Wanderers

"She has sand in her shoes" was an expression used often many years ago to describe a person who always wanted to be on the move, traveling, seeing new and different places, meeting people. Photographers, adventurers of all types fall into this category, as do stay-at-home types who only dream wistfully of escaping sameness. Whether one carries out the wish and lives life broadly in varied environments, or experiences vicariously the delights of constant movement, it is a lifelong addiction.

Exquisite, joyful excitement comes with newness for some; the sight of unfamiliar territory, an ancient landscape suddenly coming into view for the first time, eating delicious food that is an unknown culture's staple. Knowledge, experience.

Observing the world through other eyes, illuminating solitary life paths. Open the mind, partake deeply of extraordinary lightness, wander through life with unabated curiousity. Rewards are great, unexpected, renewable, unexcelled.

Go Ahead - Decide

With most of us, life choices are more like "accepting what we've done" or variations on that theme. It's all true, the going within process - the only direct path toward serenity.

Many available ways exist to revise circumstances of life - distractions all, these tend to simply beckon us occasionally, like a siren song. Most revisions are good, change is inevitable, so make it happen if possible. Just choose a path, controversial though it may be, and proceed. All the noise will recede with distance - leap-frog through life, one lily pad to another. Get those feet wet dragging a foot through the water here and there . . . landing somewhere reasonably dry is the triumph.

The essential life curse is inactivity . . . unless it is a short waiting period during which the truth will emerge. Adroitly craft an escape and move it.

What divine designation binds anyone to an abusive situation? Just decide to go for a better and happier journey. With friends, family, parents, children, dogs, cats, horses, just pick a category -- demand respect and pleasant treatment.

It is a perfect right. Now. Awareness and then action. Staying put can be enlightening, moving on most assuredly will be all of that. Adventure and new surroundings are great teachers . . . excitement awaits -- learn more about differences.

In this spirit go forth now, free of irrational, unworkable machinations. Choice is good.

Giving Thanks

Wake to each day with thanks . . . if your primary thought is not defending yourself and those around you, if there is adequate food in your kitchen - or if you HAVE a working kitchen; you have to give no real thought to acquiring fuel to drive to your job (you HAVE a job) or to your children's school - and they are in no physical/mental danger BECAUSE they go to school . . . generally these privileges are assumed, and they are now, today, missing in action for countless people across this planet. For just a minute in this day, reflect.

New Identities

Thinking about reasons for needing another person or animal, a separate entity which is breathing, alive and in our life space. Surely worthiness exists even if no one else acknowledges/notices our presence? From that, if our feelings do not matter to anyone or anything else, or our ideas and thoughts remain invalidated . . . that is, they are not radiated back to us from anywhere outside our own heads . . . why bother?

Being. What exactly IS it? Going about the daily life routine . . . arising in the morning, or whenever we do it - getting clean and dressed, to whatever extent we feel presentable . . . are we applying hair dressing, spray, or makeup, or smoothing wrinkles in our shirts or skirts? Do we wear khakis or wool? What matters - to us or to our audiences?

Coordinating . . . who is going to school, what is needed? What is the Plan for today? Have the pets been fed, watered, walked? Did anyone throw up anywhere? Who must be picked up at what time and why? Looking all right, are we? Hair in place, purse/wallet containing licenses, etc. with us? Is everyone doing everything possible to make our routines smooth and trouble-free? If not, have we expressed ourselves as to this lack of cooperation?

Entering our vehicles (most of us do this . . . a few pockets of resistance to oil consumption exist, no doubt minorities) absentmindedly turn the key and expect to be on the move - we drive furiously . . . somewhere. Amid traffic, fumes, highway chaos. Excitement? Action? Listening to music, inspirational tapes, however our true hearts need to be lulled, within the time frame available.

Find a parking space, time is of the essence. Getting about the business of our lives. Thinking about . . . what needs to be done, expectations, demands, chores, work. Losing ourselves to find ourselves.

So, WHO are we really? A clear picture we would love and treasure at all times . . . can we see it?

Truth Quests

Much has been, and will be, written and spoken in regard to questing for truth. The whole truth, real truth, truth in general. If truth must be perceived, 'finding' that historically elusive state of being . . . identifying it . . . living in peace with it, could prove to be merely an exercise in comparison. Truth, in fact, IS. Now, before ideas that it surely must be something more. Simply and completely put, truth just IS. Longing for changes . . . vague, uncomfortable beliefs and hopes that surely the truth MAY - MUST - be different continues to befuddle us. Desired changes will more smoothly move into place with a life canvas of serene quietness . . . knowledge that everything as it currently exists . . . is right. Each movement is a brushstroke. See and feel its bright color, its textures and light energy.

It may be that what is . . . current perception of our lives, states of being, families, finances, living conditions, relationships . . . does not satisfy us. Those situations, whatever they are at a given time, do not please. Therefore, a search for actual truth . . . with an eye toward utopia, a blissful, desired nirvana in which all will be beautiful, comfortable, heavenly . . . if you will. Buddhists and Hindus believe that eliminating desire leads there. Desire for change, for difference. ANY desire which contradicts or compares in any way what IS with what we WISH to exist. Christians know of heaven with streets of gold and total absence of responsibility.

So, not realizing that desire for difference or comparison of what is with what we might want could actually be truth’s obstruction . . . also having created our very own personal distressed, thwarted state of mind . . . searching for truth seems the only path to take.

Know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Conditions of discomfort and frustration belie truth's presence. Truth is always present; failure to understand this fact naturally stymies peace and happiness. Mystifying ourselves with our own misconceptions necessarily confounds a happy present.

Quests for real truth must begin with ability to realize desire. Blocking, hindering, or otherwise obstructing realities may momentarily amaze us, baffle others, bedevil a prevailing notion, befuddle our minds, or result in total bewilderment.

Why over-complicate a concept which is not at all complex? When quests for truth become perplexing snarls of vague notions and unanswerable questions . . . the very act of searching for it becomes the true focus. Truth is here - now.

Positive Affirmation

Thomas Troward, in 'The Creative Process In The Individual' said: "The Principle of Life must of necessity be Affirmative, and affirmative throughout, without any negative anywhere -- if we once realize this we shall be able to unmask the enemy and silence his guns." He continues with " . . . to do this is precisely the one object of the Bible; and it does it in a thoroughly logical manner, always leading on to the ultimate result by successive links of cause and effect."

Troward goes on to describe: " . . . good and well-meaning people with a limited idea which they read into the Bible, preliminary to Resurrection. They grasp, of course the great central idea that Perfected Man possesses a joyous immortal Life permeating spirit, soul and body; but they relegate it to some dim and distant future, entirely disconnected from the present law of our being, not seeing that if we are to have eternal life it must necessarily be involved in some principle which is eternal, and therefore existing, at any rate latently, at the present moment. Hence though their fundamental principle is true, they are all the time mentally limiting it, and consequently the principle will work (as principles always do) in accordance with the conditions provided for its action" . . . .

We recognize 'affirmative' as positive, optimistic, true. In all human relationships, personal, communal, or worldwide, making attempts to shift someone else's perspective arises frequently - while raising children, teaching, arguing one's point in a courtroom, negotiating the terms of a contract, rallying in regard to a political matter. Allowing oneself to be consumed with righteous indignation in regard to any point of view becomes some kind of key toxic variable in any conflict. Why not attempt to have a perspective, share that perspective, and be comfortable with the fact that others have a different view? Is it not possible to state clearly and believe in our own ideas without becoming autonomically aroused enough to fling verbal insults at someone whose opinion or appearance is different, commit retaliatory acts of vandalism, or publicly ridicule or attack others? Are these behaviors not negatively driven?

What then drives us to create, to work, to make an ethical mark on the world - in our families or our communities our classrooms? Peace and love? Tolerance? Awareness? Presence of mind?

Conceptually, most of us realize that optimistic, positive truth serves well in every situation. We know that peaceful mediation frequently solves differences of opinion. Before indulging in any negative expression, judgmental or otherwise, quietly consider facts already in evidence, and, understanding that truth does not exist only in the mind's eye, proceed toward an affirmative solution. Understanding that truth is not from thoughts, but in perspective . . . is a difficult to describe but workable construct, having elements of feelings and thoughts and attitude. The perspective results from framing reality. And reality responds. That's the truth.

Maintaining a positive perspective? Tricky business, indeed. A change in thinking will not necessarily work. Frequently, REAL feelings and thoughts are stuffed or diverted or ignored. They are still there -- decisions to acknowledge only some thoughts and feelings can make the avoidance of real ones stronger. Then, having no conscious realization that they exist, everything in our worlds may be set up and changed. Quickly, chaos and negativity are present, and how is this possible? We had decided to be affirmatively joyous!

Modern day gurus and enlightenment speakers admonish being fully present in the moment, feeling the body and its feelings, observe and allow, without becoming those. In other words, allowing whatever conditioned garbage is there to BE without stuffing or diverting. Taking a deep breath and coming from a place of love for and acceptance of everything - even the sad parts which are creating the negativity in our lives. Not sympathy or anger or even empathy for those parts. Just presence and the knowledge that WE ARE NOT SIMPLY OUR STORIES. Each day is an unwritten page. What ensues in our lives is always created in this subtle, amorphous place of perspective.

Divine Murder

Many patriotic e-mail messages go around, replete with poignant photos of military personnel and their tireless dedication to the task at hand, along with admonitions to never break the process, lest it dishonor the dead and fighting living, this messaging compliance ostensibly illustrating and proving that divine sanctions from God are dictating all war efforts and the killing (both 'enemy lives' and our own) which is taking place, and this must never be forgotten. This mindless forwarding is taking more and more thinking people over a small edge, having nothing at all to do with dishonoring the unfortunate men and women who have died or been mutilated in any war effort.

While reading these extremely dramatic directives, viewing the photos, carefully chosen to enhance the idea of the message, thoughts must occur that perhaps God hasn't personally authorized or endorsed all war; that is, maybe it isn't about God at all. Just men, deciding that for some reason (economic or otherwise) warring on someone is advisable, and convincing the public of this is necessary. Defense is often the reason given and fear becomes the motivator; threats of an outside group doing harm to U.S. citizens get quick and emotional results, especially when there is an act of terrorism which kills a group of Americans. However, America seems to be doing more to Americans (huge taxation, punitive action against the tax-paying public constantly, hounding the populace for more money which is then largely squandered by those who receive it; spending huge amounts of tax dollars in the form of legal process 'investigating' random companies and individuals who have committed and gotten away with their crimes because our own government looked the other way and many times were actually aware of or even involved in the coverups; making everything we do within this American life more and more difficult) than to our enemies. Those who are required to fight must believe that what they are doing is divine. It's just difficult to swallow it all whole anymore . . . no resemblance to anything spiritual or God-driven. More like waste and maybe even misdirection. Does it look like God is pleased with us? Not the way our lives are currently going in this nation. It's thought-provoking.

The safety of any group of people, community, country, or otherwise, is important. Defending a way of life, children, accomplishments achieved as a nation, a government; establishing a freedom from perpetration of any hurtful evil (inside or outside borders) is prudent. Billions of dollars and much effort is expended on same. Should any military 'take on' another country's government, its culturally determined way of life? And how could the group of people who are responsible for determining whether or not to do this assume that their actions are sanctioned by their deity? When reading of the Incas, the Mayans, and other violent cultures which offered human sacrifices in bloody rituals to their gods, how is it that modern parallels seem to be invisible?

Consider carefully before clicking 'forward' - it seems at least reasonable.