Raining

As I sit here and listen to rain, I wonder if it is washing the broken pieces of you away. I wonder if lightening will strike your heart and crack it open just to let a little light in. Hoping every drop pounds away the pain and leaves you bear, raw, able to look deep inside and start to rebuild, I wonder if you even want to. I listen to the drops hit like the tears I know so well, and with excitement I know that after this storm passes, there will a beautiful rainbow. Sending you light, love and peace. I hope one day I will have the honor of knowing what the Universe had in store when we collided....

Higher Pleces

While talking with my Mom tonight, she said something very simple, but so very profound. We were talking about people and their own process of spiritual evolution, she said to me, " Melissa, it is so very easy to be common. It takes work to reach the next level, the higher, more enlightened places in your mind." Just wanted to say thank you Mom. I needed that tonight, and it dawned on me, I have been holding on to something so common, I have to let it go to be able to reach higher! So all I have to say, to the one who needs to hear it is;I FORGIVE YOU, BUT I AM LEAVING YOU BEHIND. There is a higher place I am headed to. Be Blessed!

Thank you Mom....

Please keep pushing me!

I think we all forget...

I think sometimes we forget, we forget that we all have a past, full of misguided steps and times where we have fallen short of being the kind of human we were made to be. We forget that it isn't how many times we fall, or what vice may bring us down, but it is the growth that occurs during the struggle to reemerge that is remarkable. The crawl before the walk, the walk before the run, the climb out of the dark spaces we have all fallen into.

So, I challenge all of you to remember yourself when you look at others and their struggle, not to judge for this maybe the down side of someone's greatest up side. Find it within yourselves to have compassion and most of all always treat people with grace. For what you send out into this universe you shall surely receive.

I hope each and everyone of you continue to grow, be in place of love and fully realize your true potential, but most of all have grace when dealing with others and their struggles.....

Love,

Mel

You

You to me, me to you.
Who are we and what should we do?
What will become of a connection so deep, deeply unfounded, no truth shall we seek.
Just to love one another and be who we will be.
I know I should run, a direction to choose… Is it worth what I stand to loose?
You are smart, witty, and kind. So cunning and secretive, did you think I was blind.
You are a drug to which I am addicted, the burning need to feed on the smallest of gestures.
Why did this happen, what does this mean.
Why am I shaking?
Is this a dream?
You enter my thoughts without permission, you penetrate every fold of my brain.
I can not continue, I must refrain.
The look in your eyes …. It is so soft, yet the fact that you still kiss her shows me who is boss.
What are you so afraid of? Living? Loving? Being loved?
Keep it simple, don’t feel or change a thing.
When your life is over I will be the one that was on your brain…………

You know who you are

Dear friends and family, if you are out there and you are thinking about telling a lie,( or chose to omitt or puff up any part of a truth) to someone about anything, keep a few things in mind: 1. You are going to hurt someone with intention 2. You are going to get found out. Lies never prevail, God always, always, always prevails. 3. And in the end you will be the one misguided and deceiving yourself. It takes only one lie to devestate and crush another human. So please just stop and think of the consequence of what you are about to do. Not sure how most people feel about answering to God about telling I Lie, but I know I don't ever want to be in that place. We are commanded to love our neighbor as christ has loved us.....Just keep that in mind, for the next lie forming on the tip of your tounge.

I believe in longing....

I believe in longing, in the ache of the deepest want. I am never prepared when it hits me, it takes and leaves me. It is as I am, unpredictable. I want to live in those moments, although they may be brief.
I don't want to know what you do for a living, I don't care about how old you are, I want to know if you dare to dream, I want to know what you ache for.
Do not hurry the journey, for it will be over far too soon. Live the story of your life, it is not written twice.
Dance with your joy so that you may know it's every touch.
I don't care about where you live, or how much money you may have, I want to know if you will walk through the fire with me and not look back,
I believe in longing, in the ache of the deepest want.....

“a good man can not be harmed either in life or in death, and that his affairs are not neglected by the gods”

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates is on trial to defend himself against an allegation made by Meletus, a fellow Athenian. Meletus has accused Socrates of corrupting the youth of Athens by not believing in the Gods of the city-state. Socrates begins his defense by acknowledging that he has other adversaries from the past and present. He states that their opposition is not a recent phenomenon. “These people are ambitious, violent, and numerous; they are continually and convincingly talking about me; they have been filling your ears for a long time with vehement slanders against me” (Apology, 27) Throughout his trial, Socrates addresses the true reason for his bad reputation. He challenges the allegations made against him, and declares that his accusers have not given enough thought to their claims. Socrates also explains why he never held public office, and gives an overview on the life he has chosen to live. He proclaims to his fellow Athenians that their obsession with wealth and the material world must never take precedence over the care of the soul, and gives his truthful perspective on death and the afterlife. At the trial for his life in 399 BC, Socrates astonished his listeners by appearing, despite his vigorous defense, to intentionally have himself convicted and condemned to death (Commentary, 1).

In his trial, Socrates addresses the true reason for his bad reputation. He implies that it has nothing to do with corrupting the youth or being atheist. “What caused my reputation is none other than a certain kind of wisdom. What kind of wisdom? Human wisdom, perhaps”(Apology, 24). Socrates then tells the story of his friend Chairephon, who went to an oracle when they were younger. The oracle told Chairephon
that no one is wiser than Socrates. Upon hearing this, Socrates made it his duty to question men with established reputations, who were believed to be the wisest in Athens. Since his youth, Socrates’ goal was to see if he could find one man truly wiser than him. Politicians, poets, and theologians were among the many he pursued. Socrates found that after examining their moral values, they were not wise, as they had appeared. “In my investigation in the service of the God I found that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient, while those thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable”(Apology, 26). Ultimately, Socrates earned a bad reputation because his scrutiny exposed the men’s ignorance.

Socrates acknowledges that there may be people wondering if he is ashamed for having an occupation that is dangerous and which may bring death. He answers this by saying, “You are wrong, sir, if you think that a man that is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad man” (Apology, 31). Socrates also explains why he has led a private life, which has allowed him to practice philosophy. He explains this in two parts. First, he says he has a divine sign, which is a voice he hears that tells him when he should avoid doing something. His divine sign has been with him his whole life. On the matter of public service, the sign has steered against it. Second, Socrates declares that if he were to enter public office, he would not have survived long. He asserts that a person who is true to their morals will reach conflict in public service, because there is no such thing as a politician that is not morally compromised.


Socrates recalls the experience he had in public service. He was summoned, along with a few other citizens, to execute a man that the government had considered guilty. He says that the government “gave many such orders to many people, in order to implicate as many as possible in their guilt” (Apology, 35). Socrates immediately removed himself from involvement in this matter. He said it would be unethical to allow himself to be used as a tool of a totalitarian regime, which intended to spread guilt through their citizens.

Most importantly, in his trial, Socrates makes a final attempt to reveal to the citizens of Athens that they are corrupting themselves by perusing material objects and by having no concern for the state of their souls. Socrates was among the first philosopher, who was not a sophist; he used a method called dialectic (Plato’s Apology, 3). Socrates constantly challenges the value and priorities of his fellow citizens in the attempt to flip their priorities upside down. “Good sir, you are Athenian, a citizen of the greatest city with the greatest reputation for both wisdom and power; are you not ashamed of your eagerness to possess as much wealth, reputation, and honors as possible, while you do not care for, nor give thought to wisdom or truth, or the best possible state of your soul?”(Apology, 32)

Socrates believes that people place too much value on wealth, honor, prestige, and the body. He says these things are of no comparison to the most valuable, eternal,


and highest good: the soul. “Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively”
(Apology, 33). Socrates is stating that the wealth is only valuable and worth having if you do something worthwhile with it. People should use the less valuable material goods in a way that is subordinate with the most valuable good, the soul. Socrates attempts to reveal to the court his belief that the soul is eternal and endures forever. He believes that it exists even before the person does. He explains that a person must bring the moral potential of his soul to actualization. The individual must manifest the eternal goodness within, so that it gains power over the personality.

When the court asks Socrates what he believes his proper punishment should be, he says it should be free meals at the Pyrataneum. This is a celebration hall for Olympian athletes. Socrates thinks he should receive high treatment like Greek sports heroes. To Athenians, sports heroes are the source of happiness and entertainment. Socrates asserts that the happiness people get from watching sports is illusionary. He believes that people do not derive real happiness from it. They can find happiness by engaging in philosophy.

Socrates’ belief in the purity and goodness of the soul is truly revealed when he responds to his verdict, which is a sentence to death. He accepts the verdict with composure, since he has anticipated this. Socrates tells the jury that he cannot be hurt by the so-called punishment of death. It is only his physical body that can die, but his true

nature is an eternal soul made of purity and goodness. Once a person is dead, his soul is free to roam about without hindrances (Plato’s Apology, 9). He says that his death sentence, “may well be a good thing, and those of us who believe death to be an evil are certainly mistaken. I have convincing proof of this, for it is impossible that my familiar sign did not oppose me if I was not about to do what was right” (Apology, 41)

Socrates offers the jury some provocative insights on the nature of death. Firstly, he tells them that he is not afraid of death. He says that emotions follow from knowledge, and since he has no knowledge of death, he has no feelings or emotions about death. Socrates only has emotions if they are first authoritized by reason, so it is illogical for him to be afraid of death when he knows nothing about it. “To fear death, gentleman, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know” (Apology, 32). Socrates asserts that there is “good hope that death is a blessing”(Apology, 41). And he who has two view points on what death could be, believes that death is either an eternal, dreamless sleep where the dead do not perceive anything, or death is when the soul gets relocated to another place. To Socrates, the second possibility is the greater blessing because he will have the opportunity to go to a world where he can meet his predecessors and continue to examine and question people. “I could spend my time testing and examining people there, as I do here, as to who among them is wise, and who thinks he is, but is not”(Apology, 41)



Socrates says that it is not difficult to avoid death, but “ it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death”(Apology, 40). Socrates also states that by sentencing him to death, the Athenians are not harming him. Rather they are harming themselves. By killing him they corrupt their own souls. Socrates says that though the jury condemns him to death, they are condemned “by truth to wickedness and injustice”(Apology, 40). Despite his increasingly sorrowful tone, he accepts that this is all as it should be. In the end, Socrates tells those who convicted him, “I say gentlemen, to those who voted to kill me, that vengeance will come upon you immediately after my death, a vengeance much harder to bear than that which you took in killing me”(Apology).

In reality Socrates’ accusers actually think that by putting him to death or eliminating him, they will no longer have to give account of their lives and risk being exposed as ignorant. However, Socrates says that there are many people like him who will approach the court, who are younger and who will be far more resented than him. He ends his prophesy by saying: “You are wrong if you believe that by killing people you will prevent anyone from reproaching you for not living the right way. To escape such tests is neither possible nor good, but it is best and easiest not to discredit others but prepare oneself to be as good as possible” (Apology, 40).

In the conclusion of his trial Socrates states, “a good man can not be harmed either in life or in death, and that his affairs are not neglected by the gods”(Apology, 42).


Socrates declares that he has led a good life, a life of morality and virtue. He states that although people have judged him and sentenced him to death, their opinion and verdicts will have no beating on him once his body has perished. They cannot harm the most pure, true, and everlasting essence of his existence: Human wisdom vs. divine wisdom.
God knows what is best. Humans, if they are wise, know that they are not gods and when it comes to the highest human values (such knowledge of justice), humans know little or nothing. Human beings are wise if they realize the extent of their ignorance (Ziniewicz, 3). Even in his last words Socrates displays deep understand. He says, “No the hour to part has come. I go to die, you go to live. Which of us goes to the better lot is known to no one, except the god”(Apology, 44).