VICTORY!

You don't have to be the best.

You only have to be yourself.

You only have to be real.
And speak from the heart.
And know that you have the right
to see how you see,
and think how you think,
and feel what you feel,
and desire what you desire.

You don't have to be a success
in the eyes of the world
and you don't have to be an expert.

You only have to offer what you offer,
breathe how you breathe,
make mistakes and fuck up and
learn to love your stumbling and
say the wrong thing and stop
worrying so much about
impressing anyone,
because in the end you
only have to live with yourself,
and joy is not given but found
in the deepest recesses of your being,
so there can be joy in falling
and joy in making mistakes
and joy in making a fool of yourself
and joy in forgetting the joy
and then holding yourself as you crumble
to the ground and weep out
the old dreams.

Joy is closeness
with the one you love:
You.

You don't have to be the best.
You don't have to win.

You only have to remember
this intimacy with
the sky, the nearness of the
mountains and feel the warmth
of the sun on your face
and know that you are alive,
and that you are a success,
and victorious,
without having to prove
a damn
thing.

jf/ps/smoh

“You are precisely as big as what you love and precisely as small as what you allow to annoy you.”

“The most thoroughly and relentlessly damned, banned, excluded, condemned, forbidden, ostracized, ignored, suppressed, repressed, robbed, brutalized and defamed of all 'Damned Things' is the individual human being.

The social engineers, statisticians, psychologists, sociologists, market researchers, landlords, bureaucrats, captains of industry, bankers, governors, commissars, kings and presidents are perpetually forcing this 'Damned Thing' into carefully prepared blueprints and perpetually irritated that the 'Damned Thing' will not fit into the slot assigned it.

The theologians call it a sinner and try to reform it.

The governor calls it a criminal and tries to punish it.

The psychologist calls it a neurotic and tries to cure it.

Still, the 'Damned Thing' will not fit into their slots.”

Human beings live in their myths. They only endure their realities.

We're trapped in linguistic constructs... all that is is a metaphor.

When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented.

We tend to think they are mad, or that they are crooks trying to con us in some way, or that they are hoaxers playing a joke.

Yet it is neurologically obvious that no two brains have the same genetically-programmed hard wiring, the same imprints, the same conditioning, the same learning experiences.

We are all living in separate realities.

That is why communication fails so often, and misunderstandings and resentments are so common.

I say "meow" and you say "Bow-wow," and each of us is convinced the other is a bit dumb

Only the madman is absolutely sure.

The future is up for grabs.

It belongs to any and all who will take the risk and accept the responsibility of consciously creating the future they want.

Work hard to achieve what you need to but remember NEVER become a conformist or sell your soul in return.

Intelligence is the capacity to receive, decode and transmit information efficiently.

Stupidity is blockage of this process at any point.

Bigotry, ideologies etc. block the ability to receive; robotic reality-tunnels block the ability to decode or integrate new signals; censorship blocks transmission.

Human society as a whole is a vast brainwashing machine whose semantic rules and sex roles create a social robot.

Reality is what you can get away with.

As Oscar Wilde truly said, "Disobedience was man’s Original Virtue.”

Every fact of science was once damned.

Every invention was considered impossible.

Every discovery was a nervous shock to some orthodoxy.

Every artistic innovation was denounced as fraud and folly.

The entire web of culture and ‘progress,’ everything on earth that is man-made and not given to us by nature, is the concrete manifestation of some man’s refusal to bow to Authority.

We would own no more, know no more, and be no more than the first apelike hominids if it were not for the rebellious, the recalcitrant, and the intransigent.

The normal is that which nobody quite is.

If you listen to seemingly dull people very closely, you'll see that they're all mad in different and interesting ways, and are merely struggling to hide it.

"Is", "is." "is"—the idiocy of the word haunts me.

If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense.

I don't know what anything "is";

I only know how it seems to me at this moment." - Robert Anton Wilson

peace love and light

ps/smoh

Critical Thinking....

I don't believe in it doesn't necessarily mean it's not true. More so, my truth may, in fact, be unreal.
But my conviction is firm!
I don't let that bother me because I don't have the need to have them agree. I am content that they believe differently from me.
My senses are fallible and subject to deception making me a product of my environment in a cubicle designed by my perception.
Only, my cubicle might just be bigger than yours.

I love the use of the word Reconstructing. Too many times critical thinkers only Deconstruct but they miss the point of critical thinking altogether, to improve the overall construct of meaning, understanding and reason.

The Foundation for Critical Thinking has opened my mind about thinking skills in general and my own in particular.

I studied critical thinking and it was disconcerting to see many critical thinkers only deconstructing. If that is all a person does and never reconstructs, a person is left with virtually nothing. The act of reconstructing meaning from reason and logic is what makes us profound, unique, and amazing.

I use my limited critical thinking skills as a good mental message that tends to soothe my own existential angst.

The problem is to too many people confuse critical thinking with cynicism... that and thinking it must be 'right' because you thought it through.

ps/smoh

peace light and love

Every minute someone leaves this world behind.
Age has nothing to do with it.
We are all in this the line without realizing it.
We never know how many people are before us. We can not move to the back of the line.
We can not step out of the line.
We can not avoid the line.

So while we wait in line -

Make moments count.
Make a difference.
Make the call.
Make priorities.
Make the time.
Make your gifts known.
Make a nobody feel like a somebody.
Make your voice heard.
Make the small things big.
Make someone smile.
Make the change.
Make yourself a priority.
Make love.
Makeup.
Make peace.
Make sure to tell your people they are loved.
Make waves.
Make sure to have no regrets.
•
•
•
This world will often leave you wishing you had just 5 more minutes. This powerful reminder on perspective and wake up to each day realizing it is a gift and to make the most of it!

love light and peace

ps/smoh

There is certainly plenty of light from my heart to go around and it's done every day

As I look at the world, I see so much light that can be shared. When I have a little extra, I make a point of sending it to someone who needs it. 
Surely there is enough for all of us...

Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.
Each separate being in the Universe 

Returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.

~ Lao Tzu

love light and peace

ps/smoh

Freedom is on the other side of overcoming the fear of shame.....

Taking on an unconventional path has never been easy; with being told many times it’s not a ‘secure’ path. However, staying persistent in my purpose, building the courage to face the struggles is exactly what has shaped me into everything I have become. 

Sometimes we need to get out of our way to make room to allow all possibilities and opportunities. Understanding our own mental blocks is the way forward, inside out. 

Choosing the road less travelled always has several challenges. Being women plus coming from a minority background has different layers of challenges and obstacles thrown our way. Sometimes, it’s the very people we expect to support us that end up becoming hurdles we need to overcome.

"Feel through the resistance" being the most important of all.

It can be so helpful to express our unsaid words, anger and grief to those who have hurt us. There is no good reason to carry someone else's baggage up the mountain. It weighs us down on a journey that is already challenging enough. 

Better to shed it so that we can move into life with greater freedom. At the same time, we have to be sure not to make our healing dependent on how others receive our expression. Many of those we share with will be too unconscious, stubborn or defensive to take in our experience, even if we express it in the gentlest of ways. 

It may be too shocking to their ways of organizing reality. It may be too painful to face. Not everyone is ready or able to do the deep work those self-reflection demands. This is not to say that we hold back- we must express our truth one way or the other- but it is to say that we are best served by sharing it without expectation. 

The liberation lies in the expression itself.

The healing process has a heart of its own, moving at its own delicate pace. Our survival adaptations may be tough, but our wounds are so delicate. 

Emotional armour is not easy to shed, nor should it be. It has formed for a reason: as a requirement for certain responsibilities, as a conditioned response to real circumstances, as a defence against unbearable feelings. It has served an essential purpose. 

To heal, we have to lift the armour carefully- it saved our lives, after all. You don’t trample on it; you don’t hit it with a sledgehammer. You honour its presence like a warm blanket that has kept you safe during wintry times. 

Never rush it, never push up against it, and never demand it to drop its guard before its time. Because it knows something you don’t. In a still frightening world, armour is no less valid than vulnerability. Let it shed at its own unique pace...

I have found that emotional armouring stays in place, sometimes beyond its 'sell by' date for another reason in addition to those mentioned so eloquently. We are deriving something of value from that armour and understanding that is part of the healing process to become ready to drop the shields. There's an emotional food too, for example, self-pity. 

It allows us to always be right about how hurt/damaged we are or to never have to find out how powerful/creative/strong/wonderful we are so we carry around the 'burden of a great potential' without ever having to deliver on that early promise. 

The emotional armour doesn't just cloak us and protect us in silence, its whispering sweet nothings in our ear as well. 

If we don't recognize that, we will have a 'false grief' over the loss of those whisperings when we drop the armour and be all too ready to pick it back up again. 

And I consider that to be part of our survival mechanism. We're habitual creatures who need certainty after all, no matter how uncomfortable it is. 

ps/smoh

love light and peace

Train of life

To mutually disagree and then discuss different perspectives in a civilized way is an art only a few develop. I say art as it's not an inborn talent. Maturity and lifelong learning are traits earned consciously.

What I wrote here is how I felt not directed to anybody so if you feel that I am writing about you PLEASE just think for a moment I DON'T even know you!

Love light and peace

ps/smoh