The age old battle of knowing and living, we think we know and we do, we do and find living is quite different as we experience what we thought we knew. Sounds like double speak, it is and its not!

So often we get caught up in our feelings about our world, how we think it is, it should be, could be. And often because we understand some parts of our world, we think we know it. Its something about developing our skills of living over our knowledge of skills for me. And this applies to all our skills, thoughts and feelings connected with what we are given by nature and how these are developed by our living.

Man made we are, and this is beyond doubt, at the same time what we are from nature’s template is augmented by our imagination, our intellect and all our mental faculties. We become more than we ever were at birth. And this is the nature of nature, we are evolving.

Mankind is evolving in thought and action all the time. The problem we have, I guess not unique but certainly to be considered is the difference between our reality and our hopes wishes and dreams. It is to do with growth, desire and also our capacity to see beyond what we are now, that we wish to develop and be more than we are, that we are sentient.

And being sentient, we have great capacities, and part of our problem lies in our great capacities. We have the capacity for truth and capacity for fantasy. Both are inextricably linked, we are not about fantasy and we use it to develop our world and environment like nothing else on this planet.

Man made is beyond nature, and nature enables us to view our real and imaginary world.

Our imagination and intellect play tricks on us. We think we know things when we don’t, we think we can do things when all we have is an understanding.

If we could thinks ourselves to be great artists, we all would become great artists. The best we do is appreciate great art in the main and others, very few produce it.

From this when it comes to the very basics of living, we realise if we are not too clever that we work at getting good at many things. And we imagine we may be able to be good at many others.

Life will show us all that it takes lifetimes to develop our gifts and talents, that we are often deceived in our beliefs about ourselves our capacities and the true nature of this world. We think we know it and in our conceit we think we rule it, can develop it and be master of all we survey.

As we go through life we learn most if we are lucky that we don’t actually master much of anything, other than living and making use of our nature and inclinations, translated into living. For thousands of years we have revered wisdom of mystics and masters we have understood to have great connections and understanding about our living and our world.

Actually the great mystics and adventurers have much in common we might emulate. They lived in the very moment of their present tense. They lived their moments in history.

Sounds a bit strange, but what it means is they appreciated living as it happened, they did not get caught up in history or future, they lived and developed in their very moment of experience, and so made good their connection to the spirit of nature and their surroundings. They made good their reality.

And this is the big learning today. Don’t discard any of our capacity or appreciation and endeavour. Above all though we need make good our connection to these present moments, for they are real and worthy of sentience and our whole attention. And keep imagination and fantasy alive, and treat them as they are, a part of our equipment for living and developing, we will get the best of ourselves by recognising all our elements how we work and deploy them to greatest endeavours and capacities. And let us believe in our future and change to the good, for in our good conscience we thrive…