Prayer of Pride

Prayer of Pride    - or -      Coming into Birth

440 words

have I not wrestled mightily with You, Oh Lord, Oh Great Spirit,

in my pride of my strength, thinking that I could demonstrate to You,

how strong I am, and how earnestly I have searched for Your Truth,

what I forgot was:

You already know what You have created,

You were always with me, guiding me to Your Path,

silently guiding me in Your gentle ways, teasing me forward,

And I forgot You have written me in Your golden book of Life,

You called forth my name singing Your constant Song of Love,

And You watched over me as I was born, just as You blessed my Mother,

and gave her Your calm wisdom,

and her eyes were open as she birthed me as the sun came up,

and I was her first born and it happened on a Sunday and I was holy….

because it is a miracle that life is reborn from generation to generation,

just part of Your Constant Miracle to renew us, for we are Your Melody,

we are a part of the symphony of all Life You have brought forth,

on this great and tiny world, each part a note of music,

a time signature in an unending tune,

a golden gong resonating through the silence of space,

a small and great shout of joy as You celebrate Spirit being aware of itself,

being aware that only Your Spirit animates this Universe,

Your breath in our bodies, Your sacred water and blood coursing through us,

now rushing now gathering in sacred places, but always in motion, never still

as You swirl Your currents of Air and Fire and Earth and Water around us,

and through us, anointing us and bathing us with Your Glory,

carrying us buoyantly suspended in Your rollicking Sea of Spirit and Longing

a wave of divine energy breaking on the shore, cresting and falling,

gathering strength and spending itself over and over,

until with our final crashing breath, we return to Your dark matrix,

return again to the invisible part of the electro-magnetic spectrum,

Your Infinite Energy pulsing through the orbits of planets and stars,

dying and being born in the dark and light dance of Your Constant Creation,

and all this I sense, being born into a world of warmth and light,

a world of noise and tumult, a journey traveled by feel and touch,

like a blind man, the tactile world bends to the pressure of my strong hands,

and also to the pressure of my longing to be joined with You, Lord.

HOW TO SURVIVE IN AN AFFLICTED WORLD – part 1

HOW TO SURVIVE IN AN AFFLICTED WORLD – part 1

or

How to Cause your enemies the maximum difficulty

There is one sure way to maintain your focus and to cause consternation among your foes. That way is to not let them ruffle your feathers.

For you see, that is part of their plan. They want to keep you in a perpetual state of upset, and they derive 'great' satisfaction from seeing you disturbed.

One Republican stated he was drinking 'the cup of tears' of the liberals and progressives with 'great' relish.

When you really understand their game plan is to distract you and try to force you to be reactive to all the false flags they throw up, you can avoid falling into their snare. It is a cynical and calculated game they are playing because they are stuck in a sick narrative. They are playing a mean game and a mean- spirited one. They just want to wear you out. Don't let them do that.

The more upset you become, the less able you are to use all of your focus and attention to work against the forces of division, the forces of greed and self-interest, the forces of hate and intolerance, and the age-old technique of divide and conquer.

If you want to maintain your maximum effectiveness, and your peace of mind, which allows you to utilize 100% of your capabilities, do not allow

yourself to be distracted or worn out or your spirit to be troubled.

Whether it is the mighty poobah who is now 'our' President or small and dangerous demagogues like the calculating Putin of KGB and Russian notoriety, the techniques are always the same. Lies, damned lies, and statistics are all used to good effect.

I have also read that their technique is like “throwing a dead cat on the table”. It effectively short-circuits any attempt at sincere dialogue.

They figure to exhaust you with the minutia of their supposed upsets, but keep in mind, it is all part of a hidden agenda to wear you out, distract you from the big picture, and spoil the calmness of your focus.

In “the art of the deal”, Trump writes, “I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after” and “when you go into a negotiation, you must begin from a position of unassailable strength. “

In the negotiations for the Menie Estate in Scotland, Trump wore Tom Griffin down by making one outlandish demand after another and bargaining hard on even the most trivial issues of disagreement. He never quit fighting.

- taken from Dan McAdams long article - “The Mind of Donald Trump” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/2016/06/

So, in the face of this belligerence and deliberate aggression, how do you maintain your focus and the calmness of your spirit? I would suggest that this is a huge opportunity to refine your core beliefs. Trump and his minions have provided a huge gift to the rest of us. Everything is now on the table.

We win when we maintain the bulwark of our beliefs, when we stay humble, and when we look for Greatness only in what has always provided inspiration to humans: a belief in the sacredness of life, a belief there is a holiness to this world which is beyond price and beyond the efforts of would-be tyrants to sully. We are great when we bow our heads and admit there is something far greater than ourselves, by whatever name you give it. Some call it the Creator, some call it God; by whatever you deem to be holy and beyond “deals”, place your faith there. Look to the fact you are an integral part of this 'Holiness', you have an absolute right to be here, you are part of the life of this planet, and the perfection of the natural world. Allow your spirit to remain in your 'quiet place' of peace and acceptance, and your heart to find solace in gratitude and awe of the real beauty that surrounds you constantly.

This is the only way to defeat the forces of darkness and chaos. You defeat

evil when you chose 'the good', and keep your focus on what is real and true.

The Usefulness of a Cup is in it's Emptiness

The Usefulness of a Cup is in it's Emptiness or stealing a march on the zen Buddhists

                                            Jan 5^th, 2016 400 little words

There's many a slip between cup and lip, you may have heard it said,

what we forget is no one gets the final word even after we make our bed,

we forget the simple facts of life because we fail to see,

we cannot match what the Creator made when the world first came to be,

we want to think that we can do what God has already done,

- create a world of full of life and wonder and power it with the sun,

we think we are way more clever than the plan that is already made,

but it is only our own arrogance that keeps us down in the shade,

in this world not of our making, in this life that thrives under God's sky,

we are blissfully ignorant of all our gifts and the many reasons why,

we were tasked to fly love's banner, and to keep the water pure,

and we deny the truth of all we know preferring just to endure,

all the ways we delude ourselves and buy the company line,

that if we listen to our smug leaders, everything will surely be fine,

but in our hearts we know the truth, that none of us have all the answers,

we need to listen to our sisters and to know we are just the dancers,

in the parade that started long ago beyond the reach of what we comprehend,

there is a melody in our heads and hearts that carries all we intend,

and wraps us up in a finer fabric than our logic can unfurl,

though we live oblivious to the gift and dumb to the seashore's pearl,

there's always more than we can do or that the livelong day allows,

our reach always exceeds our grasp after our words and our wows,

whatever we think, it's more than that, and yet be our spirits nimble,

the sum total of all we know would not fill a tiny thimble,

fingertips can feel to grip the handle of a cup,

take care to exercise all your senses when you often sup,

thank the Good Lord and pray our Creator will still take us back

after we get more humble and include a place for all we often lack.

Ode to Scouts or celebrating a simple Boy Scout canoe trip

Ode to the Boy Scouts of America

originally written 3rd of August, 2016 to commemorate a camping and canoe
trip made by a local Virginia Boy Scout Troop (159) to New York State
 "May God Bless Our Uncommon Journey"









Star made, earth born, we fly this cosmos unadorned,
eyes glassed, peering for clues, checking signposts we have used,
adrift but tethered to this silky sea, wordless, and still on one knee,
we kneel and bow before the flow, at chiming silence, and what little we
know,

Everything ends and begins again, and circles ring a fertile glen,
petals fall and bicycle around, with heavenly aura this earth abounds,
our bodies cast in a mold of clay, our forms glow with a gold array
what precious life surrounds our niche, no matter how our frames exist,

free of time, tide, and chainemail too, even if there's zika or the flu,
we fly a flag, a banner held high, a liquid longing to be green and blew,
by brisk breezes blowing cloud oer earth, until we find our proper berth,
we ride the throne of all we feel, once we taste that hearty greul,

of wandering unfettered, save some gear, a bit of line, but free of fear,
of what is wild, unwired, and true, flowing craft propelled by how we hew,
our watery paradise of delight, buzzing life, unseen spirits join our might,
hail to all blithe spirits and brave scouts, eager for their uncaged bouts,

with a Creation not made by Man, unsullied by motor's din or ethernet wan,
so take some pleasure among the geese, on this fine earth and lake's placid
peace,
there is more to life than we can pan, especially if you're trying to tan,
and season your soul with God's great spice, and trying to paddle j-strokes
real nice.

So I doff my little cap off my five cent buffalo head,
and thank God for scouts with more sense than dread,
who know that Creation is meant to be seen and felt,
and look for what is precious in pool and velvet veldt.