Life, explained (7)

Saturday, the day before yesterday, started out as many Saturdays do, with me preparing for my early-morning trips to the grocery stores.

We frequent several stores, and I usually shop at two each Saturday. It was three this time. It's all about which store has sales on items we need, and which stores we know have particular produce we are seeking.

As I came out of the first store, a new chain which just opened in Denver, I saw a sight not seen in Denver: a rainbow at 6:30 in the morning. Since the great majority of our rainfall comes from afternoon storms and we otherwise have so little cloudy weather, it's unusual for the conditions needed to birth a rainbow to happen early in the morning. In fact, I cannot recall seeing a morning rainbow so soon after sunrise.

Since I did not have my camera with me, I hustled home to get this photo before the rainbow was gone.

The day itself was fairly typical, other than the USA playing in a World Cup knockout round game--we don't usually get that far, and it showed. I watched some of the game, and I did what I usually do on the weekends, getting chores done and goofing off.

As early evening arrived, so did a storm. It was not violent, just a gentle rain which lasted half an hour, and then the sun broke through. I was sitting at the dining room table when I looked out the window to the east. Dark clouds. I could also see the sunshine lighting up the back yard from the west, and I knew! I grabbed the camera and got outside quickly to get this shot.

I didn't do a great job of panning the camera so as to create stitchable pieces for a panorama, but that's not what matters. If you get past the amateurish photography and dive into the scene, you can be where I was in that moment, enjoying it with a great big grin on my face. The rainbow was a stunner, with the main bow intensely colored and the second rainbow fully visible from one end to the other.

The bookends of my Saturday, these ethereal markers were.

Life is funny. It offers up such moments as these, and we can decide to pause and note them or to just glance up and move on. I considered enjoying the early-morning rainbow by standing in that grocery-store parking lot until it faded, but I'm glad I decided, instead, to leap into the car and hurry home so I could capture it. I'm relieved, in retrospect, that no traffic cop saw me in my mad dash. Can you imagine explaining my speeding to some grizzled veteran policeman?

"Yes, officer, I realize I was exceeding the speed limit. You see, I was hurrying home to get some pictures of that rainbow."

He could have told that story in the precinct house for weeks.

But it was not a day for funny stories or unusual human events. No, it was a day for Nature to show off silently and beautifully in the early-morning light, the evening sun, and in my mind's eye.

It was a mundane Saturday. I loved every minute, and I really loved the day's bookends.

Life, explained (6)

One of the best aspects of the arrival of the maturation of one's offspring into gone-from-the-house people--I was going to say "adults" but I'm not comfortable with that label myself so I won't weigh my daughters down with it--is that there is more time for quiet reflection.

That's not to say that the space available is not often filled with busy-ness of the silliest degree, almost busy for the sake of busy itself, but the space is there.

I talked last time about the journey becoming more and more important as one realizes how much of it is now behind when compared to the journey remaining.

It is now that the search for meaning commences.

Cleverly, the Universe hid Meaning where we would least expect to find it, and that adds up to most people ending up as clueless as they were at the start.

Going on a "search for meaning" adventure!

Here's the thing: meaning is not an external entity of any sort. It is, instead, an assigned value consideration which each of us cooks up in the cauliflower-looking organ between our ears.

Over the centuries, brilliant men and women have expounded at length and at short--pithy is the new black--about what life means. While I have enjoyed a great many of these works of explanation and elucidation, I remain unconvinced that anyone else's is more than a small influence on what I will end up with.

I'm not planning on ending up with anything for some time to come, but you know where I'm going. My "meaning of Life" statement will be ever-evolving and, with any luck, ever-enriching for those who are exposed to it.

By the same token that my own result is only slightly influenced by that of others, I have very modest expectations as to the effect on you which you can attribute to visits here to Hamguin's little nest.

Let's get specific.

My joy in writing, particularly in writing this ongoing series on how I would explain Life, is in the sense of calm confidence it leaves me with, knowing I am doing what is mine to do in the world. My pleasure in your reading is in my mind's eye where I see you nodding as you understand where I am coming from. If you take anything from here with you as you leave, take a peaceful knowing.

The knowing is not knowing everything, but knowing that it is perfectly okay not to know much about anything, as it is our curiosity which keeps our hearts beating. We're curious to know more about the unseen parts of Life. We're curious to learn how we can steer. We're curious to know why it seems to work out better for us in the long run if we can let go of that urge.

Life goes on. So will my explanation.

Life, explained (5)

In this haltingly continuing story, we have discussed much and resolved little. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what this whole thing is about, though--discussing, interacting, flowing into and out of each other's stories--so I don't feel at all unhappy with where we have gotten to.

Rather than continue to link back to the previous episodes, I'm going to create a label, Life Explained, which all of the posts related to the tale will be assigned. By clicking on the Life Explained label in the list of labels to the right, you will be able to have the entire group open in a list of posts. Keep in mind that the oldest episodes are at the end of the list, not the top of it.

So, the storyteller has now reached the stage in his life when the looking back is really fun, and the looking forward is not requiring so much energy.

It's the point at which there can be an ongoing investigation of what really happened, or, in other words, how one wishes to tell the story as saga, rather than just scenes from it.

For me, the hero's journey works best. This is a story form which requires a beginning in a commonplace setting with a seemingly commonplace main character, said character unexpectly jerked into a hugely challenging set of events and adventures which proof and anneal, then returned to normal life where his time away gives new perspective which can yield great benefit to all who know him.

We all experience this. Our world, at first, is small and generally safe and quiet. Gradually, as we grow from infants to toddlers to school-age children, we learn more of what is scary in the world--and what exactly that is varies widely from one of us to another, even at a very young age--and decide where we will choose to be. Some choose to stay far from the scary parts, others are attracted to them.

Even when children, the adventures begin for us all.

Leap ahead half a century, and the sheer volume of the saga makes Rumi's Masnavi seem a short story. I introduce Rumi quite by accident, sort of, but then there aren't any of those when one is seeking to reveal and make transparent. Here is a tiny bit of Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks:

I have lived on the lip of insanity,
wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door.
It opens.
I have been knocking from the inside!

Here is where we arrive at late-middle, at the part of the journey where we know almost for sure that we are more than halfway to wherever the heck we are going. Slowly, the journey takes on a sense and life of its own, and we see paradox turned into something more magnificent.

It is now that one can be gentle with the ego, soften the rough edges enough to make the memories palatable, perhaps kick up a tiny bit the amount of courage exhibited by our hero.

If, at the same time, the core truth remains, the story--the saga--becomes compelling.

More? Count on it.

Life, explained (4)

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Part 3 is here.

When we left off, we had just begun to gain some ground in bossing around all these really big people. Now comes some serious miscommunication: they actually think they are in charge.

After a couple of years of this going on, we finally give up and let them keep their delusion of control. It's just not worth it to continue trying to straighten them out, as they clearly are too far from Home to remember.

As we begin to grow and learn more about this crazy game we have joined here on Earth, we become more and more like the giants. Over some years, we even begin to look more like them, growing larger and larger ourselves.

For many of us, there comes a time in our lives when we decide it would be fun to be the giants in the room which belongs to a little tiny new one. So, we get together with another person and create the Earth suit which another Spirit comes to live within.

This is a miraculous time, both because we are reminded of when we were so little and because we now have a great responsibility and a constant source of amazement living in our own homes.

We spend all of our energy and most of our resources caring for our offspring, teaching them all about how life works, and loving our time watching them grow.

Just about the time that they are moving out and starting their own independent lives, we begin a new part of the game. In fact, it is the time when, if we choose, we can recall the game. Not completely, at least not for most of us, but enough to wonder what we were thinking all of those years between giving up trying to direct the actions of the giants and watching our own children leave the nest.

In learning that we came here from Home, that we are here to love and laugh and enjoy the company of others, our focus shifts. Now, we don't seek to win the game. We seek, instead, to love the game.

What we come to see is that the game offers a rich environment within which we can discover an infinite number of ways Love expresses itself. Our instinctive response is to want to know more about Love. Where does it come from? Where does it go when it has passed through us?

Now, rather than competing in the game, we are becoming smiling observers. Because no one is not a participant, we are still in the game, even as we are outside it enjoying how others are playing.

We feel a great urge to share our new-found perspective with others. In some cases, our sharing is accepted and folks come to grasp a bit of what it is like for us now. In other cases, our sharing is thought of as the ramblings of old people.

Both conclusions are right.

Stay tuned...there's more.

Life, explained (3)

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

While the explanation is kept to the simplest of terms and avoids many of the complications which we all live through, it is important to grasp the elements from which the complexity is created. Only by grokking the building blocks can you begin to comprehend the delightfully rich stuff which life brings our way.

Let's keep playing.

Games we learn as children, at least most of them, are games which are designed to have a definitive end and a winner of the game when it ends.

Life is not like that.

Sure, there are competitions we cook up in our lives which are exactly the same finite games of our childhood. I'm a big fan of some of them and participate in some. Here's a silly thing I have noticed: even when we all acknowledge that it is a game which is going on, there are still people who act as if it is a cause for seriousness.

The point is, there are people who will not get what I am talking about here. That's perfectly okay, don't get me wrong. I'm not seeking to convert anyone from taking everything about life with a concentrated look on their faces and an intensity in their eyes, to something more akin to how I now seek to live. That's their choice, and bless them on their path.

For anyone reading who has been made curious, what follows is a meandering description of the game which began before our births and will continue on for an undetermined period after our Earth suits have been discarded.

We start together, so "together" that there is only Me. Through some process I am not able to describe, we each, even as still being Me, plan a visit away from the collective energy which is Me. It is a means by which we can love even more than we do already.

Once the plan is complete, we leave Me and head to Earth. We arrive at some point before we are born and begin to breathe (I'll leave the exact details of when we arrive to the attorneys and folks who can tell you exactly how many angels can dance on the head of a pin). To make things even more interesting and to insure our own total involvement, we allow ourselves to forget where we were before we came to inhabit this little 20-inch-long Earth suit.

The giants in the room are in charge, that much is obvious. They don't feed us or remove our soiled garments unless we scream at them. It is very frustrating, these not-very-attentive giants. They either forget to change our clothes, or they are in our faces making funny noises while we are simply trying to sleep. It is clear they don't understand us.

Over time, we are able to communicate with the giants and, at least sometimes, get what we need from them. While they are still only partially cooperative, they are easier to direct once we can speak their language.

This is when things really get screwy.

See more of the tale in the next post. Tomorrow, maybe.

Life, explained (2)

(if you just stumbled upon this post and have not read the first half of the topic, please read it first--it was published on March 7th and is the post immediately preceding this one chronologically)

Because we have these big organs inside our heads which provide a high-bandwidth flow of information about where we are and what our surroundings indicate, we can choose. That's my motivation in writing today, to remind anyone stopping by that we can choose. For anyone stuck in a feedback loop which is saying to them, over and over, that they are no good and will never acquire the stuff which will make them happy, here is an alternative song to stick in your head in place of that one.

We are infinite beings experiencing life as organisms on a spinning ball of dirt and water. Nothing is beyond our reach, yet we have chosen deliberately to focus on the experiences on this little ball, wearing these silly flesh-and-blood suits which hide our real and glorious selves. So, that was choice number one, a choice we made early enough that most of us cannot recall it: we chose to limit ourselves to what we can do while wearing Earth suits.

Choice number two was to allow ourselves to become so engrossed in the game that we completely forgot who we are. It adds to the intensity of the game, having made this choice, but after awhile, it also adds to the frustration level and can breed dissatisfaction.

This brings us to choice number three. We can choose to remember that we chose to be here and chose our limitations. As with any choice, there are outcomes we would prefer and outcomes we would not. My own preference is to know that life is a game not so that I can opt out, but so that I can enjoy it more. My own simple melody which repeats in my head and which I can hear if I slow down and become quiet is one of Love.

The thing is, Love is all there really is. Why we are able to avoid knowing this all the time, first thought in the morning and last one before sleeping, is inexplicable and crazy. I don't try to explain how we can avoid Love. I embrace it and allow the mystery to remain.

We come from Love. We live in a universe created from Love and pulsing Love and accepting Love.

Okay. Time for one last review.

Life is a game. Happiness is an innate part of us and of the game, and yet we can turn from it. It is possible to spot this turning away, and choose to turn back toward who we really are and enjoy the game even more. Love is the name of the path that we walk as we play the game. Love is the name of the breath we take. Love is the source, the flow, and the destination.

Can you come out and play?

Life, explained (My Sacred Life, Sunday)

Life. It's a game, isn't it? Or, to be a bit more specific, it's a game which involves folks who know they are playing a game, and folks who don't.

This sets up all manner of difficulty. Those who take life with deadly seriousness are not easy to get along with if you are one who knows we are here to have fun.

It's even a bit more complicated than that because even if you are one who recognizes the fun which life is meant to entail, you will forget from time to time. Those difficulties I mentioned? They take roost inside you when you forget. You have internal struggles between what you know to be true and what you think once you forget what you know.

When you are having those internal struggles, you will draw to you more of those folks who find life a terrible fight which must be won, and won by defeating others or defeating crises or...well, life.

Interestingly, in those quieter moments when you are fully present with your knowing, when you realize who you are, at least in the sense of knowing you have a place where you fit in this universe, you will discover more people around you who are also aware and at peace.

It's a clue, and a consistently solid one: what we see is a reflection of what we are feeling. So, if you are particularly frustrated by coworkers or fellow drivers on your commute or the long lines at the store, you are likely to see that frustration in the eyes of those around you. You are going to see traffic moving in fits and starts and those lines move even more slowly than you thought possible.

Let's recap.

In this life, being happy is facilitated by knowing that this is the Happiness Game. We draw to us people who feel similar feelings to what we are feeling and experiences which reinforce how we are feeling.

For many, I have just introduced another potential miscommunication spot. Happiness as I speak of it has nothing at all to do with stuff or prestige. Sure, stuff can be fun and prestige may get one a table when the restaurant is seemingly full, but neither are at the core of this.

Happiness is more about contentment, having a predisposition toward smiling and laughing, acknowledging the beauty and miraculousness of all that is, just as it is.

Another key attribute of our game: we don't play to win. We play for the sheer enjoyment that playing offers. For an elegantly simple explanation, read Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse.

Let's pause here for a day. I'll post the remaining portion of this tomorrow morning.