When the Material Becomes Immaterial ©
There is no use trying to carve a piece of rotten wood.
Confucius
At the end of the day when it's really all said and done, the material is truly immaterial.
This is truly the most simplistic of ideologies. Yet it proves so hard for many of us to comprehend. Simply stated, there are a great many things in this world that we think matters that really doesn’t matter as much as we think or would like to believe that it does. Now granted, money can buy temporary contentment, retail therapy can temporarily soothe those frazzled nerves and those shots of Patron can mellow you out for a while and get that buzz going. All the same, in the grand scheme of things if not handled responsibly all of these things can actually cause you more harm than good.
Money can't buy salvation; money can't buy true friendship, money can't buy love, money can't buy true respect and admiration, and last but certainly not least money can't buy discernment or just plain common sense. To me all of the aforementioned things are priceless and invaluable. Thus truly making the material absolutely immaterial.
I'll take true friends and true family over riches and wealth any day. I personally know individuals with very healthy bank accounts, their choice of exotic locales, whips, women or men and enormous entourages. Nonetheless when all the dust settles and they find themselves alone, these individuals are some of the unhappiest people you ever want to meet. It is these people that remind me of how essential it is for us to remain humble in spite having the very best of everything that life has to offer. As for me, were it not for the Grace and Mercy of Almighty God I would never truly know a moment of happiness. I am I happiest when I am in His Presence and living in accordance to His will for my life.
Now don't get me wrong…. I am extremely blessed. God supplies my EVERY need and even blesses me with just about everything that I want. Nevertheless, there comes a time in everyone's life when you have a need for "more" but you just can't put your finger on what it is you need "more" of. For me, the more is love. True love. Not that superficial, self serving, one sided, half hearted junk that people dump on one another these days and attempt to call it a friendship or a relationship. I want the kind of love that defies description. That kind of love that when you feel it, there's not a doubt in your mind what it is. In my mind, I believe that we are ALL capable of showing that type of love. Unfortunately, because of the hand life has dealt a lot of us we never tap into it.
Nonetheless, I can thankfully say that I have managed to tap into it and trust me when I say it is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the sense that it has helped me strengthen my relationship with God and has allowed me to attract a lot of the same like minded people as of late. A curse in that I sometimes I am deceived into thinking that everyone out there has your best interest at heart when dealing with you. A curse in that this type of mindset … this type of lifestyle has brought me a lot of pain and disappointment and at one point my health even suffered for it.
Believe me, I know. I am a living witness that GOD honors those that honor HIM. You may not believe in GOD and that is your choice. However, For those of you looking for true love I have a word of advice for you. This word is for those people who are in search of someone to love or patiently waiting for that certain someone to “find” you. True love apart from a spiritual connection to the Most High (whomever or whatever that may be for you) and the person that is the object of your desire is…. well…. Impossible. There is a wonderful feeling of liberation in knowing Who you are and WHOSE you are. Secondly, love of self is essential to finding and keeping the love that you need and want. Now.... I know how much we all love perks. Well, I am truly happy to be the one to tell you that there is a perk to learning to love yourself. Once you truly learn to love yourself - I mean TRULY love yourself - nothing in this world can steal your joy. So many of us let our relationships or the people that we “love” define our joy threshold. Simply put, there are those individuals out there that define their happiness by what someone else believes is joy. Sadly, because of this they never truly experience true happiness or joy for themselves. Some people will remain in unhealthy, abusive, stagnant, unfruitful and dysfunctional relationships because they fear being alone. To those individuals I say that when you truly love and respect yourself, you will never allow anyone to abuse or mistreat you. When you learn to love yourself, you won’t settle for less than anyone’s best.
Now I’m not saying that in love there won’t be those days when the people you love won’t be everything you want or need them to be (After all we are all human and can’t be everything to everybody). I'm also not saying there won't be days where you feel discouraged or that there won't be days where people will disappoint you (with those people who are quick to say they love you or care about you being the biggest disappointments). However, when those times do occur - and they will – your devotion and loyalty will be tested. Hopefully you'll be like the palm tree...... I love palm trees.
I love Palm Trees simply for this reason. I don't care how strong the storms winds are......... the palm tree bends, but once the storm is over, It pops right back up. If the roots go deep enough, it never breaks. We can all take lessons from nature on what it means to persevere. Sometimes the simplest things have the most profound effect on us when we're paying attention. The palm tree analogy to me is a simple one. To me it speaks to the strength of the ties that bind. Hopefully when the storms of life come, the bond you have with those you love won’t be affected by external factors. Hopefully your bond with your loved one is so strong, that trivial matters won’t cause permanent rifts. For if trivial things cause your friends to turn their backs on you, they were never your friends to begin with. Fairweather friends are a dime a dozen, never mourn losing them. In fact celebrate their exiting your life. They are doing nothing but making room for those people that truly deserve your friendship.
So in closing I leave you with 48th rule of the 48 Rules of Power by Robert Green and Joost Elffers, which in this humble author’s opinion is an excellent example of the immaterial:
Assume Formlessness
By taking a shape or by having a visible plan you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and that no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be fluid and formless as water. Never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.
Comments