JANUARY 3, 2023
JANUARY 2, 2023
Several years ago, I did something that I am quite proud of. I went on a journey of finding something each day—for one entire year—to be grateful for, positive about, excited about, or sometimes just “thank God I made it through this day” about. And every single day—for one entire year—I wrote about it. That is what I am particularly proud of. Every day I wrote something down, recording this journey of seeing the silver lining in every day.
Sometimes it was just something funny, sometimes I would go into philosophical and spiritual overdrive like I was trying to solve the problems of the planet Earth. But I made sure that even on the very, very worst of days, I found something. Even if it was only the fact that I “made it through the day.”
I was going through a heck of a lot that day, good and bad, and some deep depression. Those three hundred and sixty-five days kept me going.
I am going to attempt something like it again this year. It wouldn’t let me sleep last night! So here I am. I tried to tell myself that it was too late. The year has slipped into the second day. But that Self wouldn’t take that. I can go from the second day of this year until that same day next year. Or simply finish it by writing something on the first of January, 2024. I tried to tell myself that I simply didn’t know if I had the drive to do it, and did I want to fail? But again, my Self told me that it didn’t matter if I finished or not—and It is pretty sure that I can finish—it is the journey that is important.
And so here it is, I am giving it a major try. No. In the words of one of the Universe’s greatest teachers (Yoda), “Do or do not, there is not try.” But really, Yoda? Maybe Muhammad Ali had some pretty wise words when he said, “Don’t count the days, make the days count.” Okay, Master Jedi, I will do more that try. Afterall, what is the point if I don’t, on this January morning sitting here writing these words, at least intend to finish?
And along that way, I will see what I see, and learn what I will learn.
SO…
This is for me, but I am going to share that journey. You can read it, or not. That is okay. And it is my journey, so besides just the fun stuff and feel-good stuff, there is going to be lots of Spiritual stuff here, and if that is not to someone’s taste, that is fine. According to a study conducted by Google Books, there have been 129,864,880 books published since the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press in 1440. I don’t have a clue if that counts e-books or not. Certainly not the things people just like to write for themselves and maybe people who love to read what they write, even if it is only a small circle. The point is, if no one wants to read my missives, they have lots more to choose from!
I hope a few of you do take at least some of the trip with me. Because your words—kind, constructive words—help me and inspire me! And give me new direction to aim my thoughts.
That being said, I will start with something about “God,” or whatever “God” could possibly be. A lot of these daily words will not be about such lofty subjects! So don’t stay away in the future!
And that being said, I will use the words written by one of the fathers of New Thought (Ancient Wisdom), Ernest Holmes. They are….
There is only One Life, that Life is perfect, that Life is God’s Life, that Life is My Life now.
What Mister Holmes, in his vast years of study, along with his contemporaries believed, was that everything that exists is God. Every. Thing. That. Exists. That when “God,” whatever that force is, decided (if that word can even apply to ALL that exists) to bring the Universe into existence with those famous words, “Let there be light,” the only thing God could create the Universe out of, was Itself. And I said “It” because, while some people take great comfort in thinking of “God” as male, God is in fact not a male. God doesn’t have cosmic genitals.
And when God—if It exists and I very much believe It does—created the Universe, God also created all the Laws that Universe exists in. The Laws that make the Universe work. And one of those powerful Universal Laws is the Law of Conservation of Energy which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed – only converted from one form of energy to another. This means that a system always has the same amount of energy. So, what else could “God” make the Universe out of except Itself? And that means that we are made OF God. Or as Carl Sagan said, Star Stuff.
When God made the Universe, It made the Universe and all that exists within it, make sense. And therefor when I think that something just doesn’t make sense, there might be a reason. It might be that I am uneducated about whatever it is, or It just might be that it doesn’t make sense and that some “still small Voice” is telling me so.
There were some lyrics in the musical “Yentl” that really changed, rocked, my world.
There’s not a morning I begin without a thousand questions running through my mind … The reason why, a bird was given wings if not to fly, and praise the sky with every song it sings … And why have eyes that see and arms that reach unless you’re meant to know there’s something more? If not to hunger for the meaning of it all then tell me what a soul is for? Why have the wings unless you’re meant to fly? And tell me please, why have a mind if not to question why?”
The direction of my life was changed with that song. It went right out of the movie and deep into my heart and mind because I instantly knew that I knew that I knew that those lyrics, those questions that Yentl was asking, were some of the most important in the Universe.
If God exists, whatever God might possibly be, and if God created the Universe, then everything was made to do and be something specific, in order that the Universe works and simply doesn’t fly apart. And if God made us, and we aren’t just some kind of happy accident–that occured when a group of amino acids somehow combined to form the first protein, the building blocks of life–then why indeed give us minds if we aren’t supposed to question why?
Suddenly I was being presented with some words that were the beginnings of a God I could really believe in!
Because I couldn’t believe in the God of my childhood. The God that created us equal, and yet everything I saw showed that we weren’t. That women weren’t. That people of color weren’t. That animals weren’t. And why oh why oh why would God make me gay, and then be concerned that I act on it? Why in the world would God set up a minefield and then tell us we have to cross it in “his” sake? Why would being gay be something we are supposed to rise above and prove ourselves worthy of “his” love by not acting on? Why would he give us wings, and tell us not to fly. Give us song, and tell us not to sing?
It makes NO sense!
And so I end this first day of writing with this.
There is only one Life. It’s all connected, every single bit of it depending on every other single big of it to work and exist and thrive. And it is perfect (even if we in our limited part of can’t see that). That life is God’s Life, and since we are made out of God’s very self, then we are made perfect as well.
And that other stuff? That. “How could there be a God if it allows such horrors and injustice in the world?” And how could allow a child to get cancer or people to be raped or serial killers to kill or doggies to die too soon or some vicious despot to come into political power or any of that? How? Now that doesn’t make any sense!
Unless we just don’t understand the sense of it. Unless—and I think this is THE key—we have created that concept of God in our own image. We are asking, when we ask questions like that, these why’s, we are asking them of a God that acts like humans and thinks like humans and sees injustice where humans think they lay. But perhaps—perhaps—a being that exists Universally, in everything, everywhere, is a little bit more.
At present, scientists, if pressed to make the most up-front estimation, using our at present best technology, would say that there are about 170 billion galaxies. However, they also think it is way more than that, and their belief, their modern estimate, is that it far more on the scale of two trillion galaxies.
Two trillion galaxies! And to make it clear, in our galaxy alone, the galaxy that our planet and our sun exist within, has 100 billion stars. In our galaxy alone. So, multiply that by two trillion and we might have a clue how many stars there are.
Now, would a God that created all of that, that exists Universally, in everything, everywhere, a “being” that doesn’t have a human physical body (except in existing in our bodies), no nerve endings, no jealousy, no hunger, no irritations, no disease, see things the way we, in our very limited bodies (that have nerve endings and get jealous and get hungry and irritated or get diseases) see things the way we do?
Maybe God, who is busy keeping atoms from flinging themselves apart, see things on a different scale?
And that maybe God created us with the ability to cure disease and live with each other in love and not try and kill each other and wage war on each other and prevent crime and make it some that mentally unhealthy people have a place to turn to help themselves? That we exist individually, but also as a species, and that we are supposed to work together. And with that God that is within us, that God that we are made of, we have a purpose. Something big. Something huge. Something mind-blowing. That we as individuals have a journey, but that we as a gestalt, as a species, as a part of EVERYTHING, have a purpose. And that we need to get to the business of making the world work. That we take responsibility for ourselves and stop blaming. Because blaming doesn’t work! It never has and it never will. And note that finding the root problem of a situation isn’t blaming.
So again I say…there is only one Life, that Life is Perfect, and that Life is God and our life now.
I enter into this year with the goal of starting every single day with that though and taking at least a few seconds to reflect on that concept and then to LIVE as if I am so much more than society has taught me to believe that I am! That I am supposed to think. I am supposed to wonder. I am supposed to spread my wings and fly. That I am perfect. I am perfectly what God intended.
That I am born this way!
And in 2023, I am going to find out more about what that means!
This year I am ready to leap again! Because I know the net will appear!
B G Thomas - writer 