Belief:: a specific core value which you desire to share with others, which you feel the compulsion to support, which you need to survive, and which helps you love the world.
Some believe in God. Some believe in themselves. Some believe in love. Some in success. Some people believe that finding a penny face up brings good luck. Others believe that 3 is a magic number. Some people believe in ending every conversation with the phrases, "Good night" and "I love you." There are people who believe that art can change the world. Some believe that war is a necessary evil, and some believe that war is just evil. Some people believe that money is power. Others that power is an illusion, and still others that power is bestowed by the weak rather than earned by the powerful.
Christians believe that you should love your neighbor as yourself and love God above all else. Scientists believe in controlled experimentation. Jews believe that the Messiah is on the way. Pick-up artists believe in un-relenting charm. Sports fans believe that this season just might be THE season. Children believe in their parents. And your friends believe in you.
It's not so important to the world WHAT you believe (this is not to diminish the importance of your beliefs, for your devotion to these things is what drives you forward, is what pushes you to be better, to be more, to matter. So to you, there might be nothing more important), but what's most important is simply THAT you believe. Believe in something. And life is fuller.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Alone in a Quiet Valley
There is a place where dead leaves are strewn across rolling hills like anti-confetti. Between these hills is a valley where sun shines down through a light covering of mist. The wind picks up from time to time and reanimates the leaves.
Years ago a great many people fell in this place, in the valley between the hills, but time has brought peace there. Peace and stillness. The trees, the wind, the sun, the grass, the moon, the stars, the hills, and the valley. That's all there is in this place now.
At night the wind dies down, and it gets so quiet that you might just hear the faintest roar of a shooting star as it pushes through a field of immobile darkness which you might gaze up at from the top of one of those hills.
Or an animal might come crunching through the leaves looking in vain for something it's lost until eventually the animal gives up, comes to rest in the grass, and becomes content to stare up at the sky, waiting.
There is a certain kind of person who has something of this place in him. Or a better way of putting it would be that he has the nothingness of this place in him. You look at him and on the surface all is fine, well, normal, and peaceful, but inside he is empty. He will welcome you with open arms, but if you try to complicate the simple beauty of what he offers, you will be brought down. This person will cut you off, will take his knowledge of you and bury it. Deep down in some dead place where the wind doesn't reach.
Years ago a great many people fell in this place, in the valley between the hills, but time has brought peace there. Peace and stillness. The trees, the wind, the sun, the grass, the moon, the stars, the hills, and the valley. That's all there is in this place now.
At night the wind dies down, and it gets so quiet that you might just hear the faintest roar of a shooting star as it pushes through a field of immobile darkness which you might gaze up at from the top of one of those hills.
Or an animal might come crunching through the leaves looking in vain for something it's lost until eventually the animal gives up, comes to rest in the grass, and becomes content to stare up at the sky, waiting.
There is a certain kind of person who has something of this place in him. Or a better way of putting it would be that he has the nothingness of this place in him. You look at him and on the surface all is fine, well, normal, and peaceful, but inside he is empty. He will welcome you with open arms, but if you try to complicate the simple beauty of what he offers, you will be brought down. This person will cut you off, will take his knowledge of you and bury it. Deep down in some dead place where the wind doesn't reach.
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