An old farmer had a very valuable horse that one day ran away. The neighbors, feeling for the farmer’s loss, offer their condolences: “This is such bad news … we are so sorry for you.”

The farmer calmly responds with “What makes this so terrible?”

A few weeks later, the horse returns, bringing with it two friendly stallions. The villagers are delighted, telling the farmer how happy they are for his sudden turn of luck.

“What makes this good fortune?” replies the farmer.

The following day the farmer’s son breaks his leg falling off one of the horses. “This is such a tragedy” lament the empathetic residents.

“Why is this bad?” asks the tranquil farmer.

A week later the army comes through the village recruiting all able-bodied men to the war efforts – passing over the farmer’s son given his injury. The townspeople extend their blessings: “This is such good news!”

“What makes this good?” Continue reading →

Fraternal twins are born and grow up into adults. At the age of 30, one of those twins boards a rocket ship where she travels at a very high rate of speed (670,583,098 mph) for a two-year trip. Upon returning to Earth at the age of 32, she learns that her twin brother long-ago died of old age. Had he lived, he would be 230 years old.

This is known as the twin paradox, a scientific thought experiment that demonstrates the peculiar nature of time in that it slows down for objects in motion. The female twin moving at that high velocity only aged two years while her brother aged two-hundred years.

Science fiction, right?

Wrong. Proven fact.

In 1971 researches took two atomic clocks that were perfectly synchronized. Had those two clocks sat side-by-side, they would have displayed identical times for billions of years. But one of those clocks was loaded onto a jet and flown around the world. Upon returning, sure enough the two clocks were off. The one that traveled on the jet had an earlier time. Continue reading →

At about age four or five I had a terrifying experience that many others have similarly undergone. My mother had taken me to a shopping mall, and somehow during her browsing we became separated. She likely was only one or two clothing racks away, but to me she might as well have been on another planet. I was gripped by an incredibly debilitating fear with the realization that I was all alone. While the incident resolved itself within a matter of minutes, the power of that moment was extraordinary.

Why is it that we don’t like to be alone? Certainly our communal, tribal customs along with our reproductive nature drive us into groups and partnerships.

But beyond our genetic predispositions and societal tendencies, we dread aloneness because we’ve bought into lack and believe others are required to fill that emptiness. If I don’t have enough friends, companions, or intimate connections I’ll be lonely.

Who will be there to share my joys, my sorrows, my fears, and my ambitions? Thus laments the ego thought system of solitude whose unspoken dictate commands us to seek but do not find. Hence we exert enormous energy and spend so much time seeking others to fill the perceived void. Continue reading →

He who knows most, knows best how little he knows.
~Thomas Jefferson

How often have you been in a situation where you thought you knew what was best – either for yourself or for another person?

Our nature is to assess the environment and determine the path we believe will maximize our happiness – or at least diminish the potential pain. By aligning our goals with our circumstances, we feel we can choose a course of action that is best for us.

But what if we were wrong?

In no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy. Therefore, you have no guide to appropriate action, and no way of judging the result. What you do is determined by your perception of the situation, and that perception is wrong. It is inevitable, then, that you will not serve your own best interests. (W-pI.24.1)

Whenever you think you know [what is best], peace will depart from you. (T-14.XI.13)

That’s the challenge of living in the world. We want to be happy, yet we don’t know what is best for us. Further, once we think we know, we sink deeper into the morass. Quite a conundrum indeed. Continue reading →

It is very challenging to unlearn something. Once you know it, it is difficult to remember what it was like to not know it. And nowhere is this more evident than in our ability to read.

Our reading skills have been well-honed over the years. But prior to our ability to read, our brains were very good at identifying colors.

To test that, see how quickly you can name (aloud) all the colors below.

If you are like most people, you can get through that exercise with no mistakes in about three to five seconds.

We are very quick at spotting colors and being able to name them. Except when they are intertwined with written words. Continue reading →