hope is up to you

hope includes believing, loving, living. it is optimistic and sometimes unrealistic. hope is passionate and creative. hope is disproportionate sometimes. hope is dreaming. it is unique. it is lasting and fading. hope is change - but we need to be change. we get too into hoping for things to happen. i'm sure you've heard the corny little expression "don't wait for things to happen, go out and happen to things." silly and simple though it be, it has its roots in truth. we can't hope for something and then not do anything to achieve it. we need to chase after these hopes and dreams passionately and fervently. they don't come out of nowhere. if you want real results, real work and attitude is needed. no its not simple and don't take this as some watered down garbage because its not. my point is this - don't hope for things without action. hope calls for action. we all have hope, but its our responsibility to instill hope in others. make sure they don't lose that hope. i have seen eyes void of hope.. its not a pretty thing. if we lose it what are we left with? encourage each other.. INVEST some time in one another. share yourself, share love, share hope.

STEP DOWN

i dare you to wash someone else's feet. figuratively? literally? does it matter? the point is, how about we take a day or so and just give others priority over ourselves? and yea this does tie into the last post very much so. but the entire idea of being lower than others stems from the concept of love. and now you dont want me to get started on love because i will fill up 10 blogs talking about it. but basically the idea of love is just that. you place importance on showing people so much respect almost that you just start being there for them, and realizing you are better than NO ONE. nothings separates you from another person. no matter how many organizations you are in, charities you support, good deeds you have done. take yourself off the pedestal and give it to someone else. Because when it all comes down to it, they could deserve it a lot more than you. AND ME. i'm not excluded from any of this, i gotta do the same thing. sacrificial living. living the life we were called to live? not full of priorities, but making others our priority. a flaming love that lights everything that it touches on fire.

Obsessed with YOURSELF.

Why are we so self obsessed? Selfish? Do you deny it? I didnt think so. It's something i've been thinking about for a while now and then it was touched on to a degree tonight. We see nothing but ourselves. My clothes, my car, my job, my life, my friends. MINE MINE. It's all ours. We see everything as ours and are willing to share nothing but what sucks is that this applies to our time and selves to. we don't share our time and we dont share our selves. There are people dying around us, reaching our all over the place. Go ahead. say that there aren't. but wait before you do.. OPEN YOUR EYES. We're part of this aching world that is bleeding bleeding so much.. and should we have nothing to do with it? We need to reach out a little bit more. put OTHERS before ourselves for once. We don't always have to come out on top. maybe for once, we can help someone else reach their goals - help someone else come out on top. Maybe we can create a smile or wipe a tear - maybe we can listen for a second instead of filling the air with static-like noise. Instead of putting blinders on and looking forward in tunnel vision, we can take them off and see how bad the tunnel looks, along with how many people are right there with us. Next time you get into a fight, let the other person win. Because in the end, what do you really have to lose? Your pride? I think we can all afford to lose a little bit of that. bleeding yet?

lifeless pursuit

its so easy to get caught up in this pursuit of life, love, and happiness. its because a lot of times it seems like and looks like we've found these things. but then unfortunately reality hits us and we realize that we're nowhere near truth and love and life and everything else. so we press on, don't we? i think we forget at times to take a little time out and enjoy the things around us. we become so accustomed to accumulating things, striving for things, setting goals for ourselves! because that's what we're supposed to do, right? to an extent i suppose. but then why are you so lost? why does it feel like there is little to no direction in your life and that maybe life is at a standstill. or maybe you are at a crossroad with a few different options. take one? which one? this is what happens ALL THE TIME. we get so caught up with life that we forget to live. we are always looking at the destination. we gotta work until we can afford THIS. go to school to get THIS. get a promotion so i can be THIS. AH WHAT VANITY. who trained us to act like this? how did we possibly get spoofed into believing that this is all there is to life? where did the enjoyment go? the good company of friends? the mindset that ALL THERE IS is the PRESENT. living in the moment. not reaching so badly for that destination, but simply taking pride and joy - even excitement and eagerness in the JOURNEY. 

don't give up on dreams. but stop chasing them like they are all that you have or will ever have, because when all is said and done you are right now. you have right now and im prayin that sooner or later you being to realize.. that it's in the journey.

YOU ARE A MATERIALIST

take a look around for a second because this gets me pretty angry. and whats worse is that i fall into it a lot of times to. we are all materialists. materialism has taken over our society and minds in an attempt to destroy or diminish anything of real or lasting value. the latest gadgets that come out .. do you have them? the newest cars.. are we drooling over them yet? the abundance of clothes that fill our wardrobe.. are we failing to realize something here? billions. yea, billions of people would want to trade lives with us in a second. if we could only get it through our thick skulls that we are NOT the only people that matter, maybe then we would spend less time and money shopping, acquiring things that provide instant gratification but no real lasting contentment. are we not aware that we are just feeding into what the media is drilling into our heads? that we need to stay on top of our games, because the "real world" or the "professional or school" world tells us we need to? why are we in such competition? and with whom? is it really just ourselves that we compete against? what a sad story. the fact that you have a job.. the fact that you are reading this right now.. and have more than your share of outfits.. or car.... the reality is that any ONE of these things, not even all of them, puts you at a better spot and grants you bragging rights about a better lifestyle than over half the world's population. what the hell gives us the right to keep wanting more and keep giving less? selfish individuals that we are... maybe if everything we touched turned into gold.. 

the momentary lifestyle

its flashy, its expensive, it's gotta be fun at times. it's addictive and holds out no promises. its a trick and a game. its win win now and lose a little later. it's glamourous and alluring. it is nonchalant and popular. but it is also repetitive. it is superficial and meaningless. it is appealing to the naked eye but places you no place above another. this lifestyle i'm talking about - yea i want to try it sometimes, i mean who doesn't? the pictures don't lie, look. they're all having "fun". but what is it wrapped around? is it wrapped around any concrete, permanence? is there any definitiveness that promises a better edge, a more unique lifestyle? noo take that a way and a life crumbles, falls to bits. why do we get sucked in to this assimilation? what are we left with in the end? 

overworked and underthought

we as a society are overworked - we're work-aholics and we're not that afraid to admit it. everybody craves the busy lifestyle that demands that you go one place to another and just drift through. fill the time you have each day with one thing after another. fill the time in between that with tv, movies, and music. we wonder why we become like zombies - falling into the same routine day in and day out. THIS IS WHY. its scary how unfulfilling life has become for us - but putting that aside for a second or more .. we don't want to think because it takes too much time. its depressing sometimes, and most of the time we feel like we're never getting anywhere. thinking about everything going on in your life. 

when was the last time you actually sat to down to reflect? AH these freakin reflection times don't exist anymore BECAUSE we drown it out!! i drown it out with music. i let that think for me. i love it, and i dont necessarily think theres something wrong with it once in a while but WOW. we DEPEND on this stuff now to get us through the day. God forbid we think about someone we haven't talked to in a while and make an effort to get into touch. and whats more - what happened to our young ambition? has it really disappeared? are we really going to let work over take our lives? or are we gonna live? and for who?