This whole week I've been depressed, and therefore going about life the way I do when I'm depressed; unmotivated, slow-witted, smelly, and generally not fun to be around. I've also noted in the past that I'm unlucky when I'm depressed, but upon testing this phenomenon out on myself and others, I figured out that luck seems grounded on the synthesis of opportunity and attitude (i.e. a person with a positive attitude is more likely to recognize opportunity and seize it, and it follows that the more opportunities a person seizes, the more opportunities present themselves).
Luck: If you take a chance, you have a chance.
We spent the week preparing for a final written exam at school by playing various trivia related games that involved everyone in the class, such as Jeopardy and Bingo. The person sitting next to me during Bingo said "oh, I love this game. I always win at it." And she did win at it. What do you suppose the connection is between will power and chance? I won that day too, not at any of the games - that's not why I was there. This person, who sat next to me won a lot that day; she owned the room, knew all the answers to all the questions so solidly that she could shout the answers during Jeopardy before enough of the question was said to make any sense.
The truth is: you will succeed at a level you didn't think was possible when you know what you stand for and you live it. You will be bold and extraordinary just being you. Furthermore, if your purpose is so concrete that you can say it out loud, then you can expel anything that ISN'T conducive to your purpose with the flick of a wrist. It can become laughably easy.
I had a friend who once spoke out loud that his purpose was "to help direct attention toward that which would otherwise limit a person to the conditions of existence." Or something to that degree; it's been awhile. During this bout, he quit smoking cold turkey. Easily. No problems.
I took the test to-day and scored 50 out of 50. Sometimes when I'm down I have to remind myself how awesome I am at the things I'm awesome at. Like my uncanny ability to be just as smart as any bookworm in a classroom while still looking like a slacker. For me, yes - delusions of grandeur help make life worth it. But who cares should my grandeur be an illusion? At least I'm the Chosen One.
"As much as we influence others, so are we at risk of catching others' values and actions, of coming under their influence. If we surround ourselves with small thinkers, we will think small...to let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body." (The Think Big Manifesto p.139)
I almost hate to admit it, but there's also an interesting phenomenon that happens when we leave things to chance. God works. And it's freaky, because God doesn't act predictably. At all. It shatters that illusion we all carry that we're that in control of events in the first place, because chaos is right in front of you impossible to ignore. How many of the long term plans you've made actually occur? Why? Over time, I simply say "I've had a change of heart" or "circumstances are different now," and it's true. So why make long term plans at all? We don't have the decisions of the future, only the decisions of the present. And for those of us in America we are lucky enough to have the freedom to make the RIGHT decision.
Anyone who's ever tried to make advanced plans with me has heard me say "sounds good right now. But talk to me about it closer to the date." Even though events seem random and out of control, we should be comfortable with the mystery. Having all the information is not the same as having all the answers. If we were spoiled with the information, in fact, we might not discover ANY answers at all.
God loves you. Personally. You're in good hands. That's why you should be comfortable with the mystery. He knows what he's doing and he has a will. If will is a song, a sound wave in frequency, then to trust him and attempt to sing the same song is to eliminate all dissonance and discord. Discord is fighting against the current, and trying to do anything other than what you're supposed to be doing makes life a miserable struggle.
"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to younder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you." (Jesus, Romans 1:17)
So when you're feeling depressed, think big, pray, and leave your mind and heart open to UNLIMITED INFINITE POSSIBILITY.
--J.M. Gatewood
Probability Significator
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
This is not the future
The future. It doesn't exist. It WILL exist, but it doesn't now. And when it does exist now, it's not the future anymore. For most of us, that's the way time works. It's never not now.
I've been having a lot of conversations with people about how badly - it seems - everything about the world we live in is out of date. Our brains are out of date to our society. Case and point is that we still treat romance like we live in tribes. Why do you have butterflies in your stomach? It's not like there aren't a million of other men or women, right?
Our nation is built on the industrial revolution; labor for value, when the focus of the rich have already assessed that the REAL value anymore is in attention. Whoever has the most attention has the most power. And if you think about it, if machines are replacing us for labor, wouldn't all the human jobs be to pay attention to the machines?
Don't even get me STARTED on the state of the economy and education and all that. If all the exchange of money we do is at it's meaning simply shifting debt around... dude, I'm going to drop this one. Banks are for suckers. So's the dental industry, but that's a conspiracy theory.
My point is that there are a lot of things to-day that require a HUGE update package, but we can't get one without first utterly DESTROYING what's already there. There isn't really a smooth transition. If we make a move to more efficient fueling, we have to kill a few companies. Similarly, we keep making cars and transportation in all the same ways just because redoing all the roads and obsoleting all the old cars people already have would be a nightmare. Then there's the buildings themselves. And the government. And the commerce. We live in obsolescent to such a degree that it would take a total cataclysm of our world as we know it to make the correct changes. Until then, we're smearing the grease into the shag carpet.
So that's been on my mind to-day; boycotting the federal reserve and all that other dehumanizing stuff that's for suckers.
It's almost funny that the stage is set right now to make it easy for commerce to be moved completely to a digital medium, cause that's what makes micro-chipping feasible. And the REASON that's funny is because most churches totally see that as the "mark of the beast." I myself don't like the idea of mandatory chipping because of the connotations of "mandatory" and "bank." But I like that the church is opposed, cause that means while Christians exist, mandatory chipping will not be acceptable. Unless we all rapture out of course, then it's not my problem.
But there isn't a set way things are suppose to transpire. And if there is, there might as well not be, cause we don't know about it. So the thing to do is direct your attention at each moment as it comes and let to-morrow worry about itself. Because if the future doesn't exist, then there is room for UNLIMITED INFINITE POSSIBILITY.
--J.M. Gatewood
Probability Significator
I've been having a lot of conversations with people about how badly - it seems - everything about the world we live in is out of date. Our brains are out of date to our society. Case and point is that we still treat romance like we live in tribes. Why do you have butterflies in your stomach? It's not like there aren't a million of other men or women, right?
Our nation is built on the industrial revolution; labor for value, when the focus of the rich have already assessed that the REAL value anymore is in attention. Whoever has the most attention has the most power. And if you think about it, if machines are replacing us for labor, wouldn't all the human jobs be to pay attention to the machines?
Don't even get me STARTED on the state of the economy and education and all that. If all the exchange of money we do is at it's meaning simply shifting debt around... dude, I'm going to drop this one. Banks are for suckers. So's the dental industry, but that's a conspiracy theory.
My point is that there are a lot of things to-day that require a HUGE update package, but we can't get one without first utterly DESTROYING what's already there. There isn't really a smooth transition. If we make a move to more efficient fueling, we have to kill a few companies. Similarly, we keep making cars and transportation in all the same ways just because redoing all the roads and obsoleting all the old cars people already have would be a nightmare. Then there's the buildings themselves. And the government. And the commerce. We live in obsolescent to such a degree that it would take a total cataclysm of our world as we know it to make the correct changes. Until then, we're smearing the grease into the shag carpet.
So that's been on my mind to-day; boycotting the federal reserve and all that other dehumanizing stuff that's for suckers.
It's almost funny that the stage is set right now to make it easy for commerce to be moved completely to a digital medium, cause that's what makes micro-chipping feasible. And the REASON that's funny is because most churches totally see that as the "mark of the beast." I myself don't like the idea of mandatory chipping because of the connotations of "mandatory" and "bank." But I like that the church is opposed, cause that means while Christians exist, mandatory chipping will not be acceptable. Unless we all rapture out of course, then it's not my problem.
But there isn't a set way things are suppose to transpire. And if there is, there might as well not be, cause we don't know about it. So the thing to do is direct your attention at each moment as it comes and let to-morrow worry about itself. Because if the future doesn't exist, then there is room for UNLIMITED INFINITE POSSIBILITY.
--J.M. Gatewood
Probability Significator
Thursday, July 22, 2010
This is not a monkey
What is a blog really? It sounds like something you might step into by accident walking down the street.
My name is J.M. Gatewood - or so that's what I was raised to believe - and I have reiki masters in my massage therapy class. Reiki, for those of you who don't know, is a palm healing practice where practitioners believe that they are transferring healing energy in the form of ki through the palms. Yeah, I never heard of it before either. When they perform, they kind of remind me of the people I use to see at my old church growing up; with their eyes closed and their palms pressed up against a person in need of some healing. I wonder if there's a connection between the two? I can't say too much more without getting a reiki into my labs for some experiments.
Well, to-day in class, my teacher came in the room with a frozen jug of juice, and he was shaking it up trying to break the icebergs up a little bit. I said something along the lines of "why don't you just melt the juice by reiki-ing it?" And he got all starry eyed and said "that might work!" So next thing I know, there are two reiki's sitting on the floor with their eyes closed palming a jug of juice. I half expected the juice to start boiling.
Then another teacher came in to talk to my teacher and she just stopped and watched with a funny look on her face. I whispered "that was my idea." And she said "hi" and then MY teacher looked up and smiled and the other teacher said authoritatively "when you're done doing whatever you're doing to that orange juice, I would like to have a word with you in private." The class laughed. As well they should. It was hilarious.
Meanwhile, scientists have found the missing link. It manifested in Germany as a 47-million year old fossil. It's not a link between apes and humans; it's a link between apes and lemurs. Or rather, it's a link between bigger monkeys and smaller monkeys. National Geographic makes it sound as though the link between humans and apes has already been established and that our ancestry with LEMURS is what was under question this whole time. Strange. The article about "Ida" is here.
As far as the link to man and ape - I just looked it up. It's a homo habilis found in South Africa from two million years ago. I hope that these scientists in all their excitement remembered to check and make sure they weren't mutation freaks.
And that's to-day for you, so remember kids: Unlimited Infinite Possibility!
--J.M. Gatewood
Probability Significator
My name is J.M. Gatewood - or so that's what I was raised to believe - and I have reiki masters in my massage therapy class. Reiki, for those of you who don't know, is a palm healing practice where practitioners believe that they are transferring healing energy in the form of ki through the palms. Yeah, I never heard of it before either. When they perform, they kind of remind me of the people I use to see at my old church growing up; with their eyes closed and their palms pressed up against a person in need of some healing. I wonder if there's a connection between the two? I can't say too much more without getting a reiki into my labs for some experiments.
Well, to-day in class, my teacher came in the room with a frozen jug of juice, and he was shaking it up trying to break the icebergs up a little bit. I said something along the lines of "why don't you just melt the juice by reiki-ing it?" And he got all starry eyed and said "that might work!" So next thing I know, there are two reiki's sitting on the floor with their eyes closed palming a jug of juice. I half expected the juice to start boiling.
Then another teacher came in to talk to my teacher and she just stopped and watched with a funny look on her face. I whispered "that was my idea." And she said "hi" and then MY teacher looked up and smiled and the other teacher said authoritatively "when you're done doing whatever you're doing to that orange juice, I would like to have a word with you in private." The class laughed. As well they should. It was hilarious.
Meanwhile, scientists have found the missing link. It manifested in Germany as a 47-million year old fossil. It's not a link between apes and humans; it's a link between apes and lemurs. Or rather, it's a link between bigger monkeys and smaller monkeys. National Geographic makes it sound as though the link between humans and apes has already been established and that our ancestry with LEMURS is what was under question this whole time. Strange. The article about "Ida" is here.
As far as the link to man and ape - I just looked it up. It's a homo habilis found in South Africa from two million years ago. I hope that these scientists in all their excitement remembered to check and make sure they weren't mutation freaks.
And that's to-day for you, so remember kids: Unlimited Infinite Possibility!
--J.M. Gatewood
Probability Significator
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