Howdy fellow Humans,
My name is RossC
...and I’m an alcoholic...
…addict, liar, flunk out, failure, slothful procrastinator, distracted, stubborn, uncertain, surviving, struggling HUMAN.
...a naive seeker, prodigal son, redeemed, friend, student, scholar, educator, saved, inspired, blessed, grateful, loving, compassionate, forgiving, chosen, intelligent, confidently uncertain, mischievously witty, Conscious, Yogi.
All we know about one another is what we are willing to share. Many of you may not have known these things about me but I am willing to share these facets with you so that you might better know Me. To me, L.I.F.E. is meant to be understood in the context in which it happens. Without proper context, it is all too easy to misunderstand. In order for you hopefully understand me better, I offer this vital context to how being HUMAN has guided me to Yoga and revealed what I knew all along.
The struggle is real! Just being alive and living can often be challenging. But, what does that really mean, being alive and living? It's so easy to conflate L.I.F.E. itself and living.
Being alive is quite easy. All we have to do is keep breathing. Living is another thing. Living requires food, water, shelter, resources, instinct, intelligence, compassion, patience, persistence, support and grace. Of course we need to do more than just breathe. Wouldn’t it be great if that’s all we had to worry about?! Living is one of the many fortunately-unfortunate truths of L.I.F.E.
It's so far out, the way out is in
Bow to God and call him Sir
But if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there
- George Harrison, Any Road
Isn’t it true? Any road or way of living provides us with myriad opportunities--opportunities to get lost, stumble, fall, pick ourselves back up, ask for help, resist, embrace, gain, lose, live and die. Living, in infinitely endless and complex ways, is an interconnected experience we share as a struggle. But, do we need to? Struggle that is. My experience of living has taught me, emphatically, yes. It is our struggles that shape, bend, break, mend, strengthen, weaken, and ultimately determine our character, paradigm, and identity as a Human. Believe me, I realize this is a hard truth to swallow, but true nonetheless. Conflict is a natural part of living. There is no escape, no way to avoid or prevent conflict or struggle.
Although struggle and conflict are inherent to living, so is the guarantee that the Universe is conspiring to help us along our way. Every experience, big or small, is an opportunity--to evolve. We have a choice. Our choice is not made at some point in the future, but rather, now. The past is the culmination of our choices that reside behind us suspended in karmic carbonite. “In motion the future is..difficult to see,” said Yoda. Every choice now is setting our future in motion. The future is unwritten and undetermined until we decide to begin writing it or determining it. This is tricksy though…
We have done, do, and are doing this all the time. We are writing and determining our futures. Whether we are aware of this activity or not is one of the deepest secrets of L.I.F.E. You may be asking...what’s up with this L.I.F.E. thing? Well, L.I.F.E. = Love Infused Freedom Experience. We are completely free to make choices knowing that our experiences are begotten from Love, the Love that infuses and continues to create the Universe and all of Existence. If we trust this Love and allow ourselves the freedom to experience it in every moment, we cannot fail. “Any road will take you there.”
It has taken countless falls, stumbles and humbling failures for me to reach this point and these inspired ideas. I am perfectly-imperfect, chaordic, confidently uncertain, humbly redeemed, and continuously cultivating catalytic Consciousness. My experiences have helped me realize, and more accurately, remember that L.I.F.E. is complex-simplicity--an intertwined, chaordic web of choices and variables dynamically interacting upon one another. Had I chosen, seventeen years ago now, to continue down the alcoholic path, my life would be quite different, if I would have even survived it. Still, here I am, still breathing, still alive. So, now what?
Now, I am choosing to share a bit more. I choose to be open, honest, and humble about being Human. After all, we are all Human. It is the one experience we are all having--the Human experience. None of us are perfect…”lest he throw the first stone” I think it goes. That’s the beauty of it. We are all here to help each other. None of us were left alone. So, here I am, trying to help. I hope it helps. The struggle IS real. Choose it. See it. Embrace it. Love it. Then you will see every struggle as simply an experience--an opportunity to change the future.
We are all struggling...together. If we own, choose, see, embrace and love this Truth we begin to remember the most profound secrets of L.I.F.E. Let’s choose, together, to write and determine a future based in humility, compassion and Consciousness. We cannot change the past but we can learn from it. All we can do for sure is seek the opportunities of the present.
So then, here’s the drama. My metaphysics, let me be perfectly frank with you, is that there is the central Self, you can call it God, you can call it anything you like, and it’s All of Us.
It’s playing all the parts of All Beings whatsoever everywhere and anywhere.
And it’s playing the game of hide and seek with itself. It gets lost, it gets involved in the farthest-out adventures, but in the end it always wakes up and comes back to itself.
- Alan Watts
Are you hiding or seeking? What role are You playing? Are you lost or found?
Like a game of hide and seek L.I.F.E. is exciting and unpredictable. Wake up and play. Play the role written just for You. Be the unique expression of Divinity you already are. We are all Spiritual-Conscious Beings struggling with our Human experiences. Remember who you really are. Let go of the idea of struggle and embrace every opportunity of change. No matter how bad the struggle may seem, it will end. The game is on and you are sought, no matter where you hide. It may take days, months, years or even lifetimes. No matter how long it takes we will all remember our Universal and Divine inheritance...GRACE, COMPASSION, and CONSCIOUSNESS.
