Thinking Out Loud

Check it out. I've never used drugs, and I have no intention of ever trying them either. I have heard the term "tripping out," but until Ram Dass explained the experience in his book " Be Here Now "  of using psychedelics, I had no idea what it meant. Ram Dass, formerly Professor Richard Alpert, became famous for his clinical study of psychedelics. He and several other Harvard professors experimented with using drugs to stimulate spiritual experiences and attain higher levels of consciousness. Professor Alpert wrote extensively about his "trips" under the influence and how his journeys led him to greater understanding. I really enjoyed reading his travelogue. It was fascinating to hear about the effects LDS, psyclobin, mushrooms, etc. had on his own and others' consciousness and awareness. Ram Dass explained how he learned more in 1 minute under the influence of psychedelics than he had come to comprehend in his entire 35 years. He had ma...

The title is Coming Home for two reasons: 1) The kids and I have been singing Thomas Jefferson's coming home. . . from Hamilton  all day and that is what was running through my mind as I sat down to write. 2) I feel like I'm coming home after spending a week away from my daily blog. My mind has been itching to puzzle out some of my deep thoughts on digital paper. :) I'm going to break my thoughts into daily posts even though I didn't write them daily. They are definitely ideas I've been ruminating upon all week. I'm going to cover psychedelics and tripping, death, dehumanization, belonging vs. fitting in, Braving the Wilderness, Desire, Be Here Now, and Vibrations. Buckle up baby, I'm coming home!

Today was awesome because I got to spend a couple of hours with Tyler and we waxed philosophical. I explained to him my evolving thoughts and he called me an Anarchist. I'd never been called an anarchist before and since I wasn't entirely sure what one was, I couldn't argue. So just now I read about anarchists in Wikipedia and I realize that I can't really be considered an anarchist as anarchy is a political philosophy and right now I could care less about politics. But I did find this paragraph insightful. It's speaking about the ideologies of the William Goodwin--the  Father of Modern-Day Anarchism: His aversion to the imposition of a rules-based society led him to denounce as a manifestation of the people's "mental enslavement" the foundations of law,  property rights   and even the institution of marriage. He considered the basic foundations of society as constraining the natural development of individuals to use their powers of reasoning to arr...

I'm considering whether I want to continue the daily practice of writing. Originally, I set a goal to write daily for one year. I have now written daily for 17 months. My thoughts have definitely evolved and thinking out loud has transformed me deeply, but as my desire to one day write a book has waned--basically, I've come to realize that I'm never going to say anything someone hasn't already said. There are no new truths and I'm probably not the best person to communicate truths anyway--especially because the longer I live the less sure I get of anything I thought I knew and the more certain I become of how little I know. But since I consider the evolution of thought and transformation of character a nobler endeavor than writing a piece that becomes a New York Times Best-Seller, I am reticent to jettison the daily habit. So perhaps I will adopt a compromise. I shall simply write when I feel moved so to do. This concept is difficult for the "all or nothing...

I really like the sound of that word contentment. Better yet, I really like the feeling. My head and heart are in such a good place right now. There is no longer this sense of urgency to everything I do. I have no desire to be the best, achieve, accumulate, or people please. I feel an absence of rushing, grasping, and striving to arrive or become something more than what I am now. I feel 100 percent at peace. I'm not worried about the future or stressing about the past. I'm completely enjoying exactly where I am at. From the moment I wake up, till the moment I lay down at night, I rejoice in this new way of being. How did I ever live any other way? I could never go back to the crazy, hectic, rush-a-mush pace of life. Contentment is forevermore my modus operandi. My newfound battle-cry.