seriousness can cause dis-ease!
- tightening of the chest.
- shortage of breath.
- stiffening of the neck muscles.
- shooting pain to the forehead.
- constipation.
- lack of deep sleep.
- poor digestion.
- mono-concentration.
seriousness can infect those around you.
to relieve any of these symptoms:
- self-induce with 'laughter'
- massage your face to loosen up stiff facial muscles
- inject 'joy' into your life
Altho it may not be immediately noticeable, you will see an increase of 'love' coming over you and all dis-ease will be vanquished into the ethers.
Now I bring this up because of the week we have all endured. Most of us know what has gone down around this place and possibly we have had some of that seriousness in our personal lives also.
This thing, seriousness, is an affront to our rigid ego. It is alright to be serious when speaking to bosses and folks when there is loss of life or terrible sickness and stuff like that, but dammit it all if seriousness should cause us to end up flaming each other and calling each other names that we wouldn't call our neighbors even if they stole our morning newspaper.
I try my best to let the buck stop with me. You know... when someone calls me something that surprises me - makes me feel insignificant and fucking worthless I have to stop and ask myself why some words make me feel that way? What is it that the person said made me feel like punching the bastard in the mouth? Did that word or words really ring true? Did that insult or sublimation of information really reveal something about me that I felt I should personally know and others should not? Insults or negativities that make me feel less than I think I should feel are usually little things that are true but not appreciated at that time. But is someone calls me a son of a bitch I know quite well that the woman that gave me birth was not a dog. If I get called a mother fucker I'm damn sure I never had sex with the woman that gave me birth, but I also know that I have had sex with the woman that carried my seed to a nine month completion of birth. I can't take those types of insults very serious at all.
A stiff ego is an ego just looking to get busted. Look at a blade of grass... it bends with the wind, it drops easily when stepped on... it stands upright once these things have happened to it. Not to say we are nothing more than a blade of grass, mind you, but it is one of those little lessons of observation that help us better understand ourselves. If you've ever been called a piece of shit you know that even though that was meant as some sort of degrading comment about your character, you are not a turd recently expelled from the ass of one of life's many beasts... unless, of course, it is you that feels you are nothing better than waste but you do not want to be reminded of that fact and you will fight to the death to keep that revelation from being scattered to the wind of public opinion.
When a person is so damn insistent on calling another negative names, there again we have a problem of seriousness bringing on dis-ease. I've found that those folks are not so much insulting others as they are waving a flag that says to others that they are troubled... troubled enough to send the message in a distorted way. The message is distorted because they cannot speak truthfully about their own feeling. I find that to be rather a sad situation, especially when those same people get injured by others that do not understand the distorted message and take it seriously themselves.
It's pretty curious how one word or many words strung together can incite violence from others, isn't it? This ability of mankind to speak in words evokes love and hatred, war and peace, inspiration or fear... always two ways to understand the word(s). We are all guilty of falling prey to the say - our ears hear what they want. If we want to be insulted we listen to the insults of others. If we want to feel good about ourselves we hear the praise and compliments of others. But just one wrong word can defile our ego and cause us to lash out at the person using the word.
We are such tender beings despite the various guises that we wear. But they are all masks to defend ourselves from the big mean and cruel world that we fight to survive in. Our commonality is our inner being... our soul, our inner light, is the common value that binds us to this existence. This same inner light that never waivers, never dims and always gives is the nature that we are all born from and shall return to when our passage on this plane is over. But our egos try to make us so much more than what we are. It is built and carved from years of learning and conditioning making us into such islands in the sea of life that we demand respect from others even though we only get what we deserve. Most of what we deserve is given to us in ways that we don't all understand because we do not know ourselves, plain and simple.
We are an evolving species with so much potential, but we seem to keep each other down. Our egos prevent us from giving fully to others and substitute that giving with reducing ourselves to name calling and thieves of love out to take all that we can. But the reality is that which we take is stealing from our own inner spirit.
He who steals from their soul will walk in darkness and doubt, fearing only their Self, a treasure given to them wrapped in ego, tied with the ribbon of mind. It is this package that the thief fears to open and struggles to steal from others- the gift that they themselves do not realize they have always had.
Cecil
13 February 2005
Mission of San Miguel
[Photo taken Fall 2004 - Mesilla Valley]
