No where you can be that isn't where you're meant to be, it's easy...
(John Lennon - All You Need is Love)
No - I am not going to write "Lennon/McCartney" - there is no way the guy who wrote Ob La Di Ob La Dah, Silly Love Songs, and Maxwell's Silver Hammer had anything to do with that song. Lennon was the smart one, McCartney was the smiling face.
But regardless of that, I think it is that simple - love is really all we need (although food, clothing and shelter don't hurt either). This does not mean I am running off to join a cult, give away all of my assets, or live in a commune because I believe that. I am still at my job, taking care of my family, trying in vain at times to keep us from running out of money - but I do believe that love is an essential need. I look back at my life and my depressions, emotional pain, suffering all came when I did not believe I was getting the love I needed. Not here to dwell on how I was raised, as that does not go anywere, but I know all the pain in my life came from feeling that, and all of the happiness in my life comes from feeling loved. And it is not something I feel all the time.
No - this is not some profound ground breaking idea I have arrived at - John Lennon had a lot to say about it, I believe Christ did too, and my Ruiz books really drive it home. But I can say it in my own words, even if it is not my idea. To me love and God are intertwined, if you can interact or pray to one, you can do the same with the other, as ultimately these two forces are the same. The way the Beatles song starts out "love, love, love" strikes me as a good meditation mantra, especially at that predictable 3:00 in the morning time of night when my mind decides to take a one hour break from sleep after I go pee, and then it is the challenge to find my way back into that state. As faith is the essential part of religion, and even getting by, then love and faith are intertwined. If you "have no faith to loose" as Dylan observes, your life is harder. You don't believe you can do anything, you worry all the time, maybe you pass that lack of faith onto your kids and start to believe they can't accomplish anything either. Everything I have ever accomplished happens when that deep hidden spiritual force in me tells me I can do it, despite the other voices saying I can't. That was one advantage to my Irvine Meadows experience, despite the inconvenience it caused my folks - is that I realized if I could survive an actual death state, a state where I believed I really was dead, then maybe everything else in my life that appeared insurmountable (finding a job out of college) could be possible too. So here I am - I have done it - not in a grandiose way - I am flat dead center in the median income range, but I still have done it anyways - and without my faith, it would not have happened.
And - it is the same with love. If you summon love, meditate on love, pray to love - than it will come to you. It is like a mine all around you and you have to work at it, but if you believe it will be there ("believe it if you need it, if you don't just pass it on: - and if you don't know that reference, oh well..). When I believed in love, and started to imagine an imaginary woman who loved me, and really summoned her in the late night hours - it was at that point my real life wife arrived in my life. Coincidence? Maybe so - but I don't believe in them. But even being married, I still find practicing this gets me through - as ultimately no matter who you are with, "we sit here stranded though we all do our best to deny it" (thanks Bob) - in that ultimately we are all on our own. I don't care how many friends you have, or magical family (the answer to everything, so I am told) - if you don't like or love yourself, nobody else will, but if you do, than others will follow suit and like you too. And to me the idea that you did not get your needs met in the past means you are doomed to misery forever is bullshit - regardless of how you were raised and whatever damage may have come from that - I really don't believe it is insurmountable. Sure - it might mean a little help on the way, a pill, a light, a therapist - even a stay in an institution - but speaking for myself, I believe that our faith, and our faith only can give us what we need - mainly love - and that it starts from within, and then follows from without. You hear that Victoria? It comes from within your own heart - first and foremost - and cannot come from me or anyone else.
So - the real point of the title is the song it comes from, but as far as the idea of destiny in the title line - I also believe that too - everything in life happens for a reason, and brings us to the present task at hand - whatever may that be. It may feel like we are being punished, but that is only an interpretation. Everything in my life, no matter how tragic it may have appeared at the time, seemed to happen to get me to open my eyes, to see what I was made of, to bring me to the state of appreciation and love for myself where I now have arrived - and even now, I constantly have to work at it as those voices of self hatred are always lurking inside me, and it is a constant battle - but it is a battle that can be won, even if it is not a permanent victory.
Here is a co-incidence - as soon as I posted this, I heard the Prairie Home Companion guy say "love, love, love" in his daily almanac post on the radio..
No - I am not going to write "Lennon/McCartney" - there is no way the guy who wrote Ob La Di Ob La Dah, Silly Love Songs, and Maxwell's Silver Hammer had anything to do with that song. Lennon was the smart one, McCartney was the smiling face.
But regardless of that, I think it is that simple - love is really all we need (although food, clothing and shelter don't hurt either). This does not mean I am running off to join a cult, give away all of my assets, or live in a commune because I believe that. I am still at my job, taking care of my family, trying in vain at times to keep us from running out of money - but I do believe that love is an essential need. I look back at my life and my depressions, emotional pain, suffering all came when I did not believe I was getting the love I needed. Not here to dwell on how I was raised, as that does not go anywere, but I know all the pain in my life came from feeling that, and all of the happiness in my life comes from feeling loved. And it is not something I feel all the time.
No - this is not some profound ground breaking idea I have arrived at - John Lennon had a lot to say about it, I believe Christ did too, and my Ruiz books really drive it home. But I can say it in my own words, even if it is not my idea. To me love and God are intertwined, if you can interact or pray to one, you can do the same with the other, as ultimately these two forces are the same. The way the Beatles song starts out "love, love, love" strikes me as a good meditation mantra, especially at that predictable 3:00 in the morning time of night when my mind decides to take a one hour break from sleep after I go pee, and then it is the challenge to find my way back into that state. As faith is the essential part of religion, and even getting by, then love and faith are intertwined. If you "have no faith to loose" as Dylan observes, your life is harder. You don't believe you can do anything, you worry all the time, maybe you pass that lack of faith onto your kids and start to believe they can't accomplish anything either. Everything I have ever accomplished happens when that deep hidden spiritual force in me tells me I can do it, despite the other voices saying I can't. That was one advantage to my Irvine Meadows experience, despite the inconvenience it caused my folks - is that I realized if I could survive an actual death state, a state where I believed I really was dead, then maybe everything else in my life that appeared insurmountable (finding a job out of college) could be possible too. So here I am - I have done it - not in a grandiose way - I am flat dead center in the median income range, but I still have done it anyways - and without my faith, it would not have happened.
And - it is the same with love. If you summon love, meditate on love, pray to love - than it will come to you. It is like a mine all around you and you have to work at it, but if you believe it will be there ("believe it if you need it, if you don't just pass it on: - and if you don't know that reference, oh well..). When I believed in love, and started to imagine an imaginary woman who loved me, and really summoned her in the late night hours - it was at that point my real life wife arrived in my life. Coincidence? Maybe so - but I don't believe in them. But even being married, I still find practicing this gets me through - as ultimately no matter who you are with, "we sit here stranded though we all do our best to deny it" (thanks Bob) - in that ultimately we are all on our own. I don't care how many friends you have, or magical family (the answer to everything, so I am told) - if you don't like or love yourself, nobody else will, but if you do, than others will follow suit and like you too. And to me the idea that you did not get your needs met in the past means you are doomed to misery forever is bullshit - regardless of how you were raised and whatever damage may have come from that - I really don't believe it is insurmountable. Sure - it might mean a little help on the way, a pill, a light, a therapist - even a stay in an institution - but speaking for myself, I believe that our faith, and our faith only can give us what we need - mainly love - and that it starts from within, and then follows from without. You hear that Victoria? It comes from within your own heart - first and foremost - and cannot come from me or anyone else.
So - the real point of the title is the song it comes from, but as far as the idea of destiny in the title line - I also believe that too - everything in life happens for a reason, and brings us to the present task at hand - whatever may that be. It may feel like we are being punished, but that is only an interpretation. Everything in my life, no matter how tragic it may have appeared at the time, seemed to happen to get me to open my eyes, to see what I was made of, to bring me to the state of appreciation and love for myself where I now have arrived - and even now, I constantly have to work at it as those voices of self hatred are always lurking inside me, and it is a constant battle - but it is a battle that can be won, even if it is not a permanent victory.
Here is a co-incidence - as soon as I posted this, I heard the Prairie Home Companion guy say "love, love, love" in his daily almanac post on the radio..
posted by Zook at 6:09 AM
2 Comments:
You have to work at being Happy! Being Happy takes lots & lots of EFFORT! Why didn't some1 tell me this 50 yrs ago?
I finally got it! Now I wake-up depressed as I have for almost every day of my life & tell mySelf to jump-out-of bed & do what it is to do to make mySelf Happy & probably several others along-the-way. My days have been pretty amazing lately .. I am in charge of my life & have the power of Co-Creation!
If you are interested pick-up a copy of the book: "Ask & It Is Given" by Esther & Gerry Hicks. I also have it on a 4 CD set.
It CAN BE life-changing!
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