SEX

I remember the life on the farm. 

It was a simple life, full of hard work but also full of rewards. But most of all it was real. It was that no frill, no nonsense approach to life that has molded my young character and in a way made me what I am today.

I remember one year when our cow had some problems delivering.

Her cry cut the night country silence like a knife. 

The whole family woke up and went to the barn to help her.

 My grand mother put her hands inside the cow and was trying to reposition the calf. My grandpa was holding the cows head and I was holding the kerosene lamp – yes we didn’t have electricity on the farm.

Finally, the baby calf was born and the cow stopped her painful wailing.

My grandpa brought some warm water and started washing the baby calf while the cow was licking it. There was blood all over the ground and pieces of the placenta in a small pile. But the little baby calf so fragile and so beautiful made everything so worth while and gave the place a feeling of purity.

Life had the power to sanctify the repulsiveness of the biological act.

Sex was part of life, part of the farm existence and in growing up, part of me.

At seven I left my grand parents farm and joined my parents in the big city. 

The schools in the big city were much better and my parents wanted to give me a good education.

The big city was so strange to me, so weird and confusing.

The children at school didn’t like me very much and made fun of me – the farm boy – until one day when I kicked some but and suddenly became much respected.

I remember this discussion they had about the stork and the cabbage patch kids and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. Are you retarded? I said. Everybody knows women have sex with their husbands, get pregnant and deliver after nine months. 

They laughed at me and then went straight to the teacher and informed her about the heresy I was spreading.

The teacher called me to the teachers' lounge and asked me about the incident. She said, “Who told you that?” I said, Nobody. It was just the way it was. The life that I saw with my own eyes on the farm.

They called my mother to the school and I was sworn never again to tell anybody where the babies came from. 

I didn’t understand what the big fuss was all about. I thought everybody should know it. I mean what was the big deal after all.

Now I am a father of two beautiful, bright girls. We don’t offer any information on sex or sexuality to them, but we don’t lie if they ask any questions.

We had a little dog and we needed to fix her. The girls asked why and we explained it to them. No big deal.

My older daughter wants to be a veterinarian. We bought her a subscription to the Zoo book magazine. Some times the girls come and ask for some clarifications, like why a whale is a mammal and not a fish. We don’t hold back on the facts and they don’t find the facts of life inappropriate. They are just facts of life.

We have this wonderful book “Everybody poops” I wish they had one “Everybody has sex”

So what I’m trying to say is that we are not waiting for the girls to reach a certain age to give them the big talk about sex. They will find out about it even if we want or not and most likely if you don’t tell them the truth they will get wrong, distorted facts.

So when is the time to talk to your kids about sex? Any time they ask. 

How should you talk about it? As frank as possible. Don’t wait till they reach puberty to talk about sex.

Puberty is the time to talk about love, relationships, responsibility and commitment, not sex. If you will wait that long you will not only make the conversation very awkward but probably give them the wrong signals like now it is OK to engage in sex because you have reached this age.

Becoming an adult is such a complicated, difficult part of life don’t make your kids' life even more complicated. Think about the embarrassing time you had when you got your big sex talk. I certainly remember mine.

I was about 16 and in the old country boys at that age were supposed to become men.

I remember my father talking to me:”Hey boy, how come you don do it, what’s wrong with you, what are you waitin’ for?” See, everybody else in the neighborhood has done it and I was the only one seemingly still a virgin.

I wanted to make my pop proud, so one day I went to him and I said: Dad you can be proud of me now. Today I lost my virginity. “That’s my boy! A chip off the old block! So how did you like it?” He asked. I don’t know pop, my butt still hurts, but I’ll tell you the next time.

Strangely enough, he never wanted to talk to me again about sex since.

The magnificent art of losing

I have to make a confession; I am guilty of a victimless crime, or should I say of a self-inflicting crime.

From time to time I am guilty of randomly and unreasonable killing time, which is not as bad or rewarding as killing the annoying people in my life but much more feasible.

I know killing time is a bad idea even if my ego is screaming in the back of my head “Noooo… I have a perfect excuse for it…”  But I and my ego have a very special relationship. I like to say things just to piss him off. I learned that technique from my beloved wife BTW.

Sometimes ago I downloaded this poker app for my phone that allows me to play poker online with other people.
So like I said from time to time when I feel tired, bored and totally uninspired to do anything productive I join of a bunch of strangers for a fun or nasty – depending – game of poker.

For those that are not familiar with the game of poker and in particular with the no limit Holdem poker a short note: Poker is both a game of skill and luck.

The luck part is that you can have absolutely zero skill or knowledge of the game and still win by simply being dealt the winning hand.

The skill part is that no matter what your dealt hand is you can play it in such way as to maximize your winnings and minimize the loss

Because of this dual nature of the game, there are professional poker players that are making a career and a very good living by playing poker.

As a beginner, when I started playing my focus was merely on winning, just like my philosophy in real life.

So I studied all the books on winning at poker I could get my hands on, and I practiced every chance I had, just like my philosophy in real life.

After acquiring some skills I could see my winning average has improved but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make any significant progress. It looked like the winnings and losses were about the same and I was making just a very small gain at my game, just like my experience in real life.

So I started looking at the winning players, the ones that somehow were getting ahead winning more and more every time.

What were they doing differently?

The conclusion was quite surprising. They were not better than me at winning but they were definitively better than me at losing.

So the game of poker is not as much about winning but about minimizing and managing your loss.

Once I realized that and start applying it to my game my winnings started to pile up and now I am a happy millionaire. Too bad is not real money L

So why are we talking about poker anyway?

Well, it turns out that real life is a little bit like a game of poker.

We are all dealt hands, you may call them opportunities or circumstances, it really doesn’t matter if you understand the principle.

Some of the hands are winning hands, some of the hands are losing hands, and most are so, so.

Like in the game of poker in real life we all want to win.

We have different strategies and knowledge on how to win and we try to do our damn best.

Some of us get lucky, like the weekly winners of the lottery becoming millionaires overnight.

Some of us hit hard times like losing a job or a business.

Most of us just do so, so.

When we look at the big winners, the very successful people in life and business we tend to attribute that success to luck. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs were lucky, being in the right place at the right time. Right?

But there were millions of people at that time and place, me included. And they did not make it.

I am looking at my life, not at my wins but at my loses. What would my life be now if I avoided all loses?

What would your life be if you knew how to minimize and manage your losses?

I wish somebody would have teach me how to lose many years ago.

But there is nobody teaching that, and nobody has ever wrote a book title “The magnificent art of losing”

Who in their right mind would buy it? Would you?

Who do you trust?

“When you start to wonder whether you can trust someone or something that is when you already know you don’t”

-         - Unknown

There is this anecdote of an American soldier during the Second World War in France.

One day the soldier went to Pablo Picasso’s art studio in Paris.

He looked around at the strange paintings and finally asked the master:

“Do all women in your village have their eyes on one side of their face?”

The artist laughed and changes the subject.

Later on, Picasso asked the young man if he is married.

The soldier said “No” but he had a lovely fiancé waiting for him in the states and very proudly pulled out a picture from his wallet. The master looked at the picture then asked in amazement: 

“Are all women in your village this small?”

There are three major views of the world:

The artistic view, the spiritual view, and the scientific view.

I choose to use the word “spiritual” and not “religious” because not all spiritual views and teachings are necessarily religious and not all religious views and teachings are necessarily spiritual.

I would like to think of myself a spiritual person and not a religious one :)

Now, anybody with a little bit of education and a little bit of common sense realizes that art is not intended to be scientific, or exact.

You wouldn’t say Monet is a bad painter because his paintings are out of focus or Picasso is bad because his portraits are not anatomically correct. Would you?

Only a moron would ask to remove art from our schools' curriculums because it is not scientifically sound. Right?

Well, what about religion? Isn’t religion supposed to be for the soul what art is for the soul through our senses? And if that is the case, why are the so called scientists so mad about religion?

Religion is not supposed to be exact, précis, technical. That is what science is supposed to be.

You don’t see artists and spiritualists asking Congress to remove science from our schools because it is soulless, cold, dry and drab.

Do you?

I mean who sets the criteria that science should rule human life and behavior?

Who gives those guys that power? I don’t remember anybody asking for my vote.

I know, I know, science is pure, untainted, science is exact, truthful and real, science is perfect and it will deliver us from our folly.

But I remember that once Galileo’s views were held as scientific absolute, truth, then Newton came along and the absolute scientific truth became Newtonian until Einstein came along and then the absolute truth became relative.

The little secret of the scientific world is that they don’t know shit!

While they are reassuring you they are in total control, behind the scenes thousands of scientists are scrambling to figure out how the hell the things work. – See the CERN accelerator and the promise to figure out the truth.

So to me, this so called scientific knowledge is not scientific at all after all. It is just human bull shit like everything else.

– Yeah, I know mine is bullshit as well, but at least I am honest about it!

The scary trend my friends is that we are relying more and more on science and scientist to determine the faith of human race, but there are grave questions and doubts about science and scientific dogma.

Think about the ethical question DNA research poses. Think about how the modern psychiatry has shaped our social behavior.

Think about how technology has changed our society and way of life.

Can we afford to stay the course? Or do we need a major change of direction?

Before we let the genie out of the bottle, let’s stop and think for a while:

Who do you trust?

The artists, the spiritualists or the scientists.

PS: Please give me some good rebuttal. I’m aching for a debate!

Mind Power

Know your mental strength and use it.

Discover your mental potential.

Explore what works and what doesn’t work for you, then use it.

The human mind is like a muscle.

The more you use it the stronger it gets.

We have a very poor understanding of how the human mind works.
And by “we” I don’t mean you and me, I mean the whole humanity, scientists and all.
The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that the human mind doesn’t work like the rest of the world.

The human mind is not concrete, like a house made of bricks, it is fluid.
The human mind is relative and in that world, 1 + 1 doesn’t always equal 2.

In your mind whatever you believe is real, it is real.
In your mind whatever you believe it works, it works and if you believe it doesn't work it doesn't.
In your mind, if you believe you can you can and if you believe you can’t you can’t.

So that basically explains why some things work for some people and some things don’t.
Some people use visualization and swear is the miracle path to mind empowerment.
I have an analytical mind and visualization doesn’t work for me.
But I can plan things. I can set up goals, make plans and solve problems when they arise.

Hypnosis works for some people but again that doesn’t work for me.
Somebody said I’m not suggestible but if you come to me with a good suggestion I am very open to it.
I have listened to Ted Talks that have literally given me a jolt of confidence and energy.
So why can I accept some suggestions, ideas and not the other?

Meditation works for me, and it is what I consider the miracle path to mind empowerment.
But I know people that totally hate it and consider it a waste of time.
Yet they use prayer or chant mantra, which for me doesn’t do much.

So when you look at all those “mind” enhancing technics and their promises and claims they make
you have to be very skeptic and pragmatic about it.
Before accepting or rejecting anything, give it a try.

Keep an open mind and jump into it.
Try, Yoga, Thai Chi, Reiki, Hypnosis, Self Hypnosis, Meditation, Breathing Exercises, Acupuncture, Feng Shui, Christal Therapy, Aroma therapy, go Vegan for a month or do whatever you think may benefit you.
Give it a try. If it works; perfect it. If it doesn’t work discard it.

But whatever you do, do not try to force it.
If analyzing and planning your life is not your “thing” don’t do it just because you know you need it.
Have somebody else do it for you.
There are practically any types of professional help available to you, from financial planning to life coaching, from career counseling to family therapy.

Fulfill your potential. Create your own destiny.
If you are not good at something, that’s OK, it means that you are good at something else.
If you are not good at anything, that’s OK, it means you are very good at nothing.
You just have to find something where being excellent at nothing is very valuable like going into politics.

Remember if life gives you lemons; make lemonade.

Mirror Mirror…

How do you see yourself?

When asked this question people will respond something along these lines:

Tall, short, fat slim, pretty, handsome, intelligent, smart, creative, funny, rich, poor, young, old etc.

None of these answers are correct. The only correct answer is:

“In the mirror” or more explicitly “The way other people see me”

Of course, you think that’s not true.

You KNOW who you are without anybody telling you who you are.

You know you are tall because you have measured your height and you know for a fact you are 6’ 9” feet tall. Right?

But here is the catch. The Empire State Building is 1454 feet high; you are not even close to that, you are a midget, an ant compared with that. Right?

So why do you think you are tall?

You think that because you are comparing and being compared with the rest of the population.

You see yourself as tall because the average height of men is 5’10” but if the average height would have been 7’10” then you would see yourself as short. See my point?

The other people, they are the true measurement of your height, not the measuring tape.

So besides being an interesting observation is the way we see ourselves important?

Yes! It is actually much more important than we think.

That image we have about ourselves is what determines who we are, who we’ll become and the quality of life we’ll experience.

The way we see ourselves determine our actions.

If you think you’re short you will limit your dating and mating options.

If you think you are not smart enough you will limit your career and business potential.

If you think you lack a certain talent you will limit your creativity.

How we see ourselves it is what makes or breaks us.

Here’s the catch. We don’t realize that our image is not our real image.

Our image is a reflection of what the society values are not of who you are.

That is a debilitating fact. That is what keeps us from becoming and accomplishing what we want.

You are not who you think or who other think you are.

If you are dating the girl of your dreams you are tall, handsome and confident. No matter what anybody says.

If you are running a successful business you are smart and business savvy. No matter what anybody thinks.

If you are allowing your talent to be expressed you are a creative artist. No matter what any critic says.

You have to stop living up to the society’s expectation and start living to your full potential.

Stop looking in the mirror for validation and to become instead the mirror by all values are measured.

You have to stop asking: “Mirror, mirror who am I?” and start saying “Watch me world this is who I really am!”

7 Cheap ways to destress

1)      Break the mood.

Stress is a mood, a grove, a mental state in which we sometimes fall without realizing the subjective and impermanent nature of our experience.

Break the mood. Get crazy. Depending on the circumstances; Smile or laugh without any reason. Burst out in a happy tune and if you can fill it do a little dance as well.

If the circumstances do not allow for an exuberant outburst of energy use this instead. Go on YouTube and watch videos of kittens and puppies at play.

And whatever you do don’t watch the news.

2)      Talk to somebody about your problems.

We all know that talking about our problems with somebody that loves or cares about us is a great stress reliever, but did you know that actually, you can talk to anybody about it with similar results.

Use unconventional outlets like the people in HR at work, a priest or Rabi (it doesn’t matter if you are religious or not) or simply go to a privet place and talk it out loud to the walls or trees.

3)      Meditate.

Just cleaning out your mind of all thought process for a while is enormously beneficiary.

If you know how to meditate you are probably already using this but if you don’t try this little substitute;

Breath slowly while counting the in and out of your breath.

4)      Listen to sad music

It sounds counterintuitive; shouldn’t you listen to happy music? Yes and no. Sometimes happy music just irritates us even more so if you can get giddy with happy music OK but if you don’t try something like Mozart’s Requiem, Allegri’s Miserere Deus or simply good old fashion American blues.

This is especially useful since you can put on your ear buds in almost any place and situation.

5)      Reminisce about happy times.

Looking at old photos of vacations or happy events in our past can also break a gloomy mood.

If photos or videos are not readily accessible just think about it.

Remember how it felt and promise to yourself you will repeat the experience in the future.

6)      Take a walk

Taking a break and walking away from your problems even for a couple of minutes will help you relax and put things into a new perspective.

Nature is especially therapeutic in this case. Find a park, a beach, or a trail and take a walk.

7)      Take a bubble bath

This is a cheap way of relaxing that will guaranty to make you feel better.

You can enhance the experience by adding soft music candle lights and even a glass of wine.

Of course, a spa experience with a nice massage will be even better but we are talking about cheap ways of distressing. It is the same reason I didn’t include sex in my list. I don’t know if that qualifies as cheap…

Anyway, I hope you’ll find something in this list to help you out relaxing and also if you have any personal favorite ways to relax please feel free to drop me a comment.

The Scenarist

Q: Why do Hollywood marriages are perfect?

A: Because they are only two hours long.

Humor aside, why do we have so many happy endings in the movies?

It is because the screenwriter decides so.

Movies are written before they are produced.

It is not the director of the movie that creates the movie.

It is the scenarist who decides what, when and where things will happen.

It is the script writer that controls the action and the actors in the movie.

The movie director only controls the acting and how the script will be transposed in images.

That’s why when the script sucks even the best director can’t make it into a great movie.

What about real life?

Is there a scenario according to our life unfolds?

Some people believe so and they call it “destiny” some other don’t believe in it and they call it baloney.

But what if I told you your life is a movie?

I am not trying to convince you there is a “destiny” a script according to which your life unfolds.

What I am proposing is that in life there are actors, scenarists and directors just like in Hollywood.

The only difference is that they all work at the same time and there is only one movie that runs forever called “The Reality” although it would be more appropriate to call it “The Human Play”

Who are the actors in this movie?

Well, basically anybody alive. If you are breathing you have a role, a part to play in this this “reality.”

So then, who are the directors and scenarists?

The directors in this production are what we call “the leaders” and they can be as small as the head of a family or a McDonald manager and as big as the head of GM or Donald Trump.

Their role is to turn the various “scenarios” into reality.

But who write these scenarios who are the scenarists?

Well, the scenarist are people of vision, people not satisfied just to react at what happens  to and around them but decide instead to control their life and what happens around them.

They are also very varied from the young entrepreneur starting a business in his garage to the powerful think tank groups that are dissecting and analyzing our world.

They are usually much harder to point out and there are a lot of “conspiracy” theories surrounding them.

Have you ever heard of the groups of people that control our destiny, of “Illuminati” or any of the other “secret” societies?

Do really rich people try to control our society to “script” our “reality”?

Of course they do.

We all do.

Don’t you try to do your best for you, your family, your relatives and friends?

Of course you do. So why would rich people be any different? And why are you expecting them to behave any different?

The question is not are they doing it but how much “collusion” is there in their efforts?

The answer doesn’t matter. Even if you knew the truth there is nothing you can do about it.

What is important is to understand that your life is a “movie” and you are an actor.

Do you like the “role” you are playing?

Well. If you don’t is time for you to sit down and write yourself a better scenario.

That is the key point WRITE IT DOWN if it is not written down it’s just an empty dream pipe.

Food for your thoughts

One of the “culture shocks” I experienced coming to US was the fast food culture.

In the old country going out to eat was not a necessity, it was a luxury.

Eating out was an event reserved for special occasions.

People would go out on a date, birthday, mother’s day, a job promotion or other significant events.

A lunch or dinner in a restaurant was a unique experience.

The food was exquisite, the people were dressed elegantly and the time you spent there was special.

The whole idea of eating out, the whole setting, was centered and focused on quality.

It was a prize, a reward, something you did because you deserved better.

The idea of “fast food” was not only foreign but also absurd.

Why would anybody stuff their face with mediocre or junk food in as little time as possible?

Life is not a contest of who is doing things faster, but in enjoying the experience.

Then I come to US and I found the explanation: CONVENIENCE

But convenience is just an abused excuse. ‘

It is not all the time that we are in such hurry, that we are in such a time crunch that “fast food” will be a convenient choice.

It is more likely that people are too lazy to do the right thing and instead choosing the fast and cheap way out.

Of course after years and years of following this trend America has developed a new problem: OBESITY

And slowly but surely people have become more aware of the shortcomings of the fast food culture.

More and more people are going back to the old ways of preparing and eating the food.

More and more people are choosing health and a good experience over convenience.

But I really don’t want to talk about food in this post.

The fast food craze it is just a point of reference an analogy to what I really want to talk about.

Let’s talk about your brain “food”. The information, the news, and the knowledge you are ingesting.

I lived through the personal computer revolution and the rise of the internet.

What I am seeing is practically the same trend and trajectory the fast food industry had in the past.

The McDonalisation of information. The replacement of quality content with junk thought.

The wonderful experiences of my youth, the marvelous hours I spent in a museum, a theater or simply reading a book are gone.

The more the technology has advanced, radio, television, the internet, the lower and lower the quality of information and the quality of the experience have declined.

We are now at the paramount of junk brain food evolution and the resulting problem is starting to become obvious: the growing epidemic of mental “obesity” I’m seeing around every day.

Apathy, short attention span, a degeneration of the common sense, irrational behavior, rage and confusion just to name a few of the symptoms of this new epidemic.

How long before we all realize that this “diet” of junk thought is as damaging to our mind and soul as the cholesterol, the fat, the sugar and salt of the junk food is damaging to our body?

Do we really have to wait for the scientists to tell us that all this garbage we expose our brains to is bad for us?

I don’t know about you but I instinctively started a mental “diet” and I am urging anybody with some common sense left to do the same.

You deserve much better than what the media and internet is pouring down your throat.

You just have to drop the “convenience” of the junk thought industry and go back to the old ways.

You deserve quality nutrition not only for your body but also for your mind and soul.

Here is what I do and maybe you can add some suggestion of your own to my list.

-          I cut off the satellite subscription since 2011 and not replaced with anything else.

-          I cut off my social media presence to a bare minimum. I don’t have a Face Book account, or should I say I couldn’t close it so I just turned it into a fake account I just use when I need a FB account to log in something else.

-          I changed my internet presence from passive to active. And this is what I mean by it. I changed my browser homepage to google.com so when I go on the internet it opens to an almost blank page and nothing is forced down my throat. From there I choose what I want to see or hear.

-          I cut down on my email intake by putting any unrequested email in the junk bin. I am now down to 3-4 emails a day.

-          I spend as much time in nature as I can. No weekends at home or on the internet.

-          I nurture face to face or at least person to person communication and relationships.

-          I meditate and dedicate special time to my spiritual wellbeing.

-          I try to be as creative as possible. Even if it is just writing a blog post.

So that’s a little bit of my experience I want to share with you.

I believe I deserve better and YOU should also seek, choose and accept only what’s best for you

The Illusion of Possession

We all heard the story of how Manhattan Island was purchased from the Native American tribes by Dutch settlers for a handful of colored glass beads, the moral of the story being how clever the white people were and how naïve and ignorant the indigenous people were.

Besides being factually incorrect, the story doesn’t mention a lot of other things that were very pertinent in the making of the deal.

The notion and concept of possession is not as universal as we think.

This is mainly because property and possession are manmade concepts and build as such, to serve their purpose and not as universal and natural laws as many like to believe.

The Native Americans did not have the concept of ownership the colonist have.

To the native people owning land was as absurd as owning the air in the sky or the water in the rivers.

We do not own the land and the land does not belong to us. It is the opposite way; we belong to the land.

This concept of no possession it is the more intuitive, natural one since possession is an illusion.

What we really mean by possession is actually a form of use interdiction.

When we purchased the land from the Native Americans we did not say:  We are giving you these goods but in exchange, you are forbidden the use of the land. You cannot hunt, raise your cattle, build your house or walk on this land anymore.

If we have explained the deal like that I’m sure the deal would have never been made.

Another classical example of how and why property and possession are manmade artificial concepts is the Communist system.

In 1917 under Lenin’s leadership, the great Bolshevik revolution took place in Russia.

For the first time, the “people” took control of a country and personal property was abolished.

In Russia, the land belonged to the Russian people now. At least that’s what they said.

I grew up in a communist country and I’m very familiar with this concept.

I remember distinctively being in High school at the age where individuality pops up.

I saw the son of the Party secretary coming to school in a personal car with a personal driver so I asked: “How come he has a car and a personal driver?”

“Comrade! That is our car, the people’s car. The comrade Secretary is only using it because his job is more important than anybody else.”

Personal property or collective property is the same concept: The concept of use interdiction.

The peasants working in the farm Collectives did not own the land, the government did.

Pretty much the same as here in the US. There is no public, land, public road or public park as you are lead to believe.

Try to use it for your own purpose like building something on public land and you will soon discover that is not “our” land, it is in fact, Government land.

Of course, you’d say; “Maybe, but my house is MY kingdom I can do whatever I want on MY land”

Not so fast. It is Government land and you need a permit to build anything on the Government land.

Ask anybody that “owns” a house or any other piece of real-estate for that matter.

You don’t own anything. Possession is an illusion.

Possession is only the ability to forbid somebody else from using whatever you think is yours.

But nothing besides your life experience is actually yours because anybody at any time can have that use restricted or removed, like it or not.

So be rich in life experiences. Be rich in love, nobody can take that from you.

Row, row, row your boat…

Let’s imagine for a minute that you are in heaven. 
In heaven the streets are paved with gold, the weather is always gorgeous, you have everything you desire and life couldn’t be more perfect.

However, there is one small inconvenience; there is not much to do.

Here you are, singing praise to the Lord day after day and doing all the other heavenly things you do in heaven - you can see my knowledge of heaven is pretty lousy – So after an eternity or two, you begin to get bored.

How much perfect everything can one soul stand? 

So you go to God and say: Father this is getting pretty boring. You are God for God‘s sake can’t you come up with something fun to do? 
So God comes up with this crazy idea. 

Let’s open a water park. I’ll make a ride for you, I’ll call it life.

I’ll make these little dinghies, we’ll call them human bodies, you get on one of them and I’ll push you down this stream of water called time.

To make it more interesting I’ll make some up and downs some unexpected turns, dark tunnels, whirlpools, the works.

What do you say? 

You are all excited and say: Hurray put me on!

So here you are, strapped into your human body and after 9month of climbing in this dark tunnel, you start your life ride.

And here you are going down the stream, twisting and turning, hopping and sliding, kicking and screaming and then you get to the end of the ride and say: Whew! That was fun! Let’s do it again.

OK, so you may say that I am wrong, that life is not a water park ride. 
That life is absolutely and completely serious business. 

But here I am in my dinghy – I have a body don’t I? And here you are in yours going down the river of time. 

You can’t stop time from flowing, can you?

No matter what you do, tomorrow the sun will rise.

No matter what you do, you will go up and you will go down.

You will scream and shout trying to take control of your life but life will just keep on going with its unpredictable events.

Like it or not there is another twist and another turn just when you think you have figured it out.

And guess what?

It is going to be just the same from now on until the end of the ride.
So why are you kicking and screaming for? Slow down and sing with me: 
Row, row, row, your boat, happy down the stream.
Merely, merely, merely. Life is but a dream!

The TAO of Happiness

Some people want power, some people want wealth.

Some people want fame, some people want success.

But why do we want the things we want?

We do it because we believe that getting what we want will make us happy.

But are the successful, rich, famous, powerful and influential happier than the rest of us?

Are the divorce rates, suicide rates lower for them ten us?

Are they less prone to depression, anxiety, pain, and suffering?

Well, I don’t have any scientific data but empirical evidence and common sense point to a negative answer.

Getting what you want will not make you happy.

So what makes people happy?

Relationships

Have you ever been in love? Then you know what happiness is.

Having a circle of people close to us emotionally it is one of the greatest factors in our happiness.

Having somebody to share your joy with just makes your joy so much larger.

Having somebody to share your pain and suffering with is the best medicine.

Acts of kindness.

Next to love there in nothing more rewarding than an act of kindness.

Helping a person in need, rescuing a stray animal, showing empathy to a stranger is one of the greatest experience a person can have.

So why do we see so few acts of kindness in our world, in our lives?

Because we believe that taking is more rewarding than giving.

Is the materialistic way, rich and miserable.

Self-fulfillment

Do you wake up every day all excited to go to work, or do you dread having to put another day in the rat race?

Doing what you love and loving what you do, is our next great source of satisfaction and happiness.

Finding your call in life, cultivating your talents, being creative, should be one of the main concerns and goals in your life.

All the material things should be a reward for us following our dreams not the purpose of our life.

Spiritual Engagement.

Spiritual people are happier and healthier than the rest of the population.

That is because a rich spiritual life is conducive to a Positive Mindset, Optimism, Mindfulness, and Gratitude.

Practicing meditation has been scientifically proven to have tremendous health benefits.

It doesn't cost any money, it doesn't need expensive equipment and you can start doing it right now.

Exercise and Physical Wellbeing

A healthy active life is an easy recipe for happiness. 

There is nothing more useful to burn negative energy than physical activity.

Are you mad at somebody or something? 

Do not think about it. Go to the gym and hit a punching bag.

Not only will you fill better but pretty soon you’ll have fabulous abs.

Your surroundings.

Where you live has more to do with your happiness than you may think.

The quality of life and people surrounding you have a big impact on how you feel and choosing a place to live should take in consideration that factor.

There are studies done around the world measuring people's “happiness” and here there are some of the results of such study:

Norway is considered the happiest country in the world.

Canada is on at number 7 while the United States is on the 14^th place.

So why is that? 

Think about it.

Jesus – The sequel

I have this idea for a movie. It goes something like this:

An unimaginable cosmic event occurs. The whole universe disappears except the Sun and Earth.

The scientist shit their pants and the whole word goes into a hysterical panic.

The sky opens up and an army of angels descends over the Washington DC and Jesus Christ makes his return back to earth as the King of kings and ruler of Earth.

Jesus addresses the world on every media available; TV station, podcast, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter etc.

He brings the world the most unbelievable news. His death has paid all human debt and all our sins past, present, and future are forgiven.

There is, however, a little problem.

Satan has opposed the deal as unfair to the dark side and in order to seal the deal with Jesus, he will get this little caveat added to the Jesus – Humanity deal.

Everybody goes to hell for the amount the wealth they have. 1 year of hell for every dollar.

So if you have let’s say a 250000$ house a car, a saving and checking account and all your other belongings, say about 50000$ for a grand total of 300000$.

Then you will spend 300000 years in hell before you can join Jesus in paradise.

Also, anybody trying to burn their money, literarily or figuratively speaking, or find a loophole and cheat Satan of his share will automatically go to Hell for all eternity.

So now, what do you thing will happen to humanity?

How will, people react? How will people change their behavior?

Obviously, everybody will try to get rid of their wealth but remember you cannot just throw away your money, it has to be a legitimate cause, like saving the polar bears or building schools where the schools are need it.

Obviously, the debt will become the most precious commodity. Anybody in debt automatically goes to heaven.

Poor countries, like Greece with a huge deficit, will become the richest country in the world because remember debt is something everybody wants J

There are also other funny scenarios, like: Nobody wants a luxury car anymore. If you couldn’t leave without a car you would want to buy the cheapest car available, so now what would the automakers do?

Then when you want to apply for a car loan what would the banks do? Would they charge you an interest, or give you incentives, like a paid luxury vacation just to take their money?

Of course, you can say no problem; if you are filthy rich you just continue to live the way you die you just pass your wealth to your children and relatives, and so on and so forth.

But how do you know when you going to die? And one more thing since all sins are forgiven, including murder what would stop anyone from killing you just for fun?

Oh, the possibilities for fun and tragedy are endless!

Do you have any ideas to add?

LOL

Let’s do a little experiment

I want you to smile right now. Just put a grin on your face.
Stretched the corners of your mouth towards your years and smile
Keep this fake smile on your face for a minute or two.
How does it feel? How do you feel?

I don’t know the result of your experiment but when I do it I feel both funny and embarrassed.
I feel funny because there is this giddy, joyous feeling that comes with putting a smile on your face.
I feel embarrassed because growing up I was told don`t smile or laugh without a reason like an idiot.
And that created in my mind this preconceived idea that happiness has to have a reason.

Why do we think that happiness is a frivolous feeling and only depression is serious business?
I believe that it should be exactly the opposite: Depression should be treated as not important and happiness should be our serious business.
Don`t you agree?

We focus so much time and energy of our lives on the negative feelings.
Just look at the daily news, everything is gloom and doom, it1s the end of the world as we know it.
We have a love affair with negativity, although we pretend we don’t like it.

We pretend to fight it.
We all, in a form or another, are addicted to drugs, therapy, spirituality and all sorts of other things we do to alleviate our depression, while the answer is quite obvious.
The cure for depression is happiness, the cure for sadness is joy.
The only way to fight darkness is with light.

But we refuse the joy, we refuse the happiness.
You need to have a reason for joy/and happiness.
you need a new car,  new dress, a new job a new lover, you need something to make you smile, to make you happy.
Only crazy people smile and are happy without reason. Right?

Well if that’s the case you know what I say?  Let`s go crazy, let1s go out of our minds. Let`s spend the rest of our lives smiling without a reason.
If depression is being miserable for being miserable, I believe happiness should be being happy for being alive.

So go ahead and LOL, you deserve it.