This is a photo I took this fall while on top of a rugged plateau. The sunset was brilliant and the small pool of water caught the reflection like a mirror. There are moments like the one I have captured here, in life. Yesterday was this beautiful again for me. It was a day with a degree of spirituality and optimism that I have rarely experienced.

Sometimes the most most beautiful moments happen in the ugliest most abysmal of circumstances. Sometimes those moments of perfection just happen with unfeigned simplicity. Life is often difficult, but our attitude and faith can make life much more simple or complex.  I am beginning to find that the greater amount of love and faith I strive to possess, the more simple life is becoming.

Life's pursuits are becoming less monetarily driven and much more relational. I am finding that what truly matters is less and less what is accomplished and more and more who we accomplish it with. What is the value or quality of life of it is simply endured or experienced alone? How much more blessed and sacred are the moments of joy or achievement when there is a person who equally comprehends the struggle or sacrifice?  Why, if that need for sharing and belonging is so essential, is it so damn hard to find people who can comprehend with competence those moments?

Am I alone in my thoughts? It seems as though there are facades of happiness everywhere, that there are so many people that despite there most persistent efforts to achieve happiness never do. I wonder if it has ever occurred to those people that happiness is not the result of an achievement, but a state of being- a personal willful decision. I am finding that after the darkness I invited to consume me for years of my life, that I would never arrive at a destination of happiness. I am finding quite the opposite actually. As I sought after pleasure for the sake of happiness, all I found was self indulgence and pain. Adversely, as I have been actively pursuing goals of direction with passion, I am finding that happiness is innate to the work. Other people want to share in the growth and my individual worth.

My father gave me a piece of writing years ago that I cherish and keep with me always. I do not know the author, but the words carry such truth in them.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

I believe with all my heart that it is our power and our light that strikes true fear into most people. LET THOSE PERSONAL FEARS GO!!! Free yourself and empower others! Know that we are heirs of deity or the universe or whatever faith you subscribe to. My God is omnipotent and knows my potential. I am beginning to understand the power I am truly capable of! It is domineering, but excites me like nothing I have ever experienced. Let your own divinely inspired light shine!  As in the words of the highly publicized US army slogan, "BE ALL YOU CAN BE!"

Thanks for your time in reading my ramblings,

Jacob