Post No. 136: The Rapture Is Fearlessness

(Image from YouTube)

The Rapture Is Fearlessness
(Or, "The Rapture Is Your Fear 'Left Behind'")

'The Rapture' is fearlessness, because
the joy in life that you experience when
you make a "good" decision to face your
fear is due to the fact that your fear is "left
behind," once you face it! For, what a lot of
us souls fear is making a "bad" decision—and
having to deal with the negative consequences
of that "bad" decision. For example, you need to
figure out "which is the correct path to God in
life?", so that when God finally returns for the
Last Judgment, He sends you to Heaven—rather
than to Hell—and in that way, you have clearly
made a "good" decision. Therefore, you won't be
"left behind" with everyone who made a "bad"
decision. And that is what many souls truly fear:
specifically, it is making a "really bad" decision
with regard to "which is the correct path to God
in life?" However, what if 'The Rapture'—or the
joy from making a "good" decision—instead
came from you making a "good" decision to
face your fear? What that means is that
your fearlessness is 'The Rapture,' since
it is your fear that is "left behind."

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Poet, Artist and Philosopher)
"I am the poet who thinks that he knows it!"

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My Writing About Facing And Erasing Your Fears: If you face your fears, you will erase your fears... –Paul Whiting (written approximately on May 31st, 2012 and turned into 'my writing' on July 22nd, 2022)

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My Writing About How 'The Rapture' Is Fearlessness: 'The Rapture' is fearlessness, because the joy in life that you experience when you make a "good" decision to face your fear is due to the fact that your fear is "left behind," once you face it! For, what a lot of us souls fear is making a "bad" decision—and having to deal with the negative consequences of that "bad" decision. For example, you need to figure out "which is the correct path to God in life?", so that when God finally returns for the Last Judgment, He sends you to Heaven—rather than to Hell—and in that way, you have clearly made a "good" decision. Therefore, you won't be "left behind" with everyone who made a "bad" decision. And that is what many souls truly fear: specifically, it is making a "really bad" decision with regard to "which is the correct path to God in life?" However, what if 'The Rapture'—or the joy from making a "good" decision—instead came from you making a "good" decision to face your fear? What that means is that your fearlessness is 'The Rapture,' since it is your fear that is "left behind." –Paul Whiting (written August 29th, 2016, revised August 30th, 2016, revised October 23rd, 2021, revised June 28th, 2022, revised October 18th, 2022, revised May 2nd, 2023 and revised May 10th, 2024)

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My Writing About The Only Thing Preventing You From Being Happy: The only thing preventing you from being happy is you NOT facing your fear! –Paul Whiting (written September 18th, 2014, revised October 3rd, 2014, revised March 17th, 2015 and revised July 26th, 2022)

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My Writing About Transforming Fear Energy: If you face a fear—you transform the energy—and you never have to be burdened by that fear in the same way again. –Paul Whiting (written March 28th, 2015, revised June 22nd, 2022 and revised July 26th, 2022)

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My Writing About Your Enemy: Your enemy is your fear! –Paul Whiting (written September 16th, 2015 and revised July 26th, 2022)

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My Writing About Not Throwing Away Your Enemy, But Throwing Away Your Fear Of Your Enemy: You do need to "throw away" your enemy: it is the fear of your enemy—by facing your fear—that you need to "throw away." –Paul Whiting (written December 2nd, 2015 and July 26th, 2022)

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My Writing About Freedom From Fear: Happiness is freedom from fear! –Paul Whiting (written January 23rd, 2016 and revised July 26th, 2022)

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My Philosophical Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: "The Rapture" is fearlessness, because the joy in life that you experience when you make a "good" decision to face your fear is due to the fact that your fear is "left behind," once you face it!

Just so you know, I revised this poem, as I often do with my writing! And I changed how this poem was written when I was editing it on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer," "Small All White in the Forest," "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" and "Three Dark Horses" blogs. So, I wanted to show you how this poem used to be written, before I revised it as above.

And it used to be written like this:

'The Rapture' is fearlessness, because
the joy in life that you experience when
you make a "good" decision to face your
fear is due to the fact that your fear is "left
behind," once you face it! For, what a lot of
us souls fear is making a "bad" decision—and
having to deal with the negative consequences
of that "bad" decision. For example, you need to
figure out "which is the correct path to God in life?"
so that when God returns for the Last Judgment, He
sends you to Heaven—not to Hell—and in that way,
you have clearly made a "good" decision. Therefore,
you won't be "left behind" with everyone who made
a "bad" decision. And that is what many souls fear:
specifically, it is making a "really bad" decision with
regard to "which is the correct path to God in life?"
What if, however, 'The Rapture'—or the joy in
life from making a "good" decision—instead
came from you making a "good" decision to
face your fear? What that means is your
fearlessness is 'The Rapture,' since it
is your fear that is "left behind."

Thus, I revised this poem to be written as it is above.

And this poem was also published on my "Three Dark Horses," "Small All White in the Forest" and "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blogs (please see the hyperlinks below for the blogs), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message I am trying to convey through "Three Dark Horses," "Small All White in the Forest" and "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer." Plus, I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message I am trying to convey through my new "The Oneness Of God" spiritual practice!

This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.

-Paulee

https://threedarkhorses.blogspot.com

https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com

https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com

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This "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Post No. 136 was edited on July 2nd, 2026.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]

Post No. 073: The Keys To All Happiness

(Image from Linkedin)

The Keys To All Happiness:

1. Self-Responsibility: All Souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating Self-Responsibility for Your Own Soul—in context appropriate ways—is "The 'First' Key To All Happiness!"

2. Self-Expression: All Souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating Self-Expression for Your Own Soul—in context appropriate ways—is "The 'Second' Key To All Happiness!"

3. Self-Identity: All Souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating Self-Identity for Your Own Soul—in context appropriate ways—is "The 'Third' Key To All Happiness!"

4. Self-Care: All Souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating Self-Care for Your Own Soul—in context appropriate ways—is "The 'Fourth' Key To All Happiness!"

5. Self-Love: All Souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating Self-Love for Your Own Soul—in context appropriate ways—is "The 'Fifth' Key To All Happiness!"

6. Fear Facing: All Souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating Fear Facing for Your Own Soul—in context appropriate ways—is "The 'Sixth' Key To All Happiness!"

7. Fulfilling Work: All Souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating Work for Your Own Soul—in context appropriate ways—is "The 'Seventh' Key To All Happiness!"

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Poet, Artist and Philosopher)
"I am the poet who thinks that he knows it!"

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My Writing About A Good Work Ethic: A good work ethic equals being happy...and doing work well equals being fulfilled. –Paul Whiting (written approximately on August 1st, 2014, turned into a quote from my notes on July 9th, 2022 and revised August 24th, 2022)

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My Writing About Work Being The Source Of All Happiness: The source of all happiness is doing work! –Paul Whiting (written December 2nd, 2015, revised July 7th, 2022 and revised August 24th, 2022)

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My Writing About Happiness Having To Be Engineered: Happiness has to be engineered, since we are Literally Nothing that is self-aware! And that is why every single, little thing has to be thought into existence by being designed, built through trial and error efforts, tested for workability, verified as effective, implemented as planned and, finally, maintained and repaired. And—if necessary—every single, little thing also has to be rethought, redesigned, rebuilt through trial and error efforts, retested for workability, reverified as effective, reimplemented as planned, and then re-maintained and re-repaired, etc... –Paul Whiting (written March 5th, 2022, revised May 31st, 2022 and revised July 25th, 2022)

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My Writing About 'The Seven Steps To Happiness,' So To Speak, As They Relate To Fear, Understanding And Love [March 27th, 2023 Update—Continued Further (Originally From My Blog Post Titled, "I Am No Longer Being An Activist In The Same Way That I Was," Which Is On My "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Blog)]:

This 'March 27th, 2023 Update—Continued Further' is originally from my blog post titled, "I Am No Longer Being An Activist In The Same Way That I Was" on my "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" blog, which also appears on some of my blogs as the following: "My Writing About 'The Seven Steps To Happiness,' So To Speak, As They Relate To Fear, Understanding And Love." And what inspired this writing is an idea that—as a philosopher—I have been thinking about for quite some time regarding the steps that one has to take in order to be hard working and honest.

And the idea I had been thinking about—which I was planning to eventually put into writing as grouped into seven subcategories within a larger category, or seven individual steps on a lifelong journey—went something like the following statement:

1) You have to assume risk 2) in order to solve problems 3) through the utilization of trial and error effort 4) since you have to make mistakes 5) and you have to learn from your mistakes 6) so that you can face your fears 7) which is why you can be hard working and honest!

Then, on March 27th, 2023, the day that I wrote this 'update,' I was contemplating the connection between fear (which is negative energy), understanding (which is neutral energy) and love (which is positive energy). And I had also been thinking over some period of time about the direct connection between the facing of fear, which leads to an understanding of that fear by facing it, which then leads to an inversion of that fear into its exact opposite state of love.

Thus, these two different types of thinking about how to be hard working and honest, as well as how to invert your fear into love through understanding of a particular fear by facing that fear, came together in my mind, which is why I created "My Writing About 'The Seven Steps To Happiness,' So To Speak, As They Relate To Fear, Understanding And Love."

Here are "The Seven Steps To Happiness":

Step To Happiness No. 1: You need to assume calculated risk in order to face your fears so that you are able to invert (or, "convert to the opposite state of energy") your fear—which is negative energy—so that you can solve the many problems in life that are "down-to-earth," so to speak, because they are gravity-based problems (such as access to healthy food, clean water, fresh air, sufficient clothing, adequate personal care products, quality health care, affordable housing, efficient transportation, etc.) and also psychologically-based problems (such as having plenty of satisfying friendships, romance, quality time with family, relaxation, sleep, etc.).

Step To Happiness No. 2: And you sometimes need to create solutions "out of thin air," so to speak, when you are facing your fears, by assuming risk and solving problems through trial and error effort. Thus, solving "down-to-earth" problems is no small task because sometimes the "out-of-thin-air" solutions may be the only thing that you have available in your proverbial took box. And you have test (or, try out) those "out-of-thin-air" solutions to see if they frickin' work in order to solve those "down-to-earth" problems!

Step To Happiness No. 3: Then, while you are testing (or, trying out) the "out-of-thin-air" solutions to your "down-to-earth" problems, through trial and error effort, you have to make mistakes (sometimes, really big mistakes!), so that you can learn from your "trial-and-error" mistakes (even the really big mistakes!) and that way you are able to do better in future after having learned from your (sometimes, really big!) mistakes.

Step To Happiness No. 4: Now, because you can do better in future, since you are able to learn from your "trial-and-error" mistakes, that is what makes it possible for you to be hard working and honest, which is why you can be happy!

Step To Happiness No. 5: Thus, you can face your fear (which is negative energy) and invert—or, "convert to the opposite state of energy"—your fear into understanding (which is neutral energy), since you can finally understand exactly why you were fearful! And that is what makes it possible to convert your fear into the opposite state of love (which is positive energy) through your understanding of that particular fear by having faced the fear.

Step To Happiness No. 6: To clarify though, facing your fear is no small task, since fear can be abjectly terrifying! So, when I talk about facing fears, I mean the really big fears, like having everything go horribly wrong and having to pick up the pieces of your world that may very well have completely shattered. However, that doesn't mean that all fear facing is nearly that intense, but it sure can be, depending upon the circumstances in which you are facing your fears and the types of fears that you are facing.

Step To Happiness No. 7: Therefore, you need to have a healthy respect for assuming calculated risk in order to face your fears by creating solutions to problems through trial and error effort, because you sometimes have to make really big mistakes, and learn from those mistakes, so that you can do better in future, which is what makes it possible for you to be hard working and honest, and that is why you can be happy! So, facing fears is inverting the negative energy of fear into the neutral energy of understanding, which is what makes the positive energy of love possible, since you understand why you were fearful. That is why facing your fears is no small task, because fear can be abjectly terrifying, hence the need to have a healthy respect for assuming calculated risk.

So, in summary "The Seven Steps To Happiness" are accomplished by doing the following:

1) You need to assume calculated risk in order to face your fears by
2) creating solutions to problems through trial and error effort, and by
3) making mistakes, then learning from those mistakes, so that you can do better in future, since
4) learning from your "trial-and-error" mistakes is what makes it possible for you to be hard working and honest, thereby making it possible for you to
5) invert your fear into understanding first and then into love second; however,
6) facing your fears is no small task because fear can be abjectly terrifying, therefore,
7) you need to have a healthy respect for assuming calculated risk, in order to face your fears by creating solutions to problems through trial and error effort, because you sometimes have to make really big mistakes, and learn from those mistakes, so that you can do better in future, which is what makes it possible for you to be hard working and honest, and that is why you can be happy!

–Paul Whiting (written March 27th, 2023, revised March 28th, 2023, revised March 29th, 2023, revised May 24th, 2023, revised May 30th, 2023, revised June 8th, 2023 and revised August 28th, 2023)

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My Philosophical Notes:

The reason that I wrote this prose can be summed up with the following statement: All souls began as Literally Nothing, so creating self-responsibility, self-expression, self-identity, self-care, self-love, fear facing and fulfilling work for your own soul—in context appropriate ways—are the keys to all happiness! Thus, happiness has to be engineered, since we are Literally Nothing that is self-aware! And that is why every single, little thing has to be thought into existence by being designed, built through trial and error efforts, tested for workability, verified as effective, implemented as planned and, finally, maintained and repaired. And—if necessary—every single, little thing also has to be rethought, redesigned, rebuilt through trial and error efforts, retested for workability, reverified as effective, reimplemented as planned, and then re-maintained and re-repaired, etc...

And this prose was also published on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this prose applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer."

This prose was written in Portland, Oregon.

-Paulee

https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com

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This "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Post No. 073 was edited on May 3rd, 2024.

"Prose is using all of the words that are necessary in order to describe all that is necessary to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]

Post No. 071: For St. Patrick's Day 2015 — "You Can't Stop Living Life Just Because You Might Be Dead"

(Image from Happy Holidays 2015)

You Can't Stop Living Life Just
Because You Might Be Dead

You can't stop living life [today]
just because you might
be dead [tomorrow].

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Poet, Artist and Philosopher)
"I am the poet who thinks that he knows it!"

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My Writing About Still Living Life Even Though You Might Be Dead: You can't stop living life just because you might be dead. And I intend the aforementioned statement in the most positive, and respectful, way possible—and without any disrespect for anyone who may been dealing with some kind of life-threatening health condition, or terminal illness, like I am. (The reader should know that I am HIV-positive with full-blown AIDS. And I have almost died on multiple occasions, due to multiple infections, but that was mostly before I started taking HIV medications, which greatly improved my health.) So, I wrote the above-mentioned statement when I realized that I wasn't really living life because I was so afraid dying. Thus, that was the place where I was coming from in giving this kind of flippant life advice. –Paul Whiting (written March 16th, 2015, revised August 25th, 2022 and revised April 17th, 2023)

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My Writing For St. Patrick's Day 2024 [March 17th, 2024 Update No. 1] (Originally From My Blog Post Titled, "I Am No Longer Being An Activist In The Same Way That I Was," Which Is On My "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Blog): Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

By the way, the proper shortened name for St. Patrick's Day is "St. Paddy's Day," NOT "St. Patty's Day," as explained below from Merriam-Webster.com:

St. Patrick’s Day can be referred to in informal contexts as “St. Paddy’s Day.” Paddy is the shortened form of the original Irish spelling of Patrick, which is Pádraig, and for this reason is usually preferred over “St. Patty’s Day,” which could also be mistaken for the shortened form of the name Patricia.

And the following is 'My Writing' for St. Patrick's Day 2024 (or, "St. Paddy's Day" 2024, as noted above).

My Writing About 'A Bit Of Irish,' Version No. 1: There's a little bit of Irish in all of us! –Paul Whiting (written March 13th, 2024 and revised March 17th, 2024)

My Writing About 'A Bit Of Irish,' Version No. 2: There's a bit o' Irish in all of us! –Paul Whiting (written March 13th, 2024 and revised March 17th, 2024)

My Writing About Luck Not Being An Accident: Luck is no accident! For, luck is based upon hard work and honesty, assuming calculated risk, facing your fears, planning ahead and following through, making mistakes, then learning from those mistakes, and doing better in the future. Thus, the reason that you can be lucky in the future is because you were hard working and honest in the past! –Paul Whiting (written March 13th, 2024 and revised March 17th, 2024)

My Writing About Being Lucky In The Future: The reason that you can be lucky in the future is because you were hard working and honest in the past! –Paul Whiting (written March 13th, 2024 and revised March 17th, 2024)

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My Philosophical Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: I wrote this poem when I was worrying about dying (as I often do, since I am HIV-positive with full-blown AIDS) and I realized that I couldn't stop living life today just because I might be dead tomorrow!

And this poem was also published on my "Small All White in the Forest" and "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blogs (please see the hyperlinks below for the blogs), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message I am trying to convey through "Small All White in the Forest" and "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer."

This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.

-Paulee

https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com

https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com

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This "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Post No. 071 was edited on March 18th, 2026.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]

Post No. 059: Talk About The Elephant In The Room!

(Image from Wikipedia)

Talk About The Elephant In The Room!
(Or, "My Fear Of Republican Extremists")

Sometimes, we need to "talk about the elephant in the room!" In other words, we sometimes need to talk about "a major problem or controversial issue that is obviously present but avoided as a subject for discussion because it is more comfortable to do so."

And the reason that we sometimes need to "talk about the elephant in the room" is because of our own fear.

Therefore, we sometimes need to talk about our fear in a safe, non-judgmental environment—such as with family, or friends, or in a therapeutic setting—so that we can face our fear and, thusly, we can transform and, consequently, heal the energy of our fear.

For example, I need to "talk about the elephant in the room" with regard to my fear that Republican Extremists have taken over the government of United States of America on behalf of wealthy elitists, such as the Koch Brothers (in other words, "the millionaire and billionaire classes"), who have publicly acknowledged wishing to turn America into an oligarchy!

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Poet, Artist and Philosopher)
"I am the poet who thinks that he knows it!"

My Writing About The Elephant In The Room: Sometimes, we need to "talk about the elephant in the room!" And the reason that we sometimes need to "talk about the elephant in the room" is because of our own fear. Therefore, we sometimes need to talk about our fear in a safe, non-judgmental environment—such as with family, or friends, or in a therapeutic setting—so that we can face our fear and, thusly, we can transform and, consequently, heal the energy of our fear. –Paul Whiting (written December 20th, 2014, revised September 13th, 2022 and revised November 13th, 2022)

My Philosophical Notes:

The reason that I wrote this prose can be summed up with the following statement: "Sometimes, we need to 'talk about the elephant in the room!'"

And this prose was only published on my "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" blog.

This prose was written in Portland, Oregon.

-Paulee

This "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Post No. 059 was edited on May 3rd, 2024.

"Prose is using all of the words that are necessary in order to describe all that is necessary to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]

Post No. 050: Your Happiness Is Prevented By Your Fear

(Image from Pastor Mark Martin)

Your Happiness Is
Prevented By
Your Fear

Your Happiness Is Being
Prevented By Your Fear! So,
The Only Thing Preventing
You From Being Happy Is
You NOT Facing Your Fear!

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Poet, Artist and Philosopher)
"I am the poet who thinks that he knows it!"

My Writing About Facing And Erasing Your Fears: If you face your fears, you will erase your fears... –Paul Whiting (written approximately on May 31st, 2012 and turned into 'my writing' on July 22nd, 2022)

My Writing About The Only Thing Preventing You From Being Happy: The only thing preventing you from being happy is you NOT facing your fear! –Paul Whiting (written September 18th, 2014, revised October 3rd, 2014, revised March 17th, 2015 and revised July 26th, 2022)

My Writing About Transforming Fear Energy: If you face a fear—you transform the energy—and you never have to be burdened by that fear in the same way again. –Paul Whiting (written March 28th, 2015, revised June 22nd, 2022 and revised July 26th, 2022)

My Writing About Your Enemy: Your enemy is your fear! –Paul Whiting (written September 16th, 2015 and revised July 26th, 2022)

My Writing About Not Throwing Away Your Enemy, But Throwing Away Your Fear Of Your Enemy: You do need to "throw away" your enemy: it is the fear of your enemy—by facing your fear—that you need to "throw away." –Paul Whiting (written December 2nd, 2015 and July 26th, 2022)

My Writing About Freedom From Fear: Happiness is freedom from fear! –Paul Whiting (written January 23rd, 2016 and revised July 26th, 2022)

My Philosophical Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: The only thing preventing you from being happy is you NOT facing your fear!

And this poem was also published on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer."

This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.

-Paulee

https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com

This "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Post No. 050 was edited on May 3rd, 2024.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]