Life Is Precious

That seems to be a message that is all too easily forgotten, despite the frequent reminders in our pop culture. There are many opportunities to be reminded of this.... every day.

Do you ever find yourself just watching people? Not even deliberately. You just catch yourself staring. Do you ever ask yourself why? Do you answer? I do. Frequently. I try to find connections between me and everyone else. I observe... I listen... I watch... and sometimes I stare. I'm the weird seclusive bald guy down the street that kids are warned to avoid. hehe
Almost everything about me is unconventional... at least for where I live. Don't get me wrong...
I love my neighborhood. I have good neighbors. But I'm the odd one out. I'm not married with kids. I live with a bunch of animals (and no I don't live in a frat house). I'm Pagan. I like to run around the house naked. I smoke pipes and cigars. I listen to weird music. I have weird books. There is really nothing obvious about me. By looking at me you can't discern my origin. By listening to me you can't tell where I was raised. By talking with me you might not be able to guess if I'm educated. You can't tell if I'm a sports fan. I have a ubiquitous look about me. I blend well. Either that or I have about 18 brothers that look like me. (Poor bastards) :-)
In short, I'm an anomaly.

So what does all this have to do with the title of this post? Well, my friends, I'll tell you...
Let's see if I can make sense of my train of thought so that I don't sound like some babbling fool stuck on the 7th floor somewhere:

One of my most prominent missions in life is to decipher the mystery of being. That is to figure out what motivates people to be who they are. Oh yeah, this gets deep. So hold on. (Feel free to bail out at any time) It is for this reason that I am so observant. That is why I study people's behavior, their mannerisms, their attire, etc. I try to figure them out in hopes of figuring out what the hell we (as a people) are doing here. I want to know. My mantra is "Seek knowledge. Wisdom follows."

So far, I've learned that there is wisdom in simplicity. There are so many movies and songs and stories that remind us to enjoy life. But we don't always live the way those stories tell us. In fact, in our western culture, we go out of our way to prove to ourselves, and those around us, that we are somehow more special... more deserving than everything else. We have forgotten that life, in of itself, is precious.
After teaching middle school science I learned a thing or two about just how fragile life is. If everyone had an inkling on an idea of how narrowly we survive... it is by a thread of the universe's web that we cling to life. And yet we thrive. As a result of this, we try to live in opulence to prove to ourselves that we belong. Its as though there is some unconscious drive to maintain our constant state of denial.
Its the simple things that make life possible in the first place. And hence, we take these simple things for granted. Just ask the farmer that hasn't seen rain in two years. Ask the fisherman whose lake dried up. Ask the Inuit who can't feed his family because the caribou left. You get the point.
This thread by which we live weaves and turns through the universe. And no one knows when this thread will break. But it will. So we ought to live as though we know this. We ought to live as though we are thankful. We ought to live as though we are fortunate, not deserving. This thread goes by many names. For people to make sense of the worlds around and within us we have to apply terms to them. This thread is known by many names: God, Allah, Goddess, Yahweh, Luck, Providence, Brahma, Elohim, Jehovah, Gaea, Verdandi, Great Spirit, and many others, I'm sure. Call it what you will, but we all live by a hairs breath.
And what a rich breath it is. It is fantastic. It is miraculous. It is fortuitous. It is beautiful. It is terrible. It is grand. It is awe-inspiring. It is what I call life.

We ought to live by the golden rule which is predominate in all belief systems. We ought to make the world a better place while we are here. This message is everywhere. We need to choose to hear it. In this age of communication and entertainment this message is delivered. These messages are delivered to us through modern day bards. People write stories and tell them in many forms. Through movies and song. Through books and stories. Someone wrote these. Someone sings these. Someone reads these. These are the bards and minstrels of today.
But they are easily dismissed as entertainers. They are more than that... (with some exceptions I'm sure.) But the message remains true. Some have delivered this message in celebrated fashion such as great books. Take the time to look a little deeper. Listen a little closer. You can hear it.

Life is precious. Live as though you know this.

Be well.

If There Is Such A Thing As Luck...

... then I've experienced it.
I came home yesterday. I was in NC for Xmas and then spent a few days in Atlanta with my sister and her daughter. It was a good trip. We all had a good time. We went to the Georgia Aquarium and Stone Mountain. We zipped through the Atlanta Underground and Centennial Olympic Park.
I'll provide more detail on these in another post, but I just wanted to share the brief story of the luck that I experienced.
When I came home, I was very happy to see my critters... the dogs, the cat, the fish, the hermit crab, and of course my ..... 2(?) snakes....??? Wait a minute....
I double checked my blog to be sure that I didn't dream about the new snake.
I was no dream. And now Hiberna was gone.
What the hell....????
Apparently I didn't do a good job of securing the cover to the little enclosure I had and she got out. I don't know if I was more pissed off or sad. I called my friends (those that watched the house and kids) to ask if they knew anything or if they ever opened the enclosure. They didn't.
So I came to terms with the loss of a little young snake. For a snake as small as she is, there are a million places she could hide. I pretty much precluded any thoughts of even searching for fear of even greater disappointment. After about an hour I settled down a bit and got to thinking... it isn't likely that she went far. So if she was still here, then it would be close. It isn't as though she would make a bee line for the nearest exit. As far as she knows, this is a new and potentially dangerous world. So she would be careful and meticulously slow in her exploration. Ok, so a littler glimmer of hope was restored.
I proceeded to start at the place where her enclosure was and started looking under cushions and behind stuff. Then I thought she would likely stay in dark places. That would likely mean near edges of stuff. I worked my way behind the couch over toward the closet. Why not, its dark in there. So I opened the closet door and wouldn't you know it.... there she was. In plain sight right at eye level no less! Literally hanging around amidst a collection of unused clothes hangers.
That has to rank at the top of my list of pleasant surprises! So I put this question to you....
Is there luck? Is there karma? Or is there just circumstance? hmmm...
So my year ended on a very positive note. I've said before that 2008 was a good year for me. My 40th year on Earth was probably the best one. And since I turned 41 a couple weeks ago, my luck, as it were, seems to continue to be good. :-)
Maybe I should start playing the lotto!
Nah, why do anything differently now? I'm just happy that Hiberna wasn't lost forever. I happy that my household is filled with happy dogs, a content cat, a few well fed snakes and a hermit crab that probably could use a couple friends. Oh yeah.... and a happy master of the home that has friends and family that care about him. I'm getting all fuzzy inside!
My home truly is my castle. And my subjects are well!

May the new year bring you as much good fortune and happiness as it did for me last year.

Be well