I got this email the other day and thought that it was very interesting. All the things that we sweat over in our lives are pretty insignificant when they are put into prospective. Whether it’s in our personal lives;  like, do our  lives have any meaning or are they just random spontaneous acts of life.  When a country or religious group thinks they are better than another they try to control the “lesser” with it’s doctrines and dogma because they think they know what is right for the good of use all, and with force if “necessary”. This does not matter much at the end of the day if we don’t survive as a species or as a planet.

Most of the time it’s just B.S. to wrap our beliefs in a caring blanket, because we really can’t know what is good for us or others even though we think we understand the big picture. If there is a God (a higher power), it would be quite child like of us to think that we could know what is really true and that an entity that can create something the size of the universe would really care what happens to us or our planet, in the way we define caring. Real caring would require us to stop controlling and resisting  the way it is, and move into the natural flow of life.

Don’t get me wrong, I like this planet, it’s inhabitant, life forms and it’s really nice to live in the dream that we are the chosen ones, but I don’t think we are. We are just important to ourselves and each other and if there is an ultimate reason in it, a satisfaction it would be in that: Whether in times of great joy and happiness or in times of great sadness and disaster and if this planet survives, it is pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. However, it might be very significant to us and the rest of  life on this planet in this present moment and for those yet to come .

I CERTAINLY THOUGHT THIS WAS ENLIGHTENING.. BEYOND OUR SUN … IT’S A BIG UNIVERSE.

Ultimately it comes down to, are we going to take care of the our own little island that supports us? Or are we going to be like a cancer that consumes the host and then has no place to live and dies. I guess only time will tell, but my vote is for us to take care of our planet and all life forms so that we have the best chance of exploring the rest of this amazing creation that we call the universe.

It really makes you wonder how important our problems are?

ANTARES IS THE 15TH BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY.

IT IS MORE THAN 1000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.

NOW HOW BIG ARE YOU ?

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NOW TRY TO WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THIS….. .

THIS IS A HUBBLE TELESCOPE ULTRA DEEP FIELD INFRARED VIEW OF COUNTLESS

‘ENTIRE’ GALAXIES BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY.

BELOW IS A CLOSE UP OF ONE OF THE DARKEST REGIONS OF THE PHOTO ABOVE

HUMBLING, ISN’T IT?

Honor yourself by honouring your word. The other day a friend of mine had set forth on a new adventure to create what he believed was going to be a good thing. By saying this, and putting considerable energy into his new project, I made the assumption that he was committed to this course of action. I believed him when he said, he was going to begin this new project and finish it. He worked hard on his new project and I thought that soon he was going to have it completed, thus creating what he said he wanted and also gaining the respect from his piers that he was seeking.

He’d told me that his friends didn’t believe him anymore, when he said that he was going to do something and that he felt he had lost  their respect.  After a few weeks he declared that he had lost interest in his new project and was not going to continue anymore and was starting on a new one. The down side that I saw with this thinking was that I had also spent time and energy helping him get his project off the ground, Yes I learnt a lot from the experience and it certainly was not a waste of my time, however when he told me that he was not going to pursue this idea any more, I too began to lose some faith in him.

I let him know this, but now I’m not quite as willing to invest my time in helping him or invest my time in another one of his projects because he might jam out on the next one too. Each time he does not follow through with his commitment, my faith in his ability to do what he says he is going to do is undermined. Eventually I will probable land up like his other friends, where I don’t believe that he will do what he says and am not prepared to put too much time or energy in to helping him create what he wants, even though I really like him.

The other side of the equation is that every time he breaks a commitment to himself he goes through a similar process, where he starts not to believe in himself, at this point it’s also becomes hard for him to respect himself, because he does not believe  he will do what he says he will do. The feeling that he let his friends down also works against him to. Each time he does this, he erodes his own foundation a little bit, and without a good solid foundation, anything that is built has a high chance of falling down with even the smallest tremor.

There are a few things that are interesting in this: the first is, if you like the law of attraction, what you give off, is what you get back. The more that you break your commitments, the less you achieve and the less others are willing to help you so you attract that which you don’t really want and the opportunities seem to become less. The upside is that every time you complete something doors tend to open up and other people want to come on board to help you out because they want a piece of the action or just want to be part of the feeling that you are creating and they know you tend to create success when you do things.

Lastly, sometimes it just is not possible for a number of reasons, why you cannot complete your commitment and there will be a price you pay for that, but to minimize this price:

1. Think about what you are making a commitment to and whether you’re willing to put the time and effort into making it work, even if you think or others think you’re crazy.
2. Have a plan, so you know what to do and when you are going to do this.
3. Don’t give up to quickly, most people give up when 90% of the work is done and a little more effort would get them there.
4. Commit to things you like to do, it will be much easier and if you like doing it, you’ll probably do it anyway and with less resistance.
5. If you do decide to give up, be kind to yourself and others. Be really clear why you are giving up and explain to the other people involved why you cannot complete what you said you were going to do, they may be able to help and if your reasons are good and not just excuses they may be a little more forgiving and more willing to help you on a future occasion.
6. Finally; if you decide to quite, if you have tried your best and still can’t pull it off, you can leave with the feeling of knowing that you did your best which is something to build on and much as we would all like to succeed all the time it’s doesn’t always work out that way, So be kind to yourself.

Cliff diving is like one of those things that, much as I would like the experience , I’m not prepared to jump of a perfectly good cliff, to see if I can cheat death on the way down and maybe land up injured or dead at the bottom, but then again I know the feeling that they get. I use to jump off cliffs with my hang glider and soar through the sky with the wind in my face.

Why did I do this? Well firstly, I was much younger and acted on impulse, before I thought about what might happen to me and I nearly crashed on one or two occasions, but there was a rush to it also where I felt alive and put my fears on the back burner, that is why I can understand these young guys in Mexico who like to do cliff diving and even make it their career choice for a while. The part that I really liked about watching these cliff divers was the apparent ease with which they are able to cheat death each time by inches.

The part that I didn’t seen was that they had probably practiced this hundreds of times starting out from small cliffs and working their way up to the point that they could jump off a big cliff, while doing a somersault and landing in a small pool of water. This was both awe-inspiring and amazing to me that they could do this over and over again with the same accuracy and commitment.

This is like most things in life, you have a great idea and then the next thought is, why take the leap of faith? It’s the commitment that is required to do it, because it’s quite comfortable where I am (even if it’s not). The problem with this philosophy is that after a while, the quite comfortable, becomes quite boring and then becomes quite a rut and once a person is in a rut it takes a lot of effort to climb out of the rut.

Now for most of us, jumping off a cliff might not be the place we want to start out, but taking an idea and then applying little steps to reach our goals will firstly get us out of the rut, one bit at a time and will expand your comfort zone and give you a similar rush as a person jumping off a cliff. Taking bigger steps, the rush will become more intense and will require a higher degree of faith and commitment. If you jump and you are focused on the rocks and not the pool your chances of hitting what you are focused on are much greater, i.e., the rocks. So staying focused on the destination is always a good idea and greatly removes the fear of the rocks.

You might at this point be saying that it’s not the same, taking that next step in your idea or diving from a cliff, but it is. They both require a desire to do something, they both start out with small steps, they both have a learning curve to get there and when you are accomplished them they both seem easy and they both have the same chance of becoming comfortable and needing a new desire or goal, so that you don’t land up back in the comfort rut.