THE UNKNOWN

Everyday we face the unknown. 

I believe that life is precious and God gives me strength when I face difficult and dark days.

Watching the news we see war and violence, hunger and sickness.
Will there ever be peace between Israel  and the Gaza,  will they stop
murdering each other?    Will they find a home and a country where they can survive?  As usual the innocent suffer the most.

How can we know the whole truth and hear both sides of the issues?
What can we believe about the news we see and read and is the truth actually one day going to be revealed?

How do we find the faith that can produce hope and  keep us going?  Is there really a God?  Why are there so many misunderstandings?    How was something created out of nothing? 

Why is so much of life flawed and blemished?  Not only is perfection hard to grasp but so is the idea of God.
Does life have meaning and purpose?  How do I find out mine?
“Whatever we might imagine God to be-a good God, a loving God, an all-powerful God,
an all-knowing God- it is vital to remember that we can move from hope to belief to knowing.
 We can be reasonable and we do not have to be purely mystical.  He (She) is mystery! !

One thing I know for certain all of us human beings are imperfect and no one has all the answers.


Do we have to choose between science and religion?  I say no, they are two separate ways of looking at our world, each shines light on the other with their own knowledge and excellence!

All we can say is God does not exist for me or God does exist for me.  It is the same as believing in love, trust. and the deeper meaning to our existence.

I  loved the Secret Garden with the door that open to the discovery of a beautiful garden,
The spiritual path can begin with a state of uncertainty but one that can be hopeful.
I believe is a place of security and can lead to a true understanding that is knowing.
Every individual finds out for themselves especially if they are willing to keep asking questions and keep searching.  If you are a Buddhist you call this enlightenment and knowing.

Face the unknown and ask yourself why you know what you know.  Keep an open mind.  Se the good in people.  Learn from the life of Jesus and other wise saints or seers.  Read and learn from the spiritual experiences of others.

To experience times of  deep calm, strength or knowingness in times of trouble is God's presence with you!

I did not feel so good yesterday but I believed that today I would feel better.

Sandra has her pool,  Carol has her ocean and I am thankful for a bath tub of cool water!
Actually I shared it with  a huge mosquito

THE LISTNER

Jesus was a listener who urges us to be listeners.  According to what the prophets thought about what God may have said
they had heard Him saying  "I will hear because I am compassionate."  Exodus 22:27

Job's lament was that he wanted some one to listen to him.  Job:31:35  Even believers call out for some one out there to be listening.

I like the book of Ezekiel for many of the prophecies recorded.   "The Lord God said: Prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones hear the word of the Lord."  Ezekiel did and the breath entered them, they came to life and stood up on their feet.  A new covenant is promised that they would receive a new heart and a new spirit and remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

Jesus called the crowd to him and said: "Listen and understand."  :He who has ears, let him hear,"
"Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear."  "Listen to what the parable of the sower means."  He explains his words to the disciples and I am sure the crowd of people would go home after hearing it and ponder what it meant.

 I grew up with a very talkative brother  who often was trying to explain at mealtimes his poor grades.  I did well because I listened well at home and at school.  There would still be times when I got in trouble, once for talking in school.

I have become a little frustrated when I am just a listener and my opinion is not important.  Even my note was not really understood and one friend suggested I was experiencing the "Dark Night Of the Soul".
I am sure they would have gathered around me to pray for me, and this would be with a loving spirit but I would not be comfortable.  There have been times when I have needed healing prayer and it was helpful.

Yes I have changed on my journey towards the light  with the dim light that I have.
"This little light of Mine, I am going to let it shine."

In the movies when something spiritual happens there is a blinding light that awakens fear and awe, what I feel is that the light that shines upon me is more like the gentle dawn that gradually takes away the darkness.  I am at peace with this.

Saturday afternoon Dad and I looked at a few houses in our area for sale.  One had a bedroom with a balcony that looked down on the living room below.  There were doors that could be closed.  I always look for little spots I can sit in and even enjoy listening to sounds  outside the window.

Church today and I hope nothing interrupts us we get ready to leave which it has been doing.  I do not like being late but it is becoming a very bad habit.

I know if ten people say you are wonderful it only takes one negative comment to erase them from your mind.  I find the negative often speaks louder that the affirming voice.

I have to listen to my own body which is telling me I do not feel well.  Dizzy with a headache but had a short walk. 

TIME

 

 Time to find out the truth of what other religions believe and practice. To be human is to hold some things as sacred.  Such as the love of  family and  welfare of country,  honor and justice  and freedom for all.  Many more I think but it is good to look for things we agree on not what we disagree about.  Ordinary human beings learning how to love one another!  !  !

Time for peace.  To hold each human life as sacred.  To let go of  all bitterness.  I read that if Israel apologized for the suffering caused to Palestinian civilians in the 1948 war; such an apology would recognize the fundamental sacred issue at stake, and with that there was a possibility negotiations about the land may have continued.  This of course is just one opinion.

Time to be honest and open and see the other persons point of view.  We can always learn from each other.

Time to look back and remember.  I remember when I was small and you bough shoes you looked at your feet in an x-ray machine.  I can still remember those strange looking bones that made up my feet.  What a miracle!

I can remember sitting in our small little kitchen nook that just fit the four of us.  My brother was the talker while I often just gazed out the window and listened.  Good memory.  But now I find I am wanting to be heard.

Time for prayer to connect me to some hidden source of energy.  Prayer is the activity of one who is in doubt about the future while reaching out for the future.  This feeds the soul and restores energy to the body in my mind anyway.

Time for the weather to change and for the days to become shorter and the night longer.  I seem to have developed a habit of waking at 3 or 4 and worrying about things.  If I pray I fall back asleep.

Time to fix what is broken, either a relationship or a fixture in the house, like the bed up stairs that is broken.  Too many monkeys jumping on the bed!

Time to be happy and laugh and see humor in all situations.

Time to rest and be quiet and meditate on all I have to be thankful for!

Time for visitors to arrive.  Johnathon  arrived first to pick up some tools for Oliver to help with the fixing up of the house.  He and Oliver will be putting a new roof on.  Carol arrive to give John some things for Oliver too.  We   had a bite to eat out in the back yard and a good chin wag.

Carol and Panteli are interested in houses in this area so may come by on Sat.

THE WATCHER

I have decided to become a watcher and an observer of  how other people walk and I say, okay to myself , I do not want to walk like that.  This means concentration and determination.

As I came home from a short walk I see the orange cat sitting in the driveway next door to us glaring at all the dogs who go by, and yes it does scare them.  We were given the evil eye too when we first moved in.  We have now been accepted.

I m really watching out for skunks on my walk because they really scare me.

I am sure there are people watching us too.  Seeing dad go off on his bike now is the talk of the neighborhood.  He still has a lot of pain in his feet but at least he can go out and explore the world.

As I sat with Jim outside on the front of the Seniors Home I watch the Korean people coming and going.  They bow politely to one another and to me.  There seems to be a special calmness that surrounds each one.  Many of them are very old but still go for daily walks and join in singing in the choir.  I chuckle to myself as I think of Jim in the middle  of these Christian people, so orderly and happy.  We sit and gaze at the  the flowers that they have planted with so much energy and joy.  They show a deep appreciation for beauty.

I am reminded that in the end all I have to do is be present right where I am here and now.

NOTES

I am struggling to write a note to some old very dear friends.  A get together luncheon has been planned.  I am thinking I will say no.  These are my thoughts written down in my note book.

Dear Faithful Friends,
You were an inspiration to me and your prayers were a great blessing, but most of all it was your friendship.  Lots of laughter and sometimes tears but getting together always meant a lot to me.

 Times changed and so have all of us.  Well, I know I have.
Both dad and I have some serious ongoing health problems although we have much to be thankful for that we are doing as well as we are.

I tire even more easily than I did.  This is the result of stress and worry over dad’s health and a series of T.I.A.’s that I have had,  leaving me with less ability to walk,  to keep my balance and to speak.

I have improved my walking from wobbling and falling to walking with or without a cane.

 

My faith is still strong but I am not a fundamentalist,as it is expressed in the language of our culture.  Fundamentalism means adhering to or living by basic truths(which I believe we all try to do).  Our culture has seemed to turn this into a strict religion which creates mean, bigoted, hateful and sometimes stupid Christians.  Some of us go to heaven while others go to hell.  That does not sound like a loving and merciful God.
I have also attended freaky churches which attracted very broken people from dysfunctional backgrounds and life styles.  God is unshakable and we should be too.  This often means a lot of patience and healing and compassion.

I took Jim his birthday card today and I had hoped his daughter would be there but she was not so at least he had some token of recognition  of his birthday.  He is not an easy person to visit but I agree with him that it is impossible for him to believe in God, because his mind is made up.
These are some of the books I am reading at the moment.



I agree with a lot I read in  “Jesus versus Religion.

The od I know and truly believe in embraces us with all our faults and weaknesses.  In His love there is the knowing that I am deeply loved and known and forgiven.

I am content.  I do what I can with the energy I have.  I visit the elderly in my neighbor hood and in the Seniors Home.

I enjoy my family, my friends, my garden, my faith and my blogging.

I am so thankful that there has been healing in relationships in our family which is the greatest gift of grace!

I love to read and to keep learning.

I wish my friends a wonderful get together and am thankful foir the ways they have touched my life.  I am feeling vulnerable and sensitive at this time so I will not be joining you all.  Love to you all.

The funny thing is that I thought I wouldn't be able to write on the computer and now I am finding I like it better than writing in my notebook.

"Think beyond the reality of perfection"

IMMAGINATION

Yesterday was a perfect day and I am so thankful for the coolness in the morning, in fact the whole day was cooler.  I missed having Haiti on my walk today and I missed having her around the house.  The racoon came over the fence sure that he had won the battle.

I took Jim a birthday milkshake but I was a day early.  I had a good visit with some other people too so that was good.

Dad went on a big ride up to Guildford because he wants a container to carry things on his bike.  He has one order from another store.  He is doing amazingly well.
We also got my G.F. bread from White Rock and stopped to look in the consignment store next door.  It is very nicely set up.  I bought a white sweater for 7 dollars.  Very plain but just what I like.  I think my daughters may like this store too but you never know.

“When imagination is playing is playing its highest game, it is important not to let it come out in the open, lest reason should say “Nonsense” and the tension be lost.”  -L.W. Boston,  A Stranger at Greene Kowe.
I do not need to use my imagination as to know this past week-end would be great fun and it was!   It was great to have Shandel and Cameron there.

There is a poem by James W. Johnson who imagines the story of Creation in a work of art that makes the molding of man as a sculptor's work.  Maybe like many a artist they are not really sure of the end product.

"Up from the bed of the river God scooped the clay,
and by the bank of the river He kneeled down
and there the Almighty God who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
who flung the stars into the heavens to the far corner of the night,
who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
The great God like a mammy bending over her baby, kneeled  down in the dust
toiling over a lump of clay till He shaped it in his own image
(giving it a heart and a mind and emotions)
Then into it He blew the breath of life,
and man became a living soul.

Once this breath breaths new life into each one of us even though we are unworthy we feel His love and acceptance and we are worthy.

"Beneath the surface of every broken person
there is a work of art waiting to be revealed." 
- Mark Batterson,   -"The Circle Maker."

CONFESSIONS

“For the mind, awareness is the womb of creation.  To achieve a life filled with meaning, it is important to figure out how to be more aware and awake so that we can control our thoughts.
Expose your mind to a higher vision through art, poetry and music. 
Today the world is full of little messages that come from many sources one of which may be reading scripture, the newspaper or an interesting book
Early in the morning is a good place to start for me.

I have a confession to make that I feel stupid.  I did not use to feel this way and I did very well at school and was university material.  I think the many, many long stressful years of poor health did affect my brain.  I do not do well at playing games or answering questions,  It is no fun knowing you are not smart.

Always encourage your children to develop the skills they have and to find a goal for their lives.

The trouble is I often have trouble communicating with children and adults.


I did not like tasks that take brain skills and I did not even want to read books about the brain.  But now that my brain may be not doing its job I want to read and find out more about it.

There is a whole table on brain books at Chapters I would like to buy.  I guess I should check the library first that would be smart.

"Driven by what you want out of life, your personal growth works in reshaping your brain.  If you choose to grow and develop, you are guiding your own evolution."  -Super Brain Solutions.

Eating right along with exercise and study to learn something new increase the brain's ability.  There is hope for me even as I become more forgetful I have to train my self to be conscious of what I am doing.  Like when I walk the dog Haiti I have to be very alert, seeing squirrels or other dogs before she does so I can say No! No! Haiti do not even think of it!  (Seems quiet without her this morning I expect to have her waiting tail wagging for our walk!  She was so good.)

So two blogs in one day how brainy is that!