Hipsters (darn tootin’)

A friend gives me crap all the time because I tell people I hate hipsters.  Hate is a pretty strong word and I likely wouldn’t apply it to an individual, but as a way of thinking, a group mentality, I really do kinda hate them (hipsters).  This friend thinks it’s funny to tell me that his definition of hipster includes people who write blogs and use Twitter.  I’m pretty sure he’s just trying to get my goat (I like goats). It won’t work.

I recently tried to explain to him that nobody in particular is bothersome to me and I don’t even need to label it hipster, I just do not like exclusivity.  Never have.  I do not like a group of people to get together and think bad things about anyone who is not just like them.  That is very bad behavior in my opinion.  I can’t condone it and I want no part of it.  Things of that nature seem to be able to find plenty of fuel without me contributing.  It’s just not a proper use of the gifts and talents we have all been given.

Humans are very powerful beings.  Just as we have way more brain power than we ever use, we have more deliberate power to create than we ever realize.  So when we gather together in groups and focus our thoughts on a specific idea, things start to happen.  Good or bad, depending on the focus.

This is something I’m super sensitive about.  I admit it.  I was born with a very soft heart for people who are picked on or ostracized in any way.  During my primary education I befriended the people nobody else could stand and I stood up for mentally challenged people.  There is no way I could have done otherwise.  Cruelty has always been really difficult for me to handle.  I do not like to see it in any form and I will do whatever I can to lessen its impact in the world.

People just need to be nicer to each other.  It’s really not that hard.  You just take all of the values, ideas, hopes and dreams you have for yourself and bestow that on another person.  When you think about another person as being someone who wants the exact same things as you and wants to feel innocent and accepted, just like you, it’s pretty hard to hate.  Think of how you felt at your most innocent and vulnerable and relate that to the other person.  And then you know that everyone has fears and insecurities, things they’re good at, things they suck at and we’re all just doing the best we can with what life gives us.  We’re all just playing the cards we’ve been dealt.

I find that when I think of people that way, forgiveness is much easier.  It doesn’t even get that far most of the time.  As I judge fewer things I find fewer things need forgiveness.  The people I have direct contact with don’t do much that is difficult to forgive.  I’ve forgiven such difficult things, the stuff I see day-to-day doesn’t even register.  I even forgive hipsters, I just don’t endorse their credo as I understand it.

Hipsters as people, yes.  Hipsters as group think, pass.

Just be nice, hipsters.  That’s all I ask.  I can overlook the ridiculous clothing and eyewear, the lack of regard for personal hygiene and possibly even the way your voice goes up at the end of every sentence so everything sounds like a question? I know, right?  If it’s too hard to look at others the way I suggested, maybe just look at yourselves and realize you’re just as dorky as the rest of the world.  You haven’t cornered the market on quirkiness or uniqueness.  There is a part of everyone that nobody else gets.  Deep down we really are all the same.  We’re all made of stars.  And stars don’t think they’re cooler than other stars.

Go and play nice.

KarunaMettaCAT

The View From Here

Things have been a little different in my world since my birthday last year.  It’s taken this entire one year period to put things back into perspective since that night.  That’s a pretty powerful Come-to-Jesus moment, as the saying goes.

I share my realizations because part of my spiritual awakening involved an understanding that everything is metaphor for something else.  We help each other through our stories.  Your battle with overeating might help me understand my struggle with finances.  My overcoming an abusive childhood might inspire someone to run a marathon or something as seemingly unconnected.  It’s a beautiful system.

Last night I was thinking about metaphor again.  Admittedly, I think about metaphor a lot, but I don’t always spend a lot of time thinking about it.  The thought process continued this morning as I have been puttering about my house doing my Saturday slow dance with life.

My thought this morning is about how I have understood metaphor my entire life.  On varying levels of comprehension of course.  Nonetheless, I have been looking at the world the way I do for a very long time and I understand now that metaphor has been one of my greatest tools for success.

Without the influence of a religious upbringing, I started reading the Bible at a young age.  I had no trouble understanding the parables of the New Testament.  The stories of the Old Testament have always been dear to me as well.  I believe this is what ignited my love for literature and literary symbolism and laid the foundation for my current way of thinking.

The reason it is significant for me to appreciate my understanding of metaphor is not because it will make me a better writer, which it undoubtedly will, but because it is the ability to see the greater message in the details of any story that facilitates my ability to see the positive in any situation.  And that is the greatest gift and power I brought with me into this incarnation.  If there is positive to be found in a situation, you can be assured I will find it.

For me, the ability to see good was key to surviving a tremendously difficult childhood.  It is that same quality that now both endears people to me and causes them to worry about me.  Friends have expressed concern over what they perceive as naiveté in me.  I do get how it appears that way and I guess I can acknowledge that it might be rightfully classified as such, but if it is naiveté, it’s still consciously chosen.

I made it through my childhood and grew into the person I am because I never stopped being shocked at cruelty and unkindness and never stopped being moved by beauty and unconditional love.  Not very many people know what I lived through growing up, but I can say with confidence, if as a child I had accepted as human nature the behaviors I witnessed daily, I would be a very different person than I am now.  I would not be as happy and my story would be of little to no help to anyone if I had chosen the role of victim rather than hero.  I’m pretty sure the point at which I quit looking for the good is the point at which I will decide to leave this life and move on to the next assignment.

I see myself as a miner of spiritual gold.  And because of the way I choose to look at the world, I strike it rich every single day.

Recently someone shared a story with me about my ex-boyfriend.  It was about some car trouble he had and knowing him as I do, it sounded like a pretty stressful situation for him.  I listened to the whole unfortunate story about how his car broke on the way to a music rehearsal under harrowing sounding circumstances.  The information presented the opportunity for me to delight in the misfortune of someone who hurt me deeply.  The story concluded with him showing up to rehearsal 30 minutes before it ended.  As soon as it was finished I said, “He still went to rehearsal?! That guy has the most amazing work ethic! It’s one of the things I always loved about him!”

That is a fine example of how I approach life.  And that is why, after having fought some of the biggest uphill battles of anyone I know, I am not angry at life.  Quite the opposite, I see beauty all around me nearly all the time.  And even when I don’t, I know it’s only a matter of time before I will again.

Even though it took over a year to get here, I am actually grateful for having my heart broken so devastatingly by someone I loved with the purest part of my soul.  It gave me a chance to prove to myself and the world what I’m made of: Amazing with a splash of awesome.

Metaphor is an important part of my success.  I have used my own life and the difficulties I have overcome to reach every new goal.  It was my ability to look back at a life of challenges met and overcome that gave me the courage to go to law school in my thirties while raising three children.  And I know if I choose to look at the story of my life as akin to climbing a mountain, the chances that I will climb an actual mountain someday increase exponentially.

I am very grateful for every bit of my wild ride of a life so far.  I wouldn’t give back a single tear I have cried with a broken heart because they have become the river upon which love, beauty and goodness flow steadily through my experience.

KarunaMettaCAT

The power of intent

Having just returned from an acupuncture experience that I shared with a room full of other people, I can’t help thinking about intentions and the power of intent.  Viewed from the perspective I had tonight and the handful of other times I have been to this acupuncture clinic, I find it amazing that people who misuse their intent, either by focusing it negatively or just failing to focus it, have no idea of the power they are wielding or forfeiting.

It’s not like I have cornered the market on this understanding, it’s just that when I look around at the general population, it seems like I have a rare perspective on life.  That is a little unfortunate in my opinion.  For a couple of reasons.

First, many don’t seem to understand the harm that people bring into their own lives by thinking negative things–about themselves, the world and other people.  I believe that thinking negatively about other people brings more harm to the thinker than the one being thought about, unless that person picks up on the thoughts and chooses to believe them.  The person thinking such things has been carrying those toxic ideas around in their mind waiting for an opportunity to express them.  How can that possibly be good?  Our thoughts control our environment and how we perceive the world.  If, for example, you go around thinking jealous thoughts about  others having things that you don’t have and wishing to trade places with them, you are focusing emotionally charged negative energy on the idea of your impoverishment and you’re doing it from two perspectives, first by acknowledging that you are actually lacking something and then by envisioning someone else in that same set of circumstances. What does that create?  More of the same!  More feelings of jealously, more noticing other people having what you don’t have.  It’s a self-perpetuating cycle.

On an even broader scale, as science is beginning to prove through quantum physics, there is really only one of us here to begin with.  So what you wish on others, you wish on yourself, quite literally.

Tonight’s experience was a group of people all focused on the same thing, allowing our bodies to restore themselves naturally.  Healing energy permeated the room because every person there believed the same thing, that our bodies are supremely wonderful things that have all the regenerative power they need to keep us going.  Sometimes we just need to gather the positive energy together and share it.  A metaphysical potluck of sorts.  Most of us have shared the excitement at a concert or the heavy disappointment of a losing team or candidate.  Those are examples of human energy exchanges.  Many people focusing their minds on one thing. It’s powerful.

When we know we have the power to influence the moods and energy levels of the people around us, how could we not want to use it for good?  If I think good, happy thoughts about life, the world and people, my thought vibrations are high and clear and pure.  When I go out in public with the intention of keeping my thoughts at this level, people respond.  I’ve tried it.  When you go out and bless every person you encounter, wish good things on them and smile at them, you make their lives better and they let you know.  Most people when smiled at will smile back.  Why?  Because it feels good.  And because smiling, happy, beautiful faces are a joy to look at and smiles result naturally.

This use of energy is the stuff that heals people.  Have you ever spent time around a person who doesn’t drain you at all or even better, you feel rejuvenated after being in their presence?  That is a person using their personal energy the right way.  We can all do it.  We all have the power to heal ourselves, other people and ultimately, the planet.

Beyond just making life a little nicer and sweeter, positively focused intent will bring the things you desire a lot more quickly than negative thinking.  It’s happened that way for me.  I spent years unhappily doing the same thing day in and day out and things never improved.  When I finally made a decision to focus on the good in life, things began to change, for the better.  I’m not saying it’s been a completely smooth journey, but I will say this, when I am thinking happy thoughts and expressing gratitude for all that I have, more good things happen in my life and it’s very noticeable.  Things start to manifest.  Like when I blessed my paycheck and declared my intent to welcome more money into my life.  A few days later I received an unexpected salary increase.  By focusing my intent on the things that I am grateful for in life, I am welcoming more of those things into my life and they show up.

I want to help people understand that we are incredibly powerful beings and that much of our power goes untapped because we don’t dare to dream.  We can create anything with our minds. Why not create something beautiful for everyone to enjoy? Because  happiness is awesome.  And joy is intoxicating.

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