Complex Simplicities

I've been thinking about my life and life in general and the ways in which it can be both simple and complex. Often times I think the human-made world is created to be unnecessarily complex and I dream of living in a time before the world was over-populated with cities, taxes and white noise. I'm beginning to understand why I've been so dissatisfied lately, and it comes from trying to live in an unnecessarily complex world that draws attention away from what really matters - the complex simplicities.

Here are my lists of unnecessary complexities (drama) and complex simplicities.

Drama
- Politics
- War
- Manipulation (game playing)
- Exaggerated emotions (also can be manipulative)
- Projecting blame
- Materialism (when it comes at the expense of Complex Simplicities)
- Staunch extremism
- Unrealistic expectations/Unfounded assumptions

Complex simplicities
- Love
- Wholeness (knowing oneself)
- Friendship
- Raw emotion (goes hand in hand with knowing how to handle it and knowing oneself)
- Peace/Contentment/Satisfaction
- Nature
- Growth (challenge as a good thing, as opposed to the challenge of living up to someone else's expectations)
- Fluid balance

It's not an exhaustive list, but good enough I think. To not get caught up in the unnecessary complexities is, in my opinion, to give more attention to what gives life its meaning, leading to true happiness, fulfillment and prosperity. Yeah, I'd like more of that please.

A Change of Perspective

Aka, the difference between being successful and working for people who are successful.

Don't sell yourself short.

Be clear about who you are, what you have to offer, and where your interests lie, and believe wholeheartedly in it. No, don't believe, know it. The difference between someone who is successful and someone who works for another's success is how firmly you stand in who you are and the level of confidence you have. Don't run off looking for ways to achieve someone else's idea of success. If you're looking for a job, don't tweek your image to fit what the company is looking for. Be who you are and let it show. That passion and confidence is going to be more important than your specific qualifications.

People who attempt to live up to someone else's standards will never be satisfied. It's a defeating cycle that will wear on your ambitions and allow people to take advantage of you. When you know fully well what you're capable of and use that knowledge to further your aims, people are going to recognize that power and put you in positions of power.

Remove the distractions coming from family, your upbringing and culture, and focus on what you want to achieve and why. Understanding your own motivations is key, since it will distinguish someone else's dream from your own.

Own your dreams and make them happen.

What is Love?

I recently read an article on Nerve that likened love to a willingness to wipe your beloved's butt should they become incapacitated, without reservation or resentment. To be there for that special someone regardless of all those stupid little things they do that piss you off. I guess you could say that love is for real when you take off the rose-colored glasses and still see that grossly imperfect person before you as undeniably amazing and beautiful.

Love is continually molested by over-idealization - thoughts of how it should be and what and who it can include. Perhaps true love in itself is perfect, it's unconditional, but do the people involved ever come close to reaching such a perfected state? Would it be love if they did?

Once you love someone, is there a ever a point when you stop loving them? If emotions come and go, but love endures all things, then what is love? When your partner becomes wrinkled and crippled by old age, or changes into a person different than the one you originally knew, what happens to the love you grew to feel for them?

I'm convinced that love is so much more than a passing emotion or infatuation, and that it has the power to bring people together in unforeseen ways.

But I'm curious to know what love means to you.

So...What is love?

Finding My Way

Finding my way,
To being someone else,
Someone different,
Than I thought myself to be.
A voice inside,
Crying to get out,
Waiting for a chance,
To be.
I thought I knew me,
But these eyes see through,
To who I truly am,
Inside.
No matter the lie,
The I slips on by,
Unconvinced by anything less than,
Truth.
I'm finding my way back,
To the I,
That has always been,
Within.
This craving consumes me,
Now I can see into me,
To all that's been and truly begin,
To live.
What I am grows through me,
It overcomes all I thought I could be,
And pushes me to begin,
Again.
I'm finding my way,
Maybe I'll realize today,
The Self I'm becoming,
Lives.

Raw

What is this,
Raw feeling coming out of me.
Thick red blood,
Moves through my veins.
The sensuous life,
Pulls my body along.
Open like a wound,
Still healing.
Death tastes bitter,
But life turns it to sugar.
So sweet to the tongue,
I had to chance another taste.
Falling out of grace,
To land in paradise.
My own true nature,
Overcomes me.
This feeling,
So raw.

Touching What's Real

It's alive. I can feel it, the energy pulsating. To touch upon something that's breathing life and to feel it through the rise and fall of our own breath, is a kind of magic. It's a magic that sees, is seer and seen; touches, is toucher and touched. When we realize the magic that is ever present and that we unceasingly live in, a curtain parts and there are no actors. The breath and the life and the seed of becoming touch us, and teach us what it is to be real.

Protection

Sometimes we can all use a little extra padding in our lives. The following is a meditation to call in protection against the elements. It will help you to become more centered and grounded, and it will allow what is unnecessary to fall away or become less threatening.

Sit in a comfortable position.
Close your eyes.

Begin to pull your energies back into yourself, focusing your attention on your own body. Spend a moment allowing your thoughts to go where they will and let yourself become the observer of these thoughts. There is no need to judge, just let them be.

Start to bring your awareness into greater focus on your body. Feel the entirety of your body and feel its presence in the world.

Imagine that a vibrant white light surrounds your body, about three feet out in every direction. Feel it as a nourishing light, energizing and replenishing you just as the sun nourishes plants. This light not only offers nourishment, it protects you from outside energies and protects you from spreading your own energy too thin.

Bask in this light until you feel fully renewed and strengthened.

As you go through your day, if you feel run down or as if someone's getting the better of you, remember your protective shell of light, and let it deflect what's not your own and ground within your awareness what is.