Sleep when you're dead

You may have heard the phrase, "no rest for the living." This refers to the shared belief that people experience joy in being alive yet, shudder at its related miseries.  Many people get bogged down with fatigue they associate with growing old.  Do you overlook wisdom that comes and enables the mature to live with ease?  What you choose to see relates to how you see goals.

1) Personal life: whenever you feel restless, you may feel alienated with reality.  Get in touch with your feelings.  Determine how different people you know and have known make you feel.  Contact and renew old acquaintances that enriched you. Focus on developing relationships that encourage and stretch you.  Distance yourself from the people who aren't enabling you to grow.

2) Work life: if your mind is inconclusive or unfocused, you may feel indecisive.  Work doesn't have to seem like a struggle.  Maybe you assume rewards only result from struggles.  The Western view toward life promotes activity.  You may feel a need to prove yourself, to leave your mark.  To do this, you must identify what you desire in short and long terms.  The Eastern view toward life promotes neither activity nor inactivity, but action through inaction. In this way, you may feel drawn to cooperate with the flow of nature and opportunities.  Either way, you "shall" act.

3) Spiritual life: to exist, you are on a personal journey.  It's your task to define the parameters.  If you seek to be an authentic individual, you will benefit from taking steps to get-to-know yourself on the inside.  This mayaor may not involve exploring religion.  In order to discover your true nature, you need to learn not to be bothered or highly influenced by people or your surroundings.  How do you do that?  Learn to meditate.  Ponder your thoughts and reflections. Explore your creative potential in writing.  Read books and listen to tapes that encourage spiritual awakenings.

4) Leisure pursuits: as a way to promote self-discovery, it's helpful to learn to listen to yourself.  What you think you would like or dislike is to be explored.  What do your senses tell you?  Growth comes through being true to yourself.  That means going out for a sports team, taking a language class, upgrading your sailing skills, training for a marathon, joining a bird watching club or yoga group. Take up whatever activities spark your curiosity and inspire your imagination. To isolate choices, brainstorm 5 interests.  Look into options to join at least one new group.

5) Dreams:  these are the goals which may seem a bit further off. What you hope to achieve may not be realisable tomorrow, but its important to write a list and keep that list somewhere where you can see and read it regularly, such as a fridge or bedroom night-table. As you identify 5-10 objects and experiences to work toward, then you can begin to define desirable timelines and what ideas you have to make them happen.  This will be an organized, step-by-step process.

Passion for the impossible

Philosophers believe being human means we can come to recognize a process, be programmed to inquire, to develop a passion for adventure and to explore what hasn't been yet done.  Some people prefer to think this idea of raising awareness is dangerous and also absurd.  Yet, the time will come when you may wish to become a seeker who aims to unveil the truth about yourself. 

1) Why would you wish to stay as you are, protect yourself and avoid venturing into the unknown?

2) Who would benefit if you chose instead to accept the realities of vulnerability?

3) How would you gain new wisdom if you chose to be closed-minded?

4) Where would you be if you always waited for moments and didn't search for them?

5) What would happen if you made continual self-discoveries, and remained humble?

Did Leonardo da Vinci fool history?

Would Leonardo da Vinci have risked his life to fake the ultimate Christian relic, the Turin Shroud,if he was, as believed, so opposed to Christianity? What if it was discovered some of the artifacts that confirm your own personal beliefs weren't what you thought them to be? Would increasing arguments about fraudulent artifacts or associated stories influence your specific faith?

Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince set out to investigate whether da Vinci had the means, the motive and the opportunity, and whether the verdict on this Shroud would call into question the perceived authenticity of other historical relics.

Consider that da Vinci's work on optics and alchemical pursuits provided him with the means, and he definitely had the opportunity. His unorthodox beliefs for his era gave him the necessary motive. His strength of character and rebellious streak would have enabled the sheer audacity required to produce such a fraud.

Modern scientific techniques suggest the Shroud doesn't reveal an image of Christ as originally believed. At the era of supposed events, risks of creating such a relic and being found out would've resulted in being accused of sorcery and conceivably being burned at the stake.

Back in the 1980s, Lillian Schwartz of Bell Laboratories and Dr. Digby Quested of London's Maudsley Hospital demonstrated the Mona Lisa was a self-portrait of da Vinci. Increasingly, many scholars and other people believe the image on the Shroud is da Vinci's self- portrait. Leonardo worked on optics, lenses and projected images. He also worked on a secret machine of mirrors to concentrate light and heat, and both are required to produce an image such as on the Shroud.

Let's say da Vinci was at the right place at the right time.  If he did fake the Shroud, he may not have accepted a commission. What would be his possible underlying motives? Theories exist that include promoting the world's first known photograph, but we may never know. By using his then innovative photographic technique to create the ultimate Christian relic, he may have given the invention what he thought would be the best chance of surviving through the centuries. If he did refer to a photograph of himself for the self-portrait, this was hundreds of years before the acknowledged birth of photography.

Step back and reflect on your own understandings of controversy in your belief systems. What have you come to accept as truth? What or whom do you believe and why? Consider why so many questions are being raised about the legitimacy and authenticity of varied belief systems. This may cause you to question or doubt yourself. Regardless of your background or belief system, the strength of your faith in yourself determines whether you willingly heed your senses or begin to doubt.

Just what you needed

A woman I know told me how guardian angels seem to be her saviour. One example was where she recently had a hospital appointment to get an x-ray of her knee. She arrived later than planned because of having been caught behind an accident on the road. She got a number from a dispenser and sat down to wait to be called.

As it happened, there were over 20 people ahead of her.  She was a bit frustrated because as a physician, she had morning meetings to attend and this waiting line was preventing her from caring for her own patients. She wasn't the type of person who would've pulled rank and budded in front of the other patients. So, she chose instead to sit patiently and go through some of her unopened mail. Imagine her surprise when less than 5 minutes later, her number was called. She jumped up to the registration desk. The receptionist herself was astonished. "I've never seen the machine skip 20 people before," she exclaimed, before going speechless. The female physician simply felt she had support from above. She had an x-ray and arrived at her meeting only 5 minutes late.

On other occasions, this same woman has wondered aloud how she would make time to phone a colleagues about patients between her overwhelming case load. Then, she would repeatedly find herself in the same place as these fellow physicians in a parking lot, in a grocery store or another setting where she could freely pose the questions that had been on her mind.

A similar occasion involved an auctioneer she wished to contact on behalf of her aging father, yet her late hours had forced her to keep postponing it. Low and behold, she found herself in the same resturant and was able to talk to him about the business that had been on her mind. He wasn't even sure why he'd chosen a restaurant on that particular evening. She thought it was her guardian angel who had intervened. Episodes such as these strongly reinforce her belief in Higher Forces. People simply continue to show up and good things happen just when needed.

Listen closer to whom you know

The next time you interact with someone you know, rather than listen to what you're thinking, turn instead to your focus to what you're feeling.  The depth and intensity of your communication will change considerably.  Words you choose may be inadequate to clarify the indescribable. An angel  can be an earthly messenger who provides us with information just when we could really use it, reminding us how well we really know ourselves.

Why is it that you're drawn to certain people to strike up conversation and not others? Why is it that you connect and keep in touch with people you hardly ever see, yet, barely talk to people you've known for years through school, work or social activities? Listen closer to whom you know.  They may have entered your life to allow you to discover that feelings, inclinations, knowledge and energy you seek consciously or unconsciously aren't all accessible or perceptible at the same time.

You may have known a friend for a year or more and only just discover a shared belief you didn't know you shared.  Why didn't you learn about this source of common interest sooner? Maybe you weren't ready.  Maybe you didn't ask the proper questions. Maybe it didn't really matter before. Maybe your senses weren't sharp enough. Maybe you weren't as attentive then as you have become.

Over the years, old friends and acquaintances have contacted me unexpectedly and sent me books and flyers which responded to issues on my mind at the time. I have met people with notable specialisations who turn out to be 'a friend of friend' and kindly offer timely advice without being asked. I've attended functions where I've been drawn to guests I initially felt were strangers but turn out to know me or be linked to important areas of my life. Such experiences may seem a bit quirky, but they're true. As you listen closer to yourself, you'll feel more attuned to people you know.

You may have also had experiences where you've met people who confirm things you've been thinking.  I recently spoke with an engineer I know about interpretations of specific circumstances.  He astonished me by finishing some of my sentences in ways that gave me a physical, 'real world' confirmation of what my intuition was already telling me.  Was he a earthly guardian angel? Maybe. Similar experiences remind me I don't struggle to recall specifics. A profound truth is awe-inspiring.