Puff of Smoke

Last night I watched One Love, the story about Bob Marley. I learned a few things that I didn’t know. I learned a little about Rastafari and some of what they believe and follow. I learned that Bob didn’t smoke cigarettes in a time that almost everyone was smoking. But he did smoke a lot of ganga. It was treated as a holy sacrament. Everyone was puffing away. And I think that had an impact with how they viewed life. Bob seemed to live a pretty Zen life. He wasn’t worried about money or material things much. He just wanted his music to touch the people, to bring peace and love to all, especially to those in Jamaca. I was fascinated and saddened that after the British rulers left and the country was turned over to the people that they turned to violence against one another. Their own country, their own people. Why do we as humans act out so violently? Bob wanted peace for his country and for the world. He shared this with his music and by puffing a lot of smoke. But I’m not writing or advocating that smoking marijuana is the answer. What I’m saying is, is that life is full of many things, both good and bad, and in that setting of a puff of smoke none of the good or bad really matters.

We put so much emphasis on things. What we do, how we do it, what we wear, where we live, on and on and on. But it’s all gone in a puff of smoke. That quick. I think we take life for granted. I think our ego’s get in the way of pure living so much that we live most of our lives being lost. If you stop to think about it, really think about it. Life is precious, absolutely precious and we treat it like it’s a never-ending commodity. So, I ask you to contemplate two thoughts. One, life goes by so fast like a puff of smoke dissipating into the air. We go through the motions and then wake up realizing that time has passed us by. Two, that if we stopped to take the time and puff a smoke in the sense of meditating, understanding, knowing that life can be fully lived. Then we have the power to change, to love, to be aware, to live the life I feel we we’re designed to live.

It is a tough, tough journey and so many never get the opportunity to figure it out. Some think they do but still continue to live in the same manner as everyone else. I think that causes many different problems, anxiety, depression, physical illnesses and so on. I’m no Dr. but I’m not talking about something that is fixed with a pill or surgery. I’m talking about something that is fixed by a puff of smoke giving you an understanding of what life is and what you’re doing in it. Bob Marley used that puff of smoke to see life in a very different mindset than most. And yet his life was cut short as in a quick puff of smoke and he was gone at the young age of 36. He lived his truth and his passion and left an inspiration of what life could or can be, all in a puff of smoke.