I am grateful for another day

In which to pursue my life with purpose

To enrich the lives of everyone I come into contact with

To empathise with all beings, feel their joy and their pain

Share my joy and sometimes sorrow

To accept that this day was given for me to grow and discover

Life and living to the full

I will be here, today

Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today.

I honour and cherish today as a gift.

I am grateful to be here.

I am a spark of the divine light.

Every bit of me is beautiful and perfect,

deserving of my own love,

a love that is shared openly with others.

It is from fear that we become ill.

Fear is resistance to the unknown.

The unknown is the only place where growth may happen.

I must not fear growth.

I embrace it, I accept it.

With acceptance comes peace.

I am a spark of the divine light.

Every bit of me is beautiful and perfect,

deserving of my own love,

a love that is shared openly with others

I learned about the Ka Huna principles from a friend, and it resonates with me. I repeat it here as a reminder to myself and perhaps introduce it to a wider audience.

Ike - The world is what you think it is - I am aware
Kala - There are no limits - I am free
Makia - Energy flows where attention goes - I am focused
Manawa - Now is the moment of power - I am here
Aloha - To love is to be happy with - I am happy
Mana - All power comes from within - I am confident
Pono - Effectiveness is the measure of truth - I am positive

If you were mine
    I'd spend each day discovering
       all the things that make you
          you
    I'd talk to you every day
       just to hear your voice
          and learn what's on your mind

If you were mine
    I'd treat each moment away from you
       as the sweet price to pay for being with you
    And being with you is the karmic reward
       for all the good things I have ever tried to be

If you were mine
    your kisses would be like eternity
       and making love would be glimpses of heaven
    Your arms would be my refuge from
       life's occasional necessary disappointments.

If you were mine
    I wouldn't have time to write verses
       dreaming what could be if you were mine.
         

I keep thinking about you
Everything I see and everything I feel
leads me back to you.

I hear music and it reminds me of our song
    I hear a voice with an accent and I imagine your voice
        I see a pretty girl with long black tresses of hair
            and I remember yours brushing against my face when we dance

I watch a movie,
    read a love story,
        yet their kisses do not
            measure up to the one we had.

I strive to be moral and compassionate
    I think about how much pain he would feel
        if he only knew
            And then I stop.

I cannot do this to him.
    Yet still I yearn for you.

*found this elsewhere but I found it amusing enough to share


01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

I just needed someplace to save these tongue twisters in case I misplace the dead-tree edition I got from my Spanish language teacher.


1. El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo porque Ramón Ramírez se lo ha cortado.
2. Pablito clavó un clavito ¿qué clavito clavó Pablito?
3. Tres tristes tigres comen trigo en un trigal.
4. El cielo está enladrillado, ¿quién lo desenladrillará?, el buen desenladrillador que lo desenladrille buen desenladrillador será.
5. Quien mucho coco come, mucho coco compra. Yo como como poco coco, poco coco compro.

Of course it is.  Call it God, the Universe, the Everything, I like to call it the Grand Consciousness.  Everything is a manifestation of this consciousness.  Imagine you were GOD. You can be anything and everything, anything you imagine is.  Rocks, trees, fish, planets, stars, atoms, whatever.  It just IS. 

Now imagine that some of these things have their own consciousness and have their own imagination too.  If you can imagine it, it exists, even for a microsecond it existed.  In your mind. But you yourself, are you not just an idea dreamt up by the Grand Consciousness?  You are part of it and you contribute.  Your contribution expands and grows the Grand Consciousness.  Each of us is a leaf in the great tree of life, we think we are separate, but we are not.

According to Obi Wan Kenobi "It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together."  

We humans have always been drawn to beauty.  Anything from a well crafted automobile, a delicate wood carving, a beautiful woman  (or man), to snowcapped mountains or a dramatic  sunset.  It's a universal human characteristic.

I've lusted over some very beautiful women and at some point I decided I could be beautiful too.  I did the diet, I did the gym, worked for months trying to sculpt my body into what I felt was pleasing.  Then during a workout, I realised, "Dude, is this you? Are you defining yourself as the body you inhabit?"  I'm not my body, I'm not my mind, I'm not my soul. 

This body is just a conveyance so I can get around this world and interact with other beings. It grows old and eventually breaks down.  My mind is constantly changing and growing, my mind now is not the same that it was two years ago or even two seconds ago.  The soul?  If I am just my soul, then what do I need the other stuff for? 

I suspect I am all of it.  And our souls are like tiny branches in the Great Consciousness.  We are all one and we are all beautiful.  How can there be an ugly branch in a beautiful tree?   We have always been beautiful.  We all are.  Fat or skinny, tall or short, light or dark, young or old, you, me, we all are beautiful.

Too many times I am dazzled by the chassis I tend to overlook what is inside.  Everyone is beautiful if we can only learn to really look.

Last night I had a drink with a friend who was staying at this beautiful waterfront house in one of the posh neighbourhoods of Sydney.  It had eight (8) bedrooms, smashing views, exquisite but  tasteful decor, plasma TVs and all the expensive toys you'd expect from a property that cost 20 times what I would be able to afford.

I think of myself as fairly enlightened.  And I like to believe I am beyond the pursuit of material things.  But (you knew there was going to be a 'but') last night had me thinking about material success again.  The owner of the house was a year younger than me and he makes a quid as a CEO of company.  I can't stop thinking that he is somehow better than me and happier than me because he has all these things.  Now I am questioning whether my so called enlightenment is nothing but poorly disguised 'sour grapes'.  Am I lying to myself when I say that I am happy where I am.  So I don't drive a Ferrari, so what if I am merely renting and can't even afford a mortgage? Am I a failure for giving up on the fantasy of material success? 

I realise I have folded on the poker game of material success.  I looked at my hand and gave up.  The inner voice said "Dude, ain't no way you're gonna win on them cards."  And silly me, I listened.

I once  read a Buddhist master describe that we cannot truly give up materialism if we never had it.  If you were poor to start with, then you have not given up anything.  I'm not saying I am poor, but neither do I live in a 6 million dollar mansion.

Before I go off declaring how enlightened I am and how the accumulation of material wealth does not interest me, maybe I should experience having them first?  I cannot honestly say I do not desire these things, because I do. 

I would love to have a pad with all the toys.  I would love to have friends over for parties and enjoy fine wine and entertainment.  I don't think it's wrong to desire these things.

I am declaring for all that I will now embark on the chase for money and success.  I'm not sure yet how to do this, but I will figure it out. 

I'm picking up my new hand and playing the cards I have.