The Message is Simple

   Regarding all the negativity concerning the weddings held at the Grammy’s Such behavior is certainly not a Christian act as Jesus was a living example of love one another, and don't judge (ego) lest you be judged. If you are pointing the finger, you are looking in a mirror. If you want to go Old Testament then the 10 Commandments said to Love your neighbor as yourself - there was no preamble, no "but only if they look like you, think like you, believe like you  . . ." The message is simple and profound – Love one another. 

   People deserve the right to love whom they choose to love. No, an adult having lustful, sexual feelings toward children, or animals is not love. Love is caring, nurturing, protective, not psychologically and physiologically destructive to one another, so don’t attempt to throw that foul ball here. To suggest that is as if equating rape to love and it isn’t; rape is about power, an ego trip of horrific proportion.

   If all the extreme right wing people were really smart, instead of fighting so hard against gay people wanting to get married they would have moved heaven and earth to make sure that gay couples could have the right to have their loved ones covered by their insurance, to have access to their loved one when they are admitted to the ER and/or ICU, to be able to pay their taxes together with the same benefits, to basically have all the rights, and privileges that married couples enjoy. Just because they want to be together, and have these, and other rights, and privileges doesn’t mean they are forming an attack on you, or your beliefs. It does mean they believe differently than you, and that is their right under the law – freedom of religion. 

   When you point your finger at the gay community, condemn them, and say they are attacking my values; that is exactly what you are doing, and more. You are attacking their values, their rights, and freedom to believe as they choose, and you are oppressing them with “your religious beliefs”. For those of you who may not realize this, that is called religious oppression.

   All that being said here is my message to “gay groups” and other “groups”.  When I see advertisements like, “Are you ready for a gay social network?” My first response to this and all others like it is, “No.” Not anymore than I’m ready for a heterosexual only social network. Don’t call it a gay wedding; it’s a wedding – two (hopefully) loving, consenting, adults getting married. I didn’t call my wedding, my heterosexual wedding. Jeeze, isn’t that a mouthful. Okay, now I’m sure some of you are upset, but before you get your tail feathers in too much of a ruffle, let me explain something that you may not have considered. When you create things like the 'Gay Social Network' it conveys things like – separate, different, exclusive as oppose to inclusive, etcetera. These are all things that you are fighting against; being considered separate, and different from the rest of society, and not worthy of the same equal rights, of being excluded because of a label, and not as who you are; a fellow human being who just wants to love and be loved. If we want unity then we need to start working in that direction.

   NO! Please God do NOT think I’m saying we need to get rid of individualism. How about instead of all these different cultural days we have a, “Celebrate and share your culture week?” or “Celebrate the best of humanity week?” or “Celebrate your freedom week” or here’s a great one, “Celebrate love and kindness week”. When we separate ourselves we are falling under the illusion of Ego, which is fear based. When we separate ourselves from others and deny our connection to all (and I mean the frickin’ planet, plants, animals, people, the land itself) that is when we are truly acting in an ‘Unnatural’ manner because, like it or not, when it comes to physics we are ALL connected on an atomic level – everything pulls on everything else, just a bunch of protons, neutrons, electrons, etc. So, for all your uniqueness, whether you believed that God(s) made the universe, or nature/science did, your atoms are still no better than mine, and as a ‘matter’ of fact, like it, or not, we are connected so why don’t we try, and start acting like it.

You Can Only Give What You Have

You really can't take care of everyone else when you don't take care of yourself. How you treat yourself is how you broadcast to others to treat you. When you sacrifice and put yourself last you tell others to put you last, that you don't deserve better. If this is you I'm here to tell you that you can't trade yourself for love, respect, positive attention or to be valued. When you take care of yourself and your needs you are in a better place to care for others; you tell others that you matter and you understand the value of that and thus can give that value to others. When you take care of yourself you tell others you matter. If you don't believe you are enough, if you don't believe you deserve best life has to offer, if you don't believe that you deserve to pursue your dreams then God/Life/The Universe will live up to your expectations and give you exactly what you, your actions, your choices, your beliefs say you deserve. You are enough; right here, right now, just as you are - you are enough; I know what it feels like to feel irreparably broken, it was the biggest lie my ego (my false/little self) ever told me. Every time you think you can’t do something, you don’t have enough to accomplish something, every time you think you aren’t good enough, smart enough, fill in the blank enough – take a deep breath and say out loud (so you can hear yourself) oh, that’s just ego; the more you recognize it the more it diminishes. Every time someone presents a possibility, a different way of thinking, a different approach, opinion, etc and some part of you jumps up in anger – that’s ego. When other people present something that is outside of our perspective, outside our way of doing thing or thinking about things including ourselves and we feel; angry, scared, upset, sad, afraid, etc – that’s ego. Another person presenting something different is nothing more than a different perspective with no reflection on us, just a different way of thinking and the true self knows that this can’t hurt us and that there is nothing to fear. Expanding your understanding of this will help you realize that peace is not about circumstances, and that happiness is within your own heart and not outside of yourself. You may respond to certain people and things that come into your life with joy, but that choice and that feeling comes from within you and that source is always there, but the ego is good at hiding it away as it tells you that someone is lashing out at your, that you need to be afraid, that you aren’t enough, etc. It is the true Father of Lies – recognize it for what it is and it diminishes and you regain your own true person power that was always there waiting for you and then who knows what you’ll accomplish. What better gift could you give yourself this coming new year? You deserve it.