HOPE MONTH: DAY 2: “Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment.” ― Og Mandino
For every day where we gain some form of insight, we are in the dark for many, many years. This is the process we are here to achieve. Some of us are going to have to wait a much longer time than others. This is the beauty of Spirit and living a spiritual life. We are all in different places at different times. It means that we get to progress in the ways that fit our Spirit. There is no race. We will enjoy seeming success financially, but never gain spiritual connection.
We see that one again and again. There are a few who connect with both, but they are so few and so rare. The two are not symbiotic. We need to define for ourselves which path means “success” to us. It is not something that can be seen or judged by others.
I do know that one of the greatest truths I have ever known was something written on an old poster of Fat Freddy and the Furry Freak Brothers. Not many of you will know what that is about. They were underground comic books in the early 1970s from San Francisco about smoking pot and being loadies. Very cool stuff! The poster says: “Times of Dope will get you through times of no money better than times of Money will get you through times of no dope.” I have an old one that has been with me for many years. I crossed out “Dope” and wrote in God.
A very deep truth for me. I have been very broke and very comfortable, sometimes wealthy in my life. I was brought up in a dynamic of knowing both sides of the coin financially and hating the moneyed part of my life, because the people with all the money were so horrible. I did not equate financial success as being any kind of happiness. Therefore, I have always known how to eschew financial wherewithal. It is not important to me, nor does it drive my particular path.
Which is great because I have had great success without great amounts of money. My success is that I have been allowed to help a great number of people in ways that filled my heart and spirit. If I had measured my success by money or in how others were impacted by what I did, I would have believed myself to be a failure. But I know otherwise. This is important. We have to know how we define success and failure to know if we have achieved them.
Dolphin Hug 