I found myself rephrasing this age-old Shakespearean quote a few days ago when I was in the midst of some inner-looking type of work involving this entire topic of the 'I'.

It might be necessary to start off with saying that I'm not purporting to discuss the 'I' type of I that we're all used to. I'm taking about the 'I' of existence.

Hmmmmm......

Let me start over, hopefully more clearly this time.

If you logged into my computer, you would see the large number of articles that I started to write during the past five years, but didn't finish. You see, halfway through writing many articles, articles which I considered to be very timely, insightful, and well-written, I just stopped writing and didn't finish these articles. Why? Because they were absolute garbage. Crap.

Oh, I know some of you might be thinking that the ones that I DO post are just that, but that's fodder for another time.

Regardless, let me attempt to clarify what it is I'm trying to impart via this 5th anniversary insight article.

Depending upon the person, myself included, this can be a pretty disconcerting experience. Sometimes it's most enjoyable to view and experience, and other times it's downright depressing. It all depends upon the state of mind at the time. And, the desire or ability to actually allow the feeling to just be, without covering it up with some vague thought, description, or misplaced desire.

I've written about this before but I feel compelled to write about this subject again. I think that this keeps coming up for me and the sharings of this blog of mine because it's something that is particular to all of us, and especially for those who stay aware of the machinations of the inside of the shell of the body, i.e. the mind.

But, the ability to effectively and coherently share with my friends what just happened was actually the gist of this insight itself. Continue reading, as I'll share what I mean.

Insights of any kind, or in the example I'm about to share, can come about either because of some sort of serendipitous experience, or through what is perceived as accident. Sometimes insights can come about through diligent effort prior to the insight, and then appear when not expected, as a result of the prior effort.

There are several ways to think about the meaning of these words, most of them personalized, and based on our individual experiences of such an occurrence as a life-flowing situation. However, these may not necessarily be what I'm meaning when I reference going with the flow of life.

What I'm meaning is the actual flow of events that occur for each of us every moment of our existence on this physical plane. Life is all one seamless flow. It is a flow of moments that are strung together into a tapestry that begins when the body is born and ends when the physical body ceases and the mind dissolves into the void.

Think about this at length, if you can.

It's just not fair when we think that we're the one who deserves fairness and yet we are forced to accept the imbalance and unfairness of a situation.

Why is it that we want something to work out in one way and yet it ends up occurring and ending up another way, usually the way we don't want it to be occurring as? Why can't life just smoothly flow the way we want it to?

Why does it have to be so unfair and unequal and unrelenting to meeting our personalized demands of a situation and desire?

I know, I know, this sounds like a rather simplistic and somewhat rhetorical question to be asking of each of us who already know the answer to this seemingly vague and obtuse question being posed.

But, what I purport is taking a really good look at yourself to see if you can, well, see yourself. You could say that you do this all this time.

After all, we're all such vain creatures that we can't allow ourselves to walk by a properly positioned mirror or glass storefront window or shining metallic wall and not go forward without taking a sideways glance at ourselves. Oh, I know, you ladies just do it to ensure that the makeup is in check on the face. And we guys do it to see how much of our overextended middle-aged belly we now have to suck in, as it just isn't as easy to do that as it was before.

What is it that is being riddled about?

Relationships.

We all have at least one relationship, the relationship with our-self, by the fact that we exist on this physical plane. We also have relationships with our parents, whether we know them or not. And we have relationships with any alive or deceased family members up our personal familial genealogical chain.

We have relationships with every other related human being on this twirling orb we live on. And, of course, we also have relationships with every other living creature and inanimate object in existence on this spinning ball in space. And, let's not forget the relationships which can't be spoken about: the ones that are so personal that only we know how they make us feel.

When I don't feel particularly inspired to write something I remember my commitment to myself which included writing something that I considered to be of use to people who visit my website and read these articles, and to be of service to the good of the whole, in some way, via my words. It's not a particularly laborious task to write a thousand words or more in a short period of time, and then upload it to the website server and all that stuff.

The real hard part is getting the words out of the brain and putting them to e-paper.

Of course, I also had the sheet and blanket over me to keep me warm as Phoenix is getting cold this time of year, finally.

I found myself tossing and turning a bit and then finally found a position of comfort. Everything felt 'just right', to quote the fairytale story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I wasn't uncomfortable, or too comfortable, if there is such a thing...at least not at first.

I was laying there in the darkness of the room and trying to doze off to slumber-land when I gradually noticed that a certain part of my lower body was not as comfortable as it could be.

If you were being held by something would you do everything within your power to cause what is holding you to let go of you and drop you to who knows where?

Well, that is what each of our minds do to us each and every day, many times a day at that, too.

We are the keeper of our mind. It isn't the keeper of us. It doesn't have the magnetic hold on us and our soul as some would have us believe. Or perhaps that we ourselves believe.

One understands, one is born.
One lives and thrives, serendipity willing.

One knows that one is, but not why.
One knows that why answers what was, but not what is.

And why, although tempting, does not allure enough to show that
The knowing is not the known.

Did I start it with the intent to share so many articles on spirituality? No.

Did I start this virtual tome to share what being a spiritual human means to me? No.

But here it is, once again. Whether one likes it or not, it is what it has been shared to be.

Several months ago my lifelong best friend came to visit me here in Phoenix Arizona and he commented on my status (still) as a single dad. He knows me better than anyone as we've traversed a diverse and sometimes spiritually treacherous journey together for the past 30 years now. The journey has been rocky for us at times, but we've both carried the other as needed through those trying elevations and descents.

Anyway, when we were having dinner one night he asked me about my search for a female partner in life. I commented that I was seeking a special connection with a woman: I was seeking a spiritual connection with a woman. He inquired as to how I defined a spiritual connection and I found myself challenged answering his inquiry.

But, try to tell that to someone whose main focus is money and the accumulation of as much of it as possible and at almost any extent and watch out, because it ain't going to be pretty. After all, you're stepping on hallowed ground when you dare broach the subject that we, as individuals, just don't need all the money that we're led to believe we simply cannot do without.

I'm continually reminded of my Dad asking me over the years about how much money I make and where it (continues) to 'go'. What is meant by his gentle inquiry is a probing as to where do I spend my money; after all, I'm making a fair bit more than he and my mother use as they enter their 18th year of retirement, and which is a seemingly comfortable retirement lifestyle at that.

My Dad has a point, but I'll use it in a different way here.

It's still apropos, and some days even more so as the years go by with my own fatherhood, as I witness the subtle traits that I have that came from my Dad and the parental modeling he displayed as he was (sometimes struggling with) being my father.

Being a parent, and in my case, a father to three burgeoning male souls has time and again proven to be the most incredible blessing and honoring I have been given in this lifetime that I now share with my three sons. So, with that written, this past short writing is all the more fitting and one day may serve to have a similar impacting influence in the minds of my sons when they grow into manhood and pass on the baton, possibly to their own male offspring.