The center of the universe is you.

Here and now, this moment, wherever you are — that is the center of the universe, for you.

From this point, you can move in any direction, in any direction.  But you can only begin here.  You cannot begin from anywhere else.

Everyone has a place to begin.  That place is here and now, wherever she or he may be.  It may be a good place or a bad place, but it cannot be a wrong place.  It is What Is.

Millions of Americans insist they’re in a wrong place, and that it’s all “their” (others’) or “the System’s” fault, and will do nothing for themselves until “they” fix it for them.  No one else can change where you are.  As long as you hate where you are, you’ll stay there.

To redeem it, you have to go there.

In order to redeem humanity, Christ had to become a human being.  Only by becoming one of us could he see what we must deal with, suffer the same ways we do, and understand our needs.  By the like token, and for the same reasons, I have allowed myself to become as poor as I am willing to be.

But I am unwilling to go where they are, who are the worst off in our society.

I spoke last week of people who
desire ratchet desires,
think ratchet thoughts, and
do ratchet deeds.

I am unwilling to desire those desires, think those thoughts, do those deeds, or live in the conditions that result from doing so.

But then, sometimes I do.

I continue to puzzle over how “takers” become “makers,” how people of darkness can become people of light.  It was given to me years ago, that I cannot learn it by focusing on people whose lifestyles I despise.  Rather, I can only learn it by observing how I myself make that transition, changing when I do from being enamored of darkness to being enamored of light.  For example, I may spend hours online in search of scandal or someone to dislike — instead of channeling my “lower” energies into the labors of moving myself to a better place.

I cannot start where “they” are.  I can only start where I am.

This is my place to begin.

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Related: Out of reach