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Friday, September 14, 2012

"Burst"

Sometimes the world is against me, and I know this to be true because sometimes people say such negative things to me that I have to retreat to my corner and lick my wounds and feel sorry for myself.  In those moments, it doesn’t matter that my little dog nestles against me with her concerned worried face or that somebody said something nice to me yesterday.  Today, this person is trying to ruin my self-esteem and destroy my accomplishments.  I can feel the waves of negative energy hitting my skin like standing in a sandstorm while frying bacon naked.

I’ve had a running conversation for a couple of years with a friend of mine.  He’s a physicist, so he thinks about energy in a physical way.  I’m not a physicist, so I think about energy as an invisible cloud of gnats that moves with me wherever I go, or sometimes like a swarm of stinging yellow jackets.

Our conversation goes something like this… I say something about “negative energy”.  He says there is no negative energy, there’s just energy.  (There might be a digression about the charge of electrons here, but anyway...) He says I’m just getting caught up in the delivery package.  Imagine everyone’s thoughts as red or blue balloons.  Red balloons are positive thoughts towards me, and blue balloons are negative thoughts, and the only difference between red and blue balloons is the color of the balloons.  If I burst the balloons, there’s just energy inside, and all energy is good.  He says I should just be glad to have so many balloons.

I tend to think of this as a nice theory, but in practice I find it just as impossible to accomplish as clearing my mind of thoughts and meditating on my third eye; a practice which makes me internally rage against Hindu mysticism while simultaneously seeking inner peace.  I’ve given up on the whole third eye thing, but for some reason my mind sticks on this balloon concept, which is why my friend and I keep revisiting the topic.

He says that if I’m still having problems with the balloons, start popping them before they hit me.  That way I don’t have to worry about the color of the balloons, I just get the benefit of the energy.  As a result, I’ve quit trying to empty my mind and spend some of my meditation time mentally popping balloons.  Someone tries to undermine me?  Pop.  Someone talks behind my back?  Pop.  Someone takes credit for my work?  Po…  GRRRRR…  Okay, I haven’t mastered balloon popping.

My friend suggested that I create a mental barrier that lets the red balloons in, but screens out the blue ones.  I imagined a barbed wire fence catching the blue balloons, but my red balloons kept getting caught on my mental construction.  He said that was okay, the energy that was in the balloons will still get to me, sans the colored containers.

I felt like I was littering up the world with popped balloons, so my friend suggested blowing the blue balloons back to their senders.  I suspect the blue balloon senders have already received a lot of blue balloons from their dementors though, and getting more blue balloons might just make them meaner.  I suppose I should send them red balloons, but I don’t really feel like sending red balloons to my dementors. 

It’s no wonder world peace has eluded humanity for so long.  I’ll keep working on it.

21 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. "Imagine everyone’s thoughts as red or blue balloons. Red balloons are positive thoughts, and blue balloons are negative thoughts, and the only difference between red and blue balloons is the color of the balloons. If I burst the balloons, there’s just energy inside, and all energy is good."

    I like this so much! Never heard it explained like that. Sounds a lot like a good friend named Phil that I have (except he's not a physicist).

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  3. Thanks for the comments! Which includes Debbie's comment too, but my friend asked me to change a point in this post that Debbie used in her comment, so I removed it so everyone can be happy. I don't need any more blue balloons in my life!

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  4. No problem, Linda. Let me say again, though, that I loved this post! oxox

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  5. Thank you for making me understand why world peace has eluded humanity for so long. But seriously if it was as easy to deal with negative thoughts sent to us, as being colour blind (yes, I know red-blue colour blindness doesn't exist, but maybe we can talk about red and green balloons instead then...) peace would indeed have reach this earth long time ago. Maybe you should just gather all the balloons and sell them to some kids. I am sure they would only be happy, and at least the problem would not be yours any more. By the way, no, negative energy doesn't exist, not even in a negative charged electron, although I am not sure how it is for antimatter in an anti world. I'll send you a red balloon!

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  6. Can you imagine the blue balloons filled with helium so that they float away?

    I guess we all go through this. Every time an agent turns down my writing, man, it's hard.

    Hang in there. More red balloons at ya for this great blog!

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  7. I think world peace will forever elude humanity. It sounds negative, but it helps me deal with the "blue balloons". It's impossible to pop them all, so why worry?

    And I like your red balloon, eluding the barbs!

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  8. Linda, I send you a balloon with positive energy.
    It will take some time to arrive, but if the weather is fine, you may expect it within 2 or 3 working days. :-)
    Big hug from Paula

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  9. Thanks for the red balloons! I'm sending more red balloons back. Maybe eventually there will be enough red ones to drown out the blue ones? Thanks for the comments everybody!

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  10. Red and Blue, Positive and Negative, Light and Dark, Left and Right, Up and Down. Without the one, we cannot possibly appreciate the other. Here is a poem you may be interested in. Comparisons

    Balloons float skywards so just think about Blue Skies. It's hard to see the Blue Balloons against a blue sky. ;-)

    A lovely thought provoking post ... thank you.

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  11. Ok, I was starting to get confused about the whole balloon business (maybe because I think of blue as a calming color)! But mental tricks really do work (I've heard, lol). Really though, the world is not against you! It's not for you OR against you. It's there for you to make of it what you can.

    It would be easy to say, don't give those people the power to make you feel badly, but of course we all have people we love or whose opinion we value, whose words cut more than most. But maybe we should evaluate why someone whose opinion we value, would purposely hurt us. Either 1. they don't realize they are doing it!, or 2. they are not worthy of being held in high regard. Maybe the trick is figuring out which of those two categories the offender falls into.

    I am sending you purple balloons! They are magic and have the power to change the color of other balloons. In case you need them. ;)

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  12. Woo hoo! Purple balloons! Plus some real wisdom in your observations Cindy. I also like John's point that rising blue balloons get lost amongst the blue sky. Good images to work with, and a lovely poem too :)

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  13. All I have to do is post something on facebook to feel like a complete loser. Totally bursts my bubble. But I do believe in positive and negative energy. Facebook aside I feel like I'm attracting positive energy in my life right now. And I think that it can be contagious.

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  14. Hey Linda...your perception is really good in the world where peoples are much negatives things for you...

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  15. We'll always be able to find other people who are better or worse at things than we are, I guess it becomes a question of which color balloons we feel like looking at? I think you're right about it being contagious Sharon. Spread it around!

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  16. fight the fight, sister!

    lovely illustration, as usual.

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  17. Aw thanks, and we should all fight the fight together! :)

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  18. Really enjoyed this blog. It rang true to me... liked the whole ballon and energy thing...well done! June Maddox

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  19. Lovely illustration and wonderful story -I'd send you a red balloon.

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