Fly By Night

Although I am not really a social butterfly, I love parties. That’s where I can be a fly on the wall. I love watching people. I watch how they posture? Men use their machismo to allure women and women use their wiles to bewitch men. It is like watching a tennis match of reactions when two people are attracted to each other.

With drinks in hand, their eyes flutter, they smile back and forth and the dance begins. Cue tango music. He steps forward, she moves back. She steps forward, he moves back. They are careful with their fancy footwork, they wouldn’t want a foot to wind up in either of their mouths. They are on their best behavior, slowly dulling their senses with alcohol.

As someone who has never imbibed alcohol, I find this fascinating. I have seen alcohol ruin many relationships and I hasten to think how any real relationship can begin with alcohol? You are a shell of your true self, yet you will accept everything a person says as truth. Your subtext is as follows:

“Don’t be honest with me. Lie to me. Tell me something I want to hear, but don’t be honest with me. Yeah. I like that. I really like that. You’re awesome. Wanna to go home with me and lie to me some more?”

As ridiculous as that may sound, it is probably standard for most people who have too much to drink. They have just given permission to be absent without leave. They leave themselves open for anything? Why would you want to obstruct your ability to make sound decisions and leave yourself open for possible harm?

Alcohol is the great divide. It keeps you from experiencing the pure thrill of yourself; unaltered, unobstructed and unabridged. I know for most people, being themselves is difficult, but it is more difficult being yourself with alcohol.

As I was leaving the party, I observed the two dancers, still going strong at the bar. They drank shots. Told stories that weren’t half as funny as they appeared. They laughed. Drank more shots. More stories. Laughed even louder. Stories. Staggered to the restroom like toddlers who had just learned to walk. Staggered back to the bar. Had more shots. Made plans to hit another bar, then go back to his place for more drinks.

I prefer being awake at all times. You never know when spiritual enlightenment is going to come through? You never know when you have to offer it to someone else? With alcohol you won’t ever know. It clouds your reasoning and your thinking. What a way to live? What a way to die?

Just another day in the city. Another day being a fly.

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Traffic Tango

Sometimes living in the real world can be so surreal; like walking across traffic while cars drive towards you on either side? What? Let me back up a bit. I was walking to my car yesterday when I noticed an elderly, white haired gentleman who looked like he was in his eighties. He was standing at the curb with a cane and a small suitcase.

He looked like he was having trouble stepping off the curb, so I asked if he needed help? “Yes,” he said in a faint voice. “I’ve been standing here for an hour.” He looked a little frail so I told him to lean on me for extra support. I grabbed his arm and waited for the light to turn green. When the light changed we both stepped off the curb carefully.

He put one foot in front of the other. There was nothing unusual about that except that he could only take quarter steps and by that I mean his foot literally could only move the length of your big toe. It was like he was walking in place. To make matters worse, he was trying to catch a bus that was scheduled to arrive in about 10 minutes. We were across from a hospital and I thought that perhaps he had discharged himself without being fully well, but I am still not sure?

When the light turned red, we were only a quarter of the way across the street. Cars on one side were forced to stop. We we still in the intersection when the light turned green again. My stranger was getting nervous, trying to go faster, but he couldn’t. You know like when a car is stuck in the mud, you put your foot on the accelerator and the wheels spin? It was like that. I reassured him that we were almost there. In his mind, it must have seemed like an eternity.

We we doing a slow tango in traffic. Everything was in slow motion. The traffic. The lights. People on the other side of the street. Those moments were like being on stage when everyone is looking at you. Just then, a friend of mine happened to be in the area and stopped. He asked what was going on? He grabbed the stranger’s other arm and we both helped him get across the street safely.

It took us about 20 minutes to cross the street. The light and driver’s tempers changed many times before we were through. Just as we got to the other side. The stranger’s bus sped past us blowing a cloud of black smoke into our faces. Suddenly out of nowhere, two women in a brand new Honda Element asked us if the stranger needed a ride? He said that he was trying to make a doctor’s appointment. They literally took him off of our hands and rode off. How weird is that? I was there and it is still weird?

I had a sneaking suspicion that God was responsible for my little traffic tango? Do you ever feel that you are being filmed by hidden cameras? In addition to being in our own films, we are also a part of the grand film. The film directed by the master filmmaker; God. The people who come into our lives for a moment are merely bit players and the ones who last longer have the leading roles? Obviously God placed everyone where they were supposed to be. They knew their lines and their cues.

We were all just strangers helping each other. It was so surreal, yet perfect in God’s world.

And if you are a willing participant, there are no strangers in your film; just Souls in which you are being reacquainted.

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A Matter Of Time

We live in a time conscious society. Time is everywhere. Time is money. Time is of the essence. Time flies. Time can’t keep a secret because time always tells. Time nor tide waits for no man. Time. Time Time.

Time would never survive on the stock market because it constantly loses it’s value. The more there is, the more there isn’t? The more time you have, the less time you have? Time is like a bad accountant; it never balances the books. In the physical world, we can only understand time and space with numbers. It guides us forward. Time metamorphosizes our perception of time.

There is one thing we cannot do with time? That is timing success. Most people think that they can actually time success, only to be disappointed many years later when their dreams shatter; or at least they feel that way.

The uncanny arrival of success sneaks in at all hours of the night. Success is temperamental. You have to know how to treat it in order for it to stick around, otherwise it can harm you and/or leave you.

Mathematician Archimedes became famous because of his involvement in the defense of Syracuse against the Roman siege in the Second Punic War. He designed war machines and held the Romans at bay by moving a full-size ship complete with crew and cargo with a single rope. He discovered the principles of density and buoyancy, also known as Archimedes' principle, while taking a bath. Being so euphoric with his discovery, he ran in the streets shouting, "Eureka!" ("I have found it!"), not realizing that he was completely naked!

The point is that we can’t time success. It times us. It may not be what we think? Success is a chameleon. The best success is living in harmony with yourself. Accepting yourself truly and truthfully. Because it’s all just a matter of time.

TIME CARD

"Time, the subtle thief of youth."
~John Milton

"Veritum dies aperit." (Time discovers the truth)
~Seneca De Ira

"I recommend you to take care of the
minutes, for hours will take care of themselves."
~Philip Dormer Stanhope

"Time is the reef upon which all our frail
mystic ships are wrecked."
~Sir Noel Coward

"Time is God's way of keeping everything from happening at once."
~Anonymous

“There is never enough time,
unless you're serving it.”
~Malcolm Forbes

“Time does not change us.
It just unfolds us.”
~Max Frisch

“Half our life is spent trying
to find something to do
with the time we
have rushed through life
trying to save.”
~Will Rogers

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Falling From The Sky

When most people retire, there is much ado about something. They are celebrated. They have a party, maybe get a gold watch, shed a few tears, say their goodbyes, pack their memories and settle down to a life of doing what they want.

You would think that something that has given us eons of work would get just as much as anyone retiring. Not the case for Pluto. Last week scientists took away the planet of Pluto. They retired it, killed it, yanked it right from the sky and took it away. No fanfare. No party. No gold watch. No anything. Just a sudden death like it never existed.

I think that something that has given us years of service deserves better treatment, don’t you? Is that any way to treat a planet we all studied as children? It was a part of the curriculum. We came to rely on it perched so gingerly in the sky. How are we supposed to adjust our brains, our knowledge, our reasoning?

We have come to think of Pluto as being part of the solar system. How must Pluto feel being yanked from it’s place in the celestial sphere?

Born in 1930, (the only (ex) planet to have been discovered in the 20th century), Pluto was a late bloomer and often got ridiculed by the other planets because of it. Pluto's orbit around the Sun takes 248 Earth years. It never made it to the end of it’s run.

Though it was the smallest planet, (smaller than Earth’s moon) it had a lot of heart, but never got as much attention as the other larger planets. It was misunderstood from the beginning; scientists don’t even know if Pluto had an atmosphere? That’s like saying you don’t know if a person has a personality? It may not be visible, but it is surely there.

Knowing that it wasn’t like the others, Pluto heard a different drummer. It carved a niche for itself as being different, not by having tattoos or body piercings, but by being itself and understanding it’s nature and it’s place among it. Pluto orbits the Sun on a different plain than the other planets, going over them and below them and being thoroughly unique in its passage, but that wasn’t enough, Pluto had to be the mother of invention.

Pluto can come closer to the Sun than Neptune, but then go almost two billion kilometers further away from Neptune's orbit. Pluto was the little engine that could and often did? Pluto knew it’s strengths. Pluto has the second slowest speed of rotation in the Solar System; a day on Pluto lasts for 6 days and 9 hours. On Pluto you could fall in love with eternity and have enough time to do everything you want; work; run a marathon, watch a snail race, read a whole book, and vacation, all in one day -- and still have time to reflect on the virtues of life.

Isn’t it interesting how our knowledge can shift because we as a people and a planet are ever evolving? The knowledge we learn today may not be needed for tomorrow. However, it is needed for now and that’s all we can focus on, getting to the next step however measured or far away.

You would think that something such as a planet would be there forever, but noooooh? Since Pluto never had a proper send off, it at least deserves a proper thank you.

Pluto I’d like to thank you for all the years I stared into the orbs of your eyes, the days when your heavenly body filled my eyes with wonder and made me reach for the stars. So long Pluto. Thank you for your stellar service. And thanks for the memories. We will miss you.

And now let’s have a party to end all parties. A party that is out of this world -- pardon the pun, but it had to be done. Let’s dance to Pluto’s send off song, “Get Down Tonight,” by K.C. And The Sunshine Band. How apropos if not a bit cheeky?

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Dare To Be Mighty

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

~Theodore Roosevelt

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What You Know

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. Ignorance is the necessary condition of life itself. If we knew everything we could not endure existence for a single hour."

~Anatole France

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Sci-Fi Apple

Today I spent a couple of hours in the Apple Store, a cool place and hang out for any Mac enthusiast or Mac novice. It’s high-tech design and carefully positioned computers are like something out of Star Trek. While you don’t have to chant the phrase, "Beam me up Scotty,” you still feel like Captain Kirk will materialize at any moment?

There is a Genius bar where you can make an appointment online to have a “Mac Genius” access your computer and give you advice. The definition of a Mac genius is a wiry young man with spiked hair and creatively arranged facial hair. They wear fashionable black T-shirts with blue jeans and a lanyard shaped like an iPod hanging from their necks.

Anyway, after replacing my hard drive two weeks ago, I had to reinstall some software. I just found out that anyone can go into a Mac store and use the store computers for downloading, emailing, surfing the web, or anything connected to computing -- all for free!

I like the word, “Free.” It is a vibrant word that conjures up freedom, free thinking and being free from the chains that bind; emotional tyranny, mental static, incessant running in place, and general inertia.

When we feel free, we feel like flying and when we fly, we soar the highest heights. In our Souls we are free and we get closer to that freedom everyday that we choose to rely on our inner masters.

It is a freedom that is graceful and all encompassing. It is the freedom of truth. We are all a part of God’s inner circle and the freer we are, the closer we get to the heart of God. It’s in that close proximity that we feel at home.

Who says you can’t get anything for free? Life is good. Free is better!

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The Mercedes In You

I may buy a new car next year? Before I ever venture into a showroom, I get loads of car brochures from manufacturers that I would not normally consider, just to to compare and contrast. In my mind, I take features from one car and add them to another to build my dream car. Some are in my price range, others are in the stratosphere. Even if I don’t end up buying a car, I will still have the knowledge to pass on to someone else when they are ready. I have a photographic memory, (although I heard the correct description was actually a photographic mind) that comes in handy for bargaining power.

One Mercedes brochure was written with such a WOW factor that it floored me. Gone are the days when brochures just listed specifications and equipment, now they expound the virtues of the product and how your life can change with their product. It is almost like they are talking about us as Soul, instead of a car.

I extrapolated the best parts. I hope you find it as interesting as I do?

“We don’t start with a clay model. We start with a Soul. Who you are didn’t happen overnight. It’s rooted in your family history, shaped by life’s experiences, and evident in your ability to continually redefine your potential. The same depth of character, descended from the very first car, is what defines a Mercedes-Benz. Never Underestimate the power of a first impression. Is it an unfair world where so much is judged by first meetings? That would depend entirely on the impression that you make.

You’ll travel many roads in life, so it’s reassuring to know that someone’s there to help you from simple questions to tough situations, helping you feel protected, connected, and cared for.”

I never knew owning a Mercedes would help me achieve Self- Realization and recognize my own self worth? Well, what do you know?

We are beautiful Souls on four wheels -- we are all Mercedes -- worth a fortune in God’s kingdom.

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Laugh Attack

I am having a laugh attack and I can’t stop. Some wicked force has taken a hold of me and is twisting me every which way but loose. It is so debilitating too. A real sidesplitting, rib-tickling, stomach-cramp kind of pain. I call it being tickled by the gods. It is like a mysterious arm is extended from the sky and just started tickling me.

It all started with my niece. She just started her period. (She would kill me if she knew I was talking about it? But I know she won’t read this because she’s too busy surfing MySpace.) Admittedly, starting a period for a young girl can be a little scary.

Anyway, she had stomach cramps and was feeling sick. My sister tried to comfort her, explaining that it wasn’t the end of the world. My niece just didn’t want to hear it. She asked her mother what was the procedure that her mother’s friend had when she was in the hospital? Her mother’s response was, “A hysterectomy.” My niece said, “Can I get one of those?” It was so funny that I couldn’t stop laughing.

It was one of those golden moments that I could tell my niece about when she gets older. In case she doesn’t believe me, I will use this as proof. The funny thing about laughter is that when you do it, other people can’t help but to do it too. It is very contagious.

I just read in Reader’s Digest that a growing body of research suggests that humor can tune our minds, help us learn, and keep us mentally loose, limber and creative. I will have to get back to you on that when I stop laughing. Life doesn’t have to be too serious, there is plenty to laugh about when you stop and think about it, but of course I am biased.

There is a serenity that overtakes you after a good laugh. You are so relaxed, like after having a warm bath or massage.

Laughter can heal your heart. The next time you see or hear something funny, let laughter lift you. Let it fill every part of your body and take you to that inner place where your peace resides.

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Eminent Change

Okay we have come to the conclusion that change is good, but what happens when there is an outside force involved, such as eminent domain? There is something wrong about eminent domain. I understand why it was originally started. For instance your house sat directly in a path where a freeway or airport had to be constructed, or a new wider road to cope with the expanse of the population and public transportation, but today it doesn’t seem right?

You work hard all of your life and buy property with the knowledge that it is really yours, then you’re whacked by the statute of eminent domain. And it hits you like a ton of bricks.

Eminent domain is the lawful power of the state to expropriate private property without the owner's consent, either for its own use or on behalf of a third party. The term eminent domain is used primarily in the United States, where the term was derived in the mid-19th century from a legal treatise written by the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius in 1625.

In Hollywood, there are several Mom & Pop shops that are being seized because of eminent domain. The city is revitalizing the area with a new hotel and other businesses. I feel for the shop owners that it affects. Many of them have put their hearts and Souls into building their businesses, only to have to move or close down. Eminent domain can cause monumental changes all around.

From the shop owners perspective, they are being forced out where their livelihoods are at stake. Most of them are immigrants that have built their businesses from scratch. From the eminent domain perspective, the city is revitalizing the neighborhood to accommodate the growing population. The city feels that they are breathing new life into a tired area by bringing commerce and thousands of new jobs. They offer the shop owners what is deemed fair market value for their premises, which usually doesn’t come close to what the premises are worth, not to mention the blood, sweat and years that went into building a business.

Who is right and who is wrong? They both have valid points and change will affect each of them differently. Construction is always noisy and messy, but in the end it can be a beautiful thing that brings new experiences to new people or new experiences to the same people.

Spiritual reconstruction is twice as noisy and twice as messy, because we rarely see it coming and rarely want it. Change is always imminent at various intervals in our lives. It happens in a micro second. Those micro seconds add up to moments, then hours, days, weeks, years and lifetimes.

We are always changing at any given moment. Our thoughts are not the same as they were yesterday. Our feelings about a person don’t just change overnight, but it can appear so. The beginning of change may not reach our grey matter until we have accumulated enough of those micro seconds to realize a change, but it happens by the second. It’s happening right now. Your thoughts have probably changed several times just by reading this. The only aspect of change that makes it difficult is our acceptance of it.

If we feel that we want to fight change, we can do it, but there will still be a change in the end. By the time we begin to fight, a change in us has already occurred. By the time we stop fighting change, it may affect us with greater distress because of our fear to let go.

Eminent domain may not be a pretty sight, but it has to happen. Just like people evolve, so do areas. We do have an ace in the hole. Our true eminent domain is God. When we continue to fight change, we lose our power to be loving, caring, wise and at peace in our surroundings. Chaos causes us to go into spiritual shock.

We must remember that God is the genuine eminent domain. No matter what people do to us, no matter how they make us feel, we are in God’s eminent domain; our home -- and there’s no place like home.

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Road Work

Blogger has a new Beta version that I am trying out for a while to see what it's all about? It is still in the construction stage and it doesn't allow me to edit in HTML yet. I don't have all of my links in yet, so if you notice that yours is missing, bear with me (them) and I will insert as soon as they allow it.

Change is always good right? Let's hope so? Sometimes we have to change whether we want to or not? It is the fear of the unknown that keeps most people from changing. I know someone who has had the same job for 20 years and they absolutely HATE it, but they won't change their circumstances.

For me, working somewhere that long would kill me, or at least greatly injure my spirit. Then there are those who never planned to change, but their circumstances are changed for them; their company closes, layoffs, etc. These people have the group karma of change. It affects each of them differently, and some of never recover emotionally from the change.

It may bring great hardship at first, but Spirit has a way of guiding us to our next adventure. It may be uncomfortable and a little unnerving, but in time we learn to accept the changes and prepare for others. Granted all changes are not good from our perspective, but on a deeper level they are for the good of the whole.

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One Hour

"One hour of life,
crowded to the full
with glorious action,
and filled with noble risks,
is worth whole years
of those mean
observances of
paltry decorum."

~Walter Scott

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Delicious Ambiguity

"I wanted a perfect ending.
Now I've learned, the hard way,
that some poems don't rhyme,
and some stories don't have
a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Life is about not knowing,
having to change,
taking the moment
and making the best of it,
without knowing
what's going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity."

~Gilda Radner

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Strangers In The Dark

From my living room, I have an expansive view of the city. I see the skyscrapers of Century City; a vibrant city that borders Beverly Hills on the east and Westwood on the west. Century City also sits adjacent to 20th Century Fox Studios and is one of the most prestigious business districts in Los Angeles. It looks no bigger than 1 square mile, but I haven’t measured it myself.

Century City is a small city within a big city and was originally created by Fox selling a part of their back lot to make up for lost production costs. On a clear night, I really can see forever. The translucent buildings look like Christmas tree lights. I see various lights going on and off like flickering Souls running into and out of the darkness.

As I study the light activity, I wonder what type of people work in those buildings high atop the sky? What do they do? What kind of lives do they live? What heartaches do they endure? What joy surrounds them? How do they live? How does what they do effect my life?

We all have jobs that effect someone in some way. Who are the employers? Who are the employees? Is real work getting done? Who are the workers? Who are the slackers? How many workers are spending time on the internet instead of doing their work? How many workers chat more time in a chat room than they do to their own family?

I find that people are kinder to strangers than they are to their loved ones. Does the pressure of our lives cause us to misalign our feelings towards loved ones? Why do some of us work twice as hard at steering our destiny and others tread water floating away from their potential?

We trust complete strangers with our most sensitive information and possessions. We give valets our cars to park without knowing if they can drive; we give banking officials our social security numbers without knowing if they are honest; we let moving companies and airlines move our belongings without knowing if we’ll ever see them again; we eat in restaurants without knowing what they do in the kitchen?

Who are those strangers in the night who clean buildings? Do they know? Are they masters of their fate? Slaves of lust? Barely hanging on? Secretly planning to destroy? Who knows? I wonder about them? I wonder if they wonder about me wondering about them? Are they asleep at the wheel?

I see so many people who have already checked out of life’s hotel. They just take up space in a body. They are cold to the touch. No presence. No flicker in their eyes. No verve. No reason. No rhyme. No tilt. No spin. No view. They are slowly circling. Going down the drain into the abyss.

We have to trust strangers to help us facilitae our lives. We may not want to, but we have no other choice. Strangers have power. We are all strangers to someone. Strangers have the power to destroy, but more importantly, strangers have the power to galvanize.

Let’s galvanize for a better day. Wake up those who are fast asleep. Tell them,

“This is life. Wake up. Reach out. Stand up. Be heard. Stay tuned. Eyes open. Check in. Give love. Get love. Be love. Be well. Be alive. But first you have to wake up!”

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The Long Arm Of God

Yesterday’s post only touched the surface of some peoples seemingly lack of compassion towards one another. Today I would like to share the opposite view. There are many people who show concern about their fellow man. Every time there is a disaster, people and whole countries give tremendous aid in donations and cash.

Kids seem to have a natural proclivity to want to help. They take up collections, cash in their pennies and do all sorts of things in the spirit of giving and it is such a magnanimous gesture. A young boy’s aunt died of cancer and he took it upon himself to host a lemonade stand twice a year to raise money. He has been doing it for three years so far and he has raised $11,000. His goal is to raise 1 million dollars.

There are many anonymous donors and even more people who perform random acts of kindness that are not noticed by everyone, only the person in need. It is God’s way of tenderly sprinkling love into a situation. I was sent the following story from My Daily Insights that illustrates the compassion of one Soul. Maybe it will inspire all of us to be there for each other.

Hang On To Each Other
Author Unknown

Too often we feel alone. But there is always someone ready to take our hand. There is a beautiful story of an overworked nurse who escorted a tired, young man to her patient's bedside. Leaning over and speaking loudly to the elderly patient, she said, "Your son is here."

With great effort, his unfocussed eyes opened, then flickered shut again. The young man squeezed the aged hand in his and sat beside the bed. Throughout the night he sat there, holding the old man's hand and whispering words of comfort.

By morning's light, the patient had died. In moments, hospital staff swarmed into the room to turn off machines and remove needles. The nurse stepped over to the young man's side and began to offer sympathy, but he interrupted her.

"Who was that man?" he asked.

The startled nurse replied, "I thought he was your father!" "No, he was not my father," he answered. "I never saw him before in my life."

"Then, why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"
"I realized he needed his son and his son wasn't here," the man explained. "And since he was too sick to recognize that I was not his son, I knew he needed me." Mother Teresa used to remind us that nobody should have to die alone. Likewise, nobody should have to grieve alone or cry alone either. Or laugh alone or celebrate alone. We are made to travel life's journey hand in hand. There is someone ready to grasp your hand today. And someone hoping you will take theirs.

Remember to hang on to one another!

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The Broken Leg Of Compassion

Yesterday I was in Office Max looking at fax machines and slowly making the rounds to all of their other office equipment. You see, I have a thing for office supply stores. I can stay in them all day and browse. I don’t know why? While some women have shoe fetishes, I have an office supply fetish. When I am in an office supply store, I get tingly all over. I want everything. Once I come to the conclusion that I don’t really need everything, a calmness comes over me, until I see the next item that I don’t need. It is a vicious circle between buy and buy not.

Anyway as I was basking in my euphoria, I heard a CRASH and THUD! It wasn’t a pleasant sound. It sounded like a stack of boxes had fallen. Someone wailed, “Oh my God!”

I looked around and a male employee was laying on the ground, screaming, “I broke my leg. Ouch. My leg. Ouch.!”

Another employee reluctantly came to his aid as he continued to wince. As the fallen employee laid on the ground, other employees didn’t know what to do? Some stepped over him and went to lunch, while others continued to talk on their cell phones as if nothing had happened.

I couldn’t believe the lack of compassion they showed for him. As I made my way over to at least stand so customers wouldn’t accidentally step on him, another customer had already called paramedics and advised the employee standing by the fallen employee not to move him. The customer left.

As I got there, the employee moved his fallen coworker to an office chair. An office chair? I could see that his leg was broken by the way it dangled. I have watched enough medical shows to know that you should never move an injured person, unless you’re rescuing them from a fire or pending danger.

I was appalled at the behavior of the employees. How could they not know what to do? How could they let their fellow employee just lay there? Isn’t it common sense to at least ask if a person is okay? Only one employee out of the ten that were there stayed with his fallen colleague.

Compassion is a natural expression that everyone usually possesses, but somehow it was not evident yesterday. Although there was nothing I could do either, I would have at least offered to comfort him. I did bless him in silence as the paramedics arrived.

Even if you don’t want to get involved, there are ways to be compassionate. You can passively bless the situation in silence; make a phone call; offer a calm and reassuring voice or ease the anxiety of the injured person. You don’t have to wait until someone is injured to do so, you can do it everyday by offering comforting words to your fellow man.

When we have compassion in our hearts, we have it in our lives.

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The Jigsaw In You

Have you ever looked at a jigsaw puzzle and wondered how on earth you would put all the pieces together? Me too? Actually, I am not a huge fan of jigsaw puzzles. The pieces are too small and my patience is too short. Besides, it seems a little anticlimactic when you finally finish and all you get is a picture.

My niece loves jigsaw puzzles. She can sit for hours, days, weeks on end. When she gets tired, she will stop and pick up where she left off the next day. Once it took her a whole year to complete a puzzle.

Jigsaw puzzles were originally created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, and then cutting that picture into small pieces with a jigsaw. London mapmaker and engraver, John Spilsbury is credited with commercializing jigsaw puzzles in1760.

Jigsaws are a great educational tool, but an even greater spiritual aid. Jigsaw puzzles can build patience, endurance, concentration and a sense of accomplishment. A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly-shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece makes up a small part of a bigger picture.

We are all jigsaw puzzles slowly fitting the pieces of ourselves together before God.

We can’t force the pieces together. When we learn a particular lesson or work through an experience, we can interlock that piece of the puzzle to our Soul. We continue to do so until we have completed our puzzle and we are ready for the next level, or the next puzzle on another plane.

It is unfathomable to think of how many pieces we work with daily. We have so many facets to us. So many pieces to our puzzle. I discover a new piece to my puzzle when I least expect it. It’s like finding loose change in the sofa; it’s never expected, but it’s always welcomed.

How many pieces have you discovered about yourself? How many pieces of have you yet to discover? Although we each have our individual puzzles, we can still interlock with other people’s puzzles until our puzzles eventually merge into the bigger picture made by the master puzzle maker.

This is an alluring aspect of living. I guess I should really rethink my lack of fondness for jigsaw puzzles? Isn't the beauty of putting something so complex together rewarding enough?

You never know what picture you will get in the end, the joy is discovering the various textures and colors along life's canvas.

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Up And Running

Last week’s computer drama is finally over. My baby, (did I say that?) had a successful hard drive surgery. If I could equate it in human terms, it is like having a heart attack. The hard drive is the heart of the computer. It carries everything; our innermost thoughts, emotions, feelings and intimacies.

When it malfunctions, it can cause undue stress and frustration and sometimes replicate the same feelings of a break up, loss of a job and depression. The point is not to lose focus on God. We have to trust that the situation will be resolved in God’s time. Although God’s time is often not fast enough, there is nothing we can do about it. We have to surrender.

Even though my computer and I are joined at the fingertips, the “hard attack” was sudden. There were no warning signs, nothing unusual at all. I turned it on and, it was already gone. After several minutes of trying computer CPR, I couldn’t get a "hard beat." I am not one to panic, but I was concerned. After numerous phone calls to computer paramedics, the prognosis was not good.

Many of them wrote it off as “don’t waste your time repairing it.” Others saw an opportunity to charge an arm, a leg and even a kidney to repair. The quotes were from $95.00/hour to $200./hour. How do you put a price on priceless information that may never come back to you? Ask God to lead you to the right one?

I was led to a fellow named Augustos. He had a heavy Italian accent and I couldn’t understand what he was saying? For everything he said, I would say, “Pardon?” Through it all, we were finally able to communicate with hand drawings, over exaggerated speech and a little bit of Charades. Augustos’ only request was that his customers pay in cash. No credit cards and no checks. This type of request would usually cause suspicion, but Augustos had a certain way to put your mind at ease.

This place wasn’t some dark alley on the streets of Sicily, it was a proper shop on busy Wilshire Boulevard. Pretty legitimate, I thought? So with a promise that he would find the problem and fix it, I left my most prized possession in his hands. He said it would done by the end of the day. The end of the day turned into the end of the next day -- and those 30 hours seemed like 30 years.

When I arrived in the shop, I saw others paying cash too. It was almost like watching surreptitious drug deals on closed circuit camera. I did a subtle and quick scan of the room to see if I could detect a hidden camera. Duh, if it is hidden, how could I detect it? I quickly dismissed that idea when I saw my baby. It was like seeing someone after a long absence. Your heart skips a beat and you get a lillte tongue-tied.

My baby was brought out carefully, like she had been through the ringer. She looked pale and exhausted, but happy to see me. After we embraced, I saw the new and improved version. It worked like a charm. I could tell that my baby didn’t want to be in a stranger’s hands anymore, she just wanted to go home and rest on her place on my desk.

She is still recuperating from her harrowing experience. She almost died. She now has a greater appreciation of life. She doesn’t want to just work, she wants to relax too. She wants to see life outside of her walls. She wants to live...to love...to dream...to help me realize my dreams. She has a few scratches and bruises, but I think she is going to be alright.

It’s amazing how we can form emotional bonds with inanimate objects. It almost feels real. Oh wait, I see a tear drop on the screen. The keyborad is doing automatic writing. It is a message from my baby. “I Love You.“ Wait, there’s more. “Tell your readers that I love them too and that I am happy to be back.”

The feeling is mutual.

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Action And Passion

"I think that, as life is action

and passion, it is required

of a man that he should

share the passion

and action of his time at

peril of being judged not

to have

Lived."

~Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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New Hard Drive

I just got my computer back. My hard drive was fried. Apparently they are very unpredictble and can go at any time.

I had to get a new hard drive. Now I have to reorganize my files. They managed to save most of them for an extra fee of course.

Even though I had some of the files backed up, I neglected to back up my photos. You live and learn -- then live and learn again!

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Hard Drive Issues

Yesterday, I found out that I have a defective hard drive. Apparently the life of a hard drive is 4 to 5 years.

I wish Apple would have mentioned this 4 years ago when I forked over $2,000. for a computer. I may have re-thought the price? How can something that costs $2,000 have such a short life? Why are computers so unfinished? They seem to sell them before they have been completely realized.

It's almost like they are still in the embyonic stage before they are forced to fend for themselves in the real world. Had I known of the lifespan of a hard drive, I would have spent less money knowing I could just discard it at the end of its run.

Anyway, my computer is in surgery now. It will be under the knife for hours, while the surgeon carefully removes precious data. I still don't know if the hard drive can be saved? I should find out later today. Keep them crossed.

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Powerless

I am powerless over computers. Like God, they are powerful and unpredicatable, but they are not God. They do what they do and they mean what they mean.

Computers are enigmas drawing many into their hypnotic grips. They are magical. They are emotional. They hold tons of information that takes lifetimes to accumulate and with one push of a button, they can detonate with monumental force.

How did computers become so powerful? Who gave them the power? We did. We gave it to them and when they misbehave, we regret doing so. God has been replaced by the computer. Now all we have to do is figure out how to program our lives to live in harmony with machines.

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Unraveling The Computer Mystique

Today I am at a different library. One that is very organized where everyone has to sign up for the internet so everyone gets a fair chance. Isn't is interesting that organizations are like people. Some don't care about how they present themselves to people, others take great pride in putting their best foot forward.

I am no closer to unraveling the computer mystery than I was yesterday. I called Mac tech support and they charge a minimum of $50.00 just to talk to them. Isn't that like a phone prostitute? I did ascertain than many general computer repair shops don't do Mac repairs. That's a different animal. I guess it is why Mac is so elitist -- because they are not for general consumption.

I like to fix the problem myself if possible so I will know what to do incase a problem occurs again. I have used Mac and Windows based computers and Macs are a lot more fun, but the price difference does not warrant the fun. The PC market has caught up to Mac as far as the fun factor and I may even consider the cardinal sin; expanding my computer horizons?

For now I will delve into the intracies of computers and thus know a little more than I did yesterday - - at least I am learning. Watching life unfold is a fascinating sport.

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Why Does This Always Happen?

Here I am ready to post something and my computer won't boot up. Great. So off I go to the library, my second home and wouldn't you know, all of their computers are taken. What was I to do? The library has about seven Express Computers that people can use QUICKLY to check their email. I stress QUICKLY because although one is only supposed to stay on for 10 minutes max, they stay on for hours at a time.

The librarians are not concerend about it. As far as they know, they are providing a service and it is up to the patrons to figure out how long people are on the Express computers. There is one guy who looks really ominous, he even wears an eye patch. Someone has nicknamed him, "The Pirate." No one wants to approach him because of the way he looks. I have actually spoken to him and he is one of the warmest people I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with. It just goes to show that we really can't judge a book by its cover; or a man by his eye patch.

Anyway, I have to surf the Apple forums to ascertain the problem and troubleshoot it myself. I used to like Apple until today -- when it doesn't work. Actually I have had very few problems with Macintosh, not nearly as many of my Windows counterparts.

I think computers should have a lifetime warranty though. That way there won't be anxiety when something goes awry.

Another thing about libraries in general is that people don't follow the rules -- any rules. They ignore signs and think they are exempt. When you walk into the library, there is a huge sign of a cell phone with a red line through it. Since the 20 minutes that I have been here, four people are talking on cell phones like rules don't apply to them.

Why do we have rules? Aren't they to teach us?

Anyway, I am off to the Apple chat room to try and figure out my computer problem. If you don't hear from me in a while, I'll probably still be there.

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Measuring Success: The Fish Or The Fisherman

Success is an ambiguous device. It can simultaneously kiss your lips and cut your throat. It is a slick salesman who sells you gold that turns into dust. It is a master illusionist cheating your eyes into seeing something that isn't there. It's deception can turn a white dove into a raven.

How do you know when you are successful? How is it measured? Is a CEO of a major corporation more successful than a hot dog vendor who works for himself? I guess it all depends on how you define success? Is success the fisherman or the fish?

If a fisherman labors to reel in a big fish, who gets the glory, the fish or the fisherman? The fisherman doesn't know how big the fish is until he pulls it from the water. Does the size of the fish equal the amount of labor? Probably not.

If we use Bill Gates as an example, is he more successful than John Doe? Is he the fisherman or the fish? Did Gates use his window of opportunity? Did he plan to catch a big fish or did the big fish catch him?

Bill Gates seems to be the poster boy of success. He has a substantial portfolio and a vast financial worth, but what kind of person is he? Yes, he is a philanthropist, but is he philanthropic because he thinks he has to be or is he philanthropic because of a deep desire to see others succeed?

There have been a plethora of moguls who have crash landed; Kenneth Lay; Martha Stewart; Charles Keating; Michael Milken, Nicolas Leeson to name a few. Are these people thought of as successful? Outwardly, yes, but there has to be more to success than the size of a bank account. Size really doesn't matter. That's what outer success does to us, it captures us like a fish on a hook and watches us die slowly until we grasp for our last breath before we are under the carving knife of the highest bidder.

We have to stretch that measuring tape further. We have to let it measure our real value -- our spiritual worth. If we don't have spiritual worth, we are paupers forever scrounging for food while feeling the hunger pangs of our spirits.

Isn't true success the way we treat others? How we treat loved ones, strangers, the human race? You know how much you are worth by what you do to increase your spiritual value. Practicing forgiveness, contentment, detachment and humility all add to your spiritual worth. Living a life of values can be an invaluable experience.

Today's spiritual tip: Commit one random act of kindness and don't tell a soul. Bonus: You can do as many as you like.

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Sharing Kindness

"What if the healing
of the world
utterly depends
on the ten-thousand
invisible kindnesses
we offer simply
and quietly
throughout the
pilgrimage of each
human life?"

~Wayne Muller

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Olive View

"Mark how fleeting

and paltry

is the estate of man—

yesterday in embryo,
tomorrow a mummy
or ashes.
So for the hairsbreadth
of time assigned to thee,
live rationally,
and part with life
cheerfully,
as drops the
ripe olive,
extolling the season
that bore it."

~Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

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Fruits Of Summer

Yesterday's post reminded me of the delicious fruits of summer. Although I had a pomegranate tree, I still went to the fruit market religiously and selected the juiciest fruit for my consumption.

Seeing the colorful peaches, cherries, pears, nectarines, watermelons, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, plums, grapes, apicots, tangerines, cantaloupes, honey dew melons and coconuts brought joy to my eyes.

On Fridays, I do a fruit fast, where I have fruit all day. It is just something I do for fun while I think of the blessings of Spirit -- and the blessings are always all around us.

Happy Friday. Partake in the cornucopia of God.

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Taking Life For Pomegranate

When I was a child, I used to have a pomegranate tree in the backyard. It was a tree like no other tree. In fact it was more like a tall bush that sprouted colorful red adornments, but it did plant the sweet seeds of my youth.

In the summers, I couldn't wait to devour these juicy sensations slowly ripened by the warmhearted California sun. The anticipation was almost unbearable, but after peeling the tough reddish rind and biting into the plump red seeds, the pomegranate usually had a bittersweet taste; not nearly as sweet as it looked on the outside.

Yet, I did it every summer. It didn't matter that the fantasy was always better because I enjoyed the whole experience. I did this until the tree was cut down to make room for remodeling the house.

Isn't it funny how our anticipation of something is always better than the actual something? That's because in our minds we already experience the sensation before we actually have the physical sensation. It is called soul transference. We project ourselves into the experience and enjoy it before it happens.

Marketing people do this everyday. They show us a perfect picture of an item like a burger and when we order what we saw in the picture, it is never anything like it. They capitalize on what our brain already registers. It doesn't matter that the monster burger with all of the ingredients dripping off the side is really the size of a postage stamp with paltry ingredients. We have already had the experience in which we pay them.

I never take marketing serious because I know how they operate. It is big business to make us believe what we "think" we saw? When I want to refreshen my spirit, I think back on my pomegranate days. Part of my mind is always reserved for the freshness of youth when nothing else mattered.

Remember when we were going to live forever and our first love would be our last love? When we were going to conquer the world? When ice cream dripped on our faces? Wind blew through our hair? When we had no obstacles? No doubt? No reason? Just curiosity and the belief that what we wanted we would have?

I remember it well. It keeps me in harmony. Keeps my senses alive. In this world, a little innocence is a refreshing drink tapped from the fountain of youth. A fountain that never runs dry.

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Celebrity Melt Down

The controversy about Mel Gibson has caused me to think about the species called, the Celebrity. It seems that we can't turn on a televison, go on the internet or open a magazine and not see a celebrity. Living in Los Angeles, celebrities walk and drive among us daily. If you look to your right or left, a celebrity could be within an arm's stretch.

If you don't believe me, just look for the pack of paparazzi and follow them. Living in close proximity of the buzz places, I have seen many celebrities just by coincidence. Some of which include; Michael Jackson at Border's book store about 8 years ago, looking at discount books; Tom Hanks arriving at the Oscar party for Forrest Gump holding his Oscar; Madonna leaving Spago; Pierce Brosnan, Sylvester Stallone, Jackie Chan, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, all shopping in Beverly Hills.

In fact, Tom Hanks often attends the local church where he is quickly herded to a velvet roped section to keep him away from the common parishoners for fear that the other parishoners prayers may rub off on him.

Why are we so obsessed with celebrities? There are thousands of Gossip magazines all over the world and a multitude of gossip blogs all over the net reporting the whimsy of celebrities.

Even inveterate "news" publications such as Time, Newsweek and USA Today are focusing more on celebrities. I remember when People magazine used to be about people, not "celebrities." Celebrities are not like the rest of us, they are quite different and they get treated differently.

Celebrities have their own paths to walk -- literally. Not only do they walk the red carpet, but sometimes trip and fall -- and we've all seen the mug shots to prove it. When they go to restaurants, they don't have to pay. If we didn't pay, the restaurant would call the police.

They don't have to wait in those dreadfully long Department of Motor Vehicles lines. As I understand it, they get to go into a secret back door where they are in and out in a flash. Maybe they even have their hair and make up done too and get to pick which picture winds up on their drivers license?

Celebrities also get swag bags worth thousands when they attend events. The 2006 Oscar swag bags given to Oscar nominees and presenters is valued at over $100,000. The individual items cannot be valued below $500. The package included a $25,000 luxury package from the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki – that’s a four-night stay in the “Vera Wang Suite“, a spa treatment and dinner at a five-diamond restaurant. Also in the bag were an espresso machine ($600), a Vonage cordless phone system ($550) and a cashmere leather-trimmed travel blanket ($1,495).

The Kwiat/Kodak luxury suite gave the best actress nominees – that’s Reese Witherspoon, Felicity Huffman, Charlize Theron, Keira Knightley and Judi Dench - a $20,000 dual-lens digital camera personalized with diamond-encrusted initials. Motorola gave nominees customized phones with three free months of service ($299). And Revlon gave best actor nominees a $3,000 bag of beauty goodies.

The Oscar losers receive half of what the winners receive; including gift baskets stuffed with nearly $50,000 worth of goodies, including a stay at the lavish MGM Mirage in Las Vegas and a gift certificate for LASIK eye surgery.

There is an apparent celebrity divide. Celebrities do get special treatment, not because they necessarily deserve it, but because we are so willing to give it to them. Just because someone is in a film or on television, does that mean we should treat them with reverence beacause they are in the limelight?

Is it because we admire them? Do we want to be like them? To BE them? Are our lives so banal that we would be willing to trade it for a celebrity's life? Do we really want an ego so out of control that we think we can walk on water? Do we want our lives splattered in gossip magazines for the world to see? Are we willing to lose our sense of decency?

I am not saying that all celebrities are ignoble, but it seems like the ones written about have problems handling fame. They are like Humpty Dumpty. They sit high and mighty on walls of praise and they suddenly fall. They can barely crawl from the wreckage to piece their lives back together and some of them never recover. This is why having an unshakable spiritual foundation is paramount. It helps us to rebuild and reconstruct ourselves.

If we just took a tenth of the time we spend on celebrities and applied it to our own lives imagine how much more time we would have to put energy and love into our own families?

I know more than I want to know about celebrities. Not because I seek it, because it has crossed over into the local news and world news.

There is as much coverage of celebrities than there is of wars and politics.

I don't need to know anything else about Mel Gibson ranting; Tom Cruise raving; Madonna leaving Kabbalah; Brad and Angelina's plan to adopt a village; Britney Spears egregious mothering skills; and Paris Hilton and her Greek shipping heirs.

As far as good news on anything being reported, you can forget about it. Good news doesn't sell. Only news that sears our eyes and Souls sell; blood and chaos and of course ANYTHING relating to a celebrity, even if they are crossing a street.

Are celebrities more or less spiritual than you or I? I can't answer that. We probably won't be there when they get their final review -- and that's the only time we won't hear about them -- a good thing!

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Ear Full

I must qualify for having the nosiest neighbor on record. Every morning at about 5 am he starts his Volkswagen and races the engine for about 15 minutes. He thinks he is starring in The Fast & The Furious. He actually lives a couple of buildings away, but it always sounds like he is right under my window. It's not an ordinary engine either, it's a LOUD one. So loud that the windows vibrate.

Last week I couldn't take it any more and I asked God to please shut him up and spare me the headache that he usually induced. Low and behold my wish was granted a couple of days later when I didn't hear my rude awakening. Wow, I thought? What else can I ask for? This God thing is better than having genie.

Then it happened? The NOISE EXPLOSION! My ears were assaulted with a cacophony. Pelted with mortar attacks by noise terrorists. For the past few days, the neighborhood has been earsplitting.

It started with a water truck cleaning the drains with a machine that made Mr. Engine Racer sound like a church mouse. The truck was here for hours making a sound so loud it would surely cause many an ear to bleed.

After the truck finally finished, another crew came and started jackhammering the road to repair something that the first guy irritated. My head was shaking like a bobble head trying to stay focused and not be effected by the sound. When they were done, a tree crew started to cut my neighbor's tree with a chainsaw.

When they finished, they threw the limbs into a wood chipper. Then the trash truck arrived and started that grinding sound, the gardener came and cut the grass with an electric lawn mower and proceeded to use a blower; a police helicopter
circled the area for almost an hour, accompanied by sirens.

It felt like being on a film set. I kept waiting for the director to yell. "Cut!" With each noise, another one would follow just as vexing. When I thought it was all over, the neighbor turned on his air conditioner that makes a deafening tone. Come back Mr. Engine Racer, all is forgiven.

All I want is a state of grace, a silent moment so I can hear the pitter patter of my thoughts. God is like having a genie, but you can't waste your wishes on ridiculous requests. Why waste a request on something as frivolous as asking God to help you find a parking space; get into a nightclub; win the lottery or ace a test.

Don't abuse the power of God. God is here to assist you with real problems, caress you with love, listen to you and offer guidance. I always thought God was the sound of babbling brooks, waterfalls, birds singing, nature, but God is also the sound of earthquakes, thunder and rain.

Some days God is a little nosier than other days, but every sound we hear is the sound of God. FInally all the extraneous noises stopped. I was ecstatic. Then I heard a feint ringing in my ear, like an old fashioned British telephone. I thought my ears were ringing from the earlier noises.

The ringing got louder. I shook my ears and the ringing was still there. It got louder. Oh, no, I thought? My hearing has gone to the dogs. I was hoping I didn't hear a dog whistle. As I held both hands over my ears, I happened to see outside the window. It was an ice cream vendor ringing his bell like a Pied Piper of Häagen-Dazs. I thanked God. Ice cream sounded good.

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