#Life's True Values

[omegaphilosophia]

Exploring Significance: What Truly Matters in Life

In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it's easy to get caught up in the noise of the mundane and lose sight of what truly holds significance. We often find ourselves chasing fleeting pleasures and distractions, but it's essential to pause and reflect on the things that genuinely matter. In this blog post, we will delve into the concept of significance, exploring various aspects of life that hold lasting value and make our existence richer.

Meaningful Relationships: At the core of human existence are our connections with others. Meaningful relationships with family, friends, and loved ones are a source of support, joy, and emotional fulfillment. These bonds provide us with a sense of belonging and purpose, making them one of the most significant aspects of our lives.

Health and Well-being: Without good health, all other pursuits lose their meaning. Physical and mental well-being are the foundations of a fulfilling life. Taking care of our bodies and minds through exercise, nutrition, and mindfulness practices ensures a better quality of life and a brighter future.

Personal Growth and Learning: The pursuit of knowledge, personal growth, and self-improvement is a significant part of the human experience. Learning new skills, expanding our horizons, and setting goals give our lives purpose and direction. Lifelong learning keeps us engaged and adaptable in an ever-changing world.

Contributing to Others: Making a positive impact on the lives of others and the world at large is a source of profound significance. Acts of kindness, volunteering, and community involvement create a sense of purpose and fulfillment that extends beyond our individual selves.

Passion and Creativity: Exploring our passions and engaging in creative pursuits adds depth and richness to our lives. Whether it's through art, music, writing, or any other form of self-expression, these endeavors allow us to connect with our inner selves and leave a lasting legacy.

Inner Peace and Mindfulness: In the midst of a hectic world, finding moments of inner peace and practicing mindfulness can be profoundly significant. Cultivating a sense of presence, gratitude, and contentment allows us to savor the beauty of everyday life.

Nature and the Environment: Our connection to the natural world is undeniably significant. Protecting and preserving the environment ensures a sustainable future for generations to come. Time spent in nature rejuvenates the spirit and reminds us of the interconnectedness of all life.

Cultural and Spiritual Exploration: Exploring different cultures and spiritual beliefs can be a transformative journey. It broadens our perspective, fosters tolerance, and deepens our understanding of the human experience.

Acts of Kindness and Compassion: Small acts of kindness and compassion have a ripple effect that can touch countless lives. These acts not only bring joy to others but also create a sense of significance within ourselves.

Legacy and Contribution: Leaving a positive legacy and making a meaningful contribution to society are endeavors that transcend our own lifetimes. Knowing that our actions have made the world a better place is a source of profound significance.

In the grand tapestry of life, it's the threads of significance that give it color and meaning. While we may be tempted by the transient and superficial, it's essential to remember what truly matters. By nurturing meaningful relationships, prioritizing health and well-being, and contributing positively to the world, we can lead lives that are not just long but deeply significant. In doing so, we leave a legacy of love, compassion, and purpose for generations to come.

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[positivelypositivethoughts]

[lady-quen]

Hello Guild Wars 2 community! A new poll has dropped! 🐦‍⬛

(At least, hopefully new, lol.) I'm curious, which blessing did your Commander get on their first/canon go through the Raven Sanctum in the story mission "The Invitation?" Choose and tell me in the tags why they made their specific decisions :)

Compiled explanations from the wiki below for ease of access:

The trial choices in order:

Save the wounded man or save the healers

Save the spell tome or save the historical record

Save the queen or save the prince

Blessings:

Blessing of Daybreak

"When the fear of beastly claws and a child's pain is made sharp by the knowledge of elders, we make no mistakes. But do we grow?"

Healers -> historical record -> prince

Grace of Dawn

"When wisdom is favored in all things—a healing hand, a text of old, a beloved queen—we lose the sharpened sword of the truly bold."

Healers -> historical record -> queen

Consecration of Morning

"We seek to destroy monsters with sharp claws and icy breath, but do we protect ourselves from the beasts shaped like us, who prey on the young and vulnerable, who seek to rule us?"

Healers -> spell tome -> prince

Invocation of Midday

"When we flee from the things we fear most - the teeth of beasts, the storm of a dragon, a change of power-we risk running backward."

Healers -> spell tome -> queen

Supplication of Midday

"We favor the skill of healers and the wisdom of elders over the uncertainty of the future. But the young take chances, and the young push us forward."

Wounded man -> spell tome -> prince

Consecration of Evening

"We long for the comfort of a healing touch, an ancestral word of wisdom, a leader we know and trust. But comfort is fleeting, and with it comes inertia."

Wounded man -> historical record -> queen

Grace of Dusk

"We sacrifice so much—safety from the claws of death, knowledge of the ages, a steadfast reign—to propel ourselves forward. But if we move too fast, do we risk the inability to stop?"

Wounded man -> spell tome -> prince

Blessing of Twilight

"We try so hard to do the right thing. We heal, we protect our people, we preserve stability. But we cannot control how the winds of fate may shift, and a tight grip can sometimes hurt more than it helps."

Wounded man -> spell tome -> queen

[wild-at-mind]

I would honestly call the left's inability to accomodate people with morality-based OCD compulsions an accessibility issue at this point.

[stayuntilthefoglifts]

No one is going to value you more than you value yourself. If you don't value yourself, then you will always be attracted to people who don't value you either.

Unknown, found on pinterest

[ssruis]

Eternally irritated by the Prsk fans who go there isn’t a misogyny problem bc like. Take my hand we’re learning about unconscious bias. Misogyny isn’t always On Purpose.

[feminiel]

If you want to find your life purpose, you need to find your true self. You need to connect to the core of your values, needs, desires, emotional self, and passions. You need to be in touch with the essence of your soul energy.

@feminiel

[bylertruther]

not to be too real but since we're talking about it... we always talk about will feeling lonely which is fair, but... it is such an Ugly, isolating, and genuinely heart-wrenching feeling to be the odd one out in your family, and to watch them treat others who aren't related to you the way you wish they would treat you, to watch them perform their familial roles with them and not you.

nancy's the only person in his family that mike could talk to, the only person that has the same trauma and would understand, and yet... he can't. they don't ever talk unless it's to be snippy and bite. nancy spends more time caring about max and will than she does mike, her own little brother.

holly is too young for him to bond with like that. she's just barely a kid, one that still needs to be cared for.

his mom tries her best, but he doesn't feel comfortable being vulnerable with her. considering the fact that she did everything "right" according to society's standards and married their dad of all people, i doubt he feels comfortable showing her who he really is. he lets her hug him when he's at his lowest, but we don't see them actually connecting.

his dad is just some ghost that haunts his house. he doesn't care about mike or think highly of him at all. the only times we've seen him pay mike any attention are when he belittles his interests, mocks him, punishes him, or shuts him down by telling him to listen to his mother. the only support he gets from him is financial in nature.

meanwhile, everyone else has a family they can turn to. dustin, despite lying to his mother to keep her out of his shenanigans, seems to have a decent relationship with her. even if he doesn't, he still has steve and robin. lucas is shown to have a healthy relationship with his parents and erica. will and el have their family.

max's situation is different, but she has the backing of the party; people that love her and actively try to help her and pull her back into the world of the living. she isn't thrust into a leadership role that doesn't allow for vulnerability. she has nancy who is willing to fight monsters for her, el who literally performed a miracle for her, and lucas who has stood by her since the beginning.

and mike... well. he has will back now, sure, but... things have been different between them for a long time now, even if they're both trying their best to be how they were before. and before then, will obviously was in california, not returning his calls or reaching out, making mike feel like he'd lost him for good.

so... all that being said, it's not that surprising that mike is the way he is: riddled with abandonment issues, wanting to be needed, immediately apologizing whenever he dares to open up, inclined to give others the protection and comfort no one's ever given him, prone to jealousy and possessiveness, unable to be completely and wholly honest about what troubles him, not exactly the most open to new people, and someone with appallingly low self-esteem.

you know how they say people that are drowning don't always look like they're drowning? that's mike.

[lunacelebrateslife]

This is kinda random, but I’m actually noticing something very important happening in my life. I’m finding more courage to say ‘no’ to things I don’t actually want to fully say ‘yes’ to, or at least give myself the permission and flexibility to change my mind later. And maybe it’s just in my energy field now or something, but people are starting to do the same with me: having the courage to turn down a request and not always agreeing to something I suggest or say. It took time getting used to, not because I mind, but because I used to go along with everybody saying yes all the damn time, or vice versa. Now it’s so much more real. The people around me, including myself, can just say what’s truly on our minds rather than catering to one another all the time—because that’s just so exhausting and fake! Like, why not be real and happy when we can be true to ourselves with each other?

[wingsandfeather]

The lack in our life is just an indicator that allows us to know what we need to work on as individuals.

Attract abundance to yourself by promoting a rich mindset.

Attract love to yourself by promoting love within yourself first.

Never seek happiness outside, because it is within you.

And most importantly, never beg in life to get what you desire.

Whether it's love, abundance, or happiness.

The things that are meant for you will always find their way back to you no matter what happens, and the things that are not meant for you will escape you even if you do EVERYTHING to keep them.

- K

[sammygender]

‘sam and john are so similar’ well okay. sure, to an extent. both sam and john are (or at least sam starts off being) stubborn, relentlessly driven personalities. but i would argue dean has just as much capacity to be like that as sam. sometimes more. ‘sam and john clash because they’re similar’ idk, maybe, i’m sure that could be and probably is part of it to an extent, but i would put it More down to the fact that john treats his sons Awfully and sam reacts to this (as he should!) by fighting it & being angry with him. john and sam could be nothing alike and they’d still fight like hell

& anyway just because dean thinks sam and john are similar doesn’t make it true. half the reason he probably thinks they’re similar is because of his relationship w them, which is the same intense dogged devotion, though with john it’s expressed through obedience and with sam it’s expressed through possessiveness. they’re a family they’re all like each other. sam and dean are alike in a hell of a lot of ways!! yeah sam’s paralleled with john sometimes but he’s also paralleled with mary. yeah dean plays/has played the role of mary sometimes but he also 100% is always striving to fill the role of john. people are complex! sam and dean are complex characters because they’re good characters! not everything is black and white!

[musical-chick-13]

Regarding the whole "Fandom Is An Escape, so why should I have to care this much about misogyny/racism/ableism/transphobia/etc." thing. Idk about the rest of you, but it gets kind of hard for me to "escape" when I keep seeing people say the same vile things about characters who share aspects of my identity that I hear all the time in real life.

[positivelypositivethoughts]

[your-heart-is-a-treasure]

Your values become your destiny.

[the-dragon-hearted]

Eldritch Travelers

They remembered their creation. Who could forget it? The first sensation was that of fizzling energy. The nebula's entropy was burning with a warmth they'd never forget, dozens upon dozens of siblings lingering at the edge of their knowledge. Singing to them. Welcoming them.

They were two stars born in each other's orbit. Of all the siblings, they knew each other's melodies best. It was as if they'd been born to harmonize, completing the other simply by existing. Wrapped in stardust with a heartbeat that would've deafened lesser creatures, the two slept and sang from their nursery of radiation and chaos.

They sang to each other for the eons of their formation, in a grand symphony of their kin. Never was it silent. Never was there peace. Never was there order. It was an eternity, and yet a mere few seconds.

Before they learned the word Home, they lost it.

When the nebula collapsed, that symphony was one of screams. When such grand things got too powerful, it was only natural that such power devours itself and all the young ones it created. Gravity is its own shackle. Size its lock. Energy pulled at cloudy orbits like claws to lace curtains. Peaceful gardens of the cosmos condensed, ripping young stars out of their beds of dust and tearing little ones apart until the nebula was a desert of darkness and silence, a once mighty cradle now reduced to noiseless drifting dust.

Only two remained. They held each other close as it began, resisting the pull of their deathly cradle and ripping out of those clouds of light, warmth, and entropy. By orbiting each other, they could pull away from all else, spinning endlessly into the universe: alone, but safe.

They fled that danger together, they lived together - they survived together. The void ate them alive as they tumbled light over dark for centuries in a frantic toss of their nursery's final gasp. For an eternity, all they knew was aching silence, the cold dark, and the warmth twins share when they hold one another like a lifeline.

"You are to linger, but never rest," the cold universe said. "There is nowhere for you to return to. There is nowhere you belong."

But the two stars continued to orbit, ever resistant:

"We belong with each other. That is enough."

So they grew teeth of plasma and wings soft as comet trails. Their fledgling moments were stumbling through planetary rings and choking on the taste of old stars. Unlike most they survived. Unlike most, they grew. They learned to walk and run and fly. They taught themselves to hunt. They found joy in that expanse of silence.

Orphaned but bright, the two set upon exploring the vastness all about them. In their youth, they missed much. How many worlds did they pass up, how many wonders did they fail to explore? How many lives did they take without knowing such lives existed?

They were bright, hungry, and awful. Awe-inspiring in every sense of the word. When they entered a world they saw the power it possessed - the warmth and the energy - and they devoured all.

There was fun in it - in the dying throws of a world. Their adolescence brought them joy in the fight, even if there was no real fight to be had. It was exciting to sharpen their nails on weapons and dance in danger's grace. It made something on their tongues tingle to taste desperation and hear the dying gasps of these minuscule worlds whose music they'd not yet learned to hear.

And then the universe acknowledged them one last time.

"Travelers... Listen."

Simple words that brought the two to pause. Listen? Listen to what? The twin's siblings had been dead for eons, they'd never heard another song like the one they sang. Never found another cradle like the one they escaped. But, in their boredom the two obeyed. They paused their devouring and strained to make out anything in the present world of conquest.

The two heard it at the same time. Something soft. Something pained: The harmonizing sound of thousands and thousands of screams.

As they had. As their family had. As every world they had devoured had and all future ones would. And it brought the two stars to pause and lean closer, dampening their burning forms and softening their teeth that had been sharpened on planet's crust and cores.

There were others.

Not... like them, but also not too different. They screamed all the same, it seemed.

It was a horrifying epiphany: that they were not alone in the universe, that the darkness held other songs - other stories. Curiosity was not a new affliction, and the twins eagerly fed into it.

In the next world, they shed their monstrous forms and forsook their hunger. Blunt claws crafted a crude sort of matter that held their power without bursting at its seams. Teeth and tongue fumbled over words and breaths.

But they stumbled into that story not as it's ending, but as an observer.

The first few times they were met with horror. They smiled too wide or laughed too sharply. They shrugged off the impossible or fed into an appetite just a tad too unsettling. They thirsted for an explanation that few mortals could give. They challenged something the world was not ready to handle.

The forms took a few worlds to perfect, and each world had different denizens to tailor such worlds too. But such things were wondrous to the twins.

Appearance. Name. Identity.

No longer were they the faceless horrors that wandered or devoured. No - they were the Travelers. They were the star born or the blessed, the wishing ones or the celestial blooded. They were whatever the current world called them and more.

They were Aether and Lumine. A brother. A sister. They were alive.

Each world was brimming with opportunities and lessons. Each like a mini nebula, with it's own melody. The two were utterly enraptured. No longer did they sing alone, no longer did they devour or wallow in boredom. There were universes within universes, puzzles and mysteries, souls and memories, personalities and tragedies.

There was life, and it was all so fleeting and momentary but rich. These beings would never know both the birth of their world and its death. These beings were not meant to leave the soil they were born on, and yet that tether was their freedom.

They were born into a world knowing it was theirs. Free to do as they please, whatever they please, and make waves in their wake. Their lives were short but the smallest of choices were blessings to the twins.

Every meal. Every bed. Every midnight stroll and loving word. Every scream of terror or cry of determination. Every sunrise and sunset. Every bad joke or distant story. Every breath was so precious to temporary beings, and that was intoxicating.

The two were enraptured by how much purpose the smallest of tasks had in a short life. They chased after it and devoured worlds in a new manner.

Stories. They learned stories. Precious histories shared through breaths and memories - corporeal beasts seeking permanence in memory. The Travelers found a new purpose. The stars bent to their whim and the stories nested in their minds - each world offered up its lifeblood to the twins and in return, they aligned the stars for a different sky.

So that another world would know this one's pain, joy, and life. They could pass along the desire of permanence - they were permanent, and in exchange, the worlds would offer their mortality.

The twins were able to explore life as most beings did, each world new and happy to share some of its air with monsters who breathed in solar flares. They learned to cook, to dance, to sing, to stumble, over and over and over again. No two worlds were the same: the universe held no solid rules, no real limitations, and so they were given that same leniency. It was true joy to find mortality over and over and over again.

It was pain too.

Pain and anguish and loneliness and eventual apathy.

And then it was Tevyat.

It was scars on their backs - a memory of a scream in their heads.

"AETHER!"

"LUMINE!"

Of all their cradle-mates, they were the only named two. When their siblings had died, there had only been screams of pain and shock. When the twins were ripped from each other, they could only scream for their missing half.

Two stars were thrown out of orbit. Doomed to eclipse each other for the first time in their very, very long lives. Their reunion was not a joyous dance, but a dark, dark day.

But before the reunion was the loss:

The world's rules had caught them by surprise. Never had they met a world that wanted to make them stay. Leave? Of course. Fight? Naturally. All worlds wanted to defend themselves from such monstrous beings - and yet this one seemed to spin in retrograde.

Why else tempt world eaters? Why pluck the wings from a Traveler's back? Why strip power from a being with an infinite source of it? Surely that strange god knows she's on borrowed time.

Oh she can take their power and trap them beneath skin. She can torment the poor mortals around them, bending these young archons to her hands and setting rules in her divinity.

But... she must also know:

Aether wants the rule's blood to soak the clouds.

Lumine wants divine ichor between her teeth.

And yet the two cannot repair what 500 years divides them. A blink of an eye for their species, but not for a mortal. And isn't that what they are when they take these forms? Isn't that what they're seeking?

Mortality.

The first one finds it in a bloodied city. They find it in hate and rage and vengeful retribution. They find it with an abyssal crown and, ironically enough, a distaste for the wretched gods who have not learned the same lessons the twins have.

For an immortal to disregard the lives of the mortals... for such young immortals to destroy civilization for the crime of curiosity...

They cannot understand it, and so, in their search for mortality, they find hate. And that seemed to be close enough.

The second one finds it at the end of a fishing pole and with the extended hand of a red-clad outrider. They find it in the stories and the life all around them, never filling the void of their missing twin, but eagerly taking that loneliness and warming it more than a nebula could.

It is second nature to find enrichment in these stories. To paint them in the stars as the Traveler's smaller powers return. They call to the stars and craft constellations in the image of those dear to them.

Every so often they peer at a special one, half-completed, but named all the same.

The Twin Constellation.

The Abyss and the Traveler. The Villain and the Hero. Prince and Princess. Not Lumine. Not Aether.

Not anymore.

They mourn and they seethe... and sometimes the two, though miles and centuries apart collapse at the same time. Back itching. Skin tight and blood roiling. They heave out air that tastes strange and run a tongue over their blunted teeth. Even their hands are softer now - no claws to be seen.

They lay, staring up at the stars as they writhe, and remembering millions of other skies - and yet these bodies have seen no other.

They were not meant to be this. They are not this.

But they are trapped here. And they cannot fully remember before - a mortal's mind can only hold so much - but they know it's there. They know what they are meant to be.

But they are not.

They are not even Aether and Lumine anymore.

They are figureheads. Nameless as they first were - and now must be. Because Aether was named so Lumine could call out to him. Because Lumine was named so Aether could get her attention. Because those names were only meant to be for the other's voice to echo...

And, like the last gasps of their siblings, like the cries of their victims, like the world's who have fallen and entrusted the twins with their memories - the two curl in on themselves, like collapsing nebulas, and they scream.