Merry-Go-Rounds and Choices

Posted on February 5, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The Merry-Go-Round at the Punahou Carnival

Good Morning, God!

We, like half of Honolulu, made our way to the Punahou Carnival last night. It was fun, but my ears are still ringing.

The Carnival is Noise, Extreme Population Density — and Malasadas! I went off my normal eating pattern, yesterday and ate TWO malasadas HOT from the oil. Yum!

Or as one lady said — pointing to the malasada I was eating — THAT is the BEST of all of this!

Personal indulgences come in many forms, God, and most of them seem to leave “stuff” behind — over-crowed fat cells — over-crowded closets — over-crowded Visa bills. As Suz has tried so patiently to explain to me, “Mom, to you, EVERY DAY is SPECIAL, so you can’t use that as an excuse!”

Perhaps, God, I need to redefine “treats?” Explore and find a higher kind of “indulgence?” I am looking up at the Merry-Go-Round and thinking of how I love them. They are MY kind of ride. Joyous — not Thrilling. They are like a Temporary Entrance into an Amped Up Daily Life — cyclical with ups and downs — but all the time with Music and Lights.

Aaah, maybe it is just that I STOP and focus on the Ride! Surely, my daily Life is filled with Music and Lights and Friends Riding With Me!

Did You just remind me that Parallel Universes are not just Scientific Theory? That I have CHOICES — moment by moment — of billions of Parallel Universes? I can choose, can’t I.

Yes, God, You have put into my hands the Power to Choose — to choose what I focus my attention on — to choose how I spend or invest my Time and my Money. Please , God, help me REMEMBER I have CHOICES. Thank You!

Posted in choices, Choosing Meaning, Help me to see

Junk — in Orbit and in Our Hearts

Posted on February 4, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

10 million pieces of Space Junk orbiting Earth

Good Morning, God!

I must say, 10 million pieces of space junk orbiting Earth does seem like a lot. Whatever the number — the junk is extensive enough, now, so that it could disrupt valuable satellites and services.

Year by year, God, stuff builds up! Junk is HARD to get rid of, in Space, in our Homes, and in our Hearts.

As for the Junk in Space — Japan has a Plan. They are putting a wire net up in orbit to catch debris. They are partnering with Nitto Seimo, the company that created knotless fishing nets in 1925. The article in SpaceMart says that “The space net would consist of three layered metal threads, each measuring 1mm diameter (0.03 inch) and intertwined with fibers as thin as human hair.” The net would be about a mile long and the idea is that “as it collects debris the net would become electrically charged and be attracted back to earth by the planet’s magnetic field, causing the net and its contents to safely burn up in the atmosphere.”

It sounds so easy and cleaver, God. But, I confess, just as lost fishing nets entangle ocean creatures, I worry about “lost space nets” doing more damage than the junk they are intended to capture. Unintended consequences proliferate even faster than junk.

And, God, that leads me back to the Invisible Emotional Junk orbiting our Hearts. I was talking with a friend yesterday morning about the difficulties of processing grief. Traumas, Fears, Sorrows all wait — wait years — for us to face them and begin to process them. And, worse even than Space Junk, that Emotional Junk disrupts communication and services. Maybe, God, we need Prayer Nets?

Posted in a prayer for healing, A Spiritual Spring Cleaning, emotional litter

Praying for Egypt and Our World — Tahrir Square and Tiananmen Square

Posted on February 3, 2011 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Tahrir Square, Cairo from the Christian Science Monitor

Good Morning, God!

Egypt needs HELP! We all need help. Our World needs HELP!

People in Power want to stay in power and do not go quietly. And transitions are particularly hard if there has been NO CHANGE for many years.

The Winds of Change can blow many places — places that are scary for those who value stability and predictability.

It seems that China has been censoring the news coming out of Egypt and before that Tunisia. I can understand why. Anarchy and chaos are scary, God. Very scary. Yet, the People in Charge of Stability seem — mostly — to be unable to resist the temptation of Great Wealth.

Ah, the plot thickens, doesn’t it, God. Because extremes of wealth and extremes of poverty don’t make for long term stability. Then, too, there is the problem of what is DONE in Your Name. Or, perhaps, the problem is What is Not Done — in Your Name.

Sigh. I am sighing God — sorrowing — longing for a world of Compassion and Freedom. The difficulty with Freedom is that it needs to be BALANCED with Human Rights. That is, regimes Old Ones or New Ones, must protect the rights of Women and Children. And that is where the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt may fall short. An Islamist regime in Egypt? A moderate regime? The trouble is Moderates get hit from ALL SIDES!

So, PLEASE GOD, send Your Spirit of Compassion upon the People of Egypt — upon us ALL. Help us to FIND A WAY toward greater Human Rights, greater Freedom, and greater Understanding and mutual Respect. PLEASE!

Posted in Peace, Prayer, Transitions, Understanding

Our Amazing Guts

Posted on February 2, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The Noctilucent Clouds are getting brighter

Good Morning, God!

Such an interesting day, yesterday! From the Earth Observatory website I learned that the Noctilucent Clouds are getting brighter! Not a good thing, but surely a beautiful thing.

At the other end — I read a fascinating article in the March issue of Discover magazine entitled The Ecosystem Inside. It began with research on neonatals — wee babes in incubators. They were studying how babies build their bacteria in their gut. Babies pickup over 100 bio-organisms coming down the birth canal. Then more are added from contact with the parents. One of the things they discovered is that generally speaking we NEED a wide variety of organisms in our bowels to do well. Infants given antibiotics for too long have the “good” bacteria wiped out — leaving them easy prey for “bad” bacteria. You did an amazing job orchestrating all of this, God!

One story in the article was of a woman with a life-threatening Colstridium difficile infection. She had a terrible inflammation of her colon and had lost 60 pounds in 8 months. There were no bacteria left in her bowels. What Dr. Khoruts did was mix a small sample of her husband’s stool with a saline solution and injected it into her colon. Within 24 hours the diarrhea had stopped and in a few days the symptoms were gone. A fecal transplant, God! How did the doctor even THINK of that! Those doctors have done another 23 patients — all with dramatic stories.

Another researcher said that antibiotics were like setting off a bomb and hoping not too many good guys got hurt. Perhaps, God, we would be better served to strengthen our bodies’ Friends — rather than trying to kill “enemies.”

Posted in Cherishing our Bodies, complexity, healing, health

Healing Our Hearts

Posted on February 1, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The rising sun as seen on a morning walk

Good Morning, God!

The sun is fully up as I slip into my day. S L O W L Y slide into the Gift of a New Day.

It is tempting to see Life as a repetitious cycle. Each day spent trying to get things done better than the day before — like the movie Ground Hog’s Day. Working on Getting it RIGHT!

Ah, that is such a tempting path — to see life as a Game in which we “get points.” Another view is related — life as School, in which we get grades. Do we pass, or not? Or is there automatic “promotion?”

Let me see, there is also the view of life as Continuous Improvement — fueled by a desire to upgrade my character and nature — or at least my actions.

This morning, God, as I sit here relaxed and peaceful, I am suspecting that Your Plans for us are much simpler — more basic.

Maybe we aren’t so much in School as Planted in an Orchard? Invited to put our Roots down into You — The Ground of Our Being — and let You nourish us and flow through us — bearing fruit in its season.

I like that image. Maybe that is why when I read of invading armies cutting down the fruit trees and salting the ground — I am so grieved. To destroy old olive trees; to cut down fruiting apricot trees; that is to cut at the roots of the Tree of Life.

And if I knew that judgmental thoughts ALSO cut at the roots of the Tree of Life? Would I weep over my own Inner Actions? Would I cease? Please help me, God. Please remove this insect infestation!

Posted in a prayer for healing, an invitation to abundant life, God's Provision, letting the Holy Spirit flow through us, Roots

The Power of the Spoken Word — The King’s Speech

Posted on January 31, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visiting a bombed part of London

Good Morning, God!

For some reason, yesterday, I asked Kit to take me to see The King’s Speech. We both spent the last 15 minutes of the film with tears in our eyes.

“Good King George” is what the English called their king and now I understand why he so richly deserved that title.

George had a dreadful stammer. He was the “Spare” while Edward, his handsome and socially poised older brother, was the Heir to the Throne. Yet, Edward abdicated “for the woman I love” abandoning, Duty, England, and not least, his brother.

Watching King George (Bertie to his family) struggle to overcome his stammer made me feel I was watching some “cosmic battle” fought on a very small playing field. A stammer seems like such a trivial thing. But, The Voice of The King — ah, THAT was SO IMPORTANT! The movie showed small groups of English gathered around radios HEARING the Voice of their King as he rallied them at the start of that horrible War.

I suspect, God, that many of our seemingly trivial struggles might have “cosmic significance.” Saint Paul says that we war not with the things of this Earth, but with Powers and Principalities. Part of me is quite certain that is true. We are all called to do our part on the small playing fields we have been placed on. Called to struggle with the problems and situations we find ourselves in.

Thank goodness most of us have small venues. I would not want to be King or Queen or President. But I do want to do my Best. And I want to heed and respond to Your Voice, God, The Voice of The King of Kings!

Posted in Choosing to respond, Duty, responding to God's Spirit, responsibility

Where Good Ideas Come From

Posted on January 30, 2011 by a moment with god — 2 Comments

Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson

Good Morning, God!

I have been reading this book on my iPhone but the impressive news is that I borrowed this title from the library AND then figured out how to get it from my laptop to my iPhone.

That was NOT easy, God. Although, my difficulty was as nothing compared to the writing of the book and the creating of laptops and iPhones.

This World seems to be overrun with “Good Ideas”, God. And Johnson does a wonderful job of describing what factors go into making them happen. Actually, RECOGNIZING them seems to be one BIG problem.

Last night I was finishing the chapter on ERROR as a factor and read that the two astronomers who “discovered” the lingering reverberation of the Big Bang thought that their telescope “was broken.” They thought that for a year — until a chance conversation with a scientist in another field helped them realize what it might be. And they won a Nobel Prize.

That story makes me think of my own life, God. The things I “see” but DON’T SEE. It makes me think of the importance of PLACEMENT. Johnson has a whole chapter on Serendipity — a chance meeting or seemingly random bit of information that causes other information to fall into place.

Ah, yes, God. It would be wonderful to have things FALL INTO PLACE. All of which makes my mind turn toward the piles that have magically recreated themselves on my desk. However, today is a DAY OF REST. Help me to rest in YOU. To rest from WORK. To rest in Your Love and Appreciation. Thank You, God!

Posted in Queen of my Life, refraining from work, rest, Rethinking, sabbath rest

Walking Along a Long Beach

Posted on January 29, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

A long beach across from the Mokulua's

Good Morning, God!

Another glorious day in Hawaii. Actually, another Day is a gift that most of us take for granted. Do I hear You say that I take an enormous number of things “for granted?”

I do, it’s true. Perhaps, that is part of the pleasure in going to an unfamiliar place? We “wake up” and pay attention? A camera helps me “pay attention” to the world around me.

Ah, but, God, what a special gift it is to pay attention to the people around us! Aaaah! And to pay attention to myself. Thank You, God! I forget to do that.

I can still hear my father say “Pay attention to me when I talk” by which he meant Look At Me. It was good training. Still, the phrase doesn’t begin to capture all that goes on when we do INVEST and INTERTWINE our attention with another human being.

Monday I shall go and visit my therapist, Mavis. And she will focus her attention on me and that will help me Hear Myself into speaking. What an amazing process it is to BE HEARD INTO SPEAKING. I am realizing, God, that this sort of speaking and hearing is deeply sacred in ways that our current world does not have words for.

Trust is essential for I’m pulling up Parts that I have denied existed — or am ashamed of — or fearful of. I remember my Castle “Vision” — in which Orks and Trolls and Dwarfs would breakout of my Dungeon and invade my castle dining hall. They were all banished or imprisoned parts of myself. All of them wanting and waiting to be cleaned up, invited in and heard. Ah, yes, God I have work to do — or is it “friends” to met?

Posted in healing, Hearing, hearing myself, Trusting God

Small Moments of Wonder

Posted on January 28, 2011 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Palm fronds and Light

Good Morning, God!

Another deliciously slow morning at home . . . off my usual delightful “track” . . . wallowing in a sense of Timelessness. And now I am smiling because, of course, there are people to see and things to do.

But, right now, I am relaxed into Your Timelessness — or maybe Non Time? The Greeks called it Kairos and it was quite different from their linear sequential Chronos of time ticking away. I am glad to be here — off the clock.

The other day when I saw these small palms — illuminated by the sun — I stopped and stepped out of Time. They had clearly “extended” themselves into Your Light. And, just for a moment, I joined them.

Could it be, God, that what You desire of us is just as simple as that? To STOP and STEP OUT of our Daily Doings — Step INTO Your Light. You shine Your Light on all people. You CALL US and INVITE US to Love our neighbor as we love ourself. The Kingdom of God is At Hand — TURN AROUND!

Last night we went to a dear friend’s home and saw slides of a man’s pilgrimage around 88 Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Japan. The desire to make a pilgrimage seems part of many religions, God. Kit and I went with friends to the Holy Land. There is a “call” to the Holy Places — the “Thin Places” — the better to connect with You.

Ah, but Your Invitations are EVERYWHERE, if we could only sense and behold them. Please, God, help me to be aware — to be aware and respond.

Posted in beauty, God's Light, God's Time, Help me to see