Having a Love Affair with Life

Greetings my gentle readers to the beginning of August 2012 and another episode of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. Those moments that offer hopefully a different slant on the moments and challenges and opportunities that we have chosen to call our life in the here and now. Reflection on the mindfulness and miracles of the moments, interspersed with the challenges and evils that perpetrate and demonstrate all to clearly.

We touched on that concept last week as we looked at the light of good that exists and burns within all of us. But the fact that we at time are paralyzed in actualities or conceptually by what we imagine to be real and cant touch our dreams in the moment. That is such a sad place to be. Always running like a hamster on a treadmill, with nothing at the end of day and days but sadness and destitution. To be infused with drugs, alcohol or other vices that have allowed you to escape life on lifes term… you find that the life and gift that you have been given has been lost. Items that allow one escapism are drugs, Internet, alcohol, pornography, sex, shopping and almost anything else in excess that lights up dopamine, the pleasure reward homes. In fact the river of years have brought only numbness and tears and frustrations, with small leveraged wins along the way, but many societal positions and trappings and stuff that you are now having to consider walking away from. And considering it’s a normal neurotransmitter/hormone…you are just a big hormonal mess.

And why is that? Why have all of theses material items not brought you the joy and happiness as the commercials assured you they would? Heck, your neighbour seemed so happy and to have everything. What is wrong with me, again that I get the short end of the stick? Per the title of an old book for the 1970’s, why do you always draw the Black Marble?

This is about idolatry and wanting and the difference between wants and needs and entitlements. What you thought should be your due, you did get (sometimes) but came at such a heavy price, not unlike the $200 that was obtained through “The Monkey’s Paw”. Someone else had, you were sold a bill of sale and expected it delivered to you.

But because it wasn’t worth the price or as shiny as your mind set it out to be (See blog from July 1^st on Polishing the Brass Ring of Uniqueness) you got mad. Real mad. Madness infused every part, which causes one to not be able to appreciate the moments that are here and being squandered away.

Sad and almost everyone reading this will be able to know and identify someone they know that this relates to, correct? Want to rectify? Love and live the moment and love truly and totally is an intelligent concern for others. Others includes not just humans, but all living things like people, plants, animals, crystals..All of which that have the Spiritus residing within them. 

Loving life through all your affairs is the best way to captures the depth and breadth of gifts that abound all around us. Try it on, and see what really there is when you take the time and invest in yourself. The dividends might just be that you can finally, at ease, be yourself, often.

                  --- Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure   August 2012

Guided into the Light out of Solitary Confinement

Greetings my gentle readers to this weeks’ “Be Yourself, Often” blog. Yes, that quiet reflective time that we all need and value within the chaos of the week and day, existing within that busy walled city that we tend to call society. Full and fraught with challenges and demands and expectations and where at the end of the day, there runs the risk of being very little you in there.

The past 2 weeks and in my new weekly radio show “Prescribing Spiritual H.O.P.E.” on every Tuesday at 9pm Eastern Time URL: http://www.spreaker.com/show/tuesday_prescribing_spiritual_hope ,

I have talked about barriers and the identification, awareness and impact of what these mean to you. You really are a walled city within a walled city that can withstand almost any attack that you have been told might happen, by selling you the soul of FEAR, but is that really what there is on the other side of that wall? Are you going to end up on Channel 5 news as a statistic on a government chart and have been attacked by some unknown machete-wielding cannibal wearing a panda suit? Omg…lets get the locks, put 2 batteries in the Taser and screw the stun setting! Lovely purple paranoid people eaters unite.

Interestingly, we can (and often do without calling it such) fear ourselves and hurt inside so bad and that can dampen the Light that we emanate so much easily that the external forces.

In regards to that internal strife, Coldplay recently reminded me of an excellent set of lyrics from the song “Fix You”.

“When you try your best, but you don't succeed

When you get what you want, but not what you need

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can't replace

When you love someone, but it goes to waste

Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below

When you're too in love to let it go

But if you never try you'll never know

Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down on your face

When you lose something you cannot replace

Tears stream down on your face

And I...

Tears stream down on your face

I promise you I will learn from my mistakes

Tears stream down on your face

And I...

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you"                                        K.Batchelor/Coldplay

The point is, bad stuff does happen and happens to good people. We ourselves can be the architect of our OWN walls and even if there isn’t that “prison” around us, we still place ourselves in solitary confinement. Bad stuff happens more often than winning the lottery for sure, but will and do you let it control your life? Does the societal dictates themselves and selling of media actually confine you?

Awareness is key here as there is no right answer for any particular person or family. We live on a world that is robust with miracles and sin, all in one homogenized package. Cant separate the fat from the milk. Again, as we discussed last week, this is the awareness, valuation and what does it mean to me piece. How stifling are the wall and rules and dictates and challenges on us and what are we prepared to do about it?

We are and cannot be expected to do anything more initially than be aware of ourselves. What we do, say, feel and think and how they translate through to others. That is the first and most critical step to tunneling under the wall and approaching the real Light that burns brightly within us. That light is the true spiritual essence of who and what and why we are. It is peace and the light feels like a mothers embrace.

That Light is the true core of the humanities and miracles that define who we are and reflects a state of being, and that is being at peace and at ease. It is in touch with all and being at ease with all. It just is, and it is Good.

I don’t believe we can touch that spiritual light in our walled cities and walled obligations and false idolatry that is rooted in BMW (Biatchy, Meany, Whiny) philosophies. To tunnel under the walls and at the same time within and yet outside of ourselves is to be at ease. At ease prevents and is the opposite of the dis-ease that exists all around us. Perhaps we can use these skills to also take us our of solitary confinement as only we can fix ourselves, with a little help from our Friends. 

Perhaps my friends, these steps may help arrest, decrease or make less critical the disease that inherently afflicts or minds and bodies. That we can live and learn, even in times of challenge. For we can only know ourselves, but to know us is to radiate ease, which inherently will help others, quest their own journey. All because you choose and chose to find and be yourself, often.

                           --- Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure   July 2012

Hurdling the Delusional Barriers

Greetings my gentle readers to this weeks installment of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. Yes, that time when you can just sit back and make the determination and go through the thought process from the week asking the critical question. Did I let my light shine this week or was it damped and did I have to be someone else? Did I live the dream or awaken from a nightmare?

Last week we took a look at the virtue of happiness that remains embedded in uniqueness. That special shine that we all have, but gets tarnished by the crudola of the days and moments that tend to wear us down and make us feel like a pair of old underwear. Yuck. Why do we let that shine get diminished and allow the subtleties of the insignificant to dampen our light?

In the concepts of the Free Will Covenant, we have the opportunity to make choices, even if we think we don’t. Sometimes the constraints that we find are really artificial. That darn wall that is in your way that is 30ft high made out of metal and barbed wire? Here’s a thought… that fence and barrier may only be in your mind, and driven by your goals, expectations, experiences and fears.

Now that’s an odd that isn’t it my friends? That the jail we consider ourselves to be in may actually be a delusion, and without testing the validity of the situation, the delusional wall bears reality. Perception defines Illusion defines Reality. Hmmm. What do these walls look like? Often they are ego driven or anti-self or punitive for something or installed through environment or such that is very real and very scary.

Feel that you need a certain lifestyle, certain expectations and obligations etc. etc. and have all the material trappings? Dress to the nines and have a BMW is the goal? Well then, be prepared to work, focus on money and enjoy the prison walls that will channel you like a lab rat to try to achieve those outcomes. Not smart enough, not enough “ability” to achieve the position or goal you want? That is likely just negative self-talk.

Lets try motivational interviewing on us to help that light shine and remove the barriers. What drives you and what is important to you? Are you doing it? Why or why not? How can the dream be made to happen? Can I be content with the here and now and maybe leverage to a middle ground?

The opportunities are endless and next week will talk about the Light more. But for now, to focus on the questions and identification of the actualities and barriers vs delusions will set the stage well. The goal? To be yourself, often.

                           --- Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure   July 2012