GRAVITY

Gravity!

2 objects coming towards each other. So?  In what way should anybody get excited about attraction. Well said but let me say that without gravity, not only would things not come together, but neither would they come apart. I should say here that this really is about Alzheimer's. It just might take me a little time getting there, so please be patient with me.

Thoughts attract thought. Eager, life affirming thought will attract more Eager, life affirming thoughts. So will thoughts on the unwanted negative side in one's life attract other unwanted negative thoughts. Just like gravity. You see? Do you see what I did there? Putting gravity and thoughts together...pure genius!

There was a program on the telly the other night on gravity, a  long winded tale that told you a lot of stuff about gravity you probably already knew and then concluded that nobody has any idea what it is. Just great!

Alzheimers is a little like that. Huge research, lots of theory, but much of it is still up for grabs. Me, I think it could be like gravity.

I can feel a theory opening up. Yes another one. IS there no end? And so...."Gravity is the physical manifesting of the law of attraction ."

So here is this idea to play around with. To mull over.  Mull. I like "Mull". Anyway Gravity is clearly about things being attracted to each other. No repulsion going on at all. Did you notice that? Perhaps you might have not instantly noticed. It's ok. Really, it is! Gravity can only attract. Interesting, no?

What if Alzheimers is gravitational? What if the process of  attracting many wrong kind of thoughts happens by the action of thinking too many wrong kinds of thoughts in the first place? What about that eh? Speak up, don't be shy!

All thought can do is attract other thought that is like itself. But you must know what I mean. Haven’t you had a run of misery thinking that just kept going and wouldn’t stop? More and more crappy thoughts bubbling up from the depths. And very often, real hard to stop. Just like gravity.

The trick is to start squeezing in some good ones and after a time, they too attract more and more good thoughts. Still as someone who does this pivoting a lot, there would seem to be an almost unending supply of misery laden thoughts that lead to...you guessed it, misery.

But, and here is the thing about Alzheimers gravitational pull, It can be stopped. Think about this. This is the clever bit if you ask me. Ready? Our legs and body have anti gravity muscles. If we didn’t we would be flattened to the floor like a pancake. But guess what? We stand...UP!

We have the innate capacity to stand up  against the pressure forces that our planet places on us, and we have the more powerful capacity to stand up against the gravitational forces of the kind of thoughts that might otherwise lead us into dementia.

Both muscles of the body and the mind keep us upright, strong and firm...when we use them. And when we do, boy we attract more muscle, more thought, more of everything eager and good.

All in all, we can have mindful ageing, a place in the sun where all is good and clean and pure, where our brains and our body are healthy, wealthy and wise. Amen to that brother yare!

Paul

The problem with Forgiveness

The problem with Forgiveness...IS outcome. When you want things to turn out a certain way, and if you are sure that by being gentle, kind and forgiving, you might run the risk of not having things turn out that way, then you will not forgive. And so  while the punishment fits the crime, you are sure that with forgiveness, there will be no punishment. And that you can’t have.

I suppose at least one example is called for, because I don’t think this problem with forgiveness and outcome is easy. So Forgiveness…. Once upon a time, there was a bad, bad person. This was an employer. So bad in fact that cruelty marked her regime. But I wanted to forgive, mainly because all the fear and hate I was having, was eating me up.

But I couldn’t stop and I couldn’t forgive. I knew that the hate was motivating me hugely to quit and move on, and without it, I feared I wouldn’t or couldn’t leave. So I  put up with the job, and just keep hating.

Do you know people like that, Those that endlessly complain about their lot, but seem unwilling or unable to change? Anyway, I took a gamble and worked on forgiving, so I could live in peace again. And do you know what? The motivation to move on, to quit never left me. Got easier to do. I never expected that.

 I some how was able to see my boss as a hopelessly miserable person, and insane. Filled with so many wrong notions about her employees that she had no choice but to think the way she did. That’s a good definition of insanity by the way.

Insanity is when what you know breeds unhappiness, but you interpret the unhappiness as coming from “your employees”, or anything else you suspect to be the blame. Your logic seems impenetrable, solid, and reasonable. I’m sure Hitler was sure his notions were pure and reasonable too.

Lunatic asylums are full of people who know without a shadow of a doubt, that there is nothing wrong with them. Yet their thinking is full of mistakes they can’t see.

And that’s the problem,, neither can we. To see the mistakes in what we know and how we came to the conclusions we did is like having a blind spot, and we therefore need the help of someone else we can trust to point out our mistakes.

Clearly, some of the people we might ask for help are also insane to a degree. So where do we go for guidance? Well, we might ask for an inner guidance. Often times, we can supply our own terrific insights. Usually though, when we are not in the middle of our dilemmas and judgements, and that is often when we are fast asleep.

 Sometimes a dream can yield a solution we would never have considered. And we can use this dream feature to our advantage.

We can write on a slip of paper, asking for some related thoughts, insights and ideas on the matter at hand. Slide this under your pillow and wait till morning.

Sometimes the answers and ideas come flooding in, and sometimes you have to repeat the writing thing for a few days before you get results. In any case this pillow writing thing is good for all sorts of things. Even the various ways you could understand forgiveness is a question you could write, and then wait for the answers. They just pop up in your head.

But back to forgiveness and why it’s so hard to do.  Forgiveness dissolves the very picture of the problem you hold, and the solutions to that problem. So thinking about forgiving takes away the solution you have already decided upon, and leaves the problem irritatingly unsolved.

And if you think about forgiving some more, you might feel better and the hate gone, but the problem as they say, is still there. And that’s the insanity.

The prevalent idea is that to forgive, while it might leave you feeling calm, contented and rested, will also leave you weak and incapable of the motivation to solve anything. A sort of sickly …”I’ll just let it be”.

 Of course this is insane and comes from a mind at war. A mind filled with fear and loathing, that can not think in any other way. And in that mind set, everything we consider at that point seems the only way possible.

In fact with forgiveness comes better solutions. And interestingly, in no way are you locked into doing these solutions, you always feel you have the choice between the old siege mentality solution or from forgiveness’s gift of peace.

And the surprise still is that forgiveness is the great motivator. The changes that occur with forgiveness, are so powerful as to lift tall buildings in a single bound. However be warned, forgiveness’s solutions will not be in any vein like the ones considered during siege mentality. But, they will work!

Paul

The 60’s

Those were the days of social revolution, of beads, beards, long hair, flared pants, dope, and of changing the world. “Make love not war” was our chant”. So what happened? And …is the world improved,  or is the world merely cosmetically changed?

In an episode of Murphy Brown, this very subject was  discussed. And those who were once activists, were surprised that they were now conservative. Where once they were hippies, now they wore suits, had children and mortgages. Some even found that despite voting along left wing politics all their lives, a lot of their ideas had turned direction towards the right. When did it all go so wrong, was their complaint.

Did getting older have anything to do with it. Are older people naturally more conservative. Does responsibility change a person. The questions are endless and frankly they are Diversional and off the mark. This discussion clouds a deeper truth.

Is the fact that you are left or right winged, radical or conservative a sign of whether you are still a vitally important part of the  society?

Does what you think really change anything??

 IF your intention is for the betterment of yourself, your family, and the rest of the world, then no, you didn’t cop out of the social change movement, you are well and truly still in it. It only looks like you may have opted out because perhaps we have a far too rigid idea of what is the RIGHT way to go about making the world a better place, looks like.

Both wings of politics are “right on, man”. Both have declared that their ways will be good for the people.  Certainly at an ideological level, this is true, and every  war waged between both wings is based on the concept that only one idea [our idea] can be good for people.

I don’t know about you, but having been alive long enough to have lived through both the left and the right, I have found that both in different ways, long to be helpful to the people they represent.

This of course is diluted by both parties constantly waging war, to either stay in government or to get in. So the radical and the conservatives fight each other. So what, it’s only a matter of scale anyway. Little different to what you and I do. We have fights and disagreements with friends and colleagues all the time over many of the same things.

We hold to our views like leeches to a bloody leg. We know that we hold the truth and the other person is just plain stubborn and not just a little dumb.  Perhaps this discontent will cause resentments that might never be overcome.

And yet the motive of both is not that each says “ ONLY I HOLD THE TRUTH” , But that both are hinting… I want something better to happen. All we really disagree with then, is the means to our getting there.

So you hippies of yester year  and the counter culturists of today and the more conservative in society. You all want the same thing. Peace, love, security, happiness, satisfaction, security, nurture…shall I go on.

Us, the people of the Earth however we express it, are all attempting to remove the blocks to  “A better way to live”. Be of good cheer then. We stand a good chance of getting there.

Paul