Tag: Philosophy

Each Of Us Is A Light That Only Needs A Power Source:Mindset

Each Of Us Is A Light That Only Needs A Power Source:Mindset

Sometimes all we can do is accept the decisions of others. Although life is so much about choices, we are not given the ability to change the views and decisions of others if they choose not to listen to or act on what we say. Many times our only option is to accept and this is not by accident but by design.

This act of acceptance, however, does not mean that we have faith in other’s ideas. It does not mean we believe in them or understand them or the direction they have chosen to pursue. It simply means we offer them the opportunity to learn and explore with support while offering us the opportunity us to gain insight beyond our current beliefs. To be believed in is a fundamental need for us all to build character, confidence and self-worth.

There are no great achievements without support. As we live we learn that we are created to believe in possibilities, not question them. Endless possibilities exist only in the presence of unwavering faith. When we believe in others, we not only give a part of ourselves to them, we tell them that they matter and that they have purpose. And it is that faith which is the most important element needed to achieve great things. Our faith in others teaches them that we are all lights which only needs an outside energy source combined with their design to illuminate the world

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It Is Outside That We Discover What Is On The Inside: Mindset

It Is Outside That We Discover What Is On The Inside: Mindset

When we think of our lives, our place in humanity and our world, we tend to think of it on a broad scale that encompasses all that we do and experience as an ordinary ritual of sorts. But what if that world we focus so heavily on each day causes us to lose sight of so much more? What if we miss the treasure because we are focused on finding the spot marked with the X?

Consider that all life, each individual entity, is a world all its own, made up of countless functions and processes in constant motion. We must then realize that life is happening in each ability, every talent, each characteristic and every second of time and examine them as though they are the only thing in our world.

We can then see them as a sole entity, full of energy and vitality becoming enlightened as to the extraordinary genius of all creation. Within each thought that becomes an idea, every ability that becomes a creation and each characteristic that brings interaction with others, there is an opportunity to discover that perhaps the meaning of life is simply that life has meaning beyond breath and knowledge.

The hours we are given to live are our opportunity to find meaning in each and every aspect of our lives. We will never see how incredibly in-depth we actually are if we do not understand the complexities of all things in our world. Understanding purpose and self-worth comes not from inside but from outside. It is only through the realization of the intricate nature of everything that we learn the incredible value of the one thing we call self.

Ideas Are Doors Not Yet Opened: Mindset

There are many ways to live life, many approaches, and philosophies to life which we can take. These options relay a message from our Creator about acceptance and insight into what we should discover about ourselves.
How we interpret purpose, success, faith, and morality define how we live.

There are vast variances in these interpretations from one person to the next. Why not create us with the same stream of conscious thought?
By doing so, wouldn’t war and disagreement be minimal? Wouldn’t humanity live more harmoniously if our design was one of shared understanding? Perhaps the answers as to why we are not, rest in your next thought.

Your next thought will be someone’s insight into a new discovery, a new path of enlightenment. Exploration happens and only happens because there is an unknown…you are their unknown. If we all thought the same, believed the same and lived the same, we would not have the opportunity to learn that an open mind is a door to an open heart. And it is an open heart which leads to a harmonious existence.

Interpretations are not destinations, but open roads which can lead us all to new places, granted we are willing to explore the possibility that each of us may be the next step on another’s journey. We can endlessly imagine what is just ahead because we are the open door to discovery and insight to every other person on this planet.

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Mindset Origins: Grant Yourself A Pardon

Mindset Origins: Grant Yourself A Pardon

I have been writing Mindsets for 25 years. I thought I might take some time to explain exactly what they are and how they originated. For most, if not all of us, we have defining moments or experiences which mold us into who we become. For me, that was a clinical depression in early adulthood. I began writing to help me express and understand that depression. Initially, most of it was dark poetry, but the more I wrote the less about expression and the more about understanding and finding hope it became. Within a few years, the dark poetry became more, eventually morphing into what would become Mindsets. I had chosen to focus on what could be as opposed to what was. I chose to understand instead of escape into a vice or become completely lost in misery. I needed to believe that everything has meaning and that life is not a cosmic roll of the dice without rhyme and reason. Writing Mindsets has helped me to answer many of my questions and hopefully answer a few for others as well. In addition, it has allowed me to write about subjects for which I am passionate. I will be publishing a series of my early Mindsets that I hope you will enjoy. Most of what I usually publish are new ones that I have written recently and so you will see subtle differences in styles and context as my style has evolved over the years, Below is the second Mindset in this series.

Grant Yourself A Pardon

Life leaves scars, regrets, and sorrows that grow and integrate into our daily experiences. Because of this, they eventually become more than feelings, developing into an integral part of who we are. As they grow, they begin to mislead us causing us to believe their hold on us is stronger than our gift of choice.

If we simply resist the deception and remember that who we are and where we are going is our choice, then we can choose for every day to be a new beginning. What has brought us contempt and unhappiness in the past can feel erased by the mere choice to be free of them.

What we hold on to, holds on to us be it positive or negative. If we choose to keep the negative then it chooses to keep us in that darkness. Circumstances are not punishments or rewards. They are, however, prisons or freedoms we either build or grant ourselves.

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In A New Light: Does God Ever Leave Us?

In A New Light: Does God Ever Leave Us?

C.L. Harmon

Many times while watching documentaries, I have heard Jewish survivors say that God was no there during that evil period we know as the Holocaust. Each time I would hear one of them say it, an uneasy feeling would pulse through me. I guess as a Christian who has been taught that God is always with me, it gave me pause and challenged my traditional beliefs. To have endured such evil, perhaps I too would feel the same way as these people. I don’t know. But I do know it bothered me. Is God sometimes absent from our lives? For people raised in Christianity, it must seem almost as blasphemy to think such a thought. But I want to know.

I am not sure that the question has an answer. At least not a complete answer we are privy to in this realm of existence. It is intriguing to me though that it’s possible humanity is sometimes responsible for dealing with its own messes. There must have been many people in the world at that time who knew that an evil regime was in power, yet only a few ever tried to stop it. Most in the Axis countries did nothing. Maybe God felt like that He had given enough. Maybe He thought that so much had been given to humanity already and that it was time for us to learn a lesson.

Although those persecuted by the Nazis suffered the greatest as a whole without a doubt, everyone involved in a war suffers to some extent. Each country and each person suffers during conflicts. Perhaps He did step back and expect humanity to step up and finally learn the words by Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”. Maybe this was God’s way of saying that He did not allow this, but humanity allowed it by doing nothing when something had to be done.

If this were true, it would certainly explain a great deal about the miseries we suffer in our own lives. Perhaps free will carries a much greater meaning than we are willing to accept and thus accept its responsibility. As parents, do we not know that by allowing our children to make mistakes, we teach them? Does not requiring them to pay for those mistakes not teach them about the consequences of their actions or failure to act? I do not believe God punishes us for using our free will in poor judgment. I do, however, believe that he allows the consequences from it to serve as life lessons.

I further don’t believe that God ever abandons us entirely at any time. I believe He is always with us but remains silent and inactive while giving humanity the opportunity and the time to do what is right and noble. Perhaps those who believe God was absent in the concentration camps and occupied territories feel that way because God was silent just as he had been the 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament (Malachi’s Warning to the Jewish people). God did not abandon His children then; He remained silent while they found their way back to Him in their practices. Had He decided to abandon them, then what would have been the point of sending Malachi in 430 BC and Christ 430 years later?

These are simply my thoughts, nothing more. I find that writing allows me to explore the questions this life offers me. These writings are not proclamations of truth, but simply investigative writings which help me understand my world. It is always my hope to open up my mind and others’ as to new ways of seeing the world so that we may all have a better understanding of life and the role we play in it.

Thanks for Reading!

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What Lies Within

What Lies Within

A sculptor looks at a piece of granite or stone with either a belief that there is a work of art within that stone that he will uncover. Or he looks at it with the belief that he will create a work of art from where there was none before.Although the creation may be the same in appearance as each artisan finishes toiling with the stone, the sculptures are very different to the sculptors. The artisan who uncovers what is hidden learns that he can see beyond what is on the surface.

He can chisel each sliver of stone to discover that beauty and creation are all around us if we choose to remove those layers which obscure them. He begins to understand that all things have depth and if we do not seek to uncover what lies beneath then we lose what has been hidden for us to find.

The artisan who creates from within to bring about something new understands that the origins of creations are mysteries locked up inside of us. He learns that the surface of the stone is an opportunity to carve, chip and then breathe life into a new creation.

But it is the artisans themselves who learn above all that they are simply a stone for another Creator. One who has hidden beauty and mystery within them awaiting discovery. Through our visions, toils, and patience, we all create and unearth the mysteries in our daily lives only to realize we were always the greatest works of art in the universe.

Mindset: Whispers In The Wind

So many actions we do, words we utter and situations in which we are part of are seemingly of no significance at the time which they occur. Often they are as a fleeting thought, gone almost as quickly as they came. But to someone, they have an impact. It may be one that we never even learn of, but someone was affected by that action, word or the situation that occurred.

It is as though a cosmic pulse is formed which travels far into the subconscious of creation itself and the consciousness of those within this creation. It knows not the bounds of time and space. It lives in memories, in bones, in soil and in decisions made by all of us from the onset of that action.

Would our choices matter more if we understand that each one is like an echo heard far beyond reaches we can’t even fathom? That they live in our hearts as hate or love, in our minds as prejudice and equality, in history as brutality or kindness in philosophy as dark or light and in eternity as peace or torment? One seemingly insignificant action can be one thread for someone to hold on to in desperation or one thread unraveled from a blanket of security.

Nothing in life is insignificant. Everything is whispers in the wind. No word, no action, no situation is without cause and effect. Understanding this is how the world changes, one word, one action, one situation at a time

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Mindset: Building Bridges

Mindset: Building Bridges

Why is it that we fear those who seem foreign to us? What is it about us that allows our differences to bridge distances between us when that very bridge could be keeping us from reaching that which we need the most?
Overt actions of contempt or the intentional act of ignoring someone simply because that person is different is a grave injustice to ourselves. We are all born with messages to share that develop as we grow. These insights are sent to us by our Creator with the notion that some will be given to individuals and others to the masses to help us in times of need and to become the people we should be.
Those messages are not always sent in packages that make us at ease and without fear because in the Creator’s eye, the package is as much a message as the actual message inside. Once we overcome our fear and close the distance, we have not only learned the insight of others but the fact that it was never difference that separated us but simply what we had not yet learned from others.

Mindset: Master & Slave

We are an extension of everything we do. Our actions are a reflection of who we are in that moment and who we will become for the rest of our lives. A slave to evil or a warrior of the righteous is never very far from their master.

If we represent or act for those who prey on the weak or innocent through our words and actions, then we too are guilty of harboring darkness in our hearts and adding hatred and injury into the world.

There will always be those who serve themselves first and they do so by their own accord. But their ideas of greed, destruction, and hatred only become ours by choice. By serving them, we not only lose pride and self-respect but we lose the part of ourselves that makes us invaluable, our identity.

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