Have faith

Following are random thoughts, someday perhaps I can return to this long rambling thought and refine, clarify and update grammar. For this moment I am meant to spew it all out as it flows and get back to tending and enjoying my daughter. I do not see this as addressing or segregating one religion or group.

My perception of faith is taking comfort through hardship in knowing we are exactly where we are supposed to be in this exact moment. It means we acknowledge we are on a journey, it means accepting our past, it results in a state of fulfillment, acceptance and happiness. I use the word happiness loosely to represent positive self worth and absence of sadness misery or feelings of lose. I speak of faith more through hardship, because faith during good times is less of a personal struggle. To take this further I hazard to postulate there is no happiness or sadness within our spirit, only a state of being, a willingness and an existence to live and learn, to travel a journey or path so that we may increase our awareness of self and spirit. To complete the void of our divine within...

Over the years I've had many friends who nod when I talk of having faith in their life. They agree, but yet, go back to questioning, resenting and letting unhappiness settle back into their daily lives. It became aware to me that keeping faith was easy to say and difficult to do. I even find it difficult some days and have to stop and take a minute to remind myself everything I preach.

It tests us in many ways..from being judged to judging others, in my books the exact opposite of looking within and allowing others to do the same. Instead we try to peer within the surface. An impossible task when judging others, as they cannot tell their story in it`s entirety, shaped with feelings and all their past experiences that brought them to today. In this vein, it becomes impossible to know what is best for them, the surest way to give help that does not have the possibility to be off, is to help the person look within to find their true answer.

So, you've looked within, you think you are being honest with yourself and not letting biased or ego rule the answer, but are still unsure and want to know how you'd know. Play the scenario, feel your energy as your body responds to your thoughts. Pure thoughts and intentions may work as a conductor or transformer (energy is electricity) rather than a resistor. If you feel in the slightest that the way you are considering paving ruffles your scales/fir/skin go back a few steps and ask what part of your heart are you ignoring or is not completely true. There may be one thing you've let distort, fear if being different than society/friends/family, fear of being judged, not wanting to face something, wanting to portray ourselves as something we are not.. etc

So the question is, how to carry faith with us enough to live in the moment and enjoy that moment instead of letting it breed negativity. It seems counter productive to bring the past into the present, but it is after all the sum of who we are at this moment. This can be as deep or shallow as you and time permit. I think back to my father passing when I was young, a majorly molding experience that used to take energy and tears to remember. I`ve learned to respect that event and can now visualize all the ripples this event had on who I am today. Now I look at it with respect and no resentment or tears. Add to this faith in an afterlife and it transforms into a comforting experience rather than something to use to put a chip on my shoulder.

We do make it through difficulties, we do change because of them and like a butterfly transform into something beautiful.. ourselves as we are meant to be in this moment in time.

Others need not go this deep if they are not ready and willing, you can use something as simple as an inner struggle, car trouble.. etc. I can guarantee if you listen to your heart.... something good came of it that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Struggles are to be respected, for they teach us. We do not learn or turn inward when we are happy. We smile, laugh and revel in letting it shine. Typically when we are in dark moods we cannot express it and turn inward to make sense of it, some never dig deep enough to get to the root and instead live on the surface of what their heart and spirit know. Perhaps their struggle in life is simply to learn how to listen to their heart, it`s a hard skill to hone, to truly have faith.