Or is it? This article is rather lengthy, but such good stuff. I have strived for these exact same things - only with different terminology. What they call 'the Divine', we call God. Namaste - another way to say love, grace, acceptance.
http://www.yesyoucanchangetheworld.com/info/namaste
Everything is connected - I really believe that. There is a paragraph in this article that speaks exactly to what we've been learning in the TrueFaced study. This sounds so much like the realm of Pleasing God, rather than Trusting God. It speaks of beginning to act out of pure love and compassion, rather than a learned script of actions.
We get so focused on doing and thinking that we don't see the Divine that is right before us..."I think the reason we want to learn what to do and what to think is that doing so makes us feel safe. It gives us a sense of control. If someone gives me a 'proven' process or a step-by-step formula, it feels a lot easier, a lot more accessible, a lot more achievable."
If God is trying to teach me something, it comes at me in many different ways until I get it. Or, he simply speaks in a way that I will understand. I was taught all of my life that Eastern religions were wrong, and we should run from them in the same way we run from witchcraft. I'm just not seeing it. Everything in this article makes sense to me. Nothing I've heard in my yoga class is anti-Christ. In fact - it's brought me closer to God, by reminding me to be quiet, and listen, and pray.
I know only 2 or 3 people actually read this, but I welcome comments. I would really like to know if I'm getting way out there, or if it makes sense to you, too.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Avett Inspired
OK, I know I'm supposed to be working... I'm just feeling a little 'off'. Not sure why, maybe it's an illness, maybe just plain tired. Complete lack of energy. So I was surfing...
I ran across this article by Scott Avett today. (Oh yeah, I'm a huge fan. I feel like you can tell alot about people from their lyrics - and wow - a whole article! He IS cool like I thought he was! Here's proof. )
There's also a sermon by his grandfather, and a review of his book of sermons.
http://museandspirit.org/winter2010.html
This takes you to the table of contents, and you have to click on the articles. I dig it. I thought my artist and musician friends might as well...
I love this quote from the book review "There are people who have many masks but no face of their own" - Rev. Clegg Avett
~~~
I ran across this article by Scott Avett today. (Oh yeah, I'm a huge fan. I feel like you can tell alot about people from their lyrics - and wow - a whole article! He IS cool like I thought he was! Here's proof. )
There's also a sermon by his grandfather, and a review of his book of sermons.
http://museandspirit.org/winter2010.html
This takes you to the table of contents, and you have to click on the articles. I dig it. I thought my artist and musician friends might as well...
I love this quote from the book review "There are people who have many masks but no face of their own" - Rev. Clegg Avett
~~~
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Lessons from Shiloh...
You can learn so much from kids. Shiloh will be 1 in two days.
On Sunday, she was standing looking out the slider at my sister's house, and I was across the room, and I rolled a giant exercise ball (you know, the kind you sit on) towards her. I guess I have really bad (or really good) aim - because I realized it wasn't going to end up close to her, it was going to hit her! I was too far away to stop it, and I was freaking in my head, thinking - I'm going to hurt this child that I love - and she's going to be sad, and cry, and it will all be my fault... I started towards her just as it rolled right into her. Mind you, this thing is almost as tall as she is.
Then, the coolest thing happened. She turned to see what it was - and smiled and started playing with it. She was happy. I was happy (and relieved!).
I've just been tripping on what we can learn from that. hmmm...
- she was open to whatever it was that was interrupting her
- she embraced it (literally!)
- it ultimately brought her joy
I've been thinking lately about how everything is in our perception. If I see the ball (or whatever) coming at me as an intrusion or threat, because I have my agenda - it's gonna screw up my whole day. If I get interrupted, or things don't go as planned - and I am open to it - a whole new world could open up to me.
Let's look at every thing with awe and wonder, and embrace it, whatever it may be - change, loss, trials, random people striking up a conversation, anything that is unexpected. I believe joy will follow.
Shiloh and her mommy.Thursday, May 5, 2011
True-faced or two-faced?
http://donmilleris.com/2011/05/04/when-doing-good-isnt-really-doing-good/
This blog from Don Miller is coming at me very timely. We're doing a book study called 'TrueFaced', and it is kicking my self-righteous butt!
Just realizing how many things I've done through self-effort over the years, and selfishness. Living in the realm of 'Pleasing God' - trying to do the right thing, and be a good person - rather than the realm of 'Trusting God' - letting him love me, just because he loves me - and he made me just who I am. The book & video have a couple stories of different women, and how they have hurt others under the pretext of protecting themselves, or taking care of themselves. Building a wall around you in order to protect. And in doing so, others get hurt.
Yep, that's me.
One of the things John Lynch said in the video last night was that when you wear a mask - you don't receive love - only the mask receives love. Sad.
Sometimes the truth hurts, but - I believe - that 'when the student is ready, the teacher appears'. So it's time for me to take down those masks, to be who I really am, to let God (and others) love me. Then I will in turn be able to love others.
I wrote this poem when I was 16, Hmmm, I wrote it about someone else, but it seems appropriate...
Masks
Too many faces, I don't understand
Wearing your masks to no man's land
Seasons change, and so do we ~
But there's no need to hide from me.
I loved every face that you showed me,
though I know that they're really not you.
And every time I learn your ways,
you act out something new.
~tc
This blog from Don Miller is coming at me very timely. We're doing a book study called 'TrueFaced', and it is kicking my self-righteous butt!
Just realizing how many things I've done through self-effort over the years, and selfishness. Living in the realm of 'Pleasing God' - trying to do the right thing, and be a good person - rather than the realm of 'Trusting God' - letting him love me, just because he loves me - and he made me just who I am. The book & video have a couple stories of different women, and how they have hurt others under the pretext of protecting themselves, or taking care of themselves. Building a wall around you in order to protect. And in doing so, others get hurt.
Yep, that's me.
One of the things John Lynch said in the video last night was that when you wear a mask - you don't receive love - only the mask receives love. Sad.
Sometimes the truth hurts, but - I believe - that 'when the student is ready, the teacher appears'. So it's time for me to take down those masks, to be who I really am, to let God (and others) love me. Then I will in turn be able to love others.
I wrote this poem when I was 16, Hmmm, I wrote it about someone else, but it seems appropriate...
Masks
Too many faces, I don't understand
Wearing your masks to no man's land
Seasons change, and so do we ~
But there's no need to hide from me.
I loved every face that you showed me,
though I know that they're really not you.
And every time I learn your ways,
you act out something new.
~tc
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
If there were a tag line for my life, that would be it. It comes up again and again. I just found out someone else I know is fighting a hard battle. Everyone. Everyone is. So be nice, Teresa. You never know what they're going through.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Are our Thoughts and Intentions really Prayers?
So here's a random one. Guy walks up to me at church last night, I have no clue who he is, and when he tells me, I'm just blown. Wow, haven't seen him in 32 years - and let's just say - the years haven't been all that good to him.
We used to be close. He's spent a lot of time in prisons - when I was 17 I visited him in a couple of them. I wrote him a lot of letters.
So we're sitting in church watching a video, and all these memories are coming back...
He says that he's a Christian. But, yeah, everybody says that... But then after it's over, he says to me 'isn't God good?' Yeah, God is good, and I realize - people don't just randomly say 'isn't God good? unless they've experienced his goodness. Maybe he does know who God is - even though his life isn't perfect (who's is?).
Then I remember this: I was living in Woodland, and had read in the Lodi paper that he'd been arrested again, and would be heading back to prison - again. I can't tell you what year this was - but I know it was sometime between 1995 - 1998, because I remember where I was living. I just read that article, and felt compassion, and thought - this guy needs to know about Jesus, how sad for him that he's living out his life in prison. Mind you, I hadn't seen him since around 1980. So I wrote him a letter. I sent it to the county jail - 999 W Mathews Road, French Camp. (I'd sent a lot of letters there over the years.) Thing is - it came back. They'd already shipped him off to the big house. Oh well. I forgot about it until last night.
But then somehow, somewhere along the line - he did learn about Jesus. And I just saw that little letter that I wrote that day as a prayer. That even though it didn't get to him, it got to God. He read it, and he felt compassion, too. And he put people in Greg's path somewhere along the line that told him the Truth.
And once again, God blows me away with His love, His compassion - the length of His arms.
So I think - that our thoughts and intentions really are prayers - God is bigger than that we have to preface it with 'Dear God' and end it with 'Amen'. He hears our heart when it cries out. He speaks the language of our heart, in addition to properly formatted English.
We used to be close. He's spent a lot of time in prisons - when I was 17 I visited him in a couple of them. I wrote him a lot of letters.
So we're sitting in church watching a video, and all these memories are coming back...
He says that he's a Christian. But, yeah, everybody says that... But then after it's over, he says to me 'isn't God good?' Yeah, God is good, and I realize - people don't just randomly say 'isn't God good? unless they've experienced his goodness. Maybe he does know who God is - even though his life isn't perfect (who's is?).
Then I remember this: I was living in Woodland, and had read in the Lodi paper that he'd been arrested again, and would be heading back to prison - again. I can't tell you what year this was - but I know it was sometime between 1995 - 1998, because I remember where I was living. I just read that article, and felt compassion, and thought - this guy needs to know about Jesus, how sad for him that he's living out his life in prison. Mind you, I hadn't seen him since around 1980. So I wrote him a letter. I sent it to the county jail - 999 W Mathews Road, French Camp. (I'd sent a lot of letters there over the years.) Thing is - it came back. They'd already shipped him off to the big house. Oh well. I forgot about it until last night.
But then somehow, somewhere along the line - he did learn about Jesus. And I just saw that little letter that I wrote that day as a prayer. That even though it didn't get to him, it got to God. He read it, and he felt compassion, too. And he put people in Greg's path somewhere along the line that told him the Truth.
And once again, God blows me away with His love, His compassion - the length of His arms.
So I think - that our thoughts and intentions really are prayers - God is bigger than that we have to preface it with 'Dear God' and end it with 'Amen'. He hears our heart when it cries out. He speaks the language of our heart, in addition to properly formatted English.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
something else i read that i like... ( i don't know who to attribute it to, just not me)
The Rules for Being Human
You will receive a body:
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
You will learn lessons:
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
There are no mistakes, only lessons:
Growth is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
Growth is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
A lesson is repeated until learned:
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. You designed it that way.
When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. You designed it that way.
When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
Learning lessons does not end:
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned/remembered.
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned/remembered.
“There” is no better than “Here”:
When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
Others are merely mirrors of you:
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
What you make of your life is up to you:
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
Your answers lie inside you:
The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need do is look, listen and trust.
The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need do is look, listen and trust.
You will forget all this:
You can remember it whenever you want.
You can remember it whenever you want.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)