*originally written January 14, 2019

Week 13: I’ve still got puzzles on my mind, but now I’ve added doors to the swirling mind mix.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.” ~William Blake

The quote from William Blake was the inspiration for the name of one of my long-time favorite bands. You may have heard of them? The Doors? Yes? No? Not particularly spiritual, but definitely philosophical. I recently watched a documentary about the band and its troubled lead vocalist, Jim Morrison, or as I always think of him; James Douglas Morrison, poet. That’s how he wanted to be seen. Perception is a fickle thing, isn’t it? Jim was searching for something. Something that couldn’t be fulfilled by fame and the adoration of millions that comes with it, money and all it can buy, “sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll”, and all the things that outwardly seem to be the answers to solve any problem. It’s easy to look at his story and see a sex symbol, rock star who overindulged himself to death. My perception of him is that of a sad, tragic, broken man…his momma’s baby boy…who just couldn’t figure out how to fill the emptiness, the void, that he felt inside of himself. A deeply feeling artist who was searching. Looking for love in all the wrong places perhaps.

I wonder if anyone talked to Jim about Jesus. I wonder if someone did have a serious conversation with him about a savior who referred to himself as “The Door”. If someone did, then did Jim consider the option of this savior and what He had to offer him? Maybe as a boy he learned of The Door, back before fame and fortune and tragedy. Sometimes we have a door before us and we’re just afraid to open it. Maybe it’s wide open but we’re afraid to step through. Maybe we’re looking for a particular door but we can’t seem to find it…all the while ignoring one that’s there just for us but we don’t believe we deserve to walk through that door, there must be another one more on our level or that suits our own perception of what our door should look like, right?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers; or any, for that matter. I do feel like I’ve been around long enough that the doors of perception have been cleansed enough for me to recognize that man is indeed infinite. Not because William Blake said so, but because man has an eternal soul. The Door is the One who said so. I prefer to take His word for it.

Our lives really are a series of doors, of opportunities and choices. We are created as beings with eternal souls and the free will to decide what we want to do. We are free to decide, but we must also consider the consequences of those decisions, the results of which we are not free. Sometimes the easy door isn’t the best door. Sometimes the best outcome results in a walk through a tough door. Often times it’s difficult to know which one to choose, or it feels like they’re all closed, and the best way to figure it out is to stand in the hallway for a while.