I once had a book published entitled The Physical Manifestation of a Spiritual Sabbatical. Aside from the title being quite lengthy and cumbersome, the book lacked some depth and meaty substance. Granted this was my first published book (second one written) so I was quite the novice. I have decided to take on rewriting the book at the expense of the few who bought the original in hopes that the revision will speak more of what I had in my heart to share.
In revision I have decided to post as I go the pages I write. My request is that you the reader would read and comment/critique as you go. It is my hope that this book can truly make a difference in many peoples lives. So without much more ado here is The Manifestation of Revision...
I have a friend, we shall call him Scott, since that is his name, who quoted often the phrase from Lord Alfred Tennyson: "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die." As an older teen, this statement seemed to make a lot of sense. Why should I interfere with events and circumstances, especially those I thought were outside my sliver of impactful influence. I was, after all, a product of my environment. At least that is what I thought to be true at the time. I felt there was little to nothing I could do to alter my fate. I had no quirky witch whom I could barter a potion from.
As time walked on beside me this despondence took many forms: lost hope of ever finding lasting love, loneliness in the midst of crowds; I had become one of those men leading "quiet lives of desperation." I discovered I was not alone. Most people I knew who looked like they had it all together actually were just quite skilled at bluffing. Their lives were a seamless cycle of work to home to work again, with perhaps a memory made with an unallocated half hour found at the bottom of the barrel. While this is somewhat a macabre view, really isn't it true of most, if we are honest. We don't give those we love and care about the prime cuts of our time, most sacrifice those cuts to create someone else's dream. Collectively I can hear them silently screaming in anguish as they ask why they are even here. Am I just here to pay some bills on my way to the grave? The answer is a resounding NO! How then is this answer reached though? What is the paradigm that must be evicted for the answer to become that NO!?
First we must realize the perpetualization of the deception of scarcity that permeates our society in this day and age. (I know, quite a bit to go into one sentence) Those who are going to be wealthy and successful are already well endowed while the rest of us are simply out of luck and are fated to scrimp and scratch to get by.
Far be this from the truth. Each person, you and I, is here for a reason, a purpose. Providence has you here at just the right time in just the right situation. It is for you to decide how, and if, to use this knowledge. Finding this out might be quite a shock. In fact, you may question me and how I can be so certain of this, especially if we've not met. It is quite simple, really. Consider, for a moment, how old you are. I, at this writing, will be 32 in a couple months. Best guess is I was conceived early March, 1985. In conception, though, is the first big truth. We are not speaking about one sperm cell and one egg. At that moment there were legions of sperm cells, and the possibilities of eggs were also numerous. The potential combinations are mind numbingly high. It could have been any egg released that month, and any sperm that made it... Or it could have been none. The miracle of conception is just that, a miracle. There are many ways that moment could be subverted. After that you have forty some odd weeks of growth and development where anything could go wrong. My wife and I have had two miscarriages, one as late as seventeen weeks. As far as can be determined they were simply genetic misfires, something went wrong in the genetic coding. We also have two beautiful daughters, one born before, and one after the losses. After forty weeks we have infancy, the toddler years, childhood, adolescence, and on into adulthood. You are reading this, which means you have likely lived into one of the later stages. Congratulations!! You have survived the gauntlet thus far. Do you realize the odds of survival?!? By all rights none of us should have survived (if you have ever dealt with a two year old you know what I mean) No matter in what or who you believe, there is a reason to be thankful. This also means we have an opportunity to assess life up to this moment, and make shifts or changes if needed. Recently my father had a heart attack and underwent a quadruple bypass. Also was the shooting in Las Vegas. Not to mention Hurricane Irma and the fires in the Northwestern United States. What a wake up call for all of us. It could happen... At any time or any place. We don't have a thousand years to live, as Marcus Aurelius said.
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