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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Another Year!

Time flies, as "they" say. I can hardly believe that today I now rack up 73 years here on earth in this lifetime.

As Einstein said, all is relative to the reference point.

It was a moment ago that my son and grandchildren were here for Palm Sunday and my 70th birthday. Last Sunday I saw the image of Megan leading the procession with palms and a stab went into my heart. I shall never stop missing them and wondering.

It was forever ago that my loving husband came into my life. In fact, I can scarcely recall life without him.

Yesterday my wonderful daughter and one of my lovely granddaughters came to be with me, bring love, gifts and the gift of shared time. It was a special day for sure.

Today I am making hot cross buns for church and my husband is taking us out for lobster dinner. Life continues, as Evelina says (my soul sister in Russia).

Some of my fundamentalist friends may be shouting at the screen right now in response to my first sentence. Even in the Bible the idea of coming back is spoken of, including when Jesus asks his followers who they think he is and asks about historical guys. I don't know if we come back here or not when we "die," but I do know we go somewhere. I would guess where we goes depends on many things, including how well we did here in learning how to love and in doing good works and being a beneficial presence.

Recently I have become enamored with James the brother of Jesus and his 5 chapters in the Bible. I think these words contain some of the keys to living as we ought. I urge everyone to read and re-read the Book of James, think about the ideas and implement them at once.

Scholarship indicates that James and others at the time were focused on living in a holy way. There is spiritual malnutrition right now on our planet. Imagine what could happen if one by one we turned and focused upon living a holy life.

As year 74 begins, fill me with Your Light, wash away the shadows, and help me lead an ever more holy life. Help me let go of that which is not to be and accept what it is that is of the highest and best.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Holy Week

The week before Easter 2013. It is called "Holy Week" by Catholics, Episcopalians and others. I wonder how holy our week actually is.

The new Pope Francis impresses me. He seems to me to be a holy man, endeavoring to model a more Christlike way to be a Christian. The Dalai Lama seems to me to be a holy man, Buddhist holy man.

The news tells me there are tons of people who are making very unholy choices. Television shows, movies and music testify to less than holiness.

The world of religion seems to me to be often unholy with Muslims killing Jews and Christians and imprisoning those who are of another faith. There are Christians who attack everyone who is not part of their particular wing of Christianity. There are bombings and missiles aiming to murder and maim anyone in the way of a particular path.

The planet seems to have gone mad. 

My mind goes to ponder what can turn it around? Is it even possible for this to be a holy week or day or even hour planet-wide?

What can you and I do to live a holy week? Can we live it one hour at a time to start? Can we become alert to our own thoughts and acts and retrain ourselves to make holy choices? What would it take to move the idea into the visible?

Let's give it a try together.

Lord, on this unholy planet, we rise up and wish to live a holy life. Show us the way. Lift our awareness. Help us choose to think and act in an increasingly holy way. 

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Falling Apart and Falling Together

It has been an interesting time. Seems like maybe things that have been falling apart are either falling together or just fading away.

Our car is beeping at us randomly as some sensor for the airbag is faulty, but would cost a huge amount of money to fix.

My beloved sewing machine stopped being able to read the embroidery module. We decided to get it fixed, but the circuit board needed takes weeks to get from Bernina. And I have some embroidery projects for our quiet day and for my maybe entry in the Hoffman Challenge that cannot wait weeks (the quiet day is April 20).

Pipe leaks created quite a mess, requiring new pipes and a new water heater. My husband's office flooded and his stuff has been all over the house while it dried out. The floor in there has been cold concrete with carpet around the edges as the carpet had to be cut out and thrown away.

Then my embroidery software messed up and wouldn't open, just looped over and over again through tips of how to do it. Frustrating. After 4 re-installs, I finally got it working.

Just a random sample of what it's been like, not to mention the on going drama of missing family members, church, and on and on.

Well, at this very moment our wonderful son-in-law is installing Spanish marble in the office! His company was cleaning out the warehouse and was going to throw it away. He asked for it and they said they didn't care as long as it was gone. It was about 200 sq feet of gorgeous marble.

A dear friend offered to loan me her embroidery machine to do my projects and the embroideries for the quiet day will be done in minutes. What a blessing.

The car is still beeping, but we have hope of a new car in our future. We'll see.

I keep dreaming my son comes to me with love in his heart and eyes. Just a dream I know, but maybe a peek into what is possible.

I just took homemade artisan bread out of the oven. Smells so good in here. I'll make sandwiches soon for everyone. I made a lemon cream cheese pie too. Want to treat our wonderful son-in-law well!!

Just maybe things are falling together - at long last.

Lord, I open my arms to Your work in our lives. Let the dance of life twirl into Divine Order. Let our lives fall together in wondrous ways.Lift the cloud and bring Your Light.


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Fearless Life

In the past year a number of people have told me that I am fearless. My fearlessness seems to range from quilting to thinking, according to my observers. I have not thought of myself as fearless, rather committed to being the best I can be and to knowing the truth. My goals for my life that I have stated include: making a positive difference wherever I am, and going as far spiritually as I can in this lifetime. I suppose I am fearless in the quest of these two.

I was thinking about fearlessness in relation to sacred works such as the Bible. Recently there have been a series of shows on television from some people's Biblical point of view, supposedly representative of the scripture.

I have a problem with the shows. I was yelling at the television in just the first one. They added things, such as a conversation with Pharaoh's daughter telling Moses how he entered her family. They did not endeavor to explore any modern scholarship.

There is a group of people that think the Bible is literal in every sense. They deny scholarship, language, idioms, poetic license, editing over the ages and a huge number of other issues.

God is not delicate. We don't have to worry about upsetting Infinite Intelligence. God gave us   a portion of intelligence and so obviously expects us to use it. God wants us to know the truth.

Let's think about idioms for a moment, you know manner of speaking things. I'm in a pickle. Manny died on third base. It took forever to get to work today. If you take those statements literally, you will not understand the conversation. Just explore some of the idioms in the Bible and you will understand it better than if you take idioms literally. So one of the idioms was that pillar of salt meant a person had a stroke or heart attack (they didn't know the difference in the Bronze Age). Lot's wife, being so upset that she disobeyed had a heart attack and died on the spot. To me that is more meaningful than picturing a pillar of sodium chloride.

Jesus taught in parables. Psalms were poetic songs. Some of the stories predate the Bible and are woven from other older cultures. How can it all be literal? Yet it can all be deeply meaningful being what it actually is.

Archaeology and historical work have shown us some interesting things. For example, the Exodus was somewhere in the 1,300 to 1,200 b.c.e. time range. But the account was not written down until the 700's when the people were in Babylonian captivity. The boundaries of Egypt in the Exodus days included much of the Holy Land. The people 500 years later didn't know that and assumed the Egyptian borders were always where they were in the 700's. So if they were in Egypt and went to the Holy Land which was in Egypt, where did they go?

James the brother of Jesus was the person in the 1st century that guided the Jesus Movement. He was the one everyone went to in order to get clarification and direction. Paul was suspect as a Roman insider. Peter waffled. James who knew Jesus his entire life was the person people turned to. 

There is a lot of modern scholarship that is helpful in not destroying the Bible but in understanding it in the way that is more accurate and still deeply meaningful. There are fabulous books, programs. lecturers and magazines, the internet and more that can inform us and actually lead us to deeper faith than the simple, unthinking, silly literal position.

I am fearless in wanting to know the truth. I am fearless in the pursuit of excellence. I am fearless in working to make a difference. Join me. Be fearless with me. 

Perfect Love casts out all fear. Lord, fill me with Your perfect Love, casting out all remnants of fear in me. Lead me to live, hand in hand with You, fearlessly, vibrant, alive and fully engaged in the great spiritual quest upon which I have set my foot.