---
I've been through a lot in my life. I have learned more about me and my perspective has changed more within the last 7 years than ever before.
Even more so in the past two years. It's been quite a roller coaster ride since I began to question everything I believed. And I think that takes more courage than changing your outlook and life style when you have epiphanies. When your paradigm shifts. When you awaken to a new truth.
When these things find you along the journey, they're like friends you've made in places you've lived or visited. They're for a reason, a season or a life time. The tough part is embracing your doubts and fears. Putting down your exclamation points and giving attention to your questions.
What if I'm wrong? Why am I so judgmental when it's all supposed to be about Love? Why do I feel like it's us and them, when it's supposed to be about unity?
I have learned about myself and the influences on our thoughts, due to our geographical location. We are all influenced by various things like family, where we're shaped by the belief systems of our parents. By our culture, our societal values of right and wrong and what we'll encounter as punishment if we fail to adhere. Some things we adopt out of fear, some out pressure to fit in, and many because we go with the flow. We aren't taught to be free thinkers.
Ideals are presented to us as facts and Truth and we incorporate them. Yet we are aware that people in other regions do not subscribe to similar beliefs. So our truth is THE truth and the rest are... well, they're just going to Hell I guess. How sad. How mean and cruel and unjust.
Bubba Watson won the Master's Golf Tournament, one of the greatest events in the sport and in the post win interview, Bubba was asked, "is this a dream come true?" To which he responded, "the dream never got this big."
I have a good friend that came from very humble and poor beginnings in Sri Lanka, where they're not even considered to be human beings by those in a neighboring country, who just received his Doctorate degree from the University of South Carolina. I asked him, "was this the goal you had in mind?" He said, "I just kept taking the next step. I never had a doctorate degree in mind."
For Bubba, golf was his passion and way to a better life. For my friend, education was his way. I remember wanting to achieve the best score I could on the physical fitness tests in the Marine Corps. Part of it was for running three miles. I'd have a time objective to achieve to attain the score I desired. I'd run and my mind would tell me, 'oh, it's so far and already your legs hurt, you better slow down and pace your self." Any time I looked at the half way point or the end, I'd wind up slowing myself down. But when I just looked down at my feet hitting the pavement in front of me and concentrated on getting my breathing in sync with my cadence, I'd reach the finish line in a shorter time. I'd lose track of where I was and how much farther it was to get to the end and I actually would run the last mile faster than the previous two.
Where I am is exactly were I had dreamed of being. I am making what I dreamed would be sufficient and living at exactly the lake of my fondest childhood memories. I am married to the woman who was meant for me. Who is magically perfect for me. Who I believe to be divinely intended for me.
I dreamed all of this and when I am still, it dawns on me, "I'm here. I have arrived."
Depending on your perspective this is great and sad. Some have told us that we are reaping what we have sown. Karma has come around to reward us. It has been a long winding road of a journey for me and since I met Anita it has been a continual process of pretty intense growth. Spiritually, emotionally, financially and maturity. Recently for the first time in my life, learning about boundaries, healthy boundaries. I grew up with none which is why I reaped from a life of fearless and reckless abandon.
I remember in 1982, I contemplated many things about life. I wondered about the drive to succeed ad achieve. When was enough enough? Wouldn't you just die trying to achieve the next thing and therefor die unfulfilled? I understand setting goals and striving for more, to be better etc. but again, when is it enough?
Where I am is enough. Does it mean I stop growing? Actually it has allowed me and Anita to both be in a place where we can get quiet, contemplate and allow growth to occur. No more keeping up with the hustle and bustle of life juggling family and career.
It's another season. We are not on the mission field, but more in our own field, within searching and finding and revealing and learning and growing and for me, for the first time in my life, feeling Whole.
I can't be in a box or put God in one. I don't care what name you put on it, I believe there is a spiritual component to our lives and in seeking that, we seek the same thing. No matter what your culture deems it's name to be. Love is love and it breeds compassion within us to feel an inseparable part of everything that exists. And everything is a result of that evolutionary pulse in the beginning when all was created and permeated by God who is all and in all and through all. We are created in the image of Love and everything is within each of us.
We are eternal. Where do we go when this body stops functioning? Well, look at your living room. Where does the space go when the walls are torn down? The space remains. It was there before the walls and it will remain when the walls are long gone.
We are eternal.
---
I've been through a lot in my life. I have learned more about me and my perspective has changed more within the last 7 years than ever before.
Even more so in the past two years. It's been quite a roller coaster ride since I began to question everything I believed. And I think that takes more courage than changing your outlook and life style when you have epiphanies. When your paradigm shifts. When you awaken to a new truth.
When these things find you along the journey, they're like friends you've made in places you've lived or visited. They're for a reason, a season or a life time. The tough part is embracing your doubts and fears. Putting down your exclamation points and giving attention to your questions.
What if I'm wrong? Why am I so judgmental when it's all supposed to be about Love? Why do I feel like it's us and them, when it's supposed to be about unity?
I have learned about myself and the influences on our thoughts, due to our geographical location. We are all influenced by various things like family, where we're shaped by the belief systems of our parents. By our culture, our societal values of right and wrong and what we'll encounter as punishment if we fail to adhere. Some things we adopt out of fear, some out pressure to fit in, and many because we go with the flow. We aren't taught to be free thinkers.
Ideals are presented to us as facts and Truth and we incorporate them. Yet we are aware that people in other regions do not subscribe to similar beliefs. So our truth is THE truth and the rest are... well, they're just going to Hell I guess. How sad. How mean and cruel and unjust.
Bubba Watson won the Master's Golf Tournament, one of the greatest events in the sport and in the post win interview, Bubba was asked, "is this a dream come true?" To which he responded, "the dream never got this big."
I have a good friend that came from very humble and poor beginnings in Sri Lanka, where they're not even considered to be human beings by those in a neighboring country, who just received his Doctorate degree from the University of South Carolina. I asked him, "was this the goal you had in mind?" He said, "I just kept taking the next step. I never had a doctorate degree in mind."
For Bubba, golf was his passion and way to a better life. For my friend, education was his way. I remember wanting to achieve the best score I could on the physical fitness tests in the Marine Corps. Part of it was for running three miles. I'd have a time objective to achieve to attain the score I desired. I'd run and my mind would tell me, 'oh, it's so far and already your legs hurt, you better slow down and pace your self." Any time I looked at the half way point or the end, I'd wind up slowing myself down. But when I just looked down at my feet hitting the pavement in front of me and concentrated on getting my breathing in sync with my cadence, I'd reach the finish line in a shorter time. I'd lose track of where I was and how much farther it was to get to the end and I actually would run the last mile faster than the previous two.
Where I am is exactly were I had dreamed of being. I am making what I dreamed would be sufficient and living at exactly the lake of my fondest childhood memories. I am married to the woman who was meant for me. Who is magically perfect for me. Who I believe to be divinely intended for me.
I dreamed all of this and when I am still, it dawns on me, "I'm here. I have arrived."
Depending on your perspective this is great and sad. Some have told us that we are reaping what we have sown. Karma has come around to reward us. It has been a long winding road of a journey for me and since I met Anita it has been a continual process of pretty intense growth. Spiritually, emotionally, financially and maturity. Recently for the first time in my life, learning about boundaries, healthy boundaries. I grew up with none which is why I reaped from a life of fearless and reckless abandon.
I remember in 1982, I contemplated many things about life. I wondered about the drive to succeed ad achieve. When was enough enough? Wouldn't you just die trying to achieve the next thing and therefor die unfulfilled? I understand setting goals and striving for more, to be better etc. but again, when is it enough?
Where I am is enough. Does it mean I stop growing? Actually it has allowed me and Anita to both be in a place where we can get quiet, contemplate and allow growth to occur. No more keeping up with the hustle and bustle of life juggling family and career.
It's another season. We are not on the mission field, but more in our own field, within searching and finding and revealing and learning and growing and for me, for the first time in my life, feeling Whole.
I can't be in a box or put God in one. I don't care what name you put on it, I believe there is a spiritual component to our lives and in seeking that, we seek the same thing. No matter what your culture deems it's name to be. Love is love and it breeds compassion within us to feel an inseparable part of everything that exists. And everything is a result of that evolutionary pulse in the beginning when all was created and permeated by God who is all and in all and through all. We are created in the image of Love and everything is within each of us.
We are eternal. Where do we go when this body stops functioning? Well, look at your living room. Where does the space go when the walls are torn down? The space remains. It was there before the walls and it will remain when the walls are long gone.
We are eternal.
---
