It's up to all of us...

I’ve been having writers block lately, sitting in front of my computer screen beginning sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph only to delete the entire thing as I drew a blank not knowing which direction to take the piece or what even to continue it with.

As Facebook is now a new means of communication and I also have Senshido related facebook messages (almost as much as I get via email and other methods of communication), I was checking my messages and the universe (if you will) threw me a bone in as I caught one of my facebook buddies, Wayne Chandler, had just put this quote up as his status update:

"In true budo there is no enemy or opponent. True budo is to become one with the universe, not train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to mankind around the world."

Now I’ve been seeing the world differently again, and the more truth I find, the more ‘addicted’ (to be taken as a descriptive and not at face value ;`) I become to it… not perceived truths, but common truths that can only enhance humanity as a collective such as the truth to be found in the quote above, for surely, all of humanity can only benefit from true world peace.

And so we believe that if each do our parts and follow Mother Theresa’s life changing advice as per her words written on the wall of her home in Calcutta, at the hopes of inspiring some to not only quote, but as often as possible until it becomes first nature; to live by these words and share their stories in the hopes of inspiring others here http://senshido.savi.ca/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3129 as positive energy spreads and creates a more powerful ripple effect than most believe.

Even if you’ve read them a thousand times before, even if you read them 10 minutes ago, please, read them again… let them sink in… let them resonate within you for a while, forever…

"People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centred; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway."

Not an easy task to accomplish, indeed a very difficult one in a world I perceive as sufferring from an epidemic of anger. An anger targeted outwards and at each other due to a truth most do not want to even acknowledge, couldn’t fathom yet it eats away inside us all so much it manifests itself as road rage, bar fights, domestic abuse, any kind of abuse, violence, racism etc. and where does this all come from and why is it increasing world wide? When I was growing up, my parents never feared sending me to school… today, kids are shooting kids and not just in the USA but in Germany & Canada as well.

Today, childen are being checked for weapons before entering schools. Today, we live in a world where professional athletes (people who play sports and happen to be better than others at it) make literally 3 to 50 times more money annually than what others who put their lives on the line for us like cops, firemen and true healers (medical and holistic) make. While there are yet others whom are literally starving to death the world over as some of us live in multi million dollar homes. If I continued this ‘Today’ list, I’d be typing until tomorrow. Why? Why is that???

There is a collective anger, a silent revolte which is tearning us apart instead of uniting us, and that is the lies we have been forced to accept and eventually not only live with as truth but actually believe these lies as facts, as its own manufactured reality by fear and greed and it is everywhere… we all see it, the majority turn a blind eye and when one of us speaks out loud enough, we are quickly extinguished by the scared collective… well, if we’re such a powerful collective, shouldn’t we be working the opposite way around? Shouldn’t we be insuring our futures as a species? It seems some of our species can’t see past their own mortality or wallets.

Although maybe difficult, connecting to our soul and experiencing it as fully as possible by relishing the input from all of our senses, feeling the joys and sorrows, laughter & tears, empathy & compassion to their limitless capacities… make the rewards undeniably gratifying for us all.

And so as John Lennon prophetically stated “IMAGINE” we all did indeed live by Mother Theresa’s words on her wall in Calcutta…. Imagine for 10 minutes, the whole world living for 1 month in truth by these words…. Just Imagine… and to finish this off, I leave you with Gandhi’s words:

“Become the change you want to see in the world.”

And hell, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, Lennon to name but a few couldn't all have been wrong could they've? ;`)

Sincerely,
Rich