Life's a Gamble. Let's Ramble.

No one said it would be easy - this Life...
But I don't remember anyone ever saying it could be so hard either.
Life has often made me feel like a sideline - I'm like the extra item on someone's plate. I'm the baked potato or the salad - that comes with the deal. You didn't really need it on your plate, but it's there, so you'll have it with the rest of your meal anyway.

I go through life making mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. Each one grander than the last - I make mistakes all the time. Big ones, small ones, stupid ones, damaging ones, irresponsible ones... I make lots and lots and lots of mistakes - mistakes here, there, and everywhere...

I go through life making the same mistakes - over and over and over... I am such a fool. I cry, I bleed, I hurt, I fall, I scream, I run, I crumble, and tumble, and am often lost - over and over and over again. Why do I never learn? Good question, and no answer.

What hurts the most? I don't know. All I know is that I hurt, inside and outside - and on the inside of the inside: like, my soul hurts, my soul cries, and bleeds - there is so much pain that it numbs me to everything else - it is like someone switched all my senses off - the physical ones and the other ones.

I go through all my mistakes - and I am standing at a breaking point right now... indecisive, and lost. I am willing myself, I am patting myself on the back, I am hooting myself on - 'You can do it, baby!' and I'm hoping that I will not make anymore mistakes that hurt so hard... I am hoping that somehow someday at some point I will see how I didn't make the mistakes, that the mistakes made ME.

So, go on, Life, make a Fool of me again. Go on, Love, break my Soul again. Go on, Hope, save my Thoughts again. Go on, Dreams, help me Live again. Go on, Fate, make my Plans again. Go on Nerves, hold me tight again. And go on, Heart... be of Gold again.

-JB

Ooooh Baby, Baby, it's a Wild World... Just Be Good.

I’ve been through many trials and tribulations at the hands of people who have been close to me in this Life. And *if* I have learnt one thing - it is the balance of Good and Bad in every single person. No one is Good all the time, and no one is Bad all the time. I often *try to* seek the good in the people around me, especially when they are not good to me. It’s a weird practice, yes – but... I believe there is equal measure of good and bad in every person. And I often feel *now*, that for every Vice of ours we carry a Virtue within us. I feel now, that in a world that is full of Evil, they are some definite rays of Hope in the ashes.
Classical Greek philosophers (I am not an authority on the Greeks, but I like how they thought) considered the Foremost Virtues to be Prudence, Temperance, Courage, and Justice. Hmmm.

Early Christian Church theologians followed these virtues too.

They believed these virtues to be equally important to all people; whether they were Christian or non-Christian. Sort of like A Life Philosophy for everyone from every faith - this is the fringe, the outline of all your beliefs, the very foundations of your entire Belief System as a human being; Even if you do not believe in religion and in God; this is the code you have to crack - to insert goodness into your Self, your Life, your Idealogy.

The best three things in Life - Love, Hope, Faith.

Love, Hope, and Faith were defined by St. Paul as the three chief virtues. This being the essential nature of God and our belief in the Higher Power (even Fate, if we do not believe in God). These are the exact virtues we all embody when we are down. Are they not?

I never thought about it before but... every Sin had a Contrary Virtue...
Seven Sins and Seven Virtues… *wow* (I like it so far):
For Pride there is Humility.

For Envy there is Kindness.

For Gluttony there is Abstinence.

For Lust there is Chastity.

For Anger there is Patience.

For Greed there is Liberality.

For Sloth there is Diligence.

Interestingly enough the Seven Contrary Virtues were derived from the "Psychomachia"- literally meaning "Battle for the Soul" – this is an epic poem written by Prudentius – it was written a long, long, long time ago... it's so well titled, I think - Life is a Constant Battle for our Soul.

Know that for every sin within your mind, you hold the counter virtue in your heart.
The Power was always in your Senses. You just never thought about it.

Never let go of Love, Hope and Faith.

-JB