remember my epiphanies and get much better about writing them down, following up by translating them into effective stories

the translation of the individual mind into a universal, more perspective view replicating the epiphany is so difficult. i feel that i cannot express myself. though complicated, i believe that free verse poetry is the easiest initial way to create a base and structure of thoughts. i believe that keeping a journal or folder of writing on my computer may help me achieve this.

Drinking my coffee this morning and listening to car talk, I started think about the concept of advice and all I had learned myself and given back to the world over the years. Then, it hit me like an oncoming bus; everything in life I need to teach my kids and to remember myself relates to paying attention to what is going on around me at all times and keeping my eyes focused clearly on my chosen roads.

The analogy is pretty simple. Everybody has their own agenda, a different pace, and their own ideas about finding the place to need to be or are driven to go. Sometimes traffic is smooth, sometimes personalities collide and have unfortunate accidents if they are not cautious about where they are and what they are doing. Many people ride along as passengers, others hitchhike, and some never get past being like sheep on a commuter truck. Others drive off the beaten path to explore the 4×4 road.

The more I trust my own instincts and use my intuition to drive me safely through the traffic jams and bystander bullshit, the smoother my ride. What’s more, with me at the proverbial family wheel, the passengers that ride along with me (whether riding shotgun as navigator or as little learning back seat drivers)are all safer and better off the more I pay attention to my surroundings at all time but continue to steer a forward course while keeping my eyes steadily focused on the road ahead.

Knowing where I need to go might shift from day to day, but with the journey experience the most important part of the process I know one thing for sure: the more I trust, I know we’ll arrive at all the divinely right places we are going to go. Today, we are approaching a pretty significant mile marker as far as journeys go. I’m spending my day taking time to polish up my vehicle (so to speak) while I spend the day finishing some final organizing of my new home. With coffee my fuel, and a day planning map emerging for my duties and more house guest needs to consider in these next few weeks and months, I am revving up and getting ready to roll.

Wish us luck, 43. You guys are like the AAA of the collective soul when it comes to being backup for everybody traveling the globe on their everyday soul path and journey.

A quick prayer of thanks and goodwill protection for my stepson today while he’s taking some of the first steps towards finding and navigating a course on his own road and destination path these coming weeks. We are glad we are getting this chance to drive along with you for a while and to be able to finally enjoy some of the same scenery.

Here’s my advice for you today, son… a repost about life and personal values from years ago.

To live instead of exist

posted 2 years ago...

I’ve done this for years now… and hope to continue to do it for many, many great years to come! Remember, it’s not about how much you do, it is about the LOVE you put into the doing.

Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” What is life but living by agreement with our own virtues—a standard of living created in the acceptance of responsibility to both self and others? To reconcile oneself to the divine right order of things? To leave footprints in the sands of happy times while being careful not to step on other peoples sandcastles?

Living life fully, rather than merely sliding by, is a process of minding a few simple but challenging rules. Like the polar opposite of existing subjugated to the seven carnal sins, here are the “Seven Rules for Happy Living” teachings I am happy to pass freely on to the wonderful people of this almighty universe:

1. Be addicted to life, to the positive goodness of things, to honesty, good will, genuine kindness, and other higher and spiritual head-rush truths.

2. Live large and with bold, insightful meaning, even when your world seems small and narrow by comparison to others. You are, by your life, thoughts, feelings and actions, who you decide to be. The world around you now reflects the cumulative choices of your past life lessons and experiences. What you create today may not manifest results for what feels like a lifetime (positive or negative results equally apply).

3. LIVE EACH LIFE and DAY IN CAPS! [The happy kind, with clear and precise meaning and intention in mind for all you say and all you do.] Obsess over creating positive change in the world around you.

4. Live fully, honestly, and true to the best of your abilities each day, and the Gods or God will ultimately smile upon you.

5. Making a mental map of a perfect life is prudent but not always necessary to follow for successful journeys; know the road rules.

a. Follow the road, but know when to take a detour to wherever the universe really needs you.

b. Treat each passing annoyance, inconvenience, or obstacle with no more serious attention than you would pay to a bug smashed upon a windshield. [Tend to it responsibly in your own time but before it eats away at you or your vehicle, clean it up and clear your vision, and move on.]

c. Be a true person on the course of your life’s journey, and you will always find yourself in the right lane.

d. Karma has a way of dealing with and running over the disingenuous Dogma routines and fallacious natures of the rest; let go and let God, and God will remember nice things about you.

e. The really happy person is one who knows how to enjoy the scenery when taking life on a detour, and will always finish the journey (comprehensively speaking) far better than the rest.

Therefore, by following the travelers rules, strive always to both travel and “fair thee well” wherever the journey or cosmic road map takes you. [Pray the road rise up to meet you…]

6. Live life by the rules and examples of living that delight and entertain you, such as keeping in your present mind quotes like:

“If you cry because the Sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the Stars.” ~ anon.

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” ~ Dalai Lama

“The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.” ~ Charles Kuralt

“I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.” ~ Dr. Suess

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I’ve found it!), but ‘That’s funny…’” ~ Isaac Asimov

7. And whatever you do, always remember to live mindfully—paying attention to each and every action that you do (or do not) do.%

Regards,

amazingkae

“The longer I live the more Beautiful life becomes.”

~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Life, though wonderful, is not without its exercises in futility.

Last night I had a dream that I was one of the “43”. I was on a long journey, far away from home and I was working to help exact a change in the global consciousness. I had very little money or resources, but I did have my son and his tattered teddy bear with me (which I kept clung close to my heart to give me strength throughout my journey). I went from school to school, to a stage, to an auditorium. I traveled among mindless and difficult people but I was gratefully able to avoid entrapment with them for any long periods of times. My heart went out to all of them as I saw them trapped in their own self-generated realities and I could see the hate mongers trolling out ethereal fishing lines with psychic hooks, hoping to “catch” unsuspecting human prey as they moved by in the stream of lives and consciousness. Finally, I ended up for a meditation in an ancient monastery atop a high seaside cliff. From the enormous and peaceful mossy stone walls, the glossy vista of the churning waters below remained perpetually calm, happy and alive. It was here I became aware of the 43, which intuition tells me means that I am part of a unique group of individuals in the world who desire to change the world by starting first with themselves. My son, ever the rock of support to my consciousness, played in the courtyard and with the monks who he has known his entire life. Upon recognition that we had made our goal of arriving at our destination and that with new found wisdom and understanding it was time to carry our message and story back to those we love at home, we took a last long look around and wandered down a path to a seaside market in a small village. Here, we met a shopkeeper. Though the prices of the goods were pronounced and high, I took a leap of faith and informed the man that I was one of the 43 on a mission and a journey. I explained that along my path to the monastery we had depleted most of our resources and that we now found ourselves needing supplies and sustenance to help us make our journey home. Rather than sending me packing out the door, the shopkeeper said I could take whatever I needed, as much as we wanted so that we could successfully venture back home. I found myself and my son wandering around in a delightfully eclectic shop full of wonderful food, marvelous toys, and the most off-beat and magical art; however, my conscience made me wonder how much in life do we need and how much in life should really be slough. Though I wanted things for myself, I ultimately decided that to ask for what gave us sustenance and joy outweighed taking items that could be bartered later on our path (because they were inherently of greater monetary value).

When I awoke from my dream of “poverty with plenty”, I had the following thoughts.

For many years now I have fought and wrestled (metaphorically speaking) against those unhappy and bitter souls in the world who would seek to cause harm to others at every turn. As a potential target and defender of both positive and thinking action, I have spent countless hours agonizing over why these self proclaimed righteous and “entitled” individuals behave in the way they do towards others. We have all met these kinds of people in our lives: the bullies, the sycophants, the power mongers. Ironically, individuals with far greater wealth, opportunity, or potential status are often those the greatest in question: the kind that no matter how much money or things they acquire they refuse to allow the others in their own lives or the greater world around them to live in peace. Such people, regardless of their assets and holdings, live in constant moral poverty spawned by their own greed, maliciousness and depravity. I know this to be true; the constant grimaces on their faces, though appearing to be sneering smiles, belie their own sick consciousnesses.

I have spent my time on this world doing my best to create a good life for myself and those around me. My energy, though often spirited and lacking money, has always been focused on making the best of every day and situation no matter what limits on opportunity. In return, I have been rewarded with good and true friendships, a loving home full of laughter and loyal characters, and a memory bank full of lovely experiences that I can keep to treasure. Goodwill is and has always been my form of currency, and though I get frustrated with lack of means at times and am utterly disgusted by those who seek to rob my family of our naive kindness and courtesy, my mind cannot be changed. Being a person of class and noble character surpasses any amount of negative gain another person may “get over on” people, consistently. As such, my own struggles to steer life on a right and higher path have led me to this epiphany about the fundamental nature of life quality.

The true definition of poverty is a lack of money or material possessions; it equally represents lack of quality (as in poor soil). If poverty is expressed in dollars only, then one must include an accompanying mind of lack and gloom. It is my suggestion here that poverty, true poverty, has more to do with a lack of positive character and less to do with acquisitions (whatever the prizes may be). In a day and age that should be filled with love, gratitude for plenty, and recognized ability of individual worth and quality [Good Will], the world appears riddled with those who seek only to covet thy neighbors goods, to covet husbands and wives, to lie, deceive, manipulate, and ruin other peoples things, memories, and experiences. The greatest triumph of all for people of foul temperament and corrupt character is to capture, entirely corrupt or completely deprive other decent souls of their natural rights to full and loving lives. Individuals trapped in these dark systems are involved with people so “impoverished”, they seemingly can’t seem to get out. Anyone who has ever been involved closely with negative, manipulative or dishonest people knows the feeling of which I speak; to quote a quasi-entrapped soul, “It’s like living every day in quicksand; you struggle each and every day to keep your head above the sand and to pull yourself out but the harder you fight to get away the deeper she [it] sucks you back in.”

If you are living your life in a moral quagmire, regardless of your financial situations, you can always find your way out. By resisting the struggle, clearing your thoughts, and moving forward slowly and patiently you can affect change in your life. Remember that at the end of life you are measured not by wealth but by the things that you have done that are kind, good, and right. Know that those apparent victors who have cheated and lied to get where they are in life may appear to be victorious to any onlookers in sight, but the bankruptcy of soul they face each time they look in the mirror and at judgement time of death will not allow them to escape the internal ugliness of their own human inequity in action. So, too, will they suffer for all harm done to others from damaging time and quality of life to stealing away years of love, truth, justice, and harmony. They create their own train wrecks. There are no accidents in the universe, however, so people of Goodwill must trust divine right action but know that it is a human task to allow our well intentioned souls to rise up together in times of hardship and let every cloud have a discoverable silver lining if we truly seek to find the rainbow’s end.

Poverty: it’s just a state of mind, my friends. Regardless of any apparent obstacles looming in the forefront of the world around us, it is important to understand that the challenges are all illusory and will only be, ultimately, what we make of them. That’s my big early circumloquting morning dream inspired epiphany; quality of character and spirit is more important than any amount of measurable success or money.

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.” ~~Frank Lloyd Wright

It’s amazing what happens when you sit quietly and wait for the universe to be inspiring. Suddenly, and quite perfectly, you always find your next favorite thing! Expect the unexpected, certainly… and embrace the “I always knew it”, truly. I’m going to keep this goal to myself; the things I love can remain my little secret (for now)... but only because there are so many good things that it will take up too much of my time right now that I have allocated for writing! ;-)

“In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
- Oscar Wilde

Every day I count my lucky stars the way some insomniacs at night count sheep… Thank you, God. I really like the day you made for me today.

The only predictable thing in life is change; life lessons, therefore, really are about the need for renegotiating our own internal expectations. It is a wildly ironic Zen sort of epiphany… I am feeling it but being able to express it fluently eludes me.

More reflection on this one before I can verbalize more accurately, I guess. (DEEP SIGH) Someday I will find the “seat of my soul” and be able to find my ego a comfortable position of repose somewhere in it, but for now I feel like I am simply fluffing the decorative throw pillows of my Id. “A” for effort, I suppose for trying to recognize and relate my silly epiphanies…

Epiphany #2: Listen to Abraham Lincoln.

“If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first hour sharpening the ax.”
- Abraham Lincoln

Epiphany #1: Being an semi-techno-eco-nerd is amusing. 366 positive feedback left for our family by sellers in the past 365 days! That means we have definately done what we set out to do this past year:

1. Promote Small Business and Trade Organizations
2. Buy from Small Sellers to promote capitalism and the economy
3. Lowered our expenses by transacting with all areas of the world and country and eliminating sales tax
4. Spent more time together at home and as a family while still meeting our everyday needs
5. Multitasked efficiently by online shopping while doing other things (talking, TV, researching)
6. Have taken one more auto emmison vehicle off the road by not driving excessively around town to find and buy meaningless or everyday necessities [eco-friendly since the postman was already coming to see me]
7. Helped to recycle items that needed to find loving new homes
8. Avoided Shopping Malls unless there in an extreme emergency
9. Took the hassle out of shopping
10. Paid Fed Ex, UPS, and the Postal Service to worry about delivery

Now, if I could just stop walking past the silly computer this afternoon to see what I am winning, I could stretch more, get outside and play in the sun… an offline pumpkin patch is calling to get me ready for Halloween! Happy 43!