To Grow Up

To Grow Up

No one taught me how to grow up

Ripped from the sun kissed days of youth

Into the bleak, wintery abyss of maturity

No one prepared me for this.

I know everyone goes through it,

I understand it's part of life,

That in order to be accepted we must "grow",

But I don't understand why.

Why should we have to give up

 The only things that make life beautiful

In order to survive in this world?

As children we understand what's important:

The connections between each other

Singing songs and holding hands

That play and make believe are sacred...

Why must these life-giving entities disappear

Or be looked at as Naive as we grow?

It seems to me that adulthood is code

For throwing your soul to the stones.

Couldn't we compromise?

I believe we can fulfill our childhood desires

While coming at them from a deeper

And more mature perspective.

Until we come to a place where "childishness:"

Is accepted in the adult heart

I will never feel welcome 

In a world that shuts such wonder out.

The Love That You Have

Everybody’s just doing the best job they can with the love that they have, and it’s a damn shame that it’s not enough sometimes. It is heartbreaking. Nobody means to do bad things or hurt someone they love and/or feel bonded to. It’s just I think deep down inside we’re all so empty...That we’re all just trying to feel this deep void in whatever way we can and that sometimes other people’s hearts get tramped in the process. When you think of it, it is selfish, yet so relatable...We all just need to be loved so badly, and we’re all so hungry for it that sometimes we forget about consequences. And we have to learn to forgive those who starved for love so much that they sucked all the love we had out of us. Even they were doing the best they could. And the best we can do is walk away, pick up the pieces and forgive them. 

The Art of Being Bad At Something

Just call me Revelation Sally, because I have a big one to share. I was wondering, wracking my brain about why I am not already a regular Jimmy Hendrix after two years of playing guitar, and I realized something very important: We get older and we forget the art of being bad at something.

Yes, there’s an art. Do you remember the first sentence you wrote, or the first time you danced, or the first time you painted a picture? No? That’s because you were probably terrible at it and didn’t know what you were doing. But you want to know what’s great about that? You didn’t care how terribly misspelled your sentence was,or what your dance looked like, or if your picture was just a blob of paint. The most important part was that you were having fun and didn’t understand judging yourself negatively was an option. 

All you were doing was taking what you learned and putting it to use. And if you continued to do what you learned, and continued to not judge yourself, you probably traveled on to be pretty good at the activity and, perhaps, even an expert. So the first key to getting better at something, and even traveling to being an expert at something, is to refrain from judging yourself.

The second key is to just keep doing it. We often give up citing frustration over not gaining success with a given activity, art or job fast enough. Well, when you’re comparing what you’re just starting, to other skills that you have been practicing for pretty much your entire life, the new activity doesn’t have a chance in hell. Take my guitar-playing situation. I have often compared it to signing. I have been singing since I could talk and taking lessons since I was 14. There is NO WAY that I could possibly compare these newly acquired skills, to ones I have been honing for almost all my life. It would be like comparing a two year-old’s verbal skills to that of a 22 year old. It’s just a wildly unfair competition.

The two year old still needs many years to grow, to learn, and gain damn motor skills. I read that it takes in 10,000 hours to become an expert on any given subject or art. I am probably 5-10% of the way there. That’s a lot of hours to go, son!

In conclusion, the third, and most important key is to embrace the art of being bad at something. In other words: enjoy the learning process. Know that unless you are a prodigy, this is something you’ve gone through many times before and conveniently forgotten. Even the greatest artists, musicians, scientists and poets were novices at some point. No matter what the task is, if you keep at it, refrain from judgement and learn to enjoy the process of learning, you will get better. 

Good luck on your journey from Bad to Expert.

With Love,

Lauren :-) 

A Rant About Spiritual Wealth

If you get everything you want all the time then you never take the time to understand most painful lessons, which are, likewise, the most fruitful lessons for your soul. You need to know what's truly important outside of the physical world, and unless you go through suffering, you never really get the chance to fully comprehend that. When I think of my deepest goals in life, allI really want to do is connect to the my fellow human beings and share the love I've learned--to make sure that whatever I do in my life is an expression of that. I thank God that I've had the chance to learn the truth, and also, that I am open enough to hear new truths each day. I love people, I love this earth and I want to give back to it. I love every creature on the planet,  I love God, I love that I am a part of everything and everyone. Love is the answer. The only answer that heals. The only answer that can take you through to the end and beyond. Everything good is coming to me and I'm giving out everything good...In other words I will not give the world energy that does not serve it and I will not accept energy that does not serve me. I have unyielding gratitude for everyone I meet and I learn from both every blessing and every suffering in my life. I have spiritual wealth. This can never be taken away from me. It is possible to have every possesion, every title you wear and even every person taken away from you...But no human or outside force can ever take away your spiritual blessings-the love you give and receive, that’s yours to keep. If you can base your life on these principles, dispose of your ego and learn to look at all outside forces (your status, job, possessions) as something that can serve your inner life, but that never define it, then, and only then, are you able to find meaning and peace.

I hope you just enjoyed my random stream of consciousness about the meaning of life.

Love,

Lo :)

The First Americans

We love to call out Genocide
A nation built on "Savior's" pride
It seems so easy to forget
Our country rests on unpaid debt

They took advantage of your kindness
Trampled down your history
Stole from you with rampant blindness
Burned the roots of wise oak trees

We thought we had it figured out
The new found world, so big, so bold
We all know the words of our story
But the first American's goes untold.

Notice how they never smite us
They just wish we undersood
That each spirit is connected
And only love will do us good.

So if you can before you leave
Take a moment to learn
The story of our true forefathers
It's time their truth be heard.

Technology--Empathy---Robots

I am sick of getting emails from robots. I feel like, back in the day, people used to email each other because it was a quick way to get a personal message from one body to another. Now a-days, it’s always robots trying to solicit you, or, if you’re lucky, it’s a business email. I find myself leaping at the chance to open up an email that is from an actual warm-bodied human being...Even if the topic may be unpleasant. I am so happy to find that another person took the time to write to me, even if it’s just about a business matter. If a person actually just writes me to say hello or tell me they care, it’s a bonanza in my house. It makes my heart more warm than you can imagine--I get so excited!

On another tangent, I feel like the amount of technology we have is ironically getting to a point where it’s debilitating, rather than helpful. I feel it is taking away the one real advantage human beings have over other animals which is empathy. You see, everything is just too easy. There aren’t enough consequences on a personal, human level. People can just say whatever they want to withouth looking the person they’ve just injured in the eyes.  You always don’t have to spend as much time laboring over how to say something to someone or what to do because you can just text them. It has the potential to turn people (especially young kids) into low-level sociopaths, if we’re not careful.

We also use these technology as a crutch. There have been many times where I have chosen to watch Netflix, text or peruse social media over dealing with how I actually felt, because, well, it made me feel better than sitting and dealing with myself. Techonology has made it supremely easy to pretend like everything is going great when really you’re crumbling. It has allowed us to focus on only select part of ourselves without really getting into the gritty stuff. Unfortunately, unless we allow ourselves to feel and acknowledge the unpleasant aspects of our lives, we cannot grow.

Technology has made it easier to deceive everyone, most importantly (and detrimentally), ourselves. I think I have a real compulsion to delve into the technology world whenever I start to feel unpleasant/uncomfortable feelings. Honestly, at this point grabbing your phone is the modern day equivalent of drinking-it lowers your inhibitions, it makes you feel “cool” and like you belong. Much like alcohol, it is simply a temporary solution to a much bigger problem that has the potential to be solved, if you just put down the phone and look at yourself.. I am challenging myself to do this, will you do it too? I hope so. Let’s bring back caring about people (including ourselves) more than machines.

Love,

Lo

Nothing Human is Alien To Me

Together we stand, but standing, or seated, we're never really apart. It is our great tragedy that we, as humans, believe we can ever be separate from one another. We are connected to every person and every action each person produces. Above all, I know this to be true.

There is one quote from Maya Angelou that forever changed my perspective and "accidentally" propelled me into becoming a songwriter, "I am a Human Being, nothing Human can be Alien to me". This quote explains life on this planet perfectly, as far as I can see it. Maya explains this line by saying something to the effect of, "I realized, that as a person, I am capable of the greatest good that a human can do, and with that, also, the most atrocious evil."

We must have the awareness that when we perform positive acts, a collective pulse of joy travels through the souls of the world, and in contrast, that when we put out evil, a collective cry is experienced in every soul. Therefore, we have no room to judge anyone else, and can only go toward understanding, as when you judge or condemn another, you are ultimately judging and condemning yourself. I've said it before, and I'll continue to say it until my dying day, but the simple fact of the matter is that if unconditional love for ourselves and our fellow human was our number one goal, everything else would fall into place. Work to make love your first reaction.

As Maya says, "If we can do that [see that we are capable of] about the negative, just think of what we can do about the positive." In other words, since light always trumps darkness, if we, as humans, are capable of the most heinous crimes, then we, as humans, are also capable of an even greater level of the most miraculous good. For even Jesus said, "Even the least among you is capable of all I have done and GREATER." Greater! That is so inspiring to me. That a person who literally created miracles through love is telling me and all of my fellow species-mates that we are capable of even greater miracles! The thought alone brings tears to my eyes.

There is so much evidence in the world of the obstacles love, understanding and truth can overcome. Why don't we commit today to understand instead of condemn, to love instead of hate and to be honest instead of living a lie. See a reflection of yourself in everyone you meet. Love the reflection you see. Remember, what we don't like in other people most often reveals what we don't like in ourselves. It's called projection. Stop it. Learn that when you hurt one you hurt all. So choose to help many. Love until it hurts, hurt until it heals. And know that we can never be divided.

Whether we like it or not, we can never separate from where we came. We are all connected through the soul. We are all of the same source. We are one.

The Maya Video :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe-6h0T2qt4, this one talk inspired me to write my first song:

My Song: "Nothing Human":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFGNozHHWeg

Sending you love,

Lo :-D