The Original You

Imagine with me for a moment a world where outside appearance had no bearing on how we treated each other. Could such a society even exist? Take a moment and imagine. We cannot ignore what another person’s outsides look like. The color of our skin, the type of clothes we wear, and even how we smile can reflect our culture and our heritage. These differences are what make up the beautiful mosaic of the human experience. If we all looked the same, we would be losing something. It is these differences that display the full majesty of our Creator. Through diversity we see the rich palette of what is possible in the world.  It is not the differences in us that create the problem. It is the belief that one group is better than another that creates our collective pain. It is in the judging and elevating of skin type, clothing choice, hair style, and religious choices that cause our divisions.  We have elevated certain types of people out of a sense of fear. We are a...

I woke up today, and looked at my schedule. It was all planned out. It looked good, full of self-care, some work, and time to write. A nice plan. I drove to my dentist for a cleaning. After a long one hour drive in heavy traffic I arrived to find out that I got there on the wrong day. I don’t know who made the mistake, but my slot was filled with another patient. I was not too happy. Plan B. Lunch, and then some writing. Ten minutes later I got a call from the dentist telling me that a patient cancelled, and that I could come later in the morning. I turned back, and had my cleaning. Here comes the cool part of this. The wife of the dentist was there, and I was able to sell her a copy of my book. The amazing thing is that I might not have seen her if my appointment had been earlier. Because of the time mixup, she was there for me to sell her my book. This is how life goes. We make plans. The plans change, and something happens that we didn’t expect to happen. And often times...

I was fortunate enough to attend my uncle’s funeral recently. Nick was a great man. It was an honor to pay tribute to him, and to support his family. Uncle Nick was a member of a branch of the Catholic Church called Eastern rite. It was a beautiful ceremony. At the funeral many rituals were performed. The chanting was beautiful, and it was very meaningful.   I am not part of that particular religion, but I have a tremendous respect for the people who practice it. The commitment to what they were doing was obvious. There was a time in my life when I had judgments about different religions. I was in a particular religious group, but didn’t fully agree with the tenants of it. That was a conflict for me. I moved away from that group into a much more loving and compassionate spiritual community. In this community I found what I was looking for. I found acceptance of different points of view, an embrace of different religions, and a belief that everyone has a right to d...

I am a male. I know nothing of the pain of childbirth. To pretend I do would be extremely dismissive to the women in the world who have. I will not go there. I have experienced birth of other types. While not nearly as painful as childbirth, they are nonetheless uncomfortable. I am going through such an uncomfortable time in my life. I am a musician, and have been teaching happily for many years. It has been something that has brought me great joy. The children I teach are a bright light in my life. I have had many a day when I felt miserable going to school, and left feeling much better. There is something magical about the spirit of children that brighten my day and life in general. There is also a part of my life that I have been practicing since I was a child. That is my writing. Ever since I was a child I have been writing ideas down. I believed I had a little talent in this idea, and I always wanted to explore and see if there was anything there to be cultivated. Then 2...

The light of my Creator is so beautiful that I can forget my troubles. When I step into the light, it is so bright that it blinds me. It blinds me from the hurts, the pains, and the parts of myself that I cannot accept. These are the parts of me I don't think are lovable. I cannot see these parts when I am blinded by the light. There was a time when I lived in darkness. I could not believe in myself. It was a place of hopelessness. Many people go there in their lives. Many don't survive. For some reason I survived. I'm only beginning to discover why. Many people do not understand why they exist. I was one of them. I had lost my way. I believed that I was off track somehow. People around me seemed to be able to discover what they wanted out of life. I could not. It was a frustrating existence. It was painful. I coped with this by trying to get rid of the pain. I found many ways to do this. None of them worked. A made a tremendous discovery. I could not run fro...

You are a passionate person. You have strong beliefs. You have strong views. It is in your DNA. When you latch onto an idea or cause, you will put a ton of energy into it. Your passion must be tempered with your need to be grounded. You need to feel safe. In fact, safety is a very high priority. How do you remain passionate and also stay grounded?   Is this even possible? As a creative person you get new ideas all of the time. You are constantly being made aware of the next great thing that you are going to do. This new thing will change your world. It will change the entire world. It might be the thing that will guide an entire society towards healing. This thing might even end all of the wars in the world. Yes. You have these thoughts. Thankfully, we come back to reality fairly quickly. We realize that we cannot save the world. But, we do have our writing. In our beautiful, introverted and empathic mind, we can focus on the idealistic goals we have for our life an...