Day Twenty Four - 40 Rules of Love / 40 Days of Love

Rule 24

“Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy or fight someone we tumble straight into the fires of hell.”

Jean-Paul Sartre famously said, "L'enfer c'est les autres" (Hell is other people). Ah, now there's a man after my own heart. 

The trouble with the rules right now is that instead of making me feel all warm and fuzzy about my fellow humans, I feel more frustrated by how wrong things are going in the world, how blind we are as a collective. It's bad because it's bordering on judgmental, and I'm hoping that it's something like the 5 stages of grief where this is also a phase that will soon pass. Or muscular pain when you start exercising that you need to get over before you see results. Till then, I shall chuckle at memes like this. 

I am always fascinated by people who practice "brownie point" religion. Never heard of it? Of course you haven't, I made it up. Brownie point religion is when people go through the motions and rituals of practicing religion and talk about nothing but the afterlife. They act as if this life is not worth their time, they might as well ignore this world and just go about their rituals to save their own soul. Everything they do, it's not for the betterment of others, but for their salvation in the hereafter. This strikes me as curious, because God gave us this earth and this time here. There must be more to this life than just being preparation for a final exam, no? Read this verse this many times and your sins for x number of days will be pardoned. Is that all? 

Maybe, just maybe, we are meant to make this earth a little more like heaven, too. Call me crazy, but isn't that the hardest test? It's so difficult to love others, to truly care about their lives and their souls. It's often painful. We can all read something x number of times, and please, do so, I'm not knocking that. But we also need to each take time to step out of ourselves and our preoccupations to see what's going on around us and actually give a crap. And no, not just throw money at the problem, but find solutions. 

It's either that or move to a remote island with my loved ones and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. Hey, I'm entitled to my fantasies, and who knows? Maybe if I did that I'd find an amazing way to help humanity. A girl can dream, right? 

The point once again is that the choice is in our hands. God gave us free will for a reason, which is what separates us from the angels. If you don't believe in God or a monotheistic religion, then you can still understand free will. It's all up to us. To create heaven or hell. To make our lives and the lives of others better or unbearable. Someone once told me that when you remove "maybe" from your life, things become a lot simpler. Just bring it down to "yes" or "no". For instance:

"Should I lose my temper?"

"No."

"Should I apologize for doing that?"

"Yes."

"Should I eat this chocolate eclair?"
Hmmm... 

Whenever you are about to do something, ask yourself if this will make life heaven or hell. I shall try to do this every time I feel myself about to go over the edge today. Till I can get to that remote island, it's the only way to try and make life more bearable. 

I've been backsliding on the yelling, sad face for me. So I need to go back to finding creative ways of not losing my s**t, no matter what life throws at me. This morning it threw a baby lizard in my kitchen sink. Not going to lose it, not going to lose it... Not. Going. To. Lose. It. 

Going to think about chocolate eclairs now while having porridge (*sob*).