To what lengths will you go to develop and really feel your humanity? Are you willing to look directly in the face of what scares you the most and deal with why you feel that way? If not, why do you believe you will be able to be brave without a true acceptance of your deepest inner darkness?
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ah, to find acceptance of the light and the dark sides of myself… yes, i am willing to look.
i enjoy these questions and find them to be insightful and thought-provoking – keep ‘em coming!
i’m dealing with issues that affect me everyday…but my main weakness to say are my 2 kids…it breaks my heart to see them cry a silent cry…but that’s a part of life i could try to control and embrace it…children teach us adults every time you get to spend time with them…but being brave at such times when you can’t be around your children everyday since my ex wife and i are divorced…deep down it feels like i have no air to breathe or light in darkness…at times i’m not there or my 2 children spend time with me…but i’ve learned to manage my fears and concerns by talking about it with my ex wife…
“am i to live by instinct alone? i do not wish to. but that fear is there – and that fear will be my constant companion”
To live is a hard job, a dark work, no vacation,
no schedules, no salary,
under the sun, the rain and snow and wind.
To live is to go ahead,
incessantly, every moment,
breathless, without a past, but only with a road ahead, and our humanity as a faithful brother.
So do not ask if we really existed.
Neve from Venice (Italy)
(Sorry for my english..;o)
Ciao Mark
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
—Isaiah 43:1-2
Therefore, there are no lengths that I will turn away from, and I will stare directly in the eyes of what scares me the most and deal with why I feel the way I feel! Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to have fear and continue to fight.
My answer to this is a quote (That refers mostly to the creative process) from the writer Erica Jong, a quote I try to live by every single day (Even if it gets difficult to follow it sometimes): “Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads”. The search for ourselves and the depths of our thoughts and the understanding of others can be a rocky road but in the end what we find and the ways we can help and improve it all are worth
If anything else, I have to be honest with myself. And facing a difficult situation, or something that scares me brings me closer to the one who has all control of me, or any situation I’m faced with, and that is God.. Fear is nothing but “False, Evidence, Appearing, Real”. So knowing this and that I shall fear no evil.. I would fight for humanity. There’s a quote that I truly believe in “I would rather die on my feet, than live on my knees”.
Those who can fight the smallest font on your web-site when trying to read with magnifier what’s supposed to be your thoughts given the slight hope it’s not written by a “blog administrator” – these people will have no fear for any enemy they meet afterward
PS. V is terrific, I saw the original series in 80’s, and that’s quite funny to recollect and compare
i don’t think we have to face to or deal with the thing that you called ‘darkness’
. just let it be there, it’s okey, it’s part of our nauter. you know, recently, horriable things happened in china, some crazy guys break into school and kindergarten killing kids, very very young kids! I asked my brother” will you fight that guy if you were there?” he said :’ i guess it’s possible that i run to save myself. but i will absolutely fight if my son were there too.’ see, that’s nautre. A hero and a coward, exist in him simultaneously. I don’t think people have to bother it, just let it be.
I think feeling our real humanity is the purpose of being here, as humans. We are light and are darkness. A friend wrote once:
“Free your mind. Become one with your fear. Accept it. Do not run from it. What I mean is, you need to go to those places in your soul which make you afraid. Find the parts inside you that you do not like (those fascist anger-riddled vengeful green eyed demons we all have inside) and reconcile yourself with them. See that all viciousness (which we all have) is the result of a hurting of the spirit. A corruption/interference of the path from information to love and vice versa. Become your fear. Let it consume you. Feel afraid. Close your eyes. You see? It’s OK now, you are afraid yet alive. You have gained a deeper knowledge because you are not stuck in one side of the duality (yes, a false duality, but our reality construct in this universe has them everywhere). By accepting the dark side as a part of you, you become whole. Not only this, but you can then use your dark side in unison with the light side, and use it to fight more effectively. You have no demons except the ones you allow to make you scared. If you know your demons, they do not scare you anymore.”
Cheers.
Walking the streets of this big shitty gritty city
On a day when i feel like I’m living too close to the big electric light bulb in the sky
Shy, the rats with wings mingle about my feet
When i come to meet a man, a forsaken man
He is alone, he has no home, no family here
No brother, no mother, no sister, no other
He cries to me, he is tired
Where does he send his message?
To what, to whom, to why, to where does he send it?
What force is going to mend it?
If we wished we could help this man and our backs would not break
But hypocrisy only leaves us constantly bended
He wishes to end it
I have posted this quote in relation to some commentary I read ” I do not give money to homeless people” and was wondering why that was important enough to clarify – i get it – but don’t get it?
Where/how does this faceless man send his message – his story – his pain?
The world could certainly do with some lightness and hope – happiness and joy – but is that just an excuss to ignore/put on someone elses shoulders – reality and responsibility?
You have certainly caught my attention with this post. it isn’t something you see every day. A deep question and one I have asked myself. have you done this? looked into your deepest fear?
Why darkness? Fear is necessary for survival – our own and the people close to us. So is courage. Darkness, if anything, comes from not being able to make the right choice.
Most of the time that means avoiding the things we fear, not chasing them.
I don’t know if I’ll be brave enough if ever I have to face a fear I haven’t had to deal with, yet. But then again, there’s nothing more terrifying than taking an unnecessary risk just to prove something to myself – and hurting other people in the process.
How far should a person go, looking in the face of what scares them the most?
Well, I came here looking for your music and found philosophy instead! I think I have felt my humanity — I have touched the weakest part of me, the darkness, and I have come through. Bitterness, anger and hurt are all part of it. In 2007 my husband and I were expecting our first child. I got toxemia, and in order to save my life, my son was taken from me at only six months development. For fifty four days, he clung to life, pierced by iv needles with a ventilation tube down his throat. He contracted infection after infection and fought them all. In the end, his spirit was just bigger than his little body. He died in my arms. In that moment, not a child in that neo-natal ICU uttered a sound. I heard someone screaming, and then realized it was me. All my husband could do was hold us both. Afterwards, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I wish I was the one who had died. Yet, even in the darkest depths of my pain and agony, there was something that moved beneath my skin. It tingled and felt like motherly arms closing around me. When I could not give voice to my pain, when it hurt so much so deep that there was not sound for it, this spirit held me. It has taken me two years not to cry every day. I have touched that darkness — no parent should ever have to outlive their child. The braveness comes afterward, when you force yourself to get out of bed, to walk outside and breath the air and see the sun and know that your child never will. There is happiness too, however. Due to our tragedy, we went to a grief counselor. She became a trusted friend. She told us of a woman who was giving her child up for adoption. I was in the room when my daughter was born last December, in the same hospital my son was born and delivered by the same doctor. This was a child I would never have known about if my son hadn’t died. She is the light of my life. Out of darkness comes the light.
Oh my god that is so beautiful thank you so much for sharing this Jewels, this one post makes this entire blog worthwhile, please come back and post more!!
Mark.
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