Neil Gaiman Meditation No. 1

“Rules and responsibilities: these are the ties that bind us. We do what we do, because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves. I will do what I have to do. And I will do what I must.”

― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Book of Dreams

Courage is choosing to change.

People need rules. Not arbitrary rules determined by something external but rules made internally that fit your life. Sure, there are rules we typically agree upon and those rules allow people to get along peacefully.

When you have separate sets of rules for separate people, then you find that society breaks. The system breaks not because of the morality of the rules but the immorality of the enforcement of the rules.

In case you haven’t heard or noticed, I don’t believe in forcing people to be part of any social arrangement. I believe people should voluntarily enter agreements. What I really don’t want to see is people forced into a social arrangement that doesn’t consider that everyone observe the same set of rules. And that is what is happening in America. And that is why America is splintering, shattering, breaking. There is no way I or you or anyone can make the decisions for 330 people, 330,000 people, or 330 million people. We can make the decisions, the choices, the rules for only one.

That one person is the most important person out of the 330 million, the most important out of 7 billion. That one person is the most important because that one person is the only person we can rule, we can govern, we can change.

My story starts with one person making a change. I decided to make my change. I decided to make my rules. I decided to take responsibility. Responsibility and rules are married. Understanding your responsibility allows you to make your rules. Determine what your responsibilities are and make your rules accordingly. So when people ask you, influence you, tempt you to act against the rules you can simply answer as I do, “I have a rule about that.” You do you?

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain

Lao-Tzu Meditation No. 1

“Without leaving my house I know the whole universe.” - Lao-Tzu

Courage is choosing to change.

Almost eight years ago I went through a really rough patch with the premature birth of my youngest son. I reached out, lashed out, and found ways to cope with the situation.

The problem with coping is that coping doesn’t address the problem. Coping just lets you live with the problem. And a lot of times the coping skills we teach ourselves end up hurting us.

So I spent a good deal of time putting myself in an unhealthy place. And that is a place that has taken me years to pull out from beneath.

Looking for external fixes to our situations, our problems, our life can bring us brief pleasure and a respite from our lives. Eventually if you want health, then you have to fix the problems.

So, you’ve got to fix your home first. You need to get your mind, your body, your soul in repair. You need to get your life on the mend. It’s a struggle. Some of us dig deeper holes than others. Some of us think we are so deep that there is no hope. We’re so deep in that hole and so focused on digging deeper that we don’t see the light from above. The light is there as long as you look for the light instead of burrowing deeper into the darkness.

So, fix your house? Embrace the light?

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain