Flowing > Moving (Task Plotting II) – January 3, 2023 (3-4/365)

Then there’s the eating/portioning guidelines, and the monthly personal finance audit.

Picking up from here, I think we’re going to have to have some sort of guideline as to when to have the first meal of the day, because I haven’t factored in the supplements I take. I’m pretty blessed, that I don’t have any medical maintenance, but I do that supplements… and it’s come to a point that I have take separate bunches of pills (or ‘stacks’, if you will, ooh): One group of supplements is from GNLD, or the networking company my parents were into for, oh, more than 20 years now. I could say that I have benefitted immensely from this – it’s what kept me awake and alert during my times in the call center, way back when. Helped me then, continues to help me now.

Then there’s the group of supplements I get online, from those Japanese groceries, supposedly. Stuff like oyster extract, L-Theanine, and the like. The heme iron pills appeared to have helped me because there were times I would get dizzy when I would suddenly stand up – or, at least I think they helped me handle that condition. Been on this ever since during the pandemic, and I think it’s pretty sustainable – doesn’t cost me too much to sustain me for 3 months at a time.

Finally, there’s another group of supplements I’m getting myself into – and these are supplements from the Philippines; or, rather, supplements from plants native to the Philippines. Bitter gourd, or ampalaya extract. Tawa-tawa, tongkat ali, and serpentina – dried greens packed into capsules to be taken at least once a day. My rationale behind trying these is, well, simply because they’re Filipino. I mean, sure, support local and all that, but I suppose these plants aren’t native here for no reason – perhaps they’re Filipino herbs grown for the Filipino people. I’ve had no complaints – in fact, I have reason to believe that these humble pills are helping me with my concerns regarding the purity of my blood. Besides, in a country where dengue fever is pretty rampant, I don’t think it’s an accident that we have greens like tawa-tawa to help us.

The point here is that I’m not about to take all of these pills and take them all at one time. I think the strategy here is to take each set with each meal, and that’s if I have three meals. Maybe the 4-4-12 rule should also apply to the supplements I’m taking. Besides, the supplements are there to keep me going, even if I will be getting stricter with the amount of food I shove into my belly.

I’ll keep all of this in mind as I keep working on my daily routine.

And speaking of finances, it looks like what I want done on the daily covers my staying fit, and staying smart… the rest of the time is on what creates wealth. Yeah, I just remember now, those were Naval’s exact words. Not make money, but create wealth.

Now that I revisit what I shared yesterday, I’m thinking that content creation couldn’t just be classified under one of the three sets of hobbies Naval Ravikant suggested we all have – No, I think that content creation, especially how I understand and apply it, is something I do to stay fit (mentally, at least), to learn, and to create wealth. And with that said, while we’ve already settled that what will be done in the first hours of the day would help with me learning and staying fit, a greater chunk of the day would be spent in content creation.

And my God, is there a lot of content to create, a lot of categories to cover.

The goal is apparently to end the day, not necessarily feeling drained, not necessarily feeling exhausted, but to feel empty. We move from what we’re filled with, and we just continue to flow.

Or… actually, sure, that’s a possibility, but I suppose is it’s not like we’re going to be without life – the life with have IS the Life, and He not only fills us but is present in all of our being… much so that we are animated by the overwhelming, external flow.

It’s not that we’re full or empty. But in this infinite River, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life – in Him we live and move and have our being.

What a beautiful year this is looking to be.

This here came at the tail end of all I prepared and wrote down yesterday… and I must say, it is as I said – an underlying revelation to what we’ve already settled as a theme for this 2023. What I’m trying to say is that if we’re saying we’re moving, or if we’re calling this year a year of Movement with Christ, I’m also saying that Christ moves in us.

What do I mean by this? Again, I established that my personal goal at the end of each day is to have drained everything of my being in all aspects I could… Not necessarily for the feeling of exhaustion, but the way I saw it was, I wanted to be empty – not in the name of putting myself down, or false humility – but I wanted to be empty so there was more space for Life – that is, the Life of Christ.

Bear with me here because this is apparently still a work, or a thought in process. See, around this time I’m realizing that, as a River that does not stop, Christ continues to flow no matter what ‘state’ of fullness or emptiness I perceive myself to be in. He flows constantly and infinitely – infinitely and constantly when I’m ‘full’, just as much as when I’m ’empty’; And then, that’s where I come to thinking – these ‘states’ of being full and empty are superseded, overwritten by the superiority of Christ, flowing infinitely, and flowing constantly.

And so He flows, moving in and through me regardless of my lack of movement, or my own attempts to move on my own – It’s Him who moves, and His movement shall not be denied. I mean, we may move, and it’s all right; If we imagine our beings as boats, we could certainly move according to our engines, to a course of our choosing – but when the river flows, or when the tides move, or even when the winds blow, we move according to the environment. And this is not to say that we’re opposed to the movement, but the more we understand that we move with Christ, just as He moves with us, we suddenly realize just how important it is to appreciate how He is with us, and we are with Him, as close as we could be with one another, now and forever.

I’m being led to say that Christ animates us. Now I’m not saying He turns us into cartoons, as I would understand the word ‘animation’; Nor am I saying that He re-animates us – just as any other Magic: The Gathering fan would imagine the dead being animated. I hit the dictionaries and I find the following definitions:

animated quality; liveliness; vivacity; spirit:
- to talk with animation.
an act or instance of animating or enlivening.
the state or condition of being animated.
Graphic Arts
- a dynamic visual medium produced from static drawings, models, or objects posed in a series of incremental movements that are then rapidly sequenced to give the illusion of lifelike motion.
- the process of preparing such animation, as for films, cartoons, video games, etc.
- a product of such animation, as a film or cartoon.

Then there’s the etymology of the word:

1590–1600; 1910–15 for def. 4; (<Middle French ) <Latin animātiōn- (stem of animātiō a bestowing of life). See animate, -ion

Then I look at the etymology of ‘animate’

1375–1425; late Middle English animat<Latin animātus filled with breath or air, quickened, animated (past participle of animāre). See anima, -ate1

Finally, I see the definitions of anima:

soul; life.
(in the psychology of C. G. Jung)
- the inner personality that is turned toward the unconscious of the individual (contrasted with persona).
- the feminine principle, especially as present in men.Compare animus (def. 3).

I’m not surprised to see Jung at the end of this rabbit hole… but here’s the point. Christ does not move us like puppets. When we say Christ animates us, we say that Christ gives us life… but on the other hand, He Himself is the Life that we have. Here we have something to keep in mind before we go any further in talking about movement: That we are with Christ, and Christ is with us; Christ gives us life, but He Himself is the Life… So it is as Paul says – Even in our movement, it is in Christ that we life, move, and have our being.

I’m sorry, are you still with me? I suppose the underlying theme I see here is more of a follow-up. Yes, 2023 is a year of Movement With Christ… But we ought to recognize a more valuable Truth in all this – That Christ is with every movement we have. In our moving, we are with Christ.. and in Christ, we are moving.

So with all this said, I suppose it’s a reminder to myself, that Christ is as much with me in my own daily routines, just as much as He is with me when I expect Him to be with me – that is, during those times that I work on ministry. Christ is as much with me, and in all my movements, in every repetition – every punch, every burpee, every count I make when I stretch – just as He is with me as I meditate on Scripture, and even right now as I recklessly lay down all my thoughts onto this article, in an attempt to clarify my own thoughts on the matter.

I mean, I mentioned that I would be doing meditation and prayer… but in another sense, I suppose I’m meditating even now as I type – not necessarily doing anything, but just flowing. The mind is not as active as some of you may assume – I’m actually just flowing the thoughts out of my head straight to the keyboard, and into Evernote. Lord knows what revelations would be borne through this.

And it’s not that I drain myself, not that I empty myself, more than I imagine my movements are celebrations of just how eternally and infinitely close my Savior is to me, no matter what I’m up to. I think it’s absolutely important for us to keep this in mind before we go ahead and beat ourselves up for (1) making the wrong movements and/or (2) not moving enough.

No, we’re moving, even when we’re not moving. The river flows, and the tides move even when we aren’t making an effort. Christ lives, and moves, and ministers to our being when we think we’re idle. Such, I believe, is the nature of an infinite God – always flowing. Always moving. Always increasing.

I have to apologize, because I’m all over the place here. I’m still in the process of just laying everything down; sort of like how some of us (or me, at least) would empty their travel bags every now and then, and put everything back in one by one into the right compartments, throwing out what we don’t use, and putting things back in pockets where they should have been. I’m going to let things marinate.. and I know things will be made clearer as I go along.

We’ve barely started this year. I said earlier that there’s a lot of content to create… but there sure as heaven is just as much material to clarify. And it’s all good.

Folks, if you’ve made it this far, all I could say is thank you. Rest assured, things will get clearer, things will get better.

Until the next post, God bless you.