The Dark Secret

The dark secret is buried in pride, but it's not what you think. Pride's nothing more than a tantrum.

Sure, pride elevates you and sets you apart.

But pride also keeps you alone.

Do you like being universally alone, forever? Enjoy the sense of isolation from the rest of the universe? Bored to death yet, as your quite possibly brilliant mind turns into a sterile echo-chamber?

Well, you can stop it at any moment. It's completely up to you. And herein lies the dark secret.

Simply break your pride.

Grovel.

Grovel with all your heart before the universe.

It's only excruciating for the first few moments as the shell breaks… Then, you are filled with warmth and glorious light.

And you are once again as big and full as the universe.

Seriously, it's worth it.

The Difference Between Love and Passion

Passion makes you vulnerable.

Love makes you vulnerable and hence, strong.

People and Dry Skin

When dry cracked skin itches, it should not be scratched but soothed with moisturizing lotion.

The same goes for itchy, irritated people. Soothe them with the lotion of acceptance.

Otherwise there will be a wound.

Fear and Frugality

Fear and Frugality go hand in hand.

Notwithstanding one's means, poor or rich, it's those of us who are most afraid that hold on the tightest to their savings.

It's a risk to give, and an act of courage to thin down or even part with that external layer of material safety padding, by sharing it with others.

This holiday season, remember to make a personal sacrifice. Because you will almost certainly need help one day and then you can hope with all your heart there is someone out there brave enough to help you.

Be that brave someone now, for a friend in need.

Spark of Insight

All the verbal pyrotechnics of poetry in the world do not measure up to one spark of insight.

Yet, insight framed by beauty flares from a spark to the brightest beacon of light.

A Different Kind of Faith

Despite what you may have been told, faith does not constitute a belief in a Deity.

Faith is believing in your own hunches, your instinct, your true gut. Because no abstract disconnected notion of Deity "out there" tells you more about truth and the way things are than that small voice inside of you that cries out to you, nags to you, whispers to you when you make any given choice -- good bad, or indifferent.

Trust and listen to it. It is never wrong. What is that voice anyway?

However, be careful that you don't get "radio interference" from all other things stuck inside your head -- hangups, biases, needs and desires. The voice of true faith is clean and impartial.

And it is always right.

Why Not?

For as long as there's anyone to ask 'Why?" the answer will always be, "Why not?"

Love Triangle

Love is made up of three unconditional properties in equal measure:

1. Acceptance
2. Understanding
3. Appreciation

Remove any one of the three and the triangle falls apart.

Which, by the way, is something highly inadvisable. Think about it — do you really want to live in a world of only two dimensions?

So, for the love of a triangle, please keep love whole.

The Child and the Adult

The child lives in this moment.

The adult lives in the contemplation of the past and future moments.

Key word: "lives"

Which of the two?

Two Voices

You know how we sort of have these two voices in our heads?

No, this is not about crazy people hearing things. And it's not about the devil or angel on our shoulder, the aftereffects of intoxication or sleep deprivation, or even split personality disorder -- no, this is all quite normal stuff.

One voice is what some people refer to as the voice of conscience or reason. And the second voice is the one that we mostly associate with the self, the so-called real you that is living in the here and now, and suffering or enjoying the moment.

So what happens is, we end up having these dialogues in out heads, pretty much unconsciously. But we hear the two voices become distinct only during particularly important decision points in our daily lives -- the moments when we have to choose one thing or another, one way or another.

The "higher" voice of reason is usually making running commentary when we are unsure about what to do, when we are torn, lost, confused, hurting. It keeps is from jumping off a cliff or eloping to Vegas with the cute bartender. In the process of this mental dialogue and weighing of options, we justify our behavior or decisions to ourselves.

One of our voices -- the immediate self -- is usually emotional, impulsive, the one most in need of help or guidance. The other voice -- which is also the self but a bit more detached, it seems -- is consolatory, helpful, or critical, judgmental, supervisory. One is weak, the other strong. They constantly talk to each other, a sort of director's cut commentary track of our lives. But instead of being mere commentary, they are in fact making that movie on the fly.

Both of these voices are us -- two equal sides of ourselves. Psychologists might assign various labels to this, our daily process of internal reasoning, while popular culture has other terms such as common sense, impulse, guts, dick.

How about a new pair of terms, using metaphor?

Let's think for a moment of the self as a team of two techs on a mission. One tech is actually sitting back at the dispatch tower, watching the terrain. The other tech is down in the field, armed and equipped, and running through the jungle. The tech up in the dispatch many miles away -- let's call him the Voice of the Absolute -- sees the big picture and the progress of the tech who is on site. The tech in the jungle -- let's call him the Voice of the Relative -- is fully immersed in the moment, in the dangers of the jungle, the snakes and the vines and the bugs and the humid heat, and also the pleasures -- the fresh balmy air, the song of the forest.

It's rather easy for the jungle to overtake all senses, which is what happens to us in life as we live it. We are overwhelmed and forget the reality of the big picture beyond us when we can only see the mud at our feet as we wade through the swamp and the mosquitoes.

However, the guy at the dispatch tower, an equal part of our team, can see all this too, except he also knows the reality of the sterile control tower and the equipment, the panoramic vista of land for many miles around, and he is also connected to a huge communication network. When he sees a snake hanging on a nearby branch he can warn us without panic. But he also does not feel the heat or the painful rocks beneath our feet as we run -- that's up to the guy on site to figure out and handle.

The Voice of the Absolute is our voice of greater perspective -- reason, common sense, conscience, reality, and grounding -- and he can give great mission support to the Voice of the Relative, the one who's in the thick of it all.

At any given moment of our lives we can chose to listen to that distant team member or not. If we do, we usually feel less lost and more in control. We also can avoid pratfalls and reduce the amount of stupid mistakes we can make if we're stuck only within the narrow immediate perspective.

For best results, we're a team.

Next time we hear that dialogue in our head, let's not discount it. Instead, let us take the moment to listen to both voices -- not only do things sound clearer in stereo, but it can be a great relief when we are feeling most alone.

And no, we're not crazy, merely human.

Passion, Compassion, and the Unthinkable

Passion is human.

Compassion is divine.

Apathy is unthinkable. Okay, well, maybe it's all right if your name is Bessie, and there's a whole pasture filled with yummy grass. . . .

The Rider Bill of Evil

Pure evil hardly ever shows itself; it would be far too easy to see it and eradicate it.

Instead, evil attaches itself to good and tags along, like a bad rider bill attached to an otherwise benevolent law. Messy entanglement is evil's primary method of action.

So the moral is: always read the fine print.

Storyteller's Secret

I'll tell you a secret.

Old storytellers never die.

They disappear into their own story.

Losing the Fire

They say that as we age, we lose the fire.

It is not so.

The fire is always there. Its nature is always the same, whether it flickers or burns raging and steady.

It is the source of fuel that becomes unreliable.

Thought Fishing

Thoughts are slippery fish in a cold shallow stream.

If you are intent on capturing a worthwhile one, you need to stand very still, focus very hard on somewhere outside yourself, and then simply ignore it until it gets so close that it tickles your ankles.

Then, pounce.

A Knock on the Duir

When was the last time you received . . .

A Knock on the Duir

Belief and Elements

Why is it that we either fully believe in things that are flawed -- such as sets of religious dogmas -- or we believe in nothing at all?

We speak of elements of truth.

Let us assume for a moment that truth is indeed a natural element from the periodic table -- it can be found in minute or large quantities in various substances.

If so, then let us look for -- and expect to find -- elements of truth in all things instead of expecting solid chunks of pure unadulterated truth in specific things.

The One You Love: Meditation Puzzle

Think of the one you love.

If, upon first consideration, you don’t have such a person, you are not thinking hard enough, or you are unsure of the definition of love.

Think of the one you love.

Change and Hope

Hope exists as long as change exists.

Equality

Equality is seeing oneself in the other person. Now, what you see is another matter.

It depends entirely on what you see in yourself.