Ok, recent events have cropped up, in a spectacularly good way. As for why they cropped up, I cannot answer logically, because it can only be described to me at least, that it was nothing short of a Christmas Miracle. I won't say what exactly, but a couple of days ago there was still something I had to worry about in my personal life. Something I was hoping and praying. Literally to every God and Goddess of Every Religion. Going so far as to send online prayers to the Vatican and The Wailing Wall. I didn't know if Islam had a similar system, but I would have done that too. Luckily those prayers for the first time in my life, have been answered. Now I know there are some people, who do not believe in the unknown in terms of things border lining on supernatural. They have every right to disbelieve as much as people like myself have a right to believe in their own ways. This is not meant to be an insult to them specifically, but I do apologize ahead of time, on the off chance you feel insulted anyway.

Over the years, I have struggled to maintain my many faiths. A little tidbit of my own life story, my family both blood and extended are the following. Racially and Religiously diverse. In terms of my own bloodline, I have mostly British Blood, with some Scandanavian and Native. In terms of Scandanavian, my bloodline traces back to one of the most famous Vikings, Erik Thorvaldsson aka Erik The Red. To me it just means I'm related to the dad of the guy that discovered the western world centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot on Cuba for the first time. But that said, I also have extend family of many nationalities, all over the world, with many differing religious beliefs. To list off a few, I have Christian, Jewish, Wiccan, Pagan, Native and even some Atheists in my family. I'm pretty sure if I looked hard enough I would have had family of all the world and religions.

While I mostly stuck to my Pagan and Wiccan faiths, my own religious journey was complicated to say the least. As a kid, I was sent to a Presbyterian church for Sunday School. Despite having a Wiccan Mom and at the time a Christian Stepfather before he started to question his own faith....it was more or less an excuse to get the kids out of the house every Sunday. However, that was one of the first forays into religion I experienced. I stayed in Sunday School, made some friends, even attended their Pancake/Breakfast dinners every now and then. My first foray into religious diversity, was when I had a teacher in 2nd Grade, who happened to be Jewish. While she was obligated at the time, to follow Christian rules in our school at the time(Back then after the National Anthem we prayed.), she herself was teaching us about another religion, through the study of Holidays. Now at the time, I thought Christmas was the only December Holiday. That was before she taught me about Hanukkah. I participated in the activities, played the games. (Loved Dreidel). And despite not me being Jewish myself, she gave me Jewish candy to try. Some I liked, some I didn't, but in terms of religious treats, I'm glad all religions agree on the love of chocolate. Now at some point, I did develop some prejudices in my life, in terms of race and religion. However, at this moment I have since grown out of them and as a result learned more about things. So when it came time to understand the other religions, I was able to find a way to love and tolerate them all, by putting more emphasis on the good, more than any of the bad things that make them stereotypes. As well as finding my own faith, through experience and sight. For example, I was at one point Agnostic, because I believed, through seeing and my own experiences that there was more to this universe than what Science and Logic would be able to decipher. However after seeing some glimpses of Wiccan spells through my mother's work, as well as seeing the results after, I was able to believe in that, a little more. So I stuck to Wiccan, but went Pagan, out of not just seeing and believing, but ironically following Old Testament Commandments. Specifically the 5th Commandment: "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." While I stuck to Paganism, I was subconsciously following some aspects of other old faiths. Recent events, have lead me to believe that all religion is kinda sorta right. By that I mean, we all believe there is something out there, but we interpret what it is, through our own faiths. Case in point, when I went back to my native roots, I've noticed through practicing, that certain medicines they did affected me and the people around me, in ways I could only describe as partial science and partial supernatural. Such as, when a shaman friend of mine, healed an injured leg of mine, through smudging and drum play. Now that alone, made me never doubt, Native Medicine or Native Faith, ever again. So as a result I incorporated it with the rest of my respective faiths. Try to find a way to combine forces that I found useful and rejected what I found useless to me. So to make it more plainly I basically applied Jeet Kune Do philosophy to my religious faith. Which is ironic, because Bruce Lee is an Atheist, but not so much, because while he has his own beliefs and lack thereof, he has incorporated faith and nature based philosophy on his own concepts. For example during his last interview with Pierre Burton, he mentioned the following:

"Here is the natural instinct and here is control. You have to combine the two in harmony. Not if you have one to the extreme, you will be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of the sudden, a mechanical man. No longer a human being. It is a successful combination of both. So therefore it's not pure Naturalness or Unnaturalness. The ideal is Unnatural Naturalness or Natural Unnaturalness."

Now at the time he was talking about balancing a logical human with a natural human. Mixing thoughts with instinct, things like that. However, like many philosophical quotes, people can interpret it in different ways. In my case, I was interpreting it as on top of that, find balance between logic and faith. Be smart, but also take leaps sometimes. He wouldn't be the first Atheist to bring enlightenment to other religions, so odds are he may have even said it that way, to appeal to those he couldn't change faith wise, but still teach them something.

Anywho, combining the faiths, drawing strength from where it was good while rejecting what it was, bad seemed to make me more open-minded to the idea. However it lead me to the secret to why religion works in the first place in this concept.

Faith is a very strong word. One has to be committed to said word, to be considered faithful in certain topics religion or otherwise. It could be faith in a loved one, knowing their strengths and hoping they make it in the world ok. Faith in yourself that no matter how bad things get, you'll at least live to see your next birthday. Even faith in things only you understand while others don't. The method to madness so to speak. Before, I only caught glimpses of those methods, but now I've been able to figure things out, where by simple deductive reasoning and maybe a little extra sensory perception, I can tell what certain people are thinking, based on their words and expressions. Most people often tell you if you don't like someone, to put yourself in their shoes and see things from their perspective and I've been able to seldom be able to do that, both in my private life and on my net life. It's why I sometimes am able to get people to agree with me, because I put myself in their shoes somewhat and try to get a grasp on how they feel. Nowadays, I see the other side. Many many times and I'm able to pin point the parts I've done wrong as well as the parts the other party has done wrong. But that's not the only thing it gave me. Because I was able to figure out the methods and in turn figure the people whom apply said methods, I was able to apply said methods to my own way of life. For example. One person told me, that in order to surprise and shock the world, you gotta make the unsuspecting audience think you're either crazy, stupid or both. And while I've acted both Crazy and Stupid over the years of my life. As even some people could attest to, some of it mostly due to real things where my emotions get the better of me, I inadvertently found a way to use that lowered reputation, to gain a better one, by shocking people about the things I can do. Some people didn't know I could sing, but when I do Karaoke, they think they hear Frank Sinatra. Some people didn't know I could do art, but I was able to impress them, with certain pictures and painting philosophical quotes, both from famous people like Lee or somethings I come up with based on life experience. Had I put all my cards to the table back then rather than now, I would have busted because it would seem like I gave my all and have nothing left. When in actuality I give some and save the best at least to me, for special occasions. Be it the holidays or something based on my own life experience one way or another. Now the reason why I encourage everyone to go about this route, is because it's a test of faith. Not just faith in yourself and the fact that you know what you're doing, but also the faith the people you interacted with have in you. If some know and trust you to know what you're doing, no matter how crazy or stupid you sound, then you have nothing to worry about in terms of fucking things up. If some don't and tell you to "Fuck off." dismiss you as a loser or god forbid go through great lengths to destroy you, they are not worth your time unless you feel like punching them out for catharsis and even then, sometimes it's not worth that either. They had no faith in you, so you shouldn't crave their faith. And in turn it's your turn to tell them to "Fuck off." Me, I ended up having faith in the wrong people in the past and that's what crippled me, the betrayed feeling of it. Lately, I started having faith in the right people, based on how I seen their character good and bad and they earned my faith. For example if I can see the method to their madness and figure at least some of it out, that's when my faith comes into play, seeing how much method is in the madness. Recently it's been working out a lot for the people I care about, that I am actually able to see things their way and apply it to my life. It's trial and error at this point, but so far so good.

Now the biggest mindfuck question is this, let's say your faith yielded some fantastic results. Did it happen because God did it or did it happen because you had faith in God? Same applies to faith in others. Did they do it by themselves or did they do it because you believed in them? And it especially applies to yourself. Did you simply have faith in yourself or did believing in yourself in general motivated you to keep going no matter what? Think about that. Think about that really hard.

Until then, have fun, stay safe and stay tuned.