my sermon for today...

Dr. Eric Best wrote:

"Our experience is that we humans tend to have "conflicts and troubles" in three major areas:
a) Safety, security & money issues.
b) Sexuality, sensuality and pleasure issues.
c) Power, control & decision making issues.

I disagree. Those are NOT the important issues...they are the SYMPTOMS of a bigger, deeper, uglier problem. I believe that the narrow minded pursuit of some "thing" is a futile exercise, compared to what you "get" when you just look down at your feet, and up at the heavens in the here and right NOW. Give UP money and power and stop worrying about security and sex, and finally let go off the tight grip we all feel we must have on control, and just let it be...

Getting others to listen to us speak, and more importantly, HEAR what we are really saying, is like beating your head against a brick wall. I was lucky to have learned that horrible truth about people and their unwillingness, or is it an inability, to listen and hear. Some measure of this I learned from my father, as a kid....nothing I could say or do could make him see or understand MY light, my view, my opinion. He is a great daddy and I wouldn't trade him for the world, but communicating with him has ALWAYS been a struggle. I have never understood why we can't just BE....understanding and caring and relaxed and not out for a debate.

I have learned over the years, and through my flailings with my great Uncle F (see here and here), and the religious people in our family, not to mention my parents, and of course my own relationships with diabetes, men, work and insurance companies, that trying to make others understand MY light...no matter how right or true or correct or better or factually accurate...is USUALLY an unwinnable battle. I can ONLY change how I choose to react to others stupidity and closed minds and hearts and their inability to see the most crystal clear fact right in front of them... I endeavor to just accept them and love them, period.

The challenge is to be able to pin down what it is you WANT. So often when we talk about how horrible the world is, we just go on and complain about the idiocy and lunacy of all the other people...and yet we never speak of the good, the true, what we want to achieve, HOW to get there....The absolute truth is, you simply can not rationalize with some people, EVER, but you CAN and must forgive their transgressions and blindness or you will be alone in your light at the end. I say these things because they are true in me. Not in a materialistic, or egotistic way, but if we truly looked deep down, we'd KNOW what is right. we are islands, and we must live with ourselves first before we can reach out to other islands to form continents.

I think getting off line and getting the ducks and life in order are a good idea. Focus on fixing myself, before trying to fix everyone else, or the world. Eat healthy, take care of my body, get outside, find peace and happiness being alone, drink tea! God i wish i didn't have to work - I'd sit in that rocking chair on my dad's porch and crochet....make some jam.....read a BOOK (not a computer screen), sleep in a hammock and go for a nice long walk every day...that is truly HEAVEN....