What is the source of anything?

Studying the etiology of disease in pathology class my mind began to wonder into areas so far away from the microscopic germs I was looking at and into the wild blue yonder.

"What is the actual source of this little bugger"?
"What is the source of anything"? I started to ask myself.

Tracing my origin and things like lightening in the sky, the desk I was sitting at and even the light behind the screen illuminating these characters that are magically transformed into conscious thought I realized that in fact there is no origin to anything. Perhaps everything is just a  accumulation and transformation of particles that become something else.

One person yells "Hey, I like cheese"! and before you know it a bunch of people gather around who all agree and like cheese too. Now you have an accumulation of people joined together by an idea, creating a "mob".
Was this new "mob" magically created by an external force or did existing pieces come together?
Did the yelling of "Hey, I like cheese" create a vibration into the universe that was picked up by others drawing them towards each other?
Why was the thought of liking cheese expressed outwardly by the yeller in the first place?

As I drove by a huge billboard along side the road protesting abortion it said, "Don't ask when life begins, ask when love begins." Huh........ (Who says sex or procreation has anything to do with love?) This is strictly a belief issue. Any scientific POV will agree that male sperm and female eggs are just another example of accumulation of cells, DNA and other stuff that came together to form the egg or sperm cell itself. So when does life actually begin? It never did, you existed before the two cells came together just in a different form that became your parents. One reason science is trying to go back to human origin. The bible even states that "god always was and always will be". Even Adam was created or "accumulated" by the elements of the earth. If you take that to have any connection with the universe it's obvious that the description of god may be consciousness itself. Perhaps this consciousness is just an accumulation of energy that is self propelling gathering more energy expanding farther out the more it accumulates, just as the rest of the universe does.  Consciousness is just another form of energy like electricity, nuclear reactions, heat, etc. Our brains interpret consciousness energy, your computer interprets electrical energy and metal interprets heat energy.   Perhaps the word "god" is better expressed as "consciousness" vs. an actual being. Consciousness, filtered and interpreted by the brain which is decoded into thought manifested into expression; all forms of energy.

So in essence there is no origin of anything, just accumulation of existing matter for a plethora of reasons science is still answering. Sometimes just as the cheese lovers, they gather just because, no purpose in mind. Just as law of the land runs on things like "circumstance" of why things happened, events in the universe are also accumulated out of circumstance. Even plastic, particles that do not occur in nature may be artificially put together to give the illusion of "creation", they are still existing particles.

Simple little games like Alchemy show us how putting two elements together make a third, and mix that one with another and you get something else, and so on and so on and so on. The possibilities are endless. To believe that this "always was and always will be" is an actual being that is orchestrating this massive alchemical universe down to the tiniest nano-particle is actually pointless. NOTHING in the universe changes because one group believes one thing or the other, life and consciousness still go on. Humans by nature our curious beings just as every other creature. 

"Old sea captains"

Par oozing the forums on a sea faring site I stumbled upon a thread, quite lengthy I might add, talking about age in the maritime industry.

"When is a captain too old to be navigating a commercial boat?"

The opinions rolled in. While no one listed a specific age, the consensus was that technology drove the evolution of the sea captains longevity. As I imagined seniors behind the wheel of a car, the irrelevance to attempt to connect the two fizzled. Technology has taken over on the bridge of a ship forcing most senior captains overboard. The younger generations popping into their chairs controlling the lights, bells and whistles of the room.

Bitching complaints appeared on the page from those who held firm to their "old" way of doing things refusing to be forced into working all these "gadgets". Our world changes everyday with or without our consent. If our ego chooses to hang tight, then there it shall hang. One never has to let go of the "old" ways of doing anything. The key is always adding to our existing knowledge. It feels great to stand next to a younger generation that never got to learn what we experienced. The teacher must always be wiser than his student. Knowing the old ways and the new make you invaluable! Someone has to teach the newbies the old ways. If they don't want to learn, then they are no different than those who don't want to learn the new ways. A real stand-off of ego...

It's important to understand life constantly changes. Technology will move in. If there is anything we should realize as we've gotten older is to look back and see how much has changed since we've been alive. How much will change from now on? How far out of touch do you want to be? It sucks to find yourself 90 having no clue of the future you live in.

We get stuck in our comfort zones. Remember how good it felt as a kid to have finally figured something out? It feels good to learn things, to get our questions answered about life. One day we fall into this comfort zone where we are satisfied with things around us and feel stressed when we have to learn a new system. Most of the time we're just tired and don't have time to figure out a damn iPod. Scientifically it is proven that keeping an active mind and learning keeps us young and lowers our chances of getting Alzheimer's.

The easiest way to avoid the stress change can result in is to change step by step along with it. Go with the flow has many meanings. Just because college ends doesn't mean we stop adding to our knowledge. Even though you may not understand what your grandchild is saying about her iPod doesn't mean your brain is not collecting information that will "click" later on.

Perhaps both sides of the sea captains need to let their ego's go and learn from each other. We have to keep up on new things in life to connect and teach the generation that is being born into what we are struggling to learn. We are all learning at the same time! The senior driver is learning to drive with 10,000 cars on the road while the teen is learning to drive. We CAN'T not learn and adapt to these things. There is no end all be all to anything. Even gravity is now a "theory". Keeping an open mind to ALL possibilities keeps learning fun and interesting, not a daunting chore. It stirs the discover process in our hearts and feeds the soul.

Ways to keep up with the flow:
1. Let your kids or younger generations show you how things work. We all love teaching. Do you remember how good it felt to show your mom how to do something?
2. Take a trip to a major electronics store. Like a museum day of new technology, ask questions.
3. Google it! The CMOS of information, modern day library of endless knowledge.
4. SOMEONE has made and actual video on YouTube about whatever you want to know.
5. Put your ego aside and ask questions. NEVER stop asking questions. If you've stopped asking questions then technology is not your problem. lol!
6. Take a class.
7. Familiarize yourself with things. There's no need to know exactly how everything works, that would be impossible, but knowing something exists is all ya need sometimes.
8. Par ooze the magazine racks at the local book store. Current things are always on the covers.
9. Trade with someone who knows what you want to learn. Guaranteed you know something they want to know.
10. The good 'ol library.

We're WiFi man!

A farmer wakes one morning and prays "Oh lord, please let it rain today. My crops are dry and without rain I won't be able to feed my family"
At the same time another man wakes and prays, "Oh lord, please don't let it rain today. I've got to go to work and finish building the roof or I won't get paid to feed my family."

Which prayer gets answered? One is amazed by the miracle that happened; the other is shamed and believes some external force was against him today. I was listening to a minister on television this morning teaching people to "pray effectively". As he went on and on about protocols, submissiveness and a "if it be thy will" stuff I couldn't help wonder while looking at my dog if he knew how to pray effectively?

As an animal species on earth I wondered why religious people were not all wealthy, healthy and wise, while all non-believers were not all poor, sick and stupid. Prayer seems to know no color, intelligence level, nor belief system. So why do we insist that a miracle happened when Aunt Josey got healed from cancer but Uncle Steve died? If all dogs go to heaven, do they believe?

Statistically, there is no difference between financial wealth, health or longevity in people that believe in a god or not. They have however shown increased intelligence in non-believers.

I do believe in consciousness and energy, however I do not believe someone/thing is listening or watching. Viruses, bacteria, rust, oxygen, lead, chickens, we're all just pieces to the whole; the symbiotic system. Everything on this planet has it's dis-ease that can kill it and plant that can heal it. No animal on this planet believes in gods or prayer except for humans. Not one species is immune to disease, suffering or prosperity.

Perhaps it was the invention of chemotherapy that saved Aunt Josey and the depression that killed Uncle Steve, who knows. I remember sitting in church feeling the energy in the room when people prayed, sang or danced. It's that same energy that exists everywhere. I hear believers say the just "know" god exists because they feel it. Well everyone feels it, it's just what you interpret "it" to be. Today I believe that energy is what we use to heal ourselves, to feel love or anger. What if the universe is just one huge energetic battery that charges us along with everything around us that keeps us going, the ghost in the machine? We're WiFi man! LOL!!!

We feel so amazing when we're "connected" and sad when we're not. People that claim out of body experiences say they never want to return because of the amazing love and light they feel. Believers or not, they all feel and experience the same thing. They just come back either saying it was "heaven or god" or an "afterlife". Depends on how your brain wants to interpret it here. Either way, meditating or praying for positive things fuels positive energy in our bodies. It makes us feel good and hopefully spreads to others around us.

Surviving Loss

Getting past loosing anything is never easy. It really irritates me when people categorize your loss. Who came up with the "Loss rating system" anyhow? The loss of a job may be no big deal to you while devastating someone else. I know they're just trying to sympathize and perhaps don't know how or what to say to you but would you pat a widow on her back during her husbands funeral and say "Hang in there girl, you'll find another one. Just forget him and move on, you're better off without that asshole anyway." Would you send flowers to someone who just got their car stolen?

Our minds and bodies all respond the same way to any stress or trauma whether it's loosing a job, the loss of a loved one, a family pet or even retirement. Stress & trauma is still, stress & trauma! The changes to our daily routines are interrupted which makes it harder to move on. Every time we sit down to eat, they're not there. Every morning we wake up, we realize we have no job to go to. The wound is constantly broken open. It's opened a gap in time we must fill with something else, it's the law of the universe. Something will always fill in an empty space, it's physics.

 

But how do we move on?

In my own times of loss I remember the feeling of being on your hands and knees, feeling your way around in the dark, scared, alone and feeling like you can't find the door to get out. The mind remembers that there was sunshine somewhere; it's why we want out of suffering. Subconsciously we know love and happiness exist, we just can't find our way back to it. But we can, and do. As I've gotten older and having been through my share of pain and trauma I've realized that life is a repeating pattern just like the seasons, the days and cycles of everything. Happiness and suffering are like the seasons. One may love winter by playing in the snow, another is freezing to death and digging out to stay alive, then the sun comes and saves the dying one but now burns the one that was playing in the snow.

 I've run into people who are still playing the same record over and over again in their minds their entire lives, struggling to sort through the shrapnel of an incident that happened 20 years ago constantly picking at an old wound and refusing to let go of a trauma spending the rest of their lives repeating things like "just my luck" or "Murphy's law". It's as though they've accepted some victim fate of never ending suffering.

 Every body reacts the same way chemically to a traumatic situation, but the difference is how the mind chooses to react to the body's reaction.  

Man is sitting quietly enjoying camp.
Dinosaur invades camp, chases man.
Man reacts either by running or fighting.
Danger is over and dinosaur is gone but camp is destroyed by dinosaur.
Man gets sad at loss of camp.
Man gets angry, then sad, then confused as to why and where the dinosaur came from.
Man gets angry at himself, then others, looking for a "why".
Man gets frustrated and tired of rebuilding camp.
Man rebuilds camp better than before and enforces surroundings.

 OK, so that's a corny analogy of humans, but its life. Loss happens to EVERYONE. No one is immune to loss of some sort, it's part of the function of the entire universe. Every living and non-living thing gains and looses something. Sometimes this analogy passes so quickly we barely notice it and sometimes it drags on for years.

 What is your interpretation of an incident? What is your explanation of why something happened? Does faith have an effect on how we get past things? I don't believe there is a right way or a wrong way to get past anything as long as you come out the other side wiser, not be bitter or angry at others around you and let it go and live, not just exist.

 Some faiths teach us to look inward, find our peace within ourselves. Understand that life just is and we have little control over anything external. A perpetually changing pendulum that never stops. Our blood keeps circulating, our cells keep dying and regenerating themselves, the universe keeps moving, nothing dies, it just changes form. No single creator involved, life creates itself from itself.

 Some faiths teach us to look outward questioning why this happened to us over and over again. The will of an external force, a punishment, bad karma, a curse or a devil chasing us. It's a shame on us for doing bad. Blaming someone or something else for what happens to us while alive or after we're gone. The human brain constantly seeks answers to things, it's natural. Being told to just have faith or convincing us that this external force has it's reasons, is not an answer we like to hear. It's like telling a child "Don't do that" The child is going to always ask "Why not?" and you answer "Because I said so" is hard to swallow if you believe in an external force.

 Either way you look at it, life happens and keeps going. Some things we will never have answers too no matter how hard we keep looking or asking. When it involves people we will never know what went through their minds, why they did what they did. Everyone is on his own path through life, learning his own lessons, dealing with his own issues. We HAVE to move on. You have things to do and work out too.

 

Filling the time gap:

• Flip your mattress and move into the center of the bed, the hump will go away quickly.
• Find something to occupy your mind from obsessing. Reading, painting, running.
• Learn something new. Focus your mind on new things.
• Socialize with others. Be mindful not to dump & complain to your friends constantly. They understand your pain but let them keep the conversation on other things. It helps ease stress by changing your focus and move on. Good energy is what you need, avoid others that feed the "misery loves company" mentality. Turn on daytime tv or watch the news if you need a confirmation that you're not the only one who's lost.
• Remember your faith. Meditate, understand it WILL pass.
• Journal writing. It helps us focus and slows down a chattering mind.
• Exercise! Burn up those damaging stress hormones; get rid of anxiety and depression.
• Get rid of the pain triggers of the loss. I'm gonna get shit for this one but the wound gets reopened every time you are reminded of that loss. Pictures, clothing, smells, dishes, foods, anything that reminds you of the loss. Putting these things in a box gets them out of site so you can heal. You can always give them away later when you are ready to move on, happily. Throwing them away triggers even more loss, it shows the brain the loss is in the garbage. (Unless you want it there)  

Don't do's:

• Don't get stuck in the time gap. Make a plan to fill the time gap left by the loss, a new schedule. This is why they say "keep busy". By filling that time gap it results in, "keeping busy".
• Don't cry "you just don't understand". YES, we do. YOU have to get through this in your own heart and mind.
• Don't get caught in the perpetual "why me" mode. Refocus on anything and stop the thought if you start feeling stressed, address it another day.
• Don't create negative anniversaries: "16 years ago today....." Celebrate and remember life, not loss. One issue I have with certain holidays and remembrances, they open old wounds reliving loss by reenacting negative situations. Guilt teaches us to not forget. Focus on the positive outcome, not the misery that fueled it. If you focus on the path while on it, then on the destination when you get there, you're always living in the present moment.

 

 

 

 

 

Life is good

A man sat on his porch one day with a smile from ear to ear. He patted his dog on the head and enjoyed a juicy green apple. Everyone that walked by saw this mans happiness. Day after day the passer byres wondered what made this man so seemingly happy.

One afternoon a kid walked past and said, "Look here mister, I've got a dog just like yours".

"That's a mighty fine dog" he said with a big smile.

A day or two later a woman stopped and said "Well I've got a dog and a house like yours."

"That's wonderful missy" he said.

A few months later the woman and the kid stopped and chatted with the man.
"I' don't understand" she said. "I got a house like yours, we got a dog like yours and our apples are just as sweet as yours but we are not happy like you. I don't understand where we went wrong. What is your secret?" She said with confusion.

"Well" The man said as he turned to them and smiled. "I don't rightly know. I'm just sittin' here waiting from the bus on my friends' porch pettin' this here stray dog that comes by everyday enjoying my lunch."

Life is good.

Social Media Sunshine

Lessons I'm learning from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest never seem to escape my wondering of how this affects us as a culture. I find it fascinating those times in history between the spurts of growth and change from one era into another. The 50's expressed conformity with perfectly coiffed hair, clean lined clothing, happy music and finishing schools for girls. But as the 60's rolled in nothing could be farther from that image. I can only imagine what their grandparents thought when they saw girls in pants, natural hair, and not shaving. The butterflies first burst from his cocoon.

As we move into a new millenium I see how we are in the middle of another burst of change. Our social lives now consist of tweeting and vlogging, blogging and posting, texting and pinning. We seem to know what's going on with everyone, even though we've may not even know everyone. At first this annoyed the hell out of me because I come from the generation of "hanging out" with people in parks, coffee shops and malls. But as I got used to reading the posts and blogs I started to connect with people I barely know off line. It’s the same effect as watching a tv show. We connect with the actors, or in all reality we're connecting with the character played by the actor, not the actor him/herself. So in essence these people you've never met before are all actors playing a roll on a screen. We connect with their kids, vacation photos, listen to their music links, watch their video's etc. We are very influenced by their posts.

A girl I met only a few times in real life posted regularly to Facebook, and I mean daily. She actually kind of annoyed me in the beginning because she reminded me of Reese Witherspoons character Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. Every post was of her smiling, running a marathon, adorable pictures of her daughter and "Awesome super day!" posts. I noticed one day her posts were gone and that she no longer was on my friend list. Minutes after I inquired with a friend of hers, she immediately sent me a message apologizing for removing me along with a sough of others from her page. She didn't think "anyone would notice". Well hell, I noticed. Behind the smiley faces online was a conflict in real life we didn't know about. I realized that I had gotten used to seeing her daughter enjoy a sandwich in the park, trying on goofy glasses at the mall and most of all her "Awesome" posts. It reminded me that I was not in an "awesome" spirit where I should be and that is why her posts annoyed me.

I told her that I read all her posts and look forward to seeing her "It's a great day" words of encouragement and that we do notice when she is not there. "A little bit of sunshine goes a long way" I said.

This inspired me to share this with you. Our words, even as trivial as they seen on a screen are very powerful. They hold a sense of magic that can stir love, hate, fear and a myriad of emotions in our hearts. People are drawn to the light, the positive, and the happy ones. They inspire us, drive us, and keep us in a state of thought reminding us to keep moving forward.

Be mindful of your words, I'm reminded of this daily. I look at my own wall to see patterns. What am I posting? Are they mostly positive, motivating and encouraging? Are they complaining, criticizing or spreading fear? This is a good indicator of where your heart is. Believe me, people notice. Spread a little word of peace, you never know whose life you will change with a kind word.

Thank you Facebook friend for reminding me to "Have a happy Monday!"

Making your time energy efficient.

"Some people just have too much time on their hands."

Can I start by saying how much I really dislike the sarcasm I hear in the voices of people who utter this phrase about creative or ingenious people who do amazing and sometimes seemingly silly things? How does one have "Too much time on their hands?" What would you do with more time? Perhaps we are just doing things that demand or are unknowingly sucking our valuable minutes away.

As I analyzed my days I found all kinds of time I was wasting on things that were not important to me like standing in long lines at the grocery store or trying to find parking. A change in the time I do some things made a huge difference. I started logging my minutes in a little flip book just to see where my time was being wasted. We make our homes energy efficient, why not our time?

Here are 10 ways I "found" more time:

Current Activity:                            Changed Activity:    Time gained per day:
1. Hair - 30 of drying & styling.             5 minutes               25 minutes
2. Make-up 12 min.                              3 minutes                9 minutes
3. Closer job - 30 min. commute           7 minutes               23 minutes
4. TV (news) 60 min.                           15 minutes              45 minutes
5. TV (movies) 120 min.                        90 min.                 30 minutes                                       
6. Facebook -9 min.                             6 minutes                3 minutes
7. Email - 15 min.                                  7 minutes               8 minutes
8. Cleaning 13 min.                                8 minutes               5 minutes
9. Dishes - 6 minutes                                 0                         6 minutes
10. Exercise                                                wash for me                     
295 min.=4.91 Hours               141 min.=2.35 Hours   154=2.56 Hours

3 hours a day = 21 hours a week(that's a part time JOB) =  91 days a year that magically appeared to do whatever I want with.  

1. Cutting my hair and just letting it go curly vs. trying to straighten it. This is something I let go of as I got older. Not important anymore.
2. Found my skin looked much younger and healthier when I minimized all the make-up.
3. This is a tough one especially if you can't move closer to your job or find closer employment. The extra gas & maintenance I was spending on commuting didn't make up for the extra wage.
4.  1 entire hour of tv just to get the weather and major news events I was seeking. 50 minutes of that hour wasted on fashion trends, celebrity drama, or the latest way to cook healthy BBQ and commercials. Log on to your favorite sites and read exactly what you're looking for, log off.
5. Some tv shows I just love but hate commercials. Renting movies or watching them on the network site cuts down advertising time.
6. Social networking. Logging on can zap your time if you have numerous accounts to check. Smart phones allow you to add all your accounts with one click you can view Facebook, Twitter and e-mail accounts in minutes vs. signing in and out of each account on-line.
7. Ditto #6
8. Cleaning. This is an interesting one. Staying organized by putting things away after using them, laudry while dinner is cooking, etc. Then come "cleaning day" everybody has one, it's faster to vacuum, mop and wipe things down not having to put everything away and reorganize.
9. I do dishes while I cook so this is not a stand alone task. For me, it takes more time to rinse, run and put away a dishwasher full of dishes. (provided you have a small family)
10. I'm not a gym person. I dislike driving there, waiting for a machine and taking an hour or so to work out, given my living area and traffic. I do sit ups and stretching while I watch tv, squats and leg lifts etc. while cooking. They are finally releasing information that little bits here and there are hugely beneficial, yup, I stay trim doing just that.

Women do seem to have less time per week than men. We spend more time with make-up, hair, wardrobe, shaving, cleaning, organizing, chasing kids, cooking, etc. Not to say some men do these things too. Some times in our lives we find ourselves in situations that just demand all of our time and can't be trimmed down, and that's ok. We get through it and our schedules eventually change, then you can utilize those important minutes.

Now after saving myself almost 3 hours a day just by making those changes, I now have learned to paint and make healthier choices at the grocery store.  I get accused frequently of living under a rock and asked how the hell I know the ingredients of many foods. My health is more important to me than politics, celebrity drama or the weather in Honduras. Not that I don't care. What's important to one may be a waste of time to another.

So if your one of those people who says "Some people just have too much time on their hands", maybe it's time for an efficiency check of your time.  Some of our lifestyles are just habit, ours or someone else's, or maybe we live on someone else's schedule. Little shifts make huge differences in the long run. All we have is time.