I suppose you could take that to mean a few things but I didn’t get flooded or drowned out here due to the recent floods plaguing Colorado. And though I have yet to view a lot of the damage firsthand, I am set to help some friends here soon. Thing is these floods happened weeks ago and I barely hear anything about anyone outside of my friends’ Facebook feeds which are largely empty because there are obviously better things to be doing.

The community here isn’t very community in any way that I can see. Coming from a place with a non-existent line between groups which were just definable by location to a place which seems to pride itself on its separation has been very hard for me to acclimate to-simply because I don’t play that clique game though they seem to be everywhere I go. I did yoga for a time but it’s been a little while. That last stroke kinda left me a little less confident in some of my body’s abilities. The yoga community is pretty cliquish in and of itself too. They claim to be open and one with the universe but they are largely one with themselves and really, for some of the most intelligent people I know, are also very docile. I suppose that is why religion is the opiate of the masses-it tends to distract you from the ugly and be entirely self-serving. As long as you feel goooood and think your intention was pure, nothing else is needed of you except to encourage that projection of peace and self-lessness, whereby you observe your thoughts as things, not related to you except by coincidence, since largely you are encouraged to empty your mind of things that do not serve it. If you confront them with something ugly politically, they would prefer to turn inward and positively think the problem away, projecting peace onto the issue rather than having an opinion nor any desire to speak of it publicly. For someone like me who wants to shout to the rooftops about the injustices and disgusting place we are in history, this is an infuriating practice which makes them no better than anyone else trying to pray their problems away. Nothing gets better without practice-and it certainly doesn’t get better sitting in a circle chanting with no further intention to do anything else. You’d think there might be a lot more charity coming from a group of people spending two hundred dollars on complete yoga outfits, but I doubt it. As long as they are spraying good thoughts outward, there’s no reason to actually do anything else, right?

I know-you really weren’t afraid I would try and spout some new age hokey philosophy at you because I tend to be a lot more skeptical than that. I am not empty of any spiritualism of course-when faced with the what’s next in some very explicit ways, I really didn’t focus on the what’s next but instead looked at where I had been, what I wished I did, the things I wanted to still see and of course reminisced on all of the people I had met, conversations I had had,. love I had shared and adventures that dotted the in between points. I didn’t think of what God, should I get faked out in the end-no I didn’t think about heaven, nor of God nor of speaking to some mythical dude floating up in the clouds. No. I didn’t think of heaven or the boredom that might ensue from floating around endlessly reliving my best moments over and over. No, I knew then much as I know now-heaven and hell are dualities that can be explained by emotion and place in time. We spent a great deal of time in our lives in both places, our heats choked and held back in fear and pain and anger, or open and expressive with hope, understanding and love. I feel we have opportunities to be in both places in our lifetimes, but I believe we have more potential to reach heaven here on earth over some disembodied existence later. That doesn’t mean I think I’m going to die and hope that my soul just goes out like a puff of smoke. I want my soul or legacy of my good energy to continue on and influence others to do better for others too.

Heaven or Hell can be your reality now-it just depends what part of the swing you happen to be on at any given time.