broomcloset ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Distractions? I think it's a fairly familiar concept that the things that go with the "advancement of the human race," such as highways, skyscrapers, power plants and Wal-Mart, can serve to distract us from nature and spirituality. For example, how can you think of the nature of the soul or your connectedness to all things in the Universe when you are struggling to pass the slow-nelly in the car in front of you on the 401 because you have to get to the Mega-Giant-Store to pick up widgets for your kids to take to their baseball team's picnic for 6pm?? *WHEW!* "Do something spiritual?!" you say. "I'm going to bed!" Some say that you mearly need to believe in what they tell you, give their god your soul and bathe in their god's blood and all's well in the world. And some say if you buy their self-help-how-to-live-your-life-better-in-12-easy-steps book, then everything will be coming up roses. Still others say there is nothing more than what you see before you, and the system works just fine, and there is no point in trying to change the system, so just suck up and deal. In all of these cases you are being asked to buy into something: a product, an ideology. Perhaps this is the nature of belief - you have to buy into something. So how do you decide what to buy into and what to discard? Wait, this isn't what I intended to write about.... But I digress. I was stopping by the Mega-Giant-Store to buy household materials today when one of those funky "reality" moments happened. Have you ever had one of those? A moment when you are sailing along in your little world and suddenly, like a veil being lifted, you see clearly? The colours of all you can see are the same, but perhaps brighter or more intense? The change is subtle but it is definite. It is there before you asking to not be ignored, asking you to just look deeper... And again, I digress. So one of these moments happened today as they do occasionally for me. I was walking through the very busy shopping area towards a mega store. Although the entire mall area was indeed busy, I found myself in an area of the large parking lot that was completely empty. And in this open spot in the lot the veil lifted and the whole area seemed to widen out around me. Even though I was in the middle of this consumerist utopia made of concrete and capitalism, I was connected to the Earth and She was connected to me, and my immediate environment did not matter. Just because we bulldoze, pave and build mega stores on Her surface, the Earth is all around us and cannot be hidden, if we would only choose to look. And we can do this, you know. We do not have to rely on anyone else to guide us in this: indeed, we will never see clearly or completely if we do not rely on ourselves. We have the ability to look through that veil, that haze of society-imposed "system", and we can see the Universe and the fact that we are inherently connected to Her. We have the power to see through these distractions. You have the power. I don't even have to know you to know that you do. So are you distracted right now? Perhaps you reading this page, surfing the net, killing time? Well look up. What do you see? Look. Really look. There's something there, something else that you don't normally see. And maybe you don't see it now. But don't give up, don't get discouraged. Just remember to really look once in awhile. And you'll see it. You'll see Her. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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