Only Buddha in Town

Alanna Maure

Description

Alanna takes readers on a spiritual journey that is often hilarious, always thought-provoking.What happens when a young woman's heart is threatened? In this spiritually witty story, Alanna brings readers on a journey from Italian Catholic to burgeoning independence to a heart stopping incident to Buddha. Alanna defines meaning for the young "Me Generation" lost in a world of "Huh?" with her fast-paced, everyday prose. The Only Buddha in Town is spirituality with an edge.

Sujets

• Assertiveness
• Mind
• Body
• Humour

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 22 avril 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781937520861
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Only Buddha in Town

ALANNA MAURE
With Matt Benacquista
ISBN 978-1-937520-86-1
Published by First Edition Design eBook Publishing
April 2012
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



Published by Turn the Page Publishing LLC (PRINT)
P. O. Box 3179
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043

Copyright © 2012 Alanna Maure

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including printed or electronic versions now known or hereinafter devised, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information address
Turn the Page Publishing, P. O. Box 3179, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043.

Library of Congress Control Number 2012935879

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Cover Design by Mark Delbridge, Delbridge Design LLC
Photo by Philip J. Carvalho, Aero-Industrial Communications
Thank you for making me look beautiful for my pictures!
Tricia Slocum, Gia@ Ion Studio, NY, NY
Katie @ Glenn Goldbaum’s Lambs and Wolves, Red Bank, NJ
Thank you Liz Orr for my one of kind feather ring!
Acknowledgements

Thank you God. Thank you Buddha.

Thank you waiting, for teaching me patience. Thank you disappointment, for teaching me joy. Thank you heartache for showing me my strength.

Thank you to my siblings, Dayna, Tommy, Jillian for always being my biggest fans.

Thank you to my sister-in-law Heather and brother-in-law Armando for supporting me.

Thank you to my nephew Tommy and Niece Lola for always making me smile and teaching me unconditional love.

Thank you, Julie Alongi, for being my angel on earth and helping me reach my dream.

Thank you, Magdelana Messenger, for the spiritual guidance you give me.

Thank you, Roseann, for taking a chance on me.

Thank you, Ms. Bailey, my 12th grade creative writing teacher, who said I’d be crazy not to write for a living.

Believing in me made a difference.

Thank you, Caitlin Gilligan, Dina Longo, RJ DelRusso, Adam Seabra, Cara Tellie, Meaghan Kelly, Sean McLaughlin, Megan Yuppa and the rest of my friends!

Thank you to all the Vets, past, present, future.

And especially, Matt, for the wonderful edits, but most importantly for the laughs and spirit in working with me!

LOVE. GRATEFUL. PEACE.
DEDICATION

To my parents

Thank you, Dad, for your strength;
Thank you, Mom for your heart.
Combined makes me.
Thank you for always believing in me.
“ The willingness to be ‘ok’ with
whatever comes your way.
To staying centered and never losing
who you are, and realizing
what you are made of.”
— Alanna
Chapter One - The Only Buddha in Town

“Some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity...” — Gilda Radner

A wise man once said,
“Spirituality is the path
To finding one’s true way home.”

I always thought the best way to find one’s way home was to Google Map it, or punch in your address in your navigation system. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to realize one of the most important truths in life: it’s really not about the clothes you wear, or the cars you drive, or even the number of “G’s” your cell phone has—life is all about learning to love ourselves and being content to spend every waking moment of our existence basking in the glory of our own individual identities.
Sounds tricky, right? Well let’s just say that everybody’s journey is different and takes a variety of paths. The only thing I can do is offer some insight and give a little advice on how I found my way through the craziness that is my life, and maybe help you navigate through yours. Hopefully, you will be able to relate and learn from what I have to say. And if not, well then I hope you can laugh a whole lot along the way.
Joel Osteen once said, “Don’t put a question mark where God has put a period.” This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. Why? Well, if you take a few moments to really digest these seemingly simple words, the truth you may find in them could be life changing. Here’s what I make of Mr. Osteen’s wonderful words of wisdom:
When something significant in your life is over—like the pursuit of a certain love interest, or the frightening quest for a career change—and you know deep down inside that you gave it your best shot, but you’ve failed and you are finally all out of hope, your best was simply not enough not because you are a failure, but only because God has a better plan.
How annoying, right? You want to fight and protest and scream and drain all your energy because you want what you think you deserve. I get it—believe me, I sympathize. But whatever it is you think you’re entitled to, and wholeheartedly believe should be yours, just wasn’t meant to be. And maybe it will be someday, but as the old adage goes: we must set it free to see if it’s going to happen; or come true; or something like that.
This just seems like it would be so simple to accomplish, right? Well of course not. It’s probably one of the hardest things to do, especially if you’ve put a lot of blood, tears, and sweat into it. Why is this so damn difficult? Because we are impatient and we feel we deserve immediate gratification. And what is the result of our failure? We get stressed out of our minds and become angry and obsessed. Then all of a sudden we start hating people and ourselves and our lives because we don’t have what we want as fast as we wanted it. Can you say, “Snowball effect?” It takes more energy to do all of this worrying and complaining than to just think, “I am setting what I want free and if I am supposed to have it, I will.”
Okay, so we thought positive for a moment! But then it’s back to laying in bed at night stressing about our limitations and not sleeping well at all. Of course we wake up tired and irritable and angry and can’t function properly, and our immune system weakens and we get sick. Or we pick up strange addictions like Dr. Pepper or Origami or Twitter, just to escape feeling that we suck because we are disappointed and no longer believe in ourselves. We don’t put our trust in anything anymore and we seek-OUT of ourselves to find happiness.
As I write this I’m actually laughing out loud because I was that person. I have thrown my hands up in disgrace and disgust a million times in my life and said, “Oh I can’t believe in this spiritual stuff anymore! I’m not getting what I want and I am pissed off about it.” I was raised Catholic and was told that God would help me if I prayed, went to church, and was a good citizen. Well, I may not have gone to church as much as He liked, but I sure did pray a whole hell of a lot. And I was a damn good citizen—sometimes.
And so I prayed! And prayed! And prayed! And sure enough, well, let’s just say more times than not, I didn’t get what I wanted. That’s right. And when I didn’t get what I had wanted in that moment, I would give up and throw everything I believed in out the window. I would say, “God I have been praying and praying and praying to you for like three minutes, can you please just give me what I want? Please?” Then I would like, stub my toe really hard walking out of a room and laugh because I felt it was His way of saying, “Cut the shit Alanna and stick to my plan.” God’s controlling that way—He wants things His way. So why fight it?
See, in His plan, we are happy and have everything we need. In our plan we may choose wrong and it takes us a lifetime to realize His was the better way. Think of the times that we do put our faith in Him—when a child/spouse/parent/ family member is sick; or we’re hoping against hope to get that job we’ve always wanted; or we need the snow to fall extra heavy so the roads will be closed and we won’t have to work the next day.
He is always with us—giving us signs, leading us away from disaster and toward safety, and hopefully, eventually, to our true happiness. Just listen for it and try to hear and feel His energy. Now, I’m not saying go out and take the subway in New York City alone at 3 a.m. and think, “God is with me, and I will be fine.” That’s not how it works. We all know the horror stories of those late night solo subway rides where people have been attacked—apparently God cannot see underground through pavement. Just kidding G, no offense! Every person should know better that certain actions and places are not safe, and no one is excluded from perilous possibilities. Bad things happen, period. I do not have any answers as to why. I am not God, but I’m pretty sure he’s thinking, “Play it safe people.