Hello!
Just a quick note, I have returned to blogging. My family and I have a joint adventure blog set up to chronicle our experiences in Germany. Check us out!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Married white male, 31, employed, fit, non-smoker seeks self, thinks they enjoy a good book and long walk on the beach but doesn't really know...
Alright, here's the question: How did we get so lost? How did we get so convinced that we have to conform to a social norm? Are we hard coded to seek pattern and submission in our genetic makeup? Is it some kind of caveman tribal instinct to run and hide or put limits on how big the universe can be or how far our capabilities or gifting can take us? Or is it boundaries instituted by larger forces to keep you from being great?
The cliche claim to phsycadellic drugs were that they "open doors" & "take limits off" of minds, I think this sounds great but I am not on board with hallucinogens. The chemicals usually required to make your mind produce images and live in that alternate view of reality are pretty harsh. Here's my theory, the hallucinogens are a shortcut to what we can do or who we can become by temporarily disintegrating the boundaries we have assumed. The addiction is mental freedom and the limitlessness of our minds and our psyche. I believe these limits and this freedom is more available and greater through natural routes.
Terms like self-image, enlightenment and spirituality come with limits, boundaries and something you are supposed to be or to become; if not a public concept then a private ideology. A jello mold that snaps our mind into an unoriginal form that doesn't frighten us or keeps us from "going to far" and "getting carried away". I am beginning to think that casting off of assumptions and boundaries leads to a free mind more than a realization of mystical evasive truths.
Maybe the realization is just that, maybe it's as much as we have discovered, theorized and philosophized there is more that we don't know than what we do know. There is more about me and about you that we have ignored or forgotten! Stop being someone else or the concept of someone else. Stop being what other people want you to be and start being who you have to be!
The boundries in our lives are there to keep us from destroying ourselves, from going down. To escape we must go up. To escape we have to become more than those that would control us. To become more, we have to become ourselves. We automaticly win if we can be ourselves. You will be the only one of you in the world, speak the truth you know to the lost, debate the truth you want to learn with others who have come home to themselves. You'll naturally be great being you; you will naturally be the best.
The cliche claim to phsycadellic drugs were that they "open doors" & "take limits off" of minds, I think this sounds great but I am not on board with hallucinogens. The chemicals usually required to make your mind produce images and live in that alternate view of reality are pretty harsh. Here's my theory, the hallucinogens are a shortcut to what we can do or who we can become by temporarily disintegrating the boundaries we have assumed. The addiction is mental freedom and the limitlessness of our minds and our psyche. I believe these limits and this freedom is more available and greater through natural routes.
Terms like self-image, enlightenment and spirituality come with limits, boundaries and something you are supposed to be or to become; if not a public concept then a private ideology. A jello mold that snaps our mind into an unoriginal form that doesn't frighten us or keeps us from "going to far" and "getting carried away". I am beginning to think that casting off of assumptions and boundaries leads to a free mind more than a realization of mystical evasive truths.
Maybe the realization is just that, maybe it's as much as we have discovered, theorized and philosophized there is more that we don't know than what we do know. There is more about me and about you that we have ignored or forgotten! Stop being someone else or the concept of someone else. Stop being what other people want you to be and start being who you have to be!
The boundries in our lives are there to keep us from destroying ourselves, from going down. To escape we must go up. To escape we have to become more than those that would control us. To become more, we have to become ourselves. We automaticly win if we can be ourselves. You will be the only one of you in the world, speak the truth you know to the lost, debate the truth you want to learn with others who have come home to themselves. You'll naturally be great being you; you will naturally be the best.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
A pendulum swings
It has been a while since I have blogged. Lots of reasons not worthy of going through, other than one. I ran into a few road blocks in the last week or two of splinters in my own character. I originally intended this blog to be used to flesh out some areas in my life that I wanted to grow in but it seems that nothing is private and true intentions are generally not considered so I became hesitant to write what I was dealing with. Fortunately this all came to a head on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.
In Dr. King's famous " I have a dream" speech he said "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
The issue I had become painfully aware of was my judgement of others based on all kinds of visual factors, appearance, walk, talk, dress, chosen associations; everything other than content of their character.
Not only did this echo into my gut just as soon as I read the words but it also forced me into an area where I had to, and am still, examining my character. Firstly, I know nothing of the people that I am judging and while who we are on the inside is often portrayed on the outside, it is not always so. Nor does that count for the multiple layers that appearance has to make it through before it can be portrayed; peer pressure, fashion, etc Secondly, these are God's people I am judging, aren't they? Thirdly, the obvious flaws that are in my own character that are present to generate such feelings of disgust and intolerance need to be and will be dealt with.
Lastly, what is the content of our character? Who are we when no one is looking? How do we behave, act, think & feel that no one but us knows? Self-examination is paramount. Change is a must. Static is dying, let us grow and become so that we may grow others.
Life is such a ride. I am appreciative of all it has to offer and above all things I hope to love people. It will be in my own pain in the butt way, but I hope to display and act on love. Everything else is fleeting.
In Dr. King's famous " I have a dream" speech he said "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
The issue I had become painfully aware of was my judgement of others based on all kinds of visual factors, appearance, walk, talk, dress, chosen associations; everything other than content of their character.
Not only did this echo into my gut just as soon as I read the words but it also forced me into an area where I had to, and am still, examining my character. Firstly, I know nothing of the people that I am judging and while who we are on the inside is often portrayed on the outside, it is not always so. Nor does that count for the multiple layers that appearance has to make it through before it can be portrayed; peer pressure, fashion, etc Secondly, these are God's people I am judging, aren't they? Thirdly, the obvious flaws that are in my own character that are present to generate such feelings of disgust and intolerance need to be and will be dealt with.
Lastly, what is the content of our character? Who are we when no one is looking? How do we behave, act, think & feel that no one but us knows? Self-examination is paramount. Change is a must. Static is dying, let us grow and become so that we may grow others.
Life is such a ride. I am appreciative of all it has to offer and above all things I hope to love people. It will be in my own pain in the butt way, but I hope to display and act on love. Everything else is fleeting.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Change, now it's time for change...
More and more I realize that there will never be an end to the changes in our life and it is those who consistently look for the merry-go-round of life to stop revolving and evolving that fall asleep at the wheel as their "life" passes them by.
How is that for an opener?!?
By nature, I resist change, my personality is one that doesn't like you to change the rules once I have a grip on the way things work. Recently I have realized that it is change that has ushered in some of the greatest things I have in my life; my wife, my girls, my friends, my personal growth, jobs, my trajectory, everything! If I had allowed myself to bury my head in the sand and attempt to ignore the ever-changing world around me I would have missed out on so much.
Is that to say that all change is positive change? No, that can't be, or there would be no contest in life. You cannot be a winner in life without a challenge to win, there cannot be a victor without a battle to fight, there cannot be an over comer without a circumstance to overcome! Inversely, if there are winners, then there are losers, if there are victors then there are victims, if there are over comers then there are the defeated.
So the question is what divides them? What is the difference? I can't pretend to know everything in the world but from where I stand it appears to be the attitude in which the change is viewed. Rarely can we keep the change from occurring but we can adjust ourselves to meet it with zeal and determination. The change is not the arena in which we fight, life is. We win at life. It is what we do. Why? Because we control our actions and attitudes, that's why.
The six inch battle between the temples is where it happens. If we can focus first on controlling our minds, faith and reactions to the oppositions or changes presented us, we can purposefully direct the course of our own lives and not be defined by the obstacles we meet.
I am excited ladies and gentlemen, life is good.
How is that for an opener?!?
By nature, I resist change, my personality is one that doesn't like you to change the rules once I have a grip on the way things work. Recently I have realized that it is change that has ushered in some of the greatest things I have in my life; my wife, my girls, my friends, my personal growth, jobs, my trajectory, everything! If I had allowed myself to bury my head in the sand and attempt to ignore the ever-changing world around me I would have missed out on so much.
Is that to say that all change is positive change? No, that can't be, or there would be no contest in life. You cannot be a winner in life without a challenge to win, there cannot be a victor without a battle to fight, there cannot be an over comer without a circumstance to overcome! Inversely, if there are winners, then there are losers, if there are victors then there are victims, if there are over comers then there are the defeated.
So the question is what divides them? What is the difference? I can't pretend to know everything in the world but from where I stand it appears to be the attitude in which the change is viewed. Rarely can we keep the change from occurring but we can adjust ourselves to meet it with zeal and determination. The change is not the arena in which we fight, life is. We win at life. It is what we do. Why? Because we control our actions and attitudes, that's why.
The six inch battle between the temples is where it happens. If we can focus first on controlling our minds, faith and reactions to the oppositions or changes presented us, we can purposefully direct the course of our own lives and not be defined by the obstacles we meet.
I am excited ladies and gentlemen, life is good.
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