Where Strength Lies

My life is such that I often wonder how some people would get by without me. When its broken, I fix it. When its empty, I fill it. I carry the weight and take the responsibility when things go wrong. I do so silently without asking anything in return because I've learned to accept that some people simply don't know how to do it on their own.

This is my love: I don't say, I do.

But sometimes the strong isn't always so strong and sometimes the brave isn't always so fearless. It angers me sometimes that if I were to die today or tomorrow, these people would weep over my grave. But I am here, now, today, in this moment, where my name is called mostly when I'm needed. And my biggest fear is that tomorrow, I may not care so much to stand in someone else's shadow. That's when they start to hate you...I've seen it many times.

No matter how much pride you have, always recognise who is on your side. People get so caught up in the sound of words that they weigh them carelessly. When we go to battle, we face forward. But when the smoke clears and your enemy is no longer before you; look behind you. So the next time you fight and loose, you'll understand better exactly what it is you've lost.

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MY PERFECT PERFECT

Signage for perfect

No one's perfect.  But why not try to be?

To be flawed in theory means that we possess characteristics that prevent perfection.  Perfection, theoretically, is to exist without flaw. And, again theoretically, we are all imperfect because we are
human.  Theoretically.  Realistically, however, we are imperfect because we do not strive for perfection.  We don't strive for it because, for the most part, we believe that no person should be or is capable of becoming perfect.

The fact that we are able to recognize our flaws shows that we are aware of our perfect selves. But defining perfection may be a more complicated problem.  Most of us live by some standard of morality - it may be religious, political, spiritual, scientific or some other cosmopolitan view.  Our personal convictions, more often than not, also often matches that of other individuals in our communities.  While community mindedness has it's usefulness in personal development, when it comes to making conscious decisions, it has the potential to become self destructive.  What I may view as perfect, others may beg to differ.  And with so many definitions of standards, morality and perfection to start with, whose ideologies can be trusted?  So in a sense, when we adopt the principal that 'no one is perfect,' what we are really doing, is refusing to give effort.

My perfect, is effort.

Conditioning the mind to believe that it is acceptable to be imperfect is the same as conditioning the mind to believe that perfection is unacceptable.

Why do we like to shy away from perfection? For the most part, fear, shame and the fear of being shamed.  Or in other words...we lack conviction.  Fear causes us to hide our core desires when we are certain that our communities will not accept them. Shame happens when we recognize that our actions were unacceptable - not by someone else's standard, but by our own standards. Generally, anything that is deemed unacceptable is shamed.  We are harsher judges of ourselves than we are of other people.  So the only thing that really keeps us from perfection, is ourselves.

Ironically; the first step in changing anything is changing the way we think about it and admittedly; it is rather daunting to think of changing the way we think of things that we hardly ever think of to start with.  Personally, I like to start with a question.

Question is: What does perfect really mean to you?

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

The mind is everything.

What we think, we become."

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FINDING BALANCE

"…a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices…" ~ Official definition of Aristotle's theory of virtue

[Musings]

We find that the purpose of desire is to find fulfilment.  

If greed is a vice, then how could pleasure be called a virtue?  

And the sacchariferous climax of fulfillment—however brief, however fleeting—can also be easily mistaken for happiness.  So what is virtue?

There is an absolute power, above that of human existence.  Whether it is a god or anything else; our existence pivots at this median.  

It is a point that we can neither reach nor change because its purpose is balance and therefore,   it must remain constant.  
For the need of pleasure and fulfilment, we cannot judge ourselves...
because we will not know how to find the balance between the virtue and the vice.

DEFINING GOD

An ode to all the hearts we meet as we journey to discover The Meaning of Life!

God's Child

Once upon a time; God was - or so I assume.

But today, maybe he is...maybe he isn't - evidently.

How does one define life?

How does one define God?

How does one define life without God?

God, biblically, is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 

To me, he is the universe, love and life itself. 

Which means, to me, that whatever our purpose in life is, we must know God to define it. 

And to know God we must know humanity, because we are made in the image of God. 

Which would mean also that everything that we are is God. 

So the way to know him is also in knowing ourselves. 

Which in turn would mean that a life without God is nothing. 

And the face of God is every face we see. 

So how can we love God who is beyond us, and not love our brother who is beside us?

This is...if God is.

If God is not...then what is life?  What is love?  What is infinity?

Easily defined...is easily found...easily found is easily lost.

But the human element is not easily defined.

Yet...easily lost.

And yet again...not easily found.

So how do we define God?

We must first define life.

Or perhaps; we first define God and then we define life...

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MY WEIGHT IN GOLD

This morning, a feature at MSN.com is HOW TV SHOWS HIDE STAR PREGNANCIES. 

As I scroll through the article, I am humored not only by some of the gimmicks but also by the fact that with certain shows; like Sex In The City, Friends and Seinfeld; I’ve actually been a fan long enough to remember the times when the leading ladies were preggers. 

Kerry Washington "Scandal"

Sarah Jessica Parker "Sex in the City"

But alas, as it often does, my mind began to wonder toward past experiences and—of course—extraneous circumstance…

The women that were featured in this particular article are all well know and well liked and although in many instances their pregnancies did not fit their ‘character’, they were none the less embraced by their adoring fans.  But for the average professional woman, it rarely works that way.  In terms of our careers, pregnancies are often viewed as unsavory set backs—particularly the maternity leave period.  Our dependability and efficiency are automatically questioned.  And pregnancy, in allot of cases becomes a scapegoat for not performing at our optimum.  But if multimillion dollar studios can work around a pregnancy; for an employee whose performance is 100% about being visible; what separates these women from the average woman? 

THE SNAKE

Sitting under a tree, deep in thought on a quiet morning, I heard a rustling noise above me.  I’m accustomed to birds playing in the tree so I paid it no mind.  Much to my surprise, moments later, something falls out of the tree onto my back.  I hear it land onto the wooden bench with a ‘thud.’  I jumped up—startled—and turned around expecting to see an injured bird.  Much to my surprise, and horror, I found instead a snake!

Now, not to be misleading, there are no poisonous snake species currently known in The Bahamas.  The snake was a racer.  Racers eat lizards, frogs, mice, other insects or even smaller snake species.  They are commonly referred to locally as garden snakes, because it’s not uncommon to find them hiding among leafy, low laying plants; particularly during the spring and summer months.

None the less; I’ve never been fond of nor fascinated with snakes and I was sufficiently frightened.  Apparently, so was the usually docile, two foot critter; as he opened his toothless jaws to hiss his warnings at me!  I didn’t dare move.  After a moments’ long stare-down, he dropped to his belly and slithered away.  It took me another moment or two to compose myself.  And I had to move away from the grassy area in an attempt to gather my sanity.

WHEN ARE WE SILENT

Allot of times, complete strangers would approach me, proceed to telling me their personal dilemmas, and ask for my advice.  I couldn't honestly guess why this happens to me so often.  Truth be told, I'm not a very good advice giver.  I rarely "say the right thing."  I often just bellow what I think is most appropriate in relation to a person’s given situations.  I find it challenging to generalize conclusions based on personal circumstance and I have a very serious disposition with cloaking reality.

I can't decide if it's a selfish way of thinking that leads me to believe that when such things happen, the universe is trying to teach me a lesson.  Or, it may also be that I just have one of ‘those’ faces and it’s purely coincidental that I happen to be around when a person needs someone to talk to.

In a sense, it scares me when people do this.  I think that this fear is caused mostly by my inhibited character.  For me, personally, to randomly tell a person with whom I’m familiar—much less a complete stranger—my personal problems, I would have to feel very desperate about solving them.  I understand that some people have little to no inhabitations regarding their personal life, but in whole, the concept is very difficult for me to grasp.  None the less, advice seekers seem to flock to me.

STRAIGHT ON GAY PRIDE

With the cries for LGBT rights steadily on the rise, unsurprisingly, the newest movement in popular culture is “Straight Pride.”  As I ingest the arguments from both sides of the fence I can’t help but wonder:  In a so called modern and progressive world; why does any human have to fight to be considered equal to another?

Why exactly, are we up in arms about the rights and freedom of homosexuals?

Unless I’m mistaken, equal rights for the LGBT community do not mean that it’s no longer acceptable to be straight.  Just as black rights never meant that it was no longer acceptable to be white.  We live in a free world.  In order to maintain freedom, it is essential that every individual is held in equality against all others in accordance with the law.  The law is not a matter of personal convictions.