To have or not to have? Who cares...

I always get mixed feelings when taking or ordering photographs. Life is so short and next generations are so removed that a picture seems pretty unimportant. The highlight of every picture’s life is the time when it is taken and developed, and it’s all downhill from there. It is stuck in a dusty album, viewed 5 times in its lifetime and thrown out after people on the photograph have passed on.
And as I continue thinking about life being short and things being temporary, most possessions loose meaning. And I start understanding what Buddhists say about striving not to want anything as being path to happiness. It’s not that you teach yourself not to care about something you want otherwise, it’s about understanding that you really don’t need those temporary things and therefore not caring for having them. If you have something - be happy, if you don’t have it - be happy too. Because if you had it, it would only be for a short time anyway, so what does it matter. And this doesn’t mean that you need to wear old clothes, live in a horrible looking house and not comb your hair. To me it means not stressing out of your mind to get something you do not yet have, not stretching yourself thin to get something because you want it so much that your stomach is all nuts and not being afraid to loose what you have. Not being afraid to loose what you have is the difficult one, isn’t it? Although everything will be lost eventually one way or another, letting go is still hard to do. Yet it might be the path to true happiness. Let go and be happy with whatever comes our way.

I hate to meddle in politics....

To have an educated opinion on politics one needs to do research on candidates, undertsand the issues at hand, emmerse themselves deeply into the debates and then be afforded an opportunity to elloquently express their views. By those standards I do not qualify. However as an observer I find it increasingly hard to filter out the political rhetoric in order to get to the real views of the candidates. All I see is shifting of perspectives and speeches focused on low hanging fruit. I see Vice Presidential running mates apointed solely based on winning a campaign. I see polititians bent on bringing each other down only weeks ago embrace in solidarity and stand behind the nominated winners praising their fine qualifications. And I see millions of dollars spent on brainwashing Americans in order to get elected.

Sitting at my parents house yesterday I uttered, "The President is like his people" and then I thought long and hard about that statement. Are we so gullable as to accept the information being fed to us daily by the political machine? Are we really that simple a people not to be able to discern the truth from digital imagery? Who are the people we put in power to run our country and do they really represent us and our real views? Because from my uneducated political perspective...if the representatives from Republican and Democratic parties are trully a mirror into our souls, then we are in trouble.

Angels have a sense of humor...

I have heard that eating a big breakfast, reasonable lunch and a small dinner is a good way to eat. That way you burn off access calories throughout the day and don't pack on weight before going to bed. I thought I would give this a try....

Yesterday I grabbed some food and ate it in the car on the way to work. By lunch I was not hungry, which I was very happy about, and planned on just eating an apple. However by 1 PM my friend came by to go to lunch...I needed to run some chores and pick up food for a co-worker...so I agreed to go. When we got to the restaraunt I still wasn't in the mood for a large meal and was contemplating a salad when my eyes noticed a small thin crust pizza that looked delicious and very convincing. That became my "reasonable" lunch. In my mind I was convinced I would do a small dinner but at 7 I met a friend and he was hungry so we ate a big dinner. On the way home I promised not to eat anything more and promptly upon my arrival our babysitter came in with cherry cake which she "kindly" offered and I "couldn't" refuse. Needless to say I brushed it off as one of those days and promised to do better tomorrow...


Today I ate a big breakfast, wasn't hungry at lunch but my friend offered to go to Chipotle, which I love and had to go to. But I again told myself that dinner would be small. To my dismay, after work my wife was hungry and we went to a pancake house where I proceeded to eat one of my favorite fattening things...I could almost hear my angels laughing as they successfully seduced me with food. So starting tomorrow I won't have breakfast at all and hope to eat a salad for lunch...unless they come up with another irrisistable offer.

Need inspiration?

In my search for interesting books and documentaries, I came across Dalai Lama. And I am hooked. Buddhists ideas are very similar to what we, "spiritually inclined", are talking about. Dalai Lama is a truly remarkable man, and I highly recommend reading or listening to some of his kind and wise speeches. It rings good and true.
There are many phrases to think about. Every one of them is worth thinking over. So what do you think this wise man believes to be the purpose of life on Earth? To be happy!
Here is a link to his official website/list of speeches. You can choose a topic close to your heart and see what Dalai Lama thinks about it. Very inspiring
http://www.dalailama.com/page.8.htm

And the future goes to....

We are always fascinated by the future. We gravitate to those who say they can predict it. We ask them to look into their crystal ball and tell us what's in store. We read Nostradamus and try to interpret his visions and transpose them onto the events of the past to see if he's accurate. We huddle around to hear stories of dreams that turn out to be true. Thinking of this I am reminded of a verse from Jesus Christ Superstar..

...Why should you want to know?
Don't you mind about the future
Don't you try to think ahead
Save tomorrow for tomorrow
Think about today instead...

This leads into another discussion about living in the moment but, some other time. As to the future there have been many I read and spoke with (including entities) that state that future isn't "written". Confusing to me was the fact that I have also heard that everything that will happen has already happened. So if everything has already occured what is future? And while I had a version of the "truth" I was comfortable with before, the "answer" clarified itself today. It has been bubbling up in pieces for quite some time and now it seems to make sense (at least to me and at least for now.)

Both explanations are but pieces of the same puzzle. When put together they present a picture of reality. There is no future that is defined for an individual however all possible outcomes are determined. A person has a myriad of choices to make and based on those one can demonstrate direction and a number of possible outcomes. For instance if you were to imagine yourself on top of the Sears Tower looking down you would see many buildings and streets. If you saw a car pulling onto the Michigan avenue you could see that by the time this car passes 5 blocks it would hit construction thereby slowing it down significantly. However if this car turns right after 3 blocks it would have a clear lane all the way to the highway. If Sears Tower is a metaphor for higher perspective able to see "the future" and you were in the above mentioned car, a seer could tell you where to go and the probability of hitting traffic.

However, extending the example further, if the car decides to turn right after 3 blocks to have a clear path to the highway, it might find that the clear path (as it looked 1 minute ago) has been indeed blocked by an accident that just occured. And that is the fun part which to me states that your future is not up to you alone and is directly affected by others in your path. Therefore, although inquiring minds want to know..."Don't you mind about the future...Think about today instead!"

I am a tree hugger....

Reading Sonia's book made me become more aware of nature. She talks about the "elementals" or nature spirits of the elements (water, fire, earth, and wind.) And I have tried to take her advices to heart. For instance I am teaching a class next to a city plaza with beautiful willow trees and a pretty waterfall. Ordinarily I would have walked past but now I stop and emerce myself in their beauty. I stood by the fall and immediately felt a rush of energy that was invigorating. I thanked the water spirits and asked them to cleanse me and imagined being in the water. It felt wonderful. Then I passed the lunch croud and went over to the large willow trees and as soon as I entered their domain I heard no more noise and felt calmness drape over me like a blanket. I stood on the ground and felt the energy from the earth rise up through my feet and even though others were looking I put my hand on the trunk and stood there quietly soaking it all in. What a refresher - nature is trully magnificent!

The air was an interesting story as well. I went outside the classroom into the lobby and sat down onto the couches awaiting a phone call. Immediately I felt the chill of the cold air blowing through the vents above me. I thought about changing the spot and tried others but felt the breeze. Then I suddenly felt a wave of warm air and continued to feel it (as well as the cold air from the vents) throughout my conversation. So I thanked the air spirits for making me comfortable.

God blessed us with so many wonderful dieties around us who are willing and ready to help in an instant shall we only ask and notice them. I will do my best from now on.

A glorious mascarade....

My wife and I went downtown Chicago on Saturday night. It was the day of the Air and Water show so the streets were a buzz and people of all sorts were strolling down the Michigan Avenue. There were the fancy guy types dressed up in Armani...Women gracing passers by with their model good looks and 5th avenue fashions... There were the casual types in jeans and t-shirts... There were the very casual types with flip flops and cargo shorts and every possible type in between...they were all there. We stoped by Trump Tower and gazed upon the "upper class" pulling up in expensive cars and eating 50 dollar steaks....we took the architectural river tour and sat with tourists from all over marveling at the beauty that is Chicago....

Taking all of this in I realized that life on this planet is but a glorious mascarade and felt why souls just LOVE coming down here. Why wouldn't they? They can chose to be born anywhere, dress up anyway, try being rich or poor, strong or weak, intelligent or no so much... They put on a suit and dive into the ocean of feelings and emotions and they love every moment of it.....it is us who don't truly understand our soul's intentions that "drown" in everday life. We don't have to. Life is EXCEPTIONAL. And when we try to realize our soul purpose we forget what seems to me to be a main portion of it which is experience itself. Our soul wants to try things it knows about but never tried on for size. It wants to play, it wants to take things for a spin. Let's let it! Listen to your soul and find things that make it sing and then do them!

P.S. In the interest of public safety keep karma in mind before you begin to do anything :)