Personal Meditation no. 213

“You can’t change the people around you BUT you can change the people around you.”

Be the Change.

We are living in a broken world. And when you talk to older folks, the world keeps getting worse. I am unsure whether that is an actual fact or just a subjective opinion about the world today from the world twenty, forty, or a hundred years ago. I do see a more willingness to flaunt brokenness and even worship brokenness in society. The rise of the victim mindset and the division among folks just seems more polarizing and weaponized today than I can remember just thirty years ago when I graduated from high school.

When you are young, your friends are really vital and you can never imagine a world without them there by your side. Here I am thirty years down the road and I speak to one of those good friends and not very often. Life changes. Life gets messy. The world gets around you and gets busy and things continue despite your plans and dreams and wishes. Maybe you don’t consciously decide to change the people around you BUT the people around you change. And that is what it is. There is no changing the change of life. Amor fati.

The conscious choice of those around us is extremely important for our journey. There are many folks holding on to broken people and broken relationships. And those people and relationships can break you as well. With whom we surround ourselves and with whom we interact shape our perceptions and our relationships. If you want to be successful, then you should hang out with successful people. If you want to smoke pot, then you should hang out with the folks smoking pot. If you want to be mediocre, then you hang out with mediocre folks. If you want peace and abundance, then you hang out with the peaceful and abundant. You get to choose with whom you associate. And no more than in this digital age. I have met so many influential people in my life from this screen. And I have removed many broken relationships and people from my life from this screen.

So, think about whether the company you keep is the company you need. We can’t get better if we are holding onto broken and less than habits. And we can’t have those habits reinforced by broken and less than relationships. You can pray and hope and desire for others to heal, BUT you can only change you. You can only get yourself healed. Live the life that you want to live. Live that life with others that are taking the walk you want to take. Fix yourself and the company you keep. I know we hear it from youth that the people we are hanging around are reflections of who we are. Your friends say a lot about who you are. What are your relationships saying about you?

Bless your heart. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #BeTheChange

Personal Meditation no. 212

“Courage is choosing to change.”

Embrace the Within.

Folks talk a lot about change. There is a lot more talk about change than there is actual change in the world. There is superficial change that gives the appearance of difference BUT there is very little transformational change. This has been one of my complaints about the farce of government and politics and temporal power. The mask of power may change BUT the structure behind the mask remains the same. And you can concoct all sorts of theories and ideas about who is in control and who is pulling the strings in the world of men. You can get on the Interwebs and go down rabbit holes and talk about in echo chambers and point fingers and be the smartest person in the room because no one else has done the research you have done. And what is the point?

You see, I know those people. I was one of those people out there looking for the reason the world is such a mess. I was out there and right here preaching the gospel according to ed. I was pointing fingers and laying blame and looking to change the system. I was voting and active and political and struggling in futility to make folks see the truth. BUT I hadn’t found the truth yet. I was just as lost and blind as everyone else. I was struggling to fix something that doesn’t want to be fixed. I was struggling to change something that doesn’t need or want to change. I was looking for change where it wasn’t going to happen.

There is a courage in changing yourself. There is a courage in seeing the path of the world and standing up and saying that is not for me. There is a courage in looking for truth and unity and joy and abundance. BUT there is no wisdom or courage in looking to change things that are not going to change. And there a lot of things out there you and I cannot change. I don’t care how much we want to look to historical figures and say, “That so-and-so really changed that place into something better.” There is no power on our own to change anything in this world.

This world is already set on its course. You and I both know that things are not destined to get better. This is the last ditch efforts of a world that is broken trying to keep its brokenness alive. A broken world trying to prolong its time. And that time is not forever. That time is always close at hand to ending.

And that is why we need to change ourselves. There is no point in trying to change others, our community, our nation, our world, unless we are willing to change ourselves. There is a courage in choosing to look above and not below. There is a courage in choosing to embrace the eternal and set ourselves apart. There is a courage that is in taking the path of truth.

Or we can choose to tell ourselves comforting lies. There is never a shortage of comforting lies in the world to make us believe we are truly good people. There is never a shortage of comfort in knowing that there are plenty of folks that believe the same lies that we do. There is never a shortage of good intentions and excuses in the world. There is never a shortage of talk about change.

BUT there is a lack of change in our hearts, our minds, and our spirits. And that is a good place to start today. A place to change from looking to control everything else and simply take control of ourselves. Find our divine purpose and embrace the path that God has planned for us. You and I were not created to be less than. We were not created to make excuses. We were created to find the beauty and the abundance and the joy in this broken creation.

Bless your heart. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin