Be cheerful - Strive to be happy
"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
- Max Ehrmann, 1927
A friend, who also writes a "blog" quoted this earlier today. I stole the end part that resonated most with me, but you can find the rest of the text here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata . And it reminded me, as life often and unexpectedly does, that I am in fact - a child of the universe. The last few weeks I have been struggling with how to write here and stay relevant, stay interesting, not get whiny. I mean, let's be realistic, I'm a 20 something chick struggling for a sense of self and identity. It is, after all, a pretty cliche place to be.
Luckily, I have been blessed at this most confusing time as I search for balance and attempt to build some kind of foundation for a future life - while finding the time and energy to enjoy this place and time, with an ability to find serenity in nature and in myself, and to have the unsolicited support of family that often feels like friends, and friends that often feel like family. So many of these entries and musings of the mind commend these people, yoga, and the physical world around me. But without that, there would be no truth to what I write about. Let's be honest, I write about what I feel, and life is too complicated and too raw and too freaking real not to focus on the things that matter.
As I form myself into something more comfortable, and my soul becomes more settled, I find myself ruminating on the same topics over and over again. Love, Peace, the concept of Adventure and Change, and of course, the spiritual aspect of the singular and collective universe. I don’t know that I believe in praying, or in a particular religion. I believe that the idea of God is too big for one religion. I do believe in the power of belief, and slowly, once again, in the power of love. I believe, despite my denial of it in the last entry, that my last romantic love had been apart of my life before this one. And I believe that about my closest friends and many of my family members, as I prefer to call them soulmates. During a friends recent foray into a relationship the lucky guy commented that he thought we (he was referring to his love interest, myself, and another of our friends) might *actually* be soulmates. When he said that it made me like him more, cause it just meant that he got it. That we had finally got it. That we’ve either eased up enough or grown up enough to finally balance into friendships that are more like family than you thought was possible.
My brother and I refer to ourselves as pagan babies, and do our best to let the natural world guide us in our spiritual adventurings. We make plans to get together and "practice evolving" so we can be prepared for what ever improbable and highly probable spiritual awakening occurs first. We have birthday parties on moonlit beaches and worship the waves. While I clearly don't follow an organized path - as it were, I do *believe.* And I know that whatever God there is, or fate, or Deity, or astrological plane of whatever has somehow managed to bring some of the best friends I have ever had back in to my life when I needed them most, and maybe when they did too. I really don’t know what I would be doing without them.
I'm not always sure what or why I am writing here. Mostly it's just to express a little something. To release some of myself out into a greater section of life. Don't mock me, but yes, I just referred to the "internets" as a greater section of life. But more or less, I mean it as a way of interacting a personal part of myself with a larger section of humanity. If a blog helps me connect to the inner beings of us all, why not? These entries will be funny sometimes. In most of them I will laugh at myself. Because that makes life a little bit easier. Don’t judge me, I’m just figuring it out. Sometimes these entries will be trippy and way too on the hippy love fest side. I am, after all, a child of the universe. Just ask my dad. Sometimes these entries will be sad. Life is hard. This summer, the start of this Fall … it hasn’t been easy for any of us as we move farther into this foreign land of "adulthood." Every day life seems to throw a little curve ball at me, or at someone close to me in my life. And I’m very glad we’ve all been able to be there for each other.
I am also very glad that I am lucky to have friends that don't mock my love of all things needing sunlight and my search for serenity through water and peaceful movement. This life and time is a place where I play, where I make mistakes and laugh about them, and where sometimes I happen to get it right. Where I can be true to the most honest parts of me. Denying it would be a disservice to the universe itself. And I can laugh about these outrageous and silly and absurd parts of me and experiences I go through, because I know if I want to cry about them I have people in my life that will let me do both. And know I would for them. Because over the last few months, years, maybe lifetimes, they have done the same for me.
We are all children of the universe. That quote reminds me of one of my favorite things one of my Yoga Teachers says at the end of a class. After savasana, and after a closing round of oms we sit cross legged, eyes closed. And he reminds us to look inside and feel the universal pull that subtly brings us all together. "There is a place inside of you were the entire universe dwells. It is a place of love, of truth, of light, and of peace. When you are in this place in you, and I am in this place in me, then we are one."
Thank you to all my friends throughout time and space, in this universe and in any and many others,
Rio
Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
- Max Ehrmann, 1927
A friend, who also writes a "blog" quoted this earlier today. I stole the end part that resonated most with me, but you can find the rest of the text here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata . And it reminded me, as life often and unexpectedly does, that I am in fact - a child of the universe. The last few weeks I have been struggling with how to write here and stay relevant, stay interesting, not get whiny. I mean, let's be realistic, I'm a 20 something chick struggling for a sense of self and identity. It is, after all, a pretty cliche place to be.
Luckily, I have been blessed at this most confusing time as I search for balance and attempt to build some kind of foundation for a future life - while finding the time and energy to enjoy this place and time, with an ability to find serenity in nature and in myself, and to have the unsolicited support of family that often feels like friends, and friends that often feel like family. So many of these entries and musings of the mind commend these people, yoga, and the physical world around me. But without that, there would be no truth to what I write about. Let's be honest, I write about what I feel, and life is too complicated and too raw and too freaking real not to focus on the things that matter.
As I form myself into something more comfortable, and my soul becomes more settled, I find myself ruminating on the same topics over and over again. Love, Peace, the concept of Adventure and Change, and of course, the spiritual aspect of the singular and collective universe. I don’t know that I believe in praying, or in a particular religion. I believe that the idea of God is too big for one religion. I do believe in the power of belief, and slowly, once again, in the power of love. I believe, despite my denial of it in the last entry, that my last romantic love had been apart of my life before this one. And I believe that about my closest friends and many of my family members, as I prefer to call them soulmates. During a friends recent foray into a relationship the lucky guy commented that he thought we (he was referring to his love interest, myself, and another of our friends) might *actually* be soulmates. When he said that it made me like him more, cause it just meant that he got it. That we had finally got it. That we’ve either eased up enough or grown up enough to finally balance into friendships that are more like family than you thought was possible.
My brother and I refer to ourselves as pagan babies, and do our best to let the natural world guide us in our spiritual adventurings. We make plans to get together and "practice evolving" so we can be prepared for what ever improbable and highly probable spiritual awakening occurs first. We have birthday parties on moonlit beaches and worship the waves. While I clearly don't follow an organized path - as it were, I do *believe.* And I know that whatever God there is, or fate, or Deity, or astrological plane of whatever has somehow managed to bring some of the best friends I have ever had back in to my life when I needed them most, and maybe when they did too. I really don’t know what I would be doing without them.
I'm not always sure what or why I am writing here. Mostly it's just to express a little something. To release some of myself out into a greater section of life. Don't mock me, but yes, I just referred to the "internets" as a greater section of life. But more or less, I mean it as a way of interacting a personal part of myself with a larger section of humanity. If a blog helps me connect to the inner beings of us all, why not? These entries will be funny sometimes. In most of them I will laugh at myself. Because that makes life a little bit easier. Don’t judge me, I’m just figuring it out. Sometimes these entries will be trippy and way too on the hippy love fest side. I am, after all, a child of the universe. Just ask my dad. Sometimes these entries will be sad. Life is hard. This summer, the start of this Fall … it hasn’t been easy for any of us as we move farther into this foreign land of "adulthood." Every day life seems to throw a little curve ball at me, or at someone close to me in my life. And I’m very glad we’ve all been able to be there for each other.
I am also very glad that I am lucky to have friends that don't mock my love of all things needing sunlight and my search for serenity through water and peaceful movement. This life and time is a place where I play, where I make mistakes and laugh about them, and where sometimes I happen to get it right. Where I can be true to the most honest parts of me. Denying it would be a disservice to the universe itself. And I can laugh about these outrageous and silly and absurd parts of me and experiences I go through, because I know if I want to cry about them I have people in my life that will let me do both. And know I would for them. Because over the last few months, years, maybe lifetimes, they have done the same for me.
We are all children of the universe. That quote reminds me of one of my favorite things one of my Yoga Teachers says at the end of a class. After savasana, and after a closing round of oms we sit cross legged, eyes closed. And he reminds us to look inside and feel the universal pull that subtly brings us all together. "There is a place inside of you were the entire universe dwells. It is a place of love, of truth, of light, and of peace. When you are in this place in you, and I am in this place in me, then we are one."
Thank you to all my friends throughout time and space, in this universe and in any and many others,
Rio
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