The Bravest Among Us

Have you ever noticed how the bravest people among us are often those who appear to be the most fragile? I remember in school there was this kid who was always so pale and thin. He was picked on by many of the bullies. Having endured that sort of treatment myself, I knew that it wasn't an easy road for him. So I befriended him. In so doing I was risking getting the bejeebers beaten out of me again, but I figured that could possibly happen sooner or later anyway, so why not make a friend. He was not an easy cookie to crack. He was very shy, closed, private and sometimes, when he would actually talk, he would say things that would normally make a person say to themselves, "Screw it, I was only trying to be your friend and now you've blown it, so to heck with you!" But what he didn't know was that what he held inside himself in the form of pain, I held in the form of persistence. It took a good month and a half, but he finally opened up to me. We became good friends, but kept the friendship very private because he didn't want to connect with anyone else.

Why did he not want to connect with anyone else? Because he was dying. He had cancer. We all have our cross to bear and his was this disease that was eating away at his immune system and slowly killing him. He didn't live that long. In fact, I think it was less than a year and then I was at his funeral. This was very sad to me. Not because he died. It was sad because others in the world around him were mean to him. It was sad because he didn't feel safe enough to share things with others, sometimes myself included. It was sad because others didn't get a chance, in their ignorance, to see the tremendous strength and bravery that this young kid had. And then he was gone. The bullies went on with their lives and became more abusive as they went. The world kept turning and time kept moving right along. In some ways, if one were to not see more deeply into things, it was almost as though he had never existed. But for myself and certainly for his family, he still exists in our hearts. We got to see the brave soul that he was. We got to see the vibrant life that he had. We got to see the Light within every aspect of his being. And then, like a burned out star, he was no longer here on this earth for us to see.

He still visits me now and then. I am happy when I see him. He is ecstatic that I have grown to become who I am and to do what I do. He recently visited me and told me that his time to reincarnate was close at hand. Now, in spirit terms this could mean immediately or it could mean sometime in the next decade or so. But he is ready to take on the world again. I hope that I have the opportunity to meet him in his new form, whenever and wherever he decides to come back.

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Living Vicariously Through My Friends

A friend of mine just emailed me another quotation, again I don't know who the original creator of this saying is, but it goes like this, "Life is God's gift to you.....what you do with your life is your gift to God."

I am very happy that I have such friends. Not only do they send me such amazing quotations, but some of them actually also visit exotic places around the world and bring me back sand (I collect sand from around the world), shells (I collect those too), and stones (yup, you guessed it...another collection). They bring wonderful stories that I very much enjoy hearing and learning from. When one lives vicariously through one's friends, learning comes easily from their stories of wild and wonderful experiences.

That brings to mind the lady whose hair I was washing (when I worked in a salon.....yup, I used to do that too....a jack of many trades) telling me about her trip on an African safari through the jungles of the Congo. The group stopped on their hike for a rest. She sat down on a rock. Suddenly the tour guide's eyes became extremely big and he told her to very carefully stand up and then run as fast as she could toward him. She had chills run through her, thinking that there must be a tiger about to pounce or something. When she reached him in a nano-second, she turned around and saw that the "rock" upon which she had been sitting was actually a sleeping cobra! Too cool. Oh, yea, and ..... YIKES!!!!

I love stories like that. But I also find stories about how folks contribute to the lives of others to be very inspiring. Like the story that a friend told me about purchasing and making turkey dinner (no special occasion) for a single mom of 6 children who was renting from her. This inspires me. When people see the need and respond, they are contributing to the community and to humanity.

When one contributes and when one lives life FULLY one is utilizing God's gift of life and creating a gift for God. I have so many people ask me to tell them what their life's purpose is this time around. I always tell them that the purpose of life is to live life fully. This means to enjoy it and to contribute in some way. It is one thing to be a good person, but it is an entirely other thing to be a person who is good for something. We aren't contributing by hiding ourselves from others. We aren't contributing by diminishing ourselves or our abilities when we can just let them shine and ripple forth positive energies throughout the world. Spirit would not want us to diminish ourselves. What a waste that would be! So enjoy life and live it fully and contribute what you can when you can. It will bring you back wonderful things. But that isn't the point. The point is that whenever we contribute, we are able to plant positive seeds throughout the world. These seeds will grow and flourish forever. That is eternal life!

Blessed Be

Trent