Personal Meditation no. 207

"Everyone chooses their level of involvement. We might share the same place BUT that does not mean we share the same space. Not everyone in the congregation is Christian."

Embrace the Within.

You can want the best for folks BUT that does not mean they want the best for themselves. Everyone gets to choose their own level of involvement in life. I can’t choose that for you as much as I can choose when you are going to awake. I can’t even choose if you are going to awake. I can’t choose that either. I do get to choose my level of involvement in my own life daily. And you get to choose that for yourself as well.

Those fourteen days ago seem like years now. I barely know that person anymore that was struggling every day to get moving with caffeine and nicotine so he could make the daily commute to and from work just to get back home and really accomplish nothing. All I did was consume. I was one giant Pacman. One ball of consumption. I produced very little and what I did produce was nowhere near the quality I could achieve and do achieve today. I was lucky I was smart enough to survive in that lifestyle.

These past fourteen days I see a lot more joy in watching things grow. And now that I have hit a groove, I am starting to get worried about stagnation. Am I going to just find a new rut to put myself into each day. It may be a healthy routine of accomplishment BUT is a new well-worn routine that is not typically comfortable any different than any other rut I was in before?

And I think I can answer that this routine, this rut, this well-worn path is never without it’s new challenges and obstacles and change. It isn’t like the plantation is just going to run itself well. Without my work to combat the entropic nature of the system, I would have chaos all around me. And as I work every day in this space, I am trying to get things in order and alignment.

And that is kind of what we all should be working toward. Getting aligned and ordered with what is natural. Being in line with what our lives are meant to be. And for some of us that means changing a destructive habit for a constructive habit. For some of us that means getting healthy. It can mean so many things for both you and me. BUT we all get to choose whether we are involved in making that change. We all get to choose if we’re going to be aligned. We all get to choose our level of involvement in our own lives. We can make the change or not. There is no one else to blame BUT ourselves.

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

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

Personal Meditation no. 206

“Your beliefs are your actions. What you say is just what you think.”

Embrace the Within.

It was quite the hot weekend and a lot of my time was spent avoiding the heat. That meant getting most of my work done prior to 9 am. And that is exactly how I want it to be. I am made for early mornings of working and getting things in order. As the day goes longer, I find my ambition and energy and attention is not into getting things accomplished. Most of my initiative comes right out of the gate.

Now that is not the attitude of the remainder of folks in my house. They are all on the opposite schedule which makes life a challenge at times. When folks want to ask me math questions at 9 pm or have a conversation about anything more than the day ahead, it takes a lot for me to get excited and focused on that task. BUT I do my best to accommodate them with those situations.

What works for me does not work for them. And becoming accepting of people thinking and acting differently from you is, hopefully, a part of maturing and aging. BUT I am seeing more and more folks that are not inclusive in their actions despite the words they speak. And those actions go across all ideologies, all religions, all politics, all people. And as a Christian, a libertarian, a voluntaryist, and a white dude, I get a lot of the backlash for the ways other folks in those communities have acted to other folks. I get lumped in with every Sunday lunch, judgmental, neckbeard, argumentative, chauvinist, racist, and any other derogatory superlative for those folks other people have encountered in their life. And there are a lot of those folks in the past, present, and future whose poor choices I get to shoulder as well. And that is alright because that is the life I chose to live. I cannot change the actions of others. I can only change my own actions.

I can get angry at all those people that make it difficult to live my message more effectively. I can think about all the problems their actions caused myself and others. OR I can accept the world as it is. Amor fati. And move forward with my life in spite, despite their actions and do the best I can. And I think that is sort of what God wants me to do.

I wasn’t created to suck at life. I wasn’t created to fight anyone else’s battles. I wasn’t created to make anyone do or think anything. I was created to live this life joyfully, abundantly, and peacefully in service to God. And that is what I am going to do.

Sometimes that means taking hits that weren’t your doing. Sometimes that means paying for the actions of other folks. Sometimes that means the road is not going to be easy. BUT, that is the path I signed up to walk. And that is the path I am going to continue to walk. And that is a place I do not ever have to walk alone.

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

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