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I wrote this to a friend of mine in an e-mail earlier today:
I've been feeling like I've come full circle in my head, lately. Like I've been on this big round trip that's lasted 25 years and I'm just now coming home again. I've dreamed of my mother and step-father three times recently. I was actually missing my mother recently and I never thought that would happen again. I was sitting here watching TV with my wife recently. I never watch fictional TV shows, haven't in a very long time possibly back to being 20 years old, but there I was watching her shows with her and I just felt at home.
Maybe this is another starting point for a different journey...a journey of the mind, of course. But I think I'm going to stay here for a little while and just be at home in my head. I wish I could go back to when I was 19 and do things differently. I wish I had been wiser back then. Maybe that's the message now. I can start a spiritual journey anew and this time from a much wiser vantage point.
I have been through hell in my life from the beginning until I was about 30 years old. I'm 44 now. The last 14 years have been like slowly surfacing from the depths. I've broken the surface in the last few years and I can breathe easy again. I'm here now in the reality that most people experience. I'm also here to tell you that there is so much more to our existence. Much more than the vast majority ever realize, at least in this lifetime in America. We have within us hell. Logically speaking, that would mean that we also have within us states of heaven. I think I've tasted that in this lifetime, but only for very brief moments. I get a glimpse...I get a brief look...and then the door closes. But mostly it's been hell, and lately I suppose purgatory.
At least I can rest easy now. I'm just driving my truck and doing my thing. A good lesson all of this has taught me is that you never know what other people are going through unless they explicitly tell you. No matter what is happening on the outside, you don't really know what is happening beyond the physical realm. I'm confident that I've run across fellow truckers who are spiritually enlightened. On the inside they are every bit as brilliant as Jesus or Buddha or Krishna or Mohamed. It goes the same for teachers, janitors, baseball players, mechanics, politicians, steel workers, waiters, actors, and business people. They're all right here waiting for the rest of us to catch up.
I look like a hobo. Most people would take one look at me and probably assume I'd be lucky to put a coherent sentence together let alone write paragraphs in depth and clarity. A good rule is to be kind to everyone you meet. You never know when it might pay off in a big way, and beyond that, in a spiritual sense, it's just the best thing to do for everyone.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,614 posts)It's great to see you feeling this way.
Self-awareness is not easy to come by, and most people don't even try. They have their reasons, of course. Most of them are working too hard to stay afloat to give a moment's thought to what lies inside them.
But you wanted so much more. And that wanting has lead you here.
Welcome home!
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)Yeah, here in America we are very achievement oriented. We have to acquire things. We have to attain things. We have to be a big shot. Many of us are too busy on that achievement trip to turn our gaze inward and do inner work. And a lot of people here, and increasingly more, are on a basic survival trip. They are so busy trying to make ends meet and provide for their loved ones that they don't have the luxury of time to be able to reflect. Both of those kinds of people are caught in the drama that is America.
I kind of fall into the latter group. We are fortunate to have enough to get by and save a little for retirement. I am fortunate to have a few days a week most of the time in which I can sit and study, reflect and read. We all need that, but fewer and fewer of us are getting what we need. If we do get some free time, we are still caught up in our minds planning and scheming. Been there done that. I guess when you get a little age on you, it gets tiresome and you just naturally start looking inward.
trof
(54,256 posts)Yeppers, Tobin.
It ain't just a 'good' rule.
It's the Golden one.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)I hope all is well in trof-land this evening.
trof
(54,256 posts)All is well here.
Miz t. is in the kitchen, as we speak, whipping up yet another culinary delight.
Parmesan encrusted chicken over linguini Alfredo with roasted broccoli I believe.
I am a lucky man.
She likes to cook, and is very good at it.
And I like to eat.
A marriage truly made in heaven.
48 years next Wednesday.
I hope my wife and I will make it that long. We get along really well, and we love each other. We just got married later in life. We were both around 40.
NBachers
(17,108 posts)Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)lastlib
(23,225 posts)Last edited Sun Apr 9, 2017, 08:16 PM - Edit history (1)
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)democrank
(11,094 posts)About looking "like a hobo", I say good for you. Be yourself and keep on that road to enlightenment.
Some of the finest people I've met and befriended own very little but know a whole lot. They've been on that "big round trip" you mentioned and have so much to offer. Going through hell can certinly wreck a person, but if you survive you can come away with an understanding of humanity that not everyone has.
My best to you, Tobin.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)I hope that means that Heaven shows itself more frequently. Thanks for the post.
oldcynic
(385 posts)Don't have regrets. Everything we do is ours. Claim it. If nothing else, it marks the distance you have traveled. May I respectfully add to your rule of kindness? Enjoy goodness when you meet it. I use goodness in the sense of when a light shines in your mind, smelling the roses or whatever.
KT2000
(20,577 posts)I have lived a long time in a town that has lots of retirees. One advantage to that has been that I live in a community where competition is not present very much. Most of the people are past that part in their lives so it does not wash over the community like so many others. It is a nasty energy but the one America is built on, unfortunately.
You never know who people are until you get to know them. The mega millionaire in town used to show up to the Democratic meetings in overalls - after a hard day's work. Fancy dress is cause for suspicion around here so there is no use judging anyone by those standards.
Don't know if this has been an issue for you but, men are pressured from childhood to become king of the mountain - win at the competition game, but it is so destructive to them and society. If this is what you have awoken from - good for you- the mountain as it turns out is really just a toxic waste dump. The winner is actually the one who learns to live in peace with him or herself.
Peace to you.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)If you are going to make progress on the inside, you have to realize that acquiring stuff is not going to get you anywhere in that regard. It's nice to have material possessions. It's nice to attain worldly goals. But when it comes to the way you see the world and when it comes to your heart, you have to look inside.
I became clinically mentally ill when I was 20 and suffered in that hell until I was 30. It's my own special kind of hell, I guess. If anything good came of that it is that I hope it was preparation for something much better later in life. It also taught me how to be introspective.
KT2000
(20,577 posts)stuff begets more stuff!
From your posts - Another thing you have learned is humility and that may be the best of all.
Having experienced a life changing health issue myself, the humility I learned was the door to so much more in life.
VOX
(22,976 posts)Wisdom is costly and hard-won, but well worth it. And "coming home," whether literally or metaphorically, is something we humans all crave-- it appears as a theme repeatedly in our classical and popular culture, from Homer's "Odyssey" to Andy Weir's "The Martian."
Thank you for generously sharing your good thoughts.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)mountain grammy
(26,620 posts)for the first time today.
JoeOtterbein
(7,700 posts)...nutin wrong with that bro! And great job on the post!
Lyricalinklines
(367 posts)I'm inspired reading your words. Thank you.