Ahh Self-Indulgence. The ME ME ME of it all

It occurred to me today:

As a casual observer of Life (meaning those moments when I am not self-absorbed and actually pay attention), that,

Self-indulgence does not only mean ‘excessive or unrestrained gratification of one’s own appetites, desires, or whims (thanks Merriam-Webster), but it also means unrestrained gratification of The Negative.

You know, The Pity Party, the old Poor Me, Paralyzed by Fear, kind of self-indulgence.

It occurs to me that All types of self indulgence induce some kind of Paralysis, restricting us from truly living life, because it narrows our Scope of Possibility.

Of course it is all Negative because it is all Extreme.

It occurs to me Moderation is The Key. A rather tiresome thought oft repeated. Hmm well now I have something else to consider.

Oh! And M-W notes that the first known use of the word was in 1636. See? Now that is an takeaway!

A Few Random Thought on Humaness

Scale model of the Earth and the Moon, with a beam of light traveling between them at the speed of light. It takes approximately 1.26 seconds. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The limiting Humaness of our species persists; a thought that occurs, leading to other considerations.

Human beings by virtue of self-definition set boundaries that previously did not exist, guided by ego and belief that proclamation makes something true?  Just a thought.

Scientists working endlessly of ‘laws of nature, of the universe, actually limit development by declaring physical truths to be, well, truths.

What if – travel through space and time has nothing to do with mass, propulsion or energy?

Did ET’s build ancient complicated structures around the world such as in Malta, Egypt, England, Central America or India?  Not likely, at least in the sense we consider.  Perhaps all of us are ‘T’s’.  Just terrestrials and none in the organism that is the cosmos is really ‘extra’.

What if we all had knowledge now lost, where space, time, and matter flowed as a single organism, and it is only our very human egos that persist in making us believe we are more than part of the universe?  Man, (generically speaking here), has in the past declared we are the center, first of a flat earth, then of the solar system, then the universe.  And always there seems to be a sense of surprise to find out that oops there is more.

What if there are multiverses? Do they have doppelgangers reflecting our existence as some scientists postulate?  No.  Again our egos insist we are so important that another universe cannot exist unless it mirrors us.  Human Ego, Humaness.  Have we not learned from the ‘earth is the center of the universe’ mind set?

Does this very idea make us less than we think we are?  No.  In fact it makes us even more important in a cosmic sense.

Here’s a thought;

Stop believing in what you see before you and stop believing you can only apply manmade, man conceived laws of nature.

Suppose for instance that The Speed of Light is not absolute.  But until you let go of that idea you cannot see ‘the other’.

Suppose physical travel through time and space without machinery is possible.  Clinging to our current beliefs we will never know.

Suppose building and design of massive weights and structure without ‘modern’ equipment is easily done?

Suppose communication by defined language is not necessary.

 

Suppose the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, just to name a few were in fact the true message and our humanness absorbed them and turned them into ‘my God is better than your God’ and ‘if you do not belief as I then you are condemned to eternal hell’.  Maybe the messages were never meant to be humanized, or limited, or politicized leading to that most evil sin, judgment of others.

Suppose the human body can self-heal but we lost that knowledge by egotistic limitation.

The answers to these rambling sorts of questions lie not in what is out there to be learned or discovered. They lie in the very center of our own being which is not a small singular entity, but the connection to the vastness of everything.

What if the only thing we had to do was to quiet our hearts and minds, tune out this noisy world of ours, and listen?

Just a thought.

Related articles

• Time Travel (mymessagetogb.wordpress.com)
• Let Go Of Me, Ego (wanderlustcr.wordpress.com)
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IS WANT DESIRABLE?

IS WANT DESIRABLE?

I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘Want’ lately.

The most frequent definition is similar to Merriam-Webster 1. To be needy or destitute.  2.  To have or feel need.

Thefreedictionary.com says it is – to desire greatly; wish for.

Wiki.answers.com goes a little further and says ‘Want refers to what you absolutely have to have and ‘need’ refers to something that you don’t really lust for – but you just need it.

Answers.yahoo.com says – DESIRE is when you want something you can’t have.  WANT is when you don’t need it but you get it anyways.

I always thought that reaching a point where one says, ‘I want nothing’ was a sign of happiness, an expression of gratitude.  I don’t think it means you have everything you could want, it just means that you are grateful and appreciative for what you have.  I disagree with M-W that WANT means being needy or destitute and agree whole heartedly with the second part – To have or feel need.

There are many, perhaps too many, in this day of materialism who WANT, not because of need, unless you count the need to possess as much as possible.

I think there is a much more positive side to WANT.  Because of want we set goals and move ourselves and society forward.  Want is not always about self, but the accomplished goal is indeed personal.  WANT is an acknowledgement and from there comes our plan, our goal.

This is a very narrow positive because wanting and not receiving affects us.  So then what happens?

We can accept the ‘not having’, we can I suppose change the WANT, although if the wanting is part of our need it is not easy to give up.  Some who WANT change nothing and live, I believe, half a life never being able to get past that thing and move on.  These are the bitterest lives immersed in anger and every form of negativity.

There are special people out there who WANT and accept the not having and chose to live in joy.

WANT AS A SOURCE OF HOPE OR BELIEF

This weekend a young man died.  I only met him a couple of times but my sister was a friend.  He was born on the other side of the world in a country where his mother had to hide him so he would not be killed.  Eventually they came to live in Canada, where despite my occasional groans about politics and institution is an excellent place to live.

Here he was loved by many.
Every day he went out about the town in his electric wheelchair.  Malls were one of his favorite spots to hang out where he cheered so many with his smile and laugh.  He loved people and they in turn loved him.

In the summer he loved to go to a local park where he got out of his wheelchair and sat by the lake on a rock.  Just like everyone else.  He had wants and was never embittered by them.  He had joy for others and his want was a dream that could not be allowed on this plane of life.

It was just a few days ago when he spoke, as well as he could speak, and he told her that when he got to heaven someday  he would be able to walk, would be able to run and jump.  And his belief gave him joy.

He never resented others for what they had, he was just happy for them.

He died, this man loved by so many, somehow falling or rolling from the rock into that lake and drowning.  And as my sister spoke of him yesterday she softly said, ‘He just wanted to be normal.’

And for a time I thought of WANT and the people whose lives are ruined by it and I thought of people like this man who in the ‘not having’ enriched everyone else’s life. And I blushed through my tears as I drove home, ashamed that my Wants have at times been negatively flavored and I found a gratitude and overwhelming joy at what I do have, and found myself wondering what I can do to enrich other lives.

You see I met this man perhaps twice and if this is the impact he had on me you have some idea of others and the value of their tears.

R.I.P.

Sometimes that Harper Faulkner Gets a Little too Real

English: A Little Baggage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am happily reading your posts and relishing every moment.  It’s 5:25 pm on a Tuesday  and I am pretty pleased with myself that this day has not gone to waste.  Yet.  I did a lovely reorganization of my living quarters that ended up being an exhausting but rewarding endeavour.  Then I click on The Measure of Success .  I read the quotation that’s been on his mind and think ‘Uh Oh’, because then he asks a question.

So the question I am asking myself this morning, and asking you, is what problems in 2012 did you bring with you into 2013 and can you, without needed outside intervention, solve those problems right now, right here, today?

Many of you, my delicious sources of entertainment, often ask questions in your posts.   I always consider them and then sometimes tuck them away for future consideration (avoidance at its best), possibly even find an easy answer for (slightly delusional here), and sometimes I face it head on (though I may not share my thoughts with you).

But it is difficult when HF asks a question.  He seems so sincere in the asking that one feels that answering is unavoidable.  I have been wrestling with my baggage for sometime now – months, and decide at times that it really is not important so there should be no struggle, but its a convenient answer and does not address the issue.  I have even bravely asked myself how I see the me I want to be, but yikes that is really scary so I don’t spend a lot of time on the thought.  But the thought keeps returning.  Again and again.

I did leave a comment for him, but then realized I could not adequately answer in a comment.

We have baggage because it must give us something, provide something – maybe excuses.  I honestly don’t know the answer to that one.

I read on a blog sometime ago, and wish I could remember whose it was, that someone they knew had been in a coma for months, and then suddenly sat up one day and said, “Nothing matters” and then died.  That has taken up residence in my palace of thoughts and while I consider all kinds of possible meanings, I have failed to arrive at any conclusions.

You know in my time as a nurse (many decades) I have been present at a lot of deaths.  Most have been wonderful experiences but some people have expressed that they wish they had done life differently or done something differently or wished they had made different decisions.  Some expressed regret that they had not done enough.  Enough is a pretty personal measurement so who can judge?

When I was younger I used to think that I would die with no regrets, that I would follow every path I could.  But that is a very naive thought because for every path we follow, every choice we make, we leave so many others undone.  Which in some strange way takes me back to the whole baggage thing for there is much that is undone, and yes until I can shed baggage it will be difficult to accomplish.

HF you certainly have stoked the fires of my soul, plainly asking what I have spent so long skirting around.  I don’t even have a whole answer as to the what or the how, but I guess I had better get on with it.  Procrastination is perhaps not as permanent a solution I hoped it was.

Daily Prompt: In Loving Memory and The Last Word

An oil lamp, the symbol of nursing in many countries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (video game) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

‘Write Your Obituary‘

 

Christine loved words.  And her favorite were the last words.

She lived her life well enough to bring special meaning to the word, ‘Regrets, I’ve had a few”

But they certainly were too few to mention.

She never quite took life seriously enough feeling it was all so transient

And most of tragedy had a good maniacal comedy about it.

Life itself was not a joke to Chris, it was the seriousness that people persist in believing it to be that was funny.

Christine wanted to impart some good to the world so she became a nurse and thought, ‘Yes this is doing good.’

Then she became a teacher of nurses and thought, ‘If I can fill one person with the passion for nursing that I have then that is good.’

Then she became a manager and director thinking she could make the most impact there.

She sat in Queen’s Park on the Emergency Health Services Committee and though, ‘Yes here I can make a difference.’

By the time she retired Christine wondered if in fact she had made even a ripple in the great ocean of health care and then

It occurred to her that she had – not to the great cumbersome machine itself but to individuals which may seem small but in the larger picture is not.

Christine raised two sons who were her pride.  She loved each fiercely and respected them and their families in all the choices of their lives.

She had two great great loves in her life – her grandsons and the opportunity to be in the moment with them every day meant more to her than all the riches on earth.

She thought herself a poet and writer but the best stories stayed deep within.

She wanted her death – well her passing since death itself does not exist – to be a time of great joy and hilarity.

No tears – do not let the best part of her earthly being, the joy, insane laughter and stories be lost to sadness.

Get out and party and laugh.

Talk about the time she and B got lost in the golf club parking lot and could not find their way out.

Talk about the time she and J CSI’d the vacuum cleaner bag.

Talk about the time…the time…

Christine would want you to know that you should be smiling and laughing this very moment

And all of the ‘times’ she remembered are on CD for your viewing pleasure because after

All – She did want the last word!!

 

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Measuring Success

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. – General George Patton.

I’ve been thinking about challenges lately, overcoming challenges, and what success is. What is a successful person? What is success? That got me wondering about how to measure success. There are a multitude of companies out there who make their success by talking about the measurement of success, and really that is all you can do – talk about it. They purport to motivate, help you define your own meaning of success, and as the presentations are paid for by the company you work for, usually to meet the company’s definition of success.

There are all kinds of tools out there to help you measure, to help you know that yes you are or are not successful. I’m thinking that the only way true way is not by measurement of any sort but by feeling. I’m thinking that success is immeasurable.

We, I, look at someone else and say, “That person is successful.” But when you speak to that person, he or she may not perceive being successful. Is success being satisfied with what you have rather than striving for something you do not have? Are we being deceived for the purpose of gain to believe that we must want, that we should strive?

I have always thought of Demi Moore as successful, someone whose work I admire (although I do acknowledge it is easy to confuse the actor with the character). She would say, I think, she is unsuccessful because her want is unsatisfied. How do we know that? She said, “What scares me is that I’m going to ultimately find out at the end of my life that I’m really not loveable.”

Even if you concede that success is something defined by each person the measurement of success is still feeling and not really measurable at all. Suppose your definition is money. Suppose you have eighty percent of the world’s money but are still not satisfied. It is not the acquisition of money, it is the feeling that it is enough.

Yup I’m thinking success is a feeling and no number of charts, written goals or affirmations can define success.
Feel it. Be it. Don’t measure it by someone else’s yard stick.

5 Minutes of Grateful for the Gypsy Mama

Five minute Fridays are always fun and today Mama has asked for thoughts on ‘Grateful”

5 Minutes of Grateful For the Gypsy Mama

 

I am:

 

Grateful for the words I read each day,

Posted by others struggling to say

A message, of love, of thought, of angst

Shared so we stand not alone but as one.

 

A collective of thought, a collection

Of words and feelings, a connection

Binding our souls and minds as one

All facets of a precious stone.

 

Times up!