Ramblings on a Tuesday eve

I am interested in learning. It stimulates my senses to the point of resisting sleep and stagnation. You could say that is tied to some hormonal response in my brain, effecting my physical body with energy and activity. Question: What is it about a chance for thinking and learning that affects a person in said way?

The simple gesture of asking a question is curiosity at play. We see and interact in the physical world but often become lost. When those physical senses fail to detect what perplexes us, we turn to our minds; the think-tanks of our lives; but, should we be turning to our hearts as well? To understand what both spaces are telling, we must seek to be open, to love.

I cannot speak for others because this is my interpretation, my lens, on how I see myself and my interaction with the world around me. When I enter thinking space, it is like a departure from the here and now. I miss the opportunities for things in front of me that represent love. Love is encompassing of our lives, ever-present in many ways, to the point that we take it for granted. Question: Why is something so simple a schism between our heads and its true source, our hearts?

* * * * *

To pinpoint the indicator in time when I discovered and committed to love is exactly difficult. Partly because sometimes it found me and, exactly difficult in that I can see and feel the people that gave such. To acknowledge exactly when it has happened over the course of my lifetime is a lengthy testament to memories gone by; lost. Some of those people have given me their light, and given it freely in many different forms beyond just physically and mentally. I cannot know for whom I owe what. However, for me to repay the deed, the chance that someone else took on me, I must be open to share my light and love with others - continually throughout my time here in this plane.

So often we are presented with opportunities to love, to help another, but our own self gets in the way. We often put ourselves 1st. With too many people in the me first mode, we forgo the opportunities to help others. But, what can be said about the times when we help another and they are genuinely affected by it? This was the point that we were waiting to effect. If we were to realize that we are capable of much more than what we give ourselves credit for, we would of and could have overcame the issues of our me first society already.

Question: What is the last item of clothing you bought? Was it used or new? Honest answers may sting the skin that these items cloth but, that is the process of learning. A sting to me reminds me that I'm alive and that I have choices to make. Some of those aren't necessarily based on what my first, me first, choice would be. So, besides offering low-earning families affordable clothing options and college students fun costumes and outfits, what will happen to all those clothes that remain in thrift stores unpurchased and unloved? Will they eventually make it back into the system at large? To their original elements?

My guess is that the simple short-term answer is "no." Over thousands, perhaps millions of years, the earth will eventually reclaim what it has lost to us, and reform a new space to be occupied by someone not us; not humans. This sounds quite possibly "out there," but staying in the here and now limits us to seeing and fathoming the options ahead. By speaking in the long-term about us in the short-term, we realize that we, too, are an endangered species. We may never be on the list because we haven't learned to look past ourselves yet. Kid yourselves not though, we will be if more change and love doesn't come to occupy our lives in some way.

We can make this change. Start by simplifying. Take something that is complex, like your daily routine, and simplify it. Find how to bring back love into the solution. Seek one, permanent change to be made, and commit to it. Hopefully it will be for the benefit of another as much as it is for yourself. Seek always to elevate others along with yourself. Love more than you would want to be loved. These are things...

...we are capable of.

Ask of yourself more openness, for the benefit of others.

In Love and Thanks.

A Call To Caring!

(*If you are easily offended, please chew on your thoughts and read through to the bottom. We need all of your help so grin and grow as we all learn.*)

The cars obey the commands of their masters as they travel the road home from work. Their windows are up and the air conditioning is on full-blast. They are not the problem here.

Boy, this 80 degree weather sure seems hot. Didn't 80 degrees seem cooler a few years ago? Ahead on the same side of the road a man is walking wearing funny colored shorts and a straw hat. He looks disjointed from the world around him. I wonder what his thoughts are of...

Look at this trash. Every piece I walk by adds circumstantial evidence to the growing pile. We humans are pretty much doomed; aka fucked. Sure, oil will one day be a commodity of the past - a tribute to a world of privileged people, leaning towards their self-focused center - but maybe it won't be the only tribute we imprint...

The small things, often literally, we pass-by now will come around again to condemn us to our doom.

Many would laugh at the notion that negating trash along our public highways and by-ways will be our society's undoing, but what messages are we sending by leaving it where it lays? If it is a struggle to pick up a simple item such as a gum wrapper or a fast food restaurant cup off the sidewalk or road, then how can individuals of this privileged, first-world society be expected "to come together" to fix the shit they let go awry? It is a bold yet negative question, but it is being asked aloud; in print; in front of your eyes as you read this.

Such a small, simple item...such a large, complex impact. Think about it; as you do, more trash continues to fall discarded. Will you care...?

Even the simple message of a single item of trash, to me, communicates an inability to comprehend the large impact that this habit of 'just throw it away' has on the place we call home: Mother Earth.

Puzzle me this: if we throw away an organic (definition: characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from a living organism) item, where does it go?

The most generally accepted answer would be the landfill.

Now, what are landfills designed to do?

Contain the "trash" regardless of it's derivative nature (inorganic or organic).

So, if our organic materials are contained within these landfills, how do you suppose they will reintegrate back into the environment, the life cycle at large?

Hmm, what a question this man poses. Perhaps the commanders of these cars, these beasts of the road running on a decaying element are unaware of this observation as they go about their short drive home. Home to what? A place of residence made originally, in its most basic form, from organic materials. BEEP BEEP BEEP. Time to wake up folks; no snooze button on this alarm clock.

OK, time-out with the soapbox. Are you turned off by my words? I apologize if you are but perhaps it is because you actually do care. Permit me to be truthful, I do use a gasoline car and throw trash out too, just like you. I am still human and not some ranting robot. Though, how often I do such is what I choose to scrutinize and question in my life.

How can I reduce my impact; how can I choose to better accommodate my lifestyle to fit in with the big picture? To be in more one-ness with a) those around me, and most importantly b) the orb blob we call HOME. We only get one chance at this and the fractures are forming.

Suffice to say, I am quite bothered by the goings-on. I am angry, disappointed, disbelieving, negative, and hopeless about our future. I could cry. There needs to come about a wake-up call. The borrowed time we are skimming by on is indicating a call to caring!

We need to shift outside of ourselves. You really don't matter as much that you should come first. I am sorry. Seek a manner to change your perspective - if that is difficult, then walk in another's shoes for a comprehend-able moment. You might be surprised to discover the things outside of the me first mentality.

The borrowed time is looming closer to the tipping point. We must change.

It can't be just a few people who care and love; we need the large majority. Only with that can we begin to shift, to grow, to love, and to care!! It's possible, but the way things are going currently, unlikely. The negative thoughts in me, evidenced by what I see day-to-day, says enjoy what semblance of normality you have now. We always seem to tune-out into our selfish worlds with little notice or mind for the problems at our feet anyways.

Do yourself and others a favor though, look in the mirror, hold your stare and tell yourself that you don't care. Then take a moment of thought and commit to something necessary and outside of your one-self focus. The cliche says: The day is now, not tomorrow or next week. Once this is done, you, or someone you love, will be glad you did.

Thank you.