Happy Black Friday,
I trust everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Holiday. Though, like many of you, I had to work I made a decision to enjoy what I could. I hope you all took the time to be thankful for what you have and at least used one day to not fret over the things you don’t have. I wanted to share with you the latest version of the Cata-List. It somewhat matches the theme of being grateful. It’s merely a list of things we should be thankful for but tend to overlook…
Family – These are the people in our life who give us the most love and support while simultaneously being the biggest pains in the (fill in your own blank). Family lets you know that no matter how big you get you’re still going to be the same old you.
Friends – These people are similar to family except you can choose your friends.
Pain – Despite the negative connotation, pain is the reason we feel alive. That’s why doctors smack babies on the bum when they’re born. Pain is why you shouldn’t get down after a failure. The more heartbreak you experience lets you know how much love you actually have to give.
Job – There are a lot of unemployed people out there that would love the job that you so hotly detest. The same job that you complain about and dread going to would be a life saver to those who, due to a lack of employment, can’t make ends meet.
Hope/Faith – Optimism is what gets you out of bed. Everyday is a new day. You never know what the future will bring. Without a positive outlook, you may as well go dig your grave and pay someone to cover you up. You don’t have to be in a casket to be dead.
Love - The thing about love is that it is the only thing in life that absolutely has to be earned. You can’t buy it or rent it. It has to be given willingly. If you are ever so lucky to find someone who loves you…enjoy it while it lasts! (Just kidding but a little serious)
Reason – It kills me how much people don’t use good old fashioned common sense. Reason, which is a cousin of instinct, is our compass in life that points us in the right direction. Unfortunately, a number of us sacrifice reason for a macédoine* of ideologies. Just because something is confusing and/or incoherent doesn’t mean it’s spiritual.
Wisdom – Is the treasure you receive from living a well diverse life. When you explore as many opportunities and possibilities that life has to offer you enter a level of awareness that 95% of the materialistic world will never understand.
Life – The most overlooked asset we have. Our existence is so random that it sometimes seems accidental. There are so many situations and arbitrary acts that went to your birth you can’t fathom them all. Your creation was millions of years in the making. There are certain things in life that you can control. However, most things you can’t although we spend a vast majority of our lives trying. I can tell you from experience that life is about enjoying the ride. Quit fighting the universe. Life should flow like a river. If something gets in the way you should go around it or keep pushing until your problem erodes like a boulder constantly getting pounded by persistence of fierce rapids. Life is meant to be lived. Don’t let indoctrination, conformism, or the mass media tell you have to live and behave. Everyone’s path is different. Some start with more possessions than others while some merely end with more. Some people experience more passion and more love than others. We have to make the most of what we have right now. Whatever makes you happy, DO IT! Over and over again until you get bored. Then try something else that pulls your interested. Never stop learning. Never stop wondering. Never stop asking questions. Never settle for less than what you absolutely want.
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melodie Beattie
Dream Big. Live Bigger
The All-American
www.rallostyles.com
http://thecatalystexperience.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/rallostyles <--Follow Me
*Word you’ve never heard…
macédoine /mass-uh-DWAHN/ noun – a confused mixture: medley
Friday, November 27, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Catalyst
Hello Everyone,
The Universe is filled with vast mysteries. With a powerful telescope we can see far away stars, planets, and galaxies. One of the more interesting things found in the cosmos (well at least to me) is the black hole. It’s hard to explain what exactly a black hole is, especially in laymen’s terms. However, a black hole is a region is space where gravity is so strong it pulls in everything (mostly stars and space garbage) around it. The gravitational pull is so strong that once caught in it nothing can escape including light. I bring this up because a lot of times our ideologies function in the same matter. Once we accept that an idea is “true” most of what we do from that point on will go to reinforce the idea. This is good if we are constantly evolving while learning new and improved ideas. It’s not so good if we still believe the same things we believe 5, 10, 20 years ago.
I compare our thoughts to black holes because our worldly outlook gets sucked into our thinking. Like black holes, our ideologies take time to develop. They start when we are very young. We learn that hot is hot. We learn that what goes up must come down. After the preliminary knowledge we learn morals. Certain acts are considered “bad” while others are labeled “good”. Any theologian will tell you that good/bad depends on who or what you believe. But going a bit further, your outlook also depends of economic status, race, and gender just to name a few. This is precisely why it’s impossible for people to agree unanimously. We all have different backgrounds and paradigms. No one sees the world “the way it is”. We always see it through our own rose colored sunglasses. You see, this is why I have a problem with people who claim to have THE absolute truth. There is no way to know for sure because everything we experience is biased. When I say everything I mean EVERYTHING!
We put our trust in politicians, religious leaders, and to a certain extent entertainers. But the fact is we need to investigate life on our own. For most of us, our morals were determined when we were kids. We had adults who told us what to believe and how to behave. Then we grew up and a lot of things that were said to be wrong didn’t seem that bad as we matured. Even though we feel good when we engage in certain acts (fornication, drinking/smoking, lying, etc) our mind won’t let us be content because no matter how high we get our beliefs suck us back into the black hole. We’ve been raised to be nice and courteous, maugre* life telling us repeatedly that the people that make it are the ones who push in line, don’t say excuse me, and take what they want. Of course, many of you are already thinking of instances where that is not the case. All I’m saying is that you can only get so far with being nice and proper. Life is difficult and the world can be an unforgiving place. A lot of millionaires, celebrities, and business owners may seem gentle in front of the camera but behind the scenes they’ll crack the whip as hard as the best of them.
Listen, I’m not saying you should live a no holds barred lifestyle. Everyone should have guidelines that they live by. The point I’m trying to get across is that we shouldn’t hold onto false ideas about life that have no worth. A lot of what we believe is the stuff of fairytales. We believe that our prince/princess is out there waiting on us. We believe that a we should only have to work 40 hours a week. We believe there is a spirit in the sky that makes sure “good” people prevail and “bad” people get what’s coming to them. If that’s the case how come Wall Street can get bailouts and ridiculous bonuses while the working class pays for it? I’m not looking for anyone to back me up and tell me I’m right. The truth speaks for itself.
Here’s an interesting fact about black holes: Nobody has ever seen one. Like I said before, it sucks in light. The only way to know a black hole is present is to look at the orbit of stars and gases around an empty space. This is how our ideologies are as well. I have no way of knowing how you truly feel in your heart just by looking at you. But I can look at the clothes you wear, the car you drive, and the people you surround yourself with and be able to get a good enough idea about your character and demeanor. If your beliefs are so great your life should reflect a contentment that knows no bounds. On the flipside, if your life is lacking its probably an idea or two that keeps sucking you back into an unfulfilling existence. Adjust your ideologies, morals, and decisions as you see fit. You’re going to have to live with the consequences of your actions so they might as well be YOUR decisions. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind. You can’t do the same thing repeatedly and expect different results. Additionally, you can’t stay the same and evolve at the same time. Something has to give.
“What I've learned is not to believe in magical leaders any more [and] that character and compassion are more important than ideology; and that even if it's absurd to think you can change things, it's even more absurd to think that it's foolish and unimportant to try.” - Peter C. Newman
Dream Big. Live Bigger.
The All-American
www.rallostyles.com
http://thecatalystexperience.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/rallostyles <--Follow Me
*Word you’ve never heard…
maugre /MAW-gur/ preposition – in spite of (<--this was hard to use in a sentence correctly but I pulled it off just for you)
The Universe is filled with vast mysteries. With a powerful telescope we can see far away stars, planets, and galaxies. One of the more interesting things found in the cosmos (well at least to me) is the black hole. It’s hard to explain what exactly a black hole is, especially in laymen’s terms. However, a black hole is a region is space where gravity is so strong it pulls in everything (mostly stars and space garbage) around it. The gravitational pull is so strong that once caught in it nothing can escape including light. I bring this up because a lot of times our ideologies function in the same matter. Once we accept that an idea is “true” most of what we do from that point on will go to reinforce the idea. This is good if we are constantly evolving while learning new and improved ideas. It’s not so good if we still believe the same things we believe 5, 10, 20 years ago.
I compare our thoughts to black holes because our worldly outlook gets sucked into our thinking. Like black holes, our ideologies take time to develop. They start when we are very young. We learn that hot is hot. We learn that what goes up must come down. After the preliminary knowledge we learn morals. Certain acts are considered “bad” while others are labeled “good”. Any theologian will tell you that good/bad depends on who or what you believe. But going a bit further, your outlook also depends of economic status, race, and gender just to name a few. This is precisely why it’s impossible for people to agree unanimously. We all have different backgrounds and paradigms. No one sees the world “the way it is”. We always see it through our own rose colored sunglasses. You see, this is why I have a problem with people who claim to have THE absolute truth. There is no way to know for sure because everything we experience is biased. When I say everything I mean EVERYTHING!
We put our trust in politicians, religious leaders, and to a certain extent entertainers. But the fact is we need to investigate life on our own. For most of us, our morals were determined when we were kids. We had adults who told us what to believe and how to behave. Then we grew up and a lot of things that were said to be wrong didn’t seem that bad as we matured. Even though we feel good when we engage in certain acts (fornication, drinking/smoking, lying, etc) our mind won’t let us be content because no matter how high we get our beliefs suck us back into the black hole. We’ve been raised to be nice and courteous, maugre* life telling us repeatedly that the people that make it are the ones who push in line, don’t say excuse me, and take what they want. Of course, many of you are already thinking of instances where that is not the case. All I’m saying is that you can only get so far with being nice and proper. Life is difficult and the world can be an unforgiving place. A lot of millionaires, celebrities, and business owners may seem gentle in front of the camera but behind the scenes they’ll crack the whip as hard as the best of them.
Listen, I’m not saying you should live a no holds barred lifestyle. Everyone should have guidelines that they live by. The point I’m trying to get across is that we shouldn’t hold onto false ideas about life that have no worth. A lot of what we believe is the stuff of fairytales. We believe that our prince/princess is out there waiting on us. We believe that a we should only have to work 40 hours a week. We believe there is a spirit in the sky that makes sure “good” people prevail and “bad” people get what’s coming to them. If that’s the case how come Wall Street can get bailouts and ridiculous bonuses while the working class pays for it? I’m not looking for anyone to back me up and tell me I’m right. The truth speaks for itself.
Here’s an interesting fact about black holes: Nobody has ever seen one. Like I said before, it sucks in light. The only way to know a black hole is present is to look at the orbit of stars and gases around an empty space. This is how our ideologies are as well. I have no way of knowing how you truly feel in your heart just by looking at you. But I can look at the clothes you wear, the car you drive, and the people you surround yourself with and be able to get a good enough idea about your character and demeanor. If your beliefs are so great your life should reflect a contentment that knows no bounds. On the flipside, if your life is lacking its probably an idea or two that keeps sucking you back into an unfulfilling existence. Adjust your ideologies, morals, and decisions as you see fit. You’re going to have to live with the consequences of your actions so they might as well be YOUR decisions. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind. You can’t do the same thing repeatedly and expect different results. Additionally, you can’t stay the same and evolve at the same time. Something has to give.
“What I've learned is not to believe in magical leaders any more [and] that character and compassion are more important than ideology; and that even if it's absurd to think you can change things, it's even more absurd to think that it's foolish and unimportant to try.” - Peter C. Newman
Dream Big. Live Bigger.
The All-American
www.rallostyles.com
http://thecatalystexperience.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/rallostyles <--Follow Me
*Word you’ve never heard…
maugre /MAW-gur/ preposition – in spite of (<--this was hard to use in a sentence correctly but I pulled it off just for you)
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