Miracles wrapped in pain

Collated, edited, and/or written by Joe M.

‘We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us! If you are going to try, go all the way, or do not even start. If you follow this path you will be alive with the gods. It is the only good fight there is. Carpe diem: seize the day!

Sometimes Miracles come wrapped in pain. When we are bound together, we are much stronger than by ourselves. Glimpses of others’ raw courage and strength will come to us at our weakest moments. We are all going to die, all of us—what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it does not. We are terrorised and flattened by trivialities; we are eaten up by nothing. You have to die a few times before you can really live.

It may be that we are doomed, that there is no hope for us, any of us, but if that is so then let us set up a last agonising, bloodcurdling howl, a screech of defiance, a war whoop! Away with lamentation! Away with elegies and dirges! Away with biographies and histories, and libraries and museums! Let the dead eat the dead. Let us living ones dance about the rim of the crater, a last expiring dance. But a dance!

If you are going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, do not even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery—isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And you will do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you are going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It is the only good fight there is.’

‘Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live!’

‘unless it comes out of

your soul like a rocket,

unless being still would

drive you to madness or

suicide or murder,

don’t do it.

unless the sun inside you is

burning your gut,

don’t do it.

when it is truly time,

and if you have been chosen,

it will do it by

itself and it will keep on doing it

until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.’

― Charles Bukowski

I am a great believer in the innate goodness of people, and I know, through much experience, that the average person wants to do about the best he can. Why don’t you learn to use spiritual Power so that it will be effective in your life and in the lives of those around you?