Philosophy
Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I look at a bit of William Shakespeare and a few things that pop into my head. Hold on to your seats, this one is a stream of consciousness and those sometimes get to be bumpy. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
My first degree I did an English Major and a History Minor (incidentally the difference between majors and minors is the number of courses needed). I moved on to two other degrees, but never lost my passion for learning new things and exploring concepts. Never took a philosophy course in my life because I didn’t care whether or not you could hear the tree falling in the woods or not. It seemed pretty inconsequential…as did the idea of sitting on a roof howling at the moon. My brother was into philosophy and I remember him talking about this activity. It didn’t hit me as something I would be interested in. I was always too realistic to enjoy it…I didn’t feel that it would expand my mind in the least and I felt it might be constricting to me. I fell in love with literature, history, old English, Ancient Egyptian history. I think it is esoteric philosophy. They say “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana. We see so much of it. Even today, we are still fighting the same battles that we were fighting hundreds of years ago. They haven’t changed in all this time. We still do not tolerate our fellow humans based on race, religion or colour. We still fight over territory. We still hate each other based on these faulty concepts.
There is a great quote from William Shakespeare, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” People seem to look at only what they can see, hear, taste and smell. There is more than we can see in life. Sometimes there are connections, abilities and strengths that we cannot see. Sometimes there are needs that we don’t understand. Sometimes there are actions we take and don’t know why. Yet, when someone follows it we are judged as incompetent and incapable or crazy. The world is a strange and varied place. They talk about miracles … most religions have some sort of creed concerning this. Dead who don’t decompose…in some churches are saints. Sometimes connections exist which are inexplicable. No one seems to know what makes them. I can find all sorts of and most call them miracles … and they all seem to be associated with Christianity.
I can tell you that there are many different phenomenons out there having nothing to do with churches. There is the miracle where spring comes and flowers pop up. There is the process by which you grow, change and evolve. There is the wonder of getting up every morning and seeing another day. No one thinks about these as miracles. They’re just part of life. There is the inexplicable condition where love transcends everything as you answer the call of another human being. There are the astonishing cases where someone is willing to sacrifice everything for the greater good. They happen every day. We don’t document every one of them. No one seems to notice them much. There are things like the smell of flowers, grass, trees, and the living creatures on earth. They are all different and special. There is the inspiration of seeing a butterfly or a rainbow or the sun coming out of the clouds. They are all miracles. We just want to see the big flashy ones that everyone wants to report on or talk about. Why is this? There are so many unexplained things in the world and yet we only want the big flashy ones? There is also the act of helping people to move to the next step and doing so with love and compassion. Any act of love or compassion can change the world. Yet we sit back. Whether or not we understand the situation, we can only act in ways that we understand…we can only deal with the information we have. We don’t always understand the path. We don’t always understand the reason behind what we need to do. We cannot act properly or according to the path if we do not know what we are dealing with. Sometimes there is a miracle and sometimes there is just some blip that falls by the wayside. But, we won’t know unless we take the chance to move forward. Some people live in fear from psychic pain…some live with trauma. It is not an easy path, but there is always love to make the miracle.
As Frantz Fanon is credited with saying, “yes, the real miracles are the thousands of tiny people who know exactly what they are doing. I used to look for inspiration in higher places but the higher you go like to Plato or God the less space there is in which to stand.” In this there is great wisdom. It is often easier to act when one knows what the path is. Most times one doesn’t know what the path is, one can trip across opportunities. One thing that, at least for me, would never help me to find wisdom or move forward would be chemical substances. There is a difference between medications and self-medication. When you want your miracle, you cannot self-medicate, at least in my world. You cannot kill pain in this way. You cannot find your freedom. You cannot find your destiny. Destiny is hard to come across. When you come across a mission, a destiny, any opportunity, you need to be clear and real.
As Thich Nhat Hanh is credited with saying, “...The miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air, but to walk on Earth. Walk in such a way that you become fully alive, and joy and happiness are possible. That is the miracle that everyone can perform....If you have mindfulness, concentration, and insight then every step you make on this Earth is performing a miracle.” This is the philosophy which I have learned to walk in the world with my own footsteps and moving in light and love. I make my own path. Do I make mistakes? Oh yes, possibly even catastrophic ones but I make my own mistakes. If I fear to tread because I might make a mistake, then I cease to be able to function. There are very few things that can be irredeemable. Sometimes they exist. Sometimes they just seem that way. I haven’t come up with the wisdom to entirely tell the difference. I just know that I walk my path and my husband is with me. Whether I walk the solitary path or not, I continue to move forward and understand that sometimes the path of love means putting down one’s foot and not enabling others. I make amends when I do wrong. I reach out when I think it is needed. If I am wrong, then I am wrong. I will be answerable to myself and sometimes that is the hardest part. That is the most painful. I feel my mistakes the most. I feel pain for others when they are in pain. Am I weird? You bet. Is it a hard path…yes. Am I happy, not always. It’s OK to not be happy always. It’s OK to sit with some pain. It’s also OK if you need to shut down. If you’re not OK that’s OK too…but find a way to become OK. Metaphorically, the monsters don’t always hide under the bed sometimes they rest waiting inside of us to be triggered. That’s something that one has to learn to live with.
“Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.” – A Course in Miracles. The real mystery is not living though it is one of them; the real marvel is continuing to love even when there is no reason to and no cause to. Love can move mountains and deliver us from our own self-illusions and from destruction. Love can save and heal. I’m always amazed at the rockers that people call out over ‘devil’ images (Black Sabbath and KISS for example). For example, have you ever listen to Crazy Train…it talks about the damages done by hate. God of Thunder by KISS…where they sing about the ravages that can come with the music world that can “rob you of your virgin soul”. These are just two and are the ones, when you listen to the words show the importance of love, tolerance and realness…and yet they are the monsters. Remember, in this world, “…if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”Friedrich Nietzsche. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
Write up:
Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson author podcast and blog post. This week I write a stream of consciousness blog…that can become a bumpy ride. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
My first degree I did an English Major and a History Minor (incidentally the difference between majors and minors is the number of courses needed). I moved on to two other degrees, but never lost my passion for learning new things and exploring concepts. Never took a philosophy course in my life because I didn’t care whether or not you could hear the tree falling in the woods or not. It seemed pretty inconsequential…as did the idea of sitting on a roof howling at the moon. My brother was into philosophy and I remember him talking about this activity. It didn’t hit me as something I would be interested in. I was always too realistic to enjoy it…I didn’t feel that it would expand my mind in the least and I felt it might be constricting to me. I fell in love with literature, history, old English, Ancient Egyptian history. I think it is esoteric philosophy. They say “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana. We see so much of it. Even today, we are still fighting the same battles that we were fighting hundreds of years ago. They haven’t changed in all this time. We still do not tolerate our fellow humans based on race, religion or colour. We still fight over territory. We still hate each other based on these faulty concepts.
There is a great quote from William Shakespeare, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” People seem to look at only what they can see, hear, taste and smell. There is more than we can see in life. Sometimes there are connections, abilities and strengths that we cannot see. Sometimes there are needs that we don’t understand. Sometimes there are actions we take and don’t know why. Yet, when someone follows it we are judged as incompetent and incapable or crazy. The world is a strange and varied place. They talk about miracles … most religions have some sort of creed concerning this. Dead who don’t decompose…in some churches are saints. Sometimes connections exist which are inexplicable. No one seems to know what makes them. I can find all sorts of and most call them miracles … and they all seem to be associated with Christianity.
I can tell you that there are many different phenomenons out there having nothing to do with churches. There is the miracle where spring comes and flowers pop up. There is the process by which you grow, change and evolve. There is the wonder of getting up every morning and seeing another day. No one thinks about these as miracles. They’re just part of life. There is the inexplicable condition where love transcends everything as you answer the call of another human being. There are the astonishing cases where someone is willing to sacrifice everything for the greater good. They happen every day. We don’t document every one of them. No one seems to notice them much. There are things like the smell of flowers, grass, trees, and the living creatures on earth. They are all different and special. There is the inspiration of seeing a butterfly or a rainbow or the sun coming out of the clouds. They are all miracles. We just want to see the big flashy ones that everyone wants to report on or talk about. Why is this? There are so many unexplained things in the world and yet we only want the big flashy ones? There is also the act of helping people to move to the next step and doing so with love and compassion. Any act of love or compassion can change the world. Yet we sit back. Whether or not we understand the situation, we can only act in ways that we understand…we can only deal with the information we have. We don’t always understand the path. We don’t always understand the reason behind what we need to do. We cannot act properly or according to the path if we do not know what we are dealing with. Sometimes there is a miracle and sometimes there is just some blip that falls by the wayside. But, we won’t know unless we take the chance to move forward. Some people live in fear from psychic pain…some live with trauma. It is not an easy path, but there is always love to make the miracle.
As Frantz Fanon is credited with saying, “yes, the real miracles are the thousands of tiny people who know exactly what they are doing. I used to look for inspiration in higher places but the higher you go like to Plato or God the less space there is in which to stand.” In this there is great wisdom. It is often easier to act when one knows what the path is. Most times one doesn’t know what the path is, one can trip across opportunities. One thing that, at least for me, would never help me to find wisdom or move forward would be chemical substances. There is a difference between medications and self-medication. When you want your miracle, you cannot self-medicate, at least in my world. You cannot kill pain in this way. You cannot find your freedom. You cannot find your destiny. Destiny is hard to come across. When you come across a mission, a destiny, any opportunity, you need to be clear and real.
As Thich Nhat Hanh is credited with saying, “...The miracle is not to walk on water or in thin air, but to walk on Earth. Walk in such a way that you become fully alive, and joy and happiness are possible. That is the miracle that everyone can perform....If you have mindfulness, concentration, and insight then every step you make on this Earth is performing a miracle.” This is the philosophy which I have learned to walk in the world with my own footsteps and moving in light and love. I make my own path. Do I make mistakes? Oh yes, possibly even catastrophic ones but I make my own mistakes. If I fear to tread because I might make a mistake, then I cease to be able to function. There are very few things that can be irredeemable. Sometimes they exist. Sometimes they just seem that way. I haven’t come up with the wisdom to entirely tell the difference. I just know that I walk my path and my husband is with me. Whether I walk the solitary path or not, I continue to move forward and understand that sometimes the path of love means putting down one’s foot and not enabling others. I make amends when I do wrong. I reach out when I think it is needed. If I am wrong, then I am wrong. I will be answerable to myself and sometimes that is the hardest part. That is the most painful. I feel my mistakes the most. I feel pain for others when they are in pain. Am I weird? You bet. Is it a hard path…yes. Am I happy, not always. It’s OK to not be happy always. It’s OK to sit with some pain. It’s also OK if you need to shut down. If you’re not OK that’s OK too…but find a way to become OK. Metaphorically, the monsters don’t always hide under the bed sometimes they rest waiting inside of us to be triggered. That’s something that one has to learn to live with.
“Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.” – A Course in Miracles. The real mystery is not living though it is one of them; the real marvel is continuing to love even when there is no reason to and no cause to. Love can move mountains and deliver us from our own self-illusions and from destruction. Love can save and heal. I’m always amazed at the rockers that people call out over ‘devil’ images (Black Sabbath and KISS for example). For example, have you ever listen to Crazy Train…it talks about the damages done by hate. God of Thunder by KISS…where they sing about the ravages that can come with the music world that can “rob you of your virgin soul”. These are just two and are the ones, when you listen to the words show the importance of love, tolerance and realness…and yet they are the monsters. Remember, in this world, “…if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”Friedrich Nietzsche. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!
The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few
All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...
You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...
Write up:
Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson author podcast and blog post. This week I write a stream of consciousness blog…that can become a bumpy ride. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
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A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA
A & J PEI Treasures is located on Prince Edward Island, Canada. We are a husband and wife team and our companion animals. There are a number of things that drew us to the Island…one of which was the n
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