Values, Perspective & Life

The way the world is turning these days makes me really question whether or not humanity will ever advance past their own short-sightedness of their own small perspectives.
Sure there are those who do good things and those who give freely. Those who create movements and petitions to put an end to suffering. Those who champion the needs of the exploited and the helpless. Those who make a difference in the world even when the impact of those differences are small and often go unnoticed and unreported.
Yet still. The overall tone of the world at large is that of me. Me, me, me. The mentality of what’s in it for me? What about my suffering? What about my job? My house? My money? My religion? My beliefs?
The reality of “we’re all connected” and “what happens here has an impact over there” is still not understood or valued by the masses. Which for me is very disheartening. How can we as a people or a species say that every life matters and then allow countries to hunt another species to extinction?  Or kill hundreds and say it’s awful but turn away those seeking safety or respite from murderers?
How can we demand better education for children, better health care, better food options while ignoring droughts where people have no water or the role we played in causing/contributing to drought?
It fascinates and baffles me that as a species we are so focused on our “rights” that we don’t see how our “rights” have a direct impact that contributes to the destruction of ourselves and the world we live in.
When someone dies are they remembered for how much money they  had? (Well maybe if you’re in their will.) But seriously – not really. Mostly people are remembered for the impact they had on the people around them. That they lived their lives to the fullest, treated others with kindness and respect. Loved their family and friends and loved well. Did the best they could with their lives in the time they had and knew the value of love, laughter and charity.
I guess what this post is trying to say is that when your time is up how do you want to be remembered? As someone who valued all life and knew their impact on the world? Or someone who only valued what they could see? Or only those people or things that shared the same viewpoint? How do you want to be remembered? How do you want to impact the world?
Either way, the choice is yours. And as Emmet Brown says, “Your future’s whatever you make it, so make it a good one.”

Do You Ever Get Tired

Of all the false positivity posts that are more than abundant on social media sites? Ever verbally denounce or scoff at someone’s ridiculous post about how  life can be awesome if you just relax and breathe and think good thoughts?
Well I do. And if you don’t that’s fine too but if do you probably won’t want to read this post. Perhaps you should go elsewhere. No really. Just go. You’re still here? Well okay then, enjoy. Or not.

All animosity aside there are days when the crap I see posted on Facebook makes me want to throw things. I mean really. You’ve got posts that proclaim that “everything is energy” to shocking videos of some rather socially challenged Wal-Mart shoppers to non-profits wanting you to sign petitions to prevent animal abuse or deforestation, to the latest cutesy cat video to some guy crashing a plane killing everyone on board.
And yet in the same downward scroll of your news feed someone else is telling you how simple it is to raise your energetic vibration so that your positive state can heal the world and everyone around you.

Um what? Have you seen what I just read? Violations of human rights, animal cruelty in China, crazy people shopping at Wal-Mart, a random but failed arson attempt in my home town, and you expect me to believe that by just being positive I can change all that?
Who are you people and what are you smoking?

I agree that everyone has the ability to affect positive change to some degree regardless of where they are in life or where they are in the world. But.
Based on daily news and daily atrocities committed in the world, a few handfuls of people practicing positive change is not enough for what ails the human population today. And posts proclaiming otherwise make me question your sanity, especially if you’re also going to “teach me how in 3 easy steps,” for the “one time low payment of  $300.”

So even though you’re saying I can affect change, you’re going to make a profit off the secret to how I can do that?  Isn’t that part of the problem though? Or am I just missing the point of positive change on that I should profit from the solution to how I personally can affect positive change?

Wow. If that’s the case then perhaps those who promote this bs are nothing more than profiteers who are no more adding beneficial contributions to humanity than the people who have or will ever contribute nothing.

How about this for inspiring positive change in your world: Don’t read fantastical posts on Facebook, stop surfing social media sites, turn off your computer and put your phone on silent.
Go outside for a walk in nature, volunteer at your favorite non-profit, host a block party, adopt an endangered animal (through financial contributions), recycle, don’t pollute, meet your friends and family for dinner, better yet invite them over for a backyard bbq, go out for dinner with your family once a month, spend time with all the people you care about regularly (that means at least once a month), and lastly do work that you enjoy for a company or business that does not go against your morals and ethics.

Easy right? Best of all, free and no Facebook required.

The Life Not Lived

Just lying here on my couch, not feeling great when it occurs to me that I forgot to do something. Then it hits me….oh yeah, I forgot to have a life. Lol. Well kinda, sorta…but yeah my life has no resemblance to what l envisioned for myself.

Sometimes or maybe all the time the plans we make for our future never really manifest the way we had planned. In some cases it can be as if the life we thought we were going to have doesn’t just take a left turn or the wrong fork in the road. Sometimes it’s as though we completly missed the fork and the plans and suddenly where we are looks nothing like what we’d imagined. Like not even close. Almost as though we’re living some strangers life without any clue as to how we got there.

My brother said something back in March that struck a note with me since I’d already been down that road many times myself and still do to some degree. But anyways the story is that he was envious of his girlfriend’s family and how they were well off financially with investments and properties and the like and was regretting not having done the same when he was younger. (Playing the what if game and feeling bad about not being smarter about certain life “things.”)

We all do this to some degree at some point in our lives and having done it myself many times over the years I had an epiphany of sorts.

I’m sure this has been said before but liklely in a much more flower powery way. As soon as you begin comparing your life to another’s you will always come out on the bottom, because lets face it, most of the time we compare our lives to someone we envy because they seem to be so much better off than we are.

The thing is though that no one else has had your life. No one else has had your experiences and no one else grew up in the exact same environment you did with the same external influences affecting your life and choices. Playing the what if game is as pointless and unproductive as beating a dead horse. The horse is still dead and your past is still in the past.

Even if you could go back for a do-over there’s no guarantee that you wouldn’t still make the same choices. Maybe you would have a bit more knowledge if you took what you knew now with you, BUT…in my experience knowledge isn’t as big a determining factor as your feelings. Strong emotions are typically the main driving force behind any major decisions we make for ourselves. Whether it be passion for our work, love for a partner or the desire to own a home. Knowledge helps but strong feelings are typically what drives most people to make the choices they make and choose the things they do, not wisdom.

So the next time you see something you don’t have or are envious of and think “gee I wish I had that,” keep in mind that even if you could have a do-over (which you can’t btw), how certain are you that you would make different choices?

Something to think about for sure.

Publishing, Writing and Re-Visiting

I recently had the opportunity to re-visit articles and pieces I wrote as a contributor for a local newspaper. This kind of activity is not one for the faint of heart. Mostly it feels rather nostalgic to see what you were thinking, doing and believing at certain moments in time – in other ways once you begin actually reading what you’ve written, the urge to ‘take it back’ or re-write it is very strong. I’ve had this happen with more than one form of writing, whether it be a short fictional piece, an article or even a journal entry. And it got me thinking that what we believe is a great piece of work today will always have room for improvement in the future.

Why does this happen? Well I believe that we are only as good as our perspective, circumstances and belief systems allow and until you gain more experience, changes in your perspective and adjustments to your belief system you won’t obtain enough distance to truly ‘see’ your own work. Which makes me wonder what published authors who have their work in print feel about things they wrote several years ago. Anything that is already ‘out there’ and in a hard copy format cannot be re-written or taken back. It can be re-published possibly, although I’m sure quite rare considering that you would likely have to be a very popular author to justify such a thing.

I suppose that a published book or words written on a page or published in a periodical is much the same as the process anyone feels working in the creative field, such as artists, photographers, film-makers and all those associated with the entertainment or information industry. Once it is done, it is done and must be forgotten or celebrated and let lie, otherwise, you would not be able to move forward with producing better or more interesting works. Which is what makes the creative field of employment so different from other fields of work. Certainly you can make mistakes in any job but it is highly unlikely that there will be more than a handful of people who know of it, and that just isn’t the case in a position where many people are witness to your work and creations.

Which makes me wonder why so many people want the kind of experiences that puts your work before more than a handful of people that displays on a large scale, who you are and what you can and cannot do. Why would anyone desire the kind of public attention that artists, writers and actors are exposed to as a part of their everyday life? I think the answer lies in the fundamental desire of many (but not all) people, who want to be seen and heard and known by more than those they see every day or even in the places they live. I think that these individuals (myself included), want to be seen and heard on much larger scale than they are able to reach in their everyday lives. Not because they are starved for attention (although some are) or have inflated views of who they really are, but because they feel they have something to share with more than just their small circle of friends, family and aquaintances and that what they have to share is important.

I am aware that there are many who believe that what they have to say or share is more important than anything else someone else could share and will do anything to get that kind of attention. But that’s not what I’m referring to here. I believe that everyone has something to share with others and the only question that needs answering is in whether or not it can be shared on a small or large scale. And also that no matter what you need or want to share with others, whoever needs to hear you will hear you. Whoever needs to see you will see you and whomever needs whatever it is that is uniquely you, will somehow and in some way receive it.

Indecision and Confusion

I really want to know where indecision, confusion and the inability to make a choice comes from. These aren’t choices that are huge or life-changing or even have any effect on the big scheme of things.

I have been having serious difficulties with making decisions on every day, little things, such as what to name a new Blog site, not the blog itself – that seems relatively simplistic to me – but the name of an alternate Blog is filling me with the kinds of symptoms only a writer faces when staring at a blank page.

I have no trouble writing things down, as can be seen by this newest blog – but things like whether or not to buy that sweater that’s on sale that I suspect I may never wear again or buy new winter boots vs. getting my old boots repaired, or moving forward with starting ‘some’ kind of writing career and taking the next step. These are the things that leave me paralyzed with indecision and make me run away from the laptop, press the ‘shut down’ button and read a book. Or send me sighing with frustration to Facebook where I spend a good hour or more playing silly games like Bubble Witch or Gardens of Time.

Why do I get so hung up on these kinds of decisions? It isn’t as though it will alter my world by any dramatic means, nor will it seriously impact anyone’s life in any way, shape or form. I truly don’t understand where this lack of decision-making ability is coming from. It isn’t as though I’ve never had to make hard decisions before.

If I were a gambler I suppose I could put down a hefty bet that some of my decision-making reluctance stems from having to make those big decisions in the past which had to be done, but were not in any way enjoyable. I’ve had to file for divorce, call the police on numerous occasions…and trust me, that is not an easy decision to make, file for bankruptcy, quit jobs, call on many different social programs for assistance in some form or another and even give an interview in a closed room at the local police station – yeah, I’m not what I seem on the outside. 😉

But even with all of that aside, it still doesn’t leave me with any kind of understanding or solution as to how to solve the indecision dilemna.

I believe that I’ve just reached the end of my current thought bubble and sad to say, I don’t believe I am any closer to a Blog title than I was before, but I might be a bit closer to an understanding of how I got here – which in a roundabout way may lead me to the path of clarity.

Cloudy Thinking Makes for Cloudy Writing

Well, I started out yesterday morning with so many topics to write about that I couldn’t settle down and just ‘pick one.’ And then I got majorly side-tracked by being ‘called’ to help someone ‘energetically’ find some balance. Now I find that my muse has abandoned me, but what I think is more likely is that I’m just too tired to pick something to share.
So I’m gonna ‘go with the flow’ and see where my newly recovered writing desire takes me. I’ve no idea where I’m going to go with this, if anywhere, but I will say that I have many topics of which I have an interest in.
Sometimes I may write about my family – most often about my dad, since there are so many stories to tell about him, but also about my interests, abilities and fascination with all things unexplained. Such as intuitive abilities, dreams, pendulums, tarot & oracle cards, mediums, ghosts and all things paranormal and metaphysical ~ just to name a few.

Gotta run now, very hungry. 🙂