Self Check Out

I meditate in the morning.  I am ready to have a day of tranquility, trust, peace, acceptance, patience and confidence that God is with me.  Then comes the "self check out" at the store. Fear.  No trust.  God has abandoned me.  I am stupid.  The one line with a cashier is full.  Go there and I have to camp out for the afternoon.  So I go up to the check out machine.  I do what anyone in a recovery program does.  I admit I cannot do it on my own.  I need help with directions. I see a sponsor employee with his employee jacket on.  He comes to my aide.  First off, I should ignore the computer screen.  Good, because I cannot figure out what to do.  He shows me how to register each item using bar codes.  He does the first item and I do the rest.  Then he points to the computer screen and asks me to make choice: no bags or some bags.  I choose no bag.  He points to the next screen and tells me that I can now pay money.  The total is on the screen though I cannot seem to see it until he points it out.  Fear of failure and incompetency, and a publicly crushed ego blind me to the obvious.  He shows me where to pay my money and where the change will come out.  I would never have found those slots either.  I pay and get my change.  Success.  I walk out a new man.  I have a new skill.  I feel good.  Try it...but make sure there is help nearby.  This is a good idea for life in general.

Animal Blessing

Today is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.  Now even if you do not believe in any of this Christian saint stuff, your dog, cat, bird or whatever pet you have, may have some faith and want to be taken to a nearby church that is on the ball and blessing animals today.  Yes, on the Feast of this saint a lot of churches bless animals.  This is because St. Francis loved animals and all living things.  He was very ecological.  In the ceremony today, your pet gets baptized with holy water, the same kind of blessed water that baptizes people.  Your pet is your blessed friend.  Why not get a little blessed water sprinkled onto them.

Rosh Hashana

This is the Jewish New Year's first full day, Year 5777, I believe.  It is also the first day of the Islamic New Year, I think.  We get to celebrate NewYear's day several times a year here in this country.  It is what comes with our freedoms.  There is the Western calendar's New Year's Day on January 1, and then the Chinese have their New Year begin in February some time.  If you like New Year celebrations you get to have several each year in this country.  If you heard any ram's horns blowing last evening that was your Jewish friends feasting at the beginning of their celebration.  Lots of good food too.  Wish people happy new year as part of our celebration of diversity.  In some other parts of the world diversity is looked down upon.

Guardian Angels

Remember to say hello today to your guardian angel.  Today is the Feast of Guardian Angels.  I try to have gratitude for my guardian angel, because I need someone to guide me away from my blind ego-centered self, and to speak well of me when I get to the pearly gates.  Guardian angels have  experience in trial defense.  I am hoping that mercy triumphs over comeuppance.  Ignore your guardian angel at your own peril.  

Being Special

I would rather tell a child that they are unique rather than special.  I would explain unique as meaning that the child has gifts and talents that they need to discover and develop  so that they can be the person God made them to be.  So the child does not need to try and look, act, and be like everyone else.  Become yourself, not some other person.  If every boy in your class wants to play football, but you are attracted to the violin, then you go for the violin.  That is your uniqueness.  Being told that one is "special" too often ends up them thinking that they are better than others in their differences.  "Special" sets a very high bar in relation to others.  The violin player does not have to play the instrument better than others play football.  There is no competition.  When you are called special, the pressure is on to do better than others in grades and common achievements.  Special people end up comparing and contrasting.  They fail to identify with others around them.  If their lives become messy, or they develop bad habits, they are befuddled as to why this special person is doing so badly.  Special people can end up quite lonely and maybe even suicidal.  I thank my sister Maureen for convincing me that I am not special.  Boy, was she unique.

Women Of Abstract Expressionism

I don't think that God is unchanging, static, unmoved.  I was at the museum recently to view an exhibit of 20th Century women who painted "Abstract Expressionism."  The paintings are a lot of color and flow, or seeming movement, without any discernible figures, trees, people, buildings.   Their is a unity in all the colors.  The paintings are to be experienced in all this abstraction.  I felt myself experiencing God.  God is ever flowing, creating, mixing color, uniting from the divine imagination.  In times earlier than the modern world, God was seen more like a still life or a portrait.  Still.  Unchanging.  Why should God be still and unchanging?  That is a human idea.  Is not God free to change?  Whatever we think of God today will probably be different in the next century.  And so it goes.  God cannot be pinned down.  God can be loved.  I sit still in silence, not because God is still, but because I have distractions in my head and body that need some time to become quiet.  I need the flow of my life to be unitive and not crazy-making.  God is ever unfolding!

The Trick

More so when I was much younger, when I stayed up too late, and partied too long, as I could do when younger, I had to work hard the next day to convince people that was I OK.  When I got up the next morning, I went jogging, if I could, and then showered.  This made me "look" better and even feel better.  Then I could go public.  If I tried that now, I would need a body transplant.  I was living in a rather happy world, quite a good world around me, but I was not particularly happy inside.  This experience of life turned into a grace later, because I have people even today who come to me and say that they feel they should be happy, they have so much to be thankful for, but they are not feeling happy.  They come to "Reverend Holy" thinking I have a magic, and quick solution.  I tell them I had that same problem and will have it again, if I am not on a spiritual path of recovery from unhappiness.  I find it uplifting to know that I am not the only person who felt "crazy" about being unhappy.  I have found that even if we know why we are unhappy, such as some past bugaboo, that does not make us happy.  Knowledge in itself does not transform us.  I slog along with my daily meditations, and some other tools I use, and on most days I feel gratitude.  Grace at work.