Welcome, Ven a gozar!

I am always fascinated by the people who are so cemented in themselves, they end up in a repeating spiral of misery and frustration, trying to do something which they were not meant to do, and will never do acceptably no matter how hard they try and want to.

The one thing that is keeping them from becoming what they want is they were never meant for what they desire to start with. Everyone early in their lifetime should sit down and evaluate who they really are, and what their purpose in this life is. It really is not that difficult; if we are only truthful with ourselves it is quite easy.

For example, once I wanted to be a sprinter. I wanted to pound my way down the track and feel the wind rush by on my face. The best I ever did was a seven minute mile. At that speed there is nothing really rushing by you except the people who were built to be runners. The same end result occurred when I wanted to play in a band. I played an instrument for over a year, and never really should have been moved from the last and third chair. When the band director had a bad day, I made it to the first chair, for about fifteen minutes. I had about the same result with Art class, and Spanish class. There are some things I will never be.

I can accept this and move on. Someone else will sprint, make music, do impressive artful things, speak two or more languages, and so on - I won’t be one of them though. In the world of belief systems, I will never be world class either, but I can live with all my faults. I am what I am, and that is good enough for me. I see no need to torture myself over something I will never be or was never meant to be.

I am not advocating being a quitter, I am suggesting once you give something the best you have, and you do not make your own grade, rather than punishing yourself, perhaps it is time to think about what you are trying to accomplish? In all things, someone has to be first, and someone has to be last. Most of us end up somewhere in the middle. That is where I ended up with my skiing. I skied once in an official race, a downhill slalom to be exact, with real prizes. I was not last, but I also was a long away from being first.

I enjoy doing these things I mentioned, I did not get frustrated and whine because I am not the best. Perhaps I should have thrown some items away though. I remember an oil painting I did in art class. I brought it home, and my Mother asked me what it was? I said it was a waterfall, the one at a favorite river we used to trout fish at. She said, “Oh yes, of course”, and hung it on the wall upside down.

Whenever you find yourself trying too hard at a specific thing and not achieving the results you want, maybe it is time to stop and think about it. Only a very few are almost perfect at anything. Most of us are okay at many things. There are a few things we will never be any good at no matter what. If there is a dream you have wanted all your life, and you can not seem to achieve it, maybe it was intended to stay a dream? Maybe your example of giving it your best is all that was intended for you to do?

Accepting your faults is not quitting, it is being human. In many ways it is letting opportunity in, because once you have let something go, you open yourself up to possibility. Possibility may lead you to your true nature, where you will excel at what you were meant to be.

There will always be people waiting to tell you how bad you are. You do not have to join in with them them. Be your own cheering section! Focus on those things you are good at and be happy!

I knew a man a number of years ago. We were not friends, or even formal acquaintances. I knew him from where he worked and he new me as a casual customer. That is about as close as the relationship ever went. We had different views on life, so we lived in different circles. Well that is not really true but, it’s not quite not true either.

In his world, he had problems. Or maybe a better definition is psychological problems. He heard voices, and it used to scare him. I know people who hear voices all the time. I occasionally hear voices once in a while, and I never really think much about it.

When I was a child, my father told me once day, that there was a little man that sat on my shoulder. He would always tell me what was right, and what was wrong, and all I had to do was listen. That took care of any fear of voices I had in my life. Heck, if you can have a little man on your shoulder talking to you, why not a woman, little girl, or space creature? I was young enough not to read very much into what he told me, so voices were okay.

But this poor guy was scared of the voices he heard. They never told him anything bad that I knew of, though I have no idea what the voices told him. But I lived through voices second hand a number of times, and a few of my own from time to time, so I did not think much of it. For most of the people that knew him, it was so terrible he could see it written in practically any face he cared to look at.

He went away. I did not know to where until he came back. He committed himself because of the voices he heard. This is a key thought, because some people in his condition assume they are normal. It is a catch twenty-two from the movie, in action for him. Sane people understand generally that what they are experiencing is not normal, but those less lucky do not question for a moment what is happening to them.

He came back to his old job back, and he seemed to be okay for a while. Then it started to happen again. This time he decided to take a different track, and started talking privately (relatively speaking, seeing I heard about it) with a preacher, about his voices. I don’t know how it came around, but the way I heard the story, is the preacher told him he was possessed. He was told he was possessed and there was nothing to be done quickly because these things took time to fix. I guess he did not have that much time, because he took his rifle into the woods one summer day, and the voices quit talking to him.

The irony to me was, no one seemed really to care what the voices told him. It did not matter to anyone if he was talking to God himself, or to a lost spirit from seventeen hundreds, or a demon. Don’t you think that should make a difference? I think what he was hearing should have made a big difference, plus the fact, he thought there was a problem in his hearing voices, and sought out help once before.

Most people do not have the ability to be a prodigy in some area of life, but a few do. If for example the voices were telling him something worthwhile, or better yet, telling him how to raise money for the preacher, would he have ceased to exist on that summer day?

Welcoming change, and not fearing the unknown should be our focus. We tend to approach strange new things with fear, apprehension, and tunnel vision. It would be refreshing to see most of us act differently. Just because it is new, does not mean it is to be feared. If you do not try, you can not fail, if you never fail, you are not growing.