It’s that easy. At least it feels like it. Thoughts and smiles, squeezes and kisses, like it’s second nature. An involuntary response… to You. Touches. Touching. It’s Electric. Soothing. It’s the one thing that replaces the spaces words cannot fill. But then there are words. They speak truth from the heart, they speak the thoughts meant to be heard, the ideas that inspire. A type of Realness that exists in the exchange of mental matter… a language that only We know, that few understand. It’s of Consciousness. Truth. Honesty.

Connected.

Like it all makes sense. Clear and perfect Sense. Liberation has never been so desperate. It’s an all or nothing, do or die, fight or flee type of deal. There’s no such thing as in between. Because staggering does not exist in the Flow. Green lights don’t mean slow down. Flames aren’t meant to dwindle.

…But they do. Just as green lights become yellow. And Flows are broken by the complications of Life.

We’re all lookin’ for that can’t eat, can’t sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence world series type of thing. But these too, like all moments… are fleeting. And this is why, I close my eyes, and hold my blinks a little longer, a little tighter...

The past couple of weeks have been intense in learning, my interactions with different people, and trying to find my way. It’s my Jordan year, and by that I mean, this year marks my 23rd year of life. I feel like what’s been happening to me as of late has been showing me all these different diverging paths, and that I’ve been given the foresight, along with the wisdom imparted to me by my many friends who are mentors to me, to see what could potentially lead me where.

You can’t fight when you know what you know. A conversation of compromise takes place in your head and all of a sudden everything becomes justified. But nothing, and nobody, can tell you that that gut feeling in the pit of your stomach is nothing but hard digestion. Yes. Hard to Digest. Because something doesn’t feel… quite… organic. Natural. Real. REAL.

It’s hard to learn your way when everything around you seems like a possible path… some more tempting than others. Some seeming more rewarding than others. Some you want to negotiate… position yourself.. yes, it’s about Positioning, where you are benefitting… but at what cost? Your soul? Your spirit? Your creativity? Your freedom? Your expression?

Environments shape you, and those environments are created by people. Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who You are.

And this is when I say it comes back to Awareness. Be very, very attentive to what’s taking place around you… because it’s so easy to get caught up in it. So easy.

We are all just learning our way…

Being Aware. To know where, why, who, what, when and how. But to also understand that what you feel, doesn’t always coincide with what you think. Too many times do we associate “I feel, therefore I am,” when the power truly exists in “I think, therefore I’ll become.”  The truth is, moving Forward is not easy. To Move Forward means to leave something else behind. Sometimes we  get down on ourselves thinking that we never really made any progress if it was that easy to revert back to old habits. The first step, I always say, is Being Aware.

Today, I Feel. But it is not what I Think.

I Think Forward. Despite what I feel, I still Think Forward.

Therefore… I will Become.

Count your blessings. Before you know it, a year has passed and with all that’s happened, you are now Here. Here, as in, the place you arrive to after accomplishing much, enduring much, persevering much, and yes, Growing much. It’s a beautiful place to finally come to, as you are equally aware that it won’t be the place you’ll rest for too long. Embrace it’s moment in your life, because This Time will fleet, and it will only become fond or somber memories. Count your downfalls. If they don’t equate the number of your rise-ups, do something about it. The imbalance will throw you off and only slow down your arrival to the next stop. This Time will fleet. Hold your blinks a little longer, a little tighter, and prepare yourself for when you open your eyes once again.

They call me the Puppet Master.
You never see me, but you know I’m there.
You can see exactly what I’m doing.
The strings are attached.
Oh, but I dance.
I sparkle.
I dazzle you silly to the point where you don’t know what’s real anymore.
Am I fake?
What happened to those strings?
You are too bothered and distracted.
I entertain.
My words are slick and routine is mastered.
I make you think of all the things you desire.
I make you think of who you wish you could be.
Then I tell you, you can.
Only if…
And just like that, you open our eyes, and realize
That what you saw was not for free
In fact you paid with your Freedom
In fact you paid with your Willpower
In fact you paid with your Strength
And justified it all as being “my money’s worth”

The dollars own your soul, and the ones who have it are the ones you strive to be.
You have come to believe this happiness thing can be bought.
And when you try to buy happiness…
You succumb.
To me.
Cause the dollars own your soul, and I own the dollars.

[Crazy somewhat poetic ramblings of student reading her Advertising, Society and Consumer Culture textbook.]

As someone with the power of a camera in your hand, understand the access you have to information, much more, the responsibility you are given with that knowledge. God-given moments with extraordinary people don’t come to just anybody. The ability to capture that sliver of time for all eternity is tempting. But listen to me, this privilege we are given, is because we’ve gained a trust. We’ve been allowed to enter a circle that is not of our own, and we’re told the sides of stories nobody gets to hear. Become aware that there’s a line to be drawn — which things are meant to be captured, and which things are  better to be relished in with your heart, soul, and mind. You may not have evidence of it, you might not be able to share it with everyone, but you are given something that nobody else has. A Real Connection.

I guess this is something that is a life long journey of discovery, shaped by the choices we make, the things we say, and especially, the thoughts that consume our Minds. Let us not underestimate the ability of manifestation that is held in a single most powerful Thought. What do you eat? Who do you surround yourself with? What do you think about when you’re left alone in the confines of your mind? Where do you spend most of your time? Why? What draws you there, what motivates your living, what influences your actions? What is the content of your conversations? What do you love talking about? Hate talking about? How do you groom, take care, and adorn your physical self? Why? How does it make you feel? How do you take care of your mental and emotional health? How do others perceive you? How does that affect you? How do you view yourself? How do you express yourself, what’s your outlet? How do you make your Voice heard?

I ask all these questions because  the answers should make you reflect on who You currently are, and to say, “This is who I am”, is not excusing you from the fact that your choices have helped create this. The choices you will continue to make in your future, you must Be Conscious of. Be intentional. Be someone you’re proud of, someone you Love, or learn to Love.

Tap into your personal Power that you alone possess. Nobody can take that energy away from you if you stand strong and rooted in Who You Know You Are. Understand that despite sometimes the negative influences, you have the capability to shape your surroundings with the energy you carry. You Can Do This. A revolution needs to take place, a shift in human consciousness, and the advantage of being in a position of power should not consume you so that you get lost in that Power. You must use it to empower everyone around you.

My purpose is becoming clearer and clearer to me as I invest my energy into it’s discovery. Perhaps the resources and the path in which I’ll get there is not defined quite yet, but my intent and my motivation is so vivid in my mind that I know it will drive the decisions I make from here on in. If you are reading this, even if I may not know you, hold me accountable, help me stay rooted, connected. We all need to do this for each other.

I’ve spoken my piece.

Peace.

I woke up this morning receiving a message from a friend of mine telling me he dreamt of an earthquake, and woke up panicking. Normally I’d look at my phone and tell him to calm down and life’s all good… had it been just anybody. I was curious. I got up to find out about the earthquake tsunami hitting Japan today, and about the warnings for the West coast of the United States. Every month, multiple times a month, all year. Philippines. Haiti. Chile. Indonesia. India. And the list goes on. A total estimate of 250 000 fatalities in the year of 2010. This shouldn’t sound so dramatically eccentric, especially considering the advancements in technology and being able to detect earthquakes, measure them, and record their data. Our plates never stop shifting, this shouldn’t be anything new.

But it is phenomenal. The effects are devastating. And we are acting blind to the real implications here, heck, we’re playing ‘dumb-guy’ to a lot of things happening on our planet. There is a shift in human consciousness occurring, and if you’re not seeing this, then you need to see this now.

Everything is connected. The astronomical rates at which technology is advancing. The brainwashing society we live in for consumption, capitalism, our distraction with what we actually need is blinded by unnecessary wants. We aren’t taking care of ourselves. We eat genetically modified foods that contribute to the chances of us dying of cancer one day. We are ruled by Corporations which is the modern-day Church. Instead, we are handed beautiful things like iPads, Macs, cell phones, sweat-shopped made clothes, and we are so amused. So easily amused that we tune out what’s happening on the rest of this planet. Canada is negotiating a deal to give up our beautiful boreal forests in order to extract more oil, create sulfuric wastes, dead land, in order to feed into our ever-increasing consumption rates. Don’t you see? We’ve reached our peak of resources. We’ve BEEN declining. We can’t do anything but slow down the inevitable… which is us destroying ourselves.

As children of this earth, inhabitants of this planet, and an integral part of this Universe, what we do, what we say, what we think… does not affect just us. Our energies are of one source. We try and steal it from others, trying to temporarily empower ourselves  and make others weak. A Power struggle. A Power greediness. Even straight down to the privatization of our water.

Don’t you get it? The Universe is responding. Who do we think we are, thinking we can dump waste into our water, and then try and charge our own people to drink it?? I say WE because WE all have a hand in this, WE all have a say, if we claim it. Not everything can be blamed on the bad guys, the Corporations, our Government, the people in power. We buy into this crap, we turn the blind eye, because our life is “good” and nothing has affected us directly… yet.

What do we do? I look at this and feel so overwhelmed, so disappointed in our people. Everything feels hopeless.

I think it begins with you, the individual. COME INTO CONSCIOUSNESS. Become aware. Help others become aware. Make conscious decisions. Make a drastic change in what you eat, who you buy your food from, where you buy your clothes from, how much you consume, how you take care of yourselves, what you read, what music you listen to, what you watch on TV, your laptops, how you take care of nature, our forests, our water, our Earth.

Like I said… a shift of human consciousness is occurring. The Universe is responding to how we’ve been sleeping, and that is simply, by shaking us up to awake.

And she looks up to the clouds, unknowingly listening to the soundtrack that will play to the unspoken thoughts of her mind. It was just a normal summer day, and it was like any other bike ride. Except it wasn’t. That day was captured for all eternity, hidden in deep spaces, unreachable to her consciousness. What meanings can be provoked from imagery? What thoughts, sounds, smells, and pangs of real, vividly real emotions, could be evoked from a sequence of visuals? A lot. Actually, it in all it’s entirety. I remember. Moments are fleeting, like Time, and people. We cherish them. We try to hang onto them as long as we can, trying to forget the eventual and ultimate outcome. It, too, shall leave, and in it’s place come something new. The sadness and excitement can sometimes be difficult to accept. A feeling of indifference. Passivity. Numbness. Anything to deal. But we are addicted to Happiness. We are obsessed with what endorphins do for us. So we choose it. We choose it over sadness, we choose it over feeling pain. We choose it because it appears to be a better way of “seeing” things. “Seeing” is just our domesticated behavior. Truthfully, everything means nothing, and nothing can mean everything. What then, do you make of this?

…

What once was, now isn’t, can evoke so many different feelings we cannot control. Ebb and flow, ebb and flow. We cannot control, the ebb and flow of the way life goes.