LIFE Acronym #14:
"Leeches Inconspicuously Filch Energy"
[***NOTE*** This was supposed to be the post for Sunday, August 7th, but I fell asleep in the middle of writing it last night. So I've decided that from now on I'm not going to stress about what date the posts end up on. I'll just make sure that there is one post represented for every day that passes until 100 days since the day that I took up my blog again. 100 days from that date will put me squarely on 11-1-11]
There are many different species of leeches, but here in this post I will be talking about the freshwater aquatic blood-sucking leeches. If this subject doesn't interest you, please read on regardless, because as always, I am going to relate this to your life. :)
Leeches are found in various places all around the world. Did you know that these creatures have two mouths and two brains, and can carry five times their body size in blood? They secrete enzymes that keep the blood alive until they have the chance to digest it (kinda freaky, I know).
Here's the parasitic feeding process that these creatures engage in:
1. They first carefully sneak into position, and then excrete a powerful anesthetic that keeps the host unaware of what is going on.
2. Then, they latch on with their powerful suckers. These suckers are so strong that you will tear the leech's head off of its body before you will pull the leech off. The only way to get a leech off is to break the suction by wedging a flat object underneath the sucker.
3. Once they are attached, they pierce the skin with a sharp proboscis to get the blood flowing out of your body.
4. After they have access to your blood, they insert an anticoagulant that keeps the blood from clotting. Because of this, the wound can bleed from 2 hours to 3 days after a bite.
5. Next they latch on with their jaws, which contain many small teeth. Now the blood-sucking can begin. This gluttonous feeding process lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, and once they're full, they roll off.
If, of course, you manage to catch them red-handed (pun intended), you can do your best to try to deny them of the remainder of their crimson meal. But, be careful in this endeavor. If you try using fire, alcohol, salt, or any other forceful means, they will vomit back into the wound, unleashing a harmful and disease-ridden miscellany of bacteria, viruses, and parasites into your bloodstream.
Our blood is our life-giving energy. It is what provides our cells with the needed oxygen and other nutrients that they need to survive. When a leech bites a human, it is taking energy from that person, which the person will have to replace. It is also leaving a wound that will continue to bleed, and will take a while to heal. Leeches not only take the good stuff, but they leave the bad stuff as well (bacteria, viruses, and parasites).
We humans despise leeches for their parasitic nature. But didn't you know that some people have similar tendencies? And I'm not referring to blood-sucking here. I'm sure that you agree with me that vampires are only found in science fiction literature. What I'm referring to here is the leeching of someone's physical, mental, or emotional energy by another person.
Every person has sort of a "spiritual vibration", and the energy that a person either gives or takes depends upon the frequency of this vibration. If someone is living their life very much in line with the eternal principles or love, peace, and purity, the positive energy that they emanate will be high. But if someone is having severe problems in their life, and being depressed or negative, then they are living in a very low energy level.
Please do not compartmentalize, stereotype, or label people. I am not saying that people are either one way, or the other way. This energy depends not upon an unchangeable nature within a person, but rather upon how that person is living their life AT THAT TIME.
People who are living in high positive energy have more than enough for themselves. They have such an abundance of energy that they can let it overflow out onto other people and lift them up. But it's easier for a high-energy person to lift medium-energy people than low-energy people, and it still does take its toll on the higher-energy person in the interaction. Just because they are high energy does not mean that they have a shield of immunity to low-frequency negative energy.
There are many people who are not living with self-love and a peaceful acceptance of life's experiences and learning processes. These people tend to be at odds with life, and can leech energy from others. And they do this without even realizing it. They can be living like energetic leeches; always looking for the next person to talk with and whine to about their problems. They're looking for some sort of validation, or emotional release from their pain. But they don't realize that they are taking energy from others when they do this.
Also, just as the leech's victim is unaware of what is going on due to the anesthetic that the leech secretes, often the person who is losing energy to another person does not realize it either.
I'm not trying to point fingers at these "low-energy" people by comparing them with leeches. Please remember that despite our view of leeches, they are actually innocent themselves and are simply following their instincts when they latch onto a human's skin. Energy-sucking people are just living their lives the best that they know how, and do not actually realize that they are like a constant energetic black hole, taking in everything that they can get and giving little to nothing in return.
This can also apply to committed relationships. If you are in a committed relationship, please be sure that you are both giving relatively similar amounts of energy to the relationship, and that there is not a "leech" in your relationship that is causing a one-sided imbalance in the health of the relationship. Those kinds of relationships don't last long if the imbalance is not soon corrected.
There are countless people on this earth who have not gotten into learning about personal development and self-growth, and don't even realize that their personal energetic posture is so important.
They understand the principles, but they never really think of them on the metaphysical level. Most people realize that some people are so happy and genuine that everyone wants to be around them, and yet some people are so negative and sullen that not very many people want to be around them.
This is just the simple, obvious, superficial way of explaining something that is truly much deeper and more profound by nature. The energy level that people are living at is precisely what makes both charismatic, magnetic people, and sullen, despondent people. And of course, it also makes everyone in between, because in this world of over 6 billion people, there are people living all across the spectrum.
Everyone's goal should be to raise their own energy, and learn to be living at a higher level so that they can lift others who are in the world around them.
And keep in mind that there are different personality types. Don't confuse a certain personality type with a "low-energy" person. This energy that I have been speaking of refers not to introverts vs. extroverts, not to sanguine types vs. more reserved types, but instead correlates to the person's overall level of happiness, and their life's alignment with true and proper principles.
This energy consists of physical energy, emotional energy, mental energy, and spiritual energy.
Now that you know how important it is to pay attention to your energy, I'll give you some ways to lift your energy:
• Exercise daily and eat healthy (eat more fresh fruits and vegetables). Your physiological self affects your spiritual self more than you know.
• Spend time each day for introspection and meditation. High-energy people are the kind of people who are always learning more about their inner selves. And the knowledge that they gain empowers them in untold ways.
• Spend time each day to commune with deity (a.k.a. PRAY). I'm assuming here that my audience is chiefly Christian, but I hope that any non-Christians who are reading this still believe in a higher power. And I hope that any non-Christians, agnostics, or even atheistic people who stumble upon this blog will still read it anyway, and glean from it the non-religious parts that are valuable for human growth and happiness no matter what one's beliefs are.
• Study the subject of human psychology, and learn about the power of your own thoughts and your subconscious mind. In my humble opinion, I think that it is absolutely foolish to be disinterested in this subject, as it is one of the most important subjects that I have ever learned about, and is absolutely INTERLACED all throughout every aspect of personal growth and progression.
• Study the subject of emotions, and learn to understand your own emotions and the part that they play in your life. Your emotions should eventually become your friend, rather than your enemy. Emotions can cause problems when they're not dealt with or viewed correctly. But when they are seen in their true light, they become an important companion in life's journey, and serve to make life that much more dynamic and wonderful.
• Always work on your own spirituality, and read as much as you can about spiritual things. Spiritual books and articles can remind our inner selves of the things that matter most. This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, because life has a way of getting us to forget about the things that matter most.
• Learn to love and accept yourself no matter what. Only when you completely love and accept yourself can you give outwardly to other people and lift them up.
• Learn to love and accept others no matter what. This love should be akin to the biblical term called "Charity", and is essentially "The Pure Love of Christ". Christ loves ALL of us, no matter what. And we need to be emulating that love as best we can. This applies to EVERY HUMAN, no matter what they have done to us, our families, our communities, the nation, or the world. This doesn't mean that we "accept" or "condone" their behavior. It just means that we love them as a human being, and we recognize the inherent and eternal worth of the human soul.
• Seek a worthy spouse if you don't have one. And if you do, then seek to grow your relationship into a synergistic, dynamic, mutually loving, accepting, and building relationship. More good has been accomplished in this world by people who have good, open, genuine, loving, and healthy relationships, than by anyone else.
In summary, love all leeches, but do not call them leeches, and do not tell them that I called them leeches! Haha... ;)
But, seriously, love those who have not yet learned to balance out their lives and are living in a state of low happiness and low energy. And love those amazing people who have so much in harmony in their lives that they are just radiating a positive, resplendent energy that attracts people of all walks of life. And most importantly, make it your life's quest to become the latter, and try never to find yourself in the shoes of the former for too long.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Life Angles: LIFE Acronym #13 - Life's Illusions Frequently Ensnare
LIFE Acronym #13:
"Life's Illusions Frequently Ensnare"
Here's a thought-provoking phrase for you:
"Traps work only because the victim was not aware of or looking for the danger."
Did that provoke any deep thoughts? If not, please allow me to help stir the juices of your brain.
Think of an animal trap for a moment. Before animals are ensnared in a trap, they are NEVER aware that they are in danger.
Picture whatever trap you want. Personally I'm picturing a live capture trap, for mid-sized animals, with a pressure plate and spring-activated door.
Animals may be of a lower intelligence than we humans are, but you had better believe that they have a built-in mechanism for alerting them of danger so that they can flee or fight.
A trap is designed to look harmless, and anything but dangerous. And the animal has no idea that it is about to be caught. What an unpleasant surprise!
As the animal walks up to the cage, all of its instinctive, protective inner programs are running as they always do. Its senses look, smell, and listen for danger.
Because it doesn't SEE, HEAR, or SMELL any danger, it assumes that it is safe to proceed forward. Next thing it knows, SLAM!!! It's caught.
We can act just like these little critters at times. Just like animals, we have inner programs running that try their best to keep us away from danger. But just like animals, there exist dangerous things that we cannot see.
If you ever feel that you "have it all under control", you could not be further from the truth. The man who knows that he knows nothing, knows more than the learned man who thinks that he knows it all.
There are always hidden traps, and nobody can possibly see all of them. But, unlike animals, we can definitely see many of them, if we're looking through a special set of goggles called "experience".
Not everyone has those goggles though, and some people's goggles are more powerful than others. But the good news is that we can borrow "experience goggles" from other people.
Let's explore a for instance. Let's say that you are considering postponing making a major change in your life, a change that will undeniably make your life better by leaps and bounds. Let's say that one day in a conversation with someone older and wiser than you, you tell them "I'm probably gonna live to at least 80 years, so I'm in no hurry".
Then let's suppose that the person you're talking to immediately jumps into a lecture about the dangers of procrastination, and actually motivates you to stop postponing it. This would be an example of you "looking though someone else's experience goggles". You looked through their perspective and saw the fallacy of your own.
Postponing change is such a classic trick (A.K.A. trap), and INNUMERABLE people fall for it. Do you have ANY idea how many people go to their graves having their song unsung?! Procrastination is one of the oldest mistakes out there, and anyone with any experience in life probably has regrets about it, and desires for you to learn from their experiences rather than doing the same things yourself.
When we procrastinate a needed change and think there's nothing wrong with that, it's like we're a little critter ourselves, and we're sizing up a cage, smelling it out, and deciding there's nothing wrong there. When we go for the delectable food in the cage, that's called "paying now instead of paying later". And the trap springs on us!
Paying for something now instead of paying later would be akin to relaxing now and not expending the energy that's necessary for effectuating a change. You will pay later for your mistake because you didn't pay today by taking the time to make the change.
Another example of "paying now instead of paying later" would be buying everything that you want today and saving nothing for retirement. You may be enjoying all the fancy things today, but you will pay later by not having any retirement. If you had foregone some of today's luxuries to invest some of your money, you would be paying now and reaping the rewards later.
I could go though countless examples of traps that we may or may not see. But I'll leave that up to you and your own exploration. I'll just admonish you to do your part to look for those traps and be wary of them.
Use the experience of friends and family to avoid traps. But most importantly, use the experience of the world's smartest and wisest people by reading their books. Do not let your progression be stagnant.
GO GET A TOP 100 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT BOOK AND READ IT! Or, better yet, just read God's word, which is the wisest of them all.
"Life's Illusions Frequently Ensnare"
Here's a thought-provoking phrase for you:
"Traps work only because the victim was not aware of or looking for the danger."
Did that provoke any deep thoughts? If not, please allow me to help stir the juices of your brain.
Think of an animal trap for a moment. Before animals are ensnared in a trap, they are NEVER aware that they are in danger.
Picture whatever trap you want. Personally I'm picturing a live capture trap, for mid-sized animals, with a pressure plate and spring-activated door.
Animals may be of a lower intelligence than we humans are, but you had better believe that they have a built-in mechanism for alerting them of danger so that they can flee or fight.
A trap is designed to look harmless, and anything but dangerous. And the animal has no idea that it is about to be caught. What an unpleasant surprise!
As the animal walks up to the cage, all of its instinctive, protective inner programs are running as they always do. Its senses look, smell, and listen for danger.
Because it doesn't SEE, HEAR, or SMELL any danger, it assumes that it is safe to proceed forward. Next thing it knows, SLAM!!! It's caught.
We can act just like these little critters at times. Just like animals, we have inner programs running that try their best to keep us away from danger. But just like animals, there exist dangerous things that we cannot see.
If you ever feel that you "have it all under control", you could not be further from the truth. The man who knows that he knows nothing, knows more than the learned man who thinks that he knows it all.
There are always hidden traps, and nobody can possibly see all of them. But, unlike animals, we can definitely see many of them, if we're looking through a special set of goggles called "experience".
Not everyone has those goggles though, and some people's goggles are more powerful than others. But the good news is that we can borrow "experience goggles" from other people.
Let's explore a for instance. Let's say that you are considering postponing making a major change in your life, a change that will undeniably make your life better by leaps and bounds. Let's say that one day in a conversation with someone older and wiser than you, you tell them "I'm probably gonna live to at least 80 years, so I'm in no hurry".
Then let's suppose that the person you're talking to immediately jumps into a lecture about the dangers of procrastination, and actually motivates you to stop postponing it. This would be an example of you "looking though someone else's experience goggles". You looked through their perspective and saw the fallacy of your own.
Postponing change is such a classic trick (A.K.A. trap), and INNUMERABLE people fall for it. Do you have ANY idea how many people go to their graves having their song unsung?! Procrastination is one of the oldest mistakes out there, and anyone with any experience in life probably has regrets about it, and desires for you to learn from their experiences rather than doing the same things yourself.
When we procrastinate a needed change and think there's nothing wrong with that, it's like we're a little critter ourselves, and we're sizing up a cage, smelling it out, and deciding there's nothing wrong there. When we go for the delectable food in the cage, that's called "paying now instead of paying later". And the trap springs on us!
Paying for something now instead of paying later would be akin to relaxing now and not expending the energy that's necessary for effectuating a change. You will pay later for your mistake because you didn't pay today by taking the time to make the change.
Another example of "paying now instead of paying later" would be buying everything that you want today and saving nothing for retirement. You may be enjoying all the fancy things today, but you will pay later by not having any retirement. If you had foregone some of today's luxuries to invest some of your money, you would be paying now and reaping the rewards later.
I could go though countless examples of traps that we may or may not see. But I'll leave that up to you and your own exploration. I'll just admonish you to do your part to look for those traps and be wary of them.
Use the experience of friends and family to avoid traps. But most importantly, use the experience of the world's smartest and wisest people by reading their books. Do not let your progression be stagnant.
GO GET A TOP 100 PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT BOOK AND READ IT! Or, better yet, just read God's word, which is the wisest of them all.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Life Angles: LIFE Acronym #12 - Lifting Impoverished Folks Easily
LIFE Acronym #12:
"Lifting Impoverished Folks Easily"
Today I decided to post a little story that I wrote down 4 years ago. It's never been published, and I've never shown it to anyone. I have not changed it at all; I just copied and pasted it from a document on my flash drive. I was tempted to change the wording on parts of it, but I ultimately decided that it would be interesting to show you what my writing style was like 4 years ago. This story still gets to me, but from it I've learned to listen to God when He directs me to do something. Here is the story, unedited, unadulterated, and in its original form:
"3-18-07
How Much Is Fifty Bucks Really Worth?
In my early twenties, due to my weaknesses I had spent some time now and then being almost completely broke. I was earning only about 5 to 10 thousand dollars per year. That’s about $400 to $800 per month on average.
In the desert near my house lived a homeless man. He was a nice man named Richard, who was about fifty or sixty years old. Interestingly, he actually had an engineering degree but ended up homeless for one or more reasons unbeknownst to me.
Every once in a while I would see him walking down the road with his pack of things. I would usually stop and say hi and maybe give him a few dollars or some food if I had some with me.
I remember one specific time in 2006 when I saw him. I was driving down the road and there he was up ahead about a half mile. I had a fifty dollar bill with me, and at that moment I was stricken with a strong desire to give him the fifty dollars. Fifty dollars didn’t come around so often for me at the time, so I ended up fighting a battle in my mind as I got closer to him. I was really drawn to give him the fifty dollars. I knew how far it would go for him. Who knew if anyone had EVER given him that much money at one time?
The problem was that it was a collectible fifty dollar bill that I had recently found in circulation. Even so, I was sorely tempted to give it to him. I can’t remember ever being so strongly moved to give something to a homeless person.
But, shamefully, this battle would go down in heavenly history as one that I had lost. I didn’t give him the fifty dollars. I just waved at him as I drove by, and he smiled at me and waved back. Darn that collectible $50 bill.
I’m certain that he really needed the fifty dollars at that moment, and that it would have meant the world to him. But I failed him. I failed him; one of God’s children, and my brother here on Earth, and I’m ashamed of it.
Disgracefully, later on I ended up spending that very same collectible fifty dollar bill to pay a cell phone bill when I was in a bind. Who do you think deserved that fifty dollar bill more, Richard the nice homeless man, or the cell phone company? Who do you think that simple little $50 bill would have made more difference for?
A couple months later, he died. Richard, my homeless neighbor, the nice man with the engineering degree, died. I’m sure that he had family somewhere. I’m sure he had happy times in his past. In his past, he had a normal life just like all of us, with concerns, wishes, dreams, and fears. He was every bit as human as anyone else. But he lived out his last years as a vagabond; an outcast, wandering the streets, sleeping on the desert floor, and begging for every morsel of food that he ate.
When I heard the news that he had been found dead in a nearby wash, regret and shame pulsed through my veins. Pangs of intense remorse tore at my soul for having selfishly kept that $50 to myself two or so months before. I have never regretted more having kept something for myself when it was meant for another of God’s children.
Couldn’t poor Richard have been the recipient of just one more act of love before he left this earthly sojourn? It was within my power to be that earthly angel for him. God’s Spirit worked on me to make me act. But I did not. It still makes me want to cry to think of my failure. How much is fifty bucks really worth?"
"Lifting Impoverished Folks Easily"
Today I decided to post a little story that I wrote down 4 years ago. It's never been published, and I've never shown it to anyone. I have not changed it at all; I just copied and pasted it from a document on my flash drive. I was tempted to change the wording on parts of it, but I ultimately decided that it would be interesting to show you what my writing style was like 4 years ago. This story still gets to me, but from it I've learned to listen to God when He directs me to do something. Here is the story, unedited, unadulterated, and in its original form:
"3-18-07
How Much Is Fifty Bucks Really Worth?
In my early twenties, due to my weaknesses I had spent some time now and then being almost completely broke. I was earning only about 5 to 10 thousand dollars per year. That’s about $400 to $800 per month on average.
In the desert near my house lived a homeless man. He was a nice man named Richard, who was about fifty or sixty years old. Interestingly, he actually had an engineering degree but ended up homeless for one or more reasons unbeknownst to me.
Every once in a while I would see him walking down the road with his pack of things. I would usually stop and say hi and maybe give him a few dollars or some food if I had some with me.
I remember one specific time in 2006 when I saw him. I was driving down the road and there he was up ahead about a half mile. I had a fifty dollar bill with me, and at that moment I was stricken with a strong desire to give him the fifty dollars. Fifty dollars didn’t come around so often for me at the time, so I ended up fighting a battle in my mind as I got closer to him. I was really drawn to give him the fifty dollars. I knew how far it would go for him. Who knew if anyone had EVER given him that much money at one time?
The problem was that it was a collectible fifty dollar bill that I had recently found in circulation. Even so, I was sorely tempted to give it to him. I can’t remember ever being so strongly moved to give something to a homeless person.
But, shamefully, this battle would go down in heavenly history as one that I had lost. I didn’t give him the fifty dollars. I just waved at him as I drove by, and he smiled at me and waved back. Darn that collectible $50 bill.
I’m certain that he really needed the fifty dollars at that moment, and that it would have meant the world to him. But I failed him. I failed him; one of God’s children, and my brother here on Earth, and I’m ashamed of it.
Disgracefully, later on I ended up spending that very same collectible fifty dollar bill to pay a cell phone bill when I was in a bind. Who do you think deserved that fifty dollar bill more, Richard the nice homeless man, or the cell phone company? Who do you think that simple little $50 bill would have made more difference for?
A couple months later, he died. Richard, my homeless neighbor, the nice man with the engineering degree, died. I’m sure that he had family somewhere. I’m sure he had happy times in his past. In his past, he had a normal life just like all of us, with concerns, wishes, dreams, and fears. He was every bit as human as anyone else. But he lived out his last years as a vagabond; an outcast, wandering the streets, sleeping on the desert floor, and begging for every morsel of food that he ate.
When I heard the news that he had been found dead in a nearby wash, regret and shame pulsed through my veins. Pangs of intense remorse tore at my soul for having selfishly kept that $50 to myself two or so months before. I have never regretted more having kept something for myself when it was meant for another of God’s children.
Couldn’t poor Richard have been the recipient of just one more act of love before he left this earthly sojourn? It was within my power to be that earthly angel for him. God’s Spirit worked on me to make me act. But I did not. It still makes me want to cry to think of my failure. How much is fifty bucks really worth?"
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Life Angles: LIFE Acronym #11 - Loving Innocence From Ecuador
LIFE Acronym #11:
"Loving Innocence From Ecuador"
In Ecuador there are hundreds and hundreds of disadvantaged children living in orphanages. These sweet children end up in these orphanages for any of many reasons, some of which are sad and disheartening.
Sometimes infants are given up to the orphanages because the mother is but a girl herself and wouldn't know how to take care of a baby.
Sometimes it's abandonment, abuse, drugs, or political unrest that culminates in these children being sent to these orphanages.
If the children and infants do not have adequate opportunities to be held, played with, talked to, nurtured and loved, it can hamper their emotional development and leave them severely socially impaired.
There are many tenderhearted people who serve in these orphanages and do their best to fulfill the children's basic needs.
But this can be an overwhelming task, and to help them with these demands there exist various non-profit organizations. These non-profit organizations gather additional volunteers to go down there and serve these beautiful children.
I have a friend who recently spent two months in Ecuador doing service for these angelic children, and today she told me of some of her experiences down there. Hearing the stories moved me to decide to write a blog post about it.
I forgot to ask her permission to write about what she related to me, so I hope that she doesn't mind.
She told me of her first experience with the children. When their bus arrived, the children were all so excited to see them!
She said that they were all gathered there waiting when the bus pulled up, and were squealing with enraptured delight. When the bus came to a stop, these heavenly spirits in little earthly bodies all ran up to the bus and started banging on the sides of it before the volunteers could even get out of the bus.
When the volunteers exited the bus, they were met with the encircling little arms of these Ecuadorian children, as the children hugged them and smiled with innocently congenial dispositions.
Imagine it. Just imagine it. There is something delicately indescribable about the innocence of a child. The somewhat unquantifiable nature of children has a power to engender within you the most fundamentally instinctual sparks of genuine love.
That genuine love is exactly what these volunteers came to feel for these children, and mixed among the emotions of love were also feelings of sympathy, compassion, kindness, fondness, sensitivity, and warmheartedness.
Imagine the naturally-flowing feelings of sympathy that you would feel for these children. They have no families. They have no mom and no dad to love them. Your innate paternal or maternal instincts would kick in, and you would impulsively try to fill that void within them, which would in turn satiate your spirit with contentedness.
Over the coming weeks and months, these magnanimous volunteers would come to be very familiar with these children. They would serve them, love them, see them cry, see them smile, and all the while be bathed in that magical thing that is called the unconditional love of a child.
Just close your eyes for a minute and envision one of these sweet, innocent children looking up to you for answers, and turning to you for a friend. Imagine one of them looking deep into your eyes to try to find a safe place in this harsh world. You would be humbled by the lucid, authentic gaze of that unblemished soul.
As she related the experience to me, she talked about how you really become best friends with these happy, frolicsome little people.
And she told me of how hard it was to leave them. It was like a piercing pain to the heart. This penetrating mix of pure unadulterated love and nostalgic longing does not quickly fade. It is still with my friend, who spoke of it emotionally today.
And it's likely still the constant companion of the various other volunteers who also took part in this selfless service.
She spoke of the volunteers who she worked with down miles below our blessed land that we take so for granted. And she spoke of a pointed envy of some of them, who are still down there enjoying the genuine companionship of these divine little beings.
At some point, those volunteers will also leave. Faced with so much attachment and detachment, these innocent little human beings have to do their best to cope with the fact that the volunteers come, and they go. They have to try their best not to get TOO attached to the volunteers.
But they do. And you become their best friend.
They are so humble and meek. She told me of going "off-site" to some of the rural areas where there's real poverty, and visiting with the children there. They are so excited to see you, and so kind and accepting.
They happily take you into their little homes, and are not embarrassed about the cockroaches that are crawling over the dishes, or of the toilet that has not been flushed for two weeks because the water is not working.
Life for these children means something different. Unlike many American children, life for these children in Ecuador is not about the video games, the animated movies, the carnivals, the malls, the candy and the ice cream cones.
It's about living. They are so happy to just be themselves. They're happy to have what little that they have, and they have no idea how much more we have here in the richest nation on Earth.
From 2002 to 2004, I served a Spanish-speaking mission for my church in Dallas Texas, and the President of our mission once told us missionaries a story that has stuck with me.
Prior to serving as a Mission President, he was a dentist. He and some other dentists had at one point gone down to South America to do some service for the underprivileged people there.
He told us of encountering a beautiful little girl of about 5 years old who was homeless along with her mother and other siblings. They were all separated out within seeing distance of each other, and begging on the streets for sustenance.
He gave her a Jolly Rancher, and her eyes lit up with wonder. She was captivated by this treasure that she had just received from a tall, generous stranger. She told him that she was going to bury it in a special place and save it for later.
Then he leaned down and said, "If there was one thing in the whole wide world that you would want more than anything else, what would it be?"
She replied, "A ribbon for my hair".
"Loving Innocence From Ecuador"
In Ecuador there are hundreds and hundreds of disadvantaged children living in orphanages. These sweet children end up in these orphanages for any of many reasons, some of which are sad and disheartening.
Sometimes infants are given up to the orphanages because the mother is but a girl herself and wouldn't know how to take care of a baby.
Sometimes it's abandonment, abuse, drugs, or political unrest that culminates in these children being sent to these orphanages.
If the children and infants do not have adequate opportunities to be held, played with, talked to, nurtured and loved, it can hamper their emotional development and leave them severely socially impaired.
There are many tenderhearted people who serve in these orphanages and do their best to fulfill the children's basic needs.
But this can be an overwhelming task, and to help them with these demands there exist various non-profit organizations. These non-profit organizations gather additional volunteers to go down there and serve these beautiful children.
I have a friend who recently spent two months in Ecuador doing service for these angelic children, and today she told me of some of her experiences down there. Hearing the stories moved me to decide to write a blog post about it.
I forgot to ask her permission to write about what she related to me, so I hope that she doesn't mind.
She told me of her first experience with the children. When their bus arrived, the children were all so excited to see them!
She said that they were all gathered there waiting when the bus pulled up, and were squealing with enraptured delight. When the bus came to a stop, these heavenly spirits in little earthly bodies all ran up to the bus and started banging on the sides of it before the volunteers could even get out of the bus.
When the volunteers exited the bus, they were met with the encircling little arms of these Ecuadorian children, as the children hugged them and smiled with innocently congenial dispositions.
Imagine it. Just imagine it. There is something delicately indescribable about the innocence of a child. The somewhat unquantifiable nature of children has a power to engender within you the most fundamentally instinctual sparks of genuine love.
That genuine love is exactly what these volunteers came to feel for these children, and mixed among the emotions of love were also feelings of sympathy, compassion, kindness, fondness, sensitivity, and warmheartedness.
Imagine the naturally-flowing feelings of sympathy that you would feel for these children. They have no families. They have no mom and no dad to love them. Your innate paternal or maternal instincts would kick in, and you would impulsively try to fill that void within them, which would in turn satiate your spirit with contentedness.
Over the coming weeks and months, these magnanimous volunteers would come to be very familiar with these children. They would serve them, love them, see them cry, see them smile, and all the while be bathed in that magical thing that is called the unconditional love of a child.
Just close your eyes for a minute and envision one of these sweet, innocent children looking up to you for answers, and turning to you for a friend. Imagine one of them looking deep into your eyes to try to find a safe place in this harsh world. You would be humbled by the lucid, authentic gaze of that unblemished soul.
As she related the experience to me, she talked about how you really become best friends with these happy, frolicsome little people.
And she told me of how hard it was to leave them. It was like a piercing pain to the heart. This penetrating mix of pure unadulterated love and nostalgic longing does not quickly fade. It is still with my friend, who spoke of it emotionally today.
And it's likely still the constant companion of the various other volunteers who also took part in this selfless service.
She spoke of the volunteers who she worked with down miles below our blessed land that we take so for granted. And she spoke of a pointed envy of some of them, who are still down there enjoying the genuine companionship of these divine little beings.
At some point, those volunteers will also leave. Faced with so much attachment and detachment, these innocent little human beings have to do their best to cope with the fact that the volunteers come, and they go. They have to try their best not to get TOO attached to the volunteers.
But they do. And you become their best friend.
They are so humble and meek. She told me of going "off-site" to some of the rural areas where there's real poverty, and visiting with the children there. They are so excited to see you, and so kind and accepting.
They happily take you into their little homes, and are not embarrassed about the cockroaches that are crawling over the dishes, or of the toilet that has not been flushed for two weeks because the water is not working.
Life for these children means something different. Unlike many American children, life for these children in Ecuador is not about the video games, the animated movies, the carnivals, the malls, the candy and the ice cream cones.
It's about living. They are so happy to just be themselves. They're happy to have what little that they have, and they have no idea how much more we have here in the richest nation on Earth.
From 2002 to 2004, I served a Spanish-speaking mission for my church in Dallas Texas, and the President of our mission once told us missionaries a story that has stuck with me.
Prior to serving as a Mission President, he was a dentist. He and some other dentists had at one point gone down to South America to do some service for the underprivileged people there.
He told us of encountering a beautiful little girl of about 5 years old who was homeless along with her mother and other siblings. They were all separated out within seeing distance of each other, and begging on the streets for sustenance.
He gave her a Jolly Rancher, and her eyes lit up with wonder. She was captivated by this treasure that she had just received from a tall, generous stranger. She told him that she was going to bury it in a special place and save it for later.
Then he leaned down and said, "If there was one thing in the whole wide world that you would want more than anything else, what would it be?"
She replied, "A ribbon for my hair".
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Life Angles: LIFE Acronym #10 - Lightning Is Flashing Everywhere
LIFE Acronym #10:
"Lightning Is Flashing Everywhere"
We are in monsoon season, and I so enjoyed this past Sunday's storm. I was just earlier today lamenting the fact that the news said that we should have no more storms for a while.
But tonight, I was pleasantly surprised to see the lit-up sky proving that the radio was wrong. Or perhaps I had heard them wrong. I wasn't listening really closely anyway...
As I arrived home this evening, the main thing on my mind was that I still needed to write today's post. So I figured that I'd go outside on the back porch and enjoy the weather as I write. Since I've been out here, I've been the happy beholder of some pretty awesome displays.
As I was sifting through my list of LIFE acronyms to decide which one I was going to use for today's post, I saw the acronym "Lightning Is Flashing Everywhere". "Ah-hah!", I thought. "This is the PERFECT acronym for today's post!"
Now that I have today's acronym, it's time to figure out what I'm going to write about it. So I've been sitting here, just watching the beautiful designs that this storm is drawing across the sky, and waiting to be inspired.
In the meantime, I did a little research on lightning. Apparently, lightning reaches 50,000º Fahrenheit! That is more than 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun (which is 9,940º F)!!!
Lightning is one of nature's most beautiful sights, but it is also one of nature's most deadly forces.
Around 1,000 people per year get struck by lightning in the U.S., and roughly one tenth of those people are killed by the strike.
To us, lightning is something that we see only every once in a while. But the entity called Planet Earth knows no break from it.
The Earth as a whole is struck approximately 100 times per second! This isn't hard to believe, considering that there are about 2,000 active thunderstorms at any given moment worldwide.
It's incredible to think about the intense buildup of positively- and negatively-charged electrons within a cloud system.
A typical lightning strike contains about one trillion watts, which is all released in just a tenth of a second! And the channel that houses this immense transfer of energy is only as wide as a pencil! It appears much wider to us because of the immense light that is created by the transfer.
On average, each lightning bold transfers 10 to the twentieth power electrons! That's 100 QUINTILLION, or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000! In case you don't know how much 100 quintillion is, let me break it down for you.
One million is 1 thousand thousand, one billion is 1 thousand million, one trillion is 1 thousand billion, one quadrillion is 1 thousand trillion, and one quintillion is 1 thousand quadrillion. Then you multiply THAT by 100 to get 100 quintillion!
The air around this bolt of one hundred quintillion electrons is super-heated to the point of explosion, which causes a physical shockwave and therefore the loud boom that makes our pet dogs put their tails between their legs.
This sound wave of pushed air is so powerful that it can damage structures and people who are too close to it.
Oh man, there went a HUGE one!!! It was a cloud-to cloud strike, and it veered all across the sky above my head!
I'm on my outdoor recliner holding my iPhone up as I read and write, so I won't miss any of the lightning shows. It's only lightly sprinkling, so I must be just on the edge of the storm. This is the perfect way to observe lightning! I couldn't have asked for a better setup!
All of my readings about lightning, while sitting here and seeing these truly AWESOME displays as I read, have given me a solemn, sobering, and humble feeling.
I can only think of the majesty of God's power and all of His creations. We humans feel so powerful and domineering over the elements and animals of this world. We feel like we are in charge. We feel like we are the rulers of everything.
We build huge sky scrapers, dig deep pits, make massive and powerful machines, fly all around the planet in our super-fast planes, create floating cities (aircraft carriers and cruise ships) that hold thousands of people, and communicate instantaneously using our electronics that bounce invisible signals off of satellites that we have put in geosynchronous orbit.
But even with all of our masterful dominance over the elements of this world, our ability still pales prodigiously in comparison to God's power. I'd like to see us humans try to recreate and control a thunderstorm!
It's almost as if God gave the Earth thunderstorms to constantly remind us of our nothingness before Him.
He created ALL of this! He controls it! The elements are all at His command, and are perfectly obedient to Him. These elements that we so proudly manipulate, are in fact perfectly humble examples for us.
The elements bend to our will if we follow their rules. They submit to our control and our desires. But they wield the power to destroy us!
It's true, the elements are an important part of God's creations. But we are a step above them in importance. We are His children, created in His image; the rightful heirs of all of the glory that He possesses! But we would do well to remember the example of the elements.
The next time that I feel a tinge of human pride coming on, I will do my best to remember the powerful, obedient elements that form lightning, and to remember God's power, the very power through which He allows me to accomplish anything of value that I ever accomplish.
"Lightning Is Flashing Everywhere"
We are in monsoon season, and I so enjoyed this past Sunday's storm. I was just earlier today lamenting the fact that the news said that we should have no more storms for a while.
But tonight, I was pleasantly surprised to see the lit-up sky proving that the radio was wrong. Or perhaps I had heard them wrong. I wasn't listening really closely anyway...
As I arrived home this evening, the main thing on my mind was that I still needed to write today's post. So I figured that I'd go outside on the back porch and enjoy the weather as I write. Since I've been out here, I've been the happy beholder of some pretty awesome displays.
As I was sifting through my list of LIFE acronyms to decide which one I was going to use for today's post, I saw the acronym "Lightning Is Flashing Everywhere". "Ah-hah!", I thought. "This is the PERFECT acronym for today's post!"
Now that I have today's acronym, it's time to figure out what I'm going to write about it. So I've been sitting here, just watching the beautiful designs that this storm is drawing across the sky, and waiting to be inspired.
In the meantime, I did a little research on lightning. Apparently, lightning reaches 50,000º Fahrenheit! That is more than 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun (which is 9,940º F)!!!
Lightning is one of nature's most beautiful sights, but it is also one of nature's most deadly forces.
Around 1,000 people per year get struck by lightning in the U.S., and roughly one tenth of those people are killed by the strike.
To us, lightning is something that we see only every once in a while. But the entity called Planet Earth knows no break from it.
The Earth as a whole is struck approximately 100 times per second! This isn't hard to believe, considering that there are about 2,000 active thunderstorms at any given moment worldwide.
It's incredible to think about the intense buildup of positively- and negatively-charged electrons within a cloud system.
A typical lightning strike contains about one trillion watts, which is all released in just a tenth of a second! And the channel that houses this immense transfer of energy is only as wide as a pencil! It appears much wider to us because of the immense light that is created by the transfer.
On average, each lightning bold transfers 10 to the twentieth power electrons! That's 100 QUINTILLION, or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000! In case you don't know how much 100 quintillion is, let me break it down for you.
One million is 1 thousand thousand, one billion is 1 thousand million, one trillion is 1 thousand billion, one quadrillion is 1 thousand trillion, and one quintillion is 1 thousand quadrillion. Then you multiply THAT by 100 to get 100 quintillion!
The air around this bolt of one hundred quintillion electrons is super-heated to the point of explosion, which causes a physical shockwave and therefore the loud boom that makes our pet dogs put their tails between their legs.
This sound wave of pushed air is so powerful that it can damage structures and people who are too close to it.
Oh man, there went a HUGE one!!! It was a cloud-to cloud strike, and it veered all across the sky above my head!
I'm on my outdoor recliner holding my iPhone up as I read and write, so I won't miss any of the lightning shows. It's only lightly sprinkling, so I must be just on the edge of the storm. This is the perfect way to observe lightning! I couldn't have asked for a better setup!
All of my readings about lightning, while sitting here and seeing these truly AWESOME displays as I read, have given me a solemn, sobering, and humble feeling.
I can only think of the majesty of God's power and all of His creations. We humans feel so powerful and domineering over the elements and animals of this world. We feel like we are in charge. We feel like we are the rulers of everything.
We build huge sky scrapers, dig deep pits, make massive and powerful machines, fly all around the planet in our super-fast planes, create floating cities (aircraft carriers and cruise ships) that hold thousands of people, and communicate instantaneously using our electronics that bounce invisible signals off of satellites that we have put in geosynchronous orbit.
But even with all of our masterful dominance over the elements of this world, our ability still pales prodigiously in comparison to God's power. I'd like to see us humans try to recreate and control a thunderstorm!
It's almost as if God gave the Earth thunderstorms to constantly remind us of our nothingness before Him.
He created ALL of this! He controls it! The elements are all at His command, and are perfectly obedient to Him. These elements that we so proudly manipulate, are in fact perfectly humble examples for us.
The elements bend to our will if we follow their rules. They submit to our control and our desires. But they wield the power to destroy us!
It's true, the elements are an important part of God's creations. But we are a step above them in importance. We are His children, created in His image; the rightful heirs of all of the glory that He possesses! But we would do well to remember the example of the elements.
The next time that I feel a tinge of human pride coming on, I will do my best to remember the powerful, obedient elements that form lightning, and to remember God's power, the very power through which He allows me to accomplish anything of value that I ever accomplish.
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