Bargain or rip-off?

... did you know that Life has a price? No, you can't buy it, but you can spend it.

And so many times we waste it in such foolish and pedantic ways. Acting on whims, thinking that we're being honest and sincere with ourselves and others. How well do you know yourself to trust blindly in your caprice?

But we know we all make mistakes, we all end up acting more or less mindless for most of the time, and because we're not that different from one another we forgive, we shrink our shoulders and hope for the best. And you keep being fortune on you careless way towards Life. Life's deviant nature carries you again out of another sad or desperate time and you find that right tune that keeps you going; sweet dreams lead you once more into another adventure, challenge or change. It's Life, and it's happening. But how much of your appreciation and respect goes towards this miracle?

Life can be wasted or gained. We can literally add years to our Life or loose them in memories that hurt too much to be recalled.

If when you look back, there are too many moments in your Life you wish you had done things differently, than while you still can, do things differently.

We know we can't change the Past, it's the Past that changes us, so we can only look straight ahead to what we have in front of us. Well, we should also look behind our shoulders because most probably that's where your attention should be. Who do you have that is there to look out for you, to listen, to dream with you, to laugh and bring you back to your senses?

Life can have a price that it's too much to bear, or it's a bargain for all you take out of it.
How do you feel about it?

"I live my life based on two principles. One, I live as if today was my last day on earth. Two, I live today as if I am going to live forever."
_
Osho 

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important“

 

"Stay away from people who belittle your goals. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel like you can do anything."
—
Mark Twain  
 

And you look everywhere, towards all directions, towards all the faces you know and faces you see for the first time, and there's no recognition of what you know or lived. Everything feels disconnected from it's common place, from normality. There isn't anything that speaks to you or makes you feel at home. You're not in the wrong place but you're not somewhere close either...

And time flows like a river. The water just keeps sliding of your hands, passing through the sensitive skin between your fingers. It feels nice, but how can you sustain it for just a bit longer?

You don't feel like you belong anywhere, but you're here and you're part of everything. As if you've lost your clothes and you're standing naked in solitude.
Who are you when no one is watching?
Who is this ignorance person that questions him/herself about who they are and gets no answer?

You love but you say you're lost. You care, but you know very little about this all everything. You desire and wish but you complain there's hurt in believing with your eyes closed.


You can see your own shadow on the ground, and staring at your full grown hand you whisper to yourself that there's more in you than anyone will ever know.

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
—
Friedrich Nietzsche 

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
—
Dr. Seuss

How to be real rather than rehearsed?

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
_
Alfred D. Souza

Living far too long in the "gotta do" Land, one gets tired of asking himself, or others, what is the purpose in all this rushing and planning and moving on to the next new "score".

The usual answer is that you gotta pay the bills, you gotta guarantee your kids future, you gotta provide for yourself, you gotta find a mate, you just gotta... so you gotta make a list, a plan, you gotta be better and faster, you gotta keep moving! ...  It's true that we must be independent and self sufficient, but if we don't search or give any substantial meaning to our existence, sadly we don't add anything else and we become mere consumers of reality. Consumers of others time, consumers of products and consumers of stuff.  And of course, because we don't value our own self that much we become disconnected, in the worst case we start feeling sad and our self-esteem goes down the drain. "(...) Low self-esteem is not due to not thinking enough about ourselves but rather thinking too much about ourselves and how others perceive us."


So, go on with your "gotta's" but everyday, make an assessment of where you're going, of who you're becoming. It is never too late to turn back and start a new path. The biggest obstacle to self-realization/happiness is ourselves: "me?! get me!". It's the self-imposed dreams and goals and the never ending demands on life that set up our rhythm, our soul beat. Lets get excited, let's be foolish, lets talk seriously, but, most important of all, let's be honest with our own self. Lets be real rather than rehearsed.

"No one in the world was ever you before, with your particular gifts and abilities and possibilities. It's a shame to waste those by doing what someone else has done."
_
Joseph Campbell

 

So we must all be insane

If you're insane you continue to live, if you're sane you die. Ironic, isn't it?
But that's what any religion in the world will tell you. We're here to learn our way towards enlightenment, we're here to clean our soul from sin, we're here because we are prone to evil.
... Could it be that everyone in the world is insane?
Then a second question pops up, which is about forgiving. If you've done something really wrong, does it really matter if you knew at the time that it was wrong? Does ignorance excuse our faults? Is killing because you're commanded to do so, less severe then killing because you can? Is lying because you don't want to hurt someone worst than lying because it's just in your nature?

… and everything is all a question of Life or Death, except when you stop caring anymore and all the commitments you hold towards what makes daily life a full lived life, become just a series of repetitive facts. We live with our owns or someone else's should's/could's/would’s and that is, for the majority of us, the main focus of our life.

Life "keeps" happening, we have no clue what we're doing on this planet, and the only thing you know for sure is that no one has it easy, just apparently. But we keep chasing the dream of being better, cooler, of being in love or flying free. Why?! ...  Well, why not? At least let’s have some fun and excitement, right?! We don’t know what’s on the other side, or even if there’s an other side to this story so, while we can, we could “try” to do the best it’s humanly possible to make the most out of it. That includes jumping over our limits, recognizing our mistakes, raising our voice or quietly and warmly listen to another soul.

WE’RE FREE. We’re free to be, think or feel whatever we want. We’re just not entitled to own and experience all we want, but we can CHOOSE.

We forget we’re free in order to live accordingly with self-imposed standards, but how much do you know yourself? Who's inside your head?

We’re usually good at coping and surviving. We try the best we can not to let our losses keep us back. We focus on music, on a particular book, on a particular place, on a special hug or conversation, on a job promotion, on a new car, house, family, on a crazy experience and thrilling adventure, we travel and we share with our friends our "amazing" findings: yes, the world is round! As a last resource, we focus on breathing!

So, everyday, we're survivors. We CHOOSE life. We ask Why and we reply Why not, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” – Nietzsche. We even do more than that, we give meaning to our Life, also known as Happiness “a combination of pleasure, engagement and meaningfulness.”

Written somewhere was this idea that we ought live as if we were living already for a second time. Well, why not?

"... ninguém é feliz sozinho, porque ninguém vive sozinho. O ser humano é o ser mais mortal no planeta, porque ele sabe que vai morrer, e o problema não é a morte, a morte é um facto, toda a gente morre, mas o valor da nossa vida, que falta vamos fazer? Seremos importantes para alguém? Uma vida pequena é uma vida que é fechada em si mesma. Uma vida grande transborda, vai para além da nossa borda, uma vida repartida. (...)  Ser é ser-se percebido. (...) Uma amizade que acaba nunca começou. (...) Só gente desocupada começa alguma coisa... (...) Não seja uma pessoa "morna". Uma pessoa "morna" não faz mais do que é preciso, não dá mais do que é necessário, só ajuda se puder.

"Claim the experience, don't let the experience claim you"
_
Debra Jarvis



MORE LIKE THIS ON:
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/335287595/growing-up?showDate=2015-07-02

Stop the blaming and move on

... I would like to start this post with "F#%... what was I thinking", and of course, the answer is: I wasn't. But wait! I was thinking, subconsciously. It's so hard to see the whole picture, better put, to see the other side of events, like the moon that has one unknown side. It's just easier to point at what's wrong, at what we think it's not fair, name all the things we could have done, because it's just easier to blame ignorance. Well, that's how we learn to strive as kids, blaming the other, something else other than ourselves. If the toy got broken or missing, it was never our fault!!! And when we actually had to admit that maybe there was no one else in the room, well we could still blame randomness!

Very rarely we defend ourselves, our self unknown cause. We don't know exactly why we did it, but we did, and it felt OK, except when the final results came. Maybe at this point you can say that's commonly known has being stupid. Ok, it is being stupid, but that stupidity had meaning. You choose to be stupid.

And it doesn't happen only when we're kids, even as full grown adults we still have the same reaction when things go wrong: "oh it wasn't my fault...!" because, even if there's no one to blame we can still shrunk our shoulders and pity ourselves, therefore, not really owning the blame, and in the same line of though, never owning the solution either. So the point I'm trying to get is that, we are the ones to blame, but we don't have to.

That's why, over and over, the guru's of thought and consciousness repeat the same mantra, be honest with yourself, let go, stop judging, embrace your true self, etc, meaning, yeah, you're "stupid" sometimes but that's all part of it, no need to scrutinize that. Let it be. In that stupidity there might be a meaning for something you're missing out.

Another example of that non-real acceptance of the self. When we get into an elevator and there's a mirror what do we do? If there's someone else inside we turn around and face our back to it, but if you're by yourself, confess it, you just stare at your own reflection and try to look the best you can. But we're shy to do it in front of others, as if it was a sign of weakness or proof of shameful vanity.

Neither. When you're honest about who you are, good or bad, you enjoy your own reflection, even if there's someone also being reflected in that same picture. Things get easier when you're not ashamed of yourself, and for others it's actually a relief to be close to someone real. We all want to look our best, which is the same as saying, we all want to be our best. Watching someone trying is so inspiring, as failing can be too. It's only when we don't take that good look at ourselves and admit our own flaws in front of others, that we go around being shitty.

I wish I could go back and do things differently, I wish I had been awaken to all the open windows in front of me, I wish I had had the courage to take that good look at myself and see it clearly how wrong my actions were. But hey, no blaming, no excuses. Plain simple observation. I wasn't right, I did wrong, I was selfish. I don't want to repeat the same mistakes again, but now I need to step out of this cross and get on with it.

Let's learn to name things exactly as they are and stop pretending. There's always a mirror somewhere for us to look at. "Just" be yourself to know yourself well. Don't waste time blaming. Take note of the mistake, repeat the test again if you can, but if not, move on, lesson learned. As once said "The unexamined life is not worth living." But sorry Socrates, Life itself is so worth living. Take that good look in the mirror, specially if you're not alone, laugh at it, appreciate it, improve, but leave the elevator.

unexamined life is not worth living

"(...) you can ask the Universe for all the signs you want, but ultimately, we see what we want to see when we're ready to see it"
+
“You don’t awaken to Truth by analyzing the dream. Find out who the dreamer is.”
— 

Mooji

... give LOVE that one more chance.

(...)
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give love that one more chance?
Why can't we give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?..

'Cause love's such an old-fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves"
_
Under Pressure, Queen