The Trials and Tribulations...or: Why life is like a game.

Okay, I have a thought that has been coming together in my head and I am going to attempt to share it.  Hopefully I make some sense.   :)

At this point in my life, I don't think I believe in a sentient god who watches over and designs our lives.  However, the question of "Why would God let bad things happen" is one that is often put forth.  Even if there is no god/s, why do bad things happen?  Just by random chance?  

I would like to put forth the theory that we need problems, troubles, antogonists...we draw them to us.

Think about a video game.  Let's take the old Donkey Kong.  What if there was no big ape throwing barrels at you?  What if all you had to do was mosey up the ramp and save the princess?  How interesting would that game be?  Would people have spent hours playing it?  Of course not!  It would have been boring to win so easily.  We want challenge and as soon as we master that challenge, we want a harder or new challenge to master.  This is the basis of all video games.

Think about sports.  What if you played baseball by hitting the ball and then going around the bases, but no one ever tried to stop you and there were no outs.  Everyone just took their turn hitting the ball and running the bases.  Again, I just don't think the game would hold people's interest.  We crave a project, a problem, an antagonist...something to best, something to overcome.

Now, let's apply these thoughts to our lives.  I think just as we crave challenge in our play, we crave it in our lives.  When life becomes too easy, we seek more.  I think life/god/we bring problems and trouble into our lives to help us continue to learn and grow.  If there is a God, he is sending lessons.  If it is just life, then we are finding lessons.  

Finally, I think our need to learn and grow sometimes gets misdirected....we don't realize how to feed the need and so turn to drugs/sex/gossip/drama/violence/fast-living which whips itself up into a cycle that can be hard to get off.  If instead we would just try to honestly look at ourselves and find what our uniqueness is and not be afraid to be it...to explore who we are fully.  If we work on honing our positive traits and try to understand our problem areas, we would go a long way toward inner peace. 

The soul longs to learn and play.

 

New Ways

Do you ever stop to think that we spend most of our lives with some kind of audio input?  We are either watching tv or a video...or we have the radio on, are listening to an ipod or talking on the cellphone.  I am experimenting with silence in the car....turning off the radio and either singing or just being quiet.  

Yesterday was my second day of this on my commute to work.  It was an amazing difference.  The world outside my car became brighter...more in focus.   I noticed several interesting things that I would't usually notice.   I saw a man walk around a corner to find his truck covered with several ravens and he waved them off.  I noticed pedestrians on their way to work and thought about them....where they were going and what they might be thinking.   I think it makes me a better driver at the least. 

But, my mind also came up with important internal conversations that I think I usually drown out with electronic stimulus.  I thought about the fine line between supporting/encouraging your loved ones and controlling/expecting something from them. 

Now I just have to find a way to off the tv.   There is very little that I enjoy on tv, yet I watch it daily in the evenings...I think just to create a mindless time of rest after the workday.  There must be a better way to relax.   You will say I should read, which would be great but I need to get buy in from my husband.   Actually, he sometimes opts to read in the evenings and I am the one who doesn't.  I think my long years of tv have made it harder for me to keep my attention on a book.  Maybe I need to learn to crochet....a nice soothing restful task perhaps.

I'm getting free

♫ I'm getting free of all demanding
To have things my own way.
I don't have to control you,
it's not worth the price I pay.
I'm learning how to love,
I don't have to force my way.
I'm learning how to love my life,
more and more each day. ♫

My favorite Easter funnie!

Peeps!

It's time for total silliness!  Time for Peeps!  I have collected some funny peeps pictures over the years.  Here are my favorites.   My hats off to the creative minds that came up with these.



                                          The Peepsons

                                                       Marching for World Peeps

                                                            Peeps and Peppers             

                                                                  Jiffy Peeps

                                                  No Country for Old Peeps

                                                              Your Peeps on Drugs

                                                           Peep Show

                                                          Peeping Tom

                                                           Peepzilla

 

In The Here and Now

I am thinking this morning of the skill and blessing of acting on current information.  I was taught from childhood to live in and celebrate the here and now....sometimes I am successful at this...others times not so much.   

I am seeing now that there are many aspects to this skill.  One is seeing the world as it is now...acting on what is, not what was when considering times, places, and things.  

Another is responding to others based on what is happening between you right now, with no baggage from the past or hopes for the future.  When you untie these binds of past and future, the present can brighten and show you more of the person than you saw when you let these things cloud your vision.

Yet another aspect, and the one I am contemplating this morning, is seeing yourself in the here and now.  Accepting your current self fully.  I think there is wisdom in spending some time reflecting on the past so as to spur growth...and there are great benefits to planning for our future selves...paths of learning and accomplishments we aspire to.  

But, we cannot live there...in the past and future.  If I act according to my wants, desires, skills, interests of the past, I am blocking knowing myself in the present!  (Wow, I am just figuring this out while writing it...or relearning what I already knew?).  Who am I now?  What are my interests right now?   I need to allow myself to grow, change, evolve...to turn and turn till I come round right.

I have attached one of my favorite songs ever: Simple Gifts.  It is an old Shaker hymn that packs power to quiet my soul and open me.  

'Tis the gift to be simple
'Tis the gift to be free
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be
And when we find ourselves in the place just right
It will be in the valley of love and delight


When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed
To turn to turn it will be our delight
'Til by turning and turning we come round right.


No lyrics could be truer.  I often sing them over and over in the car as a kind of mantra.  I think singing is powerful and causes our selves to internalize words and ideas in a much deeper way than just listening.  Here is Judy Collins' version.

When you need a laugh...a little Joe Cocker lyrics.

Whoever put this together did an incredible job.  Funny as heck.  No disrespect to Joe Cocker...he is a heartfelt rousing performer who gives us his all.  But these really sound like the lyrics! 

Hoggify!