Heaven is delicious, restful peace.
Hell is intense, unresolved turbulence.
And earth? Earth, my friend, is a succession of both.
Which makes earth a kind of an entertaining place to be, if you're one of the living. Never an easy place to be, mind you. But then, whoever claimed that easy was fun?
Enjoy your stay.
Arguments are such wicked things.
They really are.
Arguments happen only at such times when we are unwilling to give each other a chance.
Most of the time arguments are caused by the need of all sides to be contrary, to perversely pretend they don’t understand the exact, subtle -- or not so subtle -- meaning of the other person's words, when they really do understand if they would only choose to admit it. Why? In order to perpetuate the argument, of course.
And why, you might ask, would anyone want to do such a weird thing?
Well, often the act of arguing lets us vent a whole bunch of cooped up general irritation at the other person.
Thus, the need to argue is often a symptom of other unresolved issues.
Think about it the next time you argue -- you are not really discussing the point but are beating against the wall that is the other person.
Maybe it's time to stop and try another way?
There's a recommended daily allowance of "garden" that we don’t often hear about.
When was the last time you stepped inside a garden? Is there one in your back yard? In your neighborhood? Within reach?
No matter.
Go find a garden!
With all your being, with every pore, with every breath, you require it.
Where has all the energy gone? The same place where passion ran off to, and where stamina escaped, where purpose retreated....
Oh, and it’s also the exact same vacation spot where your hope is sneakily trying to slip away, even as we speak.
But hey -- hold on to the dratted thing! Never, ever let it go!
Hope must always be at your side.
The point at which you start "feeling old" comes suddenly upon you, out of the blue.
One moment you are young, and the next, you are on the downslope, it seems. And yet, it is not the true point from which you actually start becoming old.
It is merely the point at which you need to snap out of your rut, re-think your life and address your vital needs.
Life has just smacked you on the nose -- wake up!
Friendship is such a warm, clean, all-enduring, flexible, granite-hard, unbeatable, invulnerable, dependable, unconditional, mighty force.
And yet…
Friendship is such a delicate, precious, amazing, fragile, miraculous, impossible, one-of-a-kind, ethereal, vulnerable thing.
Please, don't ever break yours.
There is something that makes each one of us genuinely happy. And that something is a different thing for all.
Just a simple notion to keep in mind the next time we try to impose our own idea of happiness upon someone else.
Like a pair of nice pants in the wrong size, it may not fit.
Why is it that when there is no time, we burn to do so many things, and when we manage to have time, we seem to have no will to do them?
How can one get the timing right?
How can passion correspond with will? Isn't passion a form of will, that initial urge? What fiendish mystery of entropy is this?
Once thing is certain -- procrastination is not completely at fault.
Some of it is our instinct, causing the hum of uncertainty, telling us that something else might be going on underneath the surface.
Listening to others is not a fine art, but a learned craft.
You can hear what they say, but it does not mean you really hear what they are saying, but what you think they are saying.
How to know when you are only deluding yourself?
The answer is simple -- practice listening. With enough practice, you will be on your way to knowing.
Practice, practice, practice.
Now, what was it that I just said?
How brightly shine the Diamond of Truth and the Rhinestone of Falsehood…
On the other hand, it could all just be Cubic Zirconia, so just enjoy the pretty sparklies and don’t worry about truth, underlying worth, or hidden flaws.
Sometimes surfaces are enough.
To have no immediate goals is worse than having no toilet paper once you've sat down on the seat.
It's like sitting down when the seat has been left raised.
As you can see, the solution is not merely advanced planning, but paying close attention to the exact situation and the nature of the moment at hand.
Also, a full-body-and-mind ability to maneuver fast can really come in handy.
When you see no reason to go on, no purpose, stop and listen to the music of the world.
Okay, did you listen?
Good -- now tell me, what key is it in?
It takes a certain level of denseness, even stupidity, to be confident, relaxed, assured.
Those of us who are much more alert, cynical -- and yes, cautious, wary, careful -- we might sneer. And yet we envy such people their seeming ease of bearing and the facility with which they carry themselves through life.
Often, it is their innocence and naivete that gives then this peculiar advantage.
A lack of vision. Maybe, a lack of experience.
Because the moment you really stop and think, the moment you really break your living stride to take a close look around you with an intense, alert scrutiny, you come to realize that everything is dangerous. The next step you take, the next breath you inhale -- all can derail you, and everything is a potential cause of harm.
It is a miracle indeed that anything persists -- that we survive, that we can continue to live day to day.
Maybe being selectively blind is not such a bad thing. Enough with the details already -- look at the big picture, the great unified gestalt of the moving universe, the rhythm… Close your eyes partway and observe through narrow slits the changed, hazy world.
Pretty!
And suddenly it becomes an easy thing to walk the razor edge of a cliff many kilometers high.
There's a good reason some of us may be considered holy fools.
And there's a good reason that, when going to the beach, it pays to wear sunglasses.
Laughter and love both dispel fear. Laughter is quicker, yet love is surer.
Notice how both of these sensations or emotions generate a state of inner warmth.
So, does this mean that fear is a cold, icy thing?
The most difficult thing in the physical world is communicating precisely what you mean.
The language tools we have at our disposal -- words, sounds, patterns, tone, gestures, etc -- are simply inadequate. For the most part we communicate only a portion of our intent, like radios transmitting at an unreliable static-ridden frequency, or cell phones going in and out of range.
Assuming this, it makes good sense to be patient with the other person, and give them the benefit of the doubt when communication is problematic.
They may not be receiving and we may not be transmitting exactly what we all think.
There is no such thing as a "bad ending" -- it is just the low point of a sequence of events that hasn't yet played out to its completion.
And each sequence, like the proper swing of a pendulum, starts and stops on an upswing.
Try to remember this when you are at the lowest point.
That upswing is coming.
We all have something we consider personal space.
It is not just that immediate physical space of about three feet beyond which you don’t feel comfortable allowing strangers to encroach, such as when someone stands talking too close to your face -- you might call it the personal bubble -- but the greater living space that you consider home.
It’s your home turf, your haven, your refuge. The place that you occupy and organize according to your own needs, and the place you can lounge around in, relax, dream, be yourself, be safe.
It is also the place you clean, maintain to a certain level of personal comfort. And it is the place for which you are responsible and of which you are proud. (Now, if you don’t bother to take care of your surroundings, or don't feel that you have such a place, it simply means that you still haven't discovered your true home, and you are still life's wanderer. But don’t worry, your time of homecoming will come, as it inevitably does for all of us.)
So, what exactly is home, this personal space?
For some of us, it is just our room. For others, it is our whole house, even our whole property with its yard.
For others, it’s the block on which they live, or maybe even the whole street.
Maybe, for yet some lucky others, it’s the whole neighborhood, and even the whole community. And for yet others, it extends even beyond to city level, and then state and country level.
Then there are some of us who take it even further, and extend the sense of personal space to the whole continent, and just maybe, the whole surface of this living planet.
And why stop there? For some, personal space reaches out on the wings of thought into the solar system, and then our Milky Way galaxy, and then our… universe.
Now, considering the fluid extent of all this personal space, how can you and I stand to litter?
Would you like to know your future?
If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.
So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence -- a surprise.
Science is an organized pursuit of triviality.
Art is a casual pursuit of significance.
Let's keep it in perspective.
Face it.
It is a most wonderful ability to be able -- at any time, and no matter what emotional condition your mind is in -- to break out of the rut of your own personal existence, and face a responsibility that has caught up with you from the past.
In fact, why not do it now?
Take this moment and acknowledge that something needs to be done, and that you owe it to yourself and someone else to do it.
Relief will follow.
Why do people watch reality shows? It's a strange abomination, and yet, addictive to so many of us.
The answer lies in a combination of expectations and control.
Many of us want to experience clean, refreshing, surprising honest "reality." And yet we want the surprises to be only the good kind, want it to be predictable, and under our ultimate control -- under anyone's control, as long as a hint of it is there.
What we really lust for is a series of plausible free-form events that are plotted like a genre story, with the "genre" determined beforehand by the thematic focus of the reality show. This way we get the best of both worlds, the danger and raw energy of real living and the safety and pleasant entertainment values of controlled meaningful art.
It is a comfortable illusion that straddles the edge between predestination and free will.
And in this complex world, it's the secret place we feel most comfortable being
The naive innocent and the cynic are both equally distant from the truth -- or, if you prefer not to use such an absolute term -- from what is real.
One has seen too much of good (or maybe seen not enough of anything), the other too much of evil (or too much of the same thing). One has become biased and jaded with the passage of events and experience, the other has not yet learned that bias is possible and is still unfamiliar with ennui. One expects too much, and the other expects nothing.
Neither one is able to properly evaluate things.
I suppose, they should marry each other.
Or maybe not. That would be just too cruel.
They can simply go out on a first date.
There are very few problems in this world that you and I cannot get a better handle on -- and sometimes even resolve -- after a simple good night's sleep. Sleep is like the refresh button on your browser. It clears the screen cache of your mind.
Try to get to bed early tonight. Just this once, okay?
You'll thank me tomorrow.
Desire creates the universe. Absence of desire negates the universe. Control of desire gives power over the universe.
So, what do you desire?
Are you sure?
Joy is all around you.
Even in the deepest moments of personal hell, in sorrow and greatest tragedy, in death, futility, endless night -- joy is all around you. Because joy is in the fabric of the world, in the fine nature of being.
Joy is a constant property of life. It is a permanent fixture that cannot be taken away.
Reach out with your hands -- when you again find it in yourself -- and feel joy.
