Dealing with Life's Extremes

The old curse is may you live in interesting times. In so many ways, we who are on earth are indeed living in interesting times. But to make it closer to home, I am personally living in interesting times.

There is someone that I love very much who seems to have gone off the rails as the Brits say. This person has gotten into an extreme position re: religion & has decided that he is the only one who knows the truth & all others are wrong, bad & to be avoided. Others' spiritual experiences are invalid, false, not from God, etc. according to him. He has to protect his children from all of us who see from a slightly different perspective. He has gotten paranoid & imagines all sorts of false things & then acts on his false assumptions as if they were proven fact.

He has gone off, disappeared, left his livelihood, sold his home, shunned his family & friends, except for his nuclear family. He is beyond our reach -- except we pray for his peace as obviously he is not at peace. We pray for him to actually find Christ & realize that to emulate Christ's behavior is something other than this. We pray for him to know that for some of us our relationship with Christ is intimate, personal & deep & is not about shouting bumper stickers & making a public show. For some of us our walk with Christ is to be in a close & quiet relationship that informs us as to how to live so as to live in his Way. We are quietly, steadfastly, obviously (if you are paying attention) very Christian.

So while we pray, we also have a few tears rolling down our cheeks. Oh, what was & what could have been.

Joys & Sorrows

I just posted a quote from Mark Twain on my website re: the importance of sharing joys. https://sites.google.com/site/newthoughtsforanewlife/today-s-thought

So, this is what I'm considering today. I have dear friends, whom I treasure, & with whom I have the privilege of sharing our joys, but also our travails. It seems to me that the weight of life's troubles is lightened when compassion from loved ones enfolds you.

The joys do seem to multiply when shared. Tonight 30 of us from church are going to a community theater play, "Gypsy." How much fun it will be to not only enjoy the show, but also to be able to share it with others. Last Saturday my daughter & son-in-law met us at the San Diego Quilt Show. It was so much more fun to share that time. The joy was multiplied.

Thank You, Lord, for friends & family!!! Thank You that we have such wondrous gifts as friends & family & are not wandering alone on this planet. Thank You for the times they seem like Your Hands lifting us. Thank You for the times we multiply joy together. Bless them one & all.

Musings

I've felt rooted to earth & to my body for as long as I can recall. It somehow seemed to me that as long as I felt such interlaced rooting, I would have a strong grasp on continuing life on earth, & that at some point that grasp would loosen & loosen until it was time for me to go on to the next life effortlessly.

So, the point is, it is in fact loosening a bit. With the multiple odd, serious health challenges I'm experiencing during this year, I feel the connection here softening. I'm not ready to go on, yet I do feel the strong hold fading. I feel certain that when the ties are totally loosened, I will drift into the Light & the next phase of life eternal.

Now don't get morose. It's okay. It's natural. What a mess we'd have if we all stayed here forever. Plus, for me it's not imminent, it's just that I am aware the hold on my body is not as strong as it once was. I have some miles to go before I sleep as Frost said.

I do think that we need a Christian version of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead." We Christians don't prepare very well for going on. In some places it's almost a taboo to talk about it, let alone consciously prepare.

I know that God is Love, knows my heart, is with me always, & there is nothing to fear. I also know I have some things left to do here on earth. It is more vibrant, what I have to do, realizing that I don't have forever. I am at least in the last 1/3 or 1/4th of my earthly life. So the time to wait is not now. I need to get on with what I'm called to do. Afterall, I will be asked "Did you learn how to love? Did you complete your purposes for going to earth?"

Children & Parents

This week-end I finished a book I call "my doctor's office book," as I usually keep it in the car to take in to read while I'm waiting. I got 2/3 or so through it & wanted very much to see what happened, so I brought it into the house.

Anyway, one of the thoughts shared in the book was that children are preoccupied & unaware often of what is going on in the lives of their parents, so their view of parents is from a limited perspective. They only know that something is out of whack & they're not getting all they want/need, etc. They make judgements from this vantage.

So, I think back to my conclusions about my own parents. In later life, learning some things about their childhoods, softened my hurts about what they did or didn't do to/for me. But I was not privy to their own personal struggles with each other, work, life in general, etc. I now suspect some things that were going on, but cannot be certain. My suspicions though help me release some hurts that were created in my heart by assuming I was not loved & wanted for the most part.

Then my thoughts turn to my own dear children. My love for them has never wavered. My ability to care at the highest level for them did waver at times due to the overwhelm of things happening in my life. Although, I always did the best I could in every moment, I did not do the best I could have if things would have been different for me. It seems to me that I have been given a huge portion of extreme life lessons to learn - at least more than most of the people I know. I often struggled to learn, failed, fell down, eventually picking myself up, learning & moving forward. In the throes of the agony of some of the times in my life, not all of me was available for others.

My children do not know what I was going through for the most part. To this day I've not shared most of the horrors. They have each made up their own version of who mother was/is from their own assumptions. I am such a different mother through the eyes of my son and my daughter. You'd think they did not have the same mother. It is very interesting. 

Now their children carry this on, not knowing the inner lives of their parents; assuming this & that & creating their own versions of their parents.

Under it all is the development of each soul. I believe we are sent to earth to learn certain lessons that are unique to this planet. Looking historically, we see the same lessons at all times & places -- learning to overcome the darkness & live in the light, forsaking fear for faith, hatred for love, etc. 

Perhaps the hurt is our resistance of the lesson. I don't want to go through this, God! I don't want this lesson! But learn we must.

Lord, I give thanks for each moment of this life, for the difficult times & the glorious times. I know that each moment leads me to soul-strength. Each challenge gives me the chance to flex & use my spiritual muscles. Each valley is an opportunity to walk in faith. Each person is my teacher & I theirs. I release resistance. I open to You, Lord. Open my eyes to Your Light in each step of my life. Help me to learn the lessons You set before me, & help me to look back over my life to see the purpose & value of each moment. Your will be done, always.

On the Cusp

I feel that right now I am on the cusp of something wonderful. Newness is in the air. The end of the valley is in sight. Hope is rising up.

I love life in times such as these, times that are so pregnant with possibility that good things are peeking at me. 

Valley walking seems to be a requirement in the curriculum on earth. We can walk the valleys with heads up, eyes open, lessons learned. We can also walk them dragging our feet, complaining, ignoring the lessons. Each way leads to different outcomes.

Lord, I give thanks for the vista I see. I give thanks for the goodness approaching. Help me be a good steward of Your gifts.

Aristotle & Me

I've been thinking about Aristotle lately. Perhaps a neuron woke up in the good old college days & the challenge of philosophy classes. 

I was first thinking about taking "Ethics" & Aristotle's idea that the way to walk life would be down the golden mean - neither too far to the right nor too far to the left. I like this a lot & have been moderate in my life, sometimes. I have had moments of great passion too --- so it hasn't been the golden mean the whole way for me. But, for the most part, I think it is good advice.

But then I was thinking about Aristotelian Logic vs Modern Logic --- took the logic class too. I had an epiphany this week. Our crazy world operates primarily under the good old Aristotle way and has not adopted Modern Logic.

In Modern Logic you have to prove your premise before you continue.

In Aristotelian Logic, you state a premise that seems reasonable to you, add proofs & conclusions based on your premise, but you never have to prove your premise. The classic example might be one of his ideas about women. Premise: women have fewer teeth than men. Proof: women are smaller than men, women are weaker than men, women eat less than men, etc. therefore, women have fewer teeth than men. Not needing to prove the premise, no one ever counted the actual teeth in the heads of men & women.

Now this may seem ridiculous ---- but just how many things are decided this way in this day & age? Look at government. Look at the news. Look at education. See what I mean?

Perhaps our "leaders" need a refresher course in Modern Logic.

I Hear You

Sometimes I think I feel my loved ones cry out to me. Those who are far away are not far from my heart and love. There is a bond that connects us at some level that may be unknown, but is nonetheless real to me.

I feel the bittersweet double edge of love. My heart yearns for my grandchildren. Do I imagine they too yearn for me? Will I ever know?

I was thinking of Gibran's thought that our children are not our children, they come through us but not from us, etc. Sometimes I look in amazement that they came through me and have gone so far away. But they still live in the cradle of my heart, no matter what.

We all face challenges in our lives. We lose our heart's desire, we stumble & fall & pick ourselves up, we gain some, we learn a great deal if we're paying any attention at all & we develop our souls here on this little blue planet.

Lord, guide me please. Help me to keep loving without reserve. Help me to not be controlled by circumstances. Help me to be true to Your admonition to love without condition,  AGAPE.