16 TRUTHS by Estel Atticus (Best thing I've ever read, I know the numbers are out of order))
6. Your Personal Truth: Writing - shitty first drafts. Butt in chair. Just do it. You own everything that happened to you. You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves in your heart -- your stories, visions, memories, songs: your truth, your version of things, in your voice. That is really all you have to offer us, and it's why you were born. 7. Publication and temporary CREATIVE SUCCESSES are something you have to recover from. They kill as many people as not. They will hurt, damage and change you in ways you cannot imagine. The most degraded and sometimes nearly-evil human I have known were all writers who'd had bestsellers. Yet, it is also a miracle to get your work published (see #1). Just try to bust yourself gently of the fantasy that publication will heal you, will fill the Swiss cheesey holes. It won't, it can't. But WRITING can. So can SINGING. 8. Families; hard, hard, hard, no matter how cherished and astonishing they may also be. (See #1 again) At family gatherings where you suddenly feel homicidal or suicidal, remember that in half of all cases, it's a miracle that this annoying person even lived. Earth is Forgiveness School. You might as well start at the dinner table. That way, you can do this work of forgiving, in comfortable pants. When Blake [William Blake] said that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love, he knew that your family would be an integral part of this “enduring” -- (or you can leave it when it’s bad – you only live once, why bother?)
-- even as you want to run screaming for your cute little life. But that you are up to it, or not, its your choice. You can do it, Cinderellie. You will be amazed. 9. Food; try to do a little better.
10. Grace: Spiritual WD-40. Water wings. The mystery of grace is that God loves Dick Cheney and me exactly as much as He or She loves your grandchild. Go figure. The movement of grace is what changes us, heals us and our world. To summon grace, say, "Help!" And then buckle up. Grace won't look like Casper the Friendly Ghost; but the phone will ring, or the mail will come, and then against all odds, you will get your sense of humor about yourself back. Laughter really is carbonated holiness, even if you are sick of me saying it. Ten minutes of laughter is the equivalent of 3 hours of sleep. It will revive you. 11. God; Goodness, Love energy, the Divine, a loving animating intelligence, the Cosmic Muffin. You will hold dear, communicate, worship, serve something, so like St. Bob [Bob Dylan] said, you gotta choose. You can play on our side, or Bill Maher's and Franklin Graham's. Emerson said that the happiest person on earth is the one who learns from NATURE the lessons of worship. So go outside a lot, observe and look upward and downward and all around. My pastor says you can trap bees on the floor of a Mason jar without a lid, because they don't look up. If they did, they could fly to freedom.
12. Faith: The opposite of faith is certainty, not doubt – Paul Tillich. If I could say one thing to our little Tea Party friends, it would be this. Fundamentalism/oppression, in all its forms, is 90% of the reason the world is so terrifying. 3% is the existence of snakes. The love of our incredible pets – dogs, cats, your choice of furbaby, is the closest most of us will come, on this side of eternity, to knowing the direct love of God; although cats can be so fickle, which is not the God part: the crazy Love is. Also, "Figure it out" is not a good slogan. 14. Jesus; Jesus would have even loved horrible, mealy-mouthed self-obsessed you, as if you were the only person on earth. But He would hope that you would perhaps pull yourself together just the tiniest, tiniest bit -- maybe have a little something to eat, and a nap. 15. Exercise: If you want to have a good life after you have grown a little less young, you must walk almost every day. There is no way around this. Swimming is even better - any swim stroke. If you are in a wheelchair, you must do chair exercises. Every single doctor on earth will tell you this, so don't go by what I say. 16. Death; wow. So f-ing hard to bear, when the few people you cannot live without die (but lucky you, that you ever had any of this at all to begin with – you could have spent a lifetime surrounded by psychopaths and be thrilled when those psychopaths finally die. Not good as life should be good. Get out of the reach of evil people as quickly as you can. Far, far away.)
When you are the last one left of the people you relied on and enjoyed - You will never get over these losses, and are not supposed to. We Christians like to think death is a major change of address, but in any case, the person will live fully again in your heart, at some point, and make you smile, even in memory, at the MOST inappropriate times. But their absence will also be a lifelong nightmare of homesickness for you. Visit their cemetery, pull out a chair and TALK to them - THEY CAN HEAR YOU! Or put a plaque in your yard for them with a bench and talk there. They are right there! There is a poem about this....they are in the next room ... 1. All truth is a paradox. Life is a precious unfathomably beautiful gift; and it is impossible here, on the incarnational side of things. It has been a very bad match for those of us who were born extremely sensitive. It is so hard and weird that we wonder if we are being punked. And life is filled with heartbreaking sweetness and beauty, floods and babies, and acne and Mozart, all swirled together.
2. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. Sleep OUTDOORS whenever you can. Get at least ten minutes of sunshine per day or one hour of sunshine per week, don't be sunshine deprived. All living things need airing outside. 3. There is almost nothing outside of yourself that will help in any kind of lasting way, unless you are waiting for an organ. You can't buy, achieve, or date “help”. This is the most horrible truth. Only YOU, the internal you, can help YOU. 4. Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides. Also, you can't save, fix or rescue any of them, or get any of them sober. But radical self-care is quantum, and radiates out into the atmosphere, like a little fresh air. It is a huge gift to the world. When people respond by saying, "Well, isn't she full of herself," smile obliquely, like Mona Lisa, and make both of you a nice cup of tea.
5. Chocolate with 70% cacao is not actually a food. It's best use is as bait in snake traps.
By Estel Atticus
-- even as you want to run screaming for your cute little life. But that you are up to it, or not, its your choice. You can do it, Cinderellie. You will be amazed. 9. Food; try to do a little better.
10. Grace: Spiritual WD-40. Water wings. The mystery of grace is that God loves Dick Cheney and me exactly as much as He or She loves your grandchild. Go figure. The movement of grace is what changes us, heals us and our world. To summon grace, say, "Help!" And then buckle up. Grace won't look like Casper the Friendly Ghost; but the phone will ring, or the mail will come, and then against all odds, you will get your sense of humor about yourself back. Laughter really is carbonated holiness, even if you are sick of me saying it. Ten minutes of laughter is the equivalent of 3 hours of sleep. It will revive you. 11. God; Goodness, Love energy, the Divine, a loving animating intelligence, the Cosmic Muffin. You will hold dear, communicate, worship, serve something, so like St. Bob [Bob Dylan] said, you gotta choose. You can play on our side, or Bill Maher's and Franklin Graham's. Emerson said that the happiest person on earth is the one who learns from NATURE the lessons of worship. So go outside a lot, observe and look upward and downward and all around. My pastor says you can trap bees on the floor of a Mason jar without a lid, because they don't look up. If they did, they could fly to freedom.
12. Faith: The opposite of faith is certainty, not doubt – Paul Tillich. If I could say one thing to our little Tea Party friends, it would be this. Fundamentalism/oppression, in all its forms, is 90% of the reason the world is so terrifying. 3% is the existence of snakes. The love of our incredible pets – dogs, cats, your choice of furbaby, is the closest most of us will come, on this side of eternity, to knowing the direct love of God; although cats can be so fickle, which is not the God part: the crazy Love is. Also, "Figure it out" is not a good slogan. 14. Jesus; Jesus would have even loved horrible, mealy-mouthed self-obsessed you, as if you were the only person on earth. But He would hope that you would perhaps pull yourself together just the tiniest, tiniest bit -- maybe have a little something to eat, and a nap. 15. Exercise: If you want to have a good life after you have grown a little less young, you must walk almost every day. There is no way around this. Swimming is even better - any swim stroke. If you are in a wheelchair, you must do chair exercises. Every single doctor on earth will tell you this, so don't go by what I say. 16. Death; wow. So f-ing hard to bear, when the few people you cannot live without die (but lucky you, that you ever had any of this at all to begin with – you could have spent a lifetime surrounded by psychopaths and be thrilled when those psychopaths finally die. Not good as life should be good. Get out of the reach of evil people as quickly as you can. Far, far away.)
When you are the last one left of the people you relied on and enjoyed - You will never get over these losses, and are not supposed to. We Christians like to think death is a major change of address, but in any case, the person will live fully again in your heart, at some point, and make you smile, even in memory, at the MOST inappropriate times. But their absence will also be a lifelong nightmare of homesickness for you. Visit their cemetery, pull out a chair and TALK to them - THEY CAN HEAR YOU! Or put a plaque in your yard for them with a bench and talk there. They are right there! There is a poem about this....they are in the next room ... 1. All truth is a paradox. Life is a precious unfathomably beautiful gift; and it is impossible here, on the incarnational side of things. It has been a very bad match for those of us who were born extremely sensitive. It is so hard and weird that we wonder if we are being punked. And life is filled with heartbreaking sweetness and beauty, floods and babies, and acne and Mozart, all swirled together.
2. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. Sleep OUTDOORS whenever you can. Get at least ten minutes of sunshine per day or one hour of sunshine per week, don't be sunshine deprived. All living things need airing outside. 3. There is almost nothing outside of yourself that will help in any kind of lasting way, unless you are waiting for an organ. You can't buy, achieve, or date “help”. This is the most horrible truth. Only YOU, the internal you, can help YOU. 4. Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides. Also, you can't save, fix or rescue any of them, or get any of them sober. But radical self-care is quantum, and radiates out into the atmosphere, like a little fresh air. It is a huge gift to the world. When people respond by saying, "Well, isn't she full of herself," smile obliquely, like Mona Lisa, and make both of you a nice cup of tea.
5. Chocolate with 70% cacao is not actually a food. It's best use is as bait in snake traps.
By Estel Atticus
Replies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrZnnvEyTUs
Bob Dylan, Lay Lady Lay
in the third stanza of this song there are two versions. the original version says: \"Why wait any longer, I don\'t mean to complain; you can have love but you might lose it. Why run any longer when you\'re runnin\' in vain - YOU CAN HAVE THE TRUTH BUT YOU GOTTA CHOOSE IT\"
Just reading through both sets of lyrics and there is a HUGE difference in the two versions. stanza two and three are altered for the hit. the hit is more mainstream than spiritual. the version which says \"...the truth but you gotta choose it\" is #24 on the essential bob dylan.
\"Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room. I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me.
Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same that it ever was. There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you. For an interval. Somewhere. Very near. Just around the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before only better, infinitely happier and forever we will all be one together with Christ.\"
Henry Scott Holland