Two Eight

As promised to Kevin I read/finished reading
Illusions by Richard Bach

I liked the following from the book and decided to save them here in my blog:

The 'illusions' of Illusions
Many things I've tried and failed at, even though I believed I wouldn't.
Go figure.
I have so much more to learn.

From The Messiah's Handbook - Reminders for the Advanced Soul.
Some reminders that hit home:

Your only obligation in life is to be true to yourself.

You teach best what you most need to learn.

Truer words were never written. This so applies to me.

Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world - even if what is published is not true.

Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.

You are led though your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them. You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.

Ha:

The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, "I've got responsibilities."

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

Perhaps I do.

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and join in each other's life. Rarely do the members of one family grow up under the same roof.

Argue your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours.

Imagine the universe beautiful and just perfect. Then be sure of one thing: The Is has imagined it quite a bit better than you have.

A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed. It feels an implusion...this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you life yourself high enough to see beyond horizons.

You are never given a wish with out also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.

The world is your exercise-book, the pages on which you do your sums. It is not reality, although you can express reality there if you wish. You are also free to write nonsense, or lies, or to tear the pages.

If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.

Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.

Every person, all the events of your life are there because you bave drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.

I really need to learn to live that one. But then again, I have carefully chosen several people who don't go along with my choices, as they have their own as well.

Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't.

In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.

Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.

The above I've really learned, and recently. Only took me 48 years. I look forward to this happening more and more.

The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

There were a few more, but I could not yet understand how they apply to me, so I've left them out. Perhaps one day, I will come to understand more fully how they might.