Injuries and challenges...

1. So many people are telling me to "Take it easy" because of that leg injury from Sunday. The Doctor told me it could take 2-3 weeks or 2-3 MONTHS to heal properly. Told me not to ride a bike... And a second opinion of the same nature comes from the Northern land....
   
   I'm not going to overdo things. I know my limits...which is why I am constantly trying to challenge them and beat them!
   
   When I went on an 18 mile ride last year, I had never gone that far before. Then I challenged that, got 28, then 30, then 45!
   
   The doc told me to stay off the bike.. I went on yesterday did not quite 2 miles. That's not quite two miles more than the doc told me to do. Why do I push my luck?
   
   It's that rhetorical question: Why does a man climb a mountain?
   
   We are human. We are DRIVEN to challenge each other, challenge ourselves. We'll get injured at times. We will sleep when we are tired. We will continue to push our limits.
   
   The first man to wonder about getting to the moon passed on a dream. It wasn't possible...somebody challenged that, got farther. Someone beat that. And then it was beaten again. Then someone got into the sky. Then to space. Then, finally, they got to the moon. And Mars. And Venus. And out of the Solar system...We continue to push outward. We continue to challenge our limits; we HAVE no limits...
   
   The only limits we have are in our minds. And someone will challenge those!
   
   "If man were meant to fly, he'd have wings." We HAVE wings. We just need to learn how to use them!

Meditation for January 1

The new year has dawned across the world; the explosions of fireworks, the dance music, and the traditional year-end tribute of "AULD LANG SYNE" have faded from the ears and are rapidly fading from memory, but people are out and about wishing everyone a happy new year. 

HYPOCRITES! 

They so often express joy, laughter, good wishes, and yet they go home and instead of spreading peace, contentment and joy, they begin the same things of the previous year, instigating strife, hatred, pain and sorrow. And they wonder why nothing has changed!

We cannot spread peace unless we, ourselves, are at peace. We cannot spread joy unless we, ourselves, are joyful. We cannot spread love unless we love ourselves. And while we cannot completely eliminate strife and contention, do we even try to bring it down? Probably not.

But hatred, true hatred is very rare. More often, it is a combination of greed, envy and poverty. Not poverty of the flesh, mind you, which is exceedingly common, but poverty of the spirit, the soul. People deny such poverty; they deny they have it, they deny it even exists. But it does, and the people are unhappy. They seek solace in things, in religion, in hobbies, but everything leaves them cold and bitter. They just do not acknowledge it.

I pray for all, those who cannot acknowledge their own poverty of spirit. I recognize mine, I still work to overcome it. Acceptance of our own spiritual poverty is not apathy toward it. People so often treat it that way. Rather, it must be a catalyst, a burning desire to eliminate it.

For the few of you out there who truly know peace and love, may you have the most blessed of New Years. For the rest, I wish the courage to fight on, to be able to find true peace, joy and contentment. May the freedom that comes from our creator find you, grant release from the burdens which you do not even know you carry.

May the new year bring bountiful blessings to you, and may you have the eyes to see them when they arrive.