Life: A Sexually Transmitted Terminal Condition
“Analysis destroys wholes. Some things, magic things, are meant to stay whole. When you look at their pieces, they go away.”
{Your Name Here}, our testing and analysis has reveled that you have a sexually transmitted terminal condition called Life.
It’s unbelievably contagious. Survival rates are next to none, and the symptoms can be really unbearable at times.
These include, but are not limited to:
Tiredness
Pain
Sadness
Grief
Worry
Anxiety
Rashes
Bleeding
Broken Bones
Broken Hearts
Joint pain
Suicidal Ideation
Competitiveness – with self and others
Anger
Jealousy
Memory Problems
Difficulty concentrating
Nausea
Vomiting
Loneliness
Boredom
Swollen glands
Neurotically seeking the of approval of others
Diarrhea
Bloating and flatulence – sometimes hair-thinning
Light sensitivity
Sound sensitivity
Sensitivity/Aversion to Children
Sensitivity/Aversion to Adults
Sensitivity to traffic jams
Sensitivity to other people’s sensitivity
Headaches
Difficulty falling asleep
Difficulty staying asleep
Self-loathing
Unworthiness
Uncontrollable desire for FaceBook ‘likes’
Uncontrollable comparing self to others RE: weight, success, energy, cholesterol level, penis size, bank account size, etc…
Fear
Sleeping too much
Mood Swings
Sleeping too little
Aversion to public speaking
Nose picking
Ringing in ears
Talking to yourself
Staring off into space
Day Dreaming
Nightmares
Desperation…
Unfortunately there is no cure. And there is no lasting treatment to alleviate the symptoms.
Once you catch it, it’s with you until your final breath.
Modern medicine has tried compartmentalizing these symptoms – creating a condition withIN the Condition. The compartment is given a name, and attempts are made to provide relief with medications and/or treatment programs to deal with the compartment (i.e., my favorite: “Just ignore it, it’ll go away”)…
This approach of compartmentalizing has resulted in 1 of 3 outcomes:
- partial or temporary relief requiring a continuance/increase/or change in medication, or treatment protocol/program
- a worsening of symptoms that the treatment was targeting
- in many cases the attempt at medicating or treating creates NEW symptoms that weren’t there before!
In all cases, this methodology reinforces the mistaken belief that more trying will make the Life symptoms abate, or disappear.
This methodology reinforces the mistaken belief that it is the duty of those who have contracted the condition of Life to do something about the symptoms.
I have a confession to make.
I am infected with this sexually transmitted terminal condition called Life.
During the past 2 weeks I have experienced: debilitating pain, desperation, sadness, brain fog, fatigue, a broken heart, muscle soreness, joint pain, competitiveness, anger, nausea, bloating and flatulence, worry, anxiety, headaches, jealousy, inadequacy… just to name a few.
In the past 2 weeks I have also experienced – both paradoxically and simultaneously with above yucky symptoms– happiness, excitement, creativity, capability, resilience, hilarity, an abundance of energy, competence, and a heart-exploding feeling of being in love with the moment ... just to name a few.
Acceptance of my Life condition has brought me to this place of curiosity amidst paradoxical symptom stuff and the TRANSIENT nature of my feelings:
- grief and desperation as my best friend dies slowly and there’s nothing I can do
- like I’m falling in love every day due to incredibly rewarding work
- intense physical pain as a kidney stone ping-pongs down the tracks
- an abundance of energy and focus that I haven’t felt in years
- helpless and inadequate to help my 13-year-old in a bullying situation
All of those transient feelings that ebb-and-flow within minutes throughout my day, exist simultaneously under the PERMANENCE of:
The same nature/life-force/God/Energy – THING that grows trees, blooms flowers, digests food, heals wounds, grows babies, collapses stars and makes the big star up in the sky warm my skin to create chemicals in my body to make it go…
I mean! It can only follow that the THING that does all that must also know what it’s doing when it comes to doing ME!
Not only do I not want that job, it couldn’t possibly be mine. I’m just not that smart, nor that powerful, nor do I want to be that busy. I’ve got floors to mop and laundry to fold (for Gosh sakes!)
Humans believe so many lies because we aren't aware. We ignore the truth or we just don't see the truth. When we are educated, we accumulate a lot of knowledge, and all that knowledge is just like a wall of fog that doesn't allow us to perceive the truth, what really is.
Don Miguel Ruiz
We have been seduced by the lie that it is our job to control, fix, or cajole the transient nature of the Life condition. That’s like trying to untangle cobwebs, or trying to pin down a cloud and keep it the same shape or in one place.
That which changes cannot be true, because things that are true – things that are PRINCIPALS – like gravity and sunrise – don’t change.
What I am experiencing in the moment is 100% correlated with what I’m focusing on/thinking about in the moment… it changes constantly. So what I’m thinking about/experiencing in the moment can’t be true either.
But 100% of the time, what I’m thinking about/focusing on in the moment creates my experience in the moment due to my ‘virtual reality suit’ – this physical body, my experience-making machine.
So it must be true that what I’m thinking/focusing on in the moment creates my experience.
When I’m thinking sad thoughts about my friend – I feel sad and desperate.
When I’m focusing on my kidney stone – I’m lying on the floor in pain.
When I’m thinking / focusing on being new to this area that we just moved to, and that I don’t have many local friends, I feel isolated and alone…
Then minutes later, on a zoom call with someone halfway around the world, I feel completely filled-up to my third eyeball with love and contentment, in company with my tribe.
The experience of this condition – the comfort and joy, or the pain and desperation – cannot be ignored, cajoled, controlled, or fixed unless I have the ability to control what I think.
Despite years of trying to get my arms around controlling my thoughts (take a gander at my Amazon history!) – I have discovered that it is a lie that I am able to do so.
Thoughts that fly into my mind and swirl around before taking root with my focus come to life when painted on the canvas of my virtual reality suit.
And here’s the kicker:
When I recognize that the uncomfortable ‘symptoms’ of the Life condition are due to my thinking and focus in the moment, and I don’t try to settle the particles in the snow globe of my shaken-up mind (which only shakes them up and intensifies them all-the-more), a sense of peace and wellbeing within the snow-globe storm comes over me that: “this will pass… and it’s not my job to do it.”
And I find that when I throw my arms up on the roller coaster of the Life condition, and let myself off the hook that there’s something I should or even can do about it, this sexually transmitted terminal condition called Life is pretty cool. Warts and wonderment, fear and love, despair and peace.
What a ride.
“Just imagine becoming the way you used to be as a very young child, before you understood the meaning of any word, before opinions took over your mind. The real you is loving, joyful, and free. The real you is just like a flower, just like the wind, just like the ocean, just like the sun.”