My road trip south begins this Friday morning. I am very much looking forward to it. If you are reading this, live in the South, and would like to be a part of this adventure, let me know. We'll fellowship.
Life has been decidedly more pleasant recently, especially the last few days. I'd gone a while feeling like I'd gone astray, or at the very least, lost. Recently I've felt much more at ease and I've been granted a peace that has been rare these past few years. It's been nice. Getting my license back Monday has also done wonders for my mental health and happpiness. I no longer feel like a burden to everyone in my path. This is a good thing.
You know who was a pretty awesome band that didn't really catch on? Hazen Street. They're kind of a weird situation because if I had to assign them a genre, it would have to be the incredibly lame and tired rap/rock. But it's just so well done and fun that it's very enjoyable. I've always liked them. Their song "Trouble" just came on my shuffle and I was reminded.
I've been thinking a lot about my spirituality and faith lately. It's been a while since I had these kinds of conversations with myself and questioned these sorts of things or even thought about it at all to be honest. I'm still not exactly sure where I stand on the whole thing when it gets down to specifics, but I am pretty sure that I don't think it's necessarily about the specifics. When things as big as life itself are at stake, does it really make any sense at all to nit-pick? No. That's a lesson that I think everyone should take to heart. That's always been a trouble I've had with finding a church to attend regularly. Every one that I've ever attended seemed to be preoccupied with establishing the reasons why its particular beliefs were superior to those of other religions, sects, or churches, whether that was done obviously or subversively. I'm sure that I've made the mistake of getting hung up on the trivial things a time or two myself, but in general, I like to think about big-picture kind of things. In my experience, the message is pretty universal. Specifics and exclusiveness only seems to get in the way of the entire point.
Though I have yet to find a church to attend regularly, or even attended church regularly since I actually gave a crap, I have never wavered from two basic belief: that God exists in some form or other (I personally think of it more as an energy or something than an old man with a white beard), and that Love is good. I have always and likely will always believe these two things to be true and am trying to build my life around them like ivy grows on the sides of buildings. I can't say that I've never questioned the existence of God or a higher power; I definitely have. With so much hate and pain and badness in the world, it's nearly impossible to maintain a constant and devoted belief in the omnipotent and ever-gracious god that I was taught in Sunday school. But I keep coming back to the incredibly intricate and intelligent designs of things and the feeling I get when I'm standing overwhelmed in the midst of creation. I cannot account for these things without attributing them to a power beyond my ability to comprehend.
"Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that. If natural things are beyond it, what are we to say about supernatural things?" ---Pascal
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
I declare I drank my fill from that well of poison...
Awesome new CD that everyone needs to check out: Marcy Playground's Leaving Wonderland... In a Fit of Rage. I really can't say enough about this album. These guys are so under-rated it's ridiculous. They may be one-hit wonders, but they've churned out some of my favorite albums of my lifetime. Three out of four of their releases have been mind-blowingly awesome. The latest just came out last week and I'm completely obsessed. If you can't find it or don't have the cash, hit me up and I'll get it in your hands. And while I'm at it I'll get you their other stuff. I think a lot of people are missing out on these guys.
I stumbled across some videos today called "MindMovie". They have to do with all that stuff about the laws of attraction and those books The Secret and The Power of Positive Thought and all that self-help kinda stuff about visualizing the things you want and then having them magically drop out of the sky and into your lap. I'd post a link to the videos, but I'm not entirely sure that it's not some sort of pyramid scheme or cult, and I don't want to be responsible for leading anyone to that sort of thing. Basically, these things all tell you to visualize the things you want in life---money, a significant other, success, etc.---and continue this daily in an affirmation sort of exercise, and then you will get them. They're all a little over the top (I really doubt I'm going to receive an unexpected check out of nowhere for the exact amount of my debt), but I do think there's some truth to them.
Positive thought and positive thinking certainly can't hurt anything; and as a counterpoint, negative thought and thinking certainly can hurt many things and hold people back from achieving anything at all.
Do you ever have those days where you wake up with a song in your head out of nowhere? There's no explanation for how it got there. You haven't heard it in forever. But there it is playing in your head as you wake up. Then, you hop in the car to drive to work and guess what song's on the radio? You got it. Does this happen to you? Sometimes? Maybe? Well, it happens to me. It's weird. It's awesome.
Do I subconsciously control what's on the radio? Doubtful. But I do think that each of us has some sort of control over the things that happen in our lives. Our minds are really powerful things, and, let's face it: reality is perception. If you see something as a good situation, it is a good situation. If you think you've got good luck, you have good luck, etc.
This is kind of what happens to me every time I decide to "turn my life around." I've done this about 15 times over the past few years, and it's always worked on a very temporary and short term scale. Eventually, I sink back into the old bad habits and into my old ways of thinking and my life winds up right back where it started, going nowhere or in the wrong direction. This is where I think these videos may really be onto something---the daily affirmation. You've got to make it into a habit. It's just like with sports or anything else. Bad habits are hard to break. You have to force yourself to do it right something like 3,000 times or something to break bad habit and actually start doing it right. It's crazy. It's hard. But it's p0ssible. With a little discipline, determination, dedication, and proper scheduling and will power, these life-chaning revelations can have a serious and permanent impact. But it's got to be an every day thing. One miss and you're right back to the beginning.
So, consider this my statement that I am (again) turning my life around. But this time, (I hope) it's permanent. If not, I'll try it again.
I stumbled across some videos today called "MindMovie". They have to do with all that stuff about the laws of attraction and those books The Secret and The Power of Positive Thought and all that self-help kinda stuff about visualizing the things you want and then having them magically drop out of the sky and into your lap. I'd post a link to the videos, but I'm not entirely sure that it's not some sort of pyramid scheme or cult, and I don't want to be responsible for leading anyone to that sort of thing. Basically, these things all tell you to visualize the things you want in life---money, a significant other, success, etc.---and continue this daily in an affirmation sort of exercise, and then you will get them. They're all a little over the top (I really doubt I'm going to receive an unexpected check out of nowhere for the exact amount of my debt), but I do think there's some truth to them.
Positive thought and positive thinking certainly can't hurt anything; and as a counterpoint, negative thought and thinking certainly can hurt many things and hold people back from achieving anything at all.
Do you ever have those days where you wake up with a song in your head out of nowhere? There's no explanation for how it got there. You haven't heard it in forever. But there it is playing in your head as you wake up. Then, you hop in the car to drive to work and guess what song's on the radio? You got it. Does this happen to you? Sometimes? Maybe? Well, it happens to me. It's weird. It's awesome.
Do I subconsciously control what's on the radio? Doubtful. But I do think that each of us has some sort of control over the things that happen in our lives. Our minds are really powerful things, and, let's face it: reality is perception. If you see something as a good situation, it is a good situation. If you think you've got good luck, you have good luck, etc.
This is kind of what happens to me every time I decide to "turn my life around." I've done this about 15 times over the past few years, and it's always worked on a very temporary and short term scale. Eventually, I sink back into the old bad habits and into my old ways of thinking and my life winds up right back where it started, going nowhere or in the wrong direction. This is where I think these videos may really be onto something---the daily affirmation. You've got to make it into a habit. It's just like with sports or anything else. Bad habits are hard to break. You have to force yourself to do it right something like 3,000 times or something to break bad habit and actually start doing it right. It's crazy. It's hard. But it's p0ssible. With a little discipline, determination, dedication, and proper scheduling and will power, these life-chaning revelations can have a serious and permanent impact. But it's got to be an every day thing. One miss and you're right back to the beginning.
So, consider this my statement that I am (again) turning my life around. But this time, (I hope) it's permanent. If not, I'll try it again.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)