Online Gaming Addiction, Evony, and Moore's Law

I started playing this online game called Evony several years ago because my brother and boyfriend at the time both played it and liked it.  We started up new characters on the same server and started our own three person alliance just for some social fun together.  It was fun for a while and then we got bored and moved on to other things.

Of all the games I have ever played online, I played them because a friend asked me to join them.  After some time had passed, this game called Evony came out with a newer version called Evony Age II.  I decided it would be fun to play a game just for myself for once, not as an invitation from someone else... so I did.

Evony uses a game model that is free to log on and play, but if you spend money in their cash shop you can advance quicker and more easily than the freeloaders.  They build in certain roadblocks to encourage you to spend money or else spend months and even years trying to get the very rare drop that will let you advance.  For the most part I play as one of the freeloaders, however I have made one purchase in order to get past the first advancement hurdle after several months of trying to do it the free way.

This game, like others requires you to log in regularly to check the status of your cities, defend against attacks, collect resources and build troops.  It is not a hurry up and win sort of game, but a long-term strategy game which you can learn the basics of quickly and go have a good time or you can study the infinite and ever-changing complexities of the game mechanics in order to affect maximum damage on your opponent with minimum loss.  Whichever style you choose to adopt, the game is further enhanced with the infrastructure of alliances, a built in chat system, and a mail system.

The game Evony Age II has many phases of game play.  As you first begin, your goals are to build resource fields and city structures.  You also need to research various skills that will improve your ability to produce more resources, increase your battle skills, and strengthen your fortifications.

The next phase you need to train troops, recruit and develop heroes for your armies.  There are many quests in the early stages to teach you about these things as well as early and long term achievements which will give you additional bonuses.

Next you begin to use your built up armies to attack other cities.  These can be either player owned or non-player owned (NPC).  This allows you to plunder opponents resources, kill their armies, and capture their cities... which is really the launching point of the social development in the game.

You begin to develop your gear so that your heroes can command more effectively and your armies become more effective in battle.  As the early stages of the game wrap up... the building of your cities and resource fields, the skill research, your gear upgrades... you focus on other things such as obtaining Historical Cities that can produce more resources and allow you to command the realm around them through the use of policies.  You also hunt and capture Historical Heroes who are stronger than normal heroes and can command greater armies.

I list these things as separate stages of the game, which they are, but for the savvy player, they are all going on together and overlapping one another.  Most players decide that the game is more fun and easier to play if you join an alliance.  Now you have others who you can share your knowledge with and can assist one another in resource gathering or battle efforts.

As the server that you play on ages, you become more acquainted with other players, both allies and enemies.  Battles rage on in ever increasing size and scope.  Psychological warfare comes into play and you work to defeat your enemies even before the first army begins to march by using misinformation and generally trying to get a rise from your enemy so they will lose focus and make mistakes.

People you have played with become your brothers and sisters in arms.  You exchange contact information with them.  You share details of your lives with them outside the confines of the game.  You connect with these people through other social media such as Facebook or Skype.  Telephone numbers and addresses are exchanged.  You learn about their lives, their families, their hopes and dreams.  You become a part of their lives as a digital, real-time, pen pal.

Special ones evolve beyond digital means of communication and become true friends who you enjoy for years to come, sometimes even for the remainder of your lifetime.  This is how Evony and other online social games are addictive.  In a very personal way, these friends from around the globe have become your friends and your most trusted soldiers in battle.  You have come to know them, love them, and sacrifice yourself for them just like you might a neighbor, a family member, or another member of your military platoon.

The fact that these are pixel adventures is irrelevant.  They celebrate your accomplishments and mourn your defeats.  They have your back in good times and bad and knowing you has made an impact on their lives and knowing them has made an impact on your life.

People often say, "it's just a game."  This is true.  It is just a game. The play mechanics are just pixels on a screen that you can occupy your time and mind with.  They are as simple or as complex as you wish them to be.  However there is a human element which cannot and should not be denied, for it is this contact with other humans and the ability to know people from all around the world and all different walks of life that keeps people playing the game and makes it addictive.

For me, ultimately, I view the internet, online gaming, and all social hubs as gifts which open global communication and idea sharing to a level never possible for our ancestors.  Just as the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years according to Moore's Law, now too the era of global communication, idea sharing, tolerance, and understanding are also growing at exponential speed. 

It is not just game mechanics that we discuss with these friends while we play and chat, but politics, religion, financial matters, social beliefs, hopes, dreams, tragedies, accomplishments, childhood memories, lessons learned, conspiracy theories.... anything and everything. 

In some ways there is more honesty in these conversations than if the same conversation were held face to face with someone.  You can bear your heart and soul to a person and really let them know you without the risk of being rejected or embarrassed face to face.  Without having to worry if you'll run into them down at the grocery store after they know your deepest thoughts and maybe disagree with them.

It is no longer one government communicating with another, it is every citizen communicating with the world first-hand.  Each of us making friends and enemies around the globe for ourselves.  Each of us making our own decisions and choices about who to friend and why.... what and how much to tell them.  We are confirming that we are all different and yet all the same.  We are beginning to speak with a unified voice.

Online games may be addictive and even detrimental if played in excess.  They are also an accelerant to international relations, unification, understanding, tolerance and harmony with citizens across the whole planet.  Ultimately, online games as well as other forms of social media are the spearhead ushering in a new era of peace and love for one another.

Change for Better, Tolerance and Harmony

On October 25, 2011 I woke around 3:00 AM and had an urgent desire to write down some thoughts.  When I read it the next day I thought it had some good ideas within it and that maybe I'd refine it at some point and share it.  I've decided instead to present it here in it's raw format, just as I wrote it that early October morning.

There are ideas within that perhaps I will expand upon at a later date, but for now I hope the world can open up to these thoughts and embrace the messages of Change, Tolerance and Harmony that our whole world needs.

Change what is not working.
Why do our Congress and Senate hold sessions where people get up and talk, yet no one is listening? Why do people vote by party lines? Why the lack of personal decision?

We need smaller groups with equal representation.  Include civilians in meetings, each group can come to a consensus and speak to the larger body.  Everyone present pays full attention to those speaking and contributes.

Abolish parties and sides in politics.  The side is that of the people... ALL people.  The goal is to find win-win situations so that all have a good or reasonable outcome.

No citizen left behind.
Food -- Clothing -- Shelter -- Medical Care -- Heat
Basic human rights for every being of every race, every country, every faith.

Just because you have always done something a certain way... if it no longer works as intended, change it.  Change proceedure, protect every being.  We are all sacred and have something to offer.

Embrace truth and full disclosure.  Secrets have no place in politics or anywhere in life.  Life is about experience and choice.  Make a choice and own it --Good or bad.  If there are no secrets, there is communication and if there is communication... honesty... there is trust and there is always a way to come to a reasonable agreement about things.

With no secrets, there would be few rules needed anywhere.  Instead there would be agreement, respect, concern for one another.

Our planet should no longer be divided.  We are here together.  Every part of our planet has something wonderful about it, something useful.  If we coordinate, we can share among ourselves and enjoy the entire planet as a unified civilization.  There is plenty for everyone.  We can all be fed, all be warm, all be educated about things that interest us.  We can all find bliss... comfort... support... love.

Let our emotions be our guides.  Good feelings move us toward our true desires, our goals for our lifetime.  Negative feelings indicate we are headed away from our desires.  Let us use this to our advantage and teach our children love and respect by teaching them to follow their emotions.

Let us make conscious choices and actions based on in-the-moment events instead of reactions learned by previous experience or bias of our mentors.

Let us remember the past and expect a great future, but live in the now because really, there is only now... always it is right now.

Let us value every being, every life, every perspective.  There is a choice or an opposite in everything.  There must always be so.  An up to every down, an in to every out, a blue to every red, a life for every death, a win for every loss... So for this reason we must accept and embrace those who stand opposite us.  Without them you could not be and without you, they could not be.

There is and there must always be room for both.  Stop arguing over who is right and instead find ways to live in harmony because you are both right, and you are both wrong... More simply put... you both ARE and that is enough.

No more division.
Unity -- Respect -- Honor
Working toward a common goal, the goal for each of us to follow our bliss and allowing those around us to follow theirs.

Not one of us is exactly alike.  If we were identical in every way, we would be the same being, the same body, in the exact spot in every moment.  Since we are not that, but each in our own place, each having a different perspective and experience, no matter how similar our conclusions -- thoughts -- beliefs -- memories --ideas, about every topic, they will be unique to us.

Embrace this diversity.  It is our greatest gift to ourselves.
Let us use that in politics and religion and finance and social values and community standards.  Remember that we are all blissfully unique and different and we would not... could not have it any other way.

Celebrate diversity and work together to allow diversity and live harmoniously.  Share what you do not need or have extra of.  Accept what you need or desire... Pay it forward to the next person always so that no one is ever left behind or without.

Bless every situation and accept every outcome.  Stand up for your beliefs, and step aside to allow others their beliefs too.

We can live in Peace and Harmony, in Prosperity and in Love!!

WI Union Humor

A Corporate Exec, A Teabagger and a Union Rep sit down at a table to talk things over.

On the table is a plate with a dozen cookies.

The Exec takes ten of the cookies, then turns to the Teabagger and says, "Keep an eye on the Union Rep, he wants a piece of your cookie."

The Law of Attraction

I've been working with the Law of Attraction.

The law of attraction says that what you give your attention to, attracts unto itself. So if you think about things you want then you are putting the universe to work for you and naturally and easily drawing that into your experience.

Now I'm excellent at this when it comes to small stuff, but when it comes to the big stuff (like attracting wealth for example) I'm not quite there yet. The problem is that you have to think of things that you want as if you rightly know and expect them to be there. If you think about what you want from the perspective of you want it because you need it or don't have it then it's the need or not having that you're actually drawing your way.

I remember once years ago my muffler pipe came loose from my car driving home and I was going to be stuck on an old country road for who knows how long if I couldn't find a way to hitch up that pipe. I clearly remember that summer day. I was standing at the rear of my car and looking up and down the road and I said to myself, "God wouldn't put me here if there wasn't a fix." And I really deeply believed this.

The moment I had that thought I looked into the ditch beside my car and there were a whole string of those little orange flags the utility guys use to mark underground pipes and stuff. I looked at them thinking I could use a couple to tie my pipe up and get home. Amazingly all but two of them were made of plastic and wouldn't have ever worked. But there were two steel ones and I plucked them from the ground, twisted them together and hoisted up my pipe!

Was it my belief that the solution would be there that made it so? Yes I believe so!

So in my mind I'm building the life I desire. I can see the pavers laying down the blacktop on the drive and the construction guys building my perfect home while the diggers work on installing the swimming pool out back and I smell the sweet scent of cut grass and hear the buzz of the lawn service working in the lawn and tailoring it just right.

Conceive - Believe - Receive!

I want a President who....

I woke up this morning thinking about the Presidential race here in the United States. I have a candidate that I'm backing, but deep down I don't see any of the candidates as really moving our country in the right direction.

Politicians all come onto the scene wanting to make changes and help people. I do believe that. But somewhere along the path they pick up speech writers and policy advisors and analysts and something happens. They decide to run a 'winnable' campaign. They tell us what the pollsters tell them we want to hear and then they get elected and end up making policy changes that will be good for their re-election.

I want a President who can sit down at a town meeting and also address Congress and tell it like it really is.

I want a President who will say the government is for it's citizens not for lobbyists. Someone who will make a stand and say that making sure no one in this country goes homeless and who will say that we don't need a $50,000 annual grant so one man can study the mating habits of dragon flies. Instead let's use that money to get one of our citizens into drug counseling and find him a safe place to live. Sure the dragon fly mating habits may be very useful to science, but that's not our nation's job to provide that research. Let business and private funding support that.

I want a President who will implement programs to fight for our kids. Let's take them back from the gangs. Let's figure out why our kids kill and get more counselors and student support in our communities and schools. Let's be realistic and acknowledge that the entertainment industry cannot continue to flash violent images across our televisions and game consoles and then say their products have nothing to do with increasing child violence. No, they aren't at fault for our declining social values, but they are definitely a piece to the puzzle. We need to educate our parents and spend money on programs that will help them.

Let's talk about programs that will engage our children and provide them with trained, adult supervision during times when parents are both at work trying their best to put food on the table and a roof over their family's head. If you want to spend $50,000 to research fireflies mating habits, then put it in the form of a student grant and let a team of scientific minded students earn money for their school by doing that research.

I want a President who's more interested in helping criminals reform and preventing other citizens from turning to crime than they are in building more prisons. Our prison system doesn't work. How can anyone think that locking a bunch of hardened criminals up together is going to produce anything but tougher criminals? We all know how much peer pressure can weigh on a person of any age and get them to conform. You lock a person up with criminals for 10 years then set them free, they just had a ten year education from the people we lock up to keep them away from us. You cannot reasonably expect to rehabilitate a person using that model. We need to treat each criminal as a human being and figure out what went wrong in their life to get them there. Then we need to put our government to work to give them the training, counseling and support, and peer pressure needed to turn their lives around. Take them out of that world and give them a new set of peers who will hold them to a higher standard and teach them to feel good about themselves. A criminal should never even see another criminal while they are being rehabilitated. They need to learn how to live without crime.

If our government cared as much about each and every one of it's citizens and spent it's money to ensure that none of us got left behind, the other problems of our world would fix themselves. People would choose for themselves to save the environment and to protect nature. Theft would decline. Business would thrive. Big business would support the researchers and the scientists. Our government would support it's citizens.

I want a President who will remember that our forefathers came here to give us a better life and that it's WE THE PEOPLE who they work for and who are trusting them to remember and give a damn about. When every citizen is important to their country from the most wealthy to the most poor, and our government goes out of it's way on all levels to make sure no citizen is left behind.

Is there any candidate out there with the strength and moral fiber to hold up to this standard?

My Friend Matt

"You never write about me," he says to me at 3:51 AM. Well I suppose it's true... for the most part I write about more philosophical topics.... but truth be told many of my posts were inspired from conversations I've had with this person.

Matt is my best friend, he's the person who continuously challenges me and makes me think about things. Sometimes I think he takes up an opposite opinion just for the sake of taking an opposite opinion.

Some things to know about Matt... He's got a near-photographic memory that sometimes makes me nuts. We'll be having a conversation and he'll pop in something I said two years ago word for word and I'll often tell him he's full of it, but really I'm amazed because most of the time he's right. This leads to another of his traits though..... he thinks he's always right. Just so you know Matt.... you're not always right. This is okay though because a lot of the time he is right and when he's not, it's fun to debate with him.

Matt knows that I love him and think the world of him, but he says he doesn't really believe in love. That's a bunch of poppycock Matt. Love is the act of giving, sharing, expanding, helping, accepting, appreciating and being patient. And you show that you are a loving person in your friendship with me. You are patient with me when I'm having a bad day. You encourage me just when I need it. You share your dreams with me. You accept me when I fall asleep on the phone. You share your life experiences with me. There are so many loving qualities you possess and share with me. You may not think this is love, but these are the acts of love and the acts of a true friend.

Now the entire world knows that you are special to me for good reason. I'm so happy to have you in my life and I can't imagine what the world would be like if I hadn't stopped in my tracks all those years ago and said to you, "I'm not trying to recruit you or anything but it would be so cool if your name were Prot Prot." Yes.. online gaming reference here. I met Matt originally in an mmorpg.... hey even philosophical people can be gamer girls.

Est Sularus Oth Mithas. Est Tsarthai en Paranaith.

Passing on...

One constant in the world is that the older you get, the more deaths you'll encounter of friends and loved ones. There is also an old saying that people go in three's. This year at least it's been true. I've lost my Grandma in April, one of my dogs in October and now a 30 year family friend two days ago.

A part of me is sad for these losses because I can't see their faces or hear their voices any longer. But another part of me is joyous because they have gone back to God and have no more pain, no more illness, no more suffering. I'm also happy because I still carry them in my heart everywhere I go and when I need some words of wisdom or someone to cuddle up against.. I can just think of them and feel their spirit still with me, still loving me.

If there is a lesson to be learned from death, it's to appreciate your loved ones while they are here. Show them you love them with your kindness. Tell them you love them with your soft words. And truly, deeply love them with your deeds. Then when the day comes that you can't just call them on the phone or go to their home you can just close your eyes and let your lifetime of memories with them grace you and guide you.

In loving memory of Edna, Hazel and Tom. May God be with you and may you be in my heart today and always.

Jumble of Emotions

My Grandmother passed away today. She was the last of my grandparents. She was a vibrant woman, full of life and always with a smile on her face.

I loved her unconditionally and I always will. That is not to say there wasn't pain. My grandma was someone who seemed more worried about what the neighbors thought and what the cousins thought than what her husband, children or grandchildren thought. Possesions were important to her and so were appearances.

I remember when Grandpa became ill and needed a walker to be able to get around. She would not permit it. She said he will have to learn to hang onto other things or take her hand for support because a walker is for cripples and the neighbors would talk. And when grandpa died, I had a committment the following Friday that I could not get out of. I asked if the funeral couldn't possibly be on Saturday because I really wanted to attend. But no... that wasn't good enough because Saturday wasn't good for one of the cousins who hasn't seen him in 15 years. His closest granddaughter couldn't come on Friday, but that didn't matter because some cousin he hasn't seen in 15 years wouldn't be able to make it on Saturday. When she did that, I said to myself If that's how you feel about it then when the day comes for your funeral... I'm going to say my goodbyes long distance just as I was forced to do with my grandpa.

But now the day has come. She is with grandpa and her funeral is pending in the next few days. In the years since grandpa died my own parents have had their share of health setbacks. Neither can drive anymore and when the funeral date arrives I am expected to drive them to the services. I'm so very torn. Yes I do love my grandmother and I carry with me many happy memories of her, but I still hold this anger toward her. I know it's selfish of me.

It goes to show you that no matter how deeply you believe in things like unconditional love, there is still hurt in the world. Of course I will go to her funeral and I will miss her and I will love her and I'm so very sad that I could not have been there for her.

You see she lives far from me and my own situation has prevented me from visiting her very much in recent years. Not because I didn't want to, simply because finances haven't been running the right direction to allow such visits. I used to call her every week on the phone and let her know she was loved and catch up on what's going on... but over the years her hearing went from good to bad and she refused to wear the hearing aid because in her mind it made her look bad to the neighbors. So I would call and she would say hello and spend the next three minutes trying to hear who was talking to her. Then she would say good to hear from you and when she thought I had said something she would give a reply like, "Oh, good good." It was sad, but I knew she could no longer hear me over the telephone and it was painful for me to try to talk to her and listen to her pretend that she knew what I said... so I stopped calling.

I've never been a writer, just a card with some news at all the holidays and for her birthday. She would do the same of course, but over the years her hand became weak and it was difficult for her to write.

Why am I sharing this pain with the world? Because I don't want to be one of those people who tells the world that everything is sunny when sometimes you really need a walker or a hearing aid. The world has such potential, but if you take a look around we have so much distance to cover if we are going to find those things that I so deeply know are out there....

peace ~ love ~ happiness

I love you grandma and I believe that you are now reunited with the bigger picture we call God. And I'm so regretful that I didn't call when I wanted to and try yelling louder so you could hear me and know from my own lips how much you meant to me. I believe you know what is in my heart and now understand all the love and the pain. Perhaps through our experiences, someone else can have the chance to make a different choice.

Remember to be true to yourself and on your last day on earth it's not what the neighbors thought about you, but it's about what you left behind in the hearts and souls of your family and it's about laying in that casket and being able to say you had no regrets.

The Value of a Life

What is the value of one life? It's value is infinity. Our lives exist on several different levels. Certainly day to day it's about finding someone to love, feeling loved, looking good, feeling good, excelling at your work, but at the next level it's about experiencing yourself as the best version of you that you can be in all areas of living. At the next level above that, it's about knowing that you are all these things.

On a religious level, it's about feeling separate from God and experiencing individual things, then opening your heart and letting God in... sharing your life with God, and finally seeing that God is in you and that you are a part of the everything and that God lives through you.

In this respect, it's not what get out of life that is important, it's what you put into it. When you take in your final breath of air and meet your maker, it's not going to be important how fancy your car or your house was, but it will be important what you gave to others, how you helped others, how you helped yourself. The decisions you made in your lifetime will be replayed for you and you will experience them as you did then, but also you will experience your actions through all those they touched. You will truly know how your actions in life affected others. You will see which of your actions lifted people up and which ones pushed people down. Which were loving and which caused pain.

Every moment you have a choice, every action you take has choices. I imagine someone is reading this and saying, "How can you prove these statements you've made to be true?" The answer is in your soul. Search your deepest feelings of right and wrong, of what is and you will see the truth is there for you also.

Live your life not as a single being trying to get as much out of it as you can, but as a member of something greater than yourself trying to give as much back as you can. It is written that what you give to others is returned ten-fold. Try it out. Instead of taking something for yourself today, give something to others. Instantly you will receive the gift of feeling great about yourself, you will feel the gratitude of those you helped and over time you will reap the long term benefits of giving.... you will see your entire community become better, your family become happier, your life become richer.

So much is to be gained by everyone when we put into our lives rather than take.

I may have said it all, but there is still more to say.

Nothing changes and nothing stays the same. This is a universal truth. It's all there for us, everything so it's always the same, but at the same time in each moment we have the chance to pick again. To choose another outcome. And so even though all those choices were always there, from day to day, moment to moment we experience a freshness out of them because we have chosen them in a different way.

Every day for example I look at this blog of mine. It's my homepage, so I see it every single time I open my web browser. Why then has it taken me two months to add to it? It's been here for me every day, been a choice I could make and yet for the last two months I've consciously chosen something else to do with my time each of those many times. All in all for a while I felt like the basic things I needed to say to the world were spoken. That nothing else need be said. If that were true though, what would be the point for living one more moment? Truly if I had said everything I needed to, I could lie down and die knowing I had shared everything I could with the planet.

I thought about that today though. Maybe I have presented all that the world needs to hear, but if so the world as a whole isn't listening very well. So I've come to the conclusion that I need to keep writing and keep providing information to you, the world, until the message is heard.

You are not alone in this world. You are one part of a bigger whole that comprises everyone and every thing. Everything, the entire sum total of the cosmos, including you and me, your pet, the blade of grass in the lawn, the moon and the stars... When you break these things down to their most basic element you will find energy. Each thing has it's own rhythm that makes it unique, but we are all just very sophisticated bits of energy seeking to experience ourselves.

I have many things to remind you and I'm going to be more diligent in doing so. Even if I have to repeat myself a hundred times or a thousand. I will keep on until the messages of the universe are heard and understood.

Follow Your Own Road

I view life as a road. Each and every one of us are on a road. Our roads travel great distances, sometimes straight, sometimes curvey. At times our roads go through the mountains and it seems like our heads are in the clouds, and other times our roads dip low into the valleys.

There are dry patches, and wet patches... muddy ones too. Our roads cross other roads, that is our lives cross others lives. Sometimes our roads parallel other roads. Often time these people we spend long periods with become our friends, our neighbors, our lovers. Then suddenly our road (or theirs) will curve away from ours.

This is not to be veiwed as a bad thing. It simply is what it is. We each have our own life to lead and one will never be exactly identical to another. When the path of a friend or loved one veers off in a direction away from our own, we need to remember this and be happy for that person and for ourselves. We need to celebrate this diversity and be joyous that we will get to experience something not exactly the same as the next person.

Besides, there is always a chance that our roads will come together again further on down.

We All Have A Choice

I'm very dismayed today about the state of the world. People change lanes in traffic without using their turn signals. A Muslim raised pop star is spit on and called a whore and her life is threatened because she shows her face and belly when she performs. Young women are looked on as property as they are trafficked over the Mexican/American border and their bodies sold to men for sexual acts and torture. Our children are targeted online and preyed upon by perverts and child molesters, sometimes even being abducted and physically abused and murdered. A man goes within himself and chooses a different religion than he was born into and his peers seek his death. A French labor law is sought to be changed and so protesters take to the streets hurling rocks at authorities and setting cars on fire.

...And then in line at the grocery store today a woman was 47 cents short and another person in line gave her the money so that she would not have to put anything back.

Can't we all PLEASE just step back from our own pettiness and look at the larger picture for a few moments?

You are not the only driver on the road and the guy or gal behind you isn't a mind reader... So please just take that tenth of a second and signal your lane change so there is less chance of an accident. And when the person does signal their lane change... Don't be the ass that speeds up to cut them off... Remember they have somewhere important to go too and just let off the accelerator enough to let them slip in. It's not going to make you any later and you'll feel better for having done a good deed.

Okay, maybe in your belief system this woman showing her face and belly is somehow selling herself out. Send her an email or tell her that how you feel but remember that she is not you. She is entitled to disagree with you. A pretty woman looking pretty certainly isn't going to make the world implode. Please look at the bigger issues in the world like world poverty, world hunger, world peace, global warming... There are lots of things you could expend your energy into fixing that when looking at the full picture are way more important than a bit of woman's belly being visible. And seriously... If you believe in any sort of supreme being then you must believe that you were created by that being. How can your skin, the covering over your organs that the supreme being gave you be considered so evil that you are committing a sin if you see some of it? Agree to disagree and go put your energy into something that will benefit humankind.

You... The person who has sold or purchased a young woman for profit or personal fulfillment.... What if someone did that to your mother? To your daughter? To your niece? How can you even think that using a young woman for profit or gain against her will is okay? A long time ago science proved that the sun doesn't revolve around the earth, but the earth revolves around the sun. The same goes for you... The earth doesn't revolve around you. You revolve at the same speed and velocity as every other being on the planet around the sun. So look up and see that we are all equal from the vantage point of the sun and treat everything on this planet as well as you would like to be treated.

For the person who seeks to interact sexually with children online or off... Tuck it back in your pants and Visit this site: addiction-rehab.info to get yourself some help. Don't let one more child suffer. What if it had been you? Just one incident can cause a child a lifetime of mental and emotional trauma. These are our children, the world's children... these are the people that will shape the future. Don't let your obsessions pass to another generation... seek help for yourself but also for the child you would seek to abuse. Give them the gift of growing up normal.

It is said you can choose your friends, but your stuck with your relatives. Religion walks a fine line along this reality. Once you are born, you are born. Whomever you ended up with will hopefully do their very best to give you all the things you need to live a fruitful and productive life here on earth. Along with those gifts are usually a sharing of beliefs, including religious beliefs. I think it is great to pass what we know on to the youth of the world and help them avoid some of our obstacles so that they can create new ones we never dreamt of. But eventually you have to set your child free into the world and let them walk their own path. Sometimes they will walk a path very similar to yours and sometimes they will take off in an entirely new direction. Don't fear or hate a person for walking their own path. Know that you (the parent, the religion, the society) gave them the best you could and the rest is up to them. You don't have to kill a person because they veered away from something you cling to. Set them free and wish them a journey of enlightenment.

It's one thing to disagree with your political leaders. It's another to hurl rocks at police and set cars on fire. It's one thing to have conviction in your beliefs. It's another to drive a car bomb into a busy area filled with people trying to get on with their day. Actions of hate and violence never solve problems. They just make even more people hateful and violent. Stop what you are doing. Step back and look at the world. If there is something going on that you don't like, then get together in your community and find a solution. Teach yourself to be tolerant of those you disagree with and those who are different from you. Seriously, that's the whole point of being here... to live and experience different things. If we were all the same it sure would get boring. Embrace new ideas. Work within the system for change or work to change the system, don't blow it up. Don't hurl rocks at strangers. Don't blow up people or cars for a cause. You loose the cause and become the problem when that happens. Step outside your hate and learn to tolerate.

To the man with the extra 47 cents... you are a hero. I would eagerly give up something in my own grocery cart if the money for it could help another person. You, sir, are living example of the sort of person I try to be. Thank you for stepping up and giving the lady ahead of us your 47 cents and reaffirming how great this world can be!

Live Outside Your Box

When we put aside the truths we hold close, sometimes the same truths come back and are reaffirmed to us. Sometimes it opens the door for something entirely different to enter and in that moment we grow as a human being .

We all come at life with our own baggage. That baggage is the sum total of all our experiences to date. It's what gives us wisdom, what guides us when we are unsure, what creates the framework for our values and our beliefs. When something presents itself for us to act on, our past experiences guide us to make a decision about this new thing. Sometimes that decision achieves that which we set out to achieve and sometimes it does not. Almost in all cases however, the decision that we made at that moment was one that we judged as the "right" one based on the experience and baggage of our past.

Our goal then is not to judge things as right or wrong, because that is merely opinion based on previous experience. But to be willing to lay down our baggage and experience something without parameters. Step outside our own box, step outside ourselves and find the greater truth. All scientists learn to do this... to take all that they "know" about the world through their experiences and teachings and set it aside to let new information come in. Such a way of looking at the world is how we have all the marvelous things we do today... someone out there put aside what they "knew" and accepted something "new" instead.

My goal today is to step outside my own box. To appreciate the richness of my baggage, but to leave it home and let something new and possibly unexpected in.

It's Your Decision

William Shakespeare said it best, "To thine own self be true." What this means to me is that we must each walk our own path and we must each make our own decisions in life. Just like a flame in a fire, create your own destiny, dance your own dance, be your own self.

So many times in this world people make decisions based on the truth of others. This is shown on every level from what you choose to eat to how our nations get along with one another.

I have an aunt who didn't like peas or beans and at her house, she never ate or served those vegetables. Interestingly enough none of her children like peas or beans either. Do they not like these vegetables because they tried them and truly think they are awful or did they just take the experience of their mother and make it their own?

A General tells his soldier that the other nation is their enemy. The soldier goes into battle and kills the soldier of the other nation. Was that person who died truly an enemy of our nation? It's certainly possible, but he was also most certainly a son, a nephew, a friend. He was possibly a husband, a father, an uncle. The point is we will never know what sort of person that dead soldier was. Someone else labeled that man and he has been killed by a complete stranger.

You know, a person murders their spouse and they are hated on by the world. They are a murderer, sentenced to rot in prision. A soldier kills a stranger and they are a hero. They come home and get a medal. I'm not saying that the person who murdered his spouse is someone we want walking on the street, and I'm not saying the soldier should be locked up, but I am saying that one person made their decision out of their own experiences and the other made their decision out of the experiences of others.

It is my goal to live up to the ideal Shakespear has presented us. Live my own life, walk my own path, and make each decision based on my own experience, not the experience of another. To thine OWN self be true.

Experience Eden by Living Right Here

The story of Adam and Eve can be looked at as a literal happening or a touching story, in either event it's message is designed to remind us why we are here. Adam and Eve had everything they could ever want in the Garden of Eden. The problem that they faced was that in having everything, they experienced nothing. For how special is the most perfect thing if you have it at all times.

If you were able to drive down the street every day of your life and always have a green light, after a few days or weeks, having green lights all the time would not feel special, it would feel ordinary. In that example you have the perfect ride to your destination, but you can't appreciate it as the perfect ride in the absence of an imperfect ride. Without an occasional red light, you cannot fully appreciate all the green lights.

This is what the Garden of Eden represents. It is everything we always wanted but without the experience of not having it, there is no way to fully appreciate it. The tree of Knowledge represents this truth. Adam and Eve had everything, yet they could not experience having everything because they did not know what it was like to have less. There was no context to give their greatness perspective.

By taking a bite of the apple, Eve and Adam chose to give up perfection for an environment which would allow them to experience perfection. As soon as they gave themselves the knowledge and experience of something less than perfect, they could now appreciate and enjoy the perfection.

This is our gift from God not our curse. And the tale of Adam and Eve is His way of letting us understand why He doesn't just give us everything we desire. God has given us this playground so that we can do and be and create. We can experience the most fantastic and we can appreciate it and hold it dear to us in the face of all things less. When we have or do something extraordinary, we can truly appreciate it and feel great about it because it has meaning to us in the light of that which is not extraordinary.

Scoring a touchdown, winning the lottery, eating vegetables fresh from the garden, catching a string of green traffic lights, finding a dollar on the street.... these all feel really good because we can experience them "Knowing" that they are special.

Adam and Eve did not sin against God. They lived in Eden, surrounded with perfection, but they could not feel the perfection. By placing that tree of "knowledge" in Eden, God made it possible for them to have the experience of perfection. Ultimately that was a greater gift than the perfection itself, for how can perfection be appreciated in the context of nothing else?

I thank God for the lesson this teaches us, for the perfection in our lives and for the imperfections that allow us the perspective to appreciate all the things that we do have.

How can you experience Eden? This is the most simple thing in the world. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." If you see someone needing food, feed them. If you see someone standing on the bus, offer them your seat. If you see a person with their hands full in the grocery line, let them go ahead of you. If you see a person getting wet in the rain, offer them shelter under your umbrella. By giving away that which you have, you can experience the greatness of having it. You can know yourself as having an abundance of food. You can rejoice that God provided you with a comfortable seat. You can experience the feeling of not being rushed because you have time to let someone else slip in ahead of you. You can appreciate the shelter that God has provided you.

This is the lesson of Adam and Eve. This is the gift God has given us by allowing us the fruit of knowledge. Knowledge so that we can appreciate the first gift and know it for what it was and is. We can now experience the greatness of God in the eye of that which is less than great.

Special thanks to Dannyboy for inspiring me to write about this topic today.

Creation through Art

I love art and the act of creating. Be it a song, a sculpture, a painting, a photograph or simply a unique presentation of spaghetti.... it is the act of creation, of making something new and personal that draws me to art and those who create it.

Today I created this new header for my blog. I began with a predefined blog template thanks to Todd Dominey and I'm slowly tweaking it and making it my own. A day will come when it does not at all resemble what it started as and that will be a very special day for me personally because it will become something that is all mine. A representation of myself to the world at that moment.

The photograph used in my new header is a photo I personally shot while visiting the domes in Milwaukee. I really love the origninal photo. So much that I feature it on my deviant art account. But to take something that I have captured and add to it to create a presence and a personality for my blog... that is creation at it's finest.

I am pleased with what I have created and I am grateful for my friend, Matt, who offered me some honest feedback when asked for it so that I could step up my original idea a notch and really let it express me fully. Thank you Matt!

You cannot have what you want, but you may experience whatever you have

Let me say that again. You cannot have what you want, but you may experience whatever you have.

Our experiences in the world are created by thought, word and deed. What I mean is that what you think about something, what you write about something and what you do about something creates your ultimate experience of that thing. This all begins with your very first thought. That thought that starts with "I".

I want
I have
I am
I must

It is this first thought that begins the creation of your experience. Once you have a thought, the universe goes to work to bring the events and circumstances necessary to give you that experience. So when you say you want wealth... that is EXACTLY what you get. You get the experience of "WANTING wealth". Therefore you cannot have what you want, you can only have the experience of wanting it.

To look at the second half of that statement, one's response might be, "doh!" Of course you can experience whatever you have! Let's look at this a little deeper though. If you have a firm belief that something is within your grasp to have, you will have it and you will therefore be able to experience having it.

Let's make up an example: You have no orange juice in your house. You know that you have the means to obtain more juice, so your first thought is one of already having not one of wanting. You don't want more juice, you have whatever it takes to obtain more juice (money, transportation). In this way you have, by your first thought, created the experience you desired and you have made it possible to experience having orange juice because in your first thought you already had it.

All things in life work this way, though it is not always easy for us to remember this. True belief and knowing that you already have the item/feeling/experience (or the resources to obtain it) is your one and only way to consistently have the experiences you desire. So if there is something in your life that you truly desire, belief that you already have it is the one way to make it manifest in your experience.

You cannot fool yourself though. If you have a deep burning desire and are determined to have it, you will. If you have a deep knowing that you don't have it, can't get it, it won't work... then that too is what you will have. The first thought, the deep knowing and belief creates everything you see in your world.

Love on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a day we think of our loved ones. We often buy them gifts, send them cards, take them out to dinner. It is a day of celebration for the strongest, most heart-felt emotion a being can experience or share.

Today I have decided to share a slightly different, but much more fulfilling outlook on what love is.

This is quoted directly out of one of my favorite books, "Conversations With God" by Neale Donald Walsch.
All human actions are motivated at their deeepest level by one of two emotions - fear or love. In truth there are only two emotions - only two words in the language of the soul. These are the opposite ends of the great polarity which God created when He produced the universe, and your world, as you know it today.

These are the two points - the Alpha and the Omega - which allow the system you call "relativity" to be. Without these two points, without these two ideas about things, no other idea could exist.

Every human thought, and every human action, is based in either love or fear. There is no other human motivation, and all other ideas are but derivatives of these two. They are simply different versions - different twists on the same theme.

Think on this deeply and you will see that it is true. This is what I have called the Sponsoring Thought. It is either a thought of love or fear. This is the thought behind the thought behind the thought. It is the first thought. It is prime force. It is the raw energy that drives the engine of human experience.

And here is how human behavior produces repeat experience after repeat experience; it is why humans love, then destroy, then love again: always there is the swing from one emotion to the other. Love sponsors fear sponsors love sponsors fear...

...And the reason is found in the first lie - the lie which you hold as the truth about God - that God cannot be trusted; that God's love cannot be depended upon; that God's acceptance of you is conditional; that the ultimate outcome is thus in doubt. For if you cannot depend on God's love to always be there, on whose love can you depend? If God retreats and withdraws when you do not perform properly, will not mere mortals also?

...And so it is that in the moment you pledge your highest love, you greet your grandest fear.

For the first thing you worry about after saying "I love you" is whether you'll hear it back. And if you hear it back, then you begin immediately to worry that the love you have just found, you will lose. And so all action becomes a reaction - defense against loss - even as you seek to defend yourself against the loss of God.

Yet if you knew Who You Are - that you are the most magnificent, the most remarkable, the most splendid being God has ever created - you would never fear. For who could reject such wondrous magnificence? Not even God could find fault in such a being.

But you do not know Who You Are, and you think you are a great deal less. And where did you get the idea of how much less than magnificent you are? From the only people whose word you would take on everything. From your mother and your father.

These are the people who love you the most. Why would they lie to you? Yet have they not reminded you that you are to be seen and not heard? Have they not scolded you in some of the moments of your greatest exuberance? And, did they not encourage you to set aside some of your wildest imagining?

These are the messages you've received, and though they do not meet the criteria, and thus not messages from God, they might as well have been, for they have come from the gods of your universe surely enough.

It was your parents who taught you that love is conditional - you have felt their conditions many times - and that is the experience you take into your own love relationships.

It is also the experience you bring to God.

From this experience you draw your conclusions about Him. Within this framework you speak your truth. "God is a loving God," you say, "but if you break His commandments, He will punish you with eternal banishment and everlasting damnation."

For have you not experienced the banishment of your own parents? Do you not know the pain of their damnation? How, then could you imagine it to be any different with Him?

You have forgotten what it was like to be loved without condition. You do not remember the experience of the love of God. And so you try to imagine what God's love must be like, based on what you see of love in the world.

You have projected the role of "parent" onto God, and have thus come up with a God Who judges and rewards or punishes, based on how good He feels about what you've been up to. But this is a simplistic view of God, based on your mythology. It has nothing to do with Who He Is.

Having thus created an entire thought system about God based on human experience rather than spiritual truths, you then create an entire reality around love. It is a fear-based reality, rooted in the idea of a fearful, vengeful God. Its Sponsoring Thought is wrong, but to deny that thought would be to disrupt your whole theology. And though the new theology which would replace it would truly be your salvation, you cannot accept it, because the idea of a God Who is not to be feared, Who will not judge, and Who has no cause to punish is simply too magnificent to be embraced within even your grandest notion of Who and What God is.

This fear-based love reality dominates your experience of love; indeed, actually creates it. For not only do you see yourself receiving love which is conditional, you also watch yourself giving it in the same way. And even while you withhold and retreat and set your conditions, a part of you knows this is not what love really is. Still, you seem powerless to change the way you dispense it. You've learned the hard way, you tell yourself, and you'll be damned if you're going to leave yourself vulnerable again. Yet the truth is, you'll be damned if you don't.

[By your own (mistaken) thoughts about love do you damn yourself never to experience it purely. So, too, do you damn yourself never to know Him as He really is. Until you do. For you shall not be able to deny Him forever, and the moment will come for your Reconciliation.]

Every action taken by human beings is based in love or fear, not simply those dealing with relationships. Decisions affecting business, industry, politics, religion, the education of your young, the social agenda of your nations, the economic goals of your society, choices involving war, peace, attack, defense, aggression, submission; determinations to covet or give away, to save or share, to unite or divide - every single free choice you ever undertake arises out of one of the only two possible thoughts there are: a thought of love or a thought of fear.

Fear is the energy which contracts, closes down, draws in, runs, hides, hoards, harms.

Love is the energy which expands, opens up, sends out, stays, reveals, shares, heals.

Fear wraps our bodies in clothing, love allows us to stand naked. Fear clings to and clutches all that we have, love gives all that we have away. Fear holds close, love holds dear. Fear grasps, love lets go. Fear rankles, love soothes. Fear attaks, love amends.

Every human thought, word, or deed is based in one emotion or the other. You have no choice about this, because there is nothing else from which to choose. But you have free choice about which of these to select.

My Headache Remedy

Matt... this is especially for you.

I'm the sort of person that would rather find a natural cure for something over a chemical one whenever possible. This remedy is the thing that probably more than anything planted that mindset into me. When I was 13, one particular day I had a pounding headache but there was nothing in the medicine cabinet. So I sat in the bathroom trying to find another way to get rid of my headache and ease the suffering. What I came up with was a remedy that has served me for more than 22 years now.

Since that day I've only taken medicine for a headache one time. All other headaches I've experienced in my life have been knocked out with my remedy which I'm about to share with you. The most important element for success using this process is a firm belief that it will work. If you don't truly believe in your mind that it's going to work then it never will. However I have taught this remedy to many of my friends and everyone who has seriously tried it has had success.

First of all find a place where you can be undisturbed for about 10 minutes. Close your eyes and think about where exactly the pain in your head is located at. (behind your eyes, front of your head, back of your head... wherever it is) Then lightly place your fingers around the edges of the painful area. Now visualize the pain and using your fingers and your mind, slowly push the pain toward your eye sockets. (you can direct your pain toward your ear or any other opening in your body too depending where the pain is located) Just quietly sit there and using your fingertips, guide the pain toward this opening.

I can literally feel the pain from the headache move about as my mind and fingers push it. When it is just behind the eyes, open your eyes and again using your mind and your fingertips, force the headache out of your eye sockets, releasing it into the air. Do this until you get every last bit pushed out of your body.

After doing this, I always have a dull ache behind my eyes that lasts for a few minutes, but it is always much softer and more bearable than the original headache and it fades completely within a short time. Now the headache is completely gone, set free into the universe and the rest of the day can continue pain free.

The End Of Life - A New Beginning

I read my friend Jason's Blog post a bit ago about his mother and her passing from that dreaded thing called cancer. It reminded me of last year and my own mother's fight against cancer and it also made me think about death.

The first time I was introduced to the concept of death I was a very small child. About 6 years old. Someone my parents and I knew passed away, though I have no recollection who that was any more. I do remember vividly asking my mother why all the people were sad.

She kneeled down beside me and explained that our friend had passed away and that the people were sad because they would not be able to see this person again or talk to them until they went to heaven. This made me sad and start to cry and my mother told me that it was okay to be sad, but I could also be happy because our friend was no longer suffering. They had moved on to be with God and they were in heaven now experiencing all the best things.

I thought about the words my mother had spoken to me and that night as I slept I had a dream of my own funeral. It was not a somber occasion as I had witnessed that day, but it was a grand ball. All the women were dressed in elegant ball gowns and all the men in tuxedos. There in the center of the ballroom was my casket resting on a base with wheels under it. People were joyous and happy as they danced around my casket. They were celebrating my life with them and happy for me because I was now with God. Some of them even came and danced with my coffin, wheeling it around the dance floor as they danced.

Ever since I had that dream, I've always believed that's what my funeral would be like. No crying. No feeling of loss... just pure love, joy and happiness for a life spent with good friends on earth and in heaven.

The Purpose Of Life and Relationships

Life is your opportunity to create the best version of your self and then experience what you have created in relation to others.

Every choice you make (or don't make) shapes who you are in relation to the rest of the world. That is the act of creation and our purpose in life. We live each day so that we can create who we are in relation to the rest of the world.

Relationships are our way of experiencing our creations. We can only give meaning to the choices we have made by having others to compare them to. Relationships with others allow us to hold our choices up against choice combinations others have assembled and let us see how we like the person we have created in comparasin to that.

How can we use this information to improve our lives? Simply look at your choices each day and chooose the ones that are the the highest or most loving. Take care of yourself, love yourself and be the best version of you that you can. When you succeed in doing this, you will find that your relationships with others are better, happier and more fulfilling.

Does God Exist - My Personal Path To Myism

When I was about 12 years old I decided it was time to make up my own mind about the existance of a supreme being or not.

The conversation in my head went something like this:

Choices:
Yes there is a God.
No there isn't a God.

Possible Scenarios:
God exists but he has no preference of one religion over another.
God exists and there is one right religion.
God does not exist and nothing matters.

Further look at each possible scenario:
If God exists but he has no preference over religions then I'm safe as long as I pick one and follow it to the best of my ability. And Whoopie! I could get into heaven!

If God exists and there is only one right religion then I have about a one in 20 (that's all the religious groups I could think of at the time) chance of picking the right one and being saved. If I picked well, I'll see those shining pearly gates and if I picked wrong I'll at least be warm.

If God does not exist, then life and death are all that is and I don't have to worry about being good or bad I can just be whatever I want to be. It doesn't matter in the end 'cause I'll just be a lump of rotting flesh in a grave at the end one way or another.

Conclusion:
If there is no God, then it does not matter what I do in life. There will be no judgement day. But on the chance that there is, it would be wise to live a life that could be judged well. Even if in the end it turned out that God wasn't real, then at least my life will have been productive and helpful to others still alive and it won't have mattered anyway that I made choices based on a foundation of religious ideals.

If there is one right religion and I managed to pick it, then hurray for me, but if I choose wrong, then at least I had a chance. Same as winning the lotto.. you can't win if you don't buy a ticket and try except here my odds are slightly better.


So, in conclusion at the age of 12 I decided that I didn't have enough information to decide for certain which statement was true, but the evidence clearly told me that having faith in God, any God, is the only answer that's potentially win win.

Since that time I've managed to explore the different faiths and find what I believe to be truths about how it all works. So I have found my faith and it is strong.

My beliefs cannot be packaged into any of the major religions. My belief system is based on the experiences and truths that have given shape to my life. I'm gonna add a new faith to the mix...

Myism

There we go. I'm a Myist. Everything I believe about God and religion is fully accepted in My faith. Glad we got that settled!

Deja Vu

I'm 5 yrs old and my brother is about to be born. I'm staying at my aunt and uncle's house that I hardly know at this point in my life (because my mother had to go to a hospital that could handle my brother's preemy birth and other complications). When I go home with mom, dad and baby bro, I have this vivid memory of sitting in a restaurant around a round table with my aunt and uncle, my mom and dad and another person I don't know. I have a chicken sandwich and some potato chips on my plate and I'm happily eating them.

My uncle spots a potato chip on my plate that has a green spot and he says to me, "Trish don't eat that potato chip with the green in it. It's actually a spoiled piece of potato that didn't get cut out."

"Okay," I say, "Thanks for the tip."

Now I've had this memory firmly planted in my mind from that day on. I've told my mom, my dad, and my brother countless times over the years that the green on the potato chips is a bad spot and should be discarded because my uncle told me so.

***Flash forward exactly 20 years.

I'm sitting in a restaurant with my aunt, my uncle, my mom, dad and brother at a round table having lunch. I've ordered a chicken sandwich and some potato chips.

One of my potato chips has a green spot on it and my uncle looks over and sees it. He says to me, "Trish don't eat that potato chip with the green in it. It's actually a spoiled piece of potato that didn't get cut out."

"Okay," I say, "Thanks for the tip."

As it was happening, there in that exact moment I realized that my memory from when I was 5 years old didn't actually happen until I was 25 years old. It played out for me like a motion picuture, everyone in their exact spot and the mystery person at the table my own brother all grown up. It's an experience that I think will be with me forever.

Peace Cannot Exist Without War

This is a truth in the absolute. One cannot know and experience a state of peace unless there is an opposite of peace to compare it to. Peace does not mean anything without war, it cannot.

One of my friends often asks me what I want and my reply is always, "Peace, love and happiness." The other day he told me that I cannot have peace unless I'm willing to declare war on all humankind and force them to come together against a greater evil than themselves.

At first this idea upset me. How can one think that the only way to peace is through an act of war. Upon further thought I decided that, in the realm of the absolute, he is 100% correct. People cannot know of peace, desire peace, choose peace unless they witness it's opposite and give it context. Therefore we must have war if there is ever going to be peace.

Here is where my beliefs change direction though. In this world, we have witnessed war. We know how war brings suffering and loss, pain and despair to those it touches. We have witnessed war's destruction and it's disregard for human life. We have felt the greed and superiority of leaders staging war. The experience is there. It's already taught us what war is and what it can do. Therefore in my opinion, we do not need a bigger, grander war for people to choose peace.

Peace is the light beyond war. It is tollerance of others who have different ideas and opinions. It is a knowing that despite our differences, we can choose to get along with those that share our planet. Peace is an individual decision that we each can make for ourselves without regard or consideration of the choices others have made.

In this moment right now, I choose peace. It is a choice that I will have to make many times throughout my life, but hopefully I will be able to reflect on past experience each time and see clearly that peace is the higher thought. I believe peace is obtainable one person at a time. You right now can look at the world and say, "I choose peace."

"I choose to lay down my weapons of destruction today, even though in the past I have felt that my opinion was somehow more right than yours."
"I choose to accept that we all have different beliefs and customs due to our life experiences."
"I choose to learn about our differences in a peaceful way and to find areas of common ground."
"I choose to agree to disagree on topics where we cannot reach common ground, but still I value you as a human being and respect that your experiences have led you to different conclusions in these areas."
"I choose to accept my neighbor even if they choose not to accept me."

Tell me now, in this moment, what do you choose?

Thought of the day

Love is all there is.