The Gift of Being Heard

Posted on October 17, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer

Good Day, God!

OK. Let me start by admitting — I love to fix things . . . and solve problems. I used to think of it as Being Helpful. Of course, I did notice, every now and then, that my “help” wasn’t welcomed. Most memorably my oldest daughter said to me, “Mom! Don’t give me advice. It just takes me twice as long to get there.”

But, I carried on . . . being helpful. Sigh. This book, A Hidden Wholeness, has opened my eyes and my heart. The author, who is a practicing Quaker, talks about how ALL of us have “An Inner Teacher.” And how our attempts to help/fix/advise another person keep that person from being able to hear the voice of his Inner Teacher.

Yes, God, years ago You clearly said, “Stop nagging Patty about cleaning her room — she can’t hear ME when you nag.” I remember it now. But, I never really thought about it as a Personal Policy. But, I am now.

In fact, it is probably part of what You were talking about when You urged me to have a Softer Outside — An Outside that is an Attentive and Respectful Listener. For it seems that we all need to be heard . . . heard without comment or judgment, positive or negative . . . heard so that we can hear our own inner voice.

I am both chastened and encouraged by this new paradigm. The book goes on to talk about Circles of Trust and the ground rules for them. I believe that good friends can provide a similar oasis of trust. And I have friends that do this. Friends that hear me with respect and patience. Friends — who by listening closely — help me to hear my inner self.

Please, God, I can listen . . . but I need Your help to resist adding a few words of my own!

Tagged with: A Hidden Wholeness, especting and protecting another person's inner teacher, patient attention
Posted in Books, Hearing, listening, respect, Rethinking

Vog, Tectonic Plates and Time

Posted on October 11, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Vog from the Big Island’s volcano hanging over Koko Crater

Good Day, God!

Yesterday morning, while stopped at a red light, I grabbed this photo of the vog hanging over Koko Crater. It was so thick it reminded me of the Last Days of Pompei. And that violent eruption put our little vog into perspective, God.

I’ve had a lot of perspective recently. Maybe too much? I just finished reading Simon Winchester’s book A Crack in the Edge of the World — about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the gigantic tectonic plates that we live on top of. I found an interesting map of these plates. I must say, God, that the idea of The North American plate starting in Iceland and going all the way to the coast of California boggles the mind.

Reading about how these plates have been interacting — pushing each other around and creating huge mountain ranges — for millions (or billions) of years does put my life in context. Mostly, this Tectonic Action happens in Geologic Time. But, when plates get stuck — not moving — and then get unstuck with an Earthquake — it enters into our Human Time — and we never forget the experience.

Let’s see, God, our human historical timeline goes back 4,000 or 5,000 years. Then cave paintings take us back maybe another 35,000 years. And I don’t even want to think about all the Old Bones. We are quite recent, aren’t we God? That’s more Perspective.

And what do I make of it all, God? Nothing really profound or surprising. Just that I should Carpe Diem! Seize the Day! And make good use of this amazing Life I am living — Right Here, Right Now!

Thank You!

Tagged with: A Crack in the Edge of the World, earthquakes, Geologic Time, Human Time, tectonic plates
Posted in a matter of scale, Abundant Life, Books, time, Transitions

Growing Toward Up — A Set of Goals

Posted on October 9, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Ulu or breadfruit growing in our Hahaione Valley

Good Day, God!

I’m feeling pretty darned good, God. It has taken me a month to recover from the month I was down with a sore throat virus. Actually, what I’m feeling is focused and coherent. All my Parts seem to be getting along and pulling in the same direction. Thank You, God!

I especially want to thank You for the Life in the Spirit weekend that finished Saturday. It featured two great speakers — Sandy Millar and Emmy Wilson. And they got us involved in triads (groups of three) for practice as well as principles.

In each triad, two were to pray for the third (in rotation), to see what You brought to our minds. While the other two were praying for me, I was praying for me, too. And I got such a clear and useful message!:

1) Soften your exterior. 2) Strengthen your core. 3) Awaken to possibilities. I really like that set, and it is a Set. The “Soften” hit home, God. I do need to soften my words and slow my pace at home. When I get focused, I turn harsh. It’s not what I want be, and besides, it’s counterproductive.

“Strengthening my core” I take to be physical — but I also think it refers to strengthening my Will as well.

And I take “Awaken to Possibilities” to mean I should Be of Good Cheer and Full of Hope! Because it does take Hope, God, to see, hear and sense all the amazing opportunities and clues waiting for discovery. Ah, but when I’m not full of the Spirit, then I can’t get my head up to look around me.

So, God, my Heart is full of Praise. My Head is Up. And I am of Good Cheer. Thank You!

Tagged with: Awaken, Good Cheer, Holy Spirit, hope
Posted in a hand up, growing toward up, Holy Spirit, hope, JOY, listening

A gift of hope for me — via a Mars Rover!

Posted on October 4, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

A gift of hope for me — via a Mars Rover!.

Posted in Uncategorized

A gift of hope for me — via a Mars Rover!

Posted on October 4, 2012 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

NASA’s latest Mars Rover — Curiosity

Good Morning, God!

WOW! My brother sent me a link to a marvelous video on how we “got” to Mars and I was thrilled. It reminded me of my childhood love of SciFi.

I was so excited, God, that I went looking around for more information and found the “latest” animation video at the JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) site. In this one, the rover Curiosity doesn’t bounce and roll in the way that earlier rovers arrived. Instead, it is lowered from its hovering power source after a flat surface had been located. Most impressive.

Mind You, God, the Bounce, Bounce and Roll arrival was fun. But, my seeing within minutes those two landings — that were separated by years — really summed up the fast advance in technology.

Sigh. We humans have a lot of smarts, God. So, why do I feel that we are not really using those smarts? Yes, God, You are right. That is a question I might well ask myself. I shall go and sit in Centering Prayer.

More sighs! I sat in prayer and . . . Yikes! What a lot of work I have to do on and in myself. I guess, God, that is why I shy away from going and sitting quietly in Your Presence. Listening. Acknowledging. Still, even with all of that, I am Joyful! Hopeful! Somehow You are weaving together my complicated tangle of interests and roles and responsibilities — and starting with me. Starting with my connection to You — then moving on to Eating Wisely, Exercising Regularly, and Exerting Control of my Time.

Aah, it comes to me, God, that You want to help “lower” me to a safe flat spot to begin each day — instead of the Bounce, Bounce and Roll which which I am accustomed to start my days. Thank You!

Tagged with: amazement at our human smarts, Curiosity a Mars Rover, hope, puzzlement over my not using them, softer safer landings
Posted in a hand up, Centering Prayer, Changing, hope

Knowing more about what we EAT

Posted on October 3, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Good Day, God!

California Proposition 37 (see poster above) would require labeling on foods containing genetically modified (GMO) ingredients. The poster lists “Health Food” companies that have contributed AGAINST labeling (left side) and FOR labeling (right side.) The poster is intended to help us sort health food companies out.

Much to my surprise, God, I learned that the U.S.A. and Canada are the only two “industrialized” countries that DO NOT label GMO food. So what’s the problem? Why can’t Americans be free to choose to buy or not to buy GMO foods? And how can we do that if the food isn’t labeled?

Actually, God, I think the GMO food question is just the last in a long series of unannounced food changes. Foods have been changing nutritional content — while keeping the same names — ever since SALT was refined. For example, Meat from animals raised in feedlots or cages and fed on grain has vastly more Slow Fat (omega 6) and much less Fast Fat (omega 3), the good stuff. Since You have designed us to work best on fast fats (omega 3), God, this is a nutritional disaster!

Most of us don’t realize that our food is very different from what our grandparents or great grandparents ate. We don’t know and maybe we don’t even want to know.

What I’ve learned God in thinking about this poster and GMOs is that I have an enormous frustration and distress about our American Diet. It is an overwhelming situation, God. Please help us sort it all out! Please, God, help us — bite by bite — choice by choice.

Tagged with: industrial food, nutritional losses, only the name stays the same, refined salt vs sea salt
Posted in Caring, Eating for health, food questions, health, learning

Needing a Helping Hand

Posted on October 1, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

The Right Reverend Sandy Millar — speaker at Life in the Spirit this weekend

Good Morning, God!

I am really looking forward to this weekend’s Life in the Spirit conference at the First Presbyterian Church at Koolau. I am feeling very much in need of Your Help, God.

Travel is diverting and wondrously enjoyable, God. But, I am Home now. And I am in need of refilling. I loved being “poured out” — that lovely extroverted time of being connected — of sharing — of hearing and being heard.

Ah, but now God, I want to go and sit at Your Feet. I want to Drink In and Refill. And so I am off this Friday afternoon to listen to Sandy Millar, who as vicar at Holy Trinity Brompton (London) helped launch a revived Alpha Course. That course is a sort of Introduction to Christianity and it helps folks over the many Unseen Barricades that keep people OUT of the church.

Currently Sandy Miller is an assistant bishop for missions in a poor parish in northern London. He has a heart for us humans, God! Just as You do.

I am looking forward to having someone remind me that we ARE loved. When I listen to the News I sometimes despair and rail at You. Could You not have done better by us, God? But, then I realize that we are now “co-creators” with You, God. You await our “permission” to do more — to work in us and on us and through us.

So, God, I am venturing out this weekend to ask for Your Help.

And if anyone else wants to join me the cheaper price has been extended through this Monday.

Tagged with: Alpha Course, Holy Spirit as Helper, Life in the Spirit, Right Reverend Sandy Millar
Posted in a hand up, asking for help for myself, Holy Spirit, intentional and invited sacred space, responsibility

A Series of Road Trips

Posted on September 30, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Santa Monica Blvd turned into a Street of Gold outside the Marouch restaurant

Good Day, God!

What a wonderful series of visits I have had, God! First I landed at LAX and drove up to Hollywood to have dinner with our Godson followed with dinner with Suzanne. The next morning I drove up to Oxnard. And over the weekend high school friends and I went to Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands off of Santa Barbara.

Then I made the long day’s drive from Oxnard to Tucson, Ariz. where I had a lovely visit with our daughter and her family — including time alone with each of them.

Then Sandy and I had a Road Trip to LA, stopping at Desert Hot Springs where we spent the night. (She did all the driving because before leaving on this trip I had tripped and banged my right knee on Kauai so that long drives got painful.)

How like Life that my aching knees resulted in a magical time with BOTH daughters that Saturday. We started our day with a trip to Beverly Hills Juice (breakfast) and ended with a three hour visit to a Korean spa. Then it was off to the airport for Sandy to fly home.

Next it was time with Suzy. Talking and talking and consulting on home furnishings and plants and, of course, shopping! I don’t shop much at home, God. Somehow it seems like a different activity when it is done with daughters! Everything done with daughters is better!

The whole time was filled with special moments. Stepping out of the Marouch Lebanese Restaurant just in time to see the street turned to gold — see the photo above — seems like just the right image for my trip. It represents those small magical moments that one can’t “plan” — one can only marvel at them and be thankful for them.

I have unpacked my suitcase. But I have barely begun to “unpack” the hundreds and hundreds of images, memories, and Connections. Precious Connections. Thank You, God, for everything!

Tagged with: Daughters, magical moments, Road Trips
Posted in connecting, connections, family visits, friends

On the Road, Again

Posted on September 23, 2012 by a moment with god — 1 Comment

A Freeway Interchange — Approaching Los Angeles

Good Morning, God!

Being a native Los Angelina I get a strange delight from Freeways — especially their multiple overpasses. These are images my mother saw on the cover of magazines like Astounding Fiction. Fiction in her childhood — reality in mine.

So, somehow, this concrete interchange evokes my current multi-layered Trip.

A Trip that began with An Adventure of Boating out to two of the Channel Islands with good friends from long ago — my high school years. Friends rediscovered and, more importantly, revalued just a few years ago.

Revaluing is such an essential part of Living, God! And right now — sitting here at our oldest daughter’s apartment — my life seems overwhelmingly FULL of VALUED CONNECTIONS. Each one connects me to another Person — another Time — Another Place.

Only, of course, my Inner Emotional Interchanges are far more complex and interconnected than this simple one of concrete! Still, the image is evocative.

Due to tripping and falling while running for joy — and odd sort of climax to our trip to Kauai for my husband, Kit, to run the Kauai Marathon — my right knee has not been itself. And driving from Oxnard to Sandy’s home in Tucson in one day left my knee unhappy. So I awoke one night with the wild idea that perhaps my daughter Sandy could drive me back to LA and then fly home! Sandy loved the idea. A Road Trip! A Special Time Together! Then we joined up with Suzanne on Saturday morning. A Mother with her Daughters! Going together to Beverly Hills Juice, Erewhon Market, and a Korean spa for acupressure, saunas, and dinner. Sharing experiences, thousands of words — and LOVE.

Thank You, God. Thank You!

Tagged with: A Mother with her Daughters, reconnecting, revaluing, sharing, time together
Posted in Adventures, connections, Families, family visits, friends

Evicting a 99 year old lady — and her dogs

Posted on September 12, 2012 by a moment with god — Leave a comment

Bea Berglund’s adoring dog

Good Night, God!

Evicting a 99 year old lady! Really! I am sure the Bank of America is within its legal rights to clear the land they bought after the owner died owing taxes. But LEGAL isn’t the same thing as RIGHT or KIND or maybe even decent?

I’m a bit touchy about evictions since the nice family next door turned up “missing.” After noticing they were gone for longer than usual I asked around. They had been evicted. They hadn’t said a word to us. Would we have helped? Could we have helped? We never had a chance to find out.

But, we do have a chance to help Bea Berglund and her dogs. She is a 99 year old neighbor of a friend of mine who lives in the desert land of Newberry Springs. And she is due to be evicted October 5th by the Bank of America. Please God, could you find a way for someone in charge at the Bank of America to find out about this and do something? I know You don’t normally interfere in our business practices. But, could you make an exception for Bea and her dogs?

She would be grateful for an extension. It isn’t easy to move — and it doesn’t get any easier as we get older — especial at 99! As for myself, I would be grateful if you could just get folks to read more about it in my friend’s blog. It’s savingbea.wordpress.com