connections that should be our destiny and our heart. The weight of baggage can be transformed from emotions and actions into anchors that threaten to drag us deeper into the mire of what was then and what could be now in our lives. Baggage has a historical legacy in that it is passed on from generation to generation to hold and bear and buckle under its scrutiny and its judgment.
We will always have metaphoric and actual baggage that we lug through the valley of our destiny and trek up the mountaintop of our desires. What is inherent and what must be understood is that when we go to the "baggage claim" of our life thoughts to review and retrieve the emotional, psychological, behavioral, social and a host of other "als," the baggage is ours to deal with and bear. The scars left in the aftermath are also ours. Baggage can be both a burden and a release of historical legacies and past experiences that serve to continually undermine the legacy that we are trying to build in our current consciousness.
So, again, let's face it, the ugly and beautiful undeniable reality of living is that "we all have baggage that we carry in our lives." The most important point is that we are aware of our baggage and what we intend to do with it as we traverse the hills and valleys of our life thoughts and our life's journey towards our own personal "baggage claims."
The baggage we carry in our lives is ingrained within our cellular structures, light and life-giving, invisible life forces that direct our life journey. Yet, that baggage can also be as weighty as a two-ton truck barreling down on our existence bringing to our fore, the power of life's reckoning. It is a constant delusion if we walk through this world asserting that we are devoid of what comes with the first cognizance of thought and reflection, "baggage."
It is those delusions of life sans baggage that stifles our creativity and innovation and devoids us of our most precious internal motivation to embrace the fullness of life's opportunities and connections that should be our destiny and our heart. The weight of baggage can be transformed from emotions and actions into anchors that threaten to drag us deeper into the mire of what was then and what could be now in our lives. Baggage has a historical legacy in that it is passed on from generation to generation to hold and bear and buckle under its scrutiny and its judgment.
We will always have metaphoric and actual baggage that we lug through the valley of our destiny and trek up the mountaintop of our desires. What is inherent and what must be understood is that when we go to the "baggage claim" of our life thoughts to review and retrieve the emotional, psychological, behavioral, social and a host of other "als," the baggage is ours to deal with and bear. The scars left in the aftermath are also ours. Baggage can be both a burden and a release of historical legacies and past experiences that serve to continually undermine the legacy that we are trying to build in our current consciousness.
So, again, let's face it, the ugly and beautiful undeniable reality of living is that "we all have baggage that we carry in our lives." The most important point is that we are aware of our baggage and what we intend to do with it as we traverse the hills and valleys of our life thoughts and our life's journey towards our own personal "baggage claims."
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Reflections on New Year's Resolutions
So, it's 2009 and the list of New Year's resolutions have been written, rewritten, spell-checked and deleted yet again because somewhere deep in the limbic system of the brain, emotions and the case of status quo are wildly acting out that things will never change. Change is a hard thing for most of us. As we grow in an adult presence, we know what life and society expect us to do and how we are expected to behave through the various psycho-social, emotional stages of development, but oftentimes we veer to the left or right of the road that we are expected to take. Change can't be about society; it has to be about what we know must be done, not what we are expected to do in life by others. Inherently, we all know what heals and what magnifies the wound.
It feels odd that our lives are lived based on guilt and fear that people, known and unknown, dead and alive, won't like us or will judge us because of our individuality. Isn't it the individuality that creates the uniqueness of our existence and the diversity of our societal inclusion? Aren't we encouraged to be unique and follow the mapping of our hearts to what is real and good for us and to us and ultimately positive for the collective societal us? Yet when the time comes and it comes often, the double-standard becomes prominent on how we judge each other and each other's actions. We become stagnant in the want of change and fear the doors that we close on our own lives.
So why create a list of New Year's resolutions that you aren't interested or committed to keeping in the first place? There are reasons to create a list and reasons not to bother. I actually created a list of goals and actualizations for 2009 that I am already seeing manifest in my life. I won a $1 on a scratch it lottery ticket on the 1st day of the New Year and that is ominous towards the financial foundation that is number #10 on my list of resolutions. It must mean that for me, the list works and it's already in action manifesting my wants and wishes, or it means that I am opening doors and entering them on the journey with open heart and mind, or it means that my 1 in 758,000 chance of getting a dollar win on a lottery ticket was pure luck. Whatever the case, it is my belief in the meaning that furthers the actualization of the list.
Yet, for others, a list is meaningless if there is no faith or belief in one's own ability to change and grow. If a person wants to write and publish a book of poetry for 2009, yet never writes one poem because of the creative pressure to produce or fear that no one will like the poems, that might be a resolution with no wind in its wings. If someone is still being held hostage by the cruelty of what was done in the office of employment in 2008 and chooses to fight injustice and denigration with silent suffering and psychological burn-out, that might be a resolution that requires an intervention of another kind and not simply a place on the New Year's resolution list.
For 2009, I want to live life with verve and vitality as I have always done in previous years. I want to see the rock in my pathway as a collection of walkways through life. I want to spread the sunshine of happiness as a new light cast in the darkest places of human degradation and nurture the spirit of hope and peace of a planet evolving into its own consciousness and reckoning. I want to embrace reflection of principle and integrity as my legacy and gift to the planet and tender to those heart connections that I make along my life's journey.
I want to create an ambition of change and making a difference in my own life and in the lives of those I touch with the richness of a destiny and future so awe inspiring as the heaven of an "aurora borealis" of heart and soul. I want to mark my time on the planet with the accomplishments that are manifest in others because I was blessed to be a part of their lives and allowed to make meaningful and auspicious contributions to their growth and goals.
What I have learned in past years and continue to learn as I reflect on my New Year's list of resolutions is that the greatest gift of humanity is the gift of love. It is love that drives the spirit of contribution and partnership in the collaborative synergy of the Universe. It is love that will produce the change in the collective minds and hearts of a world unified in cause and purpose.
It is love that will create a 2009 of peace, change and resolutions that are reflective representations of the motivational step-stones of the human consciousness. I like my list as I step boldly into the newness of the open arms of a New Year with reflection, passion, solidity of principle and a progressive march towards a future legacy that will be about the giving and the gift of love.
It feels odd that our lives are lived based on guilt and fear that people, known and unknown, dead and alive, won't like us or will judge us because of our individuality. Isn't it the individuality that creates the uniqueness of our existence and the diversity of our societal inclusion? Aren't we encouraged to be unique and follow the mapping of our hearts to what is real and good for us and to us and ultimately positive for the collective societal us? Yet when the time comes and it comes often, the double-standard becomes prominent on how we judge each other and each other's actions. We become stagnant in the want of change and fear the doors that we close on our own lives.
So why create a list of New Year's resolutions that you aren't interested or committed to keeping in the first place? There are reasons to create a list and reasons not to bother. I actually created a list of goals and actualizations for 2009 that I am already seeing manifest in my life. I won a $1 on a scratch it lottery ticket on the 1st day of the New Year and that is ominous towards the financial foundation that is number #10 on my list of resolutions. It must mean that for me, the list works and it's already in action manifesting my wants and wishes, or it means that I am opening doors and entering them on the journey with open heart and mind, or it means that my 1 in 758,000 chance of getting a dollar win on a lottery ticket was pure luck. Whatever the case, it is my belief in the meaning that furthers the actualization of the list.
Yet, for others, a list is meaningless if there is no faith or belief in one's own ability to change and grow. If a person wants to write and publish a book of poetry for 2009, yet never writes one poem because of the creative pressure to produce or fear that no one will like the poems, that might be a resolution with no wind in its wings. If someone is still being held hostage by the cruelty of what was done in the office of employment in 2008 and chooses to fight injustice and denigration with silent suffering and psychological burn-out, that might be a resolution that requires an intervention of another kind and not simply a place on the New Year's resolution list.
For 2009, I want to live life with verve and vitality as I have always done in previous years. I want to see the rock in my pathway as a collection of walkways through life. I want to spread the sunshine of happiness as a new light cast in the darkest places of human degradation and nurture the spirit of hope and peace of a planet evolving into its own consciousness and reckoning. I want to embrace reflection of principle and integrity as my legacy and gift to the planet and tender to those heart connections that I make along my life's journey.
I want to create an ambition of change and making a difference in my own life and in the lives of those I touch with the richness of a destiny and future so awe inspiring as the heaven of an "aurora borealis" of heart and soul. I want to mark my time on the planet with the accomplishments that are manifest in others because I was blessed to be a part of their lives and allowed to make meaningful and auspicious contributions to their growth and goals.
What I have learned in past years and continue to learn as I reflect on my New Year's list of resolutions is that the greatest gift of humanity is the gift of love. It is love that drives the spirit of contribution and partnership in the collaborative synergy of the Universe. It is love that will produce the change in the collective minds and hearts of a world unified in cause and purpose.
It is love that will create a 2009 of peace, change and resolutions that are reflective representations of the motivational step-stones of the human consciousness. I like my list as I step boldly into the newness of the open arms of a New Year with reflection, passion, solidity of principle and a progressive march towards a future legacy that will be about the giving and the gift of love.
Welcome 2009
As I sit here in the early morning synergy of a new year, I am awash in the endless possibilities of what 2009 will have in store for my life. I have long forgone the desperate lists of changing my ways to meet the foregone conclusions of the collective consciousness. For me, this new year as all past years will continue to be about life's journey and those hearts and lives that have been touched and connected along the way.
This new year will continue to be about the service of the soul and the gathering of reflective thoughts on the cognizance of the Universe. It will be about understanding the essences of what each year presents in the growing thoughts and actions that reflect our world and our collective hearts and minds. This year will be about the manifestation of the dream and the actualization of the dreamer.
I welcome 2009 as a time of reflection and true renewal and a time to let the poet inside of me wax poetical expression unbridled and untethered to a world in dire need of heart songs and redirections of the soul.
Welcome 2009-A Poem
I pause and reflect on the moment
of a year that has come and past
I revel in what life will offer now
what time will turn and cast
I gather at the hearth of a Universe
and absorb the lessons learned
I pause at the door of a planet
to seek the peace so yearned
I wonder if the past will circle
the world in its magnitude
I listen for songs of redemption
on the wings of a beatitude
I am awash in the possibilities
in the heartbeat of this new year
I am true to the calling of purpose
that life has manifest so clear
I welcome 2009 in its greatness
with open mind to what it will show
I walk purposefully on the journey
of life thoughts and what I must know
I marvel in what life will serve me
in its majestic majesty of right
I open my mind as its servant
and follow the tunnels' light
I have joy in the endless workings
of a life that is lived to its core
I rest on the wings of the Spirit
as I welcome 2009 and more.
This new year will continue to be about the service of the soul and the gathering of reflective thoughts on the cognizance of the Universe. It will be about understanding the essences of what each year presents in the growing thoughts and actions that reflect our world and our collective hearts and minds. This year will be about the manifestation of the dream and the actualization of the dreamer.
I welcome 2009 as a time of reflection and true renewal and a time to let the poet inside of me wax poetical expression unbridled and untethered to a world in dire need of heart songs and redirections of the soul.
Welcome 2009-A Poem
I pause and reflect on the moment
of a year that has come and past
I revel in what life will offer now
what time will turn and cast
I gather at the hearth of a Universe
and absorb the lessons learned
I pause at the door of a planet
to seek the peace so yearned
I wonder if the past will circle
the world in its magnitude
I listen for songs of redemption
on the wings of a beatitude
I am awash in the possibilities
in the heartbeat of this new year
I am true to the calling of purpose
that life has manifest so clear
I welcome 2009 in its greatness
with open mind to what it will show
I walk purposefully on the journey
of life thoughts and what I must know
I marvel in what life will serve me
in its majestic majesty of right
I open my mind as its servant
and follow the tunnels' light
I have joy in the endless workings
of a life that is lived to its core
I rest on the wings of the Spirit
as I welcome 2009 and more.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thoughts on Life's "Historical Legacies"
Everywhere I turn lately, I am confronted with the "richness of historical legacies," whether verbalized or implied in casual conversations or in the intensity of documented dictates. It creates pause for reflection and life thoughts. As each of us treads with purpose into the innards of the 21st century, what has become painfully obvious is that the shelf life of some historical legacies appears short-lived and oftentimes short-sighted. There is a global exposure of history that will leave future generations with wonderment coupled with an infusion of bewilderment for those who lived and left indecorous and indecipherable legacies for them to internalize and understand.
If we look at today's world where the armpits of humanity are exposed in public forums with a superfluous fling of attitude and polarized intentions, the historical legacy that is being left to the next generation and to those yet to be born borders on a deep-rooted power struggle of polarization that is more emotive and selfish than historical. The incessant verbiage of recent conversations on the richness of historical legacies that are being left as imprints on our planet creates a social, economic, emotional and educational divide for current generations and future ones.
As voices raise in the inculpatory polarization echoing off the mahogany walls of the power-mongers in a world inundated with debasements of cause and creed, there is an inherent marginalization and oppression of some that continues to create its own historical legacy. What historically has been rich and deepest in its roots of transformation has become a pourparier of inclusive groupings catering to misoneism as the history of demarcation continues to define our world.
But yet in definitive contrast, history has marked our life thoughts and our lives. What is even deeper in our collective world are the historical richness of legacies born of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, that have served us well and created change and inclusivity within the depravity of fear and flux. It is important to understand and remember that there is indeed a "richness of many historical legacies" that have provided life, civil rights, equal opportunity, legislation of Brown vs. Board of Education, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Banneker, Nelson Mandela, Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou and a host of historical legacies and lives that have lived, given back and continue to live and give in the universal consciousness of our thoughts and actions.
The beauty of this richness of history is that it was not done with polarization, denigration and exclusion of the very group that it purports to embrace, the collective world. In its truest manifestation of history and legacy, those who gave of their lives and their dreams did so within the collaborative drumbeats of the social consciousness and within the collective hearts of honor and integrity. Again, it gives pause for reflection and life thoughts.
I live my life in the richness of life's "historical legacies" that are written on the scarred backs of those who toiled the cotton fields and created rebirth on the soils of the African Sahara. I see my heritage in the sweat and tears of those who learned to read and run towards educational freedom and freedom of the mind and soul. I honor the legacy of those who gave the ultimate life sacrifice to etch in the soils of the global land, the richness of history that is not written in textbooks or stored in the deepest chambers of the historical vaults containing remnants of a history created to divide and polarize the spirits of humanity.
We are a world built on life's "historical legacies," and as we embrace upon the journey of a new year, it is imperative that we revisit that which is rich and historical in our own life thoughts and within our own legacy. It is important to revisit the richness of historical legacies that continue to serve as life connections of the spirit, hopes and dreams of our current world and the world of generations now and yet to come. It is time to pass the torch as our global world moves towards the collective goals of unity and change.
As the gatekeepers of our new world, it is our duty and charge to go forth in an "historical legacy" of renewal. As we leave the peaceful etchings of a global beating heart in the sands of a world that is evolving and creating its own richness and "historical legacy," only then can we rest forever in the folds of the Universe and rebirth.
If we look at today's world where the armpits of humanity are exposed in public forums with a superfluous fling of attitude and polarized intentions, the historical legacy that is being left to the next generation and to those yet to be born borders on a deep-rooted power struggle of polarization that is more emotive and selfish than historical. The incessant verbiage of recent conversations on the richness of historical legacies that are being left as imprints on our planet creates a social, economic, emotional and educational divide for current generations and future ones.
As voices raise in the inculpatory polarization echoing off the mahogany walls of the power-mongers in a world inundated with debasements of cause and creed, there is an inherent marginalization and oppression of some that continues to create its own historical legacy. What historically has been rich and deepest in its roots of transformation has become a pourparier of inclusive groupings catering to misoneism as the history of demarcation continues to define our world.
But yet in definitive contrast, history has marked our life thoughts and our lives. What is even deeper in our collective world are the historical richness of legacies born of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, that have served us well and created change and inclusivity within the depravity of fear and flux. It is important to understand and remember that there is indeed a "richness of many historical legacies" that have provided life, civil rights, equal opportunity, legislation of Brown vs. Board of Education, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Banneker, Nelson Mandela, Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou and a host of historical legacies and lives that have lived, given back and continue to live and give in the universal consciousness of our thoughts and actions.
The beauty of this richness of history is that it was not done with polarization, denigration and exclusion of the very group that it purports to embrace, the collective world. In its truest manifestation of history and legacy, those who gave of their lives and their dreams did so within the collaborative drumbeats of the social consciousness and within the collective hearts of honor and integrity. Again, it gives pause for reflection and life thoughts.
I live my life in the richness of life's "historical legacies" that are written on the scarred backs of those who toiled the cotton fields and created rebirth on the soils of the African Sahara. I see my heritage in the sweat and tears of those who learned to read and run towards educational freedom and freedom of the mind and soul. I honor the legacy of those who gave the ultimate life sacrifice to etch in the soils of the global land, the richness of history that is not written in textbooks or stored in the deepest chambers of the historical vaults containing remnants of a history created to divide and polarize the spirits of humanity.
We are a world built on life's "historical legacies," and as we embrace upon the journey of a new year, it is imperative that we revisit that which is rich and historical in our own life thoughts and within our own legacy. It is important to revisit the richness of historical legacies that continue to serve as life connections of the spirit, hopes and dreams of our current world and the world of generations now and yet to come. It is time to pass the torch as our global world moves towards the collective goals of unity and change.
As the gatekeepers of our new world, it is our duty and charge to go forth in an "historical legacy" of renewal. As we leave the peaceful etchings of a global beating heart in the sands of a world that is evolving and creating its own richness and "historical legacy," only then can we rest forever in the folds of the Universe and rebirth.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Spiritual Movement Through Life's Journey
As each of us creates purpose through our personal spiritual movement on our journey back towards the synergy of the Universe, we have goals, visions and blueprints on the begin and end of our life's story. For most of us, our deepest belief lies in something beyond what is tangible around us. That belief lies deeper than what we can visualize and hear in the chaos of the world we live in and even deeper in the brief nanosecond of time we have on the planet.
Our perfect template of our spiritual movement lies in embracing a life that is full of promise and hope. We see our lives as dreamworks of success and power on the art canvasses of the Universe. We are the artists of our spiritual movement, painting our story as only we can visualize it, oblivious to the fabric of what life has woven for our journey.
As we move down the road of life that we have envisioned for our time on the planet, we want everything to be perfect and surreal. When our road develops a fork that forces us to venture into an unknown, we begin to question our spiritual beliefs and question our belief in the beyond asking why we have to travel down a fork in our life's journey. The forks are there by design and by the trust that we should have in the Universal construct of our life's dreams and blueprints. We are given conscious choice to create the desires of our hearts with the understanding that there is a bigger picture in a bigger Universal design for our lives.
What we inherently must understand and truly embrace is that we are not in control of our life's journey, not now, not ever. We are merely guests in a collective humanity that bonds us and gifts us with the connections of our enlightenments and our hearts. When we understand our status, it is only then that we can act on our own behalf and truly treasure and appreciate the gift of our life and that of the lives of others we meet along our journey.
When we can remember that we are the spiritual design of a larger Universe, it is then that we can release our need to control that which is uncontrollable. It is then that we can be open to the gifts that will grow and nurture our souls as we make our spiritual movement through our life's journey.
Our perfect template of our spiritual movement lies in embracing a life that is full of promise and hope. We see our lives as dreamworks of success and power on the art canvasses of the Universe. We are the artists of our spiritual movement, painting our story as only we can visualize it, oblivious to the fabric of what life has woven for our journey.
As we move down the road of life that we have envisioned for our time on the planet, we want everything to be perfect and surreal. When our road develops a fork that forces us to venture into an unknown, we begin to question our spiritual beliefs and question our belief in the beyond asking why we have to travel down a fork in our life's journey. The forks are there by design and by the trust that we should have in the Universal construct of our life's dreams and blueprints. We are given conscious choice to create the desires of our hearts with the understanding that there is a bigger picture in a bigger Universal design for our lives.
What we inherently must understand and truly embrace is that we are not in control of our life's journey, not now, not ever. We are merely guests in a collective humanity that bonds us and gifts us with the connections of our enlightenments and our hearts. When we understand our status, it is only then that we can act on our own behalf and truly treasure and appreciate the gift of our life and that of the lives of others we meet along our journey.
When we can remember that we are the spiritual design of a larger Universe, it is then that we can release our need to control that which is uncontrollable. It is then that we can be open to the gifts that will grow and nurture our souls as we make our spiritual movement through our life's journey.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
As the Snow Thaws
In an instant, the snow thaws as the temperature rises and melts it slowly into pure liquid of life thoughts and buried emotions. Each of us is aligned with the snow melting on the glaciers of emotive mountaintops and the deepest valley crevasses of our lives. As I sit watching the snow recede down the driveway towards destinations unknown, I marvel at the suddenness of a snowfall and the mystery of its meltdown.
How typical our human experiences and emotions are like the snowfall deeply buried in our past, yet profoundly impacting our present. We live our lives in layers of potential meltdowns like a winter snowfall pristining its subtleties of power over the land of our lives. In an instance as life turns a proverbial corner, we are at the mercy of temperature changes and fluctuations that mirror our moods and life journeys. In a flicker of a nanosecond, a trigger happens that opens us spread eagle to the mountaintops and valley crevasses of buried life thoughts and deeper buried life experiences.
It is easy to miss the slow creeping of the snow into unthinkable meltdowns, but we welcome them just as we welcomed the embrace of the snow and the welcome of our memories and reflections. We continue to remain in slow moving denial and the snow continues to thaw towards it ultimate meltdown of fluidity. In our human experience, we stand stoic in our denial of buried memories and thoughts. We are semblances of life and deny ourselves a much needed thaw. Our denial becomes marked by the heaviness of a marbled gravestone on our hearts. We become frozen in who we could have become in our life and accept the facade of who we are. As snow metaphors, we melt thinly into the liquid forms of our existence and flow towards the inevitable of the dark places that we have chosen to cover with thin layers of ice and layers of snowfall.
As the snow thaws, so do we if we allow ourselves to accept our vulnerability and fallibility as human beings who are as liquid as a snow melt or as frozen as an ice field. We choose the rate of our emotive thaws and we choose the depth of our snowfall and what it covers and buries in our life. As the snow thaws, so to does that bigger part of us that dares to dream and hope for the change in our humanity. As the snow melts and flows into the life creeks of our reality, it brings for us renewal and surfacing of what is real and why.
I will miss the snowfall that has blanketed our world and provided reflection and wonder. I will miss how the world was captured if just for a moment in the snow coated arms of the Universe and how we stood frozen in life's embrace and our reflective moments. I will miss how a snowfall created opportunity and a life blanket to wrap ourselves within the deepest of our life thoughts. I will miss the slow synergy of snowfall and its thawing waterfall of liquid meltdown as life once again beats in a dissonance of heart drums and human disconnects and connects.
As the snow thaws, the deepest connections of our being can remain frozen in a time past. As the snow melts, each of us can choose our reconnections with our inner selves and humanity. As the memory of the snowfall etches itself into our collective consciousness, we can learn to live and love again and connect with the life we were meant to live.
How typical our human experiences and emotions are like the snowfall deeply buried in our past, yet profoundly impacting our present. We live our lives in layers of potential meltdowns like a winter snowfall pristining its subtleties of power over the land of our lives. In an instance as life turns a proverbial corner, we are at the mercy of temperature changes and fluctuations that mirror our moods and life journeys. In a flicker of a nanosecond, a trigger happens that opens us spread eagle to the mountaintops and valley crevasses of buried life thoughts and deeper buried life experiences.
It is easy to miss the slow creeping of the snow into unthinkable meltdowns, but we welcome them just as we welcomed the embrace of the snow and the welcome of our memories and reflections. We continue to remain in slow moving denial and the snow continues to thaw towards it ultimate meltdown of fluidity. In our human experience, we stand stoic in our denial of buried memories and thoughts. We are semblances of life and deny ourselves a much needed thaw. Our denial becomes marked by the heaviness of a marbled gravestone on our hearts. We become frozen in who we could have become in our life and accept the facade of who we are. As snow metaphors, we melt thinly into the liquid forms of our existence and flow towards the inevitable of the dark places that we have chosen to cover with thin layers of ice and layers of snowfall.
As the snow thaws, so do we if we allow ourselves to accept our vulnerability and fallibility as human beings who are as liquid as a snow melt or as frozen as an ice field. We choose the rate of our emotive thaws and we choose the depth of our snowfall and what it covers and buries in our life. As the snow thaws, so to does that bigger part of us that dares to dream and hope for the change in our humanity. As the snow melts and flows into the life creeks of our reality, it brings for us renewal and surfacing of what is real and why.
I will miss the snowfall that has blanketed our world and provided reflection and wonder. I will miss how the world was captured if just for a moment in the snow coated arms of the Universe and how we stood frozen in life's embrace and our reflective moments. I will miss how a snowfall created opportunity and a life blanket to wrap ourselves within the deepest of our life thoughts. I will miss the slow synergy of snowfall and its thawing waterfall of liquid meltdown as life once again beats in a dissonance of heart drums and human disconnects and connects.
As the snow thaws, the deepest connections of our being can remain frozen in a time past. As the snow melts, each of us can choose our reconnections with our inner selves and humanity. As the memory of the snowfall etches itself into our collective consciousness, we can learn to live and love again and connect with the life we were meant to live.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Winter Thoughts-Final
It was the finality of that experience to the north and my teacher that created a journey from St. Louis to Massachusetts during a snow-filled December that signaled new beginnings and a final ending. I had travelled by various means from the warm confines of my dorm room to Illinois, Philadelphia, Harlem, New York and finally to Massachusetts to understand that oxidation and reduction reactions were the manifestations of life just as they were the undertakers of death. I had experienced so many tests of my own faith and tenacity through a journey in Philadelphia that included three nights circling a mountain with another snowstorm that laid claim to my life.
I had been given a coat in Illinois and dried out the pink Converses which were frozen to my feet by the constant walking through the snow. In Harlem, I found a homeless shelter where I extracted the Converses for the first time to see the damage of winter realities in the near blackened toes and partial blackened foot coverage on both feet. As I put the knurl of frozen toes and feet into a warm bath, primal screams escaped through lips and pores as a life and death struggle engaged in battle with neurological pathways unthawing for the first time in over a week.
The pounding of the bathroom door echoed in the pounding of winter thoughts and frozen body part realities in the warm waters of life. One look at the devastation of my feet and my body was all it took to grab a phone and make a life call, which I stopped with imminent pleadings of purpose and destination to someone who could take my medical concerns to heart and deal. I was given oversized clothes and plastic fireman boots to ease the pain of my continued unthawing and placed on a Greyhound bus to complete the almost 3,000 mile journey that had started in my dorm room.
The connections were made and then winter carved the etchings of pneumonia in my chest and created disconnect. Within that week, I was turned around to face my winter thoughts and "her." January was a blur and so were finals. She had hung on so far through my life trek to save hers. And then in the blinking of a February morning as the sun peeked mischievously around the shower curtain, she was gone. As I stood in the shower barely breathing, I felt her presence and her embrace as her spirit circled my soap covered flesh and held my breath in hers. For our final winter thought together, she came to me as her final gift. I knew that she had already left her body as she clung so lovingly to mine. I held onto her spirit as she held onto me. And then like the flicker of a moment past, the essence of "her" was gone and I was left curled at the bottom of a soapy tub clinging to what had been left of her in my heart.
I had been given a coat in Illinois and dried out the pink Converses which were frozen to my feet by the constant walking through the snow. In Harlem, I found a homeless shelter where I extracted the Converses for the first time to see the damage of winter realities in the near blackened toes and partial blackened foot coverage on both feet. As I put the knurl of frozen toes and feet into a warm bath, primal screams escaped through lips and pores as a life and death struggle engaged in battle with neurological pathways unthawing for the first time in over a week.
The pounding of the bathroom door echoed in the pounding of winter thoughts and frozen body part realities in the warm waters of life. One look at the devastation of my feet and my body was all it took to grab a phone and make a life call, which I stopped with imminent pleadings of purpose and destination to someone who could take my medical concerns to heart and deal. I was given oversized clothes and plastic fireman boots to ease the pain of my continued unthawing and placed on a Greyhound bus to complete the almost 3,000 mile journey that had started in my dorm room.
The connections were made and then winter carved the etchings of pneumonia in my chest and created disconnect. Within that week, I was turned around to face my winter thoughts and "her." January was a blur and so were finals. She had hung on so far through my life trek to save hers. And then in the blinking of a February morning as the sun peeked mischievously around the shower curtain, she was gone. As I stood in the shower barely breathing, I felt her presence and her embrace as her spirit circled my soap covered flesh and held my breath in hers. For our final winter thought together, she came to me as her final gift. I knew that she had already left her body as she clung so lovingly to mine. I held onto her spirit as she held onto me. And then like the flicker of a moment past, the essence of "her" was gone and I was left curled at the bottom of a soapy tub clinging to what had been left of her in my heart.
Winter Thoughts-Part II
As she lay dying in the comforts of a Serta, I sat on a wooden chair in my dorm room clad in jeans, a pink sweater, pink Converses and a black Bic pen held between clinched teeth. I watched as the reactions from the organic chemistry book blurred into a black swirl of winter thoughts and the death and dying pre-final, simply died on the desk. I saw a roach climb up beyond the rumpled blankets and sheets on the bed flush with the wall. I watched clearly as it crawled with persistence and determination towards the doorjamb of the bathroom door where it met another roach doing nothing but waiting from its perch for a connection.
Something snapped as the roaches collided antennas moving excitedly in heated bonded connections. Something deep inside me drowned in the winter thoughts of death's finality and that soon she would be dead and cold within my memories and within a wooden box. My heart broke yet again into millions of compartmentalized feelings and unspoken words and voices that tore jagged at my vocal cords plucking a synergy of want and longing in a world where I was disconnected without her. She was gone before she was gone. Her memories were lost in the transition into her next steps. Her breasts were eaten into open, oozing, seeping winter thoughts of life taken and yet her eyes and heart remained open to the healing that would surely come for the chosen.
It was early Sunday morning as I trampled through the snowdrifts towards nothingness. Sometime during the night, I had fled the confines of winter thoughts and headed north towards connections. I was headed to Massachusetts to my first college experience, to a connection and to the night where I was accosted in a grocery store by a man with a large, sharpened butcher knife who stood boldly before his audience of grocery shoppers including me and a few black friends and announced that he was going to kill him a "n****** tonight. I was mesmerized by the glean of the knife's edge and its intent. I was unimpressed by its holder and his intent.
The snow had already soaked through my pink Converses wetting my jeans up past my ankles. I didn't feel the frigid cold of the wind chill tearing through the pink knit of the sweater. I was coatless and oblivious to the winter snow and to my surroundings. I kept trudging through winter thoughts knowing that if I turned around, she would be dead sooner. If I kept moving forward, I would buy her and her Universe time to rethink the inevitable. I needed to suffer so that she would no longer have to.
Winter thoughts returned to the grocery store and the proclamation of life taken, mine. I paid for my limited snacks as my friends ran screaming from the store. The store clerks appeared paralytic in shock as ingrained movements of checking pushed my items past the scanner and robotic arms collected monies and bagged items. Their eyes were lifeless as their jobs went on beyond their collective consciousness and the man stood waving his knife, groceries packed in a cart waiting to kill him a "me."
The oppression of the South tore at my memories as my life in the Projects resurfaced the hideousness of scares already etched within my being and something snapped as a historical string of legacies stood me up proud and surrounded me with the buffaloes of my heritage and the drums of my life story. I walked deliberately in front of him as he waved the knife dangerously close to the slow heave of my chest and words emerged from my mouth and saved my life that night.
"I have been to the mountaintop of hell and witnessed the glory of a majestic heaven.
What you propose to do tonight is your hell and your journey. I will not walk away
from you and your intent. I will fight the good fight as your knife plunges deep into
the existing scars of my flesh and carves out the final breath of "her" life."
It was surreal moment for everyone in the store as each of us stood still waiting for his next move. I was caught in the final breath of "her" life, disconnected from my own. My breath was caught in the raising of his arm and the plunging of his intent. And then he stopped inches away from the curve of my heart and the arms of angels pulled me backward slowly, mechanically towards the open door of the store beyond the still profiles of the man and the workers.
They kept me walking through the ice on the sidewalks and the snow along the street edges until I reached the dorm and then they left me safe and ready to move onto another college experience. They brought me back to "her" and another college experience. Now she was dying and I was moving north, yet again, back beyond the store to the one person who had started my pre-med experience, "My Organic Chemistry teacher." She would help me understand oxidation and reduction reactions and how to use them to save her. She would know how to make my winter thoughts into summer hopes and keep my dying heart connection alive.
Something snapped as the roaches collided antennas moving excitedly in heated bonded connections. Something deep inside me drowned in the winter thoughts of death's finality and that soon she would be dead and cold within my memories and within a wooden box. My heart broke yet again into millions of compartmentalized feelings and unspoken words and voices that tore jagged at my vocal cords plucking a synergy of want and longing in a world where I was disconnected without her. She was gone before she was gone. Her memories were lost in the transition into her next steps. Her breasts were eaten into open, oozing, seeping winter thoughts of life taken and yet her eyes and heart remained open to the healing that would surely come for the chosen.
It was early Sunday morning as I trampled through the snowdrifts towards nothingness. Sometime during the night, I had fled the confines of winter thoughts and headed north towards connections. I was headed to Massachusetts to my first college experience, to a connection and to the night where I was accosted in a grocery store by a man with a large, sharpened butcher knife who stood boldly before his audience of grocery shoppers including me and a few black friends and announced that he was going to kill him a "n****** tonight. I was mesmerized by the glean of the knife's edge and its intent. I was unimpressed by its holder and his intent.
The snow had already soaked through my pink Converses wetting my jeans up past my ankles. I didn't feel the frigid cold of the wind chill tearing through the pink knit of the sweater. I was coatless and oblivious to the winter snow and to my surroundings. I kept trudging through winter thoughts knowing that if I turned around, she would be dead sooner. If I kept moving forward, I would buy her and her Universe time to rethink the inevitable. I needed to suffer so that she would no longer have to.
Winter thoughts returned to the grocery store and the proclamation of life taken, mine. I paid for my limited snacks as my friends ran screaming from the store. The store clerks appeared paralytic in shock as ingrained movements of checking pushed my items past the scanner and robotic arms collected monies and bagged items. Their eyes were lifeless as their jobs went on beyond their collective consciousness and the man stood waving his knife, groceries packed in a cart waiting to kill him a "me."
The oppression of the South tore at my memories as my life in the Projects resurfaced the hideousness of scares already etched within my being and something snapped as a historical string of legacies stood me up proud and surrounded me with the buffaloes of my heritage and the drums of my life story. I walked deliberately in front of him as he waved the knife dangerously close to the slow heave of my chest and words emerged from my mouth and saved my life that night.
"I have been to the mountaintop of hell and witnessed the glory of a majestic heaven.
What you propose to do tonight is your hell and your journey. I will not walk away
from you and your intent. I will fight the good fight as your knife plunges deep into
the existing scars of my flesh and carves out the final breath of "her" life."
It was surreal moment for everyone in the store as each of us stood still waiting for his next move. I was caught in the final breath of "her" life, disconnected from my own. My breath was caught in the raising of his arm and the plunging of his intent. And then he stopped inches away from the curve of my heart and the arms of angels pulled me backward slowly, mechanically towards the open door of the store beyond the still profiles of the man and the workers.
They kept me walking through the ice on the sidewalks and the snow along the street edges until I reached the dorm and then they left me safe and ready to move onto another college experience. They brought me back to "her" and another college experience. Now she was dying and I was moving north, yet again, back beyond the store to the one person who had started my pre-med experience, "My Organic Chemistry teacher." She would help me understand oxidation and reduction reactions and how to use them to save her. She would know how to make my winter thoughts into summer hopes and keep my dying heart connection alive.
Winter Thoughts-Part I
We all have life experiences that pull us into the blizzard of our memories and exorcise our buried life stories from cellular databases of our mind. Winter thoughts are the memories that lay buried in the avalanche of past loses; thoughts closeted in the dark places of our existence; and thoughts that flurry as the driven snow along mountainsides of our subconscious minds.
I have a vivid memory of a winter thought that dredges through my repressed trapdoors and comes calling to my consciousness as the snow continues to fall today. She was dying slowing as the cancer tore rampant through her breasts collecting her life sources into coagulated breathes and chest heaves. Death was closer in the December of her last connection to a life that would be but a memory soon. Six months prior, she had chosen to let go and let the spirit of the Universe that she believed in deal with the cancer and its annihilation. She took to her proverbial bed and let faith begin the healing process. She was a believer in all things in heaven and the miracles she had witnessed in the backwoods of the African jungle and the life manifest in the Sahara desert. She was one of the chosen....chosen to die.
I was a young soon to be graduate of college sitting in the semi-dark confines of my dorm room watching the December snow fall in layers under a streetlight appearing benign from a second story watch place. One light on a desk pierced through the darkness of the room as I struggled to remain focused on my pre-med course finals and the theology "death and dying"final that would start the following Monday. It was a Saturday night when winter thoughts created their own momentum and a frenzy of her, death and dying, loss, heaven, darkness, scrambling of heart desires, embraces forevermore and the finality that I would never see her again.
She had been a consummate presence of nurture and support as I braved the uncertainty of the isolation and cruelty of a college experience, the hope of a future so daunting and maligned, the coldness of next steps, the want of a soul connection in a world, I was too young to understand and embrace. It was her presence that propelled me into an early graduation, an application to medical school, and a need to prove that despite my life circumstances, I could move beyond and soar. She was the Gibraltar of my rock. She created a sense of belonging and frankly, my presence on the planet amused her. But she was dying as I sat figuring out organic chemistry's oxidation and reduction reactions and the meaning of death and is there life beyond the flat line.
She was being reduced into the aftermath of life as her lifeline squiggled into the flatness of physical death. Her time was running out and so was mine. Our life lines intertwined into a ropelike cataclysmic reverberation of systolic and diastolic pressures and heartbeats as I sat in my dorm room and she lay dying in the center of her king sized bed.
I have a vivid memory of a winter thought that dredges through my repressed trapdoors and comes calling to my consciousness as the snow continues to fall today. She was dying slowing as the cancer tore rampant through her breasts collecting her life sources into coagulated breathes and chest heaves. Death was closer in the December of her last connection to a life that would be but a memory soon. Six months prior, she had chosen to let go and let the spirit of the Universe that she believed in deal with the cancer and its annihilation. She took to her proverbial bed and let faith begin the healing process. She was a believer in all things in heaven and the miracles she had witnessed in the backwoods of the African jungle and the life manifest in the Sahara desert. She was one of the chosen....chosen to die.
I was a young soon to be graduate of college sitting in the semi-dark confines of my dorm room watching the December snow fall in layers under a streetlight appearing benign from a second story watch place. One light on a desk pierced through the darkness of the room as I struggled to remain focused on my pre-med course finals and the theology "death and dying"final that would start the following Monday. It was a Saturday night when winter thoughts created their own momentum and a frenzy of her, death and dying, loss, heaven, darkness, scrambling of heart desires, embraces forevermore and the finality that I would never see her again.
She had been a consummate presence of nurture and support as I braved the uncertainty of the isolation and cruelty of a college experience, the hope of a future so daunting and maligned, the coldness of next steps, the want of a soul connection in a world, I was too young to understand and embrace. It was her presence that propelled me into an early graduation, an application to medical school, and a need to prove that despite my life circumstances, I could move beyond and soar. She was the Gibraltar of my rock. She created a sense of belonging and frankly, my presence on the planet amused her. But she was dying as I sat figuring out organic chemistry's oxidation and reduction reactions and the meaning of death and is there life beyond the flat line.
She was being reduced into the aftermath of life as her lifeline squiggled into the flatness of physical death. Her time was running out and so was mine. Our life lines intertwined into a ropelike cataclysmic reverberation of systolic and diastolic pressures and heartbeats as I sat in my dorm room and she lay dying in the center of her king sized bed.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Dreaming of a White Xmas
With voluminous snow pouring out of the celestial buckets of ice and air, I'm dreaming of a white Xmas, even as the news and newspapers spin a different reality for others. The dream of a white Xmas for others has turned into a snow parka of nightmares in having to face the reality of road closures, delayed flights or other transportation outs and winter depression.
Trying to navigate the icy sleets of pavements on four wheels of rubber and a ton of metal for those in the game of 9-5pm was like playing unofficial hockey on the freeway and interior rinks with the vehicle being the puck of chance and potential score. For those taking to the airways, train stations or the proverbial "Greyhounds" of escapism, the snow has created plenty of time to pause and wonder. For those taking to their beds, the snow will become a calendered memory for the new year in the "Remember when" column of life's journey.
I like the idea of a white Xmas, a snow filled holiday where the heavens sing with joyous voices and light the sky with thunderous applause of cataclysmic clapping of snow covered angel wings feathered in ice crystals floating aimlessly over the land. Maybe growing up in the rat and roach infested Projects where snow was the crackle of static covering the black and white television screen; the blow of street drugs and genocide; and the blur of eyes bruised beyond seeing, the thought of a white Xmas for me was the fairytale that helped me survive the childhood that was taken.
When I think about the days of snow that have kept me home-bound of late and centered in a space of reflection, I am grateful for the voices of angels and the dusting of feather wings. I can dream beyond what was in my life and see the purity of what is, as the coolness of snow reminds me of what was. I can touch the snow in my yard and make snow angels in a majestic grandness of thankful synergy to the heavens. I can etch the thankfulness of gratitude into the building of a snow personification and feel its solidness of ice as I ponder my own solidity and metaphors on the journey of life.
I can look into the heavens and thank the choir for its bounty of the white stuff and smile as the streak of a sleigh blazes into the snow canvas of Xmas. Yet beyond it all, I'm not looking for Santa to dump odd-shaped presents down my chimney which is why I have a gas fireplace. For me, it is the reality of a white Xmas that brings the greatest present of all. Through the sheerness of snowfall, I am bathed in angels' wings and through the layering of snow coats, I am loved in the purist sense of the Universe. I am the miracle called life.
As I dream of a white Xmas and watch the snow fall, I am reminded that dreams can become realities of a spring, a summer and a fall that mirror the cycle of life and existence in a circle of miracles. Within the joy and heavenly love of humanity and a winter snowfall, I exist and I rise. I am having a white Xmas beyond the dream...........................
Trying to navigate the icy sleets of pavements on four wheels of rubber and a ton of metal for those in the game of 9-5pm was like playing unofficial hockey on the freeway and interior rinks with the vehicle being the puck of chance and potential score. For those taking to the airways, train stations or the proverbial "Greyhounds" of escapism, the snow has created plenty of time to pause and wonder. For those taking to their beds, the snow will become a calendered memory for the new year in the "Remember when" column of life's journey.
I like the idea of a white Xmas, a snow filled holiday where the heavens sing with joyous voices and light the sky with thunderous applause of cataclysmic clapping of snow covered angel wings feathered in ice crystals floating aimlessly over the land. Maybe growing up in the rat and roach infested Projects where snow was the crackle of static covering the black and white television screen; the blow of street drugs and genocide; and the blur of eyes bruised beyond seeing, the thought of a white Xmas for me was the fairytale that helped me survive the childhood that was taken.
When I think about the days of snow that have kept me home-bound of late and centered in a space of reflection, I am grateful for the voices of angels and the dusting of feather wings. I can dream beyond what was in my life and see the purity of what is, as the coolness of snow reminds me of what was. I can touch the snow in my yard and make snow angels in a majestic grandness of thankful synergy to the heavens. I can etch the thankfulness of gratitude into the building of a snow personification and feel its solidness of ice as I ponder my own solidity and metaphors on the journey of life.
I can look into the heavens and thank the choir for its bounty of the white stuff and smile as the streak of a sleigh blazes into the snow canvas of Xmas. Yet beyond it all, I'm not looking for Santa to dump odd-shaped presents down my chimney which is why I have a gas fireplace. For me, it is the reality of a white Xmas that brings the greatest present of all. Through the sheerness of snowfall, I am bathed in angels' wings and through the layering of snow coats, I am loved in the purist sense of the Universe. I am the miracle called life.
As I dream of a white Xmas and watch the snow fall, I am reminded that dreams can become realities of a spring, a summer and a fall that mirror the cycle of life and existence in a circle of miracles. Within the joy and heavenly love of humanity and a winter snowfall, I exist and I rise. I am having a white Xmas beyond the dream...........................
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Does Love Bring Change?
It is almost Xmas Eve or whatever holiday eve one celebrates in December. As the next series of snowstorms threaten to blanket the Puget Sound, I am watching "Home for the Holidays: An Adoption Special" on television. I waver between being mesmerized and reminded. The faces of children who have been adopted and those longing for family cover the backdrop as Faith Hill sings holiday carols and extends the invitation for families to adopt children who long for homes for the holiday. I continue to waver between being mesmerized and wanting to forget.
Jamie Fox just finished singing an original song he created called, "Love Brings Change," to an audience of parents, adopted children and a mixture of adults and kids waiting to make the connection called family. Jamie revealed that he was adopted at 7 months into a loving home of relatives who welcomed him, nurtured him, helped him to grow into a phenomenal manhood embracing life's gifts and opportunities. He was lucky and blessed. I continue to watch.....
As I sit and look at the longing faces of young children almost beaten down by the want of belonging, I think about my own want and my own longing of belonging to someone who made me visible and placed me in the center of their heart. I grew up in foster care in a place that shattered my heart and my want to long and belong. I was never adopted because the paperwork noted that I was incapable of connecting with a family. At five, my life of invisibility was scribbled on government paperwork and I was allowed to fester in the governance of the system and live in foster care hell. I'm not sure if I want to continue to watch now......
Does love bring change as Jamie Fox so wants his audience to believe? Yes and no............ For the children who have captured someone's heart and are embraced in the protective arms of family however defined, love does bring change. They have become visible and allowed to grow in the protective shell of love. With love comes safety and a sense of freedom to try on the different selves until a few of them fit and the child is allowed to progress undistracted by neglect, want or longing into the beauty of the adult self of independence and continued connection with the rest of humanity. I wish them the best and I'm still watching....
For the children who have been abandoned in the black ink of words on paper and relegated to the bowels of invisibility, love is an ambiguous word that defies definition and reaction. Love becomes synonymous to survival and survival for a child is a balancing act between daring to expect and welcome family and expecting nothing from adults who surround that child with the ineptitude of degradation and loss. For children who survive, the ability to connect becomes a life's journey. Survival precedes the connection; loneliness fills the void of the want of embrace; and love becomes the forbidden as life changes and so does the magnitude of the want. I know the question remains as I continue to watch......
However, for many children the change becomes because of love. Jamie was loved into adoption and he changed and grew. Faith Hill was adopted and carries those memories into an action filled mission to connect other foster care children with families who can show children that love does bring change. Keisha Cole, another singer was also in foster care and appears to have thrived beyond the system into a star. They all became stars and now share those memories to an audience of believers. Those believers are the children with stars in their eyes who long to belong and connect hearts with hearts. I continue to hope for them and watch.....
It's a testament for the Faith, Jamie and Keisha's who have grown beyond foster care into the adoptive hearts of families and thrived. It answers the question that love does bring change. They and countless others are the manifestation of the question and its response. They and others are the shadows that cover the shallow graves, prison cells and lost lives of children still longing to belong. They are the black ink on the paperwork of love and connection. They are the ones who were lucky to be lost in someone's heart and mind and center and remain there forever. I continue to wish them all the blessings of connection and love. I continue to watch until the show ends along with the memories.....
Jamie Fox just finished singing an original song he created called, "Love Brings Change," to an audience of parents, adopted children and a mixture of adults and kids waiting to make the connection called family. Jamie revealed that he was adopted at 7 months into a loving home of relatives who welcomed him, nurtured him, helped him to grow into a phenomenal manhood embracing life's gifts and opportunities. He was lucky and blessed. I continue to watch.....
As I sit and look at the longing faces of young children almost beaten down by the want of belonging, I think about my own want and my own longing of belonging to someone who made me visible and placed me in the center of their heart. I grew up in foster care in a place that shattered my heart and my want to long and belong. I was never adopted because the paperwork noted that I was incapable of connecting with a family. At five, my life of invisibility was scribbled on government paperwork and I was allowed to fester in the governance of the system and live in foster care hell. I'm not sure if I want to continue to watch now......
Does love bring change as Jamie Fox so wants his audience to believe? Yes and no............ For the children who have captured someone's heart and are embraced in the protective arms of family however defined, love does bring change. They have become visible and allowed to grow in the protective shell of love. With love comes safety and a sense of freedom to try on the different selves until a few of them fit and the child is allowed to progress undistracted by neglect, want or longing into the beauty of the adult self of independence and continued connection with the rest of humanity. I wish them the best and I'm still watching....
For the children who have been abandoned in the black ink of words on paper and relegated to the bowels of invisibility, love is an ambiguous word that defies definition and reaction. Love becomes synonymous to survival and survival for a child is a balancing act between daring to expect and welcome family and expecting nothing from adults who surround that child with the ineptitude of degradation and loss. For children who survive, the ability to connect becomes a life's journey. Survival precedes the connection; loneliness fills the void of the want of embrace; and love becomes the forbidden as life changes and so does the magnitude of the want. I know the question remains as I continue to watch......
However, for many children the change becomes because of love. Jamie was loved into adoption and he changed and grew. Faith Hill was adopted and carries those memories into an action filled mission to connect other foster care children with families who can show children that love does bring change. Keisha Cole, another singer was also in foster care and appears to have thrived beyond the system into a star. They all became stars and now share those memories to an audience of believers. Those believers are the children with stars in their eyes who long to belong and connect hearts with hearts. I continue to hope for them and watch.....
It's a testament for the Faith, Jamie and Keisha's who have grown beyond foster care into the adoptive hearts of families and thrived. It answers the question that love does bring change. They and countless others are the manifestation of the question and its response. They and others are the shadows that cover the shallow graves, prison cells and lost lives of children still longing to belong. They are the black ink on the paperwork of love and connection. They are the ones who were lucky to be lost in someone's heart and mind and center and remain there forever. I continue to wish them all the blessings of connection and love. I continue to watch until the show ends along with the memories.....
Monday, December 22, 2008
Five Days of Snow: Life Lessons
Snow has come a calling to many areas on the planet. It has stretched its icy biceps over the land providing a winter blanket over our lives. For many, the coldness of its embrace has stopped us dead in our tracks and impacted our lives in ways that we will regurgitate both professionally and personally during the big thaw in the spring.
The snow can be measured in depth of coverage and quantified in a financial and emotional emptiness of promises that for this year will remain unfulfilled. There is purity in the blanket of whiteness that bares open our souls and our emotions. Its strength is measured in its impact on our lives. The last five days of snow in 2009 will carry different memories for each of us.
For me, the snow has come at the best time in my life. It has provided me with a blanket of reflection where I can stop and roll the compactness of its ice crystals into thoughts measured only in the depth of the thoughts. The snow has given me pause to stop during my life's journey and redirect my tracks in new directions as I reflect on the meaning of current engagements and ready myself for next year's disengagements in creating new life and new snow tracks.
The snow has inherent power in its ability to shut down the technology that provides us with the basic comforts of life. Years past, the snow and the wind have done just that; shut off the power of our thoughts and forced us to reckon with a life lived in past history where there was no electricity, power, or means to exist except in what we created in our collective connections of humanity.
Five days of snow in years past covered the world in darkness and numbed our minds in survival as its bitter cold left no skin untouched or mental faculty unencumbered. Snow then left its message and its memory. Snow now has also left its message with a different memory of heat, basic life necessities for most, but not for all. For some, the snow is a life stealer and a slow numbing of memories and experiences that have left some with a closer embrace with the elements. At various points in my life, I too was one with the elements of snow and its direct meaning in my survival to exist.
For me yet again, the snow and its impact have provided a pause to value life and treasure the journey. It has given me time to reflect and have a profound respect of my place in the Universe and understand that in my humanity, I am no match for elements and temperatures that are unsustainable for life. I can walk in the snow, throw a snowball, make a snow person, and feel its coldness on an exposed cheek, but I can't sit down in the middle of a snowfall for the day and live.
Five days of snow, yes five days of white powder blanketing the land has given all of humanity a chance to reflect and rethink our existence on the planet. As we begin to unthaw and think about what really matters in life, think about the snow. Maybe next year, we won't need a blanket to redirect us into matters of the heart; maybe all we'll need next year is a shawl of rain and snow flurries as reminders that five days of snow can become ten, twenty, a lifetime of reflection and redirection of actions that must be purposeful in sustaining life as we know it.
The snow can be measured in depth of coverage and quantified in a financial and emotional emptiness of promises that for this year will remain unfulfilled. There is purity in the blanket of whiteness that bares open our souls and our emotions. Its strength is measured in its impact on our lives. The last five days of snow in 2009 will carry different memories for each of us.
For me, the snow has come at the best time in my life. It has provided me with a blanket of reflection where I can stop and roll the compactness of its ice crystals into thoughts measured only in the depth of the thoughts. The snow has given me pause to stop during my life's journey and redirect my tracks in new directions as I reflect on the meaning of current engagements and ready myself for next year's disengagements in creating new life and new snow tracks.
The snow has inherent power in its ability to shut down the technology that provides us with the basic comforts of life. Years past, the snow and the wind have done just that; shut off the power of our thoughts and forced us to reckon with a life lived in past history where there was no electricity, power, or means to exist except in what we created in our collective connections of humanity.
Five days of snow in years past covered the world in darkness and numbed our minds in survival as its bitter cold left no skin untouched or mental faculty unencumbered. Snow then left its message and its memory. Snow now has also left its message with a different memory of heat, basic life necessities for most, but not for all. For some, the snow is a life stealer and a slow numbing of memories and experiences that have left some with a closer embrace with the elements. At various points in my life, I too was one with the elements of snow and its direct meaning in my survival to exist.
For me yet again, the snow and its impact have provided a pause to value life and treasure the journey. It has given me time to reflect and have a profound respect of my place in the Universe and understand that in my humanity, I am no match for elements and temperatures that are unsustainable for life. I can walk in the snow, throw a snowball, make a snow person, and feel its coldness on an exposed cheek, but I can't sit down in the middle of a snowfall for the day and live.
Five days of snow, yes five days of white powder blanketing the land has given all of humanity a chance to reflect and rethink our existence on the planet. As we begin to unthaw and think about what really matters in life, think about the snow. Maybe next year, we won't need a blanket to redirect us into matters of the heart; maybe all we'll need next year is a shawl of rain and snow flurries as reminders that five days of snow can become ten, twenty, a lifetime of reflection and redirection of actions that must be purposeful in sustaining life as we know it.
The Color Purple Production-Seattle, WA.
The theater production of the musical version of "The Color Purple," was mesmerizing and thought-provoking. I was so greatly honored with incredible tickets for the December 20th, 8:00pm performance by two wonderful people in my life, Sue and Bruce. It was a gift that continues to give as I write this blog in the wee hours of a snow filled morning.
Getting to the production was all about wit and intention. I needed wit to change my tickets from the 8pm show to the 2pm matinee due to a snow storm that was predicted for later in the evening. I engaged intention in calling my friend and saying let's take the risk and go to the box office to change the tickets. Both were needed as I navigated the already snow covered hills of the Eastside to drive into the big city of Seattle on snow and ice covered roads.
The show was magnificent with actors and actresses who produced songs that were heavenly; songs that invoked the spirits of times past; songs that spoke to the present heart of our collective humanity; and songs that challenged us to change and be the change we sought in our own lives and in the lives of others. The show delivered a myriad of messages that spoke of empowerment, tenacity and freedom.
When Sofia lifted her voice in song and shouted out to the audience, "Hell No," it was a poignant moment of the evolution of civil rights from the oppression of the past beyond the marginalized opportunities of the present. It was about an inner power that we all possess to just say no to what marginalizes our abilities to be the best of who we can be on the planet that included each of us, both male and female.
The set design and flow from scene to scene set a tempo and pace that allowed the audience a chance to partake and indulge in our own personal reflections and resolutions. Even as the last curtain fell on a cast so connected and determined to present a show that spoke to our hearts, for me it was about the collective spirit of humanity and love that was shared during an afternoon when snow fell and blanketed the streets of Seattle yet again with the challenge and determination of the journey towards home.
Getting to the production was all about wit and intention. I needed wit to change my tickets from the 8pm show to the 2pm matinee due to a snow storm that was predicted for later in the evening. I engaged intention in calling my friend and saying let's take the risk and go to the box office to change the tickets. Both were needed as I navigated the already snow covered hills of the Eastside to drive into the big city of Seattle on snow and ice covered roads.
The show was magnificent with actors and actresses who produced songs that were heavenly; songs that invoked the spirits of times past; songs that spoke to the present heart of our collective humanity; and songs that challenged us to change and be the change we sought in our own lives and in the lives of others. The show delivered a myriad of messages that spoke of empowerment, tenacity and freedom.
When Sofia lifted her voice in song and shouted out to the audience, "Hell No," it was a poignant moment of the evolution of civil rights from the oppression of the past beyond the marginalized opportunities of the present. It was about an inner power that we all possess to just say no to what marginalizes our abilities to be the best of who we can be on the planet that included each of us, both male and female.
The set design and flow from scene to scene set a tempo and pace that allowed the audience a chance to partake and indulge in our own personal reflections and resolutions. Even as the last curtain fell on a cast so connected and determined to present a show that spoke to our hearts, for me it was about the collective spirit of humanity and love that was shared during an afternoon when snow fell and blanketed the streets of Seattle yet again with the challenge and determination of the journey towards home.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Lost in a Busy World
Have you ever just stopped in a moment of time and realized that you were momentarily lost in a busy world? Each day for many people is filled with a frenetic type of momentum that propels the human spirit into whirlwinds of unrelenting motion and emotional disturbance. Between our personal and professional world, we are tossed about on the spiritual bridge that connects us to the balance of the universe.
There comes a moment in time when each of us must stop in the tossing and breath. It is within this breath of renewal that our cells are infused with synergy and hope. We take breathing for granted as if the air that fuels us is a given right of our temporary inhabitance on this planet and of our life form. What we fail to truly understand is that we are so brief in the span of time called life. Our lives are in reality symbolized by mere nanoseconds of time stretched together in episodic life experiences.
We are indeed lost in a busy world that controls us within our experiences and our short lives on earth. When we stop for that brief moment, it is then that we realize how precocious life is and how we only have the moment of time that we're in at any given collection of seconds during a time span or life experience. We are the gift of life and not the giver.
To be lost is not about stopping to reevaluate our existences or our life contributions. Being lost is really about finding oneself in the chaos of frenzy that defines humanity. Taking time to reflect on what we give back to the planet is about finding that our time on earth was planned zillions of years ago in the twinkle of a star and the rising of the sun connecting with the setting of its moon. We are special in the uniqueness of our creation and in the blessing of our spiritual births.
Now is the time to stop and embrace the moment of our possibilities. It is the today in our lives that we must connect with the essence of our birth and the journey of our discourse in our nanoseconds of life moments. Yes, each of us is lost in a busy world. Our job in this life is to stop, breath, bless our universal birth, and touch the lives of humanity with the applause that we existed in the first place.
There comes a moment in time when each of us must stop in the tossing and breath. It is within this breath of renewal that our cells are infused with synergy and hope. We take breathing for granted as if the air that fuels us is a given right of our temporary inhabitance on this planet and of our life form. What we fail to truly understand is that we are so brief in the span of time called life. Our lives are in reality symbolized by mere nanoseconds of time stretched together in episodic life experiences.
We are indeed lost in a busy world that controls us within our experiences and our short lives on earth. When we stop for that brief moment, it is then that we realize how precocious life is and how we only have the moment of time that we're in at any given collection of seconds during a time span or life experience. We are the gift of life and not the giver.
To be lost is not about stopping to reevaluate our existences or our life contributions. Being lost is really about finding oneself in the chaos of frenzy that defines humanity. Taking time to reflect on what we give back to the planet is about finding that our time on earth was planned zillions of years ago in the twinkle of a star and the rising of the sun connecting with the setting of its moon. We are special in the uniqueness of our creation and in the blessing of our spiritual births.
Now is the time to stop and embrace the moment of our possibilities. It is the today in our lives that we must connect with the essence of our birth and the journey of our discourse in our nanoseconds of life moments. Yes, each of us is lost in a busy world. Our job in this life is to stop, breath, bless our universal birth, and touch the lives of humanity with the applause that we existed in the first place.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Our Conscious Self
Deep down within the core of the conscious self lies who we really are and have envisioned ourselves to become in life. We grow into our adulthood with goals and aspirations hoping to finally actualize the self we have cultivated and matured into fruition. In life, we all want the same basic things: love with someone who makes our soul sing; financial freedom to provide the basic necessities and the extras; health and well-being; and making human connections in the form of friends, family and the professional connections.
When the basic essence of life throws a wrench in the plans we have so carefully cultivated for our lives, we start the blame game of victimization. Instead of dealing with the wrench, we allow it to torque us into submission and the victim's role. A wrench is a tool that is designed to correct a problem, so once the wrench of life is caught, use it. It's not about blame or victimization; it's about life and the fact that as we each take our journey through life, we have to deal with whatever life has to offer. Use the wrench to fix the problem and alter it into something life changing.
What inherently each of us must understand is that oftentimes, life, the universe, God, Allah, Her or whomever or whatever one chooses to label a higher power greater than the human experience, is leading us towards our deepest conscious self. In order to grow and understand our life connections, we must go beyond what appears reasonable into the deepest dark of thought and reflection. We are not the captains of our ship, we are simply passengers enjoying the experience of the open embrace of the waters and the swirl of life as it serves to teach us and grow us into caring, loving and incredible human beings.
We know from life's experiences that the journey into our conscious self provides the ultimate transformation of the person we are ultimately meant to be in this world. As we grow into our majestic self, we become aware that the essence of life lies in what we really don't know and not in what we think we know. The deepest mystery of life is within its chaos, not within its control.
When the basic essence of life throws a wrench in the plans we have so carefully cultivated for our lives, we start the blame game of victimization. Instead of dealing with the wrench, we allow it to torque us into submission and the victim's role. A wrench is a tool that is designed to correct a problem, so once the wrench of life is caught, use it. It's not about blame or victimization; it's about life and the fact that as we each take our journey through life, we have to deal with whatever life has to offer. Use the wrench to fix the problem and alter it into something life changing.
What inherently each of us must understand is that oftentimes, life, the universe, God, Allah, Her or whomever or whatever one chooses to label a higher power greater than the human experience, is leading us towards our deepest conscious self. In order to grow and understand our life connections, we must go beyond what appears reasonable into the deepest dark of thought and reflection. We are not the captains of our ship, we are simply passengers enjoying the experience of the open embrace of the waters and the swirl of life as it serves to teach us and grow us into caring, loving and incredible human beings.
We know from life's experiences that the journey into our conscious self provides the ultimate transformation of the person we are ultimately meant to be in this world. As we grow into our majestic self, we become aware that the essence of life lies in what we really don't know and not in what we think we know. The deepest mystery of life is within its chaos, not within its control.
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