A MODEST PROPOSAL

THE SCRIPT THAT GOVERNS THE HEAD.....

We do it without even thinking about it. It's like breathing. But the script that governs people's lives is not a friend. It keeps us on an unhealthy auto pilot just reacting out of the mess that all the years of self absorption and the futile/exhausting attempts at self preservation that is a part of such an existence. Our spirit longs to be free and for this to happen the script must be scuttled. When that happens we are free to just be what we were created to be.

Nature has been speaking this very truth forever. Trees are just trees and it would be silly for them to attempt to be anything other. A tree though doesn't have a choice but we humans do...most, unfortunately just seem to not believe what Father has spoken and instead just keep following the alternate script.

The spruce tree above speaks of something that turns out to also apply to our lives. The abundance of cones happens due to the fact that this tree is very healthy but most often such an over production of cones speaks of something else also...the tree has been through a season that has put it under stress. It's a natural survival mechanism just in case the parent tree doesn't survive the harsh conditions of the season....she produces fruit and a wonderful thing happens. The spruce tree population multiplies in the next growing season.

Sometimes we are surprised when the most wonderful things begin to emerge as we exit a season of what seemed to be hardship and struggle.

THE MADNESS

"There's a whole bunch of people in the Islamic world and in the Christian fundamentalist world and a lot of Market fundamentalists that think their way of doing things is the only way and they have the right to inflict that on the rest of us. And I strongly disagree. I think if you believe in an all seeing, all powerful God, what incredible arrogance to think first of all that God needs to be protected from other people and other ideas and then what presumption to think you speak for God alone. That your version of things is the closest you can get or anyone can get to understanding this all seeing Entity. That's just colossal human hubris that needs to be resisted." Bruce Cockburn

Faith sets in motion the dismantling of religion and all other illusions and brings us face to face with reality.

SUMMER IN THE GARDEN

Some days I just want to crawl into it and live there. This evening while taking these photos just happened to be one of those times.

THE GARDEN...AND THE RICH LIVES IT FOSTERS

I have just returned home from a visit with a friend in his garden. It's been a beautiful morning in many ways already. I've know Gary and Lee for several years now and I must say all of it has been a pleasure for me. I see Lee once a week in the salon and always look forward to our time together. I've mentioned her before...she's the one who tells her husband often on her return home to not ask what she and I talked about because she has no way of explaining what I was talking about :) She has listened to many of the drastic changes in my thinking brought on by the drastic paradigm shifts that I have stumbled through over the past few years.

But this morning was about the garden. They live on a beautiful piece of property and Gary has developed many wonderful garden spaces all around it. His mind rarely ever rests from creating nor does his body. And in light of Gary's physical challenges it's nothing but inspiring. Since I have known him he has had a couple heart attacks...a case of shingles the doctors said was worse than they had ever seen, so bad it has left much nerve damage in it's wake and now he is in the midst of recovering from the effects of a pulmonary embolism. With his limp and all, he marches on in a way that is nothing but inspiring. Lee, his wife, sometimes sees it as something other though :) He told me a story today about how he often talks with God while he is out in his garden. One such recurring conversation is expressing his desire in regards to falling asleep to this world. He would love for it to happen while he is in his garden. Well, awhile back he had a fall in his compost pile and because of all the things that he faces on a daily basis with his body it was a struggle for him to get up. He said he just keep sinking deeper in the pile the more he tried to free himself. While in this difficult spot he said to the Lord...."This isn't how I had it pictured in my mind.' I got a good chuckle out of that as did he.

Both he and Lee volunteer in helping the poor through a local charity that daily feed and offer other services to the less fortunate. Gary even mows the lawns of some neighbors just to help them out in their busy lives. Lee has served on the board of a Restorative Justice organization helping women transition back into society after spending time in prison. This organization is also helping the courts here in Missouri see in many situations that there is a better alternative to just locking someone up and removing them from their families that need them. I could go on because there is more but I think you get the point.

Gary and Lee give back out of the richness that fills their lives...and their faith in God and what he has given them is what inspires that generosity. But I get the sense that their garden, and God's larger natural world, and what it speaks to them about creating some beauty in this world that is often a harsh environment for people to live in, has a big part to do with it also.

That is not Gary's and Lee's garden in the picture above but it gives you some sense of what many places in their garden feel like.

THE SAME CHANGES

The act of attempting to hang onto something as it has "always been" with the argument that if we don't fight for it we will lose what we have "always had" leaves me scratching my head. For starters, has any moment in time ever really been what people have been led to believe it was or perceived it to be? And is there anything in this world that by nature isn't undergoing constant change?