One's Overrated Kindness

What is the meaning of life? Or better yet, does your life have meaning? Who did you help? Who did you love? Are the better questions, “How much money did you make?” “What do you think your net worth is going to be when you’re lying on your death bed, a heartbeat away from your last breath?” Or are all these questions intentionally pregnant with condemnation and judgment? 

You don’t have to be rich, and there’s certainly no requirement that you be poor. You don’t have to be unpleasant to others, and guess what, you really don’t have to be kind to them either. But at the end of your life span, you do need to know that you did what you were supposed to do, that you accomplished your mission in life. An unfriendly, reclusive painter who contributed extraordinary art to the world may have accomplished his mission as perfectly as an arrogant CEO and entrepreneur who formed a business that employed thousands. Accomplishing your mission in life may not necessarily be pretty. Jesus was nailed to a cross. Not a pretty sight. But he did what he came to do. As did Judas, Jesus’ betrayer, about whom Jesus remarked, “It would be better for him if he had not been born.” 

We are taught that it is important to be kind and nice. And yet when Jesus went about calling people hypocrites, I suspect quite a few denizens of his time did not think he was being particularly “kind” and “nice.” But Jesus accomplished his mission. His life spoke its meaning. 

One would be wise to concern oneself less about the approval of others. If you’ve done wrong, you will pay the consequences, in this life or the next. That being said, are you doing, have you done, what you are supposed to do? 

Whether you are loved and adored, hated and maligned, do you think your life has meaning? Have you done what you came to do? If not, why not?

Alice Looking for a Rabbit Hole in New York

In search of a store I had visited less than a month ago, I rode the city bus past the four block stretch where I was certain the store was located. After riding past the blocks, I exited the bus at the next stop, deciding to walk back and find the store. I figured I had somehow missed it. I walked with my head arched up and slanted, looking at store signs and glancing in store windows. Walking the path I had just driven by, I could find no trace of the store. After a moment feeling like I was looking for a rabbit hole on the avenue, I concluded that the store must have closed down. With no apparent trace of its existence. 

From the microscopic occurrence—the ‘disappearance’ of a store—the macroscopic emerged. I wonder, how long would it take for everything on earth, in the absence of human intervention or development, to return to its elemental form, leaving no trace, no hint, of mankind’s existence? A billion years? Two billion? More? Or perhaps less. Given that the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, wouldn’t it be curious if a prior incarnation of us—‘us’ representing all of humankind—existed, flourished, and died, with no trace of its existence after three billion years had passed? That would mean that, given enough time and inaction, they (whoever ‘they’ might be) wouldn’t even know we had been here.

But, I suppose none of this matters since we’ve only got another 1.5 billion years left to enjoy Earth anyway, according to those in the know. And that’s probably not enough time to vanish without a trace. Even if a particular store on a certain avenue in New York did it in less than a month.

  - Alice 

Their Crappy Day

What do you do when you have an unpleasant encounter with someone? The Law of Attraction would dictate that you attracted that person into your life, that something negative in you attracted the encounter. Maybe. But I have another suggestion: While it is possible that negative energy within you attracted the encounter, it is also possible that the person’s determination to have a crappy day outweighed your calm expectation of a pleasant day. I.e., their desire trumped your expectation. In this world of survival of the fittest thought, desires outweigh and have greater impact than casual, passing thoughts.

What do you do when you enter the vortex of someone’s crappy day or realm of negativity? Walk away. Let it go no further from your angle. For your part, just end it. Decide not to carry another’s negativity, and certainly not to spread it. As the Kingdom of Heaven expands, so can the realm of negativity. Choose to expand the Kingdom of Heaven and give no breathing room to negativity. 

If you did not possess negativity to attract a negative situation, is the sum total that that person’s desire to have a crappy day so outweighed your general expectation of a good day, and thus the end of the story? Not quite. I believe that you did attract that person, but not necessarily because of inner negativity. While it could be that something inside of you needed a challenge to grow in patience, it could also be that the Universe or God wanted the person to encounter someone who would not spread the virus of negativity. If he/she only encountered pleasant people determined to remain pleasant despite unpleasant interactions, then his/her i would be severely diminished. So arguably, you could have attracted the negative person not because you are negative, but because the Universe trusts you to help stop the spread of negativity. And maybe God wants you to pray for the person. That’s always good.

So what do you do when you encounter someone determined to have a crappy day? Wish them peace, love and joy, say a prayer for them, and move on with your life!  Besides, you’ve been blessed with the opportunity to demonstrate grace and patience. Be grateful!

Tongue in Cheek

Truly the day be not that bleak,

If one finds such a thing to seek,

A thing that leaves one aloft a peak,

And crying Anon! Anon! all week.

Follow

Follow, Follow, Follow your heart!
Where has my heart gone
And how shall I follow it?

Chasing dreams and silly things,
Follow my heart to San Jose,
Sans hesitation, sans doubt,
A taste of San Francisco in my mouth.

O Follow, Follow, Follow my heart,
And follow it I shall
To the ends of the earth.

I found it, I found it,
I found it wasn't lost.
There it was inside of me,
I followed and found my heart!

Just a Thought, Just a Dream

You are living in a dream, a realm of illusion. Your soul rests safely ensconced in God's love. There is no reality other than what you have created, and you have created nothing. To dream is to see, and what you see is what you dream. To feel is to dream, and what you dream is how you feel. You came here to learn and grow, and develop your ability to choose between the constructive and destructive. Your eternal home is heaven, but if your mind destroys itself with false and wrong thinking, so too will your soul be destroyed and removed from the potential to experience heaven. Life is an illusion for your benefit, one that enables you to grow strong in wisdom, courage, and the ability to choose in accordance with the will of the Creator. When you learn to listen, you will have learned to choose, and all choices will be manifested since they reflect the manifest will of the Father, your Creator that guides you.

You are never alone, but under diligent and constant, unswerving observation. Every choice, thought, and deed is seen and known, and affects every choice with which you will be faced. Choice is one of the most powerful skills that people do not know how to use. They leave themselves trapped in worlds of other's choosing, when the power to choose rests in their grasp.

Often misguided by the world, people will choose that which will not benefit them. They choose the harmful due to ignorance, foolishness, and doubt coupled with fear. One can choose confidently if one would only seek guidance for one's choice. The ability to choose is a gift, a treasure, and a power to be honed. Choose wisely.

If in this illusion, anything seems to be real, remind yourself of who you are. In truth, you are not flesh, you have no body, and you do not and never have existed in the form you think of. Your only true existence is that of a soul, a soul resting safely in God's world. But as you rest, you dream, and your dream becomes all that you know or can remember. But that the dream seems "real" makes it no less of a dream. It has no existence independent of your learning process. You learn that you might explore...

That being said, there are those for whom this is not a dream, but the only reality they will ever know. When they claim passionately that, "There is nothing more than this life! You live and die. There is no heaven," believe them. That is their truth, and perhaps yours as well, my friend.

A Sunday Zen Thought

Behind this veil of illusion lies the truth. The only thing, if I dare call it a thing, that is real. Our trip back to God. Time to sit and think and remember why I'm here. The trip. No trip. The trip is no trip at all. The journey is no journey--how perfectly Zen. I reveal to you the truth: there is no journey. It is this journey that there is not that we are on. Yes, it is not. And that is the point of this journey that isn't. To discover that we have arrived, that we are safe, that we are home, and that we never even left. Thus, the journey that we are on is to discover that there is no journey.

To call it (define "it" as you will) a dream is to give it more substance than it has. This is no dream, just the illusion of a dream. We see, and sometimes we see behind and beyond that which we see, and think with confidence and self-praise that we have seen. But we have seen nothing. Until we no longer see, but are seen, until we no longer are seen, but are both seen and that which is unseen, then we have remained in the illusion of sight, sound, and oft hapless reality. Herein lies the truth.

Creating a Screenplay

A beginning, a middle, and an end. And in each act, the end marks the beginning. A perfect screenplay. A perfect life. With a biblical twist, I add, “In the Beginning was the Word.” So where are we now? Are we in the beginning, the middle or the end? Are we in an eternal middle? Is the middle the eternal now? Perhaps the end shall not come and the beginning shall never return. Or perhaps we are, at once, (in) the beginning, the middle, and the end. A complete story unto itself. This is my screenplay. This is my life.

People Have Been Asking Me...

Where did I get the names of the characters? They are unusual. Did I read them somewhere? Are they ancient names discovered in secrets texts? Here it is: some are the names of historical figures, but the other names I made up. Of top curiosity is where I got the name "L'san." From my imagination. Seemed right. I find that there is a smoothness to the sound of the name that reflects the character.

I invite you to email me your questions about the book. I enjoy sharing the "story behind the story."

Inching Up

Evil rooted in love denied.

Hope freely given.

And somewhere between an evil soul and a vain hope,

a chasm filled with choice, that which each choice we make,

we inch up either the precipice to bondage or the escarpment to

freedom.