Category Archives: Spirituality

I Wont Back Down

Posted on by under 2013, March 2013, Ponderings, Spirituality

So lately I’ve noticed something: a lot of people I know (in both real and virtual life) either are, or have been, weighed down by the negative side of things. Myself included. I have only one thing to say to that:

Satan, get out.

You know that old adage, the greatest thing the devil ever did is convince the World he didn’t exist? Well, it’s very true. Satan, evil, the negative side of things (there are a lot of names for it, use your own if the word “satan” throws you off) is the master of lies. Evil doesn’t work by direct action. It is an indirect action, a voice whispering in your ear that you are not good enough, you are not capable, that you are bad. It’s your shin banging against a table in the middle of the night (sometimes literally), it’s all those little things that happen to disrupt your day, your mood, and–above all–your belief in yourself.

Red heartholes happen because they listen to this voice, and eventually it becomes the thing that guides them. I don’t think this is a conscious decision, it is more a slow attrition. This carries with it the scary implication that Red heartholes started out with a strong connection to the divine that soured. Everyone is connected, some people seem to feel it more. While this is also a mingling of conscious and subconscious choice, the ultimate CHOICE to be good must always be a conscious one; and that is the essence of the matter really. Darkness can run away with you, but free will dictates that you must choose to be good.

No, this doesn’t excuse the bad actions of others. It may not be a completely conscious choice to be bad, but most people reach points where they can see themselves a little more clearly: and in those times of clarity the choice is before them. It is a person’s responsibility in life to make the choice to be good–no matter what circumstances that person may carry with them to explain away why they don’t make the choice.

No, it doesn’t excuse their actions, but it does make it easier to love a person despite the bad things they may do. Could you imagine being carried away on this current? I’ve coasted it before: it is the loneliest, angriest, most desperate feeling, full of self-loathing and hopelessness. This rarely shows on the surface, most of the time people going through this seem very happy–most times people going through this have convinced themselves they are happy and it is everyone else that has something wrong with them.

I believe people caught in this current have run away with our world, and I also believe that it is our time to take it back.

So, if you find yourself feeling awful about yourself for no reason. If you keep getting sick, kicked in the shins, spat at, slapped in the face; if it seems like everything you try to do is just taking you six steps back for the the three you got ahead; if depression darkens your doorway; if the voice in your head tells you to just give up because it’s hopeless DON’T BACK DOWN.

You are doing what is right in this world. No matter how small your actions seem, you are helping people. Maybe it’s just one person, maybe it’s a hundred–it doesn’t matter. Something you are doing is slowly turning that tide, and satan can ‘t stand losing even a little ground. It is time for us to stand our ground, and here’s a little tool to help you do just that–something my mother taught me.

Stand up, puff out your chest, put out your right hand with palm facing out, and muster as much energy as you can to put behind these words, spoken in a clear and commanding voice: SATAN, GET OUT. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN MY LIFE OR IN MY HOME. I DO NOT BELIEVE YOUR LIES. GET OUT, IN THE NAME OF GOD I COMMAND YOU.

This is essential. Making the choice to be good is conscious, and so is the choice not to listen to satan’s lies. God (and again, God and the divine is so much bigger than words, so use whichever ones feel comfortable to you) grants free will to people, and so He can only hold evil at bay temporarily. It is up to you, to each of us, to tell it to leave; to use our power to banish evil from our world. Anytime you feel like you are being bothered by something, anytime you have deeply negative thoughts that seemingly come from nowhere–stand up and command darkness out of your life. It might try to sneak back in at a later time, so just stand up and do it again.

You have so much potential, don’t let anything or anyone tell you otherwise: you are a beautiful reflection of the divine.

Listen to the words of Tom Petty: stand your ground, don’t back down.

You and I

Posted on by under Poetry, Ponderings, Spirituality

Humanity is a person who is in the midst of change. No one is perfect, and everyone must grow to become his or her perfect self.

Here we stand, on the cusp of greatness. A fork in the road where we could not stand if not for all of the mistakes and triumphs we have experienced together.

Can you feel it? My connection to you, and yours to me?

We are one, one in love and in life. We stand together as a complete person, you and I. We live together with this Earth, and together we move into the future.

I love you, no matter what faults you carry within you, no matter what you feel you have done to be undeserving of love, I love you.

We are one.

Take my hand, it is time to grow together into the Tree of Life.

Time to reclaim things we thought lost along the way.

Nothing is lost, all is within us, you and I.

We will be like nothing we’ve ever seen, with roots that dig deep into the Earth

and a canopy that stretches ever towards the sky,

I and you, you and I.

1loveapril

Can you feel the shift?

Posted on by under 2013, February 2013, Ponderings, Spirituality

Our world is changing in ways that we are not yet advanced enough to truly understand (either scientifically, spiritually, or intellectually).

Can you feel it?

I can, it feels a whole heckuva lot like love.

Every day it seems to get bigger.

Open yourself up to it, there’s plenty to go around. Even if you feel like you may not deserve it, take the chance. Take the moment. Seize the mother  ducking day and run with it!

There’s no finish line, this is not a race.

It’s running for the sake of feeling wind blow by your face while others rush by your side.

Maybe we’ll reach the speed of light and together we’ll experience a moment without time.

Moments without time are an experience as timeless as wordplay!

That is all.

Other Bloggers for Peace:

The Groovy Gazette

Cosmic Loti

1loveapril

I Got a Message from God Today

Posted on by under 2013, January 2013, Ponderings, Spirituality

No, seriously, I did. Let me tell you the story.

So, I woke up and decided I would like nothing more than to throw on my bathing suit and read by the pool at my apartment complex. I began readying myself for this vitamin D adventure in the sun, but some part of my me felt like what I really needed to be doing was paying some attention to my blog.

I’ve been a bit stressed lately (by a bit I mean that I wake up my fiancee at night with the sound of my teeth grinding together), so reading by the pool is something I really wanted to do. I knew that the feeling was God’s way of telling me I needed to do something else first, but I decided to be obstinate and pretty much told him to go bug someone else.

Then my dog started yowling at nothing in particular, which usually means she needs to go out. I asked my fiancee if he had walked her yet, he told me no, I got annoyed and began to act like a Red hearthole because I didn’t want to walk the dog but knew I had to before going to the pool (my fiancee was in the middle of a project when the dog started to yowl).

So I get the leash, throw a dress over my bathing suit, and march out the door in a bad mood and with a terrible attitude. My dog and I are nearing the dumpster, where I always pick up cigarette butts, so my eyes were on the ground. I found one cigarette butt, and this post-it note:

IMG_8778

I stopped dead in my tracks and actually looked around as though I was going to find Jesus giggling in some bushes, having just left the mysterious post-it.

Well, that was enough to make me pay attention. I finished walking my dog and returned home, got on my computer and found myself flooded with cool things. Topics I need to have on my radar, awesome people, some opportunities that are right up my alley, artistic inspiration–it was all there in my reader pane, one thing after the other.

So, when I felt I was done perusing said neat things (though there is one more blog I need to visit, keeps bugging me while I type), I decided to write a quick post on the experience to let others know how God works in your life sometimes. This event isn’t something that only happens to me, it’s a very old thing actually. There is a name for it in Christianity (I think it’s in latin), but I can neither find nor remember what it is right now!

Anyway, I have always called this pinging. I started it a long time ago. Basically, I would be reading something on a website or in a book (or listening to music), when I would be struck by something in what I was engaging with. This would direct me to something else, which would direct me to something else, and so on until I had come full circle around an idea. Sometimes I wouldn’t understand what was meant by the process until much later, other times I would know immediately.

That’s about it, sounds totally nutters (because it is). One day I’ll stop apologizing for my faith (I’ll probably find a post-it by the pool that says God is not a mental illness, lol!)

Hope everyone has a lovely day!

1loveapril

Random Thoughts

Posted on by under 2012, Artists, Deep Thoughts, July 2012, Ponderings, Spirituality

Sometimes the things we create are meant to do nothing more than remind people how to feel the good that exists in the world. To bask in the peace intermittently and remember that if you have decided to be a truly empathetic and good person then there must be other people who have as well, no matter how few. Usually the people who do this will make other extraordinary choices in their lives that will eventually lead you to them, whether in person or through the echoes of their actions. And at the moment you stumble across them you will feel uplifted and for a moment can lay the sorrows of the world alongside the joy, for what is joy but those moments of intermittent peace we carve out for ourselves amid the chaos?

1loveapril