That Said:
In light of a few responses to my post, some clarity before departure.
This season holds ancient significance for many cultures in the northern hemisphere of this planet, believing this to be the time of year when the barriers between physical and spiritual/psychic are thinnest, when as the Irish would say, its a 'thin place' everywhere. To some, this is the 'new year', marking the solar transition to winter before a new spring sees its return, and so my previous post was a bit of a new years resolution for myself, a statement of change and effort on my part. While it may have rambled too much into the reasons for my frustrations with this 'world' most of us live in, it was more a credo affirmation than farewell letter.
I have grown weary of a world in which facebook status becomes a matter of legal response, when going to a bank facebook/twitter or any such are discussed by my teller. Robbers have been caught because they checked their facebook on the computer of their victim and left themselves logged in, aspersions to the health and well being of others are made because they go to a party, or worse, arent miserable all the time. As a psychologist I well understand the impact of social influence on a persons behaviors, but virtual social networking creates virtual pressures, and I have seen too much of these things winding up having a similar effect to that of Mass Media, where depression becomes harder to battle or feelings of real isolation are reinforced because its harder to be friends in the real world as opposed to being friends on facebook/myspace etc. Social support systems is a major influence on mental health, but virtual ones are almost by their nature negative because the real support we need in life comes from a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry on, and the occasional hug, not in the wink, nod, or tweet of the virtual.
No my beloved friends, I am not 'leaving' in the mortal sense, I am making a choice to depart from the social networking universe which seems to try to draw you in to time wasting games that you could be spending with someone you care about, or discovering more people in the real world to care for. In light of the cosmic timing of this personal decision, the metaphor of world transitioning seemed most appropriate because it is a passage into a new 'world' to make world changing choices for ones self. This new choice of mine goes beyond simple acknowledgment of others, and becomes a different way you react when you greet even a total stranger, because the choice is made to make strangers not exist. It is a statement of change, of choice, and exemplification. I have chaffed against the edge of this 'world' of our age, where the wonder of the world is dimmed by the neon lights around us, and where the extraordinary gifts around us are avoided because we are taught to fear.
If anything, I am making a choice to live fully in the 'world' around me, not in front of me at the moment. It is a choice to become a positive presence in my community, and to bring the change I wish to see myself, instead of investing it in the form of hope in another like a politician. World changing power is our birthright, we have just learned to accept that we 'shouldn't 'use it. My choice is to ignore that and begin changing the world, one drop of water at a time, through spending my energy on creating moments of positivity and, if i can manage it, joy in the lives around me. I made a choice to work in the helping fields when I chose my degree in Psychology. It began to seem hypocritical to want to help others while plugged into facebook via blackberry, instead of one hand helping another.
Before graduation I wrote a list of the ten most important things i had gleaned while there, they are in essence the ten points I am affirming once more now and putting into action in my life. I leave you with them, and while i may check up on people once and a while, I will no longer be dedicating time to posting, sorting or responding to application invites (of which i have nearly 200 just in the last week). Consider the world created by the points below, that is the world I am choosing to live in, and how I am choosing to live in it.
10 Thoughts in Parting:
1: There is no greater use of your time than in sharing Love (philia and agape) , it builds bridges that last lifetimes and creates roads that change the world.
2: Fear is the only true thing that keeps us apart, and by and large, is founded only upon the shadows that perpetuate it, so light your candles and find each other in the darkness and prove fear wrong.
3. It is not a matter of Faith to believe in the better angels of our nature, but faith can sustain us through the times that see our spirits dessicated by desperate matters often spawned by fear. We are better than we dare to dream of.
4. No matter where the road looks like it is leading, the fact that you can see where it could be leading means you can change course.
5. The only limitations on life are the ones we place on it, the same is true of Family. We can make the world our family if we so choose.
6. The biggest mistake that can ever be made is to withhold yourself from the world around you. The smallest voice can start an avalanche.
7. The world is simultaneously bigger than you can imagine, and shrinking faster than you can grasp, so explore it, and its wondrous diversity.
8. Necessity is the mother of invention, but dreams create the world before it arrives. Where would we be without dreamers showing us a new world to live in? Share your ideas and dreams, build the world we wish to see.
9.Time is an illusion in matters of the heart. No matter how long it has been since you have seen someone, reach out to them, for the time may come they are not there to reach for.
10. You are, without exception, loved by more people than you will ever know. Think of your own secret crushes, and remember those feelings truly are universal, so never doubt that you are loved, even if in the quiet depths of night by someone to scared to show it.
Be well and Blessed, Beloved Friends, know you are never far from my thoughts, and since I have so many thoughts in a day, some of them are guaranteed to be of you. Find joy in your life, make joy your path and make me proud to know you!