Breadcrumbs: A Collection of Spiritual and Philosophical Essays by Francis J. Shaw (ebook voice reader txt) 📖

pausing by a sign showing a man with sparkling eyes and crazy hair. It says, from 1922 (when he was 43 years old), Albert Einstein rented a small summer cottage nearby.

Dismounting my bike, if I look very hard...I see him outside, puffing on his pipe and scribbling theories on a sunny day. His success before reaching 40, not matched again in the years to follow. I wonder if it’s crossed his mind, that much of his ability to find a new path was because he was so skeptical of authority—after all his success, he was the authority now.

If he were sitting there, would I have the courage to approach? In the past, with my little understanding of mathematical formulas or theoretical physics, I doubt there would be much to discuss, but it’s different now, because I am getting better at imagining. I still have lots to learn. I think he might tell me—‘I found the path before my contemporaries, because they held onto beliefs and rules others had taught, and I didn’t.’ Life is not about clinging onto old ideas that either experts or we have pronounced as truths, but seeing with fresh eyes when the light of love illuminates our hearts and minds.

I wonder...what if he looked up with his big smile and asked, “Are you intelligent?” I would tell him that I see things differently now, because I have enough information to consider other answers. I might share with him that scientists rated quite well in the list of most trusted professions. I am sure he would find it amusing. I would tell him the most trusted profession across the world are not nurses, doctors, or teachers, but firefighters, because not only do they care for us and our possessions, but risk their own lives to do so. I might tell him, the word ‘genius’ is Latin (which he probably already knows) and that it means, a guardian deity or spirit which watches over each person from birth.

Einstein found the key to the problem of relativity using time, and as I examine my journey time, it’s just possible I have believed too much what others told me…and the story I told myself…because I was taught to follow the rules and listen to the experts. It’s there, in those early years, I remember…no one taught me how to walk or eat. It’s there, in the young years, I remember…no one taught me how to smile and laugh. It’s there, in the growing years, I remember…no one taught me how to cry and dream. It’s there...now...and although we may sometimes seek the counsel of others, it’s not to get their answer, but to help us discover our own, dwelling within. For others see us in pieces and not the whole. They may see the shadow and not the soul. They make up their minds of who we are, but they don’t have enough information to truly understand. For although we may be alike, in each breath we take, our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and beliefs combine in uniqueness, and I realize that each of us is an expert after all…on ourselves and our own spiritual journey.

Like Einstein, our answers are found in time, and the journey truly begins when the outward focus no longer satisfies and we take the path inside, because it’s our relativity we seek. So, “be yourself; everyone else is already taken,”26 and realize, we truly have all the information we need to find our answers. Staying curious and scribbling in our notebooks on a summer’s day…to recognize our expertise and let it be our guide—to fight our fires and risk all with passion, to discover our own unique spiritual path. Our one of a kind, Special Theory of Spiritual Relativity.

About the Author

Born and raised in London, England, Francis worked as a missionary, living and working with the poor and homeless in the United States. His non-fiction presents thought-provoking insights into the mystical journey of life and his fictional writing bring together a unique blend of history and spiritual storytelling in the style of parables, where he encourages readers to find their truths hidden in plain sight. He lives in Berlin, Germany with his family and when he is not writing, he attempts to share the mysteries of life with his dog—with little success.

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Endnotes

NOTES [←1]

Breadcrumbs

Victor Hugo

[←2]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The King’s Gambit

[←3]

Benjamin Franklin, The Morals of Chess, (1750)

[←4]

Fourth Lateran Council, Canon 68

[←5]

Published in ‘The Week in Chess.’

[←6]

The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa of Avila

[←7]

Schach ohne Partner für Könner by Herbert Grasemann (1982)

Progress and Timothy the Tortoise

[←8]

William Blake. Jerusalem.(1804)

[←9]

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade (1854)

[←10]

William Blake. Jerusalem.(1804)

[←11]

Google Books Ngram Viewer search for progress (results include all English usage, wherever English is spoken)

[←12]

Cited in Cook, E. T. The Life of Florence Nightingale. (1913) Vol 1, p 237

[←13]

Stanislaw J. Lec

[←14]

Alzheimer’s Disease International, World Alzheimer Report (2015)

[←15]

World Wildlife Fund, (2000)

The Sandman

[←16]

Gospel of St. John 8: 1-11

[←17]

Gospel of St. Mark 9: 14-29

[←18]

Gospel of St. Mark 10: 17-22

[←19]

Gospel of St. Luke 9:5

[←20]

Gospel of St. John 8:32

The Butterfly Effect

[←21]

‘As You Like It’

[←22]

Henry Ford

[←23]

James Russell Lowell

The Special Theory of Spiritual Relativity

[←24]

Carried out by GfK Verein, in which more than 29,000 consumers were surveyed. People from 27 countries around the world were interviewed with the aim of discovering the level of trust they have in 32 pre-determined occupations

[←25]

Charles Baudelaire

[←26]

Oscar Wilde