My Role Model and her new iMac

Posted on December 5, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

Marjorie the First, my mother, at Thanksgiving

Good Morning, God!

Thank YOU for my marvelous mother! For some time she has been telling me her computer was dying. But, I kept thinking it was just a power surge that had turned it off and turned it on again. However, she was right! Her 8 year old iMac was dead.

So yesterday I rushed off to the Kahala Apple store and got her a NEW iMac. As she said in an email “I must be crazy but at the age of 96 I bought a new computer!!! The one Barba gave me finally died…dead as a doornail. And I felt absolutely lost without one!!!”

My Mom's new iMac

I told the young man at the Apple Store who I was buying it for and he was so envious! He said his grandmother wouldn’t even consider a computer! I bet his grandmother was a lot younger than my mom!

Queen Katrina

Too bad they can’t use Mom in Apple ads, She’d be a great poster girl!

She and her cat have a lot of CURIOSITY! Yesterday, as I was unpacking the box and preparing Mom’s desk, her cat kept staring at me — as if demanding an explanation. When I finally stopped and talked to her — telling her what was going on — she stopped staring at me and began to explore the empty box.

Am I anthropomorphizing, God? I think, not!

I — like my mother — have read a lot of science fiction. There is far more going on in this Universe than we can imagine. I love it, God! There is so much to learn, to see, and to ponder! Thank YOU! And please help me do the HARD WORK of learning!

Posted in Curiosity, learning, role models

The Awesome Creativity of LIFE, but ARSENIC?

Posted on December 4, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

The Tufa formations at Mono Lake Photo by David McNew

Good Morning, God!

Aaah! Yet another scientific dogma SHATTERED! The building blocks of life were known to be: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous and sulfur. That was THAT! But a young NASA scientist, Felisa Wolfe-Simon, was fascinated at how crustaceans use copper instead of iron to carry oxygen around in their bodies. So, she thought, how about arsenic? Myself, I find that a BIG LEAP, God. How about arsenic, indeed!

They chose Moro Lake as an arsenic rich environment and tested. Sure enough, some bacteria from the lake had adapted and were using arsenic instead of phosphorous. So, God, we are beginning to appreciate how diverse life CAN become. And NASA is VERY interested in astrobiology. I guess, God, that the realization that life CAN adapt to arsenic means that our definition of LIFE needs expansion.

I like that, God! Definitions are so important! Right now there are a lot of LABELS being hurled around. Labels that are being used as a means of separating the US from the THEM. I was going to say that I don’t approve. But, then it came to me that I might do this, too. Yikes!

Flexible minds, God! We all need to stay flexible and open to facts. Really, all that Wolfe-Simon did was WONDER and TEST. It sounds so simple, but to do that in the face of hundreds of years of DOGMA is an amazing accomplishment.

Hmm, I feel You saying that flexible and open are nice BUT that RESPECT and APPRECIATION of OTHERS is key. Yes, God, help us to HEAR one another.

Posted in appreciation, Hearing, Life on other planets, respect, Rethinking

Optimism? — an interesting viewpoint

Posted on December 3, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley

Good Morning, God!

I’ve listened to this book. And it feels a bit like a kick in the head! WHACK! Things are getting BETTER! WHACK! WHACK! It’s odd, God. I have always thought of myself as a “biological optimist” — one who is optimistic as a matter of biological set points.

But as I listen to Ridley’s book, I realize that I, too, have been suffering from the sense of approaching doom that seems to have enveloped our entire culture. Hmmm. A “sense of doom” CAN be useful if it gets us ACTIVATED to analyze and organize positive responses. But, I suspect it more often leads to a “state of hopelessness” in which people choose short-term pleasures to silence feelings of helplessness. Brief pleasures or excessive busy-ness both distract us.

Ridley is pointing out the quantifiable trends have been UP for the last ten thousand years — life expectancy, general level of health, level of knowledge, and the abilities of people to use their individual gifts. So, God, why do we look back with such nostalgia?

Even the Ancient Greeks felt that there had been a GOLDEN AGE before their time — and that they had devolved into a lesser age. Hmmm. Are we dimly sensing an earlier Time with You? A Garden of Eden, Time? And then, there is the desire to Have You Return and take us to a Future City of God. Yes, YES! I remember Patty saying, “I want to go to my Heavenly Home.”

There is that LONGING, God, for REST in YOU. Once again, I need both — to REST IN YOU, and to be BE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS. Please help me with the BALANCE!

Posted in a hand up, meaningful work, rest, Rethinking

A View Through A New Window

Posted on December 2, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Seeing through a "new window"

Good Morning, God!

Last month, friends and I were lunching at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Afterwards we looked around the gift shop. I was making my usual slow circuit of the room when I came to the far corner and all of a sudden THERE WAS A WINDOW that I swear I had never seen before. I called my friends over and asked them, “Is this NEW?” They both agreed they didn’t remember a window there.

Now, really, God, I don’t think they cut into the stone and installed a new window! But, maybe it had been covered over by a display or bookcase? We asked the staff. No, the window had ALWAYS been there. I went back and took photos — so if it disappeared I would have a record!

Life is FILLED with things — that have always been there — that we suddenly see. I had an historical “new window” show up yesterday. Delancyplace.com had an excerpt from John Keegan’s book, The First World War, talking about the strike that the French Army held in 1917 during World War I. It wasn’t a mutiny — they didn’t kill their officers — it was rather a “reluctance, if not refusal, to take part in fresh attacks.” In other words, they didn’t want to participate in the senseless slaughter of attacking point blank into the enemies’ machine guns. But, they did fight if the enemy attacked.

Apparently this started in April of 1917 and continued on through the entire year. Imagine, God, half an army engaging in a sort of civil disobedience! In resisting the madness of trench warfare they showed more good sense than any military leader or politician. Bravo, French Army of 1917, BRAVO!

Posted in accepting my authority to set limits, seeing, the layers of life, Vantage Points

Pondering our Preset Boxes — and Poets

Posted on December 1, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Suz going up the escalator at the Disney Hall

Good Morning, God!

I loved the Disney Hall, God! It is Elegant and Different. Then a friend told me that there are 90,000 homeless living in this downtown LA area. How can this be, God? How is it that we as a Society have come to accept this?

It isn’t that I expect everyone to fit into the working world. Kit was reading me an article about how our new Poet Laureate, W.S. Merwin, lives off the grid in Maui. They collect their own water and live simply. He is working — creating — and he is valued. I wonder, God, if some of the homeless are not Poets who never found Poetry? Hmm.

W.S. Merwin in his backyard on Maui

Humans come in such an array of intelligences and giftings — some fit easily into the working world — others figure out HOW to live off the grid and out of the box — like Merwin. Ah, but others, God, they are the damaged ones. Alcohol, drugs, abuse — or neurological kinks that make it impossible for them to FIT into the preset holes we have. Do we need more adaptive holes, God?

And how about the story of the man who was on alcohol and drugs from childhood. Someone paid him to go to an AA meeting and sign in under another name to satisfy a court order. It was his first AA meeting and it “took.” With Your Help he went to college and got a job.

That story makes me feel that we could be reaching — reclaiming — a lot more than we do. Bless those who are reaching out, God!

Posted in acknowledging another's existence, balancing free with supported, earning a living, Haves and Have Nots, healing

Reaching Out, Reaching Back — The Power of Forgiving

Posted on November 30, 2010 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

man and whale -- shaking hands?

Good Morning God!

Well, it is sort of the middle of my night, God. Kit has a staph infection on his lower left leg. It is responding to the antibiotic — THANK YOU, GOD! But he woke up with it needing rewrapping and I had to improvise. So I thought I would get up and chat with YOU. Perspective is always helpful.

This photo sure gives perspective. My brother sent it with the story of how a female whale was seriously entrapped in nets and four divers volunteered to cut her free. That’s a risky job, God –freeing entrapped creatures — but the whale held steady. Then when she was FREE she leapt about joyfully and then went to each diver in turn — as if to thank them. The divers were very moved. I checked. It really happened.

Speaking of perspective. Today I heard from my friend who is suffering from colon cancer. He’s the one You “made” me talk to about how important it is to FORGIVE and RELEASE all the bad stuff of his past so he doesn’t waste today’s energy paying rent on the Past. He’s been working hard on forgiving. This Thanksgiving his sister flew over to help. They are close again after years “apart”. Furthermore, her former husband also came out to help. Now the “couple” are talking about setting aside their “past” troubles and maybe getting back together.

It is like a cascade of healing. Maybe, God, ALL healing begins with forgiving and releasing? And, perhaps Forgiving is related to Not Judging? Maybe they both depend on compassion? We are all entrapped by the nets of our past, God, and YOU long to set us free.

Posted in a matter of scale, A Spiritual Spring Cleaning, accepting my need for help, being FORGIVEN by God, being together in a compassionate presence

Cowgirls, Climate Change, and Hope

Posted on November 29, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Heidi Redd of the Dugout Ranch -- a partner with Nature Conservancy

Good Morning, God!

How many billion of us are there, now? And except for a few who are “off the grid” most of us are driving our cars and turning on our lights — those of us who have cars and lights. And sure enough, the world is warming

I must say, God, I find the melting of Planet Earth depressing. I remember steaming into Glacier Bay up in Alaska and seeing very small glaciers. In the 1700s the whole bay was solid ice. I told Kit, we’re too late. What is especially painful, God, is that change “snowballs.” In the Arctic, melting permafrost releases methane gas — which is even worse than carbon dioxide.

So, finding even a bit of good news makes me want to share it. Heidi Redd and her family are partnering with Nature Conservancy. The family cattle ranch will continue on. But because of the partnership the cowboys and the scientists are working together — trying to figure out how to respond to the warming weather.

The article says they “have come up with a number of ideas about how ranching might change in these parts: further reducing herd numbers; switching to different breeds of cattle; planting drought-adapted grasses; grazing on fragile lands only in the winter, when the soil is frozen and less vulnerable. Everything is on the table. Things will look different, says Baker, but the point is that there are solutions — there are ways to adapt.”

I really love that spirit, God! That is the spirit of hope — Your Hope. Please, God, we need Your Hope and Your Help!

Posted in climate changes, hope, Hope as a gift from God, web of life

Raw Milk and rBGH: what’s healthy and what’s NOT

Posted on November 28, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The Fight over Raw Milk

Good Morning, God!

Should people be able to buy and consume raw milk? Or, do people need to be protected from possible germs? That is a legal and societal question and I am on the side of the FREE TO DRINK RAW MILK. But, it could also be reframed as the question of which is more important — to BUILD UP our health or to PROTECT against any chance of harm?

Speaking of HARMING folks, God, what about the rBGH treated cows? Recombinant bovine growth hormone causes cows to give 15-20% more milk. Great, only the cows don’t live as long when treated with rbGH. The cows have all kinds of health problems. And there are worries about the consumers’ health too. Since 1994 the hormone has been banned in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Australia and all 27 nations of the European Union.

While here, a group founded by Monsanto tried to make it illegal for dairies to put an “rBGH-FREE” label on their milk. No Free speech? It went to court in Ohio and the court said that there IS a difference between treated milk and rbGH free milk. The court said rBGH milk has more pus cells in it and higher levels of IGF-1. The court didn’t add that excessive levels of IGF-1 have been incriminated as major causes of breast, colon, and prostate cancers.

So here we are, God! In America we can have cloned cows — no kidding, milk from cloned cows. And it is legal to give a cow rBGH. All this while according to Time magazine some farmers selling raw milk have been arrested and it is illegal to transport raw milk across state lines.

Seems to me, God, both our health and our freedom are suffering.

Posted in fears, freedom, health

Being Grateful as a Gift to Myself

Posted on November 27, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Good Morning, God!

I was just about to write some Thank You cards and letters when my eye was caught by an email titled “The Blessings of Gratitude.” It was an excerpt from the book All That Jesus Asks. I read the whole four pages excerpt.

I KNOW gratitude is GOOD FOR US! Still, it was good to read the quote from the book that “Studies show that gratitude is associated with “pro-social behaviors” and with improved emotional well-being.” It sounds so scientific as opposed to wishful thinking. I like that.

Gratitude, like Thanksgiving and Praise, helps us OPEN the door of our Heart — open to YOU, God. But, that door, while BIG, is often CLOSED. In fact, our schooling — teaching us to look for what’s WRONG — probably trains us not even to see that there IS a Door at the back of our Inner Garden.

a garden gate in Connemara, Ireland

Hmm. I’m looking at the gate and smiling, as I picture a truckload of manure coming in through that gate to fertilize the crops and flowers in the garden.

Ah, yes. MANY of YOUR BLESSINGS, God, do seem like having “manure” dumped on us. Manure is essential for the growth and good health of plants. But, we don’t WANT the old smelly and organic fertilizer dumped on us! We — well, me — I want EASY and PLEASANT . Sigh, I’m happy to be watered, but fertilized?

Ah, KNOWING THAT YOU USE EVERYTHING that comes into my life — really helps me Grit my Teeth and OPEN the Gate of Gratitude so I can be blessed — and grow. THANK YOU, GOD!

Posted in gratitude, growing toward up, Trusting God

A Door wide open — My Heart wide open?

Posted on November 26, 2010 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

A door -- wide-open -- in Dubrovnik

Good Morning, God!

I thought I would read Luke this morning and make a list of “commands” but I didn’t even get past Peterson’s introduction in the Message before I was stopped. He talks about our “clubs” informal or formal — all of which depend on exclusivity, keeping Others OUT. Then he points out that the “price” of exclusivity is “A REDUCTION of REALITY, a SHRINKAGE of LIFE.”

My immediate response was to cry out to You, God! “I don’t want my life shrunk! I want it EXPANDED.” That seemed like ENOUGH of an insight for one morning. But I read on: “. . . Religion has a long history of doing just that, of reducing the HUGE mysteries of God to the respectability of club rules, of shrinking the vast human community to a ‘membership.’ But with God there are no outsiders.” Oh, God! If we could only GRASP that truth — BE GRASPED BY IT!

Peterson goes on to talk about Luke as the only Gentile among the Jews — and how Luke shows how Jesus INCLUDES those “outside” — the women, the poor, the different. The page ends with Peterson saying that we “Now find the doors wide open, found and welcomed by God in Jesus.” Lovely! Your DOORS are WIDE OPEN, God.

But what I like even better, is how YOU come to the doors of Our Hearts and knock, asking if we will OPEN to You. Please, Come in, God. Not for a time in the parlor, but to stay in me. Perhaps, even to reign? Ah? You don’t stay if You aren’t reigning? Fair enough, God, fair enough.

Posted in an invitation to abundant life, doors and doorways, Ongoing Transformation