The Times of Our Lives

I recently returned from my ninth week-long trip to Aruba with my fiancé. We spent our time relaxing under a tree and swimming at the beach during the day and then sharing exquisite dinners and romantic walks in the evenings. We had a lot of fun but didn't take any photos because since we had visited the island many times before we already have plenty of pictures of both of us posed in front of every restaurant and divi tree on the island. On our way to the airport we joked that, other than our tanned skin, we would not be able to prove that we traveled here!

As we stood in line at check-in, we noticed also waiting in line was a family who had been on our chartered plane ride down the week before. This day, however, they all had swollen eyes and seemed upset, some of them wiping away tears and sniffling, and sharing only an occasional whispered comment. As it turned out, on the plane we were seated directly in back of them: a mother and her four children who ranged in age from 16 to 8, but no dad was in attendance. We found out that while vacationing with his family that week, he had been killed in a jet skiing accident. This day, his wife and children had to bravely make their way home without him.

We watched the moods of the children go from seemingly careless while playing cards to quiet sobbing when idle, but the mother's face was another story. In between hopping seats in an effort to attend to each of her devastated children, she would sit and stare down at her lap, unable to comprehend what lay ahead for her and her family. We could almost feel her shock and pain as we realized that this is something that could have happened to any one of us that week. While we were laughing and playing in the water and eating chocolate desserts to our heart's content, this poor family was experiencing the tragedy of their lives. The vacation they dreamed about and looked forward to turned out to be a nightmare and something none of them would ever forget – their photographs were these indelible moments that would haunt them forever.

As I turned my gaze away from that lost family and toward my fiancé, I could feel how precious time had suddenly become, and I whispered "thank you" to God for giving me some more of it with him. For a moment I found myself regretting that we had no pictures from this vacation together, but then realized that whether or not we actually capture our experiences on film, our minds are busy recording images of certain moments throughout our lives – moments that somehow jolt our emotions, have an impact on us, and change our perception and direction. I wondered if that kind of memorialization was only triggered during traumatic events. What about the good times? I closed my eyes and scanned my memory hoping that my mind had taken enough time to properly register all the tender, wonderful moments I shared with my fiancé this past week.

Throughout our lives as our hearts begin to show wear and tear from the inevitable mishaps and misfortunes that will befall us, we must remember to offset that anguish and erosion by making it also swell with love and gratitude as we encounter the happy times that bless us. We must consciously stop time and record with our minds so we can remember and cherish for years to come the intimate moments, the surprises, the hours spent with loved ones and friends... all the times of our lives.

A Life of Truth - Keeping Love Sacred

"Love is the ultimate guru. Where love does not exist, life cannot exist"

Tired, frustrated, overweight, addicted, overworked, stressed with anxiety, driven by obsession, out of balance? If yes, this article may provide you with an amazing insight.

Human spirit is another word for energy. There is no ghost or spirit controlling our vitality. What controls our vitality and energy is our love for life. When our mind, our heart or our spirit withdraws from something, so our energy withdraws. We begin to feel tired, exhausted, angry or simply disappointed.

Tired is physical but its real origins are in the human heart.

The soul thinks in pictures and when the pictures become fuzzy, so the soul goes on holiday. Soulless living means the dream is lost, the love is gone, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Love is food for the heart, energy for the spirit. Really, when you find an exhausted, tired person, you find a person who has lost love. They might even be in a relationship, but the love has gone out of it. They might be in a job, but the love has gone out of it. Because we are so afraid of change, sometimes we stay in relationships and jobs when the love goes out of it. We do it because our culture, society values staying higher than going. Then, if the love goes out of it, we have to find substitutes.

Love cannot be forced. If love goes out of a relationship, it becomes a soulless union. Anything done, where the human spirit is lost, is done without soul. Then it is purely mechanical. There are allot of people who can deal with this mechanical life on the surface, but below the surface they have found a coping mechanism, a substitute for love, a way of supporting their spirit while it dies.

The four substitutes are:

Food


Greed


Sex


Righteousness

Food as a substitute. This obsession reveals itself in obesity, preoccupation with flavour and cooking, eating disorders, and substance abuse including alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and sugar. Food is not limited to what we consume by mouth. Infatuation and upper emotions are food as well.

Sex as a substitute. This obsession reveals itself in so many ways. Flirting, seeking approval, appetite for physical sex, masturbation, fantasy, affairs to name a few. Sexual drive rises as a substitute for love, not always as a mirror of it. This can include the pleasure lust for spiritual enlightenment.

Greed as a substitute. When love goes out, and therefore human spirit – energy goes out of someone's life, greed comes in as a substitute. This greed is an appetite seen in blind ambition, obsessive saving, status and power in the form of cars, success, and righteous aggression. Holding onto children, living vicariously.

Righteousness as a substitute for love. The human ego thrives on blame. It wants to be right. The human ego is what grows to replace the human spirit when love is missing in a persons life. The human ego defends the individual from what they fear, creating a feeling of identity and self importance, energy.

To change a circumstance in our life, it is wise to deal with cause, rather than effect. The cause of the need for substitutes is that LOVE is not held SACRED. When love is gone, Sacred is gone, spirit dies and we are left with no option but to fill our empty space with a substitute.

Substitutes are responsible for: affairs, arthritis, arm ache, gangrene, heart attack, gum disease, ulcers, obesity, chronic fatigue, depression, suicide, car accidents, premature ejaculation, impotence, cancer, tinea, acne, bad moods, domestic violence, low productivity and more….

Do what you love, love what you do.

The loss of the human spirit is an epidemic that's spreading fast. Have you caught it. Are you going through the motions of a relationship that's dead, a job that's about money, an exercise program that's about how you look? Are you hooked on substitutes, righteousness about the world, greed about wanting, sex about acceptance, food about consumption? If so, it can all change if you prioritise love. Where love doesn't exist – substitutes do.

Be you

Cultural norms make us stay where we don't need to be. They make us leave where we don't need to leave. Cultural conditioning make us think our parents are important after the age of 15. Cultural norms suggest the length of our relationships are more important than the quality and integrity of them. Where love stops, hearts stop.

The soul thinks in pictures. Can you see? With your inner eye? Are your dreams alive?

Remember, tiredness, ageing, stress and frustration are just signs that love is gone and substitutes have crept in.

Live with Spirit