As part of the Alternative Lifestyles blog-posts migration over to the new blog The Professor’s Lifestyles Memoirs, this post has been moved there. To read this post please click the link to the blog.
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The Professor's Convatorium
Welcome — Come Immerse, Convalesce, Spark Dialogue or Simply Discern
The Professor's Convatorium 
Professor T,
Amazing music, photos, words.
You really sum things up so well.
The answer is love.
Red
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A love that is allowed to take on its own shape, its own depth, its own timing. It is a “love” that is sometimes painful…but strengthens exponentially.
Thank you Red for the feedback. It is truly appreciated.
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You summed all of this up so well… I love the music selection at the top. Am still listening to it, actually. And I’d seen the chart of wealth inequality in America, and I’m not surprised by the chart of weight around the world… You are so right. Wealth is not what makes us happy… I can’t state that fact enough. Also, I’ve sometimes thought about what it’d be like to be blind when I’ve gotten soap or something in my eyes—my sense of feel and distance would get a lot sharper, that’s for sure! lol
Great post. Can’t disagree with anything said.
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Happy you love the music. I get lost in it with my eyes closed; I get transported to a Spanish Moors’ villa or sultan’s tent next to a desert oasis and campfires. Arabic dancing everywhere.
Wealth nor never-ending buffets are the paths to intense living, but which often conflicts with the American social & economic infrastructure where material values are viewed as “successful” and a model for young minds to strive and toil. 😦 Our human genetics, neurology & spiritual hunger need much more than material clutter/consumption. I often feel I am UN-American when I want a simple life void of all the things that chain/cage our precious time & energy.
Soap in the eyes…a good epiphany, huh? Far-eastern meditation practices help tune-in to our ether dimensions (the metaphysical) within and around us. Fasting for several days is another ancient tradition which frees us from over-attachment & as you alluded, allows us to intensify other senses — deprivation of one expands others.
Jessica, you are certainly encouraged to disagree with me & verbalize it please. It is through ‘friction’ that we are sharpened. 😉
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or, as a very close friend told me a long time ago: you can’t have what you aren’t willing not to have. I think, ultimate love is the love that allows and encourages the other to be, do, and have whatever is desired. The antithesis is possession.
As for “friction”, I understand your “sharpened”, but I’ve always seen it as sandpaper. Smoothing the rough edges.
Nice post; I love the music and visuals. I enjoyed Tracy’s post, as well.
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A very wise friend you have Vix. “Possession” is ultimately smoke & mirrors and is never more true than in love-attachment or believing it is only yours and always expecting it from ONE source. That isn’t reality & “single-love” isn’t demonstrated in our Multiverse or here on Earth. This is why I identify so much with Denys Hatton’s (Robert Redford) meaning!
Mmm, yes…I like sandpaper smoothing our edges. But I enjoy sharp edges too; they are needed sometimes to “get inside”. 😉
Thank you for commenting. Always enjoy your input!
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Thank you, he is, indeed.
Possession is just another symptom of fear.
My pleasure.
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Mmmmm, yes.
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Sure, get even with me and make me think on a late Saturday morning. 😉
Probably the things I’ve suffered most from that have come back to me in the most unusual ways? Loss and innocence. It’s actually through loss that I learned my ability to empathize and the joy that comes from helping see others through their own heartaches and losses.
Loss of innocence, especially when one is so young can be very painfully traumatic. It has the ability to splinter a person into such minute pieces that it’s virtually impossible to put back together again, or it can strengthen and give you an iron core that allows you to know that there’s not much the world can throw at you that you’re unable to overcome.
Combine the two…and I’m very fortunate to know exactly who I am and how I can help others grow, heal and recover. It’s strange that these things that often make people question the presence of a higher power are exactly what convinces me there is one. Things that seemed like curses before have now become points of strength for me to draw on, to soothe my soul. A reminder that nothing is lost forever unless you want it to be, and that there’s a strength in letting go and forgiveness. Having experienced these things so early in life left me a bit “older” than the kids my own age, but also left me in the unique position of helping to see them through some of the hardest times of their lives. (Yes, somehow I became their version of a real life Dear Abby.)
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Aww, did I make your brain start to hurt? 😉
Well, you seemed to have come out of your slumber with a vengeance judging by your comments! Imagine that!? Kitt has something to say! LOL
Young minds & hearts are indeed at higher risk the more traumatic the “life-lesson”. They simply haven’t been given, taught, or the time to develop the coping mechanisms & tools of not only survival…but turning the opportunity into a greater good for a greater number. Like you Kitt, as a teacher/educator, I always seek to somehow guide or point young hearts/minds to realize that often trials, mistakes, failures, etc, are for a bigger picture. Through their unique experiences they WILL indeed be able to support others beyond the TEMPORARY negatives.
Though you and I may differ in the perception of various nuts & bolts and process — i.e. “the presence of a higher power are exactly what convinces me there is one”; I would say powerS plural from a Quantum Mechanics p.o.v. — we arrive at the same destination: life-to-death and death-to-life are merely transitions (the law of conservation of energy/mass) and not to be feared if you truly LIVE with and for others. A quite simple, easily applied life-world-view.
As always, your comments & feedback are appreciated & welcomed. 🙂
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Hurt is such a strong word…LOL! More like you engaged it before it truly woke from it’s slumber. Fortunately, I enjoy challenges(no shock to you, I’m sure).
You’re so right about survival skills & coping mechanisms. It seems to me that these skills are being woefully underdeveloped with each new generation. I suspect in my own case, the constant transitions of a traveling military family aided in developing mine early….along with having a mother from another country/culture. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful. There were a lot of hardships in the younger portion of my life that needed that core of strength.
Now, like you (though, as you said, the mechanics may vary), I find strength and peace in my beliefs. There’s a joy in embracing new experiences. Change energizes me.
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I find change very invigorating, exciting, and expansive! I’m sure we are in the same boat there too. 😉
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C’est vrai. That happens fairly often with us. It’s kind of fun!
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I love this. I like Jacob’s Creek wines a lot too, I’m a big fan of Australian shiraz wines in general. For smells, I love honeysuckle and orange blossom, but jasmine is a heady aroma as well. I’ve seen those photos of the families around the world with all their belongings. If that isn’t humbling, I don’t know what is.
I think suffering, and/or being without, does make you more attuned to things. And it does make you more grateful for what you do have, and often, less hung up on what you don’t have. Especially material things. The issue of “want” is, to a great extent, a first-world luxury. There are so many who still NEED.
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Glad you loved it Madame W. You allow yourself to be denied something long enough, and you will experience a much deeper form of it — or them if their spirit is also in alignment with your timing/position, or motion/speed, and depth or wavelength. Connections depend on several factors.
Regarding 1st-world luxuries, my time in west Africa not only showed me the ‘lap of luxury’ I have in my home country, but even more profound was how in many ways Sierra Leonians & Liberians find a deep happiness in what they DON’T have (or they don’t know they don’t have it?) in comparison to what most Americans are attached to having or attaining. Stark contrasts to say the least! On a human level I DIDN’T see them as 3rd-world at all; I saw myself & Americans as arrogant in our categorizations. I was there to play futebol/soccer and to learn from them, however, many of my teammates & coaches were there to proselytize/evangelize them into a “happier” Western form of civilization. Deep down I found that thinking & proclaiming offensive.
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Pingback: Senses Of Happiness | theinnerwildkat
I laid among the roses then
Streaked red with my blood
I reached my hand out to them
But only to have the thorns shun me
I don’t understand I said
I did what you ask
Why do you still shun me
Aren’t I one of you now
The red roses laugh into the breeze
As I slowly started to drift away
Body pale from the blood I gave them
Sinking lower away from grace
Silly mortal girl they sang
Now we have color
And if you wanted to be one of us
You must have color too
Betrayed by creatures I thought loved me
Dying because I wanted to share
Only to find that even in death
I could never be one of them
So I choose to live life abundantly
To be true to who I am
To appreciate all that I am given
And I choose to never live without.
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Wonderful post! I admire your way of writing. So profound. I’m looking forward to reading your next posts 🙂
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It is truly energizing & magical Lidiya when two like-souls (simpatico?) recognize each other & feed & fuel each other. Great things happen! 😉
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