AndrewBrunelle.com

What is truly important to you? What couldn’t you live without? What could you get rid of that is causing unnecessary stress/clutter? How can you bring yourself to get rid of all these unwanted items, thoughts, or emotions? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do know that there is a way to get yourself in a state of joy without succumbing to complexity and stress. You can live a simple, yet fulfilling life, filled with the people who care about you and the things you treasure most (e.g. my laptop). You can pretty much dump the rest. All the negative relationships, all the things you own that do not contribute to your goals or bring you joy, dump them. I believe everyone strives for happiness. In my world, happiness is abundant and I do not go looking for it. I possess the ability to access it from within and spread it out throughout the world. It is my gift to you.

We all possess this ability. I am just someone who found the access code in one of the file cabinets up in my brain. Soul searching is a very enlightening activity and you all need to realize that it is a choice to be happy. It is a choice to be depressed. These emotions do not rely on external circumstances. You can be flat broke and happy, or you can be a billionaire and sad. Or, if you are an idealist, you can be a happy billionaire (my personal choice). Part of being filled with unconditional joy is letting go of any attachments you have to anything. You need to acknowledge that everything, even your physical body, is temporary. Once you fully grasp that, once you really, really know it, you can show gratitude for everything you experience, but no longer be attached to it. You will no longer fear change because no matter what happens, you still retain joy. It is a remarkable state to be in.

When I started decluttering my home, I actually felt lighter and lighter each time I threw some unwanted item away. Same with my negative and limiting beliefs. Each belief thrown in the proverbial wastebasket allowed me to open up to more abundant happiness. I did some things I never thought I could do. I finally started to live freely, without limitation. The only limitation is your own mind. This is true on so many levels. There are no words to describe the feeling of lightness unless you experience it yourself, but once you do what it takes to get there, it will fill your days with joy. And it’s good on so many levels.

Spending time in nature really helps, too. Be amazed at the wonders of the forest, the desert, and the jungle. The ecosystems are so complex, so beautiful in their own rights that it saddens me how much we’ve destroyed them. I am grateful there is still some left and I strive to encourage others to live a simpler life, a life that does not damage the world, a life that is so fulfilling once you commit to it, there will be no going back. It’s the whole concept in rooting yourself in what is permanent, not what is temporary. All your material possessions will end up being dust. Your physical body will be dust. But your spirit, your marvelous and virtuous spirit is eternal. And raising the consciousness of that spirit, moving beyond unconscious consumerism and evolving to a state where you no longer look towards items to fill a void in your life because that void is already filled with unconditional love, joy, and acceptance.

I wrote something on a message board like this, “The lighter you are, the closer you are to ascending into the heavens.” I believe this rings true, at least in my life. I hate when I see people weighed down by debt, by personal problems, by bad situations. I can try and help, but some people are stubborn. They deny that there is anything wrong, they are attached to the very things they loathe. It gives them identity. It is part of their ego. Once you let go of the ego, let go of the past, let go of everything and embrace right now, really feel it, you can move into a whole other state of being. Your ego melts. Your problems go away. You are here and you are now. And allowing yourself to just allow the present to be and not letting past or future worries interfere is the best thing you can do. Show gratitude for each and every morning you wake up. Isn’t it wonderful how you get to live? Isn’t it great to be alive? I am starting to feel this way more and more every day. I wish the same for you. Wouldn’t the world be such an amazing place if everyone was like this? Just sit back and wonder…

When I got sick a few years ago with brain cancer, it totally changed my perspective on life and all it encompasses. When I found out I was completely cured, I was so joyous that I started to do things I was previously afraid to do, things I would have never attempted as a pre-cancerous human. When you look death in the face and see it clearly, and survive, it totally changes the way you think. You acknowledge the trivial as trivial, like the accumulation of useless merchandise. You also acknowledge what is truly important from a permanent perspective. You realize what is worth living for and what is not. You no longer have to get the latest gadget, like an iPhone or whatever else is coming out. You are content with life itself, minus all the things that supposedly make it so great.

I know that if I were born in a different time, an earlier time, I would be dead right now. My brain ventricle would have exploded and I would no longer be here. But for some reason, I was lucky enough to be alive in this amazing time where having a brain tumor near the brainstem was not only operable, but compleely curable. I am eternally grateful for that and no matter how terrible my life gets on this end, I can always say, “At least I am not dead. At least I survived.” So, to me, accumulating things that do not place me in a higher state of consciousness is a worthless activity. If I can find something that is truly useful and will help me in my mission, then I will buy it. But I will not waste my time or money on items that contribute nothing to society, the world, and the universe. It just does not make sense.

Have you ever been out in public and you see one of those magazine stands with all that celebrity gossip on it? I think everyone at least looks at the cover of these magazines. Everyone acts like they hate how others obsess about celebrities’ lives, but deep down, they want to know, too. And they are mostly negative stories about topics like rehab and divorce. I feel compassion for these celebrities, who are put on a pedastal by society, and every misstep they make, they are hounded. I mean, when the photographers start showing up at rehab to catch a shot of the newest intake, it is getting out of control. This is one of the things I no longer watch or pay attention to. I know that we are all human and no one is perfect. I accept people for who they are. If they make mistakes, fine. It is expected. It does not make them bad people, and the tabloids should examine themselves before crticizing another. What I tend to find is people who criticize others have an inner critic about themselves and the only way they can hide their self-loathing is through projecting it outward onto someone else.

Realize that making life more complicated than it already is gets in the way of living your goals. If you fill your home with items that do not reflect who you wish to become, then how do you expect to become that person? Just think of a goal you have. Think, “What would a person who has already accomplished this goal act like? What things would he/she own?” Get rid of anything that does not align with your goals. Also, eliminate all behaviors that do not align with the person you are striving to become. Why waste time on the unimportant when you can spend that time on the important? Why read tabloid magazines when you could spend time reading up on whatever career you want to get into?

It is tough to make a decision about what to commit your life to. It really is. But the most difficult part is actually facing what you feel you should do. Maybe you don’t think you can accomplish it. Maybe you feel it will be too much work. Maybe your stable job and routine is too hard to change. Well, I never heard of a saying, “Stagnation is the spice of life.” In order to get where you need to be, a solid contributor, you must change things about yourself, but for the better. These changes will be resisted at first, but once you overcome the intial resistance, you can move on to growing with ease. Part of this resistance is fear of the unknown. Educating yourself about whatever you wish to accomplish should assuage some of those fears. Work from your strengths and build up your weaknesses. Practice what you preach. Become what you know you can.

Accepting the truth of your life and not denying the truth or escaping from the truth is something I learned the hard way, although now I see things much better. I can’t help but think of a quote from (I believe) Fight Club: “We all lie to ourselves to be happy.” I believe it has some truth to it. If we are dissatisfied with a certain part of our lives, sometimes we say, “It’s not that bad,” or “It’s fine. No, it really is. I swear.” But fooling yourself is something that will only lead to more suffering. If you pretend you are having great finances or in great physical health when you do not possess these qualities, it will eventually blow up in your face. I know from experience. You can intend to be at those levels of perfection, but do not pretend you are there. Do not lie to yourself. Denying what you currently have is lowering your awareness. If you view your reality in the most positive way possible and put out the intention for greater things, you will make strides towards where you need to go.

When you do this lying to yourself, you may get into a state of relief, but in the back of your mind, you know what the truth is. And do not pretend to be ignorant of the truth. Some may say ignorance is bliss, but I don’t buy into that. If ignorance was bliss, then we would all deny every fault we have and try to pass ourselves off as some perfect being, one who has it all together. And it would be easy. And it is not. It is not easy pretending to be someone you are not. And the lies catch up with you, eventually. If you kid yourself and say you are not in debt when you are, try saying that to the credit agency that keeps calling your house, looking for the money you owe them. “Sorry, you must be mistaken. I am not in debt.” Come on.

Part of this is acceptance. Accepting the truth and moving on from there. It can be scary facing the truth, which is why so many people live in denial. Some people say things like, “I have this lump on my leg, but I am too afraid to go to the doctor. What if it is cancer?” Well, if it is cancer, don’t you think the doctor would help? But it’s the very fact you need to face this truth, this terrifying truth, that you shy away from reality and lower your awareness. Even if the truth is painful, you will feel grateful for building up the courage to face it. And it will definitely make you a stronger person.

Here is something I notice. Whenever I eat meat with someone, anyone, I bring up the fact these animals are raised in concentration camp-like conditions, fed their own excrement, and killed in the most inhumane way, I get this response: “Oh, come on. I don’t want to hear this while I’m eating. Let me enjoy my meal.” Human beings cannot bear very much reality. I guess it is the easy way out to deny such things. It allows us to live in a state of semi-awareness, but we never really get to the point of really understanding ourselves fully. And we end up lagging far behind in the self-acceptance department. It is only after you completely and fully accept yourself that you can move on to bigger and better things, at least from a spiritual perspective. It does not seem intelligent to ignore certain facets of your life and just let them stay that way, convincing yourself it is “not that bad.” Accept the fact that your life is not perfect and truly accept the truths in all areas and move from there. Once you really know where you stand, there is an accurate foundation for improvement.

Understand that this will not happen overnight. But it is totally worth it, at least so far for me. The closer I am getting to unconditional acceptance, the better off I am. And you do not have to put negative labels on the current state of anything. You can always view things positively. Take the facts, the objective facts, and view them getting better subjectively. Ten thousand dollars in debt becomes “I am working hard to get out of debt and progressing on to financial abundance,” or “I intend to work out of this debt and accumulate money to live the life of my dreams.” As the old proverb says, the truth shall set you free. Good luck.

The more I think about this negative world, the more I create negativity. The more I am open to the possibility of good and love, the more of it I see. The closer I get to a purpose for my life, a strong ideal, the more empowered I become. The further I try and live a fulfilling life, one that I can look back on and feel I contributed a large amount, the more at peace I become. The longer I procrastinate on all of this, the further away I push my peace away. The longer I use feeble excuses to mitigate what I should be doing, the less time I have to complete my goals. And if I do not contribute my life to serving the greater good, the lofty ideal in my heart, I have wasted my life.

Ghandi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” I completely agree with that. If you want people to change, wouldn’t it make sense that you have to make those same changes first? You have to lead by example. You cannot claim to be an activist for the environment while buying things that pollute the environment. You should not preach something you do not practice yourself. That just leads to incongruencies. It’s like me preaching the benefits of the Atkins diet, even though I have never experienced it myself. Even if I know all about the diet, I still have not experienced it. Viewing something fromt he outside is totally different from experiencing something from the inside.

There are definitely things in this world that need to change. I am sure most people can list at least ten things they would like to change in this world. But just talking about it doesn’t change the situation. For example, let’s say you are a wage slave at a job you hate and you complain about your job to your friends, your family, your co-workers, and everyone under the sun. That just adds to the negativity you are already feeling and offers no solution. Now let’s say you quit that job to pursue more meaningful work. You stopped worrying so much about playing it safe and decided to go all or nothing towards a purpose you have in mind for your life. And even though you may fail initially, even the failure is more rewarding than the highest success at that previous job. And even though you haven’t got it figured out yet, you enjoy the path you are on and embrace all of its twists and turns.

If you die with your music still in you, your life will most likelly be filled with regret. Think of how many people could have benefitted from your hypothetical life of service. But because you chose to take the road everyone else takes, without any real meaning except meeting your physical needs, you stagnate at a certain mental level, a certain level of consciousness, and you remeain there for the rest of your life. It is a choice to grow. It is a choice to pursue a higher purpose. It is also a choice to sit back and do nothing. But in every choice you make, you are the one who is responsible. Stop playing the victim. Start imagining possibilities. Do some soul searching. Stop watching television. Find your passion. Empower yourself. Deprogram your social considioning. It’s all here in this pamphlet.

Make changes that will not just benefit you, but the world as well. If we leave one thing after we die, wouldn’t it be nice to have a net positive effect on the planet? If you add up all your positive actions and subtract the negative ones, you would most likely want your actions towards the greater good outmatch the evil or inconsequential acts, wouldn’t you? You should strive to be someone who embraces abundance and has no problem being generous. It is a complete shift in mindset that will cultivate these changes. It is a complete shift in actions that will supplement these changes.

You can be the change in the world. Even if you think what you do doesn’t matter on a large scale (like reducing your ecological footprint), still do it anyway. Your model may inspire others to do so and that could lead to a revolution. It will be like a positive spiral upward. When people see your passion, your energy, your resilience, and your guts, they will wonder where you got all of this from. And when they are truly ready to listen, you can tell them how to lead richer, more fulfilling lives. You can be the navigator. You can give your vast experience to others. You can be the model for service to the highest good of all. Or you can stay at that dead-end job. You can work like a dog your whole life at a job you hate and die unhappy. It is up to you. Both paths are neither right nor wrong. It’s just one is more empowering than the other. Your choice.

I’m sure we all hear that saying enough, but how many of us actually pursue variety in lieu of repetition? For many people in today’s world, repeition is the spice of life. They get up every day, go to the same job, go home, and it works the same way, every day, like clockwork. This is the way most people I’ve seen live. Very scarcely do they mix it up and do something totally spontaneous. People get set in their ways and just do what feels comfortable for five, ten, twenty years before they realize that it is not so interesting. They finally figure out that you cannot grow by staying in your comfort zone. You can only grow by getting outside your comfort zone and starting to experience new things every day. If you experience one new thing every day for the next twenty years, you’ll have 7305 new experiences (accounting for the five leap years also). So, wouldn’t you say that it should be worth it to spice it up just a tad?

If you live your life in an experiential way, taking in each experience, rather than evaluating them with labels, but just letting the experience pass you by, and moving onto the next one with gratitude, grace, ease, and lightness, you will start to see how powerful this way of living is. It will push you to experience more and more of what you currently are not. It is a powerful tool for fulfillment. If you root yourself in experiences, rather than material possessions, rather than things that are, by nature, impermanent, you will feel more secure. This is because people cannot take those experiences away from you. Someone could come over today and take all your possessions, your land, your home, but they can never take what you’ve done, who you’ve met, and the good/bad times you’ve endured. Root yourself in what cannot be taken away and you’ll be freer than most people in this world.

They say that people look for love in material possessions, like that next new car is going to make me feel good enough to be loved. But perhaps this sort of feeling is misjudged as unconditional love is out there everywhere if you look hard enough. And you will never acquire it from the things around you, but from living things and nature and to spend time interacting with the “living sector” of life, rather than spending time in the “possession sector.” Of course, spending time with both of these sectors count as an experience, but which of the two is richer? Your laptop will not help you when you’re down, nor will your washer/dryer combination. But living things, be them animals or people in your life, will often try to help cheer you up or help you with your situation. And if you do not feel that way, I urge you to try and find people who will do these things for you.

If you are grateful for each and every experience you have, and try to find the good in all of it, more good things will happen to you. Optimism is so much better than pessimism. Although everyone gets a bout of pessimism once in awhile, rerouting that negativity with a healthy dose of joy is just what the doctor ordered. If you view all your experiences in the most positive way possible, you start to build momentum towards the positive life you’ve always dreamed of. I see this as proof in my own life and the lives of those who live by these rules. Even if you cannot completely control what happens to you, you can always choose how to react to what is going on. So make the empowering choice and spice up your life. Get as many experiences as you can, good or bad, and then give them all a positive spin. It will be worth it. Peace to everyone.

The best way to spend your present moments is in the present, not in the past or in the future, worrying about things that have not happened, wondering if things will happen. It is better to enjoy each moment as it comes without expectation than it is to expect something. Make no appointments and you’ll have no disappointments. The fact is that ever moment on this Earth, in the universe, is a gift, one that should not be sqandered, so wasting your time in non-present negativity is not going to get you anywhere.

I like the whole “time is an illusion” concept. It is true because the only moment you can actively perceive is right now. You may be able to dip into your past or dream about the future, but you are doing those things in the present. Your best bet is to stay present and work towards eternal joy. Know in the depths of your heart that joy is all around you, waiting to be released and that in order to get it, you just need to focus on each and every moment as it is, without expectation, and allow that moment to be, and the next, and the next.

Think about it: if you expect nothing, anything is a bonus. Even if the occurrence is negative, you have the capacity to make it better, if you please to. If not, you allow it into your reality. As things come at you, or you go to things (my personal favorite), you start to look at them from a whole different perspective. For example, I recently got some supposedly “bad” news when I found out my comedy performance would be delayed a few weeks, but after some anger and a nap, I came to my senses and knew I wasn’t even ready for a July 9th performance anyway. Working nine days straight and 11 out of 12 will definitely put comedy on the back burner, and with my show approaching so rapidly and my mind allocated to other tasks, it is now perceived as a blessing, rather than a curse.

I believe perhaps I intended for this to happen because I really kept saying to myself, “There is no way I’ll be ready in time.” So I was sending that message out into the universe, and the universe manifested me more time. I love to see this power of thought stuff in action. One time, my grandfather was going to pick me up to do some driving (before I had my license), and he said he would be there at ten, but I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to get ready, so I said to the world, “I need more time,” and he calls me at ten till ten and says he’ll be a half-hour late, as something held him up at his condo.

So staying in the present and acknowledging that there really is no “time” except now really opens new doors for you and your life. Just do me a favor and try it out. Go for a presence walk. Do what it is that allows you to see it firsthand. You’ll thank me someday. And if not, well, sorry.

The worst feeling ever is when you have a funny thought and forget it before you have a chance to write it down. Not just funny thoughts, too. Profound thoughts, like, “Did I lock my keys in my car again?” That makes absolutely no sense, but I’ll go on from here. This is a solid foundation for a wonderful post. Why would someone write down a question like that? Anyway, I find that writing down any important thoughts I have, be them comedy or otherwise, prove to be invaluable. Later I can archive them into my database of thoughts, which further and further brings me closer to finding out exactly who I am. Not from an ego perspective, but from a self perspective. I know who my ego is, but getting into the self is something that is much more challenging. My thoughts help me go into a positive direction towards figuring this all out.

Everone is different in some way, but then again, we are all the same in other ways. But I believe, at a fundamental level, we are all one. We are all the same collective consciousness. And this includes everything we experience. Not just human beings, as we tend to think of ourselves as so much more important as the other species on this planet. They are all part of us as a whole as well. I remember this thing I heard from somewhere about how if you are ever mad at someone or criticize someone, it is really that part of you that you are resisting. Like if you work in an office building and you notice one of your employees is not doing his/her job effectively, perhaps working on your own effectiveness will ease the problem. If someone is driving you crazy, it is not their behavior that is driving you crazy, but your reaction to this person’s behavior. You can choose to accept the “gift” or not. And if you do not accept the gift, to whom does the gift belong?

I don’t know if you got that reference, but if not, there was a story about the Buddha and some young hothead who kept spewing insults at the Buddha. The Buddha remained calm and eventually the hothead walked away, frustrated. The man who was hurling the insults did not have a receiver of them because the Buddha decided to decline them. Therefore, the receiver of the insults was the young man who was hurling them. I really like this story because it is just amazing how simplistic it is, and yet it brings across such a powerful message. But I feel that most things that have powerful messages are simplistic. Otherwise, their message would be convoluted in a pile of rules and regulations.

Following that natural progression of thought, if you love someone, it really means you love that part of yourself. The same goes for hate, despise, and whatever else you can think of. If you completely and fully accept yourself, then you will completely and fully accept everyone unconditionally, to the degree you accept yourself unconditionally. I hope that make ssense. Even if the outside world tells you that you’re not good enough, that you need to do more, all that matters is what is inside yourself. And once you open the door to accepting everyone for who they are, people will eventually accept you for who you are. It may take a little while for everyone to accept you, but it takes awhile for anything new to manifest in your life, so be patient.

Accept things as they are and move to grow from them. If you resist your current situation in the present, then you are creating more of that for yourself. Embrace every moment you have on this planet because the time is limited, at least in a physical sense. Once you start accepting your current circumstances (the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth), then you can move on to actually bettering your circumstances. You will never be able to grow from denial because denying what you have right now is lowering your awareness. Accept what you have, and make an intention to move towards what you want. And just allow yourself to experience joy. I mean, if you really want to start enjoying life, why not start right now? Watch a funny clip on YouTube or rent a funny movie. Get yourself in a joyful state because life is too short to be depressed. And acknowledge that your current circumstances could change at any moment. Embrace impermanance.

Life would be boring if it was not the way it is now. If there were no obstacles to overcome, what would be the purpose of living? As I believe I said before, if we all had our problems solved, we would have nothing to work towards. We need to be grateful for everything we experience because it is allowing us to experience life and all of its wonders. I don’t know where I read this, but one guy suggested that even when you are signing your bankruptcy papers, take a moment to realize how smooth the pen writes on the piece of paper.

I guess I should close with one last story, and I believe this is the whole theme of this post: A man is being chased by two lions all the way to the edge of a cliff. He sees a vine dangling from the cliff and decides to climb down on it. It is a strawberry vine. He is hanging from it so the lions cannot reach him. He looks up and notices two mice gnawing on the vine. He knows he does not have much time before he falls to his death. He eats a stawberry and it is delicious.

Lately I feel as if I’ve been running around in circles. I feel like my days are becoming more and more alike and less diverse. I took an extended break from writing in this blog, mainly because I needed to rejuvenate my mind, body, and spirit. I tried and tried to write an article for days on end, but I just could not get enthusiastic enough to continue. I ended up cancelling maybe ten or so entries that I did not deem worthy of being posted. I was thinking, “Maybe I’ve run out of ideas,” but I knew that wasn’t the case. Eventually I would find something else to write about. And I guess this is it. I think the whole problem was that there was not really a topic I saw in the last two weeks that really inspired me to write a post. I mean, even with all those topics out there, nothing was really sticking. But life goes on and this blog is not me. It is merely an expression of ideas formulated in my consciousness. And it is a wonderful outlet of expression that I am truly grateful for.

I no longer strive to keep up with any of the A-list bloggers because, seriously, I am not an A-list blogger. I am growing as a blogger, becoming better as a person, and these occurences are worth more than some status gained from the work I do here. This blog is just as much for me as it is for everyone else. It helps me through my tough times and allows me to express joy through the good times. I do keep another journal on Live Journal, but I do not allow it to the public. It is much more personal than this one. Writing is a joy of mine and being able to write something here and press the “Publish” button and send it out into the Internet, into the world, for anyone to read, that is astonishing in my opinion. The fact that we have this sort of technology is amazing and I am just glad I am able to put it to good use.

So, I was sitting around, wondering how much I should post, how long my posts should be, and all of that technical mumbo-jumbo, and I had a flash of insight. It was nothing remarkable in an objective sense, but subjectively, and intuitively, it made sense to me. I post when I feel like posting, I write until I feel like not writing anymore, and I write about what is on my mind. I will very scarcely edit or revise, mostly because it is important to allow my thoughts to be. Besides, I am not turning this in for a grade. I am just doing this because I want to. And it is my blog, so whatever I wish to do with it, it is my choice. I’m kind of wondering where I am going with this blog, how I want to expand, or contract. It all depends on how far I can get with this framework. Sure, it would be nice to develop an audience of over one million per month, but I do not feel I am ready to accept that amount of volume. I need to grow further.

The thing that is funny is that everyone has a blog now. I mean, it is becoming as common as having a cell phone, or a television. Blogs are popping up everywhere, and most of them are very personal in nature, while some are very broad in the topics they explore. I would love to read all of them, but I feel it would most likely be a waste of my time. I do read some blogs, but in moderation. I try to limit the amount of time I spend in front of the computer or television, but sometimes it just gets to me and I spend hours reading a blog I discover by accident. There is such a network of blogs, links, and all of those other technical stuff that is is so broad and amazing. One blog links to another blog, and that blog links to a third blog, and that third blog links back to the first blog to complete the circuit. The whole world defined by blogging. A new culture.

Something about writing here just feels right to me now. It’s hard coming up with specific topics to comment on daily and taking an intuitive approach may help me get back on the right track. My intuition, my instincts, know what is best for me, and the more I learn to trust them, the better off I will be. I am not here to impress anyone, or for any hidden agenda, I am just here, in the flesh, writing until my mind shuts off and surrenders to the beckon call of sleep. This is real. But at the same time, it is surreal. It’s hard to explain, so I will leave it up to your imagination. The world awaits you. This was fun. Until next time…

Astronomy (n): The study of stars which makes humans realize how insignifcant they really are.

The universe is gigantic. Gigantic beyond comprehension even. Billions and trillions of stars, millions of galaxies, an infinite amount of energy, somewhere out there, in the universe. It sure makes you feel small. It makes everything on Earth seem so insignificant with respect to the infinity of the universe. But why is it so big? What does it mean for us that we are so much less important than we initially thought? Most people resist taking on a cosmic perspective, at least in my life, and I think I know why. Because it is overwhelming and kind of depressing at first. Even taking on a global perspective is kind of demotivating, if looking at your life with respect to everyone who has ever lived on this planet. It just makes you realize your time is limited here.

But if we are living on a spinning ball, making revolutions around the sun, in a heirarchy ofmillions and billions of other systems like this, some dying, some being born, then what are we ? Why are we here? That is the one question that everyone wants to know the answer to. Some so badly they will buy just about any story someone can come up with. If someone says that we are here to learn a lesson or that there is an invisible man in the sky judging you, that you should strive to do good and not evil, people listen with great intent. And it is not a bad thing to give meaning to your life, but in a way, isn’t it a form of denial? I mean, I do believe there is life after death, a spiritual life, but I still question what that will mean, or if it will all be revealed to me once I cross over (but not with Jon Edwards). And when discussing the meaning of life with the close-minded evangelical-like believers, they will never change their perspective or even consider yours. Which is a recipe for disaster if you ask me.

Sure, there may be, and probably is, a spiritual side of life, and it is more empowering to believe that after you die, you will still exist. The other perspective is worthless, is demotivating, and will bring you a very depressing life because if there is no meaning, what is the point? But if you believe that there is something beyond this crazy planet and the whole universe, then you will most likely have less fear because no matter what happens to your physical body, you still exist in some form, therefore nothing can really destroy you, the essence of your being.

But if we are spiritual in nature, why are we living on some gigantic sphere, spinning around in circles around another even bigger sphere, along with other spheres, and other stars, for billions and billions of years, forever and ever and ever? I don’t know. I still have not figured out what this means. There has to be some reason why all of this is here. It’s not just for us to look at. Before us, these things were still here, so there has to be some purpose to it. Animals don’t question these things, they just live their lives. They instinctively must know something we do not. They must already know something about the infinity of time and space and are just allowed to live. The human, with his inquisitive and rational nature, is always wanting answers to questions that, from his/her perspective, are unanswerable.

Life goes on. Like some roller coaster ride that never ends, the universe does what it does best. And we stay here, trapped on some blue marble in the perspective of the whole universe, our lives nothing but a cosmic wink in the grand scheme, and for some reason we still find a way to get out of bed in the morning. Even though we either consider life meaningless or timeless (in the spiritual sense). I guess the way to look at it is, you could either believe life is meaningless and be apathetic, lethargic, and careless about your actions, which don’t really matter, or you can believe in a spiritual life beyond the grave, and make an effort to enrich your life here before moving on to whatever lies ahead. It would seem to me that option number two, the latter, would make a better choice to live a fulfilling life. And even if I am wrong, at least I lived a good life.

I would like to close this post with abstract thinking I would like to share with you. Imagine getting a snapshot of the universe. Of the whole thing. And pretend you were looking from far above at this thing, and what would be outside of it? How would this provide a bigger context for living? Would this solve anything at all or would it only create more confusion? We are imbedded in this system, so we have no way to see the whole thing simultaneously. Maybe doing so would give us some sort of answer. Maybe not. Have a cosmic day.

What I hope to accomplish in the coming months and years is to improve this blog every day, every week, every post. I feel that a blog is a great medium to convey ideas and gives me an outlet for writing and creativity. I can always make what I am doing better and to grow this blog into something amazing, something beyond just the text, would be amazing for me and the world. The penalty of not utilizing my potential does not just hurt me, it hurts the entire world. If I do not do my best to ensure the world is becoming a better place, then it will have consequences.

The whole point I am making here is that there is always the quote, “If we all did our best, then…” and I want to make that a reality. I want to lead by example and encourage others to do the same, their best in whatever field they are in. If we all band together to do the best we possibly can do, anything is possible, barring the removal of gravity. When and if I am ever on my deathbed, the question I will ultimately ask myself is, “Did I do my best?” And if I cannot answer yes to that question, if I cannot feel satisfied about what I contributed, then I did not live the life I wanted to, and the regrets will start to settle in. The longer I live, the more chance I have to make a valid contribution to this world. I want to raise awareness about certain things and promote healthy living, healthy emotions, and help the world become the wonderful place it can be.

I am going to focus solely on providing genuine value to the readers, in various forms, so that everyone feels they can benefit from this website. I plan to really vamp up the blog in the next few months, with much more high-level content, things that keep me awake at night, and I want to rehash a conversation I had with a friend of mine to show how important life is, or whether anything really matters at all, in the grand scheme of things. The only reason why anything happens is because it is a possibility. If it wasn’t a possibility, it wouldn’t be happening. This is how I feel right now. So the fact that I am writing this post right now means that it is a possibility in the grand scheme of life, the infinite time frame of the universe. And I am making the most of this possibility. Don’t let your possibility slip away.

We have the ability in this life to make a choice. A fundamental choice about our lives. We can choose to be a part of the problem or part of the solution. And there is no real right or wrong answer, if the choice is made consciously. But if the choice is a socially conditioned, unconscious choice, which really isn’t a choice at all, then it has no bearing. You have to take the initiative to either encite change or defend the status quo. It is up to you. I am taking the time to work this blog up and make everything better to hopefully inspire people to better themselves and the world. I hope you make a similar decision, and if you don’t make sure it is a conscious deicision.