Lights Will Guide You Home.

"IF I ONLY scrape A living, AT LEAST IT WAS A living worth scraping. IF THERE IS no future IN IT, AT LEAST IT WAS A present worth remembering."


Lately I have been busy. Busy with life, work, projects and the like. I tend to get caught up in them and, at times, loose site of my goal. Don’t get me wrong, all of the things I am doing are good and beneficial, sure. What I am talking about, though, is focus. Focus on what matters and what is merely temporary. It is tempting beyond belief to get caught up in moments or fleeting thoughts when, in reality, none of it is in the slightest way relevant to our calling.

I’m going to take a slight sidestep here and talk about the road we travel on. It sounds a bit cliche but hang with me, here. I think the path to success is a steep one that is plagued with many battles and struggles; while the road to failure or defeat is steady and gradual in it’s downward slope. It is a hard fight to progress onward but an easy step off-track to become lost in the world of confusion. I want to encourage you, for whatever it’s worth, to stay on course and to never stop running the race you have been given to run. You are positioned where you must be to develop into who you should be to complete every task that can be.


L  O  O  K      U  P  .


There is a world out there that is screaming your name. I find it funny, in a crude sort of way, how pathetic we make life out to be. We demean it at every chance we have and even go to the extremes of writing it off as mundane or predictable. I resent that notion. Life is circumstance, much of which is out of our control; but life is also like a game of poker. You can never choose the cards dealt to you, but you can always choose how to play them. Just because you receive a bad hand does not mean a thing if you know how to play them. Some of us are sitting here with a hand we did not ask for and certainly do not in any way desire. We sit, pout, and look around and everyone else's cards, cheating not only the game, life, but ourselves to believe that we have no chance compared to our neighbor who has a full house -- literally.


TAKE A step back.


>>When you try your best but you don’t succeed, when you get what you want but not what you need. When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep; stuck in reverse. And the tears come streaming down your face when you loose something you can’t replace. When you love someone but it goes to waste... could it be worse? Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones. And I will try to fix you. (Fix You, Coldplay). <<


What I have come to learn is that it’s not about being the biggest, fastest or strongest. Believe me, I have wished all three for myself. What it is about, though, is using what you have been given to achieve what you have been asked to do. Pursue greatness in everything and in every way. People have a nack for being infinitely more than they or anyone else ever imagined. Those who are willing to stare life, beautiful, beautiful life, in the face and say boldly, “I am not quitting. I am not stopping. I am never turning back and never giving up.” will be met with, at the very least, purpose and, at the very most, eternity.

There is so much more involved in dreams than most realize. Do you honestly think you wake up every morning with passions for things by accident? I don’t care if you try to write off your ability, I wish you didn’t, but for now I’ll let go. What I do care about, however, is that you would dare attempt to degrade something inside yourself that is unquestionably you. Why do you think Steve Jobs created Apple or Bill Gates created Microsoft? Do you believe that Bono, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga or any other musician, painter, actor, businessman or whatever had a deep desire to pursue anything other than what they did? I’m sure there were times they, you, me, everyone questions themselves but what separates those few aforementioned from most is that they made a conscious decision to chase what they knew they were supposed to do regardless of the circumstance.

It didn’t matter to them in the least what cards they were dealt and it shouldn't matter to you either. So what if your not a card-board cut-out of your dream. You shouldn't be. If you limit yourself to your dream your already putting a roadblock in the way of what you can do. Our dreams are blueprints. Sometimes, I think, they lead us more astray than anything else and here is why: we get so focused on a minor aspect of the dream and when we can’t attain it, we quit.


f   r   a   i   g   l   e  .


To that I would beg the question, why? Think about it. Honestly. Pretend you love music and so, obviously, you are supposed to be a singer. You pursue it the a hawk but never cut it “big time” and become depressed and quit. NO! Don’t. I beg you. Look around yourself and see what your missing. One of my good friends had this happen to them and was depressed until he opened himself up, looked inside, learned that he loved to teach and is now an extremely successful music teacher and private tutor who absolutely loves his “work” and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

We are bigger than one dimension or layer. We have the capability to be attracted to different things and to develop skills in them. Find where your passion meets your opportunity and skills. And so, for whatever it’s worth, I would encourage you to chase it. When those cross-hairs enter-twine, run after it like you have never run before. Life is short but it’s not too short to make a difference.

Faith In Pursuit.

"IT IS IMPORTANT TO measure success NOT AGAINST WHAT others have done, BUT instead  BY WHAT we have done FOR others."


To everyone who is patiently waiting,

Waiting for a job opportunity, a passion, a girl, a dream -- have faith, you are in the right place. Waiting is not a bad thing to be doing and, although at times it hurts like nothing else and confuses even the wisest of us, don’t stop. If I may, although it’s not my place, I would like to offer the following:


Sometimes it’s not about knowing; but rather believing that, regardless of the outcome, you will still be standing there at the end of the day screaming “it was all worth it”. You see, the trick to making it through life without ripping all of your hair out is first and foremost about realizing that you are not alone in your struggle or in your confusion about it. Secondly, it is vital to come to an understanding that pain is name of the path we walk on in pursuit of our goals and that, furthermore, that path is ok to be on because, when it really comes down to it, anything worth having is worth fighting for.

The most important thing to learn is the art of vulnerability. To be honest and to display something that truly challenges others to delve into themselves and their views you must be willing to open yourself, however raw, and be willing to become vulnerable to the point of humiliation. We must be willing to fail in order to achieve what we desire. The ability to chase something regardless of the outcome may be foolish in some contexts, but in the context of your passion, it is nothing short of courageous.

It comes down to realizing what it is that you simply want and what it is that you literally can not live without. Finding that raw, almost irrational desire for a craft, a purpose, a girl, a pursuit or whatever is essential to our personal and social fulfillment. Enjoyment is a derivative of passion and passion often pushes us to the brink of ourselves.


HOW beautiful.


To be at the end of yourself in the pursuit of what it is you are supposed to be doing is, in my mind, the most beautiful of images. I think to stand you have only to kneel. To succeed you have only to let go. And so this blog has become a call to do just that. To let go of yourself, entirely. A call to, in the words of E.M. Froster, “...be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”


Whether right or wrong, there is part of us that is constantly afraid that there is another life out there that we are missing out on. A longing for something much greater and deeper than whatever it is that we are currently experiencing. On this sentiment I would like to ask, what if you really are here for something bigger than the mundane, average or suggested life you have pictured for yourself or possibly even fallen into?

If you have refused to believe that there is a reason you are here, it is time to start. Start looking to the heavens and screaming until you hear an answer. Start asking all of the things that have terrified you since you can remember. Start chasing everything you have been told to put away. Run. Run like nothing could ever stop you. Dream as if nothing could ever steal it from you. Love as if you have never been hurt and hope against all hope that you are loved more than you could ever imagine.

The way I see it, if you are not here for a purpose yet live like you are , you have lost nothing -- but if you are here for a purpose yet live like you’re not, you have lost everything. It’s time to believe, friend. Sometimes we write off this or that because we cannot see, hear or capture it with our minds. Yet we so easily forget that we are not all-knowing or all-understanding. Is it possible that you don’t know everything? I think it is. I also find it very plausible that in that enormity of knowledge and wisdom hidden from my gaze, that part that takes the faith of a lion to follow, there could be hope. Hope for me, hope for you, and hope for what we face.


SCREAM UNTILL YOU hear AN answer.


Don’t throw a hissy-fit, here. But please, I beg you, do not give up on what you believe because you have fallen down. Challenge it. Challenge the way you think, feel and act. Ask the hard questions and never settle for complacency. I am not here to give you the answers but I am here, for whatever it’s worth, to push you to chase them.

A Challenge to Persevere.

"THE quarrel WITH others PRODUCES rhetoric, BUT THE  quarrel WITH self PRODUCES poetry."


In order for one to communicate excellently, one must first communicate truth practically. This is a struggle not only in our daily interactions with others, but in the personal conversations we carry with ourselves constantly throughout every day. Why bring it up? Because the pursuit and portrayal of truth is a neccesity which embodies itself in every aspect of every thing that we do, think and say.

SO, WHERE DO we begin?


If I may be so bold, I'd say at the beginning. The issue most of us face is not found, necessarily, in the question of what do we believe; but rather, why do believe in it in the first place? It is so easy to write something or someone off. It is even more popular to make an assumption based upon any number of biases previously and often unconsciously created. This leads, almost inevitably, to the ever so common succumbed attitude of "whatever makes you happy".

Do not confuse my mention of this mantra with disapproval of pursuit in what you desire. I would hope from my previous posts that it is evident that this is not the case. What I would argue, however, is that, more often than not, what we think we want is not what is actually best for us or those around us in the long run.

I believe that it is almost painfully clear to us what we want. Regardless of who you are or where you are from, you have had, at some point or another, a desire for something. This desire, whether justified or not, led you to a place where either decisive action or full abandon was necessary and, like all of us have experienced, you chose one. The question I would like to pose here is this: just because you want or believe something, does that make it right? Does that make it OK?


INTERESTING.


You can approach this from many different angles and, ultimately, come to many different conclusions. Because of this, instead of delving into some arbitrary battle of philosophy, ideology and religiosity, I am choosing, simply, to leave you with the following illustration:


Johnny is a good kid but he tends to push the limits when it comes to obeying his mother. He loves her more than anything in the world, but pushing her limits comes in a very, very close second. We meet Johnny on the road, driving a car for the first time. Upon reaching the first intersection, however, Johnny's mother exlaims "Johnny, stop! You cannot cross yet, there is a stop sign." Johnny snidely replies "I don't believe in stop signs." and sails through only to be met with a head-on collision.


Ok, depressing, I know. Sorry for the debbie-downer moment. But sadness aside, this story demonstrates something of vital importance. Although silly and nieve, Johnny made quiet a startling statement about himself. Not only did he tell us that he did not believe in stop signs, but by directly disobeying them, he proved to us that he also believes something much more frightening. Johnny believes that, regardless of what others say, if he does not believe in something, then to him, it does not exist.Interesting sentiment, certainly. The terifying part about this kind of behavior is that, regardless of whether or not Johnny believes in the stop sign, he is still going to get hit by the car that is screaming through in the other direction.

Here is the point: sometimes it doesn't matter if we believe something or not. What actually matters is whether or not what we believe is true. Just because we want something or think something does not necessarily make us right. In fact, more often than not, we are mistaken by our own, selfish desires. I think it is of utmost importance to take a huge step back from our current lives and beliefs to seriously quarrel with ourselves in an effort to fully understand why we believe what we believe.


I think default mode for most of us is to put on this face of ambiguity. We push away things of importance and shun those who stand for or against anything. Our faces stay hidden from purpose and we effortlessly shy away from any and every form of public approval or disapproval of anything. I find it more refreshing, honestly, to find someone who sincerely believes in something totally opposite to myself than to find someone who half-heartedly assumes something in line with myself. Because of this, I would like to sincerely challenge you to, for whatever it's worth, analyze not what you are doing as much as why you are doing it.

People are desperate for meaning, purpose and truth. But how can we find truth in such an ambiguous world? Ah, my friend, stay patient. I am not hear to give answers, only to raise questions. This journey we are both on, life, is a short one but it is worth every second. Pain is the price we pay in the pursuit of truth and every drop of sweat and bead of blood we give to achieve that goal is worth more than gold. Finish every battle strong but do not be discouraged if you loose or confuse one for battles may be lost but perseverance ensures that the war will be one.