Life, Hope, Love, Forgiveness, Justice, and Charity in all that I do. And to be Forgiven for my failures to live fully in this practice, for harms I have caused and will cause others. To be given the awareness of those failures and harms and be given to cheerfully and generously make amends for them.
I would like to meet and embrace and form relationships with my beautiful boy, D, and my lovely daughter, B. May they see and embrace their own Great Gifts and Great Powers. And I would like to continue to meet and embrace and grow with "My Daughter's Eyes," Lil' A on this Great Journey! May all of us see the reconciliation and reunification in the Creator's Plan!
And may I meet and touch in kind and loving ways all who I encounter.
To my child,
I so strongly yearn to pass on to you the wisdom gained by my experiences so that you don't get hurt and hurt others the same ways that I have. Please listen to me. I am not preaching from a high place above you. I am on the ground with you. I know the pains. A power much greater than me and everything else has kept me here to tell you these things. There are many names for that power. Many of us call it God. Whatever it is called, whatever you understand it to be, I hope you see it is with you and you see the power it gives you.
Don't believe most of what you see here on MySpace or on the Internet or in the media. There are a lot of emotionally and spiritually sick people who think only of themselves first and what they can get from you. They pretend to be someone who they are not so they can hurt you. Spend more time with your family and friends. Spend more time alone with yourself.
Don't believe the hype about using drugs or alcohol to make you happy or comfortable. You don't need them. You are not free on drugs. You are not you when you are on drugs or booze. Be free. Be you as you are. Be you through the emotional pain and suffering. Only take medicine for sickness or injury. (By the way, pot is a drug, too. Don't believe those who say it isn't or that it's harmless. If nothing else, it is smoke that they are inhaling into their lungs and polluting our air with!)
Some people will want you to use drugs or alcohol or sex just to feel good. They don't care about your happiness. They want to hurt you or get money or other things from you or by using you. They have been hurt and contaminated badly in the same ways and don't know how to be happy without stealing happiness from others. They don't know what real love is. They don't know that real love doesn't want anything in return.
Also don't believe that sex is love. And don't believe that you can just have sex for fun. People get hurt with that thinking. Sex is a deeply intimate and spiritual act with another human being. Avoid sexual contact with anyone until you are an adult and you have known and loved your partner for a long time. Make the covenant of marriage in front of other loved ones before being sexual with this loved one. Sex includes fellatio and cunnilingus... oral sex. It includes caressing or playing with another person's genatalia or breasts.
Don't believe it when anyone says it's okay to hurt another person. It's not, even if that person has done something to hurt you. If someone hurts you, get away and stay away from them until you find a peaceful way to be with them. If someone is hurting your body, call the police or tell someone who can help you be safe. Stay away from people who use a lot of bad, violent language. They are very unhappy and angry and are hurting themselves and hurting others. Avoid people who like a lot of violent things, even if the violent things are pretend. One who keeps exposing themselves to a lot of violence on purpose wants to be violent and becomes violent. They are hurting themselves and will hurt you. If you stay with them, you will become like them. You will hurt yourself and you will hurt others.
Find family and friends who are real, who don't care about what you look like or what you have or what you don't have or where you live. They don't care about cell phones and cars and clothes and jewelry and makeup and muscles and belly buttons and breasts and penises and tattoos and piercings. They truly love you for you. They care about your deepest spiritual happiness, not happiness in things. They will encourage you and support you and strengthen you. And you will do the same for them. They will say good and loving things to you. And you will do the same for them. They will be with you in bad times, not just good times. And you will do the same for them. If you stay with them, you will become like them. You will love yourself and you will love others.
You are what you think and what you do. If you think and do hate and anger and greed and lust and violence, then you are those things. If you think and do love and kindness and generosity and self-control and peace, then you are those things. You pass on to others what you have. Pass on good things. Pass on real love.
I have learned to be aware of what someone named the Seven Deadly Sins or Vices. I learn how to avoid them in myself and practice the opposites of the sins, someone called them Virtues. The Sins are Pride, Greed, Lust, Anger (or Wrath), Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth. The opposing Virtues are Humility, Generosity, Self-Control, Kindness, Faith (or Temperance), and Zeal. I like the way they are described at http://www.whitestonejournal.com/seven/. Sometimes it's difficult to understand and practice, especially when things seem to be going so wrong. But the joy and love that come from sticking with it no matter what makes it worth it!
"I love you forever. I like you for always. As long as I'm living my baby you'll be." I am always your father. I will never leave you... no matter what happens to you or to me, no matter what you do to or say about yourself or me or others, I will never leave you...
Love,
Dada
P.S. - I'd like to meet the author of http://www.whitestonejournal.com/seven/.
(DISCLAIMER: I do not endorse or approve of everything my friends and loved ones or MySpace say and do!)
The kind that evokes Life, Hope, Love, Forgiveness, Justice, and Charity.
The kind that evoke Life, Hope, Love, Forgiveness, Justice, and Charity.
The kind that evokes Life, Hope, Love, Forgiveness, Justice, and Charity.
The kind that evoke Life, Hope, Love, Forgiveness, Justice, and Charity.
The kind that evoke Life, Hope, Love, Justice, and Charity.The Great Spirit, the Law, Allah, OM, Yahweh, God, G_d, the Christ, Wakan Tanka, the Red Road, the Path, the Many Trails, the Universe, my Creator, the Most High, the Great Reality, Destiny....In human beings, my children, my father, my mother, my grandmothers, my grandfathers, all of my ancestors and relations. They all struggle, suffer, hope, and survive. There is that of God in all of You.