About this Book (blog)

This is the first part of a book I wrote titled, Nothing Less Than Love. From the start, I looked into our relationship “with ourselves,” “with another,” and “with family”.  I reflected on the different relationships I was around and tried to find the essence of the colorful people and events I was blessed to witness.  I just looked at LOVE and allowed it to tell the stories that followed. 

 NOTE: Your can read the second half of this book in Part II - "With All"
http://nothinglessthanlovept2.blogspot.com/ 

Dedication

To my mom and dad, who taught me that

 humans are social by nature.

And to my daughter, to whom I can share this simple

 lesson of love.

Acknowledgments

       I have an infinite amount of gratitude for all those who helped me get to the right place (mentally, physically, and spiritually) so I was able to write, whether it was those who helped me find jobs, purchased my paintings, lent me money, severed and baked for me in cafés, or supported early versions of this work (especially editor Seba Fuller). Most of all, thanks to anyone who made me feel like I should keep doing what I “do.” 

This book was inspired by the various relationships I have been blessed to witness, whether it was the relationship with ourselves, our partner, or the universe we live in.  Each one allowed me to share a few words about the priority of Love.

 …

All thanks to our Creator,

who makes every  relationship possible.

Preface

I have no answers to life;

I only have extractions from experiences.

…

What I learned most from this reflective experience is that the truth rides a very thin line.  Sometimes, the truth is easy to see yet is hard to share, and as a result, it can be even harder to accept.  The truth of this book came from living life and allowing ideas to surface.  From these “ideas,” I hoped to transform them into a “feeling.” 

I often treated this book like painting, and I was the artist trying to get to the essence of my vision.  Maybe the viewer/reader will at look at this work, and it will resonate on some level… or maybe not.  I believe this possible connection between people and art is representative of how we experience any relationship.

I have lived by the idea that each artist has a choice.  He or she can labor to have others say look at “me” or love to do something that has others say look at “that.”  I’ve tried to do my best at accomplishing the latter.  Thus, the purpose of me writing this book was just to look at some of the things “that” I have learned.

Introduction - In My Eyes

One thing that I’ve learned thus far is to have faith that each relationship has its own direction.  When I honestly believed this, my vision became more flexible as to my destiny, and my life began to align cohesively.  Yet, often, a voice from within told me, “This is not the place for you right now.”  One of the biggest obstacles I ran into at these times was figuring out what to do when I heard this “voice.”

Many times, I felt the voice of other people doubting my change in direction.  But it was my choice to listen to this inner voice, even if my direction seemed not to be “socially acceptable.”  Sometimes, I wondered what “socially acceptable” really means.  Does it mean being accepted by others or just trying to decrease one’s chances of being alone?  So, maybe not being “socially acceptable” was a fear of mine that prevented me from making the right choices for myself.

    One change in direction I made was stepping away from my carpentry business.  Day in and day out, I was in homes where I sensed an imbalance.  This was not in the cosmetic set up of these homes but in the core of why this home was started in the first place and how it was currently functioning.  Usually, a home starts with a relationship.  In some of these homes, people turned to me and talked.  I listened, and often in the days to come, I saw the influence and positive effect of my word.  The more and more I saw this, the more I began to question the choice of my craft.  I’d ask myself, “Shall I continue to build shelves, or do I try to build hope?”  I recognized that I had some talent and power in both options, and I needed to make a responsible choice with what I naturally possessed. 

    I often felt joy when I was helping others with the construction of their homes, but I felt a greater need in higher demand of my skills and in the minds, bodies, and spirits of the individuals inside of these homes.  I also realized that it was my own home (self) that needed to be worked on, so I could be in a position to strengthen my abilities for helping others.  I began to see how integrating and balancing my need to help others with helping ourselves is one of hardest choices we all seem to face.  Many times, the fear of not being accepted socially interrupts our ability to make the choices we feel will bring more happiness to others, as well as ourselves.

    I must admit that I have made some poor choices in the past, but there was something I learned from these life tests.  I have come to realize that “acceptance” will no longer hinder my path.  More importantly, I will feel grateful and blessed to have an opportunity to challenge myself, grow, and help others.  As long as “in my eyes” my choice was made with the purest motivation, it was the right choice.  So now I just tell myself that...

…

I might fall,

and I might rise

in others eyes,

but in my own,

I shall never be alone.

With SELF - Finding You

Dig your Tomb

                With a fearless approach towards self, new definitions of health, wealth, success, and happiness become revealed.  Embracing these definitions will lead to specific, intimate questions.  These questions are to be like the soil as we dig deeper within to find answers.  If we fear getting our hands dirty and scratched, we will never be able to discover anything, let alone be in a position to plant new seeds to grow.

Tut’s Truth

There came a day when the entire dig appeared to be a disappointment.  Money, time, and effort were expended at the fullest, yet nothing was found.  Why did they continue? Because one man believed in himself and that was his starting point.  With his belief in himself, he was able to be honest with his own ambition and place himself on the line to dig a few more days.  He told the man who funded the dig that, if he did not find the tomb in the days to come, he would be a personal laborer for him for however long it was until he paid him back.

So, the discovery all started with the truth of his spirit.  It took him discovering something in himself first before he could discover anything on the outside of himself.  He was most likely possessed with the feeling of “now.” “Now” is the time to dig, and through the passion and endurance of his courageous workers, he was able to find a part of the past to inspire others in the future. With these few extended days, living in the now, and belief in his spirit, he arrived at the chamber and chiseled and carved until he reached the beautiful tomb of the great pharos, King Tutanhamun or “King Tut.”

            …

To truly find happiness, we often need similar intensity and passion.  Many believe we need a life-altering experience to discover or rediscover ourselves, like a birth, death, or a “big” disruption in one’s pace of living.  These events can definitely spark one’s need to feel the rhythm of his or her spirit.  On the other hand, these “big” events can exhaust the energy we need in order to dig.  All we really need is a small seed of hope that comes from one place, nature.  The human spirit is our most natural environment.  Maybe it is the spirit of a birth, death, or waking up one morning and deciding to roll up our sleeves, dig in, and get our hands dirty.

          As we break ground and start digging, we might pause and try to determine the direction of our dig. We may decide to change course, and this is understandable, as long as we get closer and closer to the truth.  Perhaps we find a small fossil and need a few moments to analyze and determine if the fossil is a part of our natural makeup or perhaps someone else’s. Sometimes in our lives, we become so closely linked and intertwined with another that it sometimes becomes difficult to decipher “what” makes up who we really are. For example, our parents, friends, lovers, teachers, and so forth can add small fossils to our makeup, but with our maturity and vision, we can make a decision to either keep it or toss it aside in our dig.  But even in our times of uncertainty and exhaustion, we must continue digging.