The Path to Enlightenment

I've been reading this book that Randy gave me the other day. The Power of Now suggests that the reason things like anger, anxiety and fear control our lives is due to our lack of control of our mind. It offers that our mind is a tool of our 'being', but is not actually the 'being' itself. What?!? Ok, so it may sound a bit baffling, but it becomes clear if you try it out. I always worry too much about everything, because I go through countless paths I may find myself on having made even the simplest decision. But after reading about half of this book last night while I couldn't sleep, I laid in bed and ran over the things that have been bothering me this week; unreliable friends, unknown status with Pop (target of my current infatuation) and less importantly stocking up on stuff/packing for Australia. I couldn't sleep and I was woken up a number of times by mosquito bites that somehow managed to come out of nowhere and eat me alive last night. During this rather horrendous evening I came to the conclusion that the book had some very interesting points. I cleared my mind of all my worries and then analyzed them one by one. It became quite obvious that I am not the cause of these particular woes of my life and there is little I can do to control them. I went to sleep feeling good. I had some really pleasant dreams and I woke up feeling refreshed for the first time in a while.

The day got even better when Pop called me to go to the waterfall just outside of town. Jenny, Gai, Gai's BF, Pop and myself went up the mountain, hung out at the waterfall, then went to the zoo. We had a nice time, but it was quite hot today.


Update: I forgot to mention that Sean was with on this trip (and probably took this picture!) and I didn't acknowledge him. Sorry.
Today's picture is of myself, John B and Barbara. On my 25th birthday, I went to Atlantic City with Sharon, John B, and Cory to gamble away all my savings as I occasionally like to do. I had a problem with one of the dealers and we complained to the management and they gave us some free stuff, but it wasn't sufficient. Afterwards, we stopped at a bar so I could bitch about it and get drunk a bit before we went to complain some more. A lady was sitting by herself heard us talking and gave us some advice on how to deal with casino issues such as this. She drank with us and when she found out it was my birthday she went a bit crazy. She produced a seemingly endless stream of hundred-dollar bills to support our rather expensive corona-fest. After we were all tanked, she went up to the staff and got us a discounted room for the night before she took us gambling. She was completely bamboozeled and ended up spending thousands of dollars on us both in drinks, room and gambling cash. It was surely the best birthday I've ever had, on a day I dreaded reaching for my entire life. Sometimes its nice to be wrong.