answer to a question

[anamacha]

NB: I am going dark shortly after this. Though I am not using the userpictures or made posts about it, I feel strongly enough about censorship to at least pay lip service to tomorrow's Content Strike.

ed using In response to a recent ask/tell poll, the lovely ladytairngire asks:

A) Do you subscribe to the idea that illness and injuries are more than just

Comments

[ladytairngire]

I suppose it does.

That is a frustrating place to be - to assume there is a reason yet have no idea what it is. Hell, it could be something as out-there as "if the equivalent of a 155mm howitzer had not prevented you from continuing on your day, you may have gone on to become a major asshole who's behavior would set off a chain of events that would culminate in world-wide famine." I mean, hell.
Hell.
But you're here - and there must be a reason for THAT.
Hope you make the best of it.

[anamacha]

yes, you could say that -- it is a rather frustrating place to be. I wish I knew what that reason was, but your question sort of presupposed that I (or anyone) would have the intellect to second-guess the Universe or the Divine, and ... well, I am not quite THAT full of myself.

You're right about your howitzer scenario -- it might have been prevention on the part of the Unknowable. But I can't help but wonder -- how much better off would I have been had the accident not happened to me? What would I have gone on to become?

Of course,I'll never know now, at least in this lifetime. I'm trying to make the best of it, but I can't help but wonder.

[ladytairngire]

I accept that there are things that we are not meant to understand, even things that have direct consequences on our lives. But on the other hand, I tend to think that we are partners in our own destiny. Senior partners. Generally. So the presupposition is intentional. In this sense, I think it's awesome to be full of yourself! You know, the Universe can't steer a parked car.
Or maybe it could, but it's a hell of a lot easier if someone turns the key and the wheel and works the pedal thingies. :)

[anamacha]

huh, interesting!

I have long believed in free will -- we can make our own choices and such. But destiny and divinity? I've thought that if it existed (which I have precious little evidence of), then it was generally disinterested in me personally. IOW, I don't think that they take a direct hand in my life.

With regard to my accident -- maybe they have. But if that is true, then why have they not taken a more direct or obvious hand in my life afterwards? Why can I not percieve the clues that they are presumably dropping? Why has my ambition and motivation essentially vanished?

[ladytairngire]

I assume those are rhetorical questions?

In my own personal philosophy, free will and destiny are not mutually exclusive. Also, I don't think it is the Universe per se that acts on individual destiny, but the individual him or herself. In other words, say, we design our own karma before we come to play it out on earth. And all along some vestige of our spiritual self is whispering in our corporeal self's ear.

Also, in my philosophy, the whole purpose of living is to learn, so it follows that life events, even terrible accidents, hold some lesson. I see evidence of otherworldy involvement all the time. Then again, I look for it.

I said to someone recently, whether or not the messages I find are real or merely aspects of my imagination are ultimately irrelevant, because that is the essence of faith in the first place.

I love philosophy over coffee. Don't you?

[anamacha]

they're mostly rhetorical, yes, because you don't know much about my particular situation. But if you have any clues/answer/insight/whatever then they're much appreciated

[ladytairngire]

I guess the easiest way to answer that is to say I watch for the sisters: Serendipty and Coincidence. When they appear, I tend to view it as intentional. Like, there's a reason I should be thinking about x and a story about x appears on the tv and a song about x on the radio and a book about x falls off the shelf...

A neat incident that happened just the other day: I prayed to a Goddess for strength and guidance. I offered her a cup of tea (as i am wont to do). It was Yogi tea, the kind with cutesy messages typed on the label, inside the wrapper... guess what? The message was about inner strength.

It's a little thing, but definitive proof to me that there are extraoridnary forces at work.

[anamacha]

ah, gotcha. And I do the same sort of thing; I observe the same sort of thing. I know there's SOME thing there to attribute it to, I just don't know what it is.