My Mind is Tom. Tom is my Mind.

The mind is a strange and scary entity.  As an atheist I guess my personality, character and even ‘destiny’ comes mainly from how my brain is wired.  There is no God, universe, karma, luck or fate to guide my life or define my ‘soul.’  My life is not mapped out before me like a toy car on an electric race track.  I do not believe in predestination.  How this life I occupy reveals itself is down to the choices I make through the circumstances I encounter.

My mind has (and does) played tricks on me and decisions I have made have been misjudged because of impaired mental awareness.  In illness I made choices which were wrong and these choices created a different path to the one I hoped would be set out before me.  It has not been destiny or God’s intervention but my actions (or inactions) in specific scenarios and situations.  To cut or not to cut; to say yes or no; to speak up or stay silent; to walk away or not.

The mind I have is not an entity which infects and controls me as if I am a shell controlled like a brainwashed creature.  When I refer to my mind I am, in fact, referring to me.  I am my mind and my mind is me.  My mind is Tom. Tom is my mind. I am Tom.

I have had many moments where I have felt intruded upon, where my mind has been in the clutches of a foreign creature seeking to suck the core of my being from me.  This creature (this Intruder) with the intent on destroying me though has only been me.  My Intruder has no power because he doesn’t exist.  I am the owner of my mind and the keeper of my destiny.  I walk this path and decide what fork to take and what road to travel.

It is my choice to live a healthy, full and exuberant life.