0. The Musings Of A Mystic Wizard - Introduction

My Photo
Name:
Location: Overland Park, Kansas, United States

Saturday, September 30, 2006

REFLECTIONS ON MY LIFE - ( 06/27/1946 - ??/??/20 ? )
By An Observer
Most of my sixty years I have spent, like most people, just living from one day to the next learning the lessons of Life. Needless to say, I am still learning. I do not expect the learning process to stop - at least, I am hoping that is does not, as there is still a tremendous amount I’d like to learn. I am, as my friend Chet Nichols says, "still curious, very curious, as the hands of time tick louder". I have, however, reached a tipping point in the learning process - a point at which I have learned that if I am to learn any more, I now have to begin to pass on that which has taken me sixty years to learn. Our latter years, I do believe, should be a time of reflection and commentary. The perpetuation of Life’s knowledge is the true purpose of old age.It has been said that we are defined not only by how we've lived, but by what we pass on as well. So it is that I begin now to write this blog which I have decided to entitle ‘The Musings Of A Mystic Wizard'. The Mystic Wizard name is one I used years ago for my home-based woodcraft business. I don't really consider myself a mystic or much of a wizard either but I like the name, which is a takeoff of my initials MW. I thought it a fitting name for my blogs, which have become a wonderful avenue upon which to write, and a very long way from my first hand scribed compositions written in Mrs. Fasnight's fifth grade class. I have always enjoyed the writing process and it is my hope that I may continue to write as long as I am able. I hope to be doing so right up to my very last minute. Maybe I will even be writing when I say my final ‘Good-Bye’. Someone fill in the missing dates in the header, please.I have so many things to write about - it is hard to know for sure just exactly where to start. So I will start with just a little bit about myself. Not too much, but just enough to explain about myself and my style of writing, or maybe I should call it compiling.My musings, whatever they are called, are mostly in the form of an essay, with a rather general subject matter. They have been written in segments over the past forty years of my Life and are now being edited, and arranged in a readable order.For the most part, they are based on the thoughts of others, with an intermingling of my own thoughts to form bridges between these intellectual properties of others. I call these essays 'Reflections', as they are written from the perspective of an observer, hearing the words of others and then looking at my own Life reflected through the lens of time.I have always looked at my Life this way.When I was young, I spent as much time visiting with, and learning from, the older people in my Life as I spent playing with my kid friends. I wanted to know what these old folks had gleaned from a lifetime of learning. My mother taught me to be my own friend so I have always valued my quiet time alone. It gives me time to think, which is something that today we often block out with one of our innumerable outer distractions (TV, Radio, Ipod, etc, etc, etc).One of my most enjoyable pastimes is thinking - just thinking -thinking to myself about Life - having mental self-conversations. One of the more interesting self-conversations I have had recently was as I celebrated my birthday, marking the beginning of my sixty-first year. I was thinking about my good fortune in still being alive, pretty much unscathed by the cataclysms of my human existence. My thoughts moved on to that ever increasing awareness within me that the majority of my time here on Earth has already passed and then came those reflections of the fantastic times I have had in this Life, as Michael Jay Weaver, just being me. Then I started thinking about how much time I really have left and how I should go about using my time as wisely as possible. This is, I am sure, what has prompted me to begin this undertaking, knowing that my ‘alive time’ is running out and that if I am going to get anything written and put together in form, then I had better be about getting it done. - - I would not want to leave this world without passing on what I have learned, most all of which I have learned from other people, which makes it only right that I should pass on the knowledge of my Life's experience. We do build our future upon the foundation of our past experiences. - - Someone has said, 'All experience is an arch to build on.' And someone else said, ' A wise man learns by others mistakes, a fool learns by his own'. Living here on Earth as a human being has been a very wonderful, interesting, learning experience..... Just being alive - what a fantastic experience........ Living - - what a trip it is.....Life is short, indeed, very short....Fortunately for us, we can take advantage of our human ability to actively know our own happiness. To paraphrase an email I received from my old friend Robert Zoglin, "Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, 'Holly Crap'.... What a Ride ! ! !" And someone else declared, "I burn my candle at both ends, it shall not last the night. But ah my foes, and oh my friends, it puts off one hell of a light." No matter how we, as individuals, define fun, whatever else we do, we should have as much of it as we possibly can and we should do our best to have a really good time while we are here. After all, a Life would be a terrible thing to waste. We should like what we do, and do what we like. A good sense of humor is one thing that will help us get through all the hard times - -Red Skelton said "Laughing is good"...we should do it a lot...John Lennon said, "Touching is good." We should do that a lot too, and we should be thankful for whatever it is that we have, no matter how meager, for without gratitude cynicism quickly develops and we lose the possibility of happiness altogether. Life positively could be, would be, and should be a fun journey.Remember, sometimes the journey is more important (and more fun) than the destination.My present life's journey began in the middle of the fourth decade of the twentieth century (whether I have had previous lives, or will have future ones, I can't presume to say, though I would expect that I, like the squirrel in the tree outside my window, and for that matter, like the very tree itself - we are all continuums of Life's energy - recycled and renewed over and over again for eternity - as in eternal Life .) I am a first year member of the American 'baby boomer' generation, born right after World War II.As I begin here, it is now near the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century. I am living in my sixty-first year. I have lived what I consider to be quite a good Life. If I consider all of the people who have ever lived, and all of those who are now alive, and look at the quality of lives they have lived and are living, then look at my own Life, I can only conclude that I have lived a very good Life. Fitting in somewhere in the upper half of the comfort scale, somewhere in the 60% area, I would guess. Yes, there are many who have much more than I, but there are also many, many more who have much, much less than I have.Of course, I have my own negative 'could have, would have, should have' situations, but I have had way too much good to complain about anything..... I also have my share of dirty little secrets about myself that would be rather embarrassing to talk about. I've done some things that I am not very happy about, but those things are part of what makes me who I am, so I have to accept them.I was born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in the suburb of Overland Park, Kansas in the USA, in a boom county that has been, for the last half century, one of the country's more affluent counties (and politically, one of the more crimson in a very red state). While my own family was not at all wealthy, we certainly did not want for much. We had a nice home, nice cars and furniture, we ate well, traveled a lot, especially the many vacations and camping trips we took, and we enjoyed living in a clean, safe environment. We didn't lock our doors and we left the key in the car. My two brothers and I always had nice clothes and we went to nationally recognized local public schools. As a child, I went to Sunday School at the strict Protestant church my mother attended. As a pre-teen, I went to Bible School and then on to church, where I was taught to believe in God. As it turned out, however, my Dad, who did not go to church, became a part owner of a teenage dance club, (The Soc Hop, 1959 - 1964) and our church did not believe in dancing. And oh, how I loved to dance. Early Rock & Roll and the Blues drew me like a magnet, so as it was, my church going went away. Dad made a good living in the automobile industry, as have my older brother and myself. My younger brother moved away years ago and we visit only occasionally, but are still close. Mom was a mother first, and a housewife who put in long hours raising us boys and taking care of the home-front. Needless to say, I owe her a huge debt of gratitude, for a lot of what I have become is a direct manifestation of her energy in raising me, as is normally the case between parent and child. Children usually do turn out to be what their parents ( plus their genes and environments) make of them.With the exception of a few years in the 1970's during my 'hippie' days, (when I lived in Guerneville, a hip little town in Northern California on the Russian River in the redwood forest), I have lived in the same area of Johnson County, Kansas, within the same ten mile radius, all of my Life. I have been married and divorced twice. Actually married both times by the same minister and in the same church, not that that was good luck or anything. I have two sons from my first wife, both of whom were born when my high school sweetheart and I were in our early twenty's, and both of whom are now doing well in their respective professions. Though I had access to a very good education, I was only an average student. High school was tough enough. There was no college for me. I was having too much fun. I did serve in the security police in the military reserve during the Viet Nam War, but was never called to active duty. Later, I had long hair and a beard and looked like I was on my way to Woodstock.I have held numerous jobs in a variety of fields, and was, until my children moved away, just a regular family man. I have been both a laborer and a business owner. I am now semi-retired, (unemployed), and temporarily staying with my second ex-wife and helping her with her business. I am also filling the role of a part-time caretaker for my aging, soon to be senile, parents. I have had both many enjoyable, and many painful experiences. I have always greatly enjoyed music of all kinds, but in particular early rock, blues and smooth jazz. Music is a wonderful uniter of people - it must be the primal subconscious that we all share which makes music such a universal language - such a unifying experience.Experience is, indeed, the teacher of Life and I have had many of these wonderful learning adventures. I have been exposed to many different experiences through which I have evolved from who I was to who I am, and while my philosophy about living has remained fairly constant, it too has undergone its own evolution.Most of my Life I have believed in God and also felt that there must surely be some purpose in and for my Life - that there is something I should accomplish while I am here - something I should contribute to the world I will leave behind when my time comes, whenever that may be. After all, all that I have gleaned about this Life, all I that know, I have learned through the energy of others. If it wasn't for those who came before me who left something for me to find, I would not know what it is that really matters. I have always known that some things matter more than others. Life is, after all, just a matter of what you think. Satchel Paige said, 'Life is just a matter of mind - If you don't mind, it don't matter.' But, then again, if you do mind, nothing else matters.......I have, since I was very young, been interested in philosophy and spirituality, and have, for years collected little bits of wisdom. Little things people say or I find written, I have saved - - and I have boxes and boxes of envelopes full of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and scraps of paper I have written on when I've heard someone say something that rang true to me.In my early twenty's I was fortunate to be introduced to a number of what I could only describe as very 'mature' people. Mature, not just in body, but in mind as well. Unfortunately, the word 'mature' is extremely outmoded and is now used to describe things our teenage-oriented society deems offensive to it's own youth. The introduction to these 'mature' people was a new experience for me as I had not previously known that people such as these really existed. Through these self-evolving individuals, I came to possess a very large amount of printed information. Not only did I acquire a large number of inspirational books but I inherited a big stack of typewritten papers. Upon all these papers are the written thoughts of many, many people, some known - some unknown, but apparent truth sayers one and all. These thoughts of others are mostly of the philosophical or spiritual nature. It became my hobby to type these thoughts out, arrange similar thoughts in a flowing manner, and then try to build bridges from one of these thoughts to another, then to another and another, until I have built a complete thought. I try to fit these written thoughts together to make what could be called a verbal jigsaw puzzle of thought. These thoughts of others are what form the foundation for what I write, or at least they tend to lend credence to the thought that I am trying of my own to express. I have always enjoyed both reading and writing and have always kept journals to keep track of my (and others) thoughts. I do not think of myself as a writer, nor really much of a wordsmith either. I consider myself a plagiarist in that I use words others have written or spoken as though they are my own, so my writing is full of plagiarism. I use other peoples intellectual property as if it were my own and I do so without permission. I do, however, always try to give credit to others whose words I use, when known, and I try to use others words in the context in which I believe they were meant, though I make no guarantees in this regard. Oftentimes, I just paraphrase another person’s quote in my own words. I just want it to be known that I take no credit for any new thinking. Rather than a writer, I would call myself a 'compiler'. I consider my work to be akin to the music of the composer who, because of his memory of all the music he has heard, finds himself composing music that is made up, in part, of little bits of other music. There is new music, of course, but it seems like a lot of new music, like much of the art world, is just a little different take on something that has already been done. There is also the possibility of new thinking, though most of what we think is just remembering what has already been thought before.Thinking - - that is what being a human is really all about. I not only have the ability, but I have the obligation, to think, and thus to evolve and mature. I think. Therefore, I am. So who am I ? And what am I here for?.......I am what I am, and that is all that I am....Someone has said, 'I can't help being who I am.'.....We may Change, but we are who we are....I could actually write a full autobiography here, reminiscing about the wonderful childhood I had, the learning experiences I had at my grandparents farm, my rockin’ teen years, my many experiences at the Soc Hop, the teen town my parents owned (see my soc hop stories blog), my many jobs, my family and friends and all the things I've done and wonderful people I've known and places I've been, etc., etc., etc., but I won't do that now. I have many stories I could tell, but not now. Maybe someday.None of that trivia is really pertinent, or even relevant to what is truly important in our lives here upon Earth. And time is of the essence. The clock is ticking. Tick .. Tick .. Tick .....We each have to determine for ourselves what is really, truly important. This is every thinking persons’ responsibility. It is high time we take responsibility for ourselves.In trying to determine just exactly what it is in Life that now seems to be of highest priority, what is really, truly important, what really matters to me most now, as I move toward the end of my Earthly journey, I have come to the conclusion that my own inner growth, my own personal maturity and my own inner happiness are probably the most important aspects of my Life. As an individual, I must determine for myself just exactly how to grow, how to mature and I must decide what it is that will create this sought after happiness within me.I have determined that it is knowledge of Life that matters most. It is this knowledge alone that will cause me to grow and mature and find true inner happiness. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge may have been forbidden at one time in our history, but no longer. Today, nothing is more important than the quest to learn more about ourselves so that we may continue evolving into what it is our destiny to become.Unfortunately, our cultures have perpetuated the myth that we can find real happiness in the outer world. We are daily duped into believing that material things (stuff) or that money, and the fun times and trappings that go with it, can buy us happiness. No doubt, having some bucks and nice belongings is better than not having any. Bette Davis is said to have said, "I have been poor and I have been rich. Rich is better."Who doesn't want the good Life with plenty of money and lots of nice stuff? The desire to better ourselves is a self-serving part of our human nature which we could not do without. In the outer world, it is true that money is all important, so it’s best to have as much bling as possible, as EVERYTHING IS ABOUT MONEY. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. In the outer world, money is our god. At one time, I did have a some money, not much, but somewhat more than many. At another time, I was so poor I had to hitchhike into town so I could swipe the gas station’s toilet paper.At this point in my Life, I have very little money, but lots of stuff, some of which I have had for many years. It is almost like I am a stuff magnet, though I am now trying to lighten my load. I do like stuff though. Most of my stuff is memorabilia of one form or another. Lots to do with my folks, my wives and kids and family, and places I have been and things I have done, pictures and little artifacts that remind me of my past and who I have been. I have a matchbook collection and a seashell collection and lots of other stuff from places I've been. When I am gone from here it, will all be mostly just trash - but ah yes, 'One mans trash is another mans treasure.' But stuff is just stuff - and as we age it seems to mean less and less - other things become more important.As for fun times, I have been fortunate to have many. I am easy to please. I can have fun doing almost anything, or just doing nothing at all. I enjoy just being alive. Everybody enjoys doing things to have fun, be it skydiving, or watching movies, or playing a sport, or stamp collecting, or any of the other innumerable activities that we have devised to involve ourselves in. And we involve ourselves in these things with great expectations of either escaping the torment of the day or of having the fun that we hope will make us happy. But escape is always only temporary. And fun and happiness are two different things. For me, true happiness is a state of mind that comes from being thankful for what I already have. Only in a state of gratitude for what I already have is it possible for me to be truly happy. "The fun comes from being grateful," advises Carlos Santana, "If you’re not grateful, you’re not going to feel the joy." So in a blend of emotion and wisdom, I must gratefully acknowledge all that I have.So what is it, exactly, that I really have? I have known for most of my Life that the only thing I really possess, and can ever really possess, is the inner me, my mind, the thinking, reasoning, comprehending entity that is the essence of my being. Hence the statement, "The only thing I really possess is I (me), myself. Everything else I have is just on loan to me, and may be taken away at any time." Someone has said, "I possess nothing but the everyday out of which I am never taken" A very interesting statement, I think. How it must feel - to be able to live possessing nothing but the moment one is living - to truly 'Be Here Now', much like an innocent child. (But not like either of my elderly parents who have no short-term memories or expectations of the future.)As the human race is emerging from the animal kingdom, we are forgetting to remember who and what we really are.... we are slowly evolving mental beings in slowly evolving physical bodies.I have yet to lose one of my loved ones, though I know I may, at any moment lose someone I care about very deeply. I could lose my home and all of my physical possessions to a fire, a storm, or who knows, a disabled plane or an asteroid could even crash into it, destroying it all. One thing is for sure in this Life, and that is, 'If a thing can happen, it might' and it might happen to me.So if I can lose all of those things, - - my home, my possessions, my family, parts of my physical body, say my foot, my leg, a hand or an arm, my eyesight, my hearing, or one of my numerous internal organs, what is it I really possess? I possess nothing but me, my mind, where I live alone with my thoughts and feelings. My mind is me - how could it be otherwise? This is both very profound and very true.So the most intelligent thing for me to do with the rest of my Life, however long that may be, is to cultivate my mind in such a way that I can look into the mirror and respect the person who looks back at me. Someone has said, "When you can look into the eyes in the mirror and see a happy, smiling face you are seeing your true inner happiness." This is happiness worth striving for. Yes, there really is such a thing as being truly happy.Happy is a funny word - - people definitely mean different things by it. We all seem to think we can obtain happiness if only this or that would happen or if we could only have this thing or that thing. This is the fleeting happiness that our possessions and our meager accomplishments in the outer world give us - a momentary euphoria that is gone all too soon, a false happiness. Some of the wealthiest people are the most miserable. Money can not buy happiness. And no matter how much you have , you can't take it with you when you die.Again, true happiness is an inner thing - a state of mind. It would have to be described as a feeling. So where do my feelings come from? My feelings are a direct result of my thoughts. And so the aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." As James Allen wrote, "A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts."The basic concept here is that it is the part of my brain that houses my memory where the real, the inner me resides. Without my memory I could and would do nothing but vegetate. It is my memory that allows me to remember symbols and words and how to put them together into sentences and thoughts, and these thoughts are the catalysts for my feelings.So it is up to me to control how I feel by controlling what I think. Positive thinking creates positive feelings, and negative thinking, of course, creates negative feelings. It is my memory, the memory of the symbols called words, which allows me to think. I have tried to think without using words but find it utterly impossible. (So do lower animals think? Recent studies indicate that to some small degree they indeed do.)People who suffer from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia often have difficulty talking not because there is something wrong with their vocal cords, but because they cannot remember what words to use to complete their thoughts. It seems as though there is not much emphasis put on growing our memory or on keeping it sharp, but it would appear that this is a most important area that is, unfortunately, mostly neglected.Also in my memory, locked away deep inside, is all that I have learned, all that I have seen, all that I have experienced. I have heard of people who have had near death experiences who said their whole life flashed before their eyes when they were in that space. Could it be the memory becomes super active at the moment the mind becomes aware of its own imminent demise?There are few minds that are born great. Needless to say, mine was not one of them. I was born like most folks, with pretty much a blank slate, and who I have become is a culmination of what I have learned and what my memory has retained. I am not my name. I am not my body. I am not my occupation. I am not my vehicle. I am not the clothes I wear. I am not the perception other people have of me. While I do live in the outer world, I am not of the outer world, except to the degree that living in a society requires me to be. I would still be the same me if I only consisted of a living brain in a jar on a shelf. I do, however, live in a body that has a name, an address, a phone number, a job, worldly interests and enjoyments (like reading and music) and numerous friends, relations, and acquaintances. This, however, is my worldly, physical outer self, not the REAL me, my inner self. So who am I ? ? Who is the real me ? ? ?I Am My Mind.......It would not be stretch for me to say that 'I Am My Memory', without which I would become as catatonic as some of those who are confined to the mental wards and the nursing homes. (My parents still live in their home - but a nursing home is in their future.)Some of these unfortunate folks, like my own mother who has Alzheimer's Disease, have suffered memory malfunctions and simply cannot remember from moment to moment. And there are other types of memory loss. People who live while suffering from the phenomena of amnesia may not remember enough of their former selves to know how to be, or how to think. They may dress entirely differently, behave differently, may well be completely different persons than they were before. They just don't remember who they are. If I could not remember who I was, then would I be someone else? Interesting question, I think. Long term amnesia patients who are reunited with friends and family have to be told what they used to think and how they used to be, and reports say these people often have a difficult time adapting. The field of amnesia would be an interesting area of study which might help in understanding what happens to stroke victims who sometimes lose a good part of their short term memory, along with their ability to recognize letters and numbers. Such is the case with my father who suffered a stroke a few years ago.Dad's stroke was a surprise for all of us, as he was strong and active for his seventy five years and he didn't think such a thing could happen to him. He was not overweight and didn't smoke or abuse alcohol. Fortunately, dad's stroke left him in better shape than many stroke victims, though he lost his vision in both eyes from the center to the right, so he has left side vision only. He also lost the feeling in the right side of his body, except that he says it feels like a bad sunburn most of the time. His short term memory was also affected. My parents, who are both in their early eighties, do not have a half of a memory between them. They didn't think this would happen to them, but it has.One of my top ten favorite quotes, (written, I believe, by Thomas Powers) , is a statement that applies equally to each of us. Paraphrased, it says 'Every person thinks they are an exception, but no person is.' This applies to all of us. We think that somehow or another we are going to skate by and everything will be O.K. Bad things happen to other people, but not to us. We all think and act as though we are immortal, or at least that we are going to live to be old, and healthy, and financially secure.We are not going to die of cancer, or in a car wreck, or break our neck in the bathtub, or be taken out by any of the other zillion things that daily snuff out the lives of so many of us. We all think we are going to be the exception. But every day the obituaries are full of the names of people who died yesterday. Some knew they were going - others never saw death coming.Many of these folks were living healthy lives and perished in some sort of accident or sudden illness. Life really is short and very precious. Could it be my name in the paper tomorrow? We all know when to celebrate our birthday but our death day is a mystery! Who knows what the next moment will bring? 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow' might be a good slogan for the wise, knowing that inner maturity and happiness are the only means of warding off the terrifying fear of death. Shakespeare wrote, 'It seems to me most strange that men should fear death, a necessary end, that will come when it will come.' I suppose the real thing to fear would be living my Life without finding that maturity and inner happiness that will allow me to go peacefully when my time comes. That would be terrible. To never find true happiness would be akin to living out your time in Hell. Mark my words right here. True, complete happiness will never be found in the outer world. The outer world is a beautiful, amazing place - but real happiness comes from inside the person. It is a state of mind that is attained when the metaphysical part of the animal realizes its own unity with the infinite Universe. The constant striving in the outer world to obtain more and more and better and better of the material world is an obsession that consumes those who are addicted to their possessions, their careers, their hobbies, or any of the other trappings of the outer world. I am reminded of the man who, while riding the waves in his huge lake yacht, caught sight of the enormous houses on the lakeshore. Said he to his buddy, "Damn, it seems like no matter how much I have, or how nice it is, some other son of a gun has it better than me!" How sad!! And this from a fellow fortunate enough to have more and nicer possessions than most of us will have in our whole lifetime.This poor rich guy probably lies awake at night worrying about how to keep what he has and get more and better at the same time. Poor rich guy - - poor in the happiness department that is, rich only in dollars, possessions, worry, and concern - - no time to relax and think and appreciate his good fortune. It is my firm belief that some people are here to show the rest of us what NOT to be like. The unfortunate rich are this kind of people. Someone has said, 'It is as impossible to be rich and not act as the rich do, as it is to be drunk and not act as the drunks do.' I find this to be a basic truth, though exceptions are always possible. While there is nothing unsound or illogical about wanting a better Life for ourselves and our loved ones, it is important for us to put our greed in it's proper place. It is a matter of priority. For those whose every moment is consumed with "Get the dollars - Get the dollars - Get the dollars - there is no priority but money, money, money. Someone has said, 'When you are hungry, don't knock on the rich person's door. Go to a poor person's house, they will understand.'I will do myself a great disservice if I do not spend what time I have left here as an evolving homo sapien, be it twenty years or twenty minutes, working on my own personal growth and inner maturity and towards finding and then keeping my own inner happiness.I truly believe that our evolutionary purpose here on Earth is to find our true selves and become one with the Universe. What else could the Life of a thinking, feeling animal be for ? ? The following series of Reflections are being compiled for the sake of my own personal growth and for remembrance. It is also my sincere hope that anyone, particularly young people, who might peruse them should find elements of truth that will help enable them to find their own place on the puzzle board of Life. All of Life is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, each and every Life a puzzle-piece that, though quite similar to others, is shaped in its own unique way, having its own special place in the mystical picture we call eternity.The progress and evolution of every single Life might well be likened to the assembly of an intricate jigsaw puzzle; it usually only happens one step at a time, each step having its own particular purpose in the grand design which can only be achieved through persistence and perseverance. With every step we take, we get closer to what we are to eventually become.Having evolved inwardly from my former self to my present self enables me to have the vision of the possibilities of a future self, one to be grounded in my unity with the all pervading unity of the Universe, towards which my subconscious is irresistibly ever drawn. The greatest thing is in just knowing that I have been alive and a part of this whole wonderful experience.If you, like me, have found yourself alone in an overpopulated world, with surprisingly few others really trying to find their true place on the puzzle board of Life, then you, too, may find great inspiration in these thoughts communicated through time and space by this seance of kindred spirits.If you are not interested in personal growth and maturity, then read no further, because as someone has said, "There is no use to praise the ocean to a frog that lives in a well."These writings are dedicated to anyone, who, in their own search for truth and maturity, has discovered that as Sydney Harris said 'we do not mature inwardly as we grow older unless we begin to find elements of truth in opinions contrary to our own which we can usefully assimilate to our own views.'The following represents an accumulation of inspirational knowledge provided to me by Life through the labor of others. From an observers view, I often see the reflection of my own experiences exemplified in the words of others and this compels me to share these viewpoints with all who are interested and in search of truth.But first of all, this has been my purpose - this has been what I was here for - to collect and compile and share what I have learned with those who are interested in maturing, always remembering that knowledge is only to be spent by making it available to others, so the more I know, the more I owe.It is in an effort to fulfill my personal responsibility that these pages are compiled.Please read on to find the reflective thoughts of a round table of kindred spirits communicating through time and space........................................................................Always remember and never forget that;....We don't know what we don't know.....We do what we have to do so we can do what we want to do.......Life is more complicated than just who crosses the finish line first.......There is at least one exception to every rule.......What one person can do, another person can do......What a person will do to one, they will do to another.....We can do a whole lot more than we think we can......Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should......Every person thinks they are the exception, but no person is......Everybody lies - everybody - me - you - everybody.......What goes around comes around.. What you put out is what you get back.......We have no right to expect anything from anybody but ourselves.......We are where we are, that we may learn, that we may grow......It is the habit of the human mind to connive at its own conviction......There is a rule of unintended consequences - Be careful what you wish for......If wishes were horses, beggars would ride......If a thing can happen, it quite likely will. And it may happen to me.......The way we do one thing, is how we will likely do everything.....One of our greatest errors is in believing that everyone else thinks just like we do.....Some people are put here to show the rest of us what not to be like......Crisis and crisis resolution are the very essence of human existence......It is always something. If it’s not one thing then it’s another....always.......Bad news does not get better with age.....good news does......There is nothing fair about who lives and who dies....or much of anything else either.....We really are self centered - All of our actions stem from selfish motives......All of our actions have a price. It is we who agree for what amount we are to be bought....We ask for criticism, but what we really want is praise......We may not always say what we mean, but we always mean what we say......We love in others the traits we desire...We hate in others the traits we see in ourself......We must be organized and prioritize. And compassionate, courteous, respectful and grateful.We each have to find our own method of accepting our personal destiny...whatever that is...Wherever we go, that is where we are.........We live until we die - Once we are dead, we don’t get any deader.........
In the end, it’s not the number of years in your life, but the life in your years that counts.....

We number in the billions, yet we are one...............................................................................

THIS IS THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY.......

WE ARE ENTERING 'THE AGE OF COMMON SENSE'.......

ISN' IT TIME FOR US TO CHANGE ? ?

Next Forward To; REFLECTIONS ON A TIME FOR CHANGE at,
http://www.mysticwizardmusings1.blogspot.com/