Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.
- St. Francis of Assisi
I first heard this prayer when I read There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. I read it over and over and I honestly tried to live by it. I am often blessed by such wisdom from past Masters and Heroes.
I don’t always walk the path and by some stretch of the imagination I often try to take a hard left at the Robert Frost fork in the road. (A path less traveled et. Al). I often lose my way. I often forget and bend to the ways of the world that at times puts me back in the place where it thinks I belong. Joseph Campbell tells us that society should serve man and that when man serves society we have a machine state (much like now). Now granted we should not confuse this with being in service to others, I believe what he is saying is that we should not be drug down the road that society tells we should be on. These whole messes of being told what do, feel, and be without discovering for ourselves is the danger. The society that says we need to look like this in order to feel good. The society that says we need to drive this big gas guzzling pollution machines. You know their song and dance.
Well I am trying to get back to my core. I am trying to return to the path of being a true human being, to rejoin my journey. Tomorrow I will participate in the cutting of the Ivy ceremony for my college graduation. Being a 40-year college graduate is a big thing for a reformed hoodlum like me. The ritual is what helps to define the experience. As I look about me and see all the silly little things that I have stacked around me, the clutter, the baggage, the negativity, the time suckage, etc. I now know what I must and want to do.
Now dig this from a Neo-Pagan a bible quote (I did attend a Christian College after all). 1 Corinthians 13:11
”When I was a child, I spake like a child, I understood as a child, I thought like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
It also goes on to say that, there is faith, hope, and love and that love is the most important thing of all.
Therefore, that is where I am. I have returned to a spiritual way of being. See what happens when we turn the TV off? (It is national turn off your TV week.) I can see much more clearly at what I need to do to continue on MY journey. I can see the things I am grateful for having in my life. Yes, I am reading The Secret (among other powerful books). http://thesecret.tv/ So get ready for a big dose of this intensely blessed out state of being. This fantastic synchronistic trip is unfolding before me. Example: Guadalcanal Diary’s Litany (Life Goes On) comes over the speakers at this moment.
Litany (Life Goes On) lyrics
I see life like a mirror
And I see life so much clearer
We move so quickly
Who knows where the time goes
Where does this road lead?
No one knows, no one knows
Listen to the single heart beating
Rhythm for an ever-changing song
I see life with surprise
And I see life, oh, in your eyes
Take all your troubles
Put them in a common file
Light a fire with reason
Watch it rise, watch it rise
Listen to the single voice singing
Lifted in an ever-growing song
I see life without anger
I see life all together
I see life go on forever
Life goes on forever
Life goes on
http://www.guadalcanaldiary.com/index.html
Side note: I have had the amazing pleasure of meeting GD’s guitarist Jeff Walls who now plays in The Woggles, the last two shows I did for them here in Eugene. I had him sign my copy of 2 X 4. It was something to see how he had gotten older (we all have) but he rocked balls. He is indeed “The Flesh Hammer”. The Woggles are one of the most entertaining live acts out there now! Testify! http://www.myspace.com/thewoggles
There are three goals that I want to focus on: Building muscles, getting ready to leave/live and work in Taiwan, and continue my studies (reading and writing). Everything else I need to put behind me. First Corinthians…hello!
The Shamen: Move Any Mountain
Now to share what I have affirmed and written down so far:
I will receive several checks (money) in the mail for various amounts; these will come from unexpected sources. (I originally wrote down unsuspected, ha). “Pay to the order of John Galloway…”
I am saving and earning money to leave for Taiwan and will continue to do so. I will have plenty of funds to do so. There will be more than enough overtime hours for me to work + the funds from unexpected sources.
I will finish my books, as I am reading everyday. My knowledge will grow! And I will gain understanding and wisdom.
I am beginning to write more and more everyday.
I am working out on a regular basis and making big gains in the amount of weight I can lift and for how long. By building, muscle mass and eating, good and healthy in the right amounts I am also losing body fat and inches off my gut and middle.
http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/bigrocco/
http://fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=bigrocco
I love my wife and myself, my friends, and family. (and my enemies!)
I am also very grateful for all these things and hope I influence others to feel the same way.
FEELING GOOD IS A STATE OF MIND. I hope you join me….
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Just like Neo, in the Matrix…I’m in. I wanted to be a cool music blogger too. So pardon the dust as I do some remodeling and get up to speed.
