A Plethora of Platitudes?

Universal human rights include freedom of expression and freedom of belief, even if our words or beliefs denigrate the humanity of others. Yet, while we are each free to believe whatever we choose, we cannot do whatever we choose, not in a world where we protect the human rights of all.

One has an inalienable right to be normal (whatever ‘normal’ is, like the proverbial setting on a dryer), AND a right to be moronic OR even bigoted. It is not illegal to be crazy, but it is sometimes illegal to act crazy.

Me, I prefer to quit fighting anything and anybody. I no longer have the time or energy to hate the haters. Hatred in the human heart, no matter if it is directed against a race or against (someone's perception of) "ugly" (it’s hard to even type such a thing…ugh!), a political party, type of car, someone holding a sign, judges, cops, etc. Only being ugly is ugly, but even that warrants forgiveness.

I’m OK with ‘sounding like a broken record’ by repeating this, but here I go again: "Mean what you say, say what you mean, but don't say it mean” and “Truth without compassion is cruelty.”

Letting go of anger was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life, because I was RIGHT, darn it! We've all heard it by now: “Do you wanna be right, or do you wanna be happy?”

Mary Jo Robinson, a wise old soul (RIP) taught me to, “Never get into a pissin' contest with a skunk!”

KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid (said I to myself with a chuckle).

Peace~

Plants and Humans GROW Toward the Light (On Abuse & Healing)

It's enigmatic to me why some abused people don't become what happened to them and others do. It might seem a hard pill to swallow, but 'In God's Economy, nothing is wasted". The Japanese use gold to repair broken vessels rather than throw the vessels in the trash bin of life.

It occurred to me at some point of my MADD Ministry, probably while contemplative prayer before a speech, that if a plant is placed in a basement with but one small window for sunlight to enter, the plant will grow toward the light, thus perhaps 'bending' its stalk at an extreme angle. Relocating the plant from said basement and placing it in a healthy environment surrounded by plants that 'grew up' in a 'normal' environment will not immediately transform the plant into a healthy looking plant. In time, nature and sunlight will eventually rectify the situation, but typically, the aberrant appearing plant is rejected as weird or strange and is sometimes 'arrested' and relocated back to the basement of life, sometimes doomed to a lifetime of despair over being 'different and damaged'.

Maybe treatment over incarceration would suffice, I don't know, but one thing I believe helps is to stay loving, and to take our power back to love and forgive. In time, most plants heal when surrounded by the sunlight of the spirit.

But in all cases, they are just 'growing toward the light'.

ANGER, RESPONSIBILITY & SELF-FORGIVENESS

I've heard it said that anger is a higher value ("vibration") than self-loathing. I question that. Anger for me feels like the ultimate form of self-loathing. Is anger my own projection? I bet it is, which makes anger 'self' focused; one can take account (-ability) of the rage or passion as the INSIDE-STORY that created it. Our life reflects or expresses the result of our dominant thoughts. “For love is exultant when it unites equals, but it is triumphant when it makes that which was unequal equal in love.” ― Soren Kierkegaard

Can't We All Get Along, The Holy Moment as Expressed by the REAL Rodney King

In my early 20's, I had the good fortune to read, "Myths, Models, and Paradigms: A Comparative Study in Science and Religion," authored by Ian Barbour who won the Templeton Award for his work. He addressed through a Venn Diagram how the bridge of science and the shore of faith can 'co-exist' through the medium of shared language. When science talks to or 'at' religion in the language native to science, the language of faith cannot be accessed (no dialog occurs). Conversely, if religion talks in their native tongue to or 'at' science, then once again, futility reigns supreme. But there is a space wherein both disciplines have a common language, an overlapping area between the two seemingly opposing disciplines. This general idea of common language or experience as a uniting principle intrigued me, and here it is 40 years later, I'm still using the concept. I suspected there are overlaps between all people, systems of thought, and principles, wherein all healing and peace have a chance to thrive, as a Shaman Medicine Woman said, 'in a balance of polarities.'

If the Tower of Babel was real, then I bet the problem was everyone thinking they are unique, they are right, and they clung to this 'separation consciousness' until all communication broke down. In another setting where everyone spoke different languages (Day of Pentecost), they all understood one another through the Universal Gift of the Holy Spirit. The following example might seem like a stretch, but maybe in Quantum Mechanics, the language of spirit is emerging whereby religion and science have an opportunity to live in the present peacefully. Everything is connected, and even the molecules themselves are subject to our prayers (faith) and intentions (science) to know the truth and find mutual freedom.

You know, it seemed an easy thing to look for the good in "others" to look for the overlapping WE SPACE and to move forward from there. It's not the Minnesota Nice head-trip thing whereby we employ passive, polite reservations to arrive at peace with others. Instead, it is leaving our acquired comfort zone and finding our strength through shared vulnerability. It's more than just the art of diplomacy, it is arriving at a state of being teachable. Both science and religion can TRUST themselves enough to trust one another. Go in with a clean slate. The overlap might be dangerous territory and appear quite narrow, but it's the 'biggest small place' in the world. It's the ONLY place where we can all fit together perfectly, but know that the world and its institutions will try to distract you, call you out of the straight and narrow unity, to maintain its addiction to judgment (separation consciousness).

During the most challenging time of my life AKA the Dark Night of the Soul, I had everything burned away from me (the Gift of Fire) that wasn't real, that separated my perception from the Unconditional Grace of God's Love. Hence, the Seneca quote that encapsulates this for me: 'Ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes viros.' Translated: 'Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.'

My spending 3 & 1/2 years in the ‘Dark Night’ left my old self dead; "Self" emerged. All that was left of 'me' was bare bones or bare metal, the skeleton of truth with which I could rebuild my life; an ultimate sense of innocence emerged, a sacred space where nothing could separate me from our Creator emerged. We are all created to experience this unity if we allow it. It is our Shared Space of Overlap, the part of ourselves we cannot screw up and no one 'else' can screw up, either.

We were created with a clean slate, and it's always been the case that we are innocent. Were it not so, we would not be directed to 'be as little children,' childlike, which is not to be confused with childish. When a scientist has a pure intention set in search of truth, they are expressing that childlike innocence to which I refer. When a person of faith has a pure plan (prayer) in pursuit of truth, they also experience childlike innocence. "The truth shall set you free" was not just for people of faith. Our common denominator is our real starting point; a quote from A Course in Miracles might be helpful: "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God". This same truth exists between all people, offender and victim, republican and democrat, and even between all religions and atheism.

Jean-Paul Sartre, an Atheist Existentialist (I lean to Christian Existentialism), wrote an interesting book, titled, Existentialism and Human Emotions. A great book well worth the read, I might add. One of Sartre's most famous quotes was, "Hell is other people," which I uncomfortably dismissed when I first read it. Then a light bulb appeared over my head, and I realized OTHER people was the crux of the objection I had. If I don't see OTHERS as OTHERS and see them as they truly are, then hell itself disappears. CS Lewis pointed out that "The door to hell is only unlocked from the INSIDE'. Separation Consciousness is a sure version of hell.

What's compelling about Heaven, is that it can align with both science and religion equally. The sun shines on us all. An inspirational quote by Hāfiz about the value of Love: “Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, 'You owe me.'

On Joy & Sorrow, Jubran Khalil Jubran (Khalil Gibran)

Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy. 
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced. 
When the reassure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Problem with the Lint God

Just as a dog stares toward an unidentified, unfamiliar sound,

and a cat immediately relocates away from the meaningless sound thereof,

the intuitive contour releasing one from the bondage of non-discernment

rarely meaningfully intersects

the illusory

human spirit of

procrastination. 

Problems with the Lint God

begin and with the maintenance of cleaning

the Lens on the Camera called

Service.

No One's More Humble Than Me

In the School of Prayer, invisible doors open and close on the hinges of humility (no demands, expectations, nor comprehension stand as a requisite to cooperation). 

Many years ago, I read a book titled, “The Good Old Timers”.  It was a historical insight into the personalities behind the Oxford Movement, out of which grew a well-known organization that flourishes today called Alcoholics Anonymous.  It was interesting reading about what motivated these individuals to create a movement to help the helpless, denigrated souls who were generally considered hopeless because they were “alcoholic”.

One of the more prominent figures of the time was a proctologist known as, Dr. Bob.  For decades, Dr. Bob had a plaque on his desk which in some circles came to be known as the Humility Prayer or Statement. The original source is attributed to Andrew Murray, a South African Minister. It moved me such that I would like to share in this article the contents thereof.

“Perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble.  It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore;  to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Creator in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble.” 

Any time a human being experiences a pure layer of humility, it can be argued that they were walking on water.

The only time I am upset is one God or someone else ‘ain’t’ doing things my way. In God’s economy, nothing is wasted.

Mock Crash ~ St. Francis High School

Today St. Francis high school staged a mock crash, which was supported by the St. Francis Community Drug Awareness Organization.  It took a lot of preparation to set up the Mock Crash. Sometimes a mock crash does not have a helicopter come in, and sometimes they do. I think it has to do with the availability of a helicopter, but this time they had one. After the helicopter left and the Hertz picked up the corpse, the mock crash itself was officially over, and then I was introduced to speak.

Youth volunteers walked around with my posterboard props to show the audience while I was speaking. These youth impressed me with their attention to civic responsibility and volunteerism.  I could easily see these youth grow to be leaders.

The audience was very attentive to my story, were quiet and appropriate during the entirety of my speech, and seemed to be very committed to the sober drivers.

They said they might invite me back to speak at the next Mock Crash in 2020. I got kick cancer's butt before that becomes a reality.

It was also great to have two personal friends make the drive to St. Francis to hear me speak.  Heartwarming!

Here's a video link:

https://www.facebook.com/danaanna024/videos/10156439203978112/?t=11

Mock Crash ~ White Bear Lake

Mock Crash speech at the White Bear Lake High school. We had several speakers (see notes by each photograph). I was the 'Keynote Speaker' but did not get any photographs of myself (I almost always forget to ask for a photo, kinda dopey, lol!). If I find out they took one, I'll add it.

Tear Collector

I saved my tears for years in a Tear Collector and then bought oils appropriate to the task, secured a beautiful basin, and washed my loved-ones feet with my hair (I actually had long enough hair back then). That person left Earth School long ago (died of drinking). But this person experienced love from me.

Like a cat rubbing its face on everything near it, I go about my business annoying people. LOL! It's a tough job. Somebody's gotta do it.

Messengers

When I pull through, I'll be able to help more people. 　 My life is to serve others, not serve myself.

Expect a Miracle

I have been so weak and tired, it's been very hard to gather the energy to Blog, but I'm managing today.  Here's a little something for you:

In early recovery I heard a great many things that help keep me on track, one of them being Expect a Miracle.

Well now...a friend of mine, Tina Feigal just sent me a book titled, 'Expect a Miracle' and I'm excited about digging in!

We should ALL write about the Miracles that have happened in our lives. Some of us should have been dead a long time ago, but I guess Creator had other plans! LOL!

Have you ever meet someone who defied EVERY ODD of survival (like most addicts, really), who have been WALKING ON WATER so long and didn't know it until one fine day they got Clean in Recovery and realized they were the recipient of a Miracle (or bunches of them)? Well, every person whose path we cross is a Miracle when we are looking for Messages.

Who or what is YOUR Messenger today?

First Things First & the Spiritual Abacus

To the surrendered heart, soul, mind and strength, the first and the last are identical. God determines the order, even if it looks backward to the human mind. First Things First has its place in the lower order of things, like, get your oxygen mask on when the plane is going down BEFORE you help others get theirs on. But in the Higher Meaning of Life, God's Love is the true oxygen. Whether we live or die is irrelevant. Maybe Lazarus was bummed after Jesus boogied, leaving him behind. But ultimately, all things are pure to the pure of heart, surrendered consciousness. In God's Economy, nothing is wasted. The last shall be the first and the first shall be the last.