COMPLACENCY

What is complacency? By definition, it is a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; By example it is Nazi Germany, Occupation of Tibet by the Chinese, Rwanda Genocide of 1994, the Sudanese crisis, the "war on terror", the government corruption, the blind democracy we live in, the infiltration of harmful legal drugs by pharmaceutical companies, the WAITING on a savior....just a few examples. For most of us, it is much easier to trust the media, advertisements and political figures than it is to question their intent. It is much easier to believe we are the good guys than to understand we are actually not. It is much easier to look to your neighbor for the answer than to be the one to come up with one,it is much easier to gossip about what Kim Kardashian is doing than to do some research as to why we have 18 year old kids dying in Afghanistan for our country and the "war on terror", it is much easier to sit in church and be told a savior is coming than to ask your Church WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE?! THAT is complacency! We are all guilty of it. It starts with the individual and spreads to the masses. If we are not educating ourselves, asking why, researching intent and applying what we learn we are all guilty of the consequences of complacency. It is not up to a president to help us see and make a change. It is a up to every single human being. However, if complacency is what you wish for, good luck to you my friend.

Free Will

Free Will

We are a society of victims. Whether you believe in nurture or nature, we often argue we are a certain way because of what has happened to us or because someone did something to us. We dig deep into our past to validate our current actions and accept our way of thinking as a permanence. Some of us seek therapy, religion, meditation and arts to understand and express our ways. Others may seek those to change our ways but have that never ending internal battle of "because (fill in the blank) happened to me, I am broken..." As I have continued my personal spiritual journey in understanding myself and others, I have been presented with an undeniable fact. I have been reminded God has given us a gift; and that is the gift of FREE WILL. We are free to make our own choices either to improve ourselves or destruct ourselves. We are free to believe what we choose to and we are free to put a version of ourselves out into the world that we feel appropriately represents who we are. Nobody owns your mind, thoughts, and beliefs unless you give them your consent. Nobody can control your actions unless you give them your consent, and that includes giving your past consent to control your life today. Your free will allows for you to decide to be a prisoner or as God made you, free. I am not sure where this happened, but we have given consent for something to take away the miracle that we are, to downgrade us to something is filled with doubt, malice, lack of understanding, ignorance, darkness and ugliness. We have given our free will away to the part of society that makes us a materialistic species, shallow without a core and afraid of living with a cracked shell. We have given our free will away to the demons that pester our minds and crave destructive behaviors like addiction, hate and egoism. However, it is important to remember, giving away something does not mean you cannot get it back; especially if it is a gift God planted inside of you. Frankly, it will always be there if you believe God is in everything that is alive. In order to find it, look within and let go of everything you accepted in exchange for your free will. Once that is done, you are no longer a victim, but a child of God who has accepted his gift and are an example to others on how to accept it as well. My wish for you, is to exercise your free will to do good in the world.

Prisoner

We are a prisoner of our thoughts. We limit ourselves to endless possibilities and opportunities and the criticism we give ourselves is the most hurtful, handicapping us to live a fulfilled life. We have not yet realized we are what we think, and the seed that we plant in our thoughts will bear fruit to how we choose to live. When we listen to a child, we hear the dreams we once had as children but lost it somewhere. We allow our mind to wander into the forgotten world we once desired and are awaken again by the reality we have chosen as our paths. We are prisoner of our thoughts. We force ourselves to take a journey which in the end, leads to a death bed full of regrets of the things we did not do. We torment ourselves with the thoughts of what could have been and swallow our disappointment only to convince ourselves that we did the responsible thing in life and we had no choice. We are a prisoner of our thoughts, but a prisoner can be set free if it finds a way to forgive themselves and gives themselves to that forgotten world they once desired.

Words

Words are Powerful. We can look at every corner of history and see where some one's words has made a huge impact. From Martin Luther King Jr and his inspirational words to Adolf Hitler and his dangerous anti-Semitic words. Words have created revolutions, it has instilled fear but also hope. It is incredible how this powerful tool can have such an amazing impact on our society and our individual lives. The unfortunate consequence of words is misinformation and most of all, misinterpretation. We read a story and often times interpret it based on our beliefs and/or traditions. This is very evident in how different religions have interpreted religious books which have been the foundation of wars and land divisions (Israel /Palestine). Evidence of misinformation is the irresponsibility of reporters and how they decide to report our news. Although reporting should be an unbiased activity, we should not assume everything we read in a newspaper or an online news site is unbiased. The news will report on what they feel the public will read. They will make sure the story sounds appealing enough to catch our attention and to hold it there until we are done reading their story.
While reading and listening to some one's words, remember who is speaking or writing them. Ask yourself, what motive could they have? We are all responsible for our words and how we present our ideas and opinions. Do not use this tool to manipulate or create hate. Words are powerful and if you must speak or write, please remember the following “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” -Mother Teresa

Powerless- A letter to God

Dear God,

As I sit here, I feel afraid. I feel afraid for what the future holds for this planet. I have lost my faith in humanity, government, medicine and business. I understand our advanced technology allows for us to be more connected to what is going on in the world, but in many ways, I wish it was not so advanced. The suffering, cruelty, greed, betrayal, shallowness, stupidity and craziness of our world bombards us every hour of the day. It creates fear and doubt and furthermore, leaves me feeling completely powerless in my desire to make a positive change in the world. I know I should lean on your understanding, rather than my own, but how do I do this if I do not see you in these times? I hear you talking to me, I feel you tugging at my heart, but I do not SEE you helping us change what is going on in our businesses, government, medicine and global instability. I know people claim they believe in you, but behave the opposite way from what they hear in church, I hear people use your name but doing terrible things in your name.
I know what you want me to do in my life. I feel it and I am trying to gain the courage to take that first step to trust you and do it. However, I need some help please and it is not a help just for me. Please help our world. Help it run away the greed that has taken over people who have taken an entire country (countries) hostage. Help us be kind to each other, help us understand the cure for cancer is more beneficial to our human race than the billions of dollars made with "cancer medication" (which have probably killed more people than helped them). Help us see ourselves and others as you see us. Help us plant more trees and actually feed the hungry and provide basic needs to those less fortunate without the people in charge taking advantage of those who are willing to give.
I will continue to listen to you and will ask you to please help me find my courage to do your work here.

Amen

Purpose

My grandfather is dying. He is weak and pale. He has already discussed memorial service plans with his pastor and is beginning his "transition". None of us know how many days or weeks this will take, but we will remain attentive and listen to his last requests. My sadness does not come from knowing he will die, but from watching his body suffer and also knowing in our medically advanced world, we still have not found a cure for cancer and that we may never "find" one due to the incredible amount of money pharmaceutical companies make from cancer care. That is for another blog post.
The purpose for this post is to bring to light our purpose, or rather, to understand why we have humanity. If you think about it, we are born to die. Or is it, we are born to live then die? Whichever it is, we are born and then we die. We have no clue when, but we all do. In between though, we are alive to live whatever life we believe we should live. It sounds very simple to me, but I am struggling to understand why. Why even exist if we will not after a certain amount of time? Why struggle, suffer, ride that emotional roller coaster if at the end, it is all over? Sometimes it feels like a cruel game. Where there are a couple of players who just throw humanity for a loop and see how they interact and react to whatever happens.
What is the purpose?? Can it be to just worship a God? Can it be to just BE? Today, I have no idea why. I don't know why we are born, live, have our own kids (or not) and then die. And does it really matter if we know? I would say no it does not, since we all know the final outcome. So I guess, for now, our purpose when we are born is to live; However one would like to.

Im not crazy, Im just misunderstood....

I have been called many things in my life and my favorite by far is CRAZY. Usually I am called this when I am not doing what someone else wants me to do. For me, I would rather be crazy than be like everyone else. What is Normal anyways? From my observation (and in my very humble opinion), normal is not talking about your feelings; Normal is doing the same thing over and over and over; Normal is running through the rain to get away from it, Normal is watching reality tv to get away from whatever your own reality is; Normal is looking for quotes to relate to; Normal is feeling inadequate because the person next to you has more money, beauty or personality; Normal is smiling in someones face and talking about them behind their back; Normal is worshiping each other; Normal is telling lies to cover up actions and self; Normal is loving but with half of your heart worried about being hurt; Normal is making promises and not following through.....So for the next person that calls me crazy...YES, I AM ONE CRAZY WOMAN!!! I am crazy because I will cry, laugh and scream to get my feelings across; I am crazy because I will challenge myself by doing something different; I am crazy because when it rains, I would rather dance and jump in puddles than run to get out of it; I am crazy because I would rather figure out my own problems than watch how people do it on TV; I am crazy because I love me, the ugly me, the poor me and the stupid me; I am crazy because I do not keep people in my life that I do not feel are genuine and If I smile in your face, I genuinely like and appreciate you; I am crazy because I do not worship the things or people of this world, I worship GOD; I am crazy because I am honest with people about myself and my intentions; I am crazy because I love completely and throw my entire self into the people that I love; I am crazy because I do not make promises I cannot keep and I am crazy because I am not afraid to let YOU, who is reading this, know that I am crazy! Now, who else is crazy out there??