You can’t tell from the answer what the equation is.
I know that sounds cryptic, but it’s true. You can’t tell from “5” what the equation was that created that answer. You can’t tell from a fog rolling in whether it is summer or winter over an ocean. You can’t tell from a person’s behavior if they had a rough life or grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths. Some of the sweetest people are in the most anguish, and some of the most enraged are just blustering about.
Deception lurks all around us, masking itself as truth. And what is truth? Even that has become so slippery and elusive, you can spin just about anything into a truth of sorts. How do we go forward if the rocks all around us are slick with moss and the water we cross lies about being calm and shallow?
Bend your mind around and look at yourself. WE are the rocks, and the water. WE are what we are getting across, using for leverage and support, and clinging to. We speak of faith, but what we cling to are things in our heads. We speak of weakness and strength, but these are emotions that come and go as chemicals and hormones flash around in our bodies and brains. We speak of hope and hopelessness little realizing that as we blindly grope around our dark nights, outsiders of space and time see us so close to accomplishing our true tasks, so close and so blind, and we can’t see how close so we struggle mightily with whether to go on or give up.
One word can turn a day around. One sentence, one hug, even one thought. And once a day is turned around, the world is turned around. We each have a world. We think we share a globe, a planet, but what we really share are thoughts and experiences. We share joys and sorrows. That we stumble through all the inclement weathers together on a ball in space is only a stage with props where we come together and share our monologues and diatribes and songs.
‘Real’ and ‘truth’ come with experience, which is just about the only thing that can bring us wisdom, unless we choose to remain stupid. Sometimes we ‘wake up’ and realize we cause our own problems, even if all we are doing is choosing to remain wallowing in them. Sometimes we find a way to crawl away from our problems, but more often we find a way to rearrange our minds so that we can survive our problems more cheerfully with distraction of some sort. Distraction is good. Crawling away is better, but if that is too hard then at least we have the power of our minds to repaint our scenery.
I used to be an extremely negative person, borne of very negative people going back generations. True, they were very successful in some ways, but their personal lives were sad and sucky. Sometimes you gotta be mean to get through mean stuff. But that doesn’t mean you gotta stay mean. It’s ok to go soft and sweet. It’s ok to cry and be sad. And then it’s ok to get up and want to be happy.
Find a way to be happy. This is your 2014 commandment from me. Look for the little things around you that are pleasing, speak to the big things in your head that are stalling you, leap into the traces of joy that whisper through your hearts. We. Can. Do. This. It’s hard, yes. But we can do this.
Some of you reading this will never understand the pain just reading this post is causing other people. I’m glad! I hope you never understand! But I do hope we all understand that it’s important to LIVE AND BE WELL. We can choose this. *I* *have* *chosen* *this*.
I know some of you can’t make the decision to have a good 2014. It doesn’t work like that when you live in abusive relationships and addictions and hide underground for whatever reason. But it can still get better. Humans are natural problem solvers, our brains are made to figure out puzzles. Figure out the puzzle that is your life, find ways to make it better. And find people that reinforce this. Shed the negative as much as possible. Hang on to your dreams, even if they look impossible. I’ve been through impossible. You’d be surprised at what time flowing on a little bit can do.
Arch Heretic 