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Just a Happy Idiot, part 1

“I’m going to be a happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender.”
The Pretender, Jackson Browne

 

What’s wrong with this picture?

jester600Well, first of all, for all the years I’ve listened to and sung along with this song, I’ve sung it wrong according to the excerpt from the lyrics above.

It’s important to note here that I am the kind of person that intentionally makes up my own lyrics to songs, but in this case, I just heard what I wanted to hear here, apparently.

I’ve always jokingly referred to myself as “a jerk of all trades, master of none” even though I’ve managed to excel at most everything I’ve done in my life. Again, this is my own personal opinion, which may differ from someone else’s truth of me. I’ve also had a healthy skepticism of my own and others thoughts, preferring to follow my own discerning nature.

And life has been good. So, you’re saying, “What’s up with this post about these old lyrics?”

Well, the way I’ve always heard and sung this verse of The Pretender through my somewhat unique filter is “I’d rather be a happy idiot, than struggle for the legal tender.” And this blends easily with my philosophy that life shouldn’t be hard, and, if it is, I’m doing something wrong. This really equates for me, “if I do what I love, it’ll never be work.” I’ve followed that exclusively since 1978 and without exception, I have had what I would call a blessed life.

A couple of caveats to this are, I’ve also been my own boss all this time, and while I have never wanted for anything, my success has never been personally measured by my salary, money in the bank or how much my businesses were valued at, but more in the value of the services I gave and the happiness or joy people felt from what I built, sold or shared with them.

So, Yes, I’d rather be a happy idiot, than struggle for the legal tender. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I guess at this point it’s a moot point, but I’m still doing what I love and reaping the rewards of the journey this life has offered me in my soon to be 71 years.

Would I do it differently if I had it all to do over again? Not really. It’s been a great ride. The highs, the lows, the successes and the learning experiences have all shown me that there are always alternatives, new ways and directions one can go to change one’s life experience, if one finds their present path isn’t working for them or leads them to another possibility.

Life is good.

Part 2 coming soon.

revjim

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Love matters

one-heartWe all have one heart
And one heart needs another
Love, love is all that matters
Love is all that matters, it matters after all.
~ Diana Ross, Love is all that Matters

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

What if Christ is a name for the immense spaciousness of all true Love?
~ Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ

Love, what do we make of it?

I know this. Love is that all encompassing, all knowing and everywhere present presence of Love, which lives deep in the heart of each and every one of God’s creations, every one and thing in this infinite universe. This truth knows no limits, only individuals in separation, and separation is never whole or complete and is therefore ultimately subservient to Love.

As I bring this into consciousness, I know that Love always comforts the afflicted and afflicts those who are complacent and comfortable in whatever truth they tell themselves, which is not in alignment with Love.

So, I know for each of us who seeks or shares truth can expect and embrace the uncomfortable nature of the truth which Love exposes in our world and continue to speak their truth.

That truth is ever present in the teachings of all the great master teachers, but none so clear or misinterpreted as “The Great Commandment,” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:36-39)

In this knowing “Love thy neighbor as thyself, we can only grow as individuals, as ministers, as an organization and above all in the One Heart.

I am grateful in this truth and in Love and just continue to allow it to be in my life and know it therefore for each and all in the One Heart, One World, and One Eternal, Spiritual life.

~revjim

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Make a Joyful Noise

“By following through on conscious choices, we can rewire our responses toward love, trust, and patience. Neuroscience calls this ‘neuroplasticity.’”

~Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ

 

I watched a video by Jane Goodall this morning on YouTube called Mother Earth (https://youtu.be/48mxaQtbUdU) in which she spoke about the interdependency of all life on the planet. She spoke of how we, as a species have single-handedly in the last 100 years (my words) have managed to cause and continue to cause the mass extinction of many species of flora and fauna by not being the good stewards of the earth (again, my words) and have instead allowed or contributed to the destruction by either our direct participation or silence while it was allowed.

She spoke of how we have left a dire legacy to our children and the children of future generations.

Richard Rohr, in “The Universal Christ” speaks of how our brain can be rewired toward Love. It is my hope for the world and for humanity that the mindset of those who have the power in their hands to help all life thrive will come to the realization before it is too late to set aside their myopic views of this world and see beyond their coffers of riches reaped to understand their unconscious contributions to the imminent destruction of the planet, and know that their wildly excessive riches will turn their coffers into their coffins as well. If the planet dies, they die also.

There is no place to hide and without biodiversity, there is no future.

So, how do we change or reverse this trend or tendency? If we could learn too follow the tenets of the master teacher Jesus, the Christ Consciousness which he speaks to in “Love thy neighbor as thyself” could take us from triumphing over those who seem different from us to embracing all persons regardless of color, ethnicity, religion, politics or any other thing external to us. Our heart is the organ that can save us, if we but learn to control our ego, which keeps us separate from all of our good.

In doing so, we can begin to feel our connection with others and recognize the rights of everyone to a good and fruitful life. We must learn to live without the excesses we are used to. We need to stop promoting “Us before Them” and move into an “Us and them” or We’re all in this together” attitude.

Every religion in its purest, mystical form teaches that “Love is the Way.” This is the One commandment of Jesus, the gist of the teachings of Buddha, one of the core commandments of Judaism, and the basis of the teachings of Rumi and the other mystics of Islam. In addition, compassion is the “most fluently occurring word in the Quran.” In fact, at the center of the Muslim beliefs is the principle of “Oneness.”

If all this is really true, and in theory it is, then the only thing holding us back from embracing “LOVE” is “FEAR.” Fear of being less than! But, less than what?

If we are “LOVE,” we are not less than anything. We are then, what God is, and we have nothing to fear, only Joy to accept.

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” Psalm 100:1 (a bible book common to all 3 major Western religions)

~revjim

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Everything is a Choice and We Each Have the Freedom to Choose.

“Freedom is a condition of the Soul. As we turn to the kingdom of our inner Self, we find the reign of divine Power in the outer world. As we seek peace within, we find harmony without.”

~Joel Goldsmith, The Art of Meditation

 

freedom-insideFreedom is something we all search for. Freedom of religion, freedom to be who we’d like to be, freedom from abuse, freedom to choose certain things in our life, freedom to feel the equality we are supposed to have. But, as we all find out: in this world today, these ideals are not easily attained by all.

In a world that we would like to work for everyone, most people never experience this ideal, because they have expectations for those who don’t have the limiting beliefs for others that they do. We, in general, are unwilling to allow people to be different from us. We don’t live up to their expectations. Most can’t, because of biases held by those who would persecute them.

Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi, seen as the founder of the Christian religion, said many things that, if actually embraced by Christianity, would go a long way to healing the the ills of the world. Jesus is/was also embraced as a teacher and prophet in Judaism and Islam, but today “jihad” which literally means striving or struggling, especially with a praiseworthy aim, has been usurped by Islamists to justify the destruction of Christian world, which has attempted to eliminate Muslims for over a thousand years.

Even Christianity from its humble, love filled beginnings, was used by the world rulers to pacify the masses and control them. Alexander the Great and the Council of Nicaea chose what books to include in the Bible and attempted to eliminate the remainder by making the Bible decreed by them to be the official text of Christianity. From there, the Roman Catholic “empire” ruled with an iron fist eliminating anyone they didn’t like during the inquisition. It was a dark time for humanity.

The point to all of this is to bring into the light how religion has created more division than love since its inception.

In spite of this, we each have the option to be personally free in any situation simply by choosing not to dictate our todays and tomorrows by our past. Freedom is a state of mind. Auschwitz survivor, Victor Frankl chose to forgive his captors, even while everyone around him was dying, saying “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Similarly, Nelson Mandela chose freedom in his own way, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Both of these men surmounted all their fears with the courage to see beyond the appearance of hopelessness to not only achieve their freedom, but also to tell their stories to the world and in Nelson Mandela’s case to become the president of South Africa and end Apartheid.

Lest you think they are exceptions, there are thousands of people every day that we never hear of that have overcome adversity and gained freedom from oppressive relationships, addiction, poverty and much more.

So never stop believing that you too can move beyond the beliefs that others have directed toward you. Remember, self-love and forgiveness can free you from your past beliefs. As you begin to change your thoughts about yourself and others, your life will begin to take on new meaning, new direction, and greater self-empowerment.

 

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…”

~ performed by Janis Joplin, Songwriters: Fred L Foster / Kris Kristofferson

~revjim

© James T. Starke

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On Seeking

“Our conceptual minds like being involved in searching and seeking and sometimes prolong it, slyly keeping ego alive and kicking in the process, hoping for its own ‘enlightenment.’”
~Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Living

backlit-clouds-cropThere is so much available today for individuals seeking something greater in their lives, so much so, that people spend most of their lives seeking something that seems elusive to them. It seems to me that spending all their time seeking leaves them fractured, confused and unable to really find something to actually build on. You can’t build a house by continually searching the perfect design and not being willing to settle on one to actually build. Whereas, if you build something, and it isn’t quite what you envisioned, you at least have a starting point, and know a little better what you would do differently the next time.

It seems people seek because they can’t see what they want, or because the “grass is always greener” or seems it may be greener, because another person doing something else seems happier.

Until you are willing to settle upon something and stop seeking, you can’t actually build, a house or a spiritual practice. Like Jesus says in Matthew 7:26, “But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” You need to build your foundation on rock or today, in a more “concrete” manner, in order to build a spiritual practice. Constantly seeking will only keep you seeking. Until, you are willing to take a leap of faith and make a choice, change conscious change cannot happen.
-rev-jim

““Without mindful attention, self-doubt and confusion can lead directly to discouragement. Indirectly, they can also lead to egoic striving—the grim determination of the self to choreograph enlightenment—as well as endless seeking.”
~Kathleen Dowling Singh, The Grace in Living

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Raise Your Voice to Freedom!

“Raise a glass to freedom something they can never take away.”

~ Lin Manuel Miranda, Hamilton, the Musical

“To this day I believe we are here on earth to live, grow, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.”

~ Rosa Parks

“It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my people became a hunger for the freedom of all people.”

~ Nelson Mandela

 

We are so blessed today in comparison to a few centuries ago and even a few years ago, but there is still so much to be done, both spiritually and in the spirit of conscious activism, because, as far as we have come, there is still so much more to do before we live in #aWorldThatWorksForEveryone.

So, please know with me, that this finite and fragile space we choose to call reality, though it may be an illusion, and seems built on the suffering of many, is our testing ground, of perseverance and our faith that something bigger than us, bigger than all of us, guides us to an ever higher, ever more loving and inclusive existence here on this plane.

By our acknowledgment and recognition, however transitory or fleeting of a divine source or energy behind all things, we raise the energy of the planet. So, right here and right now I say, Raise a voice to freedom! Raise your thoughts to the ever higher idea and ideal of the indestructible GOOD in, through and as everything and everyone and know, as I do, that love the ultimate good, is that force which can never be diminished or destroyed.

Know that our actions in everything we do, say, feel, and think moves us on this complexly, interwoven path to nirvana, to peace, to love, to God. And, as we wind along this path, we are ever blessed by our instruction along the way.

Gratitude is my only reward for this sometime wondrously challenging journey. I would have it no other way. I am grateful for all I learn from others and from my own words and actions, both intentional and unintentional.

Equally, I am grateful for each of you in my life as I move ever forward into a better version of me.

For each and everyone I. Say, Thank you Spirit, Thank you Spirit, Thank you Spirit.

I know this is so right now, and so it is. Amen.

“We must strive to be moved by a generosity of spirit that will enable us to outgrow the hatred and conflicts of the past.” – Nelson Mandela

Blessings to you all.

 

revjim  #Peace & #Love

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We already have it. We just can’t see it.

“God has nothing to give us. Everything that God is, we already are; all that God has, is already ours. We can come into the experience of this by relaxing from the fear of what we shall or shall not have tomorrow.” -Joel Goldsmith, Practicing the Presence

Fear almost always seems to be the primary thing that separates us from our good; fear of not being liked, fear of being alone, fear of not being paid, so many fear options. We sometimes seem to stumble through life from one bad scene in a “B” rated horror movie to the next. To many, it seems never-ending. We blame God, man, our cars, our employers, everyone, but ourselves. 

We take courses in prosperity, succeeding in business, changing our personality, even try to be like our guru or mentor. We do all this before we ever try to embrace who we are.
I have said this many times and in many ways. Before we can love anyone, we must learn to love ourselves. Before we can be a success, we must know that we are already a success. We must embrace who we are and where we are before there can be any meaningful and substantial change for us. We must change how we see ourselves in order to see change in our lives.

As so many before me have said, “we are powerful beyond our imagination.”
Helen Keller once said, “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.”

Until we can love or be loved, or a success, or anything else, we need to feel that in our heart. We find it easy to feel fear, because fear relies on something external and there are tons of ways to feel less than, especially when you buy into someone else’s thoughts about you or any other thing. Doubt is an easy convert, especially if you don’t believe in yourself.

Here’s a simple thing to do that can help you to realize that we live in an infinite universe of a living God and that anything you want to co-create in your life you can, if you believe in you.

Walk outside or look in a magazine and look at a tree or at the grass and try to count the leaves on a single tree or the blades of grass of a lawn. You can’t and even if you tried, some old leaves would fall and new ones be added before you ever reached a final count.

Now, apply this to the possibility that something you know how to do and do well. The way you do it is your unique version of creating that thing. That unique style can be of use to an untold number of people. That could be the start of something that could change not only your life, but the lives of many others.

All of this begins with you believing in yourself, and in order to do that, you must love yourself. For that we get back to the beginning of this article and changing the way you see yourself. That is all about changing your thinking. To do that, think of today as the first day of the rest of your life. Yesterday is history and has no control over the present moment.

Tomorrow is unformed and something you can mold in your image of it. Right now is where it can begin.

When? It has to be now. Tomorrow never comes. There is only this moment

Where? The change takes place within you and me.

What? You can be whatever you believe you can be.

How? Change comes by believing in yourself and trusting your inner self.

Why? Why not? What have you got to lose you if you don’t like what you’re doing now? If the first thing doesn’t pan out, try another.

Remember, Thomas Edison created the light bulb over a thousand times before he got it right.

~revjim

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I Burn for your Peace.

This morning was the World Healing Meditation. I wish to thank everyone that was with us either in person or consciousness.

Thank You!5003-1

Just after I got off the call, I read my daily reading from Fr. Richard Rohr, and had to share this quote he used from Augustine of Hippo, from his work, “Confessions”

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. —Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

 

Much Love.

jim

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A Few Thoughts on Suffering

“Suffering is a law of life, and it is essential during this step to acknowledge our own pain or we shall find it impossible to have compassion for the distress of others.”  – Karen Armstrong, 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life

Suffering is a term I have always had trouble understanding. In my limited reading on Buddhism, I read a quote from somewhere, that “pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.” Since then I have heard many use suffering as justification of having that experience as their life.

It is my understanding that it is Buddhist in nature, but have found opposing thoughts on this in today’s negative climate. But, if you really think about it, there is a lot of truth in it.  Pain is a fact of life as we grow older, and few are exempt. We don’t normally define ourselves by our pain, but we usually define ourselves as suffering from pain or the state of the world or in some other way, which allows us to stay in this definition, rather than moving forward in life in spite of any pain we may feel.

When I was in Airborne training in the Army, I was in great shape, but there were many mornings that I had to move through the pain I would feel during a 5 mile run in uniform and combat boots. It was clear that I could move through the pain if I set my mind to it, but suffering would only have occurred if I had chosen to stop running and quit.

So, why do we choose to suffer?

In many cases, we choose to suffer, because, in our suffering, it becomes a way to define ourselves. Nothing else of note is going on for us, and suffering becomes the fact of our being, our reason to be. It becomes our story, just like being happy or successful! Most of the time we suffer not because we are in physical pain, but because we are not willing to let go of something in our past that would resolve itself in “self-forgiveness.” Instead of doing the necessary shadow work, looking into our darker side, we just try to forget about it, and for a while, the buried problem goes away, until something happens to trigger the issue and up it pops saying, “Hey, remember me?” Then, all of a sudden, we are not worthy again.

The only way to move away from suffering is to acknowledge our pain, physical or mental, and try to figure out why it still has a hold on us. If we truly want to identify as something other than our suffering, we can accept that we have pain and consciously choose that we no longer identify as a sufferer and identify ourselves as Jim or Jane or an internet marketer, a spiritual coach, or even a successful survivor of whatever we have transcended in our lives and live as such. 

-rev jim

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React or Respond: There is Always a Choice

What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.”

― Sri Aurobindo

“What do you think about that?” someone said to me, referencing something they had heard.

“I have no opinion, because I have no knowledge of what happened,” says I.

Why do people expect you to jump into a conversation you have no first-hand experience about? I have found over the years, at least for me, that supporting someone else’s thought becomes a brainless and uncaring act, unless I first know for myself what the many sides of an issue or thought represent and more importantly, where I stand on an issue, if I have a stand at all.

Most of the time I keep my opinions to myself, because I realize that my opinion normally represents a limited understanding of a complex problem, and, if I haven’t fully explored the many facets of a usually simple statement that has been queried, I am only reacting to it, not responding intelligently.

I have found reactions are usually made out of fear of losing something. People are living in such fear today; fear of bodily harm, fear of some right being taken away, fear of being deported, fear of being outed. Fear is a strong and very limiting emotion. It makes us do crazy and unimaginable things. There are people waste their entire lives, promoting fear through words, violence, and making things up about others.

I remember when Hurricane Matthew was bearing down on us in 2016, the SJC Emergency Management Director came through on my cell phone screaming that I had to leave my house right now and evacuate or “I would die!”

I’ve lived through cat4 hurricanes in the Caribbean and Florida. I’ve been a contractor in both places and had major success in not just surviving hurricanes, but thriving during them. I would never put myself in an unreasonable risk situation. I’ve normally lived on islands where you couldn’t escape anyway, so you hunker down and pray for the best. Florida is no different. There’s nowhere to go, unless you leave many days before the track is even locked in by our weather guessers. And, as a contractor, I know that, if a building has been built to code, you may get wet, but are probably safe otherwise. If I hit the road, chances are I could end up riding the storm out in the Walmart parking lot in Palatka. That would be less fun than sitting in a foot of water saving what I can of my belongings.

Anyway, you get the point, fear is our worst enemy, and if we buy into it, we’re already lost. If we are reasonable and don’t allow fear to be our guide, the world really doesn’t look that bad. I approach incidents and situations on a one-off. I trust until I’m shown someone or something is untrustworthy. I try not to judge by ethnicity, race, religious beliefs or social position, but I am sometimes ashamed of my behavior, and try to be better, when I catch myself.

There is no place in my life for hate. It only makes life a hell. I see so many people living their lives in a self-imposed hell today. I choose not to. Life in this body is too short. I learned a while ago, I’d rather be happy than right. That’s a story for another time.

-jtstarke