Means and Ends
Universal principle #16
Means and ends are the same. The action and outcome are one. To achieve peace, we feel and express inner peacefulness. To enjoy a life that works perfectly, we see and feel the perfection of everything and everyone, including our Selves. To experience the natural abundance of the Universe, we feel and express gratitude for the abundance we already have.
What we think, do and act is exactly what we get. When we come from love and caring and compassion it is what we create. The result can only be what we truly express. Here is my journey, maybe it is like yours. I created it by all the things I said and did. I take full responsibility for it. There are things I will always remember, there are things I’d like to forget.
What would I say to you now?
How hard it has been, how easy?
Perhaps I’ll find the words somehow.
I do know that I’ve lived in a place called someday I’ll
I’m afraid to let go cause the alternative won’t bring a smile
I’m seventy six years old
Twice as long as I thought I would go
Now I don’t want to stop
Have I been here before?
And where am I going?
Some days seem so free
And other days like I’m swimming in Brie
I don’t know what possessed me to speak to you in verse
Oh well, you chose to be here, maybe it’s your curse
I’ve burned bridges from California to the Eastern shore
Left people hanging and longing for more, what for?
And why do I feel I have something to say?
What makes me think it will make someone’s day?
Hollywood Cal was my proving ground
I matriculated there without making a sound
Who knew inside that there lurked this clown?
I’ve wanted to be famous for a long while
Hope others would see me and like my style
And here I sit in my old Levis
This may be my fate my heart does realize.
Why is it such that times go so fast?
Its like someone took my life and lit it with a match
I talk a good game about saving the Earth
Still I fret and fuss about the size of my girth
My past is checkered to say the least
My future unwritten, I hope it’s a feast
My mind stays ablaze with thoughts that arise
Some true, some fun, some wise and
Some are like the grease in cold French fries
I chose a smart Mom & Dad, they’re both gone now
Haven’t heard a word from either, I wish I could somehow
I was the youngest of three sons before it became a hit
I wonder where I’d be if my parents had split
I was an excellent athlete when I was small
Great hands, good eyes, but a heart not as tall
Most of my life I’ve acted cute or stupid and
Was personal friends with my buddy cupid
Fathered four children, 3 sons again, and one tall girl
Left them back east just to give my life a whirl
I must have been nuts- do you think I’m a squirrel?
Hired a short red headed Texan to work for my team
Who could’ve known she’d be the answer to my dream
I’ve taken up your time to look at some of my past
I wish I loved me more and that our friendship would last
There’s a longing inside me to be all things to all people
I can see it’s a trap
Some others probably don’t think I give a crap
Truth is, I just want to sit on someone’s lap,
and be loved
You see as long as I can recall
I wanted to tell it like it is
Laugh a lot, play a lot, create a lot and be overpaid for show biz
Hey, I thought this life is about being in the now?
Then of course there’s the future, it hasn’t taken its bow.
It’s much more fun to think of trips to take
The friends I will make
The meals I’ll intake
Than to focus on another ignorant mistake
I don’t know about hereafter except what I want it to be
Maybe a few more lifetimes, I hope I’m a she
But alas, I continue to digress
Less I bring to these proceedings even more distress
When I look into your eyes and make a connection
For just a brief moment I’ve made the election
Of not looking around for other’s detection
That I’m not really a model of perfection
The only rhyme word I left out is erection
And I only use it now as to not cause a mass defection
Of my sensitive friends affection
Perhaps this talk should head in another direction?
Right here, right now this feels juicy
There is nowhere else I would rather be
In truth the past is a mind recording of events that either have gone or are happening as we speak. Either way when we give our energy to what did happen or what might happen, we are not happening? When we worry about what took place, part of me goes there and when I give it more thought and energy more of me goes there. When I worry about what might take place in the future, that part of me leaves as well. When those parts of me are running my life, I have little left for you or me! We are both robbed of the totality of this moment in time. Ellie Cooper reminded me the other day that dogs are always in the present. Children are almost always in the now. Mature adults are almost always somewhere else, so much for growing up. We don’t know how long we get for a lifetime, even thinking of it takes us out of the moment.
Like it or not wherever you go there you are. Whatever you are thinking is what you are thinking. Whatever you have created is what you have created. The important question is how will you handle it? In other words-now what? In every moment we find ourselves at the cross roads of life. We often get lost. By this I mean we lose the ability to see all of the possibilities of our lives. When we make choices based upon the past or the future we create with limited possibilities. The conscious mind does not, cannot know the infinite array of opportunity present in any given moment. To allow ourselves to be truly in touch with where we are, we will want to pause and allow the present experience to sink in. What does it look, taste, smell, feel or sound like? We get so caught up in our history and our desire to escape some of it that we lose the magic of the only moment there is. In Buddhism we are taught mindfulness as opposed to mindlessness. Most of the time we are not aware of who we are and what we are truly creating. We are asleep. In order to wake up we get to focus on the present. One way is through meditation by slowing down and noticing. Another way is to be present with whatever we are doing and bring all of our awareness to the activity and the means and ends will take care of themselves. From my heart to yours, Thomas