Reasons, Causes, Effects, and Affects

In life we're forced to make choices and live with those consequences. Some of them follow us throughout our lives, and in our moments of solitude they come back to us and we revisit our actions. Did I do the right thing? Why didn't I do this? I could have done that, or this, or the other. Well, we do those things that we do in our lives for reasons that aren't readily known to us at the time. Later, the purposes become clear when we get to where we're going.
Some of our mistakes or bad momentary choices can put us on the path to our greatest of joys. I've made a few bad choices in my life, just like anyone else on this planet. But, I can't really say that I truly regret those choices. Had I not made some of them, there's a strong possibility that I would have never started this blog and I wouldn't be talking to you right now. I'd never have gone on to produce some of the work that I've done as a part of my courses at Art Institute, or written some of the things that I've written in the past. I might never have met some of the people which I've met and come to count as friends if not for some of those choices that I made.
Life truly, is what you make of it. If you make a mess of it in the meantime, it'll work out in the long run. It might not be clear to you now, but in time...as you're walking through that darkest forest...eventually you'll find that sunny clearing where you'll be able to get your bearings and choose another path into a more gorgeous part of the forest.
It's been a strange trip for me. I've made a lot of bad choices in the past, but they've gotten me to a point, and brought me along the path that I needed to be on. I'm sure that those same things that you've done will do the same for you.

Sooner, or later.....you'll see.

Defeating the Distances

What connects people across the great divides? Technologies have given us the power to 'defeat the distances' between worlds and hearts. While our bundles of wires and glass windows on the world aren't a substitute for the closeness of a warm embrace, the warmth comes from our knowledge that out there, at the other end of a phone line, a keyboard, a screen, or microphone cable is a good friend, a companion, a family member, or some as yet unknown love which will one day walk with us through grassy fields.
Life, and living truly is what we choose to make of it. We can be happy or sad about our situations of distance, but we shouldn't ever give up that one day, all we've hoped for, all our dreams will come true. For, if we stop dreaming a part of our soul will die, you never give up chasing after what you're dreaming of in this life.

Many have thrown their arms into the air, and given up in fear of succeeding at finally capturing the butterfly which eludes them in their waking life. For any of our hopes and desires to be made real in this world, we have to take those risks needed to make them come about. Little that is great in life, is easy to accomplish. Whether it's a job, a love, a life, a career, a relationship, or climbing a mountain. We have to find those parts of ourselves, which are holding us back from our ultimate realities, deal with them on a firsthand basis, conquer them, and make our dreams a reality.

The distances which divide us, are small when we consider the gulf which dwells within ourselves at times.

Harmonies and dissonance

The great dualities of human existence govern our lives every day. We're born alone, and effectively we die alone. Is there a god, is
there not a god. We love, we hate, we're cold, we're hot, and the list goes on and on. Our nature is a dual nature. Within each of us, there are polar extremes to our existence. We are body, and spirit. We are mind, and heart. It's enescapable. The greatest trial of our lives is to find a balance between these two extremes of our conscious states. Finding this middle ground, and living within it, is something which mankind has sought from the first moments of sentience.
So, why is it when someone says that they've lost the love of their life can they not right themselves quickly? Would they be so distraught if they had lost the hate of their lives? Would they feel so empty if they could never experience true cold in their lives? Why is it that love has such the effect upon human beings that it is the penultimate governance of our consciousness? Is it that love is the most imporant part of us? Is our nature made for love, is it built from love, so much so that we are drawn to seek it in other beings?
I was recently in a chatroom where there was someone there who had lost the love of their life. You could hear the pain and sorrow in their voice, in the words that they spoke of this person. Is this how we combat those primordial feelings of being born alone, that we seek out the perfect compliment to our lives in the embodiment of another human being to fight off the fears of ever having to face that terror and loneliness again?
In our world, we are closer together than we have ever been as a race. We are connected in ways that we have never been. It's likely that at some point in the future we will be connected ever closer to one another as a race, will this need for companionship continue to rule our lives in that time when we can feel and touch from across the wide sea? My guess is yes, it's deep in our nature to seek out the comfort of another warm body on cold nights.

Ceasing Inactions

We spend a lot of time stopping ourselves. Censoring our own actions for the good of others, or for the self-satisfaction of saving ourselves from feeling like a fool for some reason or other. I think that's it's past time that everyone just puts their guards down and finally admits to the world, how they really feel about things. I don't mean that there should be some outpouring of built up angst, who would want that? That stuff is better held back for the sake of everyone, especially the self. Those negative feelings are probably best not expressed, maybe I'm just dancing around something that I don't want to admit. Maybe it's something that I've felt for a couple of years about someone and I don't want to tell her. Even though, I've this feeling that tugs at me, and calls to me that she feels something too. So, why not just go for broke, just put it all out there and say hey! Well, it's just not that easy when you've managed to build a great friendship with a person. You have to take things carefully, managing each of the progressions with all the intent of a four-star general.
But, that's not really living is it? Isn't life supposed to be a spontaneous thing which happens in those moments between our breaths? Are we supposed to take the 'bull' by the horns and go for broke in each moment that we're given to live on this rock?
I suppose that with everything, there is a medium which we have to be painfully aware of. Our mediums are different, because our grounds are so different. The levels we choose for ourselves are so different that the levels which we meet with others upon, but life is short. If we don't go for the things we want from life, then it could pass us by.
That would be sad wouldn't it, if our greatest opportunities just passed by us. Those great loves, the successes which we would miss, the parts of the world which we would miss seeing, and the people who would forever remain only a thought across the miles.
This is not the time for introspective meandering, this is finally the time for action. No more handwringing and soft-stepping, we must make our own destinies, fulfil our own dreams, and blaze our own trails. Our leaders have forsaken us for currency, so should we forsake them for our own currents.

'Tis time to paddle against the current.
We shall lay in might stores for the coming storm.
Our grainaries shall burst under their own weight
and our bellies shall be full with the zest we find in our lives.
This is our season to shine, and we shall be the brightest of stars

This is truly the time to put aside all our longings, all our shortcomings, and all of our self-pronounced doubts. We are at the crux of a mighty war for our very souls, and it is truly the domain of each of us that we take the charge to treat one another with the dignity which we so desperately desire for ourselves.

Your body like a searchlight
my poverty revealed,
I would like to try your charity
until you cry, "Now you must try my greed."
And everything depends upon
how near you sleep to me

---Leonard Cohen "Take this longing"