how do you dig around for details?

[Gatekeeper]

Dear Peter,

If the world was nothing but sweetness and light, I don't think I'd wanna come back very often. I look at positivity and negativity as I do order and chaos in nature. In nature, a harmonious balance is only achieved through the constant workings of chaos within ordered structures. While this chaos can be harmful for some creatures (like the comet was on the dinosaurs), it can be the best thing for others (like the commet was for mammals). I usually compare the spiritual world to the workings of nature do to my own personal bias and opinion that nature is one of the most purest expressions of Heaven on Earth. Without chaos, the world of our four-legged counterparts would become stagnant and rot.

In the long run,I don't think it is within human capacity to judge what is good and what is bad when comparing it to higher truths. We can only deal with what is happening during our lifespans while we remain in the physical. What may seem very bad to us on Earth may, in actuality, have a positive effect in other areas or have a larger meaning on another scale. I've noticed that many of the "bad things" in my life have actually turned out to be the best things for me later on. I wouldn't be who I am today without them. After all, you can sit isolated in a classroom and learn out of a textbook all your life, but you're not going to get the full effect of the lesson unless you experience whatever it is you're learning about. Does reading about the Civil War generate the same sort of emotion as actually being in the Civil War? I think not.


-Gatekeeper

 

[catseye]

Gatekeeper,
Being in the Civil War is a whole nuther ball game. Emotions cannot be conveyed in written prose, especially the shallacked version of most textbooks. You can read of Picketts Charge, but until you stand on the edge of the trees and look across the field into those cannons you cannot fathom the heartwrenching fear that those 'BOYS' sucked in and started walking into. In fact, the image of a panic attack is probably quite appropos, you are surrounded by noise, and light, and motion, yet you can't see clearly, there's dust and dirt and blood in the air, you can't breathem you're sweating yourself into dehydration, your heart is throbbing out of your chest!...You want to run away more than anything and yet you don't trust your feet, so you continue on like a robot step by step, thinking that any moment, any second, it will be YOU!
Nope, you can't get that in a book. Been there, done that!
As far as ever finding a place of sheer happiness and perfection. I don't know. A friend and I were discussing what hell would
be and I said a dank, dark, stale, smoke filled bar with a bunch of offensive people and extremely loud pounding music. To her, that was a Saturday night date.
I guess perfection would be just a personal preferance, but I am aiming for trail rides through dark forests with dogs and cats healthy and happy, while I listen to Celtic music. My choice.
catseye

 

[DianePF]

Sunday, sorry I didn't respond sooner... the reality of work and my older son moving out to his own apartment (and deciding what I want to do with that now-spare room!) have tied up my time.

No, abuse to children -- or any other living thing -- should not be tolerated. It rips me apart as well.

The draw to family for me is strong, but it can be just as strong to people I'm not genetically tied to. I've met some great friends who, when we first met, it felt like we were just picking up on a conversation that had started before we remembered it started. I think we just agree, between these earthly lives, to come back with certain other souls. Not necessarily the same ones each time.

I agree w/Peter... going through lives is like going through school. Our souls grow as we experience. Don't believe we get extinguished for not learning <g>. Just have to repeat that level by setting ourselves up to learn again. Some of us take longer than others and some of us don't like the 'homework'.

 

[DianePF]

Gatekeeper & PeterV.

I think I have to go along w/Gatekeeper on the 'positive' vs. 'negative' discussion.

Because each soul makes its own way on the progress chart, we're all at different levels, dealing with our own choices in our respective lives. If we only chose the 'proven' correct path, then how do we know what lies on the other one? How do we know that the path that others like is the correct one for us?