The Trouble With Being Myself

So sorry to keep you waiting, never meant to be unkind, I think I've found my purpose, in the process I lost my mind. It's been a crazy life, (it's been a crazy life) but we still have the night, (but we still have the night) and if you say you love me, (and if you say you love me) I think I'll be alright (I think I'll be alright) yeeeeah! (wooooooo!)

......................................Macy Gray

Being You: Love

 “K’naan man, Love or fear, choose one.”

Huh! Well, let me ask you something, let me ask everyone actually, sweetie, I didn’t say it, the love...

Yo! What’s the proportion of the Universe’s harmony equal to? “LOVE!”

What’s the voice in us, forcing us to favour truth? “LOVE!”

What’s pain and anguish, strangled, vanish in the face of? “LOVE!”

What’s the missing link, what language do the silent voices sing? “LOVE!”

I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t admire you so what’s between I and you? “LOVE!”

What’s the ocean breeze, why do men get on their knees? “LOVE”

What’s life without love like fights without cause and rights we strike off?
What’s the deal between the ‘eyes off’ what is it that I can’t hide other than when I cough? “LOVE!”

It’s Love that’s the opposite of greed and hateful things, it’s not symbolized by diamonds but it does revolve like rings, and time marches into the canvases of uncertainty, damaging our predictions and conditions we set like amnesty, I’m hard to hate. And whether I’m gifted with the poetry I spit is a far debate, I’m living a rhyming state and stealing drops of my soooul and the energy I put forth can sink an army wave. Coz that’s love you see, it’s not soft, it’s the hardest thing to attain, its freedom when you’re detained, leave it to me and I’ll explain. Coz it’s dead to me, like ma, mommy and daddy and sister and wifey and pens and pads of random thoughts that borders the same struggle of human truth!

Who’s to say what my words are?

 “LOVE!”

That’s what’s up.
....................................................Spoken Love by K'naan

Being You: Good and Evil

 Human beings tend to think that evil is external, that it will come from without and corrupt your soul if you let it but what, if I may ask, is evil? Is not evil the selfish act that denies another human being a fair chance at life? Is it not that unyielding hatred that sets one nation against another generation after generation? Is it not the inaction of a man who will not come to the aid of his brother because it is not his duty? Is it not that tempest stirring in your heart, driving you to the extreme in your quest to avoid pain and experience pleasure? Is it not the ignorance with which you unquestioningly receive another man’s wisdoms and truths without any questing for the truth on your part?

Every evil that has been and will be wrought upon the world is the consequence of man’s actions. There is a law of unintended consequences that states that; for every action you take (consciously or subconsciously), there will be at least three results that you could never in your wildest dreams have predicted. Your obligation as the instigator of these acts is to mitigate whatever results from them, it is your sacred duty to ensure that no one is knowingly harmed or placed in danger of possible harm against their will as a result of your actions, for the evil man is one who cares not whom he hurts in his pursuit of what he thinks is rightfully his.

You have the power to affect and change your world and the reverse is true. You will do good and evil in the world for that is what it means to be human. Take no man’s wisdom as truth unless you know it as “the self” but always heed its warning; do not take advantage of those less knowledgeable that yourself for unbeknownst to you, your life is meaningless without them. Be ever mindful of your emotions, they have the power to carry you to great heights but they can plunge you to unknown depths just as well. Beware of extremes, there is knowledge there but it comes at a price and sometimes it is not easily paid.

Life is about finding a balance, your own center, wherein you are at peace with the world as it is; all you can hope for is that the world finds a way of being at peace with you as you think you should be.

The root of all evil is the selfish act that is not tempered by the awareness of others and as such is the selfless act the root of all that is good between us in this world.

Being You: Soul, Spirit and Body

“Life has loveliness to sell...” so goes the poem Barter by Sara Teasdale.

Sometimes we forget what is around us; when life gets a little tight as it is bound to do, we have the ability to see only the negative things affecting us. Everything that happens in the realm of human experience can be put in a context that can be understood by even the most simple minded; shit happens, deal with it!

Everyone has a choice in what they do, and what anyone does is simply follow a path in life. On this path, you will encounter things and people; you will witness events, and from all this you must find knowledge that is both useful for everyday life and most importantly for nourishment of the self. Each and every one of us feels that there is a part of them that is different from every other person on this good earth, that I imagine is what many of you call the soul, and knowledge of that is only truly personal.

You will all do and feel things in your life but what matters most is the spirit in which you do them. I have been taught that a “spirit of brotherhood” should guide my actions towards my fellow man and methinks that’s not a bad thing to do. I am a million faces and voices, I am legion but I come in peace and brotherhood and there is no trickery in me. J

Your body is the temple of your soul and the spirits that live within you; it is the only physical thing over which you have any degree of control. It has been called the greatest instrument at your disposal and it is up to you to choose how you treat it. It is the only medium through which you can interact with the world and it speaks a language like no other, for one smile can lift many a cloud and one frown break a heart.

We all desire love and respect for the thing that we call “the self” and if we truly believe that charity begins at home then self respect is the first step towards earning respect from any other human being.

“Surely you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you! So if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy and you yourselves are his temple.”

There is more meaning in that verse than in the countless empty words you will come across in life. If you profess a belief in God, then take one day and live as if his spirit has come alive in you, let all your actions be judged by your glimpse of him and discover what lessons can be learned from that.
Have dignity and self respect; that is where it starts.

Being You: Facade

Human beings like being lied to, yes; we seem to have an affinity for it. If it wasn’t for that fact, we who put words together probably wouldn’t have a job. In reality, when stripped of all emotion, life is simply boring and repetitive, human interaction is what keeps people going. Even the mightiest of us all has to concede that without the rest of us, there would be no way to define his or her might. Most of us walk around with the belief that we are somehow engaged in a worthwhile venture, that what we do on some level matters even if we don’t understand it. We are for the most part content to believe that we are somehow part of a greater purpose but when it comes down to what we feel and believe independent of “other people”, we, for the most part, don’t have a clue as to what we are doing.

People come together for all sorts of reasons but the primary urge we have behind all our actions is survival. Hardcoded within our DNA is a will to survive like no other for men will endure seemingly eternal torment and fight against unimaginable odds just for a breath of free air. Yet when we are satisfied and our thirst quenched, there are still desires within us, things that we don’t quite understand.

As a child, I came to understand that sometimes other people just don’t want to know anything about your feelings, that in fact, they would rather chew tin foil than listen to you prattle about how life is unfair to you. I also understood that sometimes it’s not that they don’t care but that, well, “everyone goes through shit” and no one has the right to transfer their shit onto someone else unless they are responsible for causing it or they willingly take it up, kind of like the Christian doctrine of bearing each other’s burdens. I understood that there are certain people in life that you expect to be there for you, people you can count on and in my mind the very least you can expect from them is honesty.

The world is the self; your world is what you know and no more, know more.