Life Got Ya Down?

I want you to know, I understand. Your backs up against the wall, there's no where to turn, no one to ask for help, you're stressed to the max and you don’t have an answer. You flitter into a restless sleep, and when you dream, your stress makes them weird. You’re days are spent praying to God for an answer that never seems to come. Personal relationship, work, financial or all three, sometimes life just dumps on you. There are times you see it coming from a mile away and just refuse to believe it and when it impacts, you’re still bewildered, stunned by the gale force. There are times too, when you are unable to see that gale force  coming and when it hits, it changes everything in a passing, remarkable and memorable second, often in the most tragic of circumstance.

 As if life's demon has his foot in the small of your back, grinding your face into the dirt, and to make it worse, he's laughing at you. You spend your days on the edge of tears and you begin to question, everything. You wonder what's wrong with you, question where your friends are and more than anything else, you wonder what the point is, of anything. Your favorite refrain is now, ‘why me?’.

There comes that time in all our lives where the pain and suffering seems overwhelming to overcome, you’re just too tired to fight, much less to stand, if not outwardly, certainly inwardly. Your soul aches behind every smile, wondering why you’re even bothering to force a smile.

Like I said, I understand!

Here’s a bigger revelation. Most people will understand, most have been there to some degree or another, and survived. In it’s way, suffrage and troubled waters go hand in hand as a rite of human passage. None of this makes it any easier for you, or anyone to bear their burden. It makes for us an easier way by our experience, to understand, but that doesn't necessarily calm your waters.

There are things you can do. I’m not a self hep guru, a therapist and some will say I’m the last person alive to give advice to anyone, and they might be right. But I do have experience in surviving my own personal ocean of troubled waters.

First and foremost, know that life is walked on a thin line between sorrow and happiness, that everyone walks in one direction today and the opposite direction tomorrow, all to different degrees. There's a huge amount of truth that we are more alike than not. The biggest difference between you and I? How we look at things, our perception. That perception is based on genetics, our current environment, our education, our ego, self esteem and a lot of other factors.

The takeaway, perception can be changed. Some change their perception of the world around them by finding God or engaging in professional help. Some merely through friends or through books, some by grit and determination. Changing perspective on the world, in your life isn’t that hard once you decide to change it. Deciding to change is the hard part. People will argue that the decision is the easiest part, but ask yourself this, if you can’t follow through on a decision you’ve made, are you really committed to that decision?

But what the hell is perception? Well here’s a surprise. It’s not how you view the world and your life, perception is who you are as a person. So if you want to start walking a bit more on that thin line in the direction of happiness, it starts with you.

Start with that recognition, own the troubled ocean you’re drowning in. Once you own that perception, you can mold it by writing about it, by talking to others, by research, by sharing. By even, OMG, by asking for help. Asking for help and understanding can be humiliating, I get that, but what you’re not getting, is that asking for help, asking for a friend to listen, can be one of the most rewarding human experiences in the entire catalog of human experiences. It can be, and often is, the first step in an experience that is transformational.

It ain’t easy, it never is, and like I said, I understand.

Than again, maybe I don’t know nothing and I oughta just slap a piece of duct tape over my big mouth.

Find more commentary at www.rspaxton.com

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I am Right, There is Nothing Else!

I am tired. From a political viewpoint, I am tired of what we as Americans have become. More than that, I am ashamed that we have become an uneducated mass of Jello that holds no honor, gives no compassion nor cares what those on the opposite side of the aisle have to believe. The mantra everywhere is, ‘I am right, there is nothing else’. There is no honor, no fairness and not a smidgen of intelligent conversation about the problems we face here in this great Nation. Our politicians are setting an example that many are already following, and we all are the worse for it. The only truth there is, is the need, the ability to win, to gain power, to gain wealth, and those that do, don't have the wit to use it to benefit the Nation. Themselves, yes, the rest of us, not so much.

This reality really has gone on long enough, don’t you think? It seems, every time I turn around, the level of stupidity expands exponentially, to the point where if a visiting species happened across us, they'd place a great big yellow band of caution tape around the earth, warning others that there exists beyond the tape, a mental ward.

We should be ashamed that we allow this!

Yes, we have our differences. Yes, we can argue, we can disagree, and even, once in a while, engage in a knock down, drag out fight. But to stoop to the level that makes the notorious village idiot look like a genius? Really? WTF?

No matter what side of the political aisle you live and breath in, there are times when you need to speak out. To not do so, is disgusting and belittles you, especially if there's a voice crying out somewhere in your heart, demanding you to say something. Honor starts in the heart.

I do not believe this is who we are as a people, but I do have to wonder if this is who we are becoming, illiterates feeding at the troth of the insane.

The question I ask is simple, ‘Does human decency amount to less than political bullshit?” It appears so, that civil discourse no longer exists. The way to move the masses, you included, is to be outrageous, to get your attention with lies, slander, deceit and hurtful, malicious words. That says as much about you as the person slinging the mud.

But you don’t care do you? You enjoy it don’t you? Even at the expense of this great nation.

Sad state of affairs indeed. Thanks for helping to destroy  the greatest Nation ever seen in the history of all humanity. I’m sure your children have a lot to be proud of of.

The Commodity of our Lives

Truth is a commodity in that everyone has a vested interest in having their wants, their desires, their needs not only filled, but exceedingly so. Not our wants, not our desires and not our needs. Truth after all, is a personal thing, relegated to align its very existence with no less than God. God and truth are twined and bound, inseparable in their existence. For many, they are the one and the same thing. One can defend any argument, any belief system simply by stating their position is God given or based in truth. Once that statement is made, there is no argument left, there is no room left for compromise.

Of course, we all know most truth is a lie. And excuse me, the sun doesn't really rise in the morning sky, it just appears to, but I know what your thinking, and I’ll give you that. There are indeed some ‘God given’ truths that endure. We live, we die is one. There is a moon in our sky and we understand the physics which keep it there. These truths are remarkable because we live them, we experience them every single day of our lives and most don't question their existence. The larger truth is that scientific fact and God given truths exist together. The fact that we understand Gods math in keeping our moon its distance from our planet is a beautiful thing. The fact that we are beginning to understand the dynamics of the Universe isn't a contradiction to God, it's a contribution to our love for God, no matter how you define God.

That beauty and that contribution diverge at the human level of individual perception where truth and god become non capitalized words to be used in personal agendas. Personal agendas to divide and conquer, to gain false esteem, and we all are guilty. Every religion, every individual is guilty of using their belief in god to further their belief system.

God did not make the world in seven days. God made the world in billions of years because God has given us evidence of his handiwork in ice cores, in tree rings and rock strata.
Now, you know I’m not even close to being a thumper and spouter of the good word. I do, however, have a great respect, not only for Christianity, but for all Religion. What does bother me is the fact  that there are people who twist, bend and crank out whatever truth they deem necessary to get their point across, and sometimes, it’s people of a religious nature. I mean, they lie to people to get people to believe them and it seems to work. This is where truth has become a commodity, born to serve the interests of specific desires, wants and needs.

Two things before I end this, Politicians are just as guilty of using truth as a commodity as anyone else, perhaps more so. The second thing is, I have read that human footprints dating back to the time of the dinosaurs have been found, and dated, and all I can do is go hmmmm...