As a follower of Medium for some time now I am always impressed with the wide variation of subject matter. I enjoy reading many of the stories and articles that cover a myriad of subjects. I noticed there’s a large amount of focus on investing and cryptocurrency as well as relationships, religion and spirituality.
I have commented on a number of these stories and articles and some are well worth reading. At my stage of life I found it interesting that so many of the younger folks were interested in their investing and future savings and retirement. When I was young I was more interested in having a good time and I never worried much about the future or saving money or investing for retirement. Luckily I made a fair amount of money through my life and did some investing mostly in real estate which has paid me back handsomely. I’m not opposed to cryptocurrency or any other digital currency for that matter. I’ve always believed that you should invest in things that you can drop on your foot. Therefore blue sky and nebulous ideas tend to turn me off when it comes to putting my money into them.
As for religion and spirituality I was raised in a Methodist home by a mother who was a devout Christian and a father who was a devout golfer. He believed that his bliss rested somewhere on 18 holes of a country club that usually cost quite a bit of money per year to be a member of. He was successful enough that he could afford it and he provided a good home for his family. My mother on the other hand had an undiagnosed case of bipolar syndrome. During the '70s and '80s there was little known about this problem.
I tended to side with my father as far as my Sunday activities and just caddied his clubs for him rather than go to church and listen to all the doctrine and dogma that seem to satisfy my mother’s angst. As time went by her condition became worse and in the late 1980s she chose to take her life rather than put my father into bankruptcy with medical bills. This decision weighed heavily on my father’s conscience.
The reason I’m sharing this story is that on the night that she chose to end her life I was over 1,600 mi away in Western Oregon when I heard a scratching sound at my apartment door at about 2:30 in the morning. I opened the door and there was a scraggly orange cat with a piece of baling twine tied around its neck. It was trying to get into my apartment and I knelt down and pushed it back telling it ‘no’. As I made the effort to remove the feline from my door I began to feel an overwhelming sense of compassion and even a bit of sorrow that was unusual for me because I very seldom had those feelings at that age. I pushed the door shut, stood there for a moment and then went out to look for the cat to see if I could help it. It was completely gone.
Later that morning I woke with a phone call from my father telling me that my mother had hung herself in the shower. It didn’t dawn on me at that time that that cat at the door had a piece of twine around its neck. As I look back on the experience I now realize that the spirit of my mother was coming to tell me she loved me and to tell me goodbye. When I share this experience with others (which I’ve done very few times) only a couple of them have been mesmerized and realize that the spiritual world is real and can come to you if you are open to it.
In closing this story I would recommend that those of you who are troubled and are seeking answers to life’s persistent questions look inside of yourself and not outside. The material world is front and center everyday and our egos demand that we pay attention. Unfortunately your soul and your spirit also require attention and you have to look into your own heart to find it. It’s not an easy thing to do but it can be done with a bit of effort, meditation and assistance from those who are good at it.
Upon finishing a book by Whitley Strieber called ‘Jesus- A New Vision' I began to study the Gnostic Gospels. The Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip and the most important of the three, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
These gnostic gospels were removed from the original texts that were used to create later versions of the Holy Bible. There are numerous theories as to why they were removed and you’re welcome to seek those answers yourself.
I believe it was because the original Christians that were dominated by the masculine side of humanity saw them as a threat. Mary Magdalene was the number one favorite apostle of Jesus Christ. He shared more with her than he did with any of the other disciples including a physical relationship.
Her story is one of devotion and an understanding that we are all like Jesus. We have the power to override our ego and search inside of our heart for the true meaning of heaven.
‘Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given you.’ Matthew 7:7
The answers are in your heart. Not outside of it.