There are times when everything is so loud, so bright, so fast paced and flashing that I can’t focus, I can’t concentrate. So many responsibilities, and people clamoring for my attention, so many worries sitting on top of my chest, so many fears blaring at me from the back of my mind, that peace is elusive and, for all intents and purposes, non-existent. Then there are the times where I am so in tune with everything, I can stop, kneel…
I remember, back when I had just graduated high school (in the bygone era of 1999), my friends and I would occasionally, that being once every few months, take a trip two towns over, next to the interstate, where there was a 24 hour Waffle House. Now, for those of you who do not know, Waffle House is an institution here in the U.S. It is typical of what you’d call a “greasy spoon” restaurant, and you can find them…
There are days when the weight of everything pushes down on top of me, and I can barely hold it together mentally and emotionally. Today has been one of those days. My brother came over yesterday, along with my niece and nephew, and it was wonderful to see them, as always. The kids went off to play the Xbox, and my brother, mother, and myself watched a few videos on the television. We watched a Christian band that my brother…
“Do you know why you’re here?” “Yes. I have too much empathy for my own good. It’s the kind of empathy that doesn’t recognize borders, colors, or crimes. It’s empathy and compassion that goes beyond what people are willing to accept, willing to understand. It makes them feel uncertain about my motives. People don’t like to feel uncertain.”
I was born in March of 1980. 3 months earlier than planned. I spent 45 days in an incubator, separated from human touch. When I was a toddler, I would hug and kiss everyone. I would walk around (as best as I could), and give everyone I saw hugs and kisses: mom, dad, uncles, aunts, grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins, fellow kids, teachers, anyone who wanted one. I enjoyed it. It made me very happy. At 8, most folks, aside from my…
For now, this is what I want you to listen to today. It’s about 20 minutes long, and read by someone I subscribe to on Youtube. The video is the first chapter of Peter Kropotkin’s “Conquest Of Bread.” The book was written and published 100 years ago, but the words are eerily prescient regarding what we’re facing today. I urge you to listen, please. “Our Riches” – from Peter Kropotkin’s “Conquest of Bread,” as read by Cameron. You can…
I live in a nation where “pizza is a vegetable” (well, technically, the two teaspoons of tomato paste that usually adorn them, but still, it’s a cheap way to save on serving actual vegetables to children who need them). I live in a country that classifies “Saved By The Bell” as “Educational and Informative” on morning children’s programming. If ever there was a time to be concerned about the future of my homeland, we are long past it. The disease…
“Good” is a term that doesn’t really have an objective definition. It is wholly subjective based on the perspective of the observer, and of the participant. The definition can vary between both, and the conclusion may also vary. For someone like myself, “good” means the following: displaying kindness, compassion, generosity, empathy, a willingness to listen, and a desire to help others. If you exhibit these traits, you are a “good” person. Of course, not exhibiting all of these traits doesn’t…
So much of what we think goes unspoken, unexpressed. If, as humans, we truly shared all within our minds, everything that passes through our brains, perhaps we would stop hating, stop mistrusting, and realize that we’re all human beings desperately trying to figure out who we are, why we’re here, and that every person is worthy of unconditional love. Amaris.
I’m sure the question has come up, among some, about how I jump from one ideology to another. It may seem that my beliefs are mercurial, perhaps selected on a whim, and that I engage in a kind of philosophical sleight of hand, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I am a Christian. I am an atheist. I am a Pagan. These states within me have always existed on some level. All you have to do, in order…