It seems like we have an inherent nature to try and run from and turn our back on death. Like if we live ignorant of it long enough maybe it won’t come. Or maybe we’ll get more time if we don’t think about it. But really it’s quite the opposite. Until you start remembering your time is limited. Until you start remembering it’s a gift you take a breath and see a sunrise or a sunset. It’s a gift to love and be loved. Until you have that knowledge and lose the expectation of tomorrow you never really live. 

So the very act of ignoring,refusing to remember, or just completely turning a blind eye to death means you haven’t even started to live yet. When you wake up each day thankful that you have another chance. When you remember none of this is guaranteed and each day is another gift. Then you really truly live. 

Every day becomes richer brighter deeper and has much more potential. You don’t take the people around you for granted. You don’t need a near miss or an accident to say you love someone or appreciate them. You show them daily. Not because you almost lost them but because you know time is finite in our experience of it. Whether you believe in something beyond this or not, this realm this experience this moment is special and has purpose. There’s a reason to be here. It could be as simple as just appreciating it or it could be you change your life or that of others. What’s important is to not think you have tomorrow. Not put things off thinking someday or when the weather is better or when I retire. Not waiting for money or a certain situation to experience things you want. 

Find a way every day to live that day fully. Even if you have to start out pretending, just don’t expect tomorrow. If you get the gift of another day embrace it,appreciate it, and share it. If you get another one then do it again. 

Live them all fully and when death does come, and it will, may you approach it with less fear. May you not have resentment, regrets, or long for all the things that you didn’t do. May you greet it with a smile and all the memories of how full you really lived each day. That you look back and know you appreciated, you lived fully, and you felt with every fiber of your being. You loved with abandon, you were hurt time after time, but picked yourself back up. You overcame so much and you lived a life that was yours. It was your design, your will, your mistakes, your triumphs, your dreams, and your pain. Live that life, live that day, and live it as the gift it is. 

Death comes for us all but truly living life is something so few actually experience. I hope I see you out there smiling, embracing, and fully experiencing it all. See you on the road and see you on the other side.

The post Gift of Time: Live Fully Before It’s Too Late appeared first on Quantum Babble.

We struggle, and we triumph.

Each new day arrives full of hope—

hope that, by dusk, may have faded.

But still, we continue.

We must continue.

For life is the ultimate pendulum.

The ultimate balance.

The brighter the light that shines upon us,

the longer the shadow it casts behind.

Each day is not an opportunity to win,

but a chance to slow the swing.

To stop fighting against the dark or chasing the light,

and instead—to embrace what is.

To live fully in each moment.

To release our labels of good and bad,

and simply be present with the breath we are taking.

Whatever you are experiencing is meant to be.

It has purpose.

It will guide you to what comes next.

No matter what you believe—

or what you believe in—

have faith in yourself.

Believe in who you are,

and more importantly,

in who you are becoming.

Every day is a swing of the pendulum.

But you are the fulcrum on which it pivots.

You are the center of both the light and the dark.

You are the hope.

You are the despair.

You are everything—to yourself.

And with that…

isn’t everything else just a bonus?

When you struggle, remember:

the swing will return.

Everything balances out.

Those who harm or hurt you

have their own pendulums to face.

Don’t focus on them.

Don’t focus on anything else.

Sit.

Breathe.

Feel.

Experience.

LIVE.

For this experience is yours to shape—

into the most beautiful adventure:

The Pendulum of Life.

The post The Pendulum of Life appeared first on Quantum Babble.

I ask because for much of my life I have sought this answer or at least a better understanding of what it means to be happy. I mean we all seem to seek it but we also seem to have no idea what it looks like beyond what we have been raised or told that happiness is.

Let me give you a personal example of how the elusive happiness seems to always stay out of reach or not be as we thought when we seemingly achieve it.

Well over a year ago now I quit my well paying career. For 30 plus years I worked in a high pressure, around the clock, no time off tech job. Now don’t get me wrong I love technology and it’s safe to say I was good at it too. I worked my way in and up to a high level position with no college degree. Sounds like right there I should be happy huh? In many ways I was. I enjoyed achieving tough goals and making a difference in my company. The problem is I watched everyone else have more of a life and seemingly a happier one. I was tired of year after year losing my vacation time or just making work my daily focus. So one day on a conference call I just quit. Yep, in the middle of a call, and after 22 years at the company, I just said I’m done and typed my resignation and handed it in, on the call. Now if you know me at all this was completely out of character for me. It’s also the first time since I was seventeen I was without a job. Scary and a bit crazy to say the least.

Fast forward to today. I still haven’t taken a vacation. I don’t go do all the things I said the job was keeping me from. I’m still looking for what’s next. At times it’s hard to make ends meet when that was never and issue before. On the surface I made a bad choice and things are less towards the happiness end of the dial.

Now hold on because this is where it get’s interesting. I am in some ways more stressed. Life on the surface seems harder. I’ve even thought about jumping back into the very career I barely escaped from. Here is the key though. I am happy. My days, and my choices, are mine. I am not in work mode all the time. When I step away from a money making activity I am actually away and in the moment more than ever before in my life.

That Is what I think happiness is. Freedom, love, and acceptance make up happiness. The freedom to make choices good and bad. The freedom to guide what you will do with each and every precious day. It’s not waiting to the weekend to have a life but rather make your way through life in a moment by moment way. It’s the ability to love yourself and find who you truly are. To follow a passion even if it fails. To try things in life and find the journey that makes you feel whole and like in some way you made a difference. Finally learning to accept what is and what will be. To choose to be happy with what you have and where you are even if you want to change it.

Now with all this said you don’t have to do anything so drastic as quit in the middle of a work call but you do have to take the wheel. You need to stop the groundhog day of rinse and repeat and start making the choices that make you happy. Find a way to do what you love or at least enjoy the moments of your life more.

Every day is a gift and at some point we run out of them. Don’t wait for retirement or later to do anything. Life is precious and we never know the moment later no longer will come. Love life, love the people around you, and most importantly love yourself.

The post Do you even know what happy looks like? appeared first on Quantum Babble.

When it’s hard to breathe small tasks feel like insurmountable mountains.

When it’s hard to breathe isolation seems more prevalent.

When it’s hard to breathe loneliness is most profound.

When it’s hard to breathe options seem few and challenging.

When it’s hard to breathe love of self, and others, feels difficult.

When it’s hard to breathe, just keep breathing

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We have lost many artists and people of great inspiration lately. The latest of which was Chris Cornell. You may know of him and you may not but what can be said is he was a great lyricist and musician. He has greatly impacted the world of music and therefore peoples lives.

What is a shock is he seemingly was a rockstar that would be the last to go out this way. He was looked up to and respected by so many. A wife and kids. He just seemed to be doing what he truly loved. It goes to show that no matter what you “think” of someone else and their life you never really know what they struggle with inside.

We all feel pain and struggle in our own way. Now you may compare one persons difficulties to another or even your own and say that’s nothing compared to this or that but we simply can’t do that. What’s missing from that is history. It’s every moment of every day. Every good and bad thing that’s happened in life up to that point. The words of encouragement and the words that shattered their world. We just never know what it feels like to be that person. To see life from their angle and appreciate what it’s like to be them. 

I didn’t really have a plan of where this post was going to go but merely wanted us all to reflect and appreciate where we are, what we struggle with, and how others are in exactly the same place even if we don’t see it. We need to love and care for each other. Smile at a stranger and do a little something to pay it forward. You never know what someone is dealing with. Would you like to add to the pile of negative and pain they feel or would you rather be a ray of sunlight and hope in their day?

Take care of each other. Take care of you. Make yourself and your mental health a priority so that you can help others too. You are important! You have purpose here. You want to know how I know that? Because you exist and you are reading this. You draw breath and each one is with meaning. This moment leads to the next. Don’t get lost on the walk through time looking back or forward when you don’t even know where you are standing at this moment. Be present here and you will get there.

Know that you are loved by many and even by people you have yet to meet. Stay true to yourself and your feelings and you won’t ever get to lost on the walk.

The post Getting Lost on the Walk appeared first on Quantum Babble.

This is an open letter to the universe.  You see for most of my life I knew there was a woman out there I was supposed to meet.  It was like an underlying driving force and current to my very purpose here.  Much of the time it remained that and I didn’t really understand and fully explore what precisely that meant.

Now much has changed in my life.  Learning and growing over time has allowed me an open mind and heart to what I have been feeling all this time.  There is no doubt you exist.  I feel it sure as I feel the wind that I cannot see.  It’s possible we have already met and I am not even aware that it’s really you quite yet.  Also just as possible the universe is lining up events, as it has all along, so that one day we meet in the most innocuous of ways. 

The more time that passes the stronger this current grows.  I have a clarity of who you are more each day.  Visions are becoming clear of what you look like, your amazing smile that lights my soul, those eyes I need a map to find a way back out of, that laugh that makes me want to be a comedian so it never stops, and your touch that is like the universe focused in one spot.  I know you.  I have before this existence and will long after.

I no doubt wasn’t ready for you.  When I look back at who I was and who I am now I’m glad we didn’t meet sooner.  Honestly in no way did I deserve you then.  I want to be a man you can be proud of and that you deserve which is something I have worked very hard on.

You see we have always been in love.  We have danced in and out of existence like kids playing hide and seek.  Each time hoping to call out, tag you’re it, and spend the rest of our living days enjoying the victory.

Many times I have gazed at the moon and stars and known you were looking at that moment too.  I could close my eyes and feel you right there beside me. For those brief amazing moments I had you back and first met you all at the same time.  When the sun warms me I feel you near as it’s you that brings me warmth.  When I smell the flowers on the breeze in the spring time I know it’s you and your aren’t far from me.

Maybe it’s crazy to be madly in love with someone and you don’t know who they are, but in my mind I do.  When I see those eyes, smile, hear that laugh, and feel your touch it will all come rushing to us both, HOME.  There will be no there place we will want or need to be other than right there and right then.

I hope that day comes in this life.  I hope I get to see you now and call out, you’re it.  If not know I will always keep looking.  You can’t hide forever.  I already know you too well.  Until then my love and current stranger I wish you the happiest of days.  Look at the moon and feel the sun as I will be right there with you.

Namaste,

Craig

The post To The Woman I Have Always Loved appeared first on Quantum Babble.

As I sat here marveling that I finally managed to get something working I have failed at many times recently it lead my mind astray.  It lead me to take a moment and relive some of my greatest failures.  Almost like a great moments highlight reel in reverse.  It seems our failures are like the cast of a hit show.  Never really talked about or given credit but without them that show everyone loves wouldn’t exist.  It’s important for us to remember that all of our great moments and what we indeed love about our lives were built on the backs of our lowest moments. 

Im writing this a a reminder that even roses start as thorn bushes.  That the sunniest of days come after some dark and scary storms.  If you are in the middle of a low point in life or just did something dumb and wish you could forget just remember it has purpose.  You laid a brick in the future of you.  It may be seemingly small or like something you could live with but all of those bricks are you.  Even the chipped and worn ones define every nuance of you.

Go forward and smile.  Love the moment. Laugh at the storm.  Know the bright day is yet to come and, like a mad man laughing at the rain, love today.  Right now, in all it’s frustrating, annoying, wish I hadn’t made that choice way appreciate that we fall so that we can get back up.

I have faith in you and I have never met you.  So what’s your excuse?  Know that in a short time the brick will be laid and the sun will indeed shine again.

Namaste,

Craig

The post Our Glorious Failures appeared first on Quantum Babble.

I find this quote to be so telling of where we need to look to find our purpose and happiness in our lives.  We strive and achieve many great things as individuals and as a species combined but to what end.  When you achieve some aspiration you set long ago or get that raise you were hoping for do you ever say “I’m good, I don’t need anything else”?  We are made with a purpose to strive and achieve.  To weather adversity to achieve some goal in our minds eye that we must conquer.  It becomes so strong and present it becomes why we breathe. But as this beautiful quote sums up so perfectly those goals just lead to another loftier goal.  No different than a cat chasing it’s tail, we will set one after another hoping to one day catch that very tail.

I’m here to tell you that day for catching the tail of a physical goal won’t deliver what you feel it will.  Goals are great.  Challenging and pushing ourselves is important and admirable.  The real journey and goal though you should keep in your minds eye the whole time is finding you.  Have you truly met yourself?  No not the person you see in the mirror.  Not the the words your friends use when they describe you to someone.  Have you met the person you WANT to be?  The one who’s goal is to live, laugh, love, and help others?

See the great journey we are on from birth till death is to lose fear and truly live.  To do that we have to be comfortable in a room with ourselves with no distractions.  Turn off the TV and the music and sit with you.  Be mindful of the moment you are in, and each breath you take.  Talk to yourself, ok maybe not out loud but if nobody is around why not, and ask are you happy.  Ask yourself what you want and have always wanted since you were a child.  If money or peoples opinions didn’t matter what would you be doing with your time here.  Remember money matters because things matter.  If you live for experiences more than objects you’ll find you have much less need for money.  Change that and you will truly control what you want.  Not so easy at first is it?  No great journeys are ever easy.  I can promise that the journey to find the REAL you is the greatest one you’ll take.  It will unlock a new brighter version of the world you once existed in.  Food tastes better.  Peoples words and actions no longer define your day and mood.  You will be the captain and crew of your greatest adventure and nothing can taint or stop that great journey.

I write this in hopes you’ll start making some time.  Stop defining who you are by your job, wife, kids, house, and car.  They exist and they do add to our physical life but I can assure you there is a greater journey where if you live in a cardboard box alone or a mansion with everything you want, the you that is there will be the truest and purest form of what life is meant to be.

Namaste,

Craig

The post Our greatest journey appeared first on Quantum Babble.

So far the consensus is to polarize and to make laws or strike vengeance to stop it from happening. The world now more than ever needs to stop defining and labeling. No one life matters more than another. Most violence stems from someone lost, misguided, or that never was shown what love and decency is. 

The post My Thoughts on Recent Events appeared first on Quantum Babble.