you have a choice
Everywhere you look there are books on meditation and speakers highlight how everything in the universe is connected and if you think hard enough everything you dream of can and will appear.
Having now questioned and dissected everything I was taught as a child, it’s hard to determine exactly what is and isn’t in today’s world. I know that, as hard as I try, I can’t find myself “going” down the path of what today’s religious aspirations are.
I love and enjoy nature and treasure people and life events, but I also find myself frustrated and insecure with wars, high food and gas prices, and the anger and violence that seem to permeate daily life. There is and always will be a “higher” power as far as I am concerned, but my “higher” power and yours, no matter what name it is called, be it God, Lord, Spirit, Buddha and everyone else, there it is a connection between all human beings: we know in our very fiber that we are not alone, the world and beyond tends and follows a cycle no matter how much man tries to interrupt it or find a better way. We are in this together, yes, but we need to find our own ways to reach out, reach out, and grow. We cannot and should not “copy” or imitate what others are doing, but we can learn and incorporate bits and pieces until we truly “find ourselves.”
Whether you find yourself in tune or in disagreement with current beliefs, that’s you. You are one of a kind, one of a kind, and no matter how you twist and bend, you cannot be your neighbor, your best friend, or even your mom and dad. If you are not true to yourself, then you are not true to life.
We all have our good days and our bad. Tears are not wasted, but are “collected” by unseen beings who cherish them like diamonds in the rough. They become the droplets that produce the rainbow and that mythical pot of gold. Smiles are delights that make the sun shine brighter and the flowers turn their heads towards the sky. Hate and anger are weeds that need to be tended and violence in any form is “unacceptable”.
The people of today have allowed their governments to lie, cheat and steal and remain silent. Humans look the other way at hunger and poverty until it reaches their pockets and homes with its tentacles. High gas prices and the cost of putting a meal on the table can be overwhelming, but they are also doors to inspiration and motivation. Would you slow down your pace to go back and forth if you didn’t pay dearly at the pump, or would you consider home cooked meals more if the receipt at the grocery store didn’t look like the national debt? Today’s mantra is true in that we are all connected, but it brings up the fact that if we fray, tangle and break, so will many others. If you believe in spirit guides, angels, or look to the moon to feel safe and secure in your steps, then that is your belief system.
Even as a nation, our ancestors, the people who lived generations before us, have left their mark, ideals, and mistakes for us to consider and pass all of this on to our everyday existence. Wars didn’t work in the past and they won’t work in the future. The power of fire will always destroy, and it will never have the ability to create and build. Without the old belief that “what’s good for the goose is good for the goose” should include allowing other countries and nations to live and grow in your place in the sun, but allowing the ability to ask for help or share ideas and inventions
There is no “right” country, as there is never a single answer to a dilemma. If a government deliberately causes death and destruction, through lies and manipulation, no matter the outcome, it will never be right. When others do the same, why stand in despair and shake your head when you were the leader of the parade?
As you can see, life as we know it or as we perceive it is individual, but the ties that bind it are also there. Tethers keep us grounded but allow us to safely reach the heavens and beyond. If you fall, know that others are there to pick you up or step over you. Those who walk over you will meet the same fate, while those who stop and give you a hand will add to their success story, because that is how it is written in the book of life.
The x’s add up just as fast as the +’s, but they make your particular tapestry glitchy and color run. The same tapestry that you weave with each moment of life will allow you to walk proudly forward, or will make you hide in corners for fear of being discovered. Once again, it’s your choice because it’s your life. You pick and choose, but know that decisions are not judged by the masses, but by the individual heart and soul. Food For Thought ©Arleen M. Kaptur July, 2008