Orbs and stuff...

Last night after watching a video about orbs I decided to take some pictures outside and see what I would get. I have had orbs in my pictures before but never to the extent that I got last night... This is the brightest orb I've ever photographed. The photo was taken looking up at the cloudy sky. You would swear I was taking a photo of the moon, but it's an orb! You can see the colours on each side of the orb are different too. There is some "spirit mist" on the right. That white stuff that looks like fog or something was not there in the previous or subsequent photos.

If you zoom into the "spirit mist" at the bottom of the photograph you can see that it looks like a face. This photo is taken from my front door looking straight into the night sky. You can see the roof line of my house in the top right corner.

This was the second picture I took, and i was blown away by the "spirit mist"!

This one taken on the sidewalk in front of our house - a huge orb!

Here's some more spirit mist, when I took a picture of my friend Rob. Again, in the previous and subsequent pictures that were taken only seconds apart, the shot was clear. It's weird! I have never had this happen to my pictures before, but I've also never just taken dozens of photos one after the otehr looking for this either!

Spiritual peace.

It occurred to me as I was walking around the campus of the George Washington University on our recent trip to DC, that as a species, humans spend a lot of time and energy studying ourselves.

Relating to health, body and mind, there are four and five year courses on physical fitness, medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, dentistry, occupational health, anatomy, biology, immunology, pharmacology, sociology, women's studies and more.

When you look at all of the courses available at the post-secondary level, a striking number are related to the study of ourselves. Why is it then that suicide rates are just as high now as they were in the 1950s? One scary aspect of that is that men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women.

When it comes to depression, more drugs are being prescribed than ever to treat this epidemic and larger volumes of younger people are on anti-depressant medication.

And no-one is surprised that obesity is a huge factor in the health of people in the 21st century. You only have to look at the people walking towards you on the street to see that poor diet and insufficient exercise plague far too great a proportion of the population.

In Canada the obesity rate for children under 18 has tripled (3% to 9%) in the last 30 years and more than doubled for the 25-34 age group and over 75 age group. While Canada's obesity rate is at 24%, it's at 30% in the United States.Officially obesity is calculated as having a BMI (Body Mass Index) over 30. What that means in real terms - An adult male who is 5'10" and weighs 210lbs or an adult woman 5'4" weighing 175lbs are considered obese. The only exception relates to body-builders, who have larger than average muscles.

So with all this study of ourselves, why do we have so many health problems?

Shouldn't we be getting healthier?

Why are they predicting that Generation X'ers will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents?

We study ourselves, but do we even know who we are?

We learn and learn but what do we know?

Theoretically we know so much about how we operate as human beings, but we don't know how to do it. It's one thing to understand intellectually, it's completely another to know and feel something spiritually.

You can read books about golf, but you'll never become a good golfer without swinging a club. Life is about experiencing first hand and learning "on the job". Life is a work in progress.

It seems with all our attention we have lost the focus.

The goal should be pure happiness, spiritual peace, calmness. But it seems our goals are status, achievement, material wealth, knowledge, power and the rest of what Gordon Gekko espouses in the movie 'Wall Street'. Greed is not good if it makes you sad.

Our education system does not encourage learning for the sake of happiness. It encourages learning to "make it in life", to gain employment and to become successful. Unfortunately success is rarely defined as happiness, as serenity.

I never once had a meditation class at school. No one ever told me that I could be happy without everything that money can buys, and in fact that the only things that make you happy are what money can't buy.

Indeed many of the health issues faced by people today are not solely because McDonald's seems to be on every street corner. Free will continues to exist. Obesity, depression, suicide, and other social issues derive themselves from deeper issues related to lack of self-worth and insecurity.

As a race we need to spend less time studying ourselves and more time understanding ourselves, not on an intellectual level, but on a spiritual and holistic level.

We should feel what our body needs. Ask it. Trust that the answer is correct. Know that if we are true to ourselves and trust what our body tells us we need we won't go wrong.

It's only when we choose to believe what someone else thinks about us as the truth, that we run into problems.

What Do You Do?

Not "How do you do?", but "What do you do?" is usually one of the first questions asked of you by an almost-stranger that you meet at a party.

It's an interesting question to ask, really, and completely logical when you think about it. Someone who works full-time spends almost one third of their week either at work or commuting. When you consider that the average person also spends almost a third sleeping, it's around half of the waking time. So it is a fair enough question to ask what someone does with half of their waking time.

But how many people do not identify themselves with their job? I, for one. In fact I know many people who are working in a job that doesn't represent the kind of person they are... it simply pays the bills.

I actually dislike answering that question, because I feel that a short response will give a false impression. For example:

"What do you do for a living?"
"I work in marketing for a car dealership."
"Oh. Can you get a me a good deal on a new car?"
"Well, I don't actually sell cars..." etc.

You see I get caught in a conversation about marketing, cars, the fate of the US domestic manufacturers and the price of gas when I have no interest in any of them!

But what about the question, "What are your interests?"

To that I have a wide selection of answers I could put forward, all of which are interesting to me because they are my interests, and maybe my enthusiasm for it might make you interested in hearing about them.

But that's beside the real point.

What does our job really mean? Whether or not we identify with our job, which many don't, what real difference does it make what we do for a living?

I was reading a parenting magazine today and the article was talking about parents having dreams for their children, and that - (I paraphrase) "...all good parents want their children to be successful. Which parent looks at their one-hour-old infant and wants them to become a telemarketer?"

I'm not a telemarketer and I don't personally know anyone who is, but I thought very little of that last statement. After all, what's wrong with being a telemarketer? It's just as honorable a job as a politician or lawyer or car salesman. There's no difference in quality of person between a telemarketer or garbage collector and a Chief Financial Officer or a Chemical Engineer.

We're all the same, relatively speaking, and we all serve a purpose on this planet. Some people get paid more than others, but that isn't the only measure of value. Someone may be a more valuable employee, but that says little about their value as a friend or partner, parent or role model. Tiger Woods and Tom Cruise are a couple of the best paid individuals on earth, but that doesn't mean their any better a person than I am or you are. They're just richer.

As a society we spend far too much time placing value on things outside of us - what we do for a living, what we own, where we live, what people think of us. These are all superficial, and have no meaning when we're dead.

Would you rather a eulogy that read...

Bill was a great man. He will be remembered for the hours he sweated at the office, and the huge bonuses he took home at the end of the year. As a member of the most exclusive clubs he circulated only with the hob nobs in the city. His taste was impeccable and he bought only the finest money could afford. His collection of old cars and his beautiful home are a testimony to his clever investments and excellent earning capacity.

Or this...

Bill was a great man. He will be remembered for the hours he put in coaching his son's baseball team, and for the funny stories he told at the family camping trips. As a friend he was the best. Always there to lend a helping hand and the first to invite you over for dinner or a beer. His happy wife and beautiful children are a testimony to his tireless effort to always give back more than he took.

Like most parents I have a dream for my children. My dream is that they have many and varied experiences, that they learn about life and cherish their friends, and that they are satisfied and fulfilled in whatever pursuits they choose. I would like my children to appreciate what's real, and have a healthy self-esteem based on respect and knowing that who they are is the most important, not what they do, what they own or what other people think about them.

Think about life and what matters. Think about your own life and what excites you, and which days you don't need the alarm to get up. Those are the days you're really living and that's really what "you do."

So... What do I do?

I paint, I read, I learn, I travel, I coach, and most of all, I'm a Dad, a husband and a good friend.

Getting Out of the Fog

In my blog on entitled The Fog, I talked about how goals in my life had been very difficult to set as I didn't know where I was going and what I should be doing. I remember a sort of confusion that I had, existing every day. Life was pretty good, but there was nothing outstanding. And in fact, although parts of my life were very good, the whole life wasn't satisfying.

I think that to live a happy life, everything needs to be going well. Having financial wealth without friends, or being physically attractive and hating your job don't constitute a happy life. It's a given that we must work within a framework that we were born with. So I will never look like Brad Pitt and I will never run like Carl Lewis. But I could look make my body like Arnold Schwarzenegger's and I could become an astronaut or a doctor or a physicist or Prime Minister.

I accept that I will never run 100m in under ten seconds, and I accept that I don't look like Brad Pitt, but even if I could do that or did look like him, it wouldn't make me any happier than I am now.

Becoming someone else or having what someone else has will not make you any happier than you are now. Having what you want and being who you can be is what will make you happy.

When I was in my "fog" I knew that although nothing was badly wrong, I wasn't doing what I should be doing. My home life was good, in that I was happily married. Financially we were okay. I had a house, good equity positions in a couple of rental properties and money in the bank. Yet I knew that my life meant more than that. If I had suddenly earned a 50% pay increase at work, or been given my dream Porsche, or tickets for a six month trip around the world, that all would have been good, but it wouldn't have made my life happier for the long-term.

So in my fog I just plodded along day after day not knowing what I should do next. I have always been one to set goals and I must admit that for a couple of years I didn't set any, mostly because I didn't know what I should set.

As I look back on that today, I see how much the "fog" is lifting from my sights and I see a future beckoning.

In the past couple of weeks there have been a series of events that have changed my outlook and I see a way through to where I want to go. And although very little has changed, the fact that I can see a way forward that I'm happy with, makes me feel happier. I can see that I'm attracting some of the "good stuff" I've been looking for.

What's most interesting about these new opportunities, is that both of them were unexpected generous "gifts" from two different, totally unrelated people. When we look back at events in our life we can see that it takes unexpected situations to arise that change the course we're on.

I may look back on January 2007 as the turning point in my life. A month that will set up my future for the next thirty years. Even if it doesn't turn out to be the month, I know that at least it is the start of a major shift for me, which may take a year or so to develop, but somehow, I know it will happen.

An analogy I heard was that life is like driving at night. We can reach our destination a thousand kilometres away, even though we can only see the next hundred metres, because we only need to see the next hundred metres.

We should rest assured that our life's path is there for us to traverse, but we have to take each step, one at a time.

Giving Up To Get...

Life is about giving and getting, and I'm not referring to Christmas time. In everything we do we give and get, and there are trade-offs. If we want to get more money, in general we have to give up more time. If we want to get a new hobby, we may have to give up and old one. You get the idea.

What's interesting though, is how much more people are willing to give up now, than they were thirty or forty years ago. Now I can hear you saying that our standard of living is so much better now than it was in the fifties and sixties. I think every Generation X'er, born to immigrant parents must have heard the same stories of how Mum or Dad had to walk barefoot through snow to get to school... or took their shoes off when walking to school so as to not wear them out... or having the dream of one day owning a bought bicycle (one not put together from a collection of junk pieces). At some stage we've all heard these bleeding heart stories, but people weren't giving anything up to live like that - they had no choice. There weren't riches like we have now. My grandfather remembers when they used to add sawdust to the bread to give it volume. Now, I'd never even have considered that as an option, but they didn't consider it then because sawdust tastes good, they simply had no better option.

So thirty of forty years ago when the people looked forward to a future with factory automation, labour-saving appliances and computer technology that would all reduce the amount of work required, it's interesting to note that in the last twenty years the number of hours worked in North America has increased.

It's interesting that as a society we are now unable to afford proper health care, but how could we afford it twenty years ago when we were earning so much less. Where has all the money gone?

It goes to The Brick, Home Depot, Ikea, Nike, General Motors, McDonalds, Banana Republic, Nokia, Sony, The Body Shop and the list could go on almost forever. People these days spend so much more on personal items, and the race to keep up with the Joneses is faster and more furious than ever before. People are caught up in a spending frenzy, now with everything at 0% finance rates, don't pay 'till 2016, and other selling strategies.

All in the name of achieving happiness. But where does all this get us. We've given up so much of our spare time to work longer hours to afford all this stuff. We're chronically in debt to keep up appearances. The emergence of forty-year home mortgages is a further sign, that although we have all this money we still can't afford the essentials like good health care and a roof over our heads.

And then, does it make us any happier? With drug use on the increase, suicide a worsening problem, and the huge number of people on anti-depressants you'd have to say we aren't.

Happiness, you can see by looking at unhappy rich people, doesn't come from owning stuff, and one-upping the Joneses. True happiness comes from having good friends and loved ones, it comes from real satisfaction and meaning. True happiness can't be bought or owned or bestowed on you in the form of a title. True happiness comes from within.

Don't give up the important things in life for money and status. It isn't worth it.

Life Changes Suddenly

I've always been envious of those people who say "Yeah, it's all happened really quickly," when referring to how their mundane, unfulfilled life turned upside down and suddenly they are living their dream. I always looked at their tumultuous life that emerged with a silver lining and wondered why mine couldn't have the same outcome. But on the other side of the coin I know the same people look at my life and how seamlessly and easily I've cruised from joy to joy.

It was even very recently that I felt I was cursed with good fortune, because I thought, it is only through disaster that awesome things happen. Cancer survivors turn their lives into a story that affects millions. Obese people wake up one day and decide to get healthy, turning flab into mirror-posing muscle in months, and an example for others to improve their health. An ordinary person nearly gets killed in a landslide and becomes a national hero.

I thought that my life was too comfortable. It's satisfactory, it's easy, but it doesn't energize me like I know it could. And there's no disaster to change my life and turn it upside down, and make it better.

Then I realized that's because it's all going just as it's meant to. If life was on the wrong course then a disaster would strike me to allow me to re-evaluate its meaning, but I'm doing that right now without the disaster.

So I thought about all the people for whom life takes a dramatic and exciting turn, and looked at my own life and realized that although I've felt that it just keeps going on, one day at a time, it has taken many interesting and bizarre turns.

I was 25, living in Australia, in an apartment I owned (well... paid a mortgage on) on the edge of downtown, had an awesome Marketing job downtown, had a great circle of friends and I was growing and learning and making my fortune. Then my girlfriend of nearly five years, M., decided she wanted to go to work for three months in England. I said "Okay, I'll wait for you here." An odd decision for me, now that I look back. Had that happened now, I would have been inclined to pick up and move there with her.

After less than a month I decided to break up with M. and began dating a new girl, N., who at first glance seemed a serious improvement. She was everything I didn't get with M. Unfortunately she also had none of what I loved in M. What was worse, this new girl was like the crab who won't let go of your ankle. I was caught in a trap that I couldn't leave... until I left Australia.

Here was my relatively uneventful life turning around and almost exactly one year after N. and I started dating, I was arriving at Heathrow airport in London. My ex-girlfriend, M., was still there, and was now dating someone else. I wasn't going with the intention of rekindling anything, because even though N. was everything I didn't want, M. didn't have enough of what I did want.

For the first week I slept on the living room floor of M.'s house that she shared with four housemates, before finding a terrible room for rent in a neighbourhood on North London.

After a few weeks of looking, I found a good Marketing contract position working for a large package-holiday travel company, managing a Christmas direct mail campaign. I was earning good money, travelling on weekends and saving lots. Life was good.

When that contract ended I took a permanent position as the European Marketing Manager for an international billboard company, with the understanding that the company would immediately begin the process to sponsor me, since the role was outside my visa limitations. It was all very exciting. I would begin a life of working and living in Europe for the medium to long term.

This all came crashing down on my second day at work when I was expected to fill out a form to get a special pass to go behind secured zones at airports and had to disclose my name, passport number and visa details to a government authority. I knew this would be in contravention of my visa and I had heard of stories of people getting caught out, being deported and having to leave their stuff behind, now with a ten-year restriction on returning. This might also limit my ability to get other working permits in the future, a risk I decided wasn't worth it. So I lost my job. I was escorted out at lunch time by my boss, and never came back.

It was devastating!

I felt sorry for myself for about a day, and then I decided, "it's not what happens to you that determines your life, it's how you react to what happens, that makes your life."

I had no job, and London is not the cheapest place to live without income. I calculated that I had about six weeks worth of savings before I would either need an emergency job, or a flight back to Australia. So I applied for jobs and ended up snagging the Contiki Tour Manager position, just in time.

While travelling Europe and getting paid to do it, I met my future wife and ended up chasing her to Canada.

So, in a span that totals only thirty months I sold my apartment, quit my job, left Australia, travelled in Lithuania and Germany, moved to London, worked in a Marketing job, lost a Marketing job, wrote the first draft of a book (that still needs heavy editing and re-writing), worked as a Tour Manager, travelled western Europe for eight months, met the woman of my dreams, travelled some of eastern Europe, travelled parts of Canada (Ontario, Quebec, BC and Alberta), travelled Australia and New Zealand for three months, moved to Calgary, got a job and got married. Two months after that we bought the home we currently live in.

Even since that period of extreme change, I can show a series of significant changes that have occurred in my life. My point is not just to discuss the experiences of my life, but to make a highlight two things.

If you had told me when I started dating N., the bad girlfriend, that in three years I would be happily married to a Canadian and living and working there, I would have told you to have another drink and give up the drugs. It would have seemed like such a distant and remote possibility in such a short period of time that it couldn't happen, especially to me, Mr Consistency.

So anything in life is possible!

The other point is that it takes me to look back on that part of my life, and indeed my whole life to see that it has been a massive time of growth, change and an evolution of my soul. But it doesn't seem that way, because it has happened one day at a time. If you look at a clock and watch the hour hand move it's very, very gradual. It takes twelve hours to make one lap of the clock, and it seems like it doesn't move at all. But if you break it down into minutes or seconds, and watch those hands you can see that it is moving, actually quite quickly.

The same is with life. We live each day and notice very little change, because we focus on the days and weeks that go by, and not much usually changes in a day or week. But take a step back and look at the years and see that life does evolve quite dramatically.

So think, that getting from where you are now, to where you will be in a few years can be a lot more exciting and different than you can imagine, if you're prepared to take the risks that will get you there.

Taking the risk to quit my Australian life and board a plane to Europe took me on a different path. Sometimes it's less extreme than that and may be just meeting a person, who motivates you to change.

Whatever it is, the future is a great big open field of opportunity.

You Only Have Everything To Lose

You're probably wondering what do I mean when I say "You only have everything to lose" and what am I referring to?

I'm referring to your life. You only have everything to lose if you don't live a fulfilling life. Imagine for a minute that you're very old and close to death. You're looking back on a life of eighty-plus years and what do you see?... Missed opportunities, failures, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, hatred, regrets? A desire for more time to do some of those projects you had always wanted to do? Or do you see a life full of accomplishments, successes, love, incredible experiences, satisfaction and completion? Does your heart grow warm with the fondness of memories or cold with regret?

You've just imagined looking back on a life that maybe twenty or fifty years longer than you've currently lived, and there's plenty of time to get stuff done, but now imagine that you've been told you'll die tomorrow. Look back on your current life and see how you feel. Maybe more regrets and more missed opportunities, maybe not as many incredible experiences as you'd have hoped for.

So what can be done about it? The answer is everything. This life is all we have. You can look around at all the possessions you "own", but they're all only on lease, because you give them back when you die. Your life is what matters. How you feel, the joy, the happiness, the feeling of growth and excitement are what you'll keep forever.

I often hear people say that they will begin a certain (fun) project when something's complete, for example, "I'll take that painting class after I've bought my new house." or "I'll go to Mexico after I've lost 10 pounds." These may not be the greatest examples, but you get the idea.

The worst kind of procrastination is to put off the feeling of self-worth. I'll be happy when I have a new job. I'll be happy when I lose ten pounds. I'll be happy when I'm in Mexico. What happens when you reach these milestones and you're still not happy? You set new milestones and by the time you're eighty, you still have milestones that are not yet reached... and then you die... unhappy.

You can decide to be happy today. Sure there are goals that you want to reach and experiences you want to have, but your happiness need not hinge on the completion or not of these goals.

I constantly remind myself that today is a great day to be alive. That I'm thankful for today and all the wonderful things I have today. I realize that I am indeed very lucky today and everyday and I am thankful for all the little details - a butterfly, a kind gesture, a smile, thanks, my daughter laughing - that make it great. That's what makes me happy, even when everything doesn't go to plan.

It's important to live today and enjoy today. Make the most of the time you have, this time... now. Putting everything off for a future date does not ensure it gets done. It doesn't ensuyre a life full of rich experiences. Doing it today, does. Why not do it today? What do you have to lose other than everything?

Keeping Up With The Joneses

After the Second World War the economies of the world shifted into overdrive and the industrial age, combined with mass marketing and increased wealth meant that it was possible for the Joneses, a mythical middle-class family to have more stuff than their neighbour. In the sixties it was the new Buick or Cadillac that was a status symbol in your driveway. Simply buying a new vehicle would give you bragging rights for a couple of years before enough of your peers had also bought a new vehicle.

It was culture of distinguishing yourself by having something your peers didn't and the inevitable catch-up that was played by the Jones' peers that created this cycle of consumerism. A cycle that goes nowhere, because when everyone has a new car, then the Joneses have to go out and get a better new car, or anew boat or a bigger house...

These days with technology advancing at such a frenetic pace buying the newest and latest greatest gadget only allows you to be the Joneses for a few weeks or months. With buy-now-pay-later options and the ease at which people can get credit the race to be the first is one that most people can participate in.

But what's interesting is that having all this stuff has meant that in return we give up a lot of other things. In order to earn all the money required we need to work longer and harder, and we spend time worrying about what we need and time acquiring it. And it doesn't make us any happier, we just own more.

The time will come I think, and maybe we're still twenty years away from it, when people are going to see someone else who is genuinely happy and content with life and say I want to be like that person, rather than I want to have like that person, and realize that they aren't the same thing.

There will be masters of energy, who know what they want and either have it or are on their way to getting it, and these will be the Joneses of the future. In a relatively small way right now people like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle and others are masters of energy and have a number of followers, but at this stage it is still not seen as a mainstream reality. Tony Robbins, who has made millions from motivating people is the closest to mainstream, and I see the future holds that there will be more and more like him, advocating personal power without the purchase of any material goods.

I used to think that the Baby Boomer generation was the best one to be with regards to the lifestyle they grew up with and retire in, but I'm more inclined to think now that Generation X (born in the 1960s and 1970s) and beyond will be the most exciting.

All We Have Is Now...

The first book that started me on my current journey of self-examination and exploration is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

It's quite a heavy (not literally) book, rich with thought provoking ideas and concepts and the basis for a lot of my further thoughts on our existence and what this life all means.

The essence of the book is that all we have is the present. Everything happens in the present. Nothing happens in the future and nothing happens in the past. The most important factor of our lives is what we do in the present, far more important than the past or the future.

There's a lot that can be discussed surrounding living in the now, but one thing that is interesting, especially for people on a personal spiritual discovery is how they are looking to the future for what will happen. I know this to be true for myself and others I know.

The thought that I'm not happy where I am now, but when I have learned a certain skill, I'll be able to transform my life and then I'll be happy. For example, I don't like working in my job, but when I've improved my intuition, then I'll be able to read cards for people for a living and then I'll be happy. That will make me complete.

The reality is that we are all complete right now. We are all doing what we're supposed to be doing right now. If we weren't supposed to, then we wouldn't be. It makes sense when you look at a child. In general four and five year olds are not reading the newspaper, they are reading simple story books with large type. Why? Because that's what they're supposed to be doing. When they've mastered that and understand more complex issues they progress to more advanced books and so on. They are doing now what they are supposed to be doing. And if they are reading the Wall Street Journal at five then that's what they are supposed to be doing too!

All of us are different levels of ability, intelligence and spirituality based on what lessons our soul has learned. We're all here for a journey and to learn something, and depending on who we are, we have a different lesson, one no better than another, simply different.

We are all complete now. Yes, we all do have learning to do, but when that learning is done, then what? If we feel incomplete now, then we'll still feel incomplete then because we'll still have more learning. We only stop learning when we die, and even then there will be unfinished business, so it's futile to think that we will at some stage in the future become complete, or that we will feel like we have arrived if we don't already feel it now.

So the point is, that to feel happy now, we have to accept who we are now. We have to be happy in our own skin... something the plastic surgeon association would not be advocating too loudly. We are who we are and we do what we do because that's the way it's meant to be. It doesn't mean there isn't free choice, becasue there is. What it means is that we can't change who we are, even if we change our appearance or qualifications or experience. All of that makes us who we are, like it or not.

When you look at movie stars, who are rich and famous and seem to have everything, but aren't happy, and compare them to the regular person who has little and isn't happy, it shows you that having things doesn't make you happy.

Feeling happy about yourself is the only thing that will make you happy. It sounds so simple, but evidence would suggest it's incredibly difficult.

This table does not mean anything...

Over the past few months I have been reading a number of books on spirituality, getting the most from life etc. One text that was often quoted in these books is A Course In Miracles. So I thought, after reading about this book so many times I ought to see what it's all about. I've borrowed it from the library, and realized quickly, it's not the sort of book one reads in a few evenings. In fact there's a section which has a lesson for every day of the year. It will be a book I will purchase and read over an extended period of time.
For more information, please visit- http://www.fipdata.org/index.html

Anyway, I was reading a few of the lessons and I was thinking about the first lesson, which is printed in full below, essentially, "nothing I see means anything".

Since I read it over a week ago it has resonated with me, and I began to think about this world, and how we have attached meaning to things. The world of marketing is about attching value to brands, labels, material goods, experiences... anything that can be sold for a profit. And as a race, we all buy into it. Whether or not we do buy Nike or BMW or McDonald's we have all become victims of marketing. Indeed those who decide to go against the flow and boycott certain brands for whatever reasons create their own sub-culture, which in fact is a culture of its own, with its own "membership criteria and status".

So, no matter what we own, if we see that ownership of it adds something to ourselves we have ascribed some value to it, and have fallen into the marketers trap. That's why this lesson is so interesting. When you say out loud that nothing you see has any meaning, it seems logical, yet it goes against our own subconscious thoughts about it. It goes against what we perceive to be true.

We live in a world of perception - the world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation, and death. It is learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.

A Course in Miracles says "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

LESSON 1

Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything.

Now look slowly around you, and practice applying this idea very specifically to whatever you see:

This table does not mean anything.
This chair does not mean anything.
This hand does not mean anything.
This foot does not mean anything.
This foot does not mean anything.
This pen does not mean anything.

Then look farther away from your immediate area, and apply the idea to a wider range:

That door does not mean anything.
This body does not mean anything.
This lamp does not mean anything.
This sign does not mean anything.
This shadow does not mean anything.

Notice that these statements are not arranged in any order, and make no allowance for differences in the kinds of things to which they are applied. That is the purpose of the exercise. The statement should merely be applied to anything you see. As you practice the idea for the day, use it totally indiscriminately. Do not attempt to apply it to everything you see, for these exercises should not become ritualistic. Only be sure that nothing you see is specifically excluded. One thing is like another as far as the application of the idea is concerned.

Each of the first three lessons should not be done more than twice a day each, preferably morning and evening. Nor should they be attempted for more than a minute or so, unless that entails a sense of hurry. A comfortable sense of leisure is essential.

Living Your True Calling

Living your true calling is something that is quite difficult I realize, especially when you're not aware what your true calling is.

I know a few people who are in the stage of their life where they are not happy doing what they're doing, but have no idea what they should be doing instead. Last week I worked out one thing for sure. If you're not happy what you're doing now, then make some big changes, do some things you've never done before and get some balls rolling. Hopefully one of those balls will become the ball.

One thing I did a while ago was change my frame of mind. For a while I was only looking at the negative side of my life, where I really have a very positive life. It was only a matter of looking at the negative circumstances and asking what's good about them. This change of attitude started about eight to twelve months ago.

So I also decided that I should start pursuing some of the spiritual goals I had in the back of my mind that had never had any time put behind them.

I signed up for a tarot card class, and an evening meditation with spirit guides. Things started to happen from there, and suddenly I'm putting together a meditation group that meets every week and I'm calling a few people I haven't spoken to for a long time.

And then things start to change. I decide to drop my weekly ten-pin bowling in favour of weekly meditation, and as you've read in this blog, my third (psychic) eye is opening.

Now, in addition to what I've been doing, I've also been reading and reading. I refer back to my blog entry from August 21st, a full two months ago, when my spirit guide told me what I needed to know, although at the time it didn't make complete sense.

"I am Michael. Your spirit guide."
"What should I do?" I asked, hoping for clarity.
"Make phone calls."
"Phone calls? What phone calls? "What else? What else should I be doing."
"Paint like there's no tomorrow."
"That makes sense at least. And what about my writing?"
"You should write after you've painted."
"Hmmm... And what about Tarot cards?"
"Keep working with them."
"Okay. What about meditiation?"
"Meditation is good for you."
"Oh, and what about my job? What should I do about that?"
"Your job will take care of itself."
"What does that mean?"
"Use this time. You will know when the time comes to change."
"It will be clear?"
"Yes."

I believe it is now clear. I've told a couple of people my idea and received some very positive feedback, and some good ideas to tweak it. Although it will not financially sustain me (in fact the idea is one that is designed to lose money - but that's okay, because it helps people), and actually may never sustain me, I believe that one day it will because I believe this may also be my true calling. And if you follow your true calling, the Universe will provide for you.

The Question of God, Part II

The other day I had a very interesting conversation with my wife about all of this stuff I'm going through, and my sometimes harsh opinions on organized religion.

My view on organized religion is that the churches add in a lot of rules, which are created by humans, but passed off as the only rules to follow to be allowed into Heaven and be accepted by God on the other side.

Then my wife tells me that essentially what I believe, and the spiritual path I'm on is the same as a church-going Christian. In a sense I agree. We are both making efforts to improve ourselves, we are both trying to connect with the Source or the Holy Spirit. We both believe there is a Higher Power, whether we call that God, or our Higher Self, or the Universe, and we can receive guidance from spirits, whether they are Spirit Guides or the Holy Spirit.

So I guess we do have a lot in common. What doesn't work for me though is all the stuff that goes along with organized religion. I'm not a big fan of making weekly visits to church and I'm not a big fan of the "rules" imposed by the church. Rules that need to be followed in order to make it into Heaven... the only one true Heaven as determined by that religion.

Also I find it restricting that religions have certain beliefs that don't allow any beliefs from other religions. For example, why can't Christianity allow past lives into their set of beliefs, like the Hindus do? Why can't they at least accept that this might be true? It's a little to narrow for me to think that what one portion of the population believes in is right and the rest are wrong.

As far as I'm concerned, whatever works for you, and your level or comprehension, level of fear and level of understanding is right for you. It's not right however to say that someone else's belief is wrong, because it isn't yours. That's how pointless wars get started.

The Question of God, Part I

I had a very interesting conversation about God a couple of weeks ago with friends, about whom I didn't know their stance on the matter. As it turns out the female in the couple, J., is a believing Catholic, who prays daily, but rarely attends church. She has strong beliefs, though to the outside world it isn't particularly noticeable. Her husband, A., was raised in a Christian family, with Christian based beliefs and morals, although he never attended church and doesn't to this day.

We had an interesting conversation about God and religion and spirituality. When I began mentioning the concept or idea of a soul that existed before this lifetime, that lives through our body and then will return again at some later stage - the concept of past lives and reincarnation - it was met with some skepticism. The idea of spirit guides and psychic abilities to see the future and see dead people and the like was all a little too much. In fact had my friends not already known me, they would have said I was crazy. All this talk was "out there" like a discussion on UFOs. Probably what "scared" them the most was the conviction I spoke with about my belief in it all being true.

Then came the discussion on God.

I believe that God is within everyone of us. God isn't a big old man with a white beard, who lives in the sky. God is our Higher Self. We all have personal access to God, and all we have to do is ask.

It's pretty controversial for me to be saying to a Catholic that God is within all of us, but J.'s response was to say that what I was talking about was not God at all. Well, it wasn't her God.

"So you know we're all going to Heaven?" I said to her.

"No we're not." She responded.

"So where do the Muslims and Buddhists go when they die?" I asked.

"I don't know, but it's not Heaven."

Doesn't this sound like a brainwashed response. Of course it is. We are all going to Heaven. God has no ego, and allows everyone into Heaven, no matter whether your Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim or Athiest. Heaven is where we go after we die, and accepted into a place of pure love.

The reason I say that response sounds brainwashed, is because humans are creatures of persuasion and suggestion. You tell someone something often enough and for long enough and they will believe it to be true. How is it that we can have wars based on religion? In fact the churches of all denominations are the best organizations at brainwashing, because with brainwashing comes control.

It doesn't matter to me what people believe, so long as it works for them and doesn't adversely affect others. I am a firm believer of free beliefs, it's a pity the churches couldn't be so confident in their faith to allow free thought.

This may be a controversial entry, but it's something I strongly believe in.

Jesus said, "He who is without sin, may cast the first stone."

Does spiritual growth change who you are?

It's an interesting question. Everyone is at their own level of spiritual development in life, and life is about stages, and gradual changes. For me the last five years, but especially the last two have been a time of gradual change. I have already mentioned that it hasn't been a time of rapid movement through a life-changing moment.

It's an evolution. Reading books, listening to tapes, going to seminars and classes, speaking to people, and making new contacts with people who are going through or have gone through this journey of spiritual awakening.

But through all this I haven't changed. Well, I have changed, but not completely. Essentially I am still the same guy, the same husband, the same Dad. My sense of humour is the same, my interests by-and-large are still the same, and I still look, sound and act basically the same. If you didn't know me well, you wouldn't know anything had changed.

Sure, I'm taking better care of myself. I eat less, and drink less coffee and alcohol. I read books now related to the spiritual world, rather than on marketing and business. So some things have changed, but I haven't changed.

Life is about change. Life is by definition an evolution. It's when we don't change that we become old. Like an old fashion.

What's happening as I unlock my spiritual side is that I am bringing my higher self to a plane that is with me, rather than away from me. I'm joining my physical self with my spirtual self. I'm adding to what I've already got, not necessarily changing it.

People change and life goes on. Everyone is evolving in their own way, and we aren't all on the same path to enlightenment and happiness, and that's what makes this journey even more exciting.

What Started My Spiritual Awakening

Less that ten years ago if you had mentioned anything about paranormal activities, psychic behaviour, etc. I would have dismissed it all as mumbo jumbo.

Then I had the good fortune to have a boss who was psychic, and slowly I learned to open my eyes to more. Through her I started unravelling some of the unexplained mysteries in my mind.

I have since left that job, and live a world away in Calgary, following her advice that I needed to move. The past six years has been a slow, sometimes painful journey into my present state of mind, and I see that everything continues to evolve, and my ideas continue to change.

The first book I read that prompted the major shift in the past couple of years was "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. This answered so many questions for me, and my wife complains at how often I quote "Eckhart".

Where I find it difficult to see how much I've changed is because I never had a single life-changing event, or a major tragedy that caused me to re-focus my life and search for new meaning. For me, the journey to this point has been a gradual learning process, similar to an education - learning from people, getting new directions, and seeing new opportunities.

Perhaps the life-changing event is still to happen and I'm merely getting prepared for it!