Fail on the Side of Love

Don't let what you've been told to believe dictate how you act. If you are going to fail in the eyes of others always always always fail on the side of Love.

Our Higher Selves

Let there be hope and not hatred. Let there be freedom and not oppression. Let there be a future filled with endless potential and not rigid ideology. Let us seek to be our higher selves and not succumb to our lesser natures. For when purpose is greater than personality, when the vision is more important than the need to disagree, when the love and care of our fellows is our primary mission then we move forward knowing that we can accomplish anything. From that point forward we can affect the world for good, from that point on we serve a common purpose, by consensus we are united and we are stronger for it.

Not Alone

This world can be a crazy place. It wants you to believe that everyone is out to get you. It will tell you that your struggle is solitary, that no-one else understands or cares. It will make you feel angry and frustrated, used and abused. It will take away your joy and make your heart old. There are very few things on this earth that have more power over us than fear of being alone, abandoned, and helpless.

But we are not alone.

Everyday we have the opportunity to confront this beast. To call out the Dragon. To expose the fallacy. To shine the Light of Truth on it. Yes, we have that power. The power to choose who we will be and how we will act. To rise above the noise and chatter. To move mountains and shake valleys. To make a world of difference to another human being. To hold a hand, wipe a tear, and share a moment of true connection.

When we share with each other the world is not so scary after all. We just need to take the time to love each other. To accept each other for who we are. To recognize we're all the same. We just need to move out of our closed little worlds and step out into the Light of day. Let's embrace each other and care about each other. Because we're meant to walk together in this endeavor called life and until we actually do that we'll never be compete as human beings.

Face-to-Face

In technology Middle-ware is a program that goes between an operating system and another program that allows data to be posted from one system to the other. Systems that otherwise wouldn't talk to each other. Something has to bridge the gap. In a perfect world there would be no need for middle-ware.

The spiritual history of mankind is full of middlemen. Go-betweens because people were either afraid or didn't feel capable of meeting God face-to-face. People like Rabbis, Shamans, Priests and the like. We didn't feel safe meeting God without some sort of distance. Truth is we've never been very good at handling things directly. We always look for someone else to intercede.

But I will tell you a secret. There is that of God in everyone. Every time you interact with someone you are meeting God face-to-face. This is why the phrase "Whatever you do to the least of these you do unto me" is so true.

We are spiritual beings in physical bodies. We have the power to effect people, and not only that . . . we have the ability to affect the entire world! You may not even realize the power that you actually have. You are an amazing creature with the power of the universe inside of you. For good or evil you have an affect. For good or evil you can affect another human being who has this very same potential. I truly believe that if we lock arms and combine all this incredible spiritual heritage and energy we can change the world!

Namaste, my friend.

This Side of Normal

Did you ever wonder if someone made up the word "normal" just to throw the rest of us off track? Like maybe there is no such thing?

I keep saying to myself, "Once things get back to normal then I'll . . . ", but so far I haven't even gotten close.

I have this deep desire to have a normal life where I have a normal job that pays me a normal wage so I can spend it on normal things and enjoy normal weekends. But what do I get instead? A crazy hectic life with way too much to do and too little time to enjoy it.

Thoreau once said he didn't want to get to the end of his life and realize that he hadn't actually lived. Know the feeling. There's too much grease on these skids for me. Life is flipping by. I barely have time to think. Makes you wonder when all this happened. When did things change? Who's lame idea was this anyway? It's not normal I tell you!

I'm going back to my original motto . . . "Start out slow and tapper off". I can't claim originality for that one. I read it somewhere a long time ago and really liked it. But you can see why. It's got a nice ring to it. A sit with your arms draped over a lazy swing while you push off with your toes feel going on. An eat your Apple with one hand and sip ice tea with the other kind of flavor to it. A just kick back and watch the world go by on a summer evening after a thunderstorm with nothing on your mind but the smell of fresh rain sort of laziness. Oh yeah, I'm liking that idea.

What's in a Name

When I was little there was a boy my age who lived across the street whose name was Robin. I remember thinking, "What a funny name. Who would name their child a bird's name?"

Names are important. We grow into them and become them. It's how we identify each other, call to one another, and think of each other. In some basic yet significant way our names are part of who we are.

I started out as Kristie, named after my mother's friend who was a nurse. I didn't become a nurse, but... I do care about people. When I got to college Kristie sounded too immature and childlike so I asked my friends to call me Kris. I wanted to be seen as a grown-up even though my family still called me Kristie and I've pretty much stuck with Kris since then.

I wonder what would it be like if we never were given names? How would that change who we are, how we see ourselves, or how others see us? It's hard to image and yet sometimes I have a hard time remembering people's names. We all do it. It's embarrassing. I try to make a serious effort to put the face and the name together. Most times it works out, but I feel bad if I can't. And why is that?

Because names are really that important. Over time they become as much who we are as anything else. Using a person's name shows that you care enough about them to remember who they are. That they've made an impression on you. That they matter.

It's so simple. All you need to do is ask a person their name to let them know you care. That someone else knows they exist. And even if you can't remember a person's name after they tell you . . . you can always call them "Friend".