Cut copy and paste

Cut Copy Paste

These days with the advent of smart features on the key board and touch screen we can simply" cut, copy, and paste" This unfortunately recently happened to a dear friend and author. She is internationally renowned and well respected in her field. She put up a poem that was written with deep heart felt space from her soul. Beautiful words inked out into the digital print for all to read. Well someone just "cut, copy, pasted" it to their own website and let it out for all that person's viewers to read. No acknowledgement of origins, no recognition of the author. Simply cut, copy and paste. I see this all too often as literally it is as easy as that. The maneuver is so easy that  it can be  done with a thumb on the smart phone !! How do I know this ? I have done it. And odds are you have done it too. Unconsciously click.. cut..copy..  paste or  even the cut..copy.... print. Well the wheels of the mind got turning as usually only odd situations do. 

I find my self so easily cutting.. copying and then pasting ideas into my subconscious and then adopting them as truth . Discussions about politics or religion or loose gossip   expediently transform into "real" facts and I will then share them later in idle conversations. No filtering of fact or fiction. Out they come. The scary part is that they are believed by others who I speak to without question, for the most part. Which then triggers in me the desperate need to clarify and make sure that I am always speaking my truth. 

If it is that easy to cut.. copy and paste useless falsehoods into my brain, then surely it should be that easy to supplant them with better ideologies and truths. Unfortunately my ego sometimes is too strong and it immediately replaces fonder memories with insignificant confusing minutia that bears no relevance on my day to day  existence. I am eagerly trying to break out of bad habit patterns and replacing them with more efficient patterns of consideration, love and compassion. Well, Work in  progress. Still trying to avoid the "cut copy and paste" function before I have to do the "Cntrl Alt Del" function !! 

Cut Copy Paste.....Do you know what you are cutting, copying and pasting??

Life is like a multiple choice test

Life is like a multiple choice test.

I have been told that when doing a multiple choice test  (MCQ) test that the answer is always B. The other day I was told by someone that the answer is always C. Yet another proclaimed " no way the answer is always A." Alright then, now I am very confused. If the answer is always one particular alphabet then do I just pick that answer and fill it in throughout the entire answer column? Is that not more hoping that I will be randomly lucky to get a few answers right with that one chosen alphabet versus potentially getting a lot of the questions wrong by focussing only on one answer. Is the choice of the alphabet specific to the person doing the test? Does this even work? Or perhaps the MCQ test answers are just a random array of choices. Well your guess is as good as mine. Get it? Guessing answers !! <silent chuckle>

Yet if this last statement is true and that anyone's guess is as good as anyone else's choice , then we all have an equal chance of getting the question correct. However I have  often thought that there are more than one correct answer for any given question. After all does it not depend on the perspective of the individual. Different points of view is what makes the world a more diverse place. It is our desire to live in a shade of beige believing that there is only one answer to everything that  stems from the fact that most people would rather be told what to do, what to think, and what the answer is. No effort is simple. Secretly deep down we ALL crave the freedom of choice, yet few truly believe that it is possible. Old memories, old programming, old fears. Overwritten, our inner hidden treasure of choice remains elusive. And so we pick the choice that has been handed to us and call it fate or destiny or we simply shrug our overburdened shoulders and call it "life." 

It takes a lot of effort to dig deep and embrace those fears and let them go. Even more effort to acknowledge that those fears were ever there and are real. Been there since birth, childhood, adolescence, adult hood till now.   Gnawing, festering, and decomposing our thoughts, these fears shackle us down and prevent us from making our own true independent choice for ourselves. Instead we choose, I choose from the choices given to me and I pick. Invariably wrongly. A or B or C or D. Yet what if the answer is F. It may not be on the pre manufactured answer column yet the answer may not be what is given. F for free, F for freedom, F for fabulous, F for First. It takes the ultimate effort to not only acknowledge the fears, dig them up, embrace them, but to let them go. How do I know this ? I have done it. 

Life is about choices.

 Life is about making the wrong choices and then figuring out the right ones. 

Life is about sticking to the choices that you make with conviction. 

Life is about making choices from a place of love and compassion. 

Life is about making choices from the heart space.

 Life is about making choices and surrendering them to the universe. 

Life is about the universe helping me and you make the correct choices. 

Life is about making multiple choices. But not for a test but for fun. 

Agree or disagree? Your choice :)

I Love You for your choices. 

Living with inertia

Living with inertia

I have lived with inertia for a long time. It is my friend. We are so close that we don't have to even say anything to each other and yet we understand each other so well. It has been with me through out all my major life's decisions. Prompting me not to move. Holding me back to stay where I am. Caught in the rift between 'do" or "do not" I exist. The one thing that has always propelled me forward as been an unexplainable driving force to explore, to be free, to become better. The one thing that has inexorably held me back has been the fear that I may fail, fear that I will not reach that what I so desire the most, the fear that I will fall short in the eyes or expectations of others. So my friend of inertia waits with me patiently and allows me safe passage to my comfort zone of do nothing. The world watches for me to make my next move with baited breath. Then the timed second rolls by and so does the world. 

I stand at the edge of a cliff looking down and out and across. I take stock of my surroundings.

 My heart says" take the plunge." 

My mind says" you are going to hurt yourself as you fall." 

My spirit says "get ready to fly." 

My body says we will stand by inertia where it is safe. 

Wrapped up in my comfort zone I long to leap, yet I am trapped by my own fears. It is not a case of 'should I jump'. It is a case of if 'I do jump,will I be able to able to fly and be alright'. We all stare at our own precipice  and desire to change.  This is the edge of the cliff of which I speak. A turning point, a milestone for growth or advancement. A crossroads of decision that must be firmly committed to. Left, right, straight on. Or Inertia. We all want to jump off since that is why and how we got therein the first place. The fear that clouds the judgement is the fear that I can actually fly, but I do not believe in  myself long enough to sustain flight. Ironically it is this same edge and the desire to learn from its tall height lessons that keep us coming back or remaining AT the edge in the first place.

I have spent a lot of time at crossroads and at the edges of these figurative cliffs. Sometimes I have learned to skillfully climb down the precipice with caution  and  sometimes turned away. Most of the time I say within my state of inertia. Well that changes from now. The bubble breaks with my conscious decision to leap. The safe blanket of inertia is thrown off as my subconscious agrees and my heart and spirit unite to reinforce my wings.

I close my eyes. I feel my heart race and then slow down. I take a deep breath in filled with love. I hold that breath with divine mandate. I exhale it out with deep faith and I leap. I do not fall. I fly. 

Surprised? I am not. I was born to fly. So were you. Come join me. Flying together is so much more fun. Just let go of the inertia. I got you :)

I Love You.

Softening a world

Softening a World

I was having a conversation the other day with a friend who brought to my attention the numerous fears that she had about protecting her children from the world we live in today. The discussion ensued as we volleyed the ideas that we had to toughen up our children to face the cruel,cold and unbending world that we live in. Sure, our world is tough. Her fears are totally justified. The prior generation messed it up. Our current generation ( my generation of 40 somethings) plundered it with promises of lives of ease and luxury only to be handed a world of fast pace, never ending tasks and hopeful goals that are sometimes slightly beyond our hand held out reach. The future generation is going to inherit a waste land of broken dreams, foretold nightmares and doomsday like commitments. Or are they?

The thought that our children need to prepare for what  lies ahead is a valid one. Most of my generation has been under the same guise and idea that we all live in a tough harsh planet and in order to survive we have to have even tougher skin. Yet I would propose that most of these thoughts come from fears from our parents. They and their parents went through numerous world wars, depressed economies, baby booming periods and various global shifts in culture, tolerance and prejudice. Economies boomed, dictators came tumbling down only to rise again, with massive environmental changes. All bad? NO. Certainly not. Change is bound to happen. Energy is transformed. Cyclical economies, mindsets and paradigms all keep us going, much like the moon's cyclical influence on our tides and our moods.

 Emotional and generational inheritance of fears have unconsciously metamorphosed into realities. Worries that "you won't get a job if you don't go to college" still translate into true unemployment. Concerns that "you must stay away from different people as they might not be friendly" translates into isolation and ignorance. The list is endless, as is the list of human fears and excuses. We are able to metabolize our thoughts into time space realities. We breed a generation of lost, confused, unmotivated beings who will struggle to survive instead of living on purpose transformative conscious lives. 

I have a lot of faith in this new generation. They have the total  unadulterated strength to transform our world for the better. I am not thinking that we have to harden them against the world, in fact just the contrary, I think that we have to soften the world to handle them. These little tigers are being born with amazing gifts. Abilities of empathy. Abilities of connection. Abilities of love. Abilities that have been suppressed in us currently for the most part  by our riddled pasts. Our generational parenting has led us down the path of tried and true destruction with our own unbalanced and irrational fears of the unknown. 

Their gifts and talents will be able to enhance, better and reshape our planet so quickly that we may one day call this magic. Ridiculous ramblings of a delusional and dissolutioned hopeful? No, not really. More like predictions of a seer into the hearts and minds of a generation with more power than this earth has ever remembered. 

 If we can only break them free of the brain washing  of social media, television, and commercialization of every entertainer and movie sensation, we may be able to breathe life into our dreams for them. With every child glued to a digital module and plugged in with headphones and reward points for every stimulation that they experience we are certainly doomed. With every child that  looks up from the easily accessed electronic device, sees someone and connects to them without fear, our odds of prolonging our humanity goes up. With each sparkle of fearless steps forward, our children improve the chances of preserving a civilization. With each unconditional interaction a child has in a world with self imposed media directed  limitations, we have a glimmer of the limitless possibilities coming true. 

Do I fear for how my kids are going to handle  the world?   NO !

 I fear for how the world is going to handle them when I unleash them into it.

Click now, click later, just click it

Click now, click later, just click it

Did you know that there is a meteor heading towards us to imminently destroy us? 

Did you know that the ice age is almost here?

There is so much of newsfeed that comes across our eyes with such great rapidity that one does not have the time to delve in to the details. With  one  "click"  I can buy anything I want from my mobile device while walking down a  street and it is expedited and delivered to my doorstep with the wings of an eagle and arrives in the morning. With  one "click" I can message anyone on the planet instantly. With one "click" I can satisfy my curiosity about any topic, find out about anyone, or find anything my heart desires ( followed by another click that can purchase it !) .  With one "click" I can find out where I am on the planet. The possibilities of the smart one click system are limitless and are incorportated into my  daily life so seaminglessly that I am pretty much caught unaware of my actions till I am done.  

 Moreover with simply a click I can open up any possible random news feed that is glossed over my eyes. Well that is nothing new. That was one of the advantages of the world wide web, the indispensible mother of all connections,  the glorious internet, with its magnificent all powerful  guardians, the dreaded Search engines. One cannot pass the haloed gates into the digital universe without succumbing to the auscpicious "search box." Once my offering of curiosity has been made as I feverishly type away my impulsive question, the gates open to a flood of knowledge that has no checks and balances. No regulatory oversight for accuracy. In return these sneaky search engines grant my  wish instantly, only to rape me  of my identity, my location and my very hidden deepest secret desires such as my shopping habits, my preferences, pretty much tracking wherever MY  eyes go. They unapologetically  sell all this information  to the highest bidders who then will bombard me  with what "they" believe I should be buying, reading, or thinking about. Negative   perspectives? NO, simply accurate observations. On a lighter note the advantages however are exponential. Connection, understanding,and  knowledge shared with the  speed and agility of thought. Yet there is a price. 

The faster I read articles online, or links I am told that I will enjoy, I start to skim through them. Click click click..... I read, I click on to the next article, because let me just be very honest, I don't really have the time to spend learning about everything in my day. To paraphrase " Ain't nobody got time for that." And so the skimming turns to surfing and the articles are blended into a band of flashing white light as I click and read, click and read. However I start believing the articles without the chance for my brain to process the information and henceforth I imprint this knowledge into my DNA as a truth. Ah.... There in lies the rub. I will now believe anything, trust anything I read as I do not have the time for quality control or validiation or verification. 

By slowing down my pace I discover that I can infact do just the opposite. Click, read, perhaps reread, process, digest,  understand and act accordingly. I can now process deeper, though slower and definitely not ALL that the internet has to offer, yet more meaningful use of my time and efforts. Connection at a deeper level is more than the superficial expediency through that which I live my life. Just as an adjunct, the meteor is coming but not for millions of years. And neither is the ice age ! Yet I have read plenty of articles that snagged me in by my subconscious fears of my own mortality, only to pollute my already quite cluttered screen view  now with the locations of websites where I might purchase an expensive coat, other books that I "should" read, or places I am financially unable to visit.  

With one click I can turn it all off and live my life. Lesson to be remembered. Hardest thing I have ever done though......Unplug

My search for imperfection

My Search for Imperfection.

Searching for imperfection? Has he gone mad ! Are we not all looking for perfection? Do we not hear perfection in the sounds of a well played musical piece by a practiced orchestra? Do we not see a perfect rainbow in nature and appreciate its supernatural perfection? Do we not taste a delicious mouth watering spice simmering delicacy at our favorite restaurant? Do we not touch exquisite finely imported Egyptian cotton and praise its perfection? And do we not most certainly smell the heavenly scents of a jasmine flower and proclaim " Ah this is perfection?"

NO !  None of these above examples are perfect. My senses are imperfect. My ears are full of wax, my eyes carry the burden of spectacles, my taste buds have been burnt with hot coffee, my once finely sense of touch has been worn by age and calluses on the finger tips, and my keen smell sense has become dulled and  obstructed with pollution and allergies. How can I possibly hope to attain perfection when I am limited with my highly underdeveloped 5 senses. So I hope to attain and be satisfied with one step less than perfection. Or perhaps a few more notches down, known as a state of imperfection. 

It is only the "feeling" behind my perception of perfection that I exercise that gives me the satisfaction of perfection attainment. So why am I bursting the balloon of the spirit of perfection?   I am not. I am inflating the ball that will one day be kicked so high up that it may in fact reach perfection itself. It is only when things are imperfect that I can appreciate the imperfection at the most subtle level and appreciate the feeling of perfection. I usually feel this way when it is something that I cannot achieve. I am searching for perfection inherently, yet what I am actually achieving is imperfection. The imperfection of the not perfectly crafted instrument, the imperfection in the grain  lines of the canvas or the brush strokes of the artist, the imperfect quantification of spice proportion in my meal, the imperfection due to the inadequate and uneven thread count of my quilted sheets, or the cross contaminated smells in the air as I sniff my jasmine flower.

 Sound, Sight,Taste, Touch, Smell. Imperfect in my imperfect  physical aging body. Yet my ego self seeks the perfection of my higher Self that is always perfect as it is not of this realm and in doing so sees the imperfection and wishes to make it perfect. That my friend is the nature of imperfection. Seeking more than one is. Seeking and searching and finding that which I am through imperfection  as a stepping stone to perfection. So I take myself off the mantle. I rest with the acceptance and knowledge of who I am. A totally imperfect being, with imperfect thoughts, words and actions. Phew ! and the pressure is off. No expectations for myself or for any body. 

I find my imperfections to be perfect. I find my "perfections" to be imperfect. Two sides of the same coin. I don't know. My suggestion to myself that has worked pretty well till now, " aim for the stars, you may not get them but you won't be left with handful of dirt either" 

So how imperfect are you? I love you exactly the way you are, you are perfect :)

What's under your hood?

What's under the hood?

My car looks good. It seems to drive well and functions well for the most part. I took it to the mechanic for a simple routine "servicing". Well needless to say that 12 days later when I got it back, accompanied by a terrifically steep bill I was surprised to learn of all the things that had to be checked, changed, and replaced. To my naked eye looking at the engine under the hood everything seemed to look just fine. I was wrong.

I have plenty of patients who look like as if they are healthy on the outside without any medical issues. Unfortunately when I take them for an invasive cardiac procedure I discover all sorts of high grade obstructions in their blood vessels. One patient could usually ride close to  100 miles on his bike, and came to see me as he could now only do 75 miles. He looked very fit and healthy on the outer surface. I was thinking "hmm that's 74 miles more than I can do !!" Well a quick blood vessel mapping out revealed pretty much total occlusions of his coronary anatomy, and off to bypass surgery he went. 

On social media I see all the wonderful things that celebrities experience and   do. Ah yes the wealth, the fame, the glory and I get thinking "I am sure that their lives are all just perfect." That thought process would be severely flawed. 

I have no idea what another individual is experiencing so I have no right to judge. I do not know whether someone who just looks happy on the outside, may actually have all sorts of troubles at home, or work or with their families or finances.  What may look stable on the cover may not be the case under the hood. Until I have walked in another person's shoes I really cannot say whether that person has a better life than me or not. Moreover it is not even a case of a better or  worse life since everyone is just in a state of "experiencing." It is the experience itself that I am in fact craving and searching for. When that experience goes well, I believe I have had a "good experience" When it does not, I believe that it was a bad experience and I look outside of myself unto others' experiences for comparison. 

This is human nature. Limited, experiential. Compared and judged, I grow from these experiences.Unlimited, and  non-judgmental and accepting unconditionally is divine nature. There is a fine line that exists between the two natures. Seeing a person and rendering judgement about their lives is a kin to looking at a book and thinking you know its contents. There is so much more on each page and each chapter that is written from beginning to end and everything in between that bears witness to a person's life, yet in the end it is their life and not mine. I can never live in another persons shoes. Why? It is too much. I can barely muster enough time and effort to facilitate my own litany of experiences. I try not to judge others, yet that is where is the fine line gets crossed back and forth. 

What's under your hood? I don't care. I love you for exactly who you are. That's all.