Hope... It's Not Magic... Or, Is it?

Remember the song by Pilot? Magic?
It reminds me of being a kid during the summer and knowing it was daytime because the sun was coming through my windows so brightly. Thinking that when I grow up I am going to do something, or be somebody, Magical! I would dream and day dream about what it would be like to have a girlfriend, a wife, a family. i would think of what kind of boyfriend, husband, father I would be. What it would be like to have a girlfriend, a wife, laying next to me.

Fast forward 30 years! I had the girlfriends... they were all amazing. I never dated anyone I ended up thinking later, they weren't that amazing. To the contrary, I dated some pretty amazing ladies. One of them was unique enough that she did MORE than capture my heart... she captured Me! Perhaps it was timing. Perhaps it was maturity. Perhaps it was a gamble. Perhaps is was Magic? Perhaps it was destiny. The woman who captured my heart, married me.

Now I am reminded of the Kenny Rogers song, the Gambler. Remember the secret to surviving? Knowing what to keep, knowing what to throw away. Knowing when to hold em, knowing when to fold em, knowing when to walk away, knowing when to run...!!

Which made me start thinking about Hope. My mind quickly goes to a scene of me sitting at the end of the dock, looking out over the lake my dad took us boys fishing to, and thinking about my future. Who would I be, what would I be, how successful would I be? All those thoughts were always interrupted by the fishing. I hope I can be the person I always wanted to be, I hope I have been the husband I envisioned myself being, and if not, I hope I still can be. I hope I will instill in my son the importance of having time to day dream, and to hope.

I am, now more than ever, trying to give a little bit more of my love, my life, myself to those around me. In giving a little bit, giving in a little bit, I am hoping to go a long way to keeping Hope alive.

My mom used to take me and two of my brothers on country road trips. She would pack us in the car and just drive. I am not sure what her motivation was, but the memory for me, was one of peace and beauty, and allowed for a period of calm. Not much talking, just the radio playing and the scenery.

I have a dream. I have a dream of hope. I do think some things are magical.
I have a memory of Hope, so Hope exists!

Thoughts, Arbitrary? Symbolic?

Thoughts... seem to me to be as controllable as our dreams. yet, not many have mastered being able to control either. Thoughts seem to come at a ferociously fast pace... and it seems as if we only comprehend or grasp a few.

Imagine for a moment, that you are in a box, tall enough to stand in, wide enough to stretch your arms out, yet small enough you can't go anywhere. Your only task is to catch and read the message on each feather that you can grab. The box, however, is full of feathers that are propelled by a giant fan causing the feathers to quickly fly and zoom around. Occasionally you can partially read a message on a feather that stands still just long enough for your eye to take a mental picture, yet not read the message. The goal, to read all the messages... after all, the messages are YOUR thoughts.

We think, therefore, we are? We think, therefore, we should know our own thoughts? Wait... we think, yet we are a byproduct of the messages we read from our own mind! ??

I think dreams are easier to control. Once you realize you are dreaming, you can then perform wonderful acrobatic feats and amazing acts that are not limited by gravity or obligations to any physical law. Yet, where did the landscape of the dream come from? Did we actually have in our mind all along, and this is how it manifested itself?

Could it be that our minds are too complex for our "awake" self to control? Thus, we need to sleep to let the other "asleep" part of our minds awaken and fix the problems our other selves have created?

Or, is it all mashed potatoes and apple pie all slung together in a bowl covered with ketchup?

One more thought... Ha... did you catch it? ("think" about it for a moment)

Free Spirit! Free Choice! Free Will! Is it really free? Or are our choices, our "thoughts", whether acted upon or not, all at a price? The price of affect and effect.

I think, therefore, I Cause.

I think, therefore, I Create.

I choose, therefore, I create a cause and effect.

"I"... therefore, me.

My opinion? We CAN control our thoughts, our dreams, our destiny, our emotions, our selves. But, we are destined for failure. We will never succeed! To prove my point... Look at our world today. We put out more metric tons of pollution, garbage, and sewage than our world can handle. We believe what we are told without discovering or finding out for ourselves! Don't believe me? have you ever investigated Quantum Physics? Or do you just believe because we are told they have been proven? Do you seek to prove life? Or are you blindly guided by Cause and Effect and become a mindless pawn in life? We can control what we believe, what we deny, what we accept, what choose to think about, what we surround ourselves with, who we surround ourselves with, and what we pour out of our mouths.

Notice I didn't say it was easy. It's not easy, because we are constantly bombarded by things in this world, that are not of this world. By activities that are not of flesh and blood. Wondering what I am talking about? No, it's not aliens (well, not in the sense of a being from another world) <--- well, actually yes... that is what i am talking about. However, the other 'world' is one of a spiritual nature. it exists simultaneously to ours and interacts with ours, and in some cases, desires a negative outcome for our lives. This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent. We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world. It's true. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself. Don't know how? Ask God to show you. Don't know if God exists? Look at the world around you. We hardly know ourselves, much less know how we all got to be here... on a tiny spec of space dust, that if altered in location my only a few feet, would cause this world to no longer exist! Yes, there is a God. Yes, He gives us power and authority to govern our minds, our actions, our emotions, our thoughts, and yes, even our dreams.

Don't blindly believe me. Find out for yourself.