Form

What form will I take in the next life? What kind of person will I be? A lawyer, thief, soldier or maybe a farmer, addict or killer.

Thinking that you have been more in another life than you are in this life, are the thoughts of a fool. All that is, moves and changes constantly as its soulful journey fuels the artwork that is creation itself. You are the unique and authentic expression of life.

The power of the universe resides in each one of us whether we be animal, plant, rock or beast. It is from the same Earth that we spring forth, a feminine cradle of life that flows in each of us; a river flowing throughout time and space, life its companion.

Tread lightly, not only for the land but for yourself. The generations to come depend on the imprint we leave behind us, be it a paradise or a garbage dump.

Harm none, revere life of all kinds, make choices that matter for those that await. Be at peace, first within your own soul, reaching out only when ready to engage the flow.

Evolution of thought and deed, progress in the change that this world needs. Endless chatter yields to the calm for it has no choice but to keep moving to the cycles set forth by God, Nature, you pick your label.

Fortune lies not in money or some such trivial pursuit, but in the experiences that make us who we are, be it a lawyer, thief, soldier or maybe a farmer, addict or killer.

JP ~ August 2015

Why do you do it

Why do you do what you do? It is for yourself? It is it for others? Is it for your boss or employer? Have you ever asked yourself, as I am sure that many of us have….why the hell am I doing this?

It is a valid question, a question that you should ask yourself from time to time always being mindful of the encroachment of ego into your answers. If  the answer to the question is from the ego, it may look something like this; “because no one else can do it better than me”

Rubbish. Anyone can be replaced, it happens everyday.

If you answer the question to from non-egotistic state of mind, it may resemble something akin to this; “The effort is enough and I am not attached to the outcome”.

Better. However; the honesty in this answer takes a lot more thought and effort to be true.

Just how much of what we do is ego driven? I would say a most of it, because ego has a way of inflating our self-importance when we don’t put it in check. Everything we do affects something or someone else, once that activity or work is out in the world, we no longer hold sway over it. It can be critiqued or criticized, there is nothing we can do about that.

Let’s say you have a project or a process at work that you worked on really hard for a long period of time and it happens to turn out really well. But your employer doesn’t give you the “positive” feedback that you expected. Do you get angry and rant to your boss that you worked really hard on said project? Do you even go so far as to “demand” that you should be recognized and “hint” that maybe you should get a bonus or a raise for your “extra” efforts?

That my friends is ego talking loud and clear. I challenge you to look at this simple example from a different angle. Approach it as a source of personal pride in your own ability to do a good job, to overcome adversity, to teach and to learn…but more importantly as an opportunity to NOT BE ATTACHED TO AN OUTCOME. Look at your struggle from the perspective of “the effort was enough”.

I’m sorry/not sorry to say this to anyone who may read this who still thinks that others owe you, simply because you try. As Depak Chopra once said on national television, “The Universe doesn’t care”.  Life does not care if you are having a bad day. Life doesn’t care if you are in financial straits. Life doesn’t care if you are having problems with your wife or husband. “The Universe doesn’t care”

Harsh but it is the way it is. In order to manage this paradigm successfully you must change your mindset. If not, you risk being or continuing to be a victim. If you do your best and you accomplish the task at hand, then let that be enough. Let go of the outcome. Sometimes you will fail. A quote by the fictional character Jean Luc Picard from the television show Star Trek The Next Generation is precisely what I am getting at here, “Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose, that’s life”.

The difference between being a victor or a victim is mostly a change in perspective and attitude. Change the things you can, and if you can’t then let it be. Life isn’t fair. Why would you make it worse by trying to change things you cannot? Ego. Check your ego at the door folks, it just makes things worse. Sometimes all of the “wanting” and “needing” in the world isn’t going to change anything.

Let your effort be enough.

 

~JP~

Stop complicating everything

Humans have a very bad habit. We take the simple and make it complicated. An example that I find humorous, speaking on the subject of simplicity, is a quote that has been attributed to Thoreau….. Henry David Thoreau, once wrote to his teacher, Ralph Waldo Emerson…. “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” Emerson wrote back, “Don’t you think one ‘simplify’ is enough”?

This statement illustrates my point. We make everything in our lives too complicated. We complicate our jobs, our homes and relationships, not to mention our interactions with others. Human intercommunication until the last few years been a mostly verbal (phone calls) or face to face encounters.

In the 20th and 21st century’s we have text, email, Facebook, Instagram, Snap chat, the list goes on and on. All wonderful time-saving ways to disseminate information. However; in this dizzying variety of technology that allows us to communicate to thousands instantly, we have lost the human element of just simply talking to each other.

I as much as anyone am guilty of having sent a text or email that wasn’t really what I wanted to say. The delivery not as well stated as it needed to be, because I hurried through the thought and writing process that honest communication takes. In the end I have hurt those that I care about the most. Simply due to the fact I didn’t have the conversation, but instead sent an electronic communication. I did not take into account how my words might impact another person before hitting the send button.

Funny as it sounds complicating things is simple. It is frankly too easy to over think a problem and then go to the internet and find 15 solutions to that problem. When admittedly a few minutes of contemplation or verbal/face to face communication with another person, may really be the answer. At the very least you can get going in the right direction.

Restraint demands that we slow down. Slowing our minds and bodies and taking our eyes off of a screen such as your phone, computer, T.V. and allowing ideas and solutions to come from our inner-selves, our innate intelligence. A walk in nature is a great way slow the “monkey brain” down, allowing the real you to come forth.

The next time you feel stressed and emotional, hit your “pause button” and try not to find a solution right away. Sit with your emotions for a while and ask yourself questions. Inquiry’s such as “How am I going to deal with this?” and “What are the impacts on others if I enact this solution”? Listen to your own inner wisdom. The answers will come to you in due time. Trust yourself and don’t over complicate the answers you receive. Then you may act not from emotion but from wisdom. It’s that “simple”.

 

~JP~

 

Manipulation

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“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”

 

~ Miyamoto Musashi ~

 

The modern life with all of its wisdom as wonderful as it can be at times is hollow. Advertising agencies, government, public institutions and the like would have you believe that you have to seek all of your answers and information from them. When you seek “your” truth by looking outside of self (heart-self), you become a volunteer (notice I did not say victim), nay a willing participant in manipulation and hypnosis.

Notice how you feel after watching a television commercial. Do you want what they are advertising? Are you hungry after that burger commercial? Are you feeling a sense of discontent? Do the words or images go through your mind like a song stuck in your head? Congratulations! The advertisers of said product have hooked you. They manipulated your attention; put you into a suggestable state of mind with a catchy tune and bright flashy colors, and you never even noticed.

 

Now imagine if you will a young child maybe 2-4 years old. That young child is still developing mentally as well as physically. A precious child, which we as parents unknowingly throw to the wolves of consumerism every time we let them watch television or go on the internet without supervision.  That young child will be bombarded by thousands of advertisements and influences blasting through our televisions until they are adults. All the while a lesson is being taught…consume.

 

Manipulation comes from outside of us and television and the internet are just two of the newest and sadly most effective ways to influence and manipulate the masses. Stop participating in the manipulation of your life. Stop believing everything that you are told without thought. Stop looking to politicians to fix your problems. Wake up! The politicians and media want you to stay asleep; that way the manipulation is easier and you feel nothing.

 

You are the only one that can change your life, by work, by struggle; by thought and deep consideration of what is “your” truth and what it means to you. Seek nothing outside of yourself.

 

JP

 

 

Lost

Lost in a sea of doubt. Unsure of my next move.

The world so fearful, so dangerous, so out of the groove.

The media pushes fear, rage and our hopes are dashed like waves crashing against the rocks.

Once protectors, now our seeming oppressors, a tool of the desperate state…the cops.

Safety is an illusion it has been said. It is just as true today as in the past.

We are only as safe as we can make ourselves, to no avail at times.

For the worst of us keep committing crimes. They care not for you, but what they can take.

Train and arm yourself, to keep your family and home safe.

Give up the fantasy my friends, safety is never guaranteed.

Learn to use the gun, the knife, they are tools that you will need.

What is really important

As one grows older and hopefully wiser in life, you start to find yourself thinking about what is important to you. To me it is the simple things, a love of a great wife, the comfort that two small dogs bring, the warmth of a home on a cold winter day. You know the things that we so often take for granted.

I have lost these things before and paid dearly for them in emotional costs, monitory costs, and the loss of my dignity and self-esteem. Over time all those things were recovered and surpassed. Even though at one time I gave up and almost lost everything including my life, somehow I was lucky and the circumstances that could have been dire, turned out well for me in the long run.

I have learned through hard experience that what is really important is not what you drive, where you live or where your kids go to school. The important things to me are the love of a good woman, a warm home and the pain and suffering that I have gone through in order to recognize that the simple things are important. In the end we take nothing with us, just as we came into this existence with nothing.

Take some time today and look at your life. Only you can ask and answer the question of what is really important to you. Keep it simple, keep it honest and look into that place that only you can go and you might find a different answer to your own question.

In this time of year when commercialism

is king, when advertising is so pervasive in all of the media outlets, when we are told to buy, buy, buy, stop for a minute and ask yourself what is really important. Is it things, or is it people. Only you can answer that question for yourself honestly.

This is not a test but only a passing thought from someone who has pondered the question many times and gained the knowledge of what matters to me most.

 

Connection

We  are connected you and I. Connection can take many forms, you are reading the words that  I have written here, hence connection. Our children are connected to us through DNA and experience and love. We are connected to our pets through caring for and loving them as well.

Connections can also come in the form of electronic/social media, video, music and good old-fashioned conversation. Whenever two or more people interact there is an exchange of energy. That energy can come in the form of thoughts, feelings, facial expressions and many other ways.

When we read a book there is a potent visual connection of energy that is formed in the mind, from the author to the reader. If we are viewing a picture of lets say an ocean and we really like the ocean; we will have a wonderful feeling about what we are seeing. Likewise if we are looking at a picture of the ocean and we hate the water we will also have a feeling, maybe of fear of a bad experience we had as a child with the ocean.

In all of life’s wonders there are both exchange and manipulation of energy that can only be experienced not really described. This energy connects us to places as well. Animals are very aware of sensing and using this connection too. Animals live their lives in the moment. They are very Zen like, they eat when hungry, sleep when tired and play when happy!

If only most of us stodgy adults could remember that (me included), so I am not pointing fingers at anyone before I point them at myself first. Take the time to connect to the energy around you through direct experience with nature, animals, a good book,  a discussion with a loved one or good friend, a motorcycle ride…however you like to charge yourself up.

Connect with life and yourself; learn to see your inner light and let it shine.

Be well,

 

JP

Un

I have been…

An unbeliever.

unkind.

unwilling.

unforgiven.

unhappy.

unforgiving.

underpowered.

unhealthy.

unloved.

unfair.

unfriendly.

unfaithful.

unpopular.

unprepared.

 

Tomorrow is my 50th birthday, what have I learned from the first chapter of my life that is about to close to open the second and final chapter? I have learned that…

I am a believer.

I am kind.

I am willing.

I am forgiven.

I am happy.

I am forgiving.

I am powerful.

I am healthy.

I am loved.

I am fair.

I am friendly.

I am faithful.

I am popular (with small groups).

I am prepared.

 

Am I all of these things everyday? No, I wish I was that good; frankly I am not, but I try.

We are many things to many people and we are many things to ourselves. We all wear different masks that represent our personality. Some good and some bad, but all of these parts play into who we are.

 

Be good to yourself.

JP

 

Two years

I have been blogging for a little over two years now. I threw out on Face Book today the idea of closing up shop. I did receive some great feedback from three people. Three. I guess it makes me wonder if I should put the effort in continuing. I am not asking for a consensus and I will make the final decision in the next few days.

The whole idea of writing a blog was to improve my writing skills and entertain and inform if I could do that at the same time. I believe that goal has been accomplished. Receiving comments from other bloggers has been a highlight of the experience as there are some great ones on the internet.

I will give this question some consideration. Thank you to those who have given me encouragement to continue.

 

JP

Listen

Listen to the sound of the wind.

Listen to the sound of running water.

Listen to the sound of a burning fire.

Listen to the whispers of the night.

Listen to the messages of your own heart and fear not the pain.

Listen for the happiness that comes with the rain.

JP