Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Isle of Iona
even all the signs I've received so far have showed me that I'm on the right track..found a heart shaped piece of glass just a day before leaving FA and a heart shaped pebble today :)
It's my first day off today, had a nice wonder around on the north side of the island, saw the breathtaking turquoise ocean, sandy beach..and felt so content. Yesterday I met Polly (who quite obviously was Paul before) with her little Jack Russel called Moon and she gave me a green pebble from Columba beach which she blessed and loaded with positive energy, I took the green pebble up to the hill top and rested it amongst the other stones an pebbles gathered to form a statue of luck..or something like that, asking the Soul of
Earth or the Hand of Destiny to keep us together. I know, I know - don't say a word...
Having spent few sunny hours climbing on the rocks and measuring the sand dunes I frightened myself with a realisation of the complexity of my own thought - it would be difficult to write it down but it was something similar to a picture in a picture effect.. I was having a thought about how I had a thought and I was thinking of sharing the thought with Hershe when I realized the absurdity of the situation and thinking about telling how i realised how ridiculous thought I had which was like a never ending track on a broken vinyl. blah..that doesn't really make any sense, does it..Basically I got lost in my own thought and I didn't know how to stop it or find a way out..
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The Egg, by Andy Weir
You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that’s when you met me.
“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”
“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.
“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”
“Yup,” I said.
“I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”
“More or less,” I said.
“Are you god?” You asked.
“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”
“My kids… my wife,” you said.
“What about them?”
“Will they be all right?”
“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”
You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”
“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”
“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”
“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”
“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”
You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”
“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”
“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”
I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.
“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”
“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”
“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”
“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”
“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”
“Where you come from?” You said.
“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”
“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”
“So what’s the point of it all?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”
“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.
I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”
“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”
“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”
“Just me? What about everyone else?”
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”
“All you. Different incarnations of you.”
“Wait. I’m everyone!?”
“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
“I’m every human being who ever lived?”
“Or who will ever live, yes.”
“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”
“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.
“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.
“And you’re the millions he killed.”
“I’m Jesus?”
“And you’re everyone who followed him.”
You fell silent.
“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”
You thought for a long time.
“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”
“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”
“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”
“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”
“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”
“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”
And I sent you on your way.
daily wisdom
One too many drinks left you dizzy? Put your hand on something stable. The part of your ear responsible for balance—the cupula—floats in a fluid of the same density as blood. “As alcohol dilutes blood in the cupula, the cupula becomes less dense and rises,” says Dr. Schaffer. This confuses your brain. The tactile input from a stable object gives the brain a second opinion, and you feel more in balance. Because the nerves in the hand are so sensitive, this works better than the conventional foot-on-the-floor wisdom.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
supernatural
Such as his encounter with a small boy in Mario's pyjamas sitting on the hand rail in front of his bedroom...
Bloody hell..so much of a decent sleep tonight. Lights will remain on.
weekly report
Instead..I've been thinking "huh..tomorrow..." and closed my eyes..
I was hoping this week to be very productive, cos Hershe is away in Amsterdam..presumably smoking her brains out ...but ..NO. Nothing.
I miss my camera...feel a bit disabled without it.
Been checking out various ways to travel around Europe and found another interesting idea - cycling through Europe.
Pros and cons for cycling and hitch hiking
Cycling pros:
boss of your own time
no waiting
no asking
no refusals
no bags on your back
can choose any route
can stop everywhere and whenever
no "no smoking" rule on the bike!
can go everywhere
get fed up - can sell your bike
going down hill..yeeeeeeeeee!!!!
meeting a lot of people on the way
getting from one camp site to another
cheap
healthy
a lot of views to enjoy
Cycling cons:
worry about the bike
possibility of a break down
theft
aching arse..at least for the first few weeks
where to keep the bike when hiking or doing the hills/mountains?
up hills...noooooooooo!!!
speed of moving on
Hitch hiking pros:
fast
comfortable and warm
can sit down
meeting interesting people
cheap
good when it's raining
hitch hiking cons:
possibility of meeting dodgy people
a lot of waiting
moving mainly from one petrol station to another
usually no smoking in the cars :)
can't stop whenever you see a view..to take a picture
can't turn when you see an interesting road that turns to another direction
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Check out iExplore - Contest Entry
Check out http://photocontest.iexplore.com/images/view/6815