I often need to remind myself what I still believe to be true

By David McElroy · December 22, 2018

I believe in things I can’t even see.

I believe in the wind. I believe in love. I believe in a Spirit who made all of us and who lives in all things. I believe I can feel and see and touch truth in ways I can’t explain or prove.

I believe in these things because the eyes of my spirit or heart can dimly see them. Like a ticking clock in a quiet room, these things can become loud and obvious when I focus on them. But in the same way that the ticking clock is drowned out by the everyday sounds of life — to the point we don’t even notice it’s there — these things which I believe are true can be easily obscured by the cacophony of this material world.

When my world becomes too loud — and the competing angry shouts and blasts of hate grow strong — I have to remind myself of these quiet things. I have to go inside my heart and become silent — so I can remember what I believe is true.

This was a week when I needed to silence the voices of hatred and anger and ignorance. It’s a week when I’ve desperately needed to remember who I am — and what I still believe is true.

I found myself unable to sleep Friday night, so in the silence of my room — interrupted only by the gentle snoring of a sleeping dog — I am now silencing the voices in my head and asking my heart to remind me of some of the things I believe. It won’t be a complete list of truth as I understand it, but it might be enough to soothe my heart and help me rest.

I believe love is the most powerful force in all of Creation. A lot of people give lip service to believing in love, but most find ways of making it about their own ego instead. When love is the driving force behind a mind or heart or spirit, we can do and be amazing things. We can put aside the ugly parts of ourselves that try to drive us. We can become better people than we thought we were capable of. Romantic love is a big part of this, but it’s just a subset of something much larger. We can love our neighbors or our enemies or our families. There are all sorts. But when two people find each other and trust one another in a sacred and perfect way, something special happens between them. I believe most people go their entire lives without finding such mutual love — and I believe that is a source of great misery.

I believe human beings hurt each other by trying to force others to be like them. We are radically different from one another, but there’s something deep in each of us — almost all of us, anyway — which makes us assume that other people ought to be like us. We judge other people and belittle them when we don’t understand them and when they make choices different from our own. Even those of us who know better sometimes do this. I believe I do this when I get frustrated at my seeming inability to find “my people.” When other people do it to me, it’s hurtful and it’s hard to remember that the shame I feel at that moment is something I can choose to reject. For this reason, it’s good that we can gather (and even live) around like-minded people — so we can feel less like aliens in this world.

I believe the right people eventually find each other. I don’t know why I believe this, but I do. It seems as though our pairing with one another — in friendships or partnerships or marriage — are just random. In many cases, we accept such horrible pairings — out of fear or misunderstanding or a hundred other reasons. But when people need to find one another, I believe they eventually will. Even though the stories might not make sense to others and even though the paths might be long and winding — filled with mistakes along the way — I believe the right people eventually find each other if they listen to their hearts.

I believe some people trust in love and find lasting joy. I believe the people who learn to quiet the material world and listen to the power and truth of love in their hearts can find a life which is very different from what most people accept as normal. I believe the people who choose to do this often have to take leaps of faith and have to face the doubts of other people, who will tell them they are fools. The path to that joy might not always make sense. There might be pain and obstacles along the way. But the fruit of joy at the end will make this life a very different experience.

I believe many people never really trust love and they die without joy. I believe most people are miserable and unhappy, but they are blindly following what they have been taught is normal. I believe most people pursue pleasure and short-term gain which take them far from where they need to be. I believe that people who choose different values for themselves will end up in very different places, no matter how much they might wish that were not so. I believe people who listen to their fears and ego and to the Father of Lies eventually die lonely deaths wondering how their lives ever went so wrong.

I believe something inside each of us knows what’s right for that person. When I don’t know what’s right for me, it’s because I’m so eager to listen to other people and do what the world’s values tell me is right. When I pursue things based on the world’s values and listen to the wisdom of worldly people, I end up miserable. I believe we all have some mechanism inside us — at a level which few of us often reach — which knows the truth about who we are and what we are supposed to do and be. It’s scary to listen to that. It’s easier to listen to fear and to what others try to force us to be. But when we listen to what others try to force us to be, we’re moving away from where we ought to be. I believe that learning to be silent enough and still enough to find that Divine voice inside is the only way we can find our intended path.

I believe Nature constantly paints a life lesson for all of us. I believe we were put into a world which displays the love and power of our Creator every day and every year. I believe everything in Nature knows what it’s here for. A cat never gets confused and tries to be a cow or a tree. A blade of grass never tries to become a honeybee. Everything in Nature knows its place. Humans are the only part of Creation which forgets to listen to what we are designed to become. I believe the cycles which come and go show us what we should become. I believe the cycles of the year — the seasons — show us the ways in which we have to grow and then face short-term setbacks (or even death) before we experience a glorious and life-filled rebirth. I believe nature is filled with these lessons if we pay attention.

I believe we accidentally keep repeating bad patterns until we find our right place. I believe we make mistakes that keep putting us into a place where we had promised ourselves never to return. I believe we keep doing such things — without realizing what we’re doing — until we learn some essential lesson. I believe we attract into our lives certain types of people and certain types of situations, not because they are right for us, but because those things are familiar and we have decided to settle for what’s familiar — instead of striving for what’s right for us. When we find ourselves in such places and with such people, we can either blame someone else or we can take responsibility for putting ourselves there and then do something to change things.

I believe we have to accept those who accept us and I believe we have to move on from those who don’t understand us or don’t accept us. Trying to force others to accept us is a path to unhappiness and a path to hurt. There are some people in this world who will love us. There are some people in this world who will understand us. There are some people in this world who will accept us. But there’s nothing we can do to change the ones who don’t love us or understand us or accept us. In the end, I believe we have to leave such people behind, because allowing the wrong people to drag us down will make it difficult for us to keep our eyes on where we need to be — and make it difficult to connect with the right people who will accept us as we’re supposed to be.

Every person has choices in life. Trying to force someone — a friend or associate or romantic partner — to become what we need him or her to be will ultimately fail. I believe there is someone who wants what each of us has to offer. I believe we have to accept those who accept us — and wipe the dust from our feet of the places where we’re not accepted.

I wish I could live in this relative silence where it’s easier to hear and experience the things I believe. My daily life is too loud, too angry, too opinionated to allow me to easily remember what I believe, much less to always live it.

I need to find ways to constantly remember these things I believe — and many other things which I know are true — because taking my eyes off these truths is a good way to get off my right path and to get lost along the way toward becoming who I know I have to become.

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Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

If you have problems with high blood pressure, I’d like to encourage you to consider making serious changes to your diet. There might be some people who don’t have any choice but to start taking prescription medications for high blood pressure, but I’d like to tell you that I have completely eliminated my issue by eliminating all sugar and almost all carbohydrates. (A couple of months ago, my blood pressure hit 185/144, which was dangerously high — considered stage 3 hypertension.) By completely changing my eating habits, I’m down 22 pounds and my blood pressure is now in the “ideal” range — without taking any medication. In addition, I sleep better and I have more energy. Getting away from the sugar-laden mess that we generally refer to as “highly processed food” has been a life-changer for me. Now my challenge is to avoid slipping back into old habits — by eating in the dangerous ways that almost everyone in our society has come to see as normal.

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