The End Is Only The Beginning

The end is really only the beginning.  That's certainly one way to look at it.  As one moment ends, we find ourselves already in the midst of another.  Countless millions of moments that together make up a life story.  One moment is all it takes to change the world, to alter the path of destiny.  One moment, one opportunity, one life.  It always comes down to that one single moment, a point at which your future is being decided, even if you are not aware of the consequences that surround you, of the swirling mass of possibilities that are lining up, taking order, falling into place.  And on we go, oblivious, until with hindsight, we look back down the road, and there, basking in all its glory, finally revealed to even the most blinkered of eyes, is that one pivotal moment that shook your world, that altered the course of your destiny and that brought you to the point at which you are now.  Sitting in a cafe in a seaside town in England, on a cold, wet, and dreary December day, staring out of the window at all of the activity in the street outside.

My time in Costa Rica has ended.  In fact, it was over on 5 December, as the plane hurtled down the runway of San Jose airport, as the wings lifted with the air velocity and pressure differential, and the wheels touched Costa Rican tarmac for the last time that day.  Airborne and with it, my future changed, it shifted.  Plans that had been made started to become a reality, thoughts, electronic pulses stored in my brain, turned into tangible occurrences.  This journey across the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans represented both an ending and a beginning.  This is life.

In death comes life.  Perhaps, with it being the day before Christmas, my thoughts turn to Jesus, which makes me think of the Resurrection.  "In death, I become life." (I just Googled that phrase in the belief that someone must have said it before, but my search brings forth no such findings.  So, I am taking it as my own creation.)  In other words, I must die before life comes again.  That is the way of our dreams.  We realise one dream and that dream must end before another can come to fruition. 

I have died many times in my life, I have experienced many endings.  With each cycle, I have changed, perhaps imperceptibly so, but I know that the person who began this odyssey into the unknown is not the same person who sits here in this cafe today.  How could I be?  I have seen and experienced too much.  I have opened myself up, I have given myself over to life, to the possibilities of something more, I have witnessed miracles, known people and cultures, suffered, cried, loved, and laughed.  Every thing and every person I have ever had contact with is some how now inside of me.  Maybe this is how we grow as people?  We internalise everything with which we come into contact and every emotion with which we experience.  We take a part of it all, a part of life and we bring that within.  At the same time, we are imparting something of ourselves to each person, to each experience.  Our soul is nourished and in turn nourishes those who we meet.  With each experience, we leave behind a trace of our soul, a signature that lasts an eternity, intrinsically linked to the time, to the place and to the participants.

Maybe what I am talking about today is the soul of life.  What if all of life shared a single soul?  One elemental force that linked every thing to every thing else.  People, animals, birds, fish, trees, shrubs, grasses, oceans, rivers, rocks, mountains, sand, clouds, rain, sun, moon, stars, air, Earth.  It's all of life in perfect balance, the soul is one, it is whole.  It leads me to something I have written before, "I am in everything and everything is in me."  I am in no doubt that when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), what he was referring to was that every single one of us has the power within us.  In the heart lies the truth.  In the heart lies the way.  In the heart lies the life.  It is in our hearts that the power to become all that we were born to be is to be found.

Well, as always, I begin to write, unsure of where I will go and something always comes.  The flow of the mind is often a surprise to me and that is why I love to sit in a cafe and write.  This will probably be my last post of 2013 and I look forward to continuing the journey in 2014.  I hope that you will stay with me as we each travel down our own unique path.  It all begins again on 1 January. A turning of the page. A new chapter to be written.  An ending and a beginning.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all.

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Pledge Of Allegiance To Life

This morning, I happened upon a Facebook post displaying the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.  The post was requesting citizens of the US to get behind the reciting of this pledge once more, as it has been fading out of use in the school system.  While I have absolutely no problem with the reciting of such a pledge to flag and country, and neither with the singing of national anthems for that matter, it did make me wonder whether perhaps it was now time that people dispensed with the notion of flag and country, and instead embraced a new kind of pledge: a pledge of allegiance to life. 

Let's face it, this planet on which we live has shrunk.  With the rise of commercial air travel and the dawning of the digital age, our world has gotten a whole lot smaller.  In fact, with space travel and the ability to understand the known universe, we now know that actually this planet of ours we call Earth, is just one incredibly, insignificant item in a vast cosmos, a cosmos that is littered with billions upon billions of other planets, stars, asteroids, comets and galaxies.  Take a moment and imagine a white sand beach stretching off into the distance, and then imagine a single, solitary grain of sand.  That one grain would be Earth, and all the other grains would represent all of the other objects in the universe.

But there is a very remarkable thing about this planet and it is one thing that sets it apart from every other known object in the universe - it supports life.  Our planet is a miracle.  As far as we know, it is unique.  Probability theorists would have us believe that the chances are high that other planets must exist that will also support life forms, but as yet, that is speculation and remains only a theory.  Earth is amazing, it is incredible.  Space travel has allowed humans to become the first animals to view their planet from afar.  And what a beautiful sight it is too.  Every aspect of this planet is extraordinary.  The mighty oceans; the lofty peaks of snow covered mountains; vast valleys and canyons; barren deserts and wastelands; jungles and forests; waterfalls and snaking rivers; frozen ice caps and glaciers; plains, prairies and steppes; lakes and fjords; seasonal changes, weather patterns, wind, rain, snow, hot blistering sun, clouds... It is incredible.  And I didn't even mention a single animal, fish or bird yet.  The sheer number of species of life form is staggering and scientists are still, even now, when we think we know so much, discovering new species and even in places that have no right to support life, like deep in the ocean, by volcanic thermal vents.  If I were to chose one single word to describe Earth it would be this: miracle.       

When you view the Earth from space, there are no visible borders between countries, no delineation lines that can be seen.  Country is a human invention, a term used to describe a group of people that occupy a certain parcel of land, governed by one single group.  The same is true for race and religion.  These are notions and concepts that exist only in the mind and as such, that thinking can be altered.  It is time to let go of these old ideas and it is time to embrace the new.  I propose a new view of life and I call it simply: One.

One planet

One life

One people

One heart

One soul

One spirit

One.

With this in mind, I believe that it is now time for a new kind of pledge, a pledge that unites all peoples of Earth, all nations.  It's a pledge to life:-

"I pledge allegiance to the Earth and to the universe in which it exists. To all of life, I make the promise to always protect and nurture you, to the best of my abilities, to see fairness and justice prevail. I will take responsibility for everything that I do, and bear all consequences with humility. I acknowledge and understand that everything is one life and one life only, interconnected, interwoven, and intrinsically linked, and as such, I will make good on my duty of care to all of life, until the ending of my days.  For all things are One."

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The Only Way To Discover True Happiness

The sound reverberates through the ocean. It's strong and powerful, like a bow pulled achingly slowly across the strings of a double bass, a deep, sonorous tone, that resonates through the water.  Powerful and strong, definitely, but there is something else too.  It's hauntingly beautiful, majestic, it feels almost sad, like the call of a broken heart reaching out across the vastness of space and time for its lost love.  But this is no broken hearted soul, this is the call of a humpback whale and I am lucky to find myself here, immersed under the ocean, bearing witness to this miracle of life.  Is it a question of luck, or is it perhaps something else that brought me to this moment of incredible beauty?

Some days I wonder.  No, let me say that again.  Every day I wonder, but there are some moments when I think to myself whether there is something special about me and what I have done with my life.  I really do not think so.  I am no braggart, in fact, I am nothing if not humble about everything that has happened to me.  My life has been mixed.  I've suffered some debilitating lows, perhaps too many, too often.  I am no different to most in that.  Each time I found myself in those situations, something has spoken to me, called me back from the bleakness, pulled my eyes around to see the small flicker of light, a flame that might wax and wain, but will never be truly extinguished.  It is my heart that called to me and it always spoke to me in these moments of despair, and when it did, it spoke to me of hope.

I clung to hope.  Sometimes desperately, as if I were cast adrift in the vast dizziness of open space, and this one small thing was all that kept me from falling into utter darkness.  There were times when I contemplated suicide, when I thought that perhaps it would be the easier option, the way out.  I felt in these moments that my life would never amount to anything, that I was desperately unlucky in life, destined to live a cold and lonely existence, full of sadness, full of regret for not being all that I could be, if only I had the chance.  The problem with depression, and for anyone who is unfortunate to have been there, is that you are swallowed by it, utterly and completely.  Hopelessness takes a firm hold and there seems to be nothing that you can do, even though there are answers and there are ways out of the abyss of darkness, back to the light once more.

What I failed to understand was that I was the key.  My happiness didn't depend on someone else, it depended on one person, and one person only: me.  I always looked to someone else to make me happy.  I thought that the path to my happiness was going to be found in love for another person, that this was what would make me finally fulfilled in my life.  I put all of my efforts into this one thing and in the process of doing so, I forgot about myself, my true self.  Each time I met someone, I wanted to please them, I wanted desperately to make the relationship work, and I would alter myself to fit to the other person.  I stopped being the real me and I become some other form of myself, an altered state that could only ever be temporary.  That could never work in the long term because at some point, my true self would begin to resurrect itself, to assert itself once more, to shake off the shackles in which I had bound it.  As I write this, I've just had this realistion: that I did exactly the same with everyone.  I altered myself to fit with the preconceived ideas I had about how I should act.  I did it with my parents, my brother and my sister, with friends, teachers, colleagues.  It was not until I moved overseas that I was able to find the real me and to have the confidence to let him come out.  That process began in Budapest and it continued through the years that followed, as I allowed my true self to emerge from its cocoon.  It is when I do the things I love, that I truly become myself, when I let my true soul fly free.  

The path to true happiness is simple.  Be yourself.  It sounds simple enough, but it is not.  I could not be my true self until I began to walk my path, my true path.  In the moment that I did, everything changed.  I chose to follow the voice of my heart, I listened to my inner voice, the voice that will only ever guide you true.  My luck changed, not because of anything that any one else did, not because the stars aligned above me, it changed simply because I opened myself up to the possibilities of life.  And the moment that I did that, life found me and enclosed me in all its wonder.

I am no different to anyone else, I do not see myself as special, nor do I possess a unique gift or talent.  What I have done, you can also achieve.  Everyone has this potential.  You too have this ability.  Do not be afraid to be your true self.  The person that you find will surprise and amaze you.  Listen to your heart.  Hear its message and its call and do not be afraid to follow it.  Wherever it takes you, it will change you forever and will give you the opportunity to discover true happiness.  Forget what others will tell you of the foolishness of your idea and plans, forget what the society tries to tell you is the right way to live a life.  There is only truly ever one way, and that is the way of your heart.  Go follow it.   

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Why Daring Is A Must And Why Routine Is The Silent Killer

Darkness.  My eyes tried in vain to penetrate its cloak, but all that I was able to discern were the vague shapes of the boats, that I knew were tethered to their mooring lines further out.  The quiet was interrupted only by the gentle swells that rolled in, becoming waves that broke upon the shore.  Into this darkness then, out into the deep water, did we venture.  What craziness was this, I wondered.  Crazy?  Perhaps it was, but it was something more than crazy to me, it was adventure and it was daring and it was something that I had wished to do for as long as I could remember.  Now, here I was, here we were, walking out into the depths of the black ink that was the ocean.  The cool water rose slowly up to my chest, I prepared to swim and I thrust my arm out, ready to take my first stroke.  In this moment, life decided to show us its magic and it presented us with a miracle.

Life is full of possibilities, it is full of opportunities, and it is full of miracles.  Every single moment, you are surrounded by them.  The first problem is perceiving them and it is not always easy.  Each of us becomes entrapped in the daily routines of our lives.  We do the same things, we perform the same tasks, and we do them at the same times.  Life begins to become a monotony.  Routine is the silent killer.  It stalks us, it sneaks up behind us and it ensnares us.  It is far too easy to be caught.  I know that myself all too well.

There are many moments in my life when I have a sudden realisation that I have become deeply entrenched in my routines.  Yes, some routines are necessary and helpful.  Take for example my own morning ritual.  I get up, I fire up the laptop (it needs a lot of time to run through its own routines), I put the coffee on brew, I wash my face, I do some push ups, some stomach crunches, I make my cereal with chopped banana and milk, and I pour out the coffee.  While I have been doing all of this, my laptop has become ready to use, so I sit down and catch up on the news, check my e-mails and Facebook happenings.  It's my twenty minutes of peace and quiet before I have to get myself ready and leave for work.  I need it to be able to function in the morning.  It's part of my wake up routine and because of it, I know that at certain times, I need to perform certain tasks and by doing so, I will be ready to leave for work just at the right time.  That all seems quite normal enough, so where is the danger in routine?

Let me use an example.  There are people who commute to London every day by train.  They end up standing in exactly the same spot on the platform and they sit in the same seat of the same carriage, with the same people, every day.  They have become so completely conditioned to their routine.  But that's good though, right?  These people get to hang out and talk with their acquaintances and friends, they know they'll have a seat and they know where that seat is going to be.  It all sounds so logical and it is, which is exactly the problem.

These people are missing out on the chance of making important and new discoveries.  No new opportunities will come their way, no new people will enter their lives, people who may bring with them an important message that could alter the course of their destiny.  These commuters have closed themselves off to chance and in so doing, they have closed themselves off to the opportunity to learn and to evolve.  Life begins to become dull and boring, always the same.  This is the danger with routine.  It prevents us from discovering the new because we seek comfort in all that is old, all that is comfortable, secure and known to us.  Routine blinkers our eyes, it deafens our ears, and it quietens the voice of our heart to all of life's opportunities and possibilities.

So, the first task in beginning to open yourself up to opportunities is to break some of your old routines and habits and to do things differently.  Be spontaneous.  Be a little crazy.  Say yes rather than saying no.  Take a different route to work. Sit in a different seat on the train or bus.  Leave ten minutes later or ten minutes earlier.  I recall a scene in the movie Dead Poets Society, where Mr Keating (Robin Williams) asks the boys to stand up on his desk and to view the world differently.  "You must open your eyes to possibility", he tells them.  This then is the trick.  You need to find your own desk and to look upon your world from another angle.

You also need to heed the voice of your heart and to be a little daring.  The moment that you do, life will reward you.  In order to achieve all that you wish for, it is necessary to step outside of your comfort zone.  Inside that zone, everything is known to you and it is safe.  You can spend the rest of your life in there and you might be content, but you will never have any chance of discovering what lies elsewhere, what incredible things could occur to you, if you were to just take a single step outside.  You will never discover your one true path from the safety of your comfort zone, you will never realise your dreams.  It can be scary, there is no denying it.  It can be a little overwhelming.  That too can happen.  But, it can also deliver to you the most rewarding experiences that will ever occur in your life.  In order to make discoveries we must be bold and we must be daring and we must follow the urges of our heart's.

There are times in my life when I chose to do exactly that.  The time I booked my plane tickets to New Zealand for my first solo vacation, taking that job in Budapest, giving up my career with IBM, booking those tickets to Bangkok, enrolling in university in New Zealand, going to Honduras and becoming a dive instructor.  Each time I have dared, I have been rewarded more richly than I could ever possibly have imagined.  Even in the times when things did not quite go the way I had thought or had planned, I was still rewarded with new experiences, new people and I learned.  Everything that I experienced was necessary.  It has helped me evolve my spirit.  This is how life works.  This is how we discover our true selves.  Each of us is far more capable than we can possibly imagine.

This is exactly what happened the other night.  I had an urge in my heart, I wanted to go night swimming but for some reason, I always knew that it had to happen in a certain way.  When that opportunity presented itself, when I heard the words that asked me if I wanted to take a swim, I could not deny the voice of my heart.  I knew it was this moment, I knew that it had to be right there and then.  I could have said no, it was too late, that I wanted to stay dry, that I wanted to get home, but I did not.  Instead, I dared.  And in the moment of my daring, I opened up myself to the possibilities of life.  There I was, in the water, at the moment in which I thrust my arm forward.  As my finger tips separated water from water, something extraordinary happened, the water exploded with a shimmering light that surrounded my hand and my arm.  I was stunned, amazed.  I did it again and the same thing happened.  Then I lifted my arm out of the water and hundreds of tiny drops of light fell from me, slowly cascading down to fall back into the black of the water and disappear.  Truly this was one of the most incredibly beautiful spectacles I have ever seen.  There in that moment, the two of us shared together a moment of pure magic.  It was a moment when life chose to reveal one of its miracles to us, as if it had been waiting there all of this time, for the right moment, for the moment when we dared.  And by daring we discovered one of life's miracles, we found an ocean of bioluminescence. 

Those same miracles await you too.  They are out there, all you have to do is to believe, to dare, to switch up your routines and to let yourself open up to the possibilities and opportunities of life.  Once you begin to see the miracles, you will never stop.  Once you hear the voice of your heart and heed its message, you can never go back.  Opportunities will come to you. Miracles will occur.  And with them, so too will you come to see and to know the one simple thing that connects every single thing in the universe: love.

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Spiritual Evolution: The Reason Why We Are Here

This afternoon, I fell into a discussion with one of my students about life, or to be more correct, death.  This is not as morbid as you might at first think, since I'm teaching a Rescue Diver course, and we had been talking about life saving and the effectiveness of providing rescue breathing and chest compressions (CPR).  This conversation took on a whole new meaning, when out of the blue, my student told me something that left me dumbstruck and momentarily speechless.

As we were discussing the steps in responding to a non-breathing diver and how, through the use of rescue breaths and CPR, maintaining the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain is absolutely critical, Charlie told me that he was particularly interested in this point, since he had arrived home one day and walked into his brother's bedroom, where he had discovered him laying dead on the floor.  He was not even twenty years old and his brother had taken his own life. 

Charlie told me that his brother had been good looking, that they came from a middle class upbringing, that they needed for nothing, that he was popular and well liked at school, that he dated many girls.  Essentially, that there was no known reason at all for him to have ended his own life so early and so abruptly.  Charlie surmised that his brother had figured out that there was no point to continuing, since he already had everything, there was nothing left for him.  What goes on in the mind of someone who takes their own life, particularly in these circumstances, is not for me to say.  Each of us has our own demons, it is just that for most of us, those demons remain under control and in check.  I know that for myself only too well.  I told Charlie about a good friend of mine who had died unexpectedly and suddenly a few years ago, and we got to talking about life and death, and the reason why we are here.  I have a theory.  I call it Spiritual Evolution.

Spiritual Evolution.  Let me try to explain what I mean by this term.  Spiritual Evolution is the process of developing the soul.  We each develop our own soul through having experiences, meeting people, going places, attaining knowledge, and feeling emotions.  In fact, everything that we do offers us the chance to grow our soul, to move it forward.  As we do this, so too do we evolve our soul's into something more than they were before.  It is growth, advancement, and change.  I see spiritual evolution as our mission in this life.

Everyone has a voice inside of them - the voice of their heart.  That voice tells you constantly what you should do, what is the right thing for you.  Some of us ignore it and some of us heed it.  I believe that by following that voice, we follow our one true path and by walking that path, we walk in the light.  It is on our true path, basking in our own light, that we truly evolve our soul, giving it the best possible chance to attain its goal, its mission.  Our one true path is our spiritual quest, our mission for this life.

How many times have you stopped suddenly, aware that the situation in which you find yourself has happened before?  This occurs often in life and it is my belief that each time that it does, it is because there is a lesson of fundamental importance and consequence to our spiritual journey, that we need to learn and to assimilate.  If we fail to take the correct course of action, the situation will inevitably come around again and again, until such a time that we make the right choice or take the action that is necessary.  The situation may occur in a different place, with different people, but it will be the same lesson that is being shown to us.  When we make the right choices then we have learned the lesson and we are able to move on.  The learning of the lesson evolves our soul and this situation will no longer repeat itself in the same way again.  Déjà vu works in the same way, only déjà vu is our remembrance of the same situation but not in this particular physical manifestation of ourselves, but in a previous incarnation of our physical aspect on this planet - in another life.

Let's put this all together.  The soul is trying to attain its ultimate state, to reach the point of nirvana - the point at which the release of the soul from the physical body in which it exists occurs.  To do that, the soul must evolve.  As we journey through life, the soul is learning, changing and evolving.  When it reaches a certain point of the evolutionary process, there is no more that it can achieve in this life.  At that point, it is necessary for the soul to be released from the physical body in which it resides and if it has not yet reached its ultimate objective, then it is reborn into a different physical body and the process of evolution continues.  On and on.  Time and again.  Until the evolution is complete.

I came up with this theory because I wanted to explain to myself why it is that some people die early. You see, when my friend died, I did not understand how someone who enjoyed life as fully as he had, was taken away.  It seemed to me that it was too soon.  But perhaps it wasn't.  What if his soul had reached its goal for this particular life?  Now it was free to leave and so it found a way of breaking out of the physical body.  I don't know if the soul of my friend exists again on this planet in a different physical form, or whether he has left and moved on to a different realm, I'll probably never know that.  It does not matter though, since when I look back at his life, I see someone who clearly sucked out all the marrow, and then sucked out some more.

An acquaintance of mine, who worked as a nurse in a hospital for the mentally ill, once told me that she did not believe in fate because she was unable to explain why some innocent people needed to suffer at the hands of tormentors and abusers.  "How could that be their fate?" she had asked me.  Well, perhaps Spiritual Evolution helps to explain this.  Even though in this life, they suffered, in the greater scheme of evolution of the soul, perhaps that was a necessary suffering, so that they could assimilate a lesson.  We only see a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle, one single thread in the great tapestry that is life.  How can we truly know what is going on, what is the whole picture in which we are just one tiny, miniscule part?  We cannot.

Let me clarify one more thing, because I know the question is burning away in the back of your mind.  You're thinking to yourself that surely, with the rapid growth in the population of humans on this planet, there cannot be enough souls to populate all of the new bodies that have been born? Right?  Well, here is what I think.  Spiritual Evolution occurs throughout all of life that exists on this planet.  Every living thing has a soul of some kind.  Some are simple, others are very complex.  Each is at a different state in its evolution.  I also believe that all life on this planet must be in equilibrium, meaning that the sum of all life, must always equate to the same answer.  More humans, means less life forms of other types.  Therefore, the number of souls in existence is also balanced by the number of living bodies.  More simply put: all things are one.

So, perhaps Charlie's brother had accomplished all that was needed in that particular incarnation of his physical being, and it was just his time to depart and move on.  In choosing the manner in which he did, it is entirely possible that he passed on a message to Charlie.  Perhaps this event was needed to alter the destiny of Charlie, to steer him towards where he needed to go for his own spiritual evolution?  Without that event in the life of Charlie, maybe he would not have been sitting with me in Costa Rica, learning to become a Rescue Diver and going beyond to become a dive instructor.  No one really knows.  All I know is that I believe in my theory of Spiritual Evolution and I'm sticking to it.

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Why The Moaning Has To Stop

This morning, I had to catch myself, to stop myself from complaining and moaning about my job.  It is all too easy to moan, being British, it seems to be something that we do rather well.  It is almost as if it is part of the culture.  We moan about the weather, the buses running late, the queues at the post office, the state of the country.  In fact, the British will pretty much moan about anything and everything, there is no subject that is off limits.  But I am not here to bemoan the British way of life, I am here to focus on my own life and how I feel about it, when I catch myself moaning.

Moaning.  To moan, is to utter a constant barrage of complaints, lamenting a given situation.  In my first job, I would walk around the office and either be a party to, or overhear conversations where my fellow workers would complain about the pay, the conditions, their manager, the direction the company was heading in, their lack of responsibility, their workload, the car parking in the employee car park - basically everything.  Two things are clear in my mind from back then.  First and perhaps because of the situation from which I had escaped, I was happy and proud to be working in those offices, doing what I was doing.  For sure the pay was not great, but the situation was a whole lot better than standing on a production line, inserting plastic gutters into the back of a refrigerator and securing them with two small plastic rivets, one thousand four hundred times per day.  I fully appreciated where I was, and knew, even at the age of seventeen, that life could be a whole lot worse, because it had been.

Secondly, when I heard these conversations, a question arose in my mind.  I wondered why, if things were so bad and clearly that person was extremely unhappy working there, why they just did not leave and work somewhere else?  I did not understand why anyone would accept the situation that they were in. This is for me, a very significant time in my life.  It is obvious to me, that even back then, I knew that I would never stay in a situation that made me unhappy.  I just did not see the point in doing so.  I thought back then, as I still do today, that if something makes you unhappy, you have two clear choices, you either change the situation, or you accept it.

That is basically how I live my life.  All the while that I am happy, I stay where I am, doing what I do, being with who I am with.  The moment that I become unhappy, then I act, and I make a change.  I have never seen the need to maintain a situation that is negative passed a certain point.  There comes a time when my heart says "No more" and when I can no longer feel my heart in something, then I know that it is time to move on, to go somewhere new, to let a person go their own way, or to try something new.

My life history is filled with such decisions.  I had to drop all of my so-called friends because I could take no more of their ridicule and bullying.  I changed jobs because I no longer felt in tune with the company for which I was working.  I changed my home because I felt the need to be some place else.  I let friendships go because those people were no longer my kind of people, or no longer thought the way that I did.  I changed myself because I was not happy with the way I looked.  I finished relationships because I could no longer feel my heart in them.  I did not spend time complaining about my situations, I did not waste my energy moaning about them.  I simply stood up one day and said "Enough.  Today is the day that I make the change."  From that moment on, I was committed to moving on, to changing my life, to eradicating the situation that was making me unhappy.

Life is short and we only get one go on the merry-go-round.  Why would you want to keep negative situations in your life, situations that make you unhappy?  What purpose do they serve you?  It is my belief that people who moan and complain like to do so.  It is as if they have something to prove, that they are able to keep going in the face of adversity.  I think these people are cowards and live their lives out of fear.  You may disagree and think to yourself that some people are unable to change their situation, that they are trapped in a certain situation.  With some very minor exceptions involving imprisonment and slavery, I do not believe that to be true.  What is true of humanity, is that we each are capable of change.  We are each able to alter our situation.  Yes, some situations are more difficult to change than others, but they can all be changed - if you are willing.  People who moan are generally speaking not willing to change their lives.  Moaners and complainers are people who have given up on their dreams.  They are people who believe that they are undeserving of their dreams and of happiness, they are people who feel resentment and bitterness.   

Moaning is an expression of negativity.  Change is an expression of positivity.  What I realised this morning, as I was eating my breakfast cereal and enjoying my first coffee of the day, was that I was in danger of falling into the trap of moaning about my life and doing nothing about it.  I am not that person.  I never have been, and I never will be.  I empower myself to act.  I empower myself to change.  And I allow myself to be happy.  I cast aside unhappiness and situations that do not work for me, and I seek out those that do.  Those that bring me joy, a smile to my face, and a warm glow in my heart.  For me, this is the way of the one true path.  This is how I will continue to walk in the light.

Today, I decided not to moan about my life.  I decided that if I continue to be here, doing what I do, working where I work, then I am going to shut up about those things that make me unhappy.  If they were really such a big problem, I would change my place of work, I would move on again.  In exchange for not moaning, life showed me exactly why I do what I do, where I do it.  This morning, on my two dives, I was rewarded with sharks, rays and a huge array of life under the ocean.  Later in the afternoon, I swam the short distance from the beach to our dive boat and I jumped off the top deck.  As I did, I let out a loud "Whoo-hoo!" and let the child inside of me escape, I gave the child his wings to fly free.  Life is not so bad.  I have no reason to moan.  I have no reason to complain.  I am where I want to be, doing what I love to do.  Life has been kind, but the moment it is not, you will never hear me moaning about it.  You will never hear me complaining.  That is a promise I make to myself and to my heart.

_________________________

When We Encounter Setbacks On The Path

There will come certain days, when you suffer a disappointment or a setback. Everything feels like it has gone wrong, that no matter how hard you struggle to do the right things, nothing you try works out in the way that you had planned.  It is possible to feel the clouds swirling around inside your head, clogging your thoughts, denying you the sunshine and the light.  It becomes difficult to stir yourself to action.  Your limbs feel heavy and weary, and seem to resist your every movement.  You ask yourself, "What is the point in all of this?", "Why do I try so hard and only seem to suffer as a consequence of my actions?", "Why is life unfair to me?", "Why do I work so hard and not get anywhere?"  The urge to give up comes upon you like the rushing storm waters from the broken levee.  It is easier to succumb, to give up, than it is to continue the fight.  Everything tells you to quit, to give in, and to give up the fight.

The journey on the one true path is like this.  Never be fooled into thinking that the discovery of your one true path means that the fight is over, that now come the easy days of glory and reward.  No.  The discovery of your one true path means that the true fight is only just beginning.  You fought before.  You may have had just cause and held strong beliefs and convictions in what you fought for.  On the one true path you will understand what it means to fight the true fight.  To fight for the very thing that grants you the ultimate gift in life.  You fight for your heart and you fight with your heart, since your heart is both your companion and your weapon.  And together you fight for your dreams, and you fight for the true cause: to keep walking your one true path.

Not every day can be filled with joy and happiness.  That is impossible.  Life teaches us that there is the need for balance and the need for harmony in everything, and that includes our own journey.  Birth is balanced by death.  Growth is balanced by decay.  Summer is balanced by winter.  Light is balanced by dark.  Everyone suffers disappointments and setbacks.  That is how it is, how it is always going to be.  But when you walk your one true path, those setbacks will not deter you from walking on.  On the true path, nothing can throw you off, nothing can defeat you.  If you are truly on the path that is right for you, then you will understand that moments and days will come when you need to pause on the journey, and you need to take some time for reflection and meditation.

Everyone, every single one of us, no matter our circumstances, will suffer a disappointment or a defeat at some point in time.  I know beyond all doubt that I am now walking my one true path, but there are days when I too feel disappointment, when I suffer a setback, and when I question what I am doing.  It is too easy to look upon others and think that they have it easy, that good luck and fortunate falls their way, since they never show disappointment nor sadness in life.  Do not be fooled though.  These are the people who perhaps suffer more than any one else.  These are often the people who hide their true feelings in order to spare others their pain, anguish and problems.  These people suffer quietly, privately and alone.  I am like this.  I try hard to avoid giving my problems to others, I suffer in my own silence and suffer I do.  I show only the positive side of myself to the world and I hide my pain.  I work through my feelings, I come to terms with them, and I move on again.

It is not the setback, pain, despair, nor the disappointment that defines where we are, nor who we are.  It is how we deal with them that determines everything that is to come.  Every disappointment that we encounter is an opportunity to learn and to better understand ourselves, and by doing so, to evolve the spirit.  When we feel joy and elation, we do not feel any need to self-analyse.  We readily accept the good times as they are, we welcome them, and we bask in their glow.  When the bad times arrive, and they inevitably will, then we have a choice to make.  The easy option is often to give in and retreat, turning a disappointment into a loss, perhaps even turning away from the chosen path.  Alternatively, you can accept what has happened, analyse it, understand it, and to learn from it.  When we choose this course of action, then we parry the blade of defeat and we deflect its blow.  We are not victorious, but we remain undefeated, and more able to continue the journey at a later date.

If you give in and retreat, then you have surely lost the battle.  If you decide to take the easy way and to lose in this manner, then you learn nothing from the experience.  You deny yourself the chance to learn and from that learning, the chance to act differently, should the same, or similar, situation occur again in the future.  And what life shows us, is that the same situation will come around again, until you are able to deal with it in the right way.  If you feel a strong conviction in your heart, then never be put off, never be thrown off the path on which you walk.  If the path that you walk is not your true path, then a defeat, even a small defeat, will easily deter you.

By learning from this disappointment, it is possible to take a negative situation and to turn it into something positive.  To progress in life, it is imperative that we each learn from our mistakes and from our setbacks.  A setback should be seen as an opportunity to learn, to better understand, and in understanding, to prevent the same thing from happening again, or at least, if it does, to handle it differently.  Perhaps you'll ask yourself the following questions:-

- What went wrong?
- Was it something that I did that caused it?
- Could I have acted differently?
- Can I change what has happened and make a different outcome?  (If yes, then go and do it!)
- Were my expectations too high?
- What will I do the next time I encounter a similar situation? (Because you surely will.)

Those that walk their one true path know that setbacks are just a necessary part of the journey.  They see them not as problems, not as barriers to success, nor as reasons to give up, but as opportunities to learn, to evolve, and to grow the spirit.  That is what our journey through life is all about.  And one day, you will reach your destination, fulfil your dream, and live out the life that is your true purpose and calling.  On the true path, your one true path, no amount of setbacks can prevent you from reaching the light and from reaching the love.

_________________________

 

What Is Written Is True

It has been a little while since I have posted on my blog site. It is not because I have been lazy or lost interest, far from it!  My efforts have been diverted towards finalising my poetry collection for self-publication, a task that is now very much near completion.  Working on my poetry has been an insightful experience.  I've learned new things about myself and rediscovered some that I had forgotten.

I've written in a previous blog about how I write from my heart.  This means that whatever I write contains a part of me nestled between each of the letters, a small part of me hiding in the blank spaces between words.  I invest myself into my work.  That has always been my way.  It is completely unavoidable for me.  Working with my collection of poems meant that it was necessary to re-read and review all of my work.  My poems date back to my time in Budapest in 2003, since this is the time when I first began to write in earnest and to keep my writing, rather than discard it as nonsense.  I started to write as part of the process to unlock my creative side, something that I had always thought did not exist.  It seems that I was wrong about that.  This was also the time when I began to understand the path that was set before me.  I was not actually walking my true path at the time, but I was beginning to comprehend that the life I was leading was counter to the one that my heart desired.  This was the time when my eyes were being opened to life.

So, I began to write poetry as part of the creative journey and not because it was ever my intention.  Poems flowed from me and I felt compelled to write down whatever words formed in my head.  The collection that I have put together spans ten years of my life, from the early days of discovering my creative talent, through the discovery of my true path, and along the journey that has led me to here and to now.  Throughout that time, I have been discovering the truth about myself.  I was able to categorise the poems into four clear topics: love, loss, life, the path.  These poems read like the story of my life and through them, I release my emotions.  What became evident when I went back and read my poems again, was that many themes recur throughout my writing.  Broadly speaking, these recurring themes fall into these topics:

 - The search for love
 - Feelings of self-loathing
 - Self-image
 - Feeling undeserving of love
 - The path
 - Oneness

My realisation has been that, by revisiting my poetry, the truth, the truth of my life, has issued forth on to the page.  I know without a shadow of a doubt the rightness of this.  When I lose myself in the process of writing, in the art of creation, I create an incredibly strong and deep connection with my heart.  In these poems that I have written, you will find my heart.  What is written, is true.  It is undeniable.

There is one thing that connects all of the themes in my poetry.  It is the same thing that drives us ever on.  Whether you know it or not, whether you are conscious of it or not, does not matter, it will exist any way.  From the moment we are born into this world, until the moment the flames of our souls are extinguished and we take a step on to a new path, it is the one thing for which we all seek.  That one thing is love.  Love is truly at the heart of everything.  To discover it, you need only look inside of yourself.  For you are love.  Do not seek love elsewhere until you have found in first from within. Once you know this, once you accept that you are love, your life will change forever.  When you understand that you are love, then you will know that you are walking your one true path.  And from that moment on, all things will be one.

_________________________

The Teachings of the One True Path

The Teachings of the One True Path

The teacher was seated on a small wooden bench on the grass, in the shade of an old yew tree that had seen the summers of one hundred years.  The students would never have guessed it, but the yew tree had seen almost as many summers as the teacher that sat before them.  In front of the teacher, sitting in silence waiting, were the students.  "Are there any questions you would like to ask?"

All of the students remained silent until one had the courage to raise their hand.  The teacher inclined his head and smiled for the student to continue.  "Why is it that you always appear to be so happy, even when so many things are wrong in this world?"

"Because the light will always shine on those that find the courage to walk their one true path", replied the teacher, remembering that it had not always been this way and that there was always a price to be paid for the happiness.

"What is the one true path?", asked another student, who was now feeling emboldened because the silence had been broken. 

"The one true path is the path of love.  It is the walking of your one true path where you will discover the ultimate gift, which is the love of self.  Through walking your one true path you will find your purpose in life and through that purpose you will enjoy a deep sense of inner peace and happiness in your soul." 

"Can there be more than one path?", asked the same student.

"Yes.  There are many paths that you can walk in life and each of them can teach us the lessons of life.  But there can only be one true path for each of us.  That is the path that gives our lives their true meaning.  That is the path that has been placed in front of you by God.  By walking your one true path, not only are you fulfilling your own destiny, you are fulfilling the work of God."

"Will we learn more of life's lessons on the one true path because that is the path God intended for us?"  All of the students now wanted to ask questions and become involved in the discussion.  Just as in life, it only takes one drop of water to breach the dam and the rest will soon follow.

"No. The lessons of life can be equally learned along any of the paths that you walk.  Often, it is the wrong path that teaches us more and the wrong path can often reveal to us our true purpose and our right direction.  Every path has value and it is for the walker of that path to understand the lesson that is being taught.  Only when that lesson is understood can the walker move on towards their true path."

"What if I don't understand the lesson that is being shown to me?", asked another different voice.

"If you fail to understand a lesson that you must learn in order to progress and evolve, then the universe will create the opportunity to teach it to you again and again, until finally you comprehend its meaning.  You could find yourself continuing to walk the path that you are on until that lesson is learned, or you might find that the same lesson is repeated on a different path.  When this happens, the lesson could wear a different guise, so that at first you do not recognise it when it appears, but the lesson will always carry with it the same meaning.  For some people, all of the lessons that they need to learn in life appear to them on their one true path.  Remember always, that the journey is different for every person." 

"How do you know if you are walking your one true path?", one of the students asked.

"How do you know that you have to breath?", asked the teacher in return.

"I - I just know it.", the student replied.  "I feel it and I do it without even thinking about it."

"Exactly.  And so it is with the one true path.  If you have to ask yourself the question, is this my one true path? then you cannot be walking your true path.  When you are on your right path, you will know it.  You will feel it from a place that is deep within you.  A place that you never knew existed before.  Love and happiness will permeate throughout your body, your soul and your mind, and it will flow outwards from you and it will pervade everything that you do."

"How do I find my one true path?"

"That is simple, you follow your heart.  I, like many others, hold the belief that the power of the universe resides within each of us in the form of our hearts.  That power can be called many things.  Whether you decide to name that power God or Allah, or any other name, it is one and the same thing.  The power of the universe is the force that creates.  It is the Creator.  Therefore, if you are following your heart, you are also doing that which the universe intended for you.  Your heart will always lead you in the right direction, even if you are not conscious of what it is doing.  Your heart will seek out that which you need and it will bring it to you.  Only you can decide whether or not you wish to see it, to see the opportunity that has been placed before you, and to accept the love that is being offered to you."

"If God is in our hearts, does that mean that he is not in Heaven and that there is no such thing as Heaven?", the student seemed concerned about this.

"No.  I believe that Heaven and Hell exist as concepts.  Imagine leading a life where you are never at peace with yourself, where you feel a sadness inside, you feel unfilled and empty, you yearn to do something different but you cannot, you feel fear, you feel resentment towards others that have achieved their dreams in life, you do not experience the power of love, and you harbour regrets about the things that you have not done.  That for me would be a living hell.  Now imagine the opposite.  You feel happy and content with life, you do not live with fear, you view each day as an opportunity, you carry no regrets, you feel a happiness that permeates throughout your body and soul, you express love because you feel love from the inside of your core, and you see the good in every one and every thing.  That would encapsulate the spirit and meaning of Heaven."

"Where do I begin to find my one true path?"

"You take a moment and steel yourself.  You take a deep breath.  You find the courage in you heart.  And you take the first step into the dark abyss of the unknown that awaits you."

"But what if I don't know in which direction to walk?"

"Imagine that you are walking in a large forest and that you have become lost.  How would you find your way home?  You would try each path in turn until you discovered the one that was right, until you found the one that led you back home.  It is the same with the one true path.  To seek, is to try.  To try, is to walk.  And to walk, is everything.  All that matters is that you take the first step and then another.  You must begin to walk.  If you do not walk, then there you have no chance to discover the direction that is the right one for you.  By walking, you will eventually find the one true path, even if you have to walk several paths before you find it.  Each of those paths will teach you something and prepare you for all that is to come."

"Why are some people more fortunate than others and seem to find their path easily?"

"How do you know that these people are more fortunate than any other person?  That is only the way in which you might perceive them because now that they walk their one true path, they always appear to be happy to you.  You do not know the battles that they have faced to get to where they are.  You do not know the battles that still lay in wait for them along their path.  You do not know of the struggles that they have needed to overcome and the nights when utter despair and torment took them.  Never judge one person against another.  Remember that each of our path's is different and that sometimes the greatest stories of heroism in life remain forever untold."

"What if I keep trying different paths and I never find the one that is right for me?"

"Then you are not walking with your eyes open to the simple and plain truth.  The universe is always attempting to reveal to each of us our one true path.  It will manifest it before you on many occasions until you acknowledge it and until you begin to walk along it.  And the universe will continue to do this until that moment when you draw your last and final breath.  If you are not finding the path that is the right one for you, then it is simply because you look but you do not see.  It might be that you believe yourself to be undeserving of the one true path, because that is the path of light."

"You have talked about the path of light and you said that the light will always shine on those that walk their one true path.  What do you mean by the light?"

"The light is the glow of love that basks us in all of its glory, when we discover our true purpose in life and when we walk the one true path.  The love that we feel is generated at the centre of the universe and is freely available to all those who wish to receive it.  Not every person understands that love is not conditional on another person and that love is readily available, if they would just reach out their hand and take it."

"Why is that?  If this love is freely available to all people, then why wouldn't they wish to receive it?"

"Simply because they believe that they are undeserving of receiving such a love."

"What makes us think that we are undeserving of receiving love?"

"There are many factors that influence us, but in most cases, it is because of the way we were raised as children or because of some traumatic episode that occurred when we were young.  As children, we are very impressionable, so if our parents do not give to us the amount of love and attention that we need, our minds are impregnated with the thought that we must be undeserving of their love.  We plant the seed of that thought at the very core of our being.  Each time something happens to us that reinforces the belief that we are undeserving of love, we water the seed and it begins to grow.  Eventually, it eclipses our true soul and it becomes the way in which we think of ourselves.  From the point that this happens, we will always believe that we are undeserving of love."

"Then why don't all parents love their children in the way that they need?  Then every person would feel that they deserved love."

"Let me ask you this in return, how do you know how much love another soul requires to quench its thirst?"

The student looked abashed and stared at the ground for a few moments, then answered, "I would give as much love to my child as I was able to give."

"Quite right, and that is all that you can do."  The teacher smiled at the student to give reassurance.  After all, what good is a student who stops listening because he believes that he has made a mistake and feels embarrassed in front of his peers?  In life, there are no stupid questions, since without the questions we can never learn and we can never evolve.  "Many parents give as much love as they are able, but through the demands of modern life, the amount of time they are able to give is not enough for the child.  It is not their fault.  That faults lies with society and the way we are being conditioned to live.  There are some parents that fall into the trap of thinking that if they provide a comfortable home and fill it with rich material possessions, and give to their child every thing that it demands, that they are creating a loving and nurturing environment.  This is not true.  If it were, then all children born into poor homes would be loveless, which is certainly not the case.  So, these parents work long hours and prioritise work and careers over time spent with their children, in their misguided beliefs and they fail to understand until it is too late, that time with your child cannot be purchased at any price because that is the most precious thing of all.  And it is time spent with your child that provides the child with everything that it needs.  Because all a child really needs is to feel loved.

Silence fell over the garden.  Only the gentle hum of the bees and the songs of summer birds in the trees interrupted the quiet.  It felt like perhaps the class was over, until one of the students, raised their hand and asked, "Why is there so much evil in the world?"

"What is evil?  Evil is a word created to describe something that goes against the morals that you believe in.  Let me tell you a short story.  There was once a small uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean.  This island was equally as close to two different nations and each of those nations made a claim to the island.  The politicians of each nation talked and negotiated with each other but they were never able to reach an agreement.  Eventually, each of the nations declared war on the other.  The politicians of each side told the people of their nation that the people of the other nation they were now at war against, were all perpetrators of evil.  All of the soldiers who fought in this war firmly believed that they had the just and the right cause and many of them died for that cause.  Prayers were offered by each nation to the same god, appealing for the god to help them, to protect them and to help them win, since it was they who fought for the just cause.  Each side captured some of the other side's soldiers and when they met them and spoke with them, they discovered that they were in fact no different from themselves.  They too had exactly the same needs and wants in life, and they too had been told that the other nation was a nation of evil.  In the end, the politicians agreed to share the island, something that had been discussed before the war started and had been rejected, since neither side wished to look weak and lose face to the other.  So you see, to decide what is evil in this world, it really depends on your own personal point of view and in those things in which you believe.  The only real evil in the story was that of the politicians because through their reluctance to reach an agreement and to negotiate a peaceful solution in the beginning, they showed a total disregard for the price of a human life and they cost the lives of many innocent people.  And what is the price you can put on the miracle of life?"

"But there is so much bad that happens in the world.  If there is a supreme power, why does it allow so many bad things to continue to happen?"

"Every person has his or her own path to walk in life.  You can regard those paths as threads in the weave of all of the universe and all of life.  If you look at a tapestry that hangs on the wall, what do you see?  You see many different threads all interweaving to create one single, coherent picture.  To create the picture, each thread must have a different colour, each thread is but one part of the entire story.  And so it is with life.  All of the paths that are walked interweave to create everything that we see around us.  Every person walks a different path.  Every person needs to learn in order to evolve their spirit.  Some of the lessons of life are learned by the need to do good and some of those lessons are learned by the need to do bad.  In order for us to perceive the good, we need to have a notion of what is bad.  Therefore, good and bad must be created in equal measure.  The balance must always be maintained.  In this universe there is matter and anti-matter, and just as the Chinese have their ying and the yang, so there is the good and there is the bad."

"So you are saying that there will always be people who must do bad things?"

"Yes.  Gradually, the collective spirit of humanity will evolve.  What you think of as bad now will no longer be true.  History has shown us that slowly we are evolving as a race.  Many of the things that we might have considered at one time to be bad have been slowly eradicated.  For example, slavery, racism and sexism.  Societies are working towards equality and freedom for all.  And slowly all of society evolves and moves forward towards the good.  But the target is always moving and it is always changing, since societies are constantly redefining it.  What was once accepted as normal is now abhorred.  Without the need to regard something as bad, it could not have been eradicated.  Humanity would cease to evolve its spiritual collective. And that is why there will always be bad things that happen in this world, because humanity must continue along its path of spiritual evolution, spiritual growth and learning."

"But humanity is destroying so much life and the planet in the process.  Why is that allowed to happen?"

"There is a lesson that must being learned by all of humanity.  Humanity needs to understand that is does not hold dominion over life or over this planet.  It is life that holds dominion over everything.  The lesson might unfortunately be learned at a very high cost, but it will be learned by the last of us.  In the very moment when all is lost, enlightenment will be found and the lesson will be understood.  It might be too late for humanity, but life will continue because life cannot be denied.  It has always been this way and it will continue to be this way, until everything has reached its point of ultimate evolution."    

"Does everything evolve?"

"Yes.  Every single thing in the universe follows its own path.  The air that you are breathing.  The blade of grass in this lawn.  The bird in the tree.  The fish in the ocean.   The pebble at the beach.  The moon and the sun.  Each of you.  Me.  In fact, the entire universe is in a constant state of evolution.  All things came from the one thing only.  And so, all things are seeking to return to that one thing.  That is their destiny.  That is where the paths on which they walk will lead them."

"What is the one thing?", many different voices asked, as all of the students were eager to know this.

"The one thing is love."

The teacher stood and the students knew without asking that the discussion was ended.  Each walked away in silence, lost in their own thoughts, contemplating all that had been said.   There was much to consider.

_________________________

Why You Must Never Lose Sight Of Your One True Path

Why You Must Never Lose Sight of the One True Path

One thing that I have never been afraid to do, is to admit to my mistakes.  Only by admitting to the errors and missteps that we make in life, can we ever hope to learn from them and to lay them to rest.  Last year, I made a mistake.  To be honest, last year I made more than one mistake, after all I am human, so I am prone to making them.  Life would be rather dull without the odd mistake every now and again.  So, what was the mistake that I made?  It was this:-

I stepped away from my own one true path, so that I could follow my heart in the pursuit of love for another person.

The pursuit of love.  Isn't that the most glorious and noble pursuit of all?  I think so.  I've always thought so and I don't think I will ever change that opinion.  Call me romantic.  I've always believed in the power of love and I always will.  Love is in everything.  Love created the universe.  Love created life.  Love is at the very centre of all things.  So, what then was the problem with going in pursuit of love of another person and why was that a mistake?  Last year I discovered the answers and I learned some very valuable lessons in life in the process.

I fell in love with a girl that I'll call Beatrix.  Beatrix lived far way in another country and literally, in another time.  We maintained our relationship in the virtual world of e-mail and Facebook, as well as using Skype to talk with, and to see each other, almost every evening.  I think we both knew that in order to maintain the relationship over the long term, it was necessary for one of us to move and go to the other.  My lifestyle is transient.  My situation and the nature of my work allows me to travel.  Moving from place to place is in my blood.  It's what I do.  Moving has never been an issue for me.  I do it a lot.  I've always been moving from place to place all of my life, even from an early age.  Back then it was because of my parents and probably some part of the moving home and the constant changes in life that they gave to their kids, has stayed with me.  My mother always claimed that she had the Romany spirit and perhaps I inherited that from her.  The romantic in me would certainly like to believe that this is true.  Living in a new country equally is no problem for me.  I've had the fortune to have done that a few times and I've lived overseas now for ten out of the last eleven years and it is something that I enjoy.  Through living overseas, I've come to understand one simple fact: that all people on this planet have exactly the same needs and wants in life, regardless of race, colour, religious beliefs, or sociopolitical system.  Or to put it rather more simply: we are one.  So moving abroad, which is a strange term to apply here, since I already lived overseas, was not an issue for me.  It was easy to swap one country for another, since I no longer hold a particularly firm attachment to any country.  It was not the change of country that created my problem.

As soon as I first arrived in my new home, I found myself immediately caught up in the life of Beatrix.  There seemed to be an endless list of tasks that needed to be completed around her apartment.  That was not a problem for me as I like helping people, I enjoy feeling useful, and I had a lot of free time on my hands.  So, I got stuck in and found myself busy with chores of all kinds.  This set the pattern for what was to follow for the next five months.  Part way through my stay and I am unable to recall now how it came to pass, Beatrix decided that she would like to repaint her apartment and I volunteered my services.  I undertook a redecorating project of the entire apartment, carrying out minor repair work, preparing all of the walls and ceilings for painting, and then painting all of those walls and ceilings.  My time was no longer my own and I worked hard during the day because I not only wanted to help Beatrix, I also wanted to make her happy.

During the course of the summer, I was to discover that situations would arise that would require me to give my time and attention to Beatrix.  There always seemed to be something that was going wrong or there was some new crisis that needed to be resolved.  I continually helped her as best as I was able, giving my time, giving my knowledge and experience, in fact, giving everything that I could possibly give, in order to make her life better and to help her fix whatever was wrong at the time.

Between my chores, the painting project and devoting my time to the other problems that seemed to occur, my days were usually full, doing things for Beatrix.  As I became more comfortable living in the apartment and more comfortable in our lives together, I began to shop for groceries, to clean the apartment, to take care of the laundry and to cook our evening meals, so that they were ready for when Beatrix arrived after work.  I had become a house husband.

It is important to say also, that during the summer that I spent with Beatrix, there were good times.  There was fun and laughter, there were great times that we spent together and there was romance.  We enjoyed amazing days out, we went to restaurants and ate great food, and we shared new experiences together, I met her friends and her family.  We were two people in love.

The problem that I faced was that almost from the very beginning of our relationship, I had started to forget about myself.  Everything that Beatrix needed came first.  Her needs, her desires, her wants, all came before my own.  And this was not necessarily her fault.  I let it happen.  I didn't take a stand when I should have done.  I had forsaken all of my own needs and found myself consumed by the needs of another person.  Beatrix was just being herself.  I was the one who began to lose himself and although I did not realise it at the time, I began to suffer.  All the time that we lived apart, it did not seem to matter too much that I spent my evenings talking with Beatrix, listening to her problems.  I had my own job and my own life in Costa Rica.  I was doing something that I loved to do.  I was on my own path, living the dream that I had created for myself and I was in love with a beautiful girl called Beatrix.  Life was amazing and I was extremely happy.

But after I had moved into Beatrix's apartment, I had none of my old life available to me.  No longer was I doing that which gave me passion.  I was away from the ocean that I loved so much.  I was away from the work that I love to do.  Rather than living in a rural community in Costa Rica, only a couple of minutes walk from the beach, surrounded by jungle and nature, I now found myself living in the suburbs of a major city, surrounded by concrete and asphalt.  The natural world feeds my soul and it was incredibly difficult to find nourishment in the heart of this sprawling metropolis in which I now found myself.  I didn't realise this at first simply because I had been following my heart and pursuing the love that I held for Beatrix.  As far as I was concerned, following my heart meant that I was still walking my one true path.  I thought that they were one and the same thing.  They are not.

I had given up on my one true path.  I had crossed onto the path of another person and I tried to make it my own, through the love that I held for Beatrix.  It took me some time to realise this.  I was sure that through the love of another person it was possible to change your path.  I was certain that love, the greatest and most powerful of all human emotions, would enable me to do just that, and to remain happy and content on my new path.  I had not understood the strength and power of my own passions and dreams. I had completely failed to understand that it is not possible to give up on those things that give purpose and meaning to your life, without suffering a great loss.  As much as I loved Beatrix, I would never be able to sustain that love and it could never replace that which I had lost.

Why?  Because what I gave up was that which makes me the person who I am.  I gave up those things that are the very essence of me.  They are part of the fabric of my being and an integral part of my soul.  Without them, I simply cease to be me.  I become a different person.  I become less than the person that I am when I am walking on my one true path.  I change.  I know that I do.  Even if I do not want that to happen, it is not possible to prevent it, no more than it would be possible to take the colour indigo out of a rainbow and still call it a rainbow.  It would still be a beautiful thing to behold, but it would be less than it was.  Less than perfect.  The happiness that I feel when I walk my one true path in life comes from deep within me, and it permeates throughout everything that I do.  Away from my path, I do not find that same sense of deep happiness and contentment.

What I learned last year was that in order to find love in another person, it is necessary never to give up on your own one true path.  It is necessary to hold on to those things that make you the person who you are, and it is necessary to hold on to them at all costs.  Nothing is worth sacrificing your own path for, not even the love of another.  I never thought that was true, but now I know the truth of it because I lived and breathed that lesson.  The path to true and lasting love with another person lies not on the path of another, it can only be found along your own path.  Only when the two paths of the lovers meet and coincide with each other, can there be a lasting love.  The love that is found must flow back and forth between each of the two people, crossing the divide that separates each of their paths.  Never give up your own dreams for the love of another person.  The right person will appear on your path when the time is right.  And that person will have been worth the wait and worth the walk.  Love does conquer all, but if you give up on your own dreams, you give up on the love of self.  And that can never be a true and lasting love since it is no longer a complete love.  It becomes less than perfect.

I learned my lesson the hard way.  I fell in love with a beautiful girl whose name was Beatrix and I lost that love.  I lost sight of my one true path and I lost sight of who I am.  But along the way, I gained knowledge, I gained insight and I gained enlightenment.  I enjoyed the knowledge that I was in love with another soul and that soul returned my love.  And for that, I will always be truly grateful.  Thank you Beatrix.

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Life On The One True Path

When you're doing something that you truly enjoy, something that gives you passion for life, it is impossible to stop smiling. This is because your heart, soul, body and mind are all in unison and they have truly become one thing only. And that one thing is love.

This is exactly what will happen to you when you walk your one true path.  There are going to be many moments when you find yourself smiling, laughing, skipping, dancing or singing for no other reasons than simply because you can, and simply because you feel like it.  There will be moments when you feel such an up-welling of positive life energy, that people will look at you as if you are mad, and perhaps you are!  After all, only mad people give up the normal daily grind of life to go off and follow their hearts in search of adventure, and to seek out true meaning for themselves - right?  When you are on the path, even doing jobs that might be considered trivial, mundane, or even viewed as being beneath you back in the ordinary world, will become important and integral parts of your life and you'll face them with joy, gusto and happiness, rather than doing them begrudgingly or with a sense of resentment.

The first time I can recall experiencing this, was during my time in Malaysia.  It must have been sometime around April 2006 and it had been perhaps five or six months since I had left my job working at IBM, where I had held several management positions.  One morning, I was sweeping the sand off the decking of the dive centre where I was training to become a PADI Dive Master.  I can remember vividly, looking along the arc of perfect white sand, lined with palm trees that was Long Beach, on the island of Kecil Perhentian.  In this moment, I smiled and laughed to myself in the realisation that I had never been happier than right then and right there.  I laughed to myself at how my life had changed so drastically in those few months.  I had exchanged designer suits, shirts, silk ties and expensive shoes for a pair of board shorts.  I had exchanged my daily commute through traffic for an easy walk along the beach.  I had exchanged my office for a beach.  And I had exchanged my laptop for a broom.  This was the first time that I knew I was walking my one true path and I felt an up-welling of pure and simple joy that I was unable to prevent.  It did not matter that I was only sweeping sand off of a decking, because sweeping sand was a necessary part of living my dream.

This joie de vivre permeates into everything that you do.  It is like an infectious disease that will invade your body and mind and it will invade the fabric of your very soul.  Whenever I am at work, or around the customers that come to scuba dive or snorkel with us, I become animated and alive.  I smile and laugh a lot, I engage with them and take a personal interest in them and their enjoyment.  I want to know where they come from and how it is there.  I enjoy exchanging stories and anecdotes about places and experiences.  I make silly jokes and I try to keep them entertained.  I do not ever feel like I have to do this, or that I am working.  I don't have to think about it.  It comes naturally and I know it comes from within my soul.  I do this for no other reason than because I feel alive and completely at one with my heart.  I am unable to stop doing it because the energy and love that I feel inside of myself needs to flow out and be released back to the universe.  When my heart sings, it is impossible not to sing along to its beat, to its rhythm and to its song.

It is not the same for every person who does the same job that I do now.  Some people will find talking to customers difficult, they will view it as part of the job that needs to be done because ultimately, we are in the entertainment industry.  They might resent that they have to lift heavy scuba tanks up and down the beach, sweep sand, or have to wash and rinse scuba gear at the end of each day's diving.  And this job is not every person's dream job.  I changed my life and discovered my own dream.  I know what it is like to walk on the path that is not your own because I did that for thirty five years.  But because this is my dream, when I am doing it, I feel completely at one with the universe. 

There will always be moments and there will be days when things do not go so well.  Even on the one true path you are still going to hit bumps in the road and suffer setbacks.  This is the inevitability of life.  Without setbacks we can never learn the lessons that are necessary to progress in life and to evolve our spirits.  My life has not always been easy.  In fact, I would never describe it as easy.  It is too easy to look at someone who seems to always carry a positive outlook in life and to think that they had it easy, or that they have always enjoyed good fortune.  This will never be the truth.  I suffered when I was young from being overweight and all of the problems associated with it and as I have written in previous blogs, I still carry those scars with me to this day.  However, I no longer recall that I was overweight or relive the days of suffering from teasing in the school yard.  What I choose to remember is that I had the strength to change my life and to do something about my physical appearance.  That taught me an incredibly valuable lesson: that I was able to accomplish anything that I put my mind to and I possessed the inner strength to change.  I have spent much of my adult life alone and without the love of a partner or companion on my journey.  That still causes me a lot of anguish and I wonder often about whether I will ever find that special person to share my life with.  There are times when I think about how alone I have been, or how much time I have lived without the love of someone special in my life and I cry.  But I tell myself that she will come when I am ready, she will come when I reach that point along my path.  I have moments during my working day when I need to deal with difficult situations or with difficult people.  I have a boss and just like all bosses, he can be a jerk at times and leave you wondering what is going on.  In my old life, even the smallest of setbacks could quickly snowball into something much bigger.  Each setback seemed to add to the previous and it could sometimes seem like an endless stream of them.  I would torment myself about being alone and without love in my life.  I would struggle to understand my purpose in life and I would ask myself why was I even here?  My life held no real meaning for me.  It was so easy to be pushed off course and to become lost in the dark void of despair.

All of that changed as soon as I began to walk my one true path.  Now, even if I suffer a setback, I am easily able to deal with it.  I either fix the problem or, if I am unable to fix it, I quickly move on and leave it behind.  I have a balance and a centre of gravity within my soul that was completely lacking before.  Even when I suffer a major setback, such as my recent relationship break-up and the loss of love, I am able to deal with it, without it causing me huge amounts of sorrow and pain.  In my old life, I would fall into darkness.  I would be lost in a chasm of sorrow.  So how am I now able to do maintain my joy in life and my positivity even though I still suffer setbacks?  Simply because by walking my one true path, I have found an inner peace and stability that did not exist previously.  I know that when I am on my path, doing what it is that I love to do, I feel the joy and happiness of which I wrote in the preceding paragraphs.  That is my core.  That is what gives me my belief and faith in the universe.  Walking my one true path makes me so incredibly happy, it is almost impossible to feel any other emotion.  That is not to say that I do not.  It is just that any negative emotions seems to fall away, like the droplets of water sliding off a duck's back.  They try to stick to me but they are unable to do so any longer.  My happiness cannot be contained.  My happiness cannot be dented.  My happiness cannot be stopped.  As long as I stay true to my heart and continue to walk my one true path. 

I walk my one true path and because I do so, everything becomes one.  I am immersed in love.  I walk in the light.  And when I do, I know that I am part of the miracle of life and the universe.  And at the centre of the universe can be found the most simple thing.  At the centre of the universe there is just one word written.  And that word is love.

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What Is The One True Path?

Since I started to write this blog, I have been pouring out many of my inner most thoughts and feelings.  Until I had commenced the process of writing, I really had no clear vision of what it was that I was trying to accomplish or the direction that my writing would take.  All I knew was that I wanted to begin writing and to see where it would lead me.  I've written previously that when I write, I connect with my inner most self and every word comes directly from my heart, from the very essence of my being.  As this connection has occurred, I have begun to release some of the thoughts and ideas that have, until now, resided only inside of me as abstract and not necessarily coherent thoughts.  The process of writing has fused many of these ideas together.  One such idea is that of the one true path.

The concept of the one true path is not a new one and I do not seek to lay claim to it.  It is a term that repeatedly emerges in my writing and it therefore lies right at the heart of the matter.  Following your heart and walking the one true path are for me, interchangeable terms.  When you walk the one true path, you are living out your heart's desire.  You are turning your dreams in to your waking reality.  You are following the path that lies at the very root of your soul.  The one true path is the way of life that represents your soul.  It is the true you.

Each of us has one true path in life.  It is that which causes the heart to sing out loud with pure joy, when it enters our thoughts.  When you are walking your one true path, then you are in complete harmony with your heart.  Everything that you manifest in your physical life becomes completely synchronised with your spiritual being.  You truly become one.  And in the moment that you discover this feeling of oneness, you will find the feelings of peace, tranquility, happiness, joy and love, that come to those that are walking their one true path in life.  The feelings come from knowing that what you are doing in your every waking moment, you are doing because it is what you truly want to do, that you were the architect of the life that you have created for yourself.  That you are fulfilling your true life purpose.  Simply put, that you have achieved your dreams.  To go in search of your one true path is the greatest gift that you can give to yourself.  By doing so, you are not only giving yourself the gift of love, you are projecting love back into the universe.  As we reap, so do we sow.

Although I use the term one true path, that does not necessarily mean that there is only ever going to be one single perfect dream for you to pursue.  As with all of life, every thing changes, and so it may be that your dreams change too.  What you set out to achieve might have been accomplished, or it was not as you imagined it would be when you arrived.  Then it is necessary to move on to the next dream.  If you look behind you, you will see one path leading back and away from you into your past life.  If you look ahead, then you will see a single path leading onwards into the distance where it disappears in to a veil of mist.  The path never changes and there can never be more than one path.  It is always, and forever will be, your own path.  As such, it will lead you wherever your heart wills.

Take a moment and imagine for yourself a path that leads ever winding through the trees of a dark forest.  You have never walked this path before, you are not sure where it leads, and you don't have a map to show you the way.  All you know is that you must continue on the path in order to reach your destination.  You look ahead, to see where the path is going to lead and, although you are able to see a short distance in front of you, quickly the path becomes obscured by the trees and shrouded in the gloom.  You have to trust that the path will not lead you astray.  You have to walk blindly on, never knowing for certain if you are going in the right direction.  Each step leads you further into the forest, each step takes you further away from where you have come from, each step takes your further from what you knew before.  But very importantly, each step that you take leads you one step closer to your destination.
 
Walking the one true path is like this.  You can never know exactly where it will lead you, all you know is that it instinctively feels right, because your heart tells you so.  It is difficult to describe when you know that a decision to be taken is the right one, or that the path you are on is the true one for you.  From my own experiences, I can only say that the feelings well up from deep within the core of your being.  You can feel a joy and an uplifting in your heart.  Instinctively and without conscious thought, you know that it is right.  I can think of two significant occurrences when I have needed to take a decision that would alter the course of my life and propel me forward towards achieving my dreams, even if I did not know that at the time.

The first, I have described previously and involved making the decision to leave my home in England and to move to Budapest.  During the day of my decision, I just felt it with every fibre of my being that it was the right decision for me.  It was not that I didn't consider anyone else in making the decision, it was simply that the feelings I had were completely overwhelming.  I said to myself, "I have to do this" and as soon as I spoke those words to myself, I knew it was the right answer.  It was as clear and as logical to me as 1, 2, 3.

The second time I was in Krabbe, Thailand and I needed to decide whether to continue travelling with my partner, or whether we should go our separate ways, so that I could pursue my new found passion of scuba diving.  Perhaps under different circumstances I would have made a different decision, but given everything that had led up to that point in time, I once again had a very similar overwhelming feeling that I had to choose to follow my passion.  It was so strong and undeniable.  I had to choose it for me.  It felt instinctively right to head back down into Malaysia and to go it alone.  There was no other decision I could make.  My heart told me so.

I was just thinking about how it is when I am at work now, doing the thing that I love to do, and I was trying to think how to describe how it feels to be doing a job that is your passion.  The easiest thing to say about it is that when I am at work, I project love.  I love what I do, I love being where I am, I love engaging with people and helping them.  Everything that I do is done with love.  That might sound strange but it is the only way I can describe it.  I gave myself the ultimate gift by choosing to follow my dream and to walk my own one true path.  The gift is love and so the love flows out of my and into everything that I do, when I am doing the thing that I love.  Perhaps it is easier to imagine how it feels when you are preparing a surprise or doing something for that someone special that you love.  You put the love that you feel for that person into the thing that you are doing. The way you might wrap a present, the way you prepare and cook a dinner, the message that you write inside of a card.  You inject the love that you feel into what you do for them.  That is the best way I can describe it.   

If someone were to ask me how do you know when you are on your one true path? I would ask them to tell me how they know when they are in love?  The answer is simply that you just know it.  You know it from deep inside of your heart, you feel it with every fibre of your soul.  You live it and you breath it.  The one true path is exactly the same, because following the one true path is an act of love. 

There is something else too.  When you are walking your one true path, the happiness that you feel runs incredibly deep within you.  It allows you to overcome obstacles and deal with problems that may have caused a major upset in your old life.  The happiness that you feel is so empowering it feels as though nothing can touch it.  It is not some short lived moment of happiness that comes from buying something new for yourself for example, it is a deeply entrenched happiness that permeates through everything that you do.  Disappointments still occur in your life but you are more easily able to overcome them because what you are doing is your dream and that is more powerful than you can possibly imagine.  Even if you have a momentary feeling of disappointment or sadness, it will be swept aside by the power that comes from following your heart.

Discovering your one true path in life is not the end of the journey, for the journey can never end. Finding your one true path marks the beginning of a life in perfect harmony with your heart.  A life full of deep, spiritual meaning and a life full of love. Why would you deny yourself such a life?  Awaken your heart for the heart leads us always true.  Listen to it, trust it, and never doubt it.  Rise to the possibilities of life.  Release the power of love.  Walk your one true path.

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