GamblingWhen people find out I am a witch and yes I have a crystal ball and tarot cards and Runes etcetera, I am asked, if I just know stuff, why don’t I know the winning lottery numbers? I’m asked stupid questions like, Why didn’t I know the world trade center was going to be bombed or something ridiculous like that. My in-general answer is “I am Clairvoyant, not Omniscient”. I don’t always see it coming so to speak.

I love to play the lottery from time to time. I qualify as living under the poverty line and I love to dream. It is fun to play a dollar and dream that I have won the lottery jackpot and all my problems will be solved. It is a nice dream and once in a while for someone, that dream might come true.

BUT…since I have been ill since the beginning of January, I have been given a different point of view. Imagine just for a minute that before we were born into this very physical existence we were beings of energy with a limited way of experiencing our existence. Imagine for a minute that in this energy form on this energy plane of existence with a lack of physical form the ultimate prize is experiencing life in an existence with solid physical form. With a limited concept of anything beyond the physical world. This world and the ultimate prize is to experience life as we know it in this physical form. To think, breathe, experience touch, Smell, to feel emotions, Life as we know it here in this physical world is the prize.

Because we are not omniscient. We don’t know everything, we can’t comprehend the total existence of what we call God or the Universe, every day is a gamble that we will continue to exist here. Every moment with every choice we make is a gamble. Do I eat the chocolate cake? Should I drive to work or take the bus? Maybe today I should take a cab. Will It matter if I eat and live as healthy as possible? Will I live to be 106 or will I get hit by a train at 14?

We don’t really know all the details. Now imagine that before we were born into this existence we decided that we wanted to experience the good and the bad things in the world. After all, How will we know and understand comfort if we have never experienced discomfort? Many ask, how can you bear to look at the world with a smile when so many bad and horrible things are happening. The cruelty that exists. Disease, hunger, war, death, natural disasters, serial killers, mental illness, and all the injustice. How can there be a God if such suffering exists? Why would any being choose an existence where there is such suffering?

My answer is “for the experience”. For someone who has never heard a sound, or someone who has never seen the light of the sun. We who have experienced sound and sight think these people are suffering. I will tell you, without ever experiencing one we can not know what we are missing from the other. If we do not experience suffering such as hunger, or sadness, loss, How will we know happiness? If we never experience suffering in any way, If we never see suffering in any form, How can we appreciate all that is good? How would we know what good is if we have nothing to compare it too?  Life is the jackpot.

I don’t mean to minimize suffering in any way. It is not pleasant to suffer. Pain does not feel good. In this life, we all experience both sides of life. Everyone experiences life differently. But every night I look back over the day and I know I have won the jackpot because I survived yet another day. When I wake up in the morning, I know I have won the jackpot because I am breathing to gamble once again. I have choices to make and anything can happen.

At this moment, life may not be pleasant and I may not be enjoying the experience but I am thankful that I am alive and that I can have the experience.

I once had many questions about Death. It is something that is mysterious. We don’t discuss it and we don’t find it in any way appealing. At least most of us. But I wanted to know if it was painful to die. Around dawn one morning as the sun began to crest over the horizon, I found myself in a very unusual dream. In this dream, I spoke to a young boy. A spirit who had lived in this physical world and who had died. I asked my question. Does it hurt to die? The answer was obvious. Death is swift and instant. It happens in the blink of an eye. Death is not painful, it is what happens to you before you die that might be painful.

To me, in this new point of view. Every day is a gamble. A chance to win and Life is the jackpot.