Oct. 25, 2001

The last birthday I had before my dad died in 2002, he sent me an email telling me about my birth. I treasure it and was afraid I would not find it in old folders, but did. I saw a man driving a truck while smoking a pipe today and thought of my father. He smoked a pipe until he had growths in his mouth when I was newly married and stopped. I guess I'm remembering my parents as I face another birthday. (My mother died in 1992) I still miss them at times, odd moments like this. Maybe I miss them more because I have no siblings, but I do have my dear CB and four wonderful children.
Here's my dad's email from his webtv:

Hope this is one of your best ones and you have many more.
I can remember October 25, l950, very clearly and will tell you again a little about it. Your mother and I were living on Ohio Street in Bremerton, Wa., while I was an out patient at the USNH recuperating from a wound I recd in Korea. It was approx thiis time of day when there was a ripping sound from your mother's stomach. She then said I had better take her to the USNH. We arrived at the hospital and could not find a parking place. So your mother said she would go in and see the Doctor and be right out so I could double park. After waiting a few minutes in the car,a Navy Corpsman ran out to me and said your wife is having a baby. What a suprise because you were not due for a month or so. Your were born premature a few minutes later and had to remain in the hospital where we visited you daily for several weeks. When they let us bring you home they gave us boxes of food etc for you but did not tell us until we found out later that the nurses were playing with you all night and you would be sleeping all day thus you would be doing the same after we got you home.
At any rate it was one of the most wonderful things that could happened to your mother and I. I know she would be just as proud of you as I am. Just wish she could be with us today.

~~~~~~~~~~This was the only time I ever remember my dad telling me about my birth. I'm very glad he did before he died.

How could depression lead to a richer spiritual life?

I can answer this question only after the fact, because in the midst of severe clinical depression I have never felt anything redeeming about it, spiritually or otherwise. But when I emerge back into life, several things become clear. One is that the darkness did not kill me, which makes all
darknesses more bearable—and since darkness is an inevitable part of the cycle of spiritual life (as it is in the cycle of natural life) this is valuable knowledge. Two, depression has taught me that there is something in me far deeper and stronger and truer than my ego, my emotions, my intellect, or my will. All of these faculties have failed me in depression, and if they were all I had, I do not believe I would still be here to talk about the experience. Deeper down there is a soul, or true self, or "that of God in every person" that helps explain (for me, at least) where the real power of life resides. Three, the experience of emerging from a living hell makes the rest of one's life more precious, no matter how "ordinary" it may be. To know that life is a gift, and to be grateful for that gift, are keys to a spiritual life, keys that one is handed as depression yields to new life.

--Parker Palmer, Ph.D.

Possible Advent Reflection

I haven't even seen this in its physical form yet, but I am thinking of ordering copies, sight unseen. The Advent of the God of Peace can be found at the Pax Christi site. I learned about it from Fr. John Dear's latest post at NCRcafe.org for his "On the Road to Peace" column, which is entitled "Women, Peacemaking and the Church."

Fr. John writes in that article:

"I hope and pray that women will not give up, not give in, and not walk away, that they will celebrate their calling to follow the peacemaking Christ, and that they will keep on working for justice and peace. Few men are interested in creative nonviolence; most of us men cling to old patterns of control, domination, and violent power, the methods that have brought us racism, war on Iraq, executions, violence against women and children and nuclear weapons. I hope peacemaking women will wear us men down with their creative, Gospel nonviolence so that one day soon we will together abolish war, poverty, racism, patriarchy, nuclear weapons and violence for good."

And then he lists several new books by women about non-violence.

Soup

Even though we have leftover spaghetti from last night, I decided to make a pot of soup today, with the cool wind blowing in through the windows. From the good old La Leche League cookbook Whole Foods for the Whole Family, I made hamburger soup, with lots and lots of vegetables. It's simmering on the stove right now.

I love making soup. I remember when we lived in RI and NJ, the kids got tired of having soup so often for dinner. One of the last times my mother ever visited me (in RI), she and I took a cooking class in a kitchen store in little, charming Wickford and learned to make a peanut butter squash soup. The reaction of my children about that was not complimentary; they still talk about that "awful" soup I made back when DC was in 7th grade, AE was in 4th, and BJ was in 1st. (MJ was only 2 and doesn't remember it at all.) It's become a funny story in our family.

Cold Front!!

A cold front is blowing through south Texas! For the first time in a very long time, we have our windows open! Yay! It is in the 60s F. outside. Finally, autumn has arrived.

Plumpy'nut and Malnutrition in Africa

Ever since I was in Zambia in June 2006, my heart has been aching for the starving and suffering children I saw there. Tonight I watched "60 Minutes" on CBS and found a news story about Doctors Without Borders feeding malnourished children plumpy'nut, which is either called "ready-to-use food" (RUF) or "ready to use therapeutic food" (RUTF). More scientific or "official" news articles use these acronyms for "plumpy'nut."

There is a news release from October 10, 2007 from Doctors Without Borders (MSF for its French initials) that cites the news program on CBS and gives much information about the use and effectiveness of plumpy'nut in Africa for malnutrition that is definitely worth your time and attention to look at.

"Project Peanut Butter was launched as a new approach to the treatment of malnutrition among Malawian children. The project has since been proven as an effective method with success rates reaching average recovery rates of 89.9% and even higher among some regions. The treatment centers on a peanut based paste rich in protein and fats with a complete complement of vitamins and minerals. This Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) can be manufactured locally with importation of only the additional vitamins and minerals. The paste is resistant to bacterial contamination under all climatic conditions due to its low water content and does not require cooking. This is a tremendous advantage because it removes the burden of having to collect firewood and provides an easy way to produce nutritious food. "

Again from Doctors Without Borders:

"Severe acute malnutrition in early childhood is common in large areas of the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and South Asia -- the world's "malnutrition hotspots." The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 20 million young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition at any given moment and MSF estimates that only three percent of them will receive RUF in 2007.

"Therapeutic RUF for only severely malnourished children, as current WHO, World Food Program, and UNICEF guidelines recommend, is too restrictive. Given its nutritional benefits, RUF has the potential to address malnutrition at earlier stages and is far more effective than fortified blended flour, which is normally distributed. MSF is piloting a program using a modified RUF as a supplement to prevent children from becoming acutely malnourished.

"Instead of waiting for kids to get gravely ill we decided to act earlier," said Dr. Susan Shepherd, MSF medical coordinator, Maradi, Niger. "We are piloting a program that gives RUF to all children under three in at-risk communities so that they get the nutrients that are missing in their normal diet."

This is hopeful, but something we all need to be supporting. So far away, I can continue to pray. But we can also participate in activities to alieve hunger like the CROP Walk and making donations to the organizations listed above and others that you research yourselves.

Remember:
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 20 million young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition at any given moment and MSF estimates that only three percent of them will receive RUF in 2007.

Unexpected Grace

Symbol of Divine Grace: Falcon in the eye of Udiet

Above is a picture of the Symbol of Divine Grace: Falcon in the eye of Udiet from "Cruising on the Nile from Aswan to Luxor."


Since presenting my spiritual autobiography at EFM last week, I have been newly aware of a grace in my life. Although I have written various spiritual autobiographies in my life (even at this blog under "Faith Story"), I was surprised at the insight I gained from this simple exercise.To do this differently, I thought I would look at unexpected guideposts to God.

One of the people I chose to consider was my paternal grandmother, Brunie. In the early part of the 20th century she was orphaned and forced to lived with her married sister in poor, rural Arkansas. To get away from that rigorous life, she married John K. when she was only 14. Soon after she had my dad, her only child. She had a difficult, impoverished life in a very tiny Arkansas town with its Baptist church. Her husband beat her until my dad was big enough to tell him to stop. I can see how hard her life was now, but as I grew up and periodically saw her every few years, I remember her as a bitter, complaining woman.

My father wrote to her every week on a typewriter. He was a good son, but one who was always angry when he was with her. They were better apart. In retrospect, I can understand that, too, as she ran around in that little town, while his dad drunk. How hard it was for him to grow up there.

My grandmother is an example of the adage my mother told me: Until you're in your 40s, you have the face you inherited. After that, you have the face you made. My grandmother had a pursed up mouth and looked unhappy much of the time, even though she lived comfortably in her old age (after my parents bought her a little house). She complained until she died. She "made" her face through self-pity and critical judging.

That unsavory picture of my grandmother was what I had stored in my memory, pushed to the back to be hidden from view. But looking at her again, I remember all the beautiful and elaborate cards she would send me, especially for Valentine's Day. They always came, and I loved getting mail. And even now, I am known for sending cards and notes (formerly letters) to people. I like to do that, and that's a gift from my grandmother--a gift of love.

That sounds like very little, but it's a part of me that I enjoy, and it is nice to appreciate my grandmother in some way. But I am feeling like I am grateful for her in a larger way, because I am feeling unforeseen love for her. It is a healing love that is reaching into the past to connect us.

What is surprising about all this is that I have not been seeking for healing or praying for such inner work. The grace of healing is just HERE. This is a perfect example to me of God's grace-- totally unearned. Divine Grace was working within me, without me knowing it, healing me in unknown ways. This is God, who is working in each one of us, loving us into the people he wants us to be.

I cannot take credit at all for this healing in a little part of my life; all I can do is thank God. This brings a new awareness of the Divine indwelling and as Julian of Norwich wrote, "Sin is necessary, but
all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well."

Gay Dumbledore

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has revealed a big secret about Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore's past - he was in love with another wizard.

During her American book tour JK was asked if Dumbledore found true love.

"Dumbledore is gay," she replied, before adding that he'd fallen in love with his rival Gellert Grindelwald.

But she said Dumbledore was "terribly let down" when Grindelwald became more interested in the dark arts than good, and so he went on to destroy him.

Fans at New York's Carnegie Hall were initially stunned into silence by the announcement, but soon started clapping and cheering.

JK said: "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy."

The news should help to clear up lots of rumours about Dumbledore's mysterious past once and for all.

October 20, 2007

CBBC Newsround

And for Hillel Italie's AP article on "J. K. Rowling Outs Hogwarts Character" go here.

The American Inquisition?

This week's post by Joan Chittister at her column From Where I Stand at the National Catholic Reporter website is entitled "The American Inquisition?" She writes about the torture that has been conducted in the name of "national security," which President Bush called "enhanced questioning."

"The government says it's about "keeping the American people safe." But from what? From decency, from humanity, from morality, from law? Because by now, the stories of official U.S. atrocities are pouring out from all over the world. Just surf over to this page, skim the headlines. Surely that ought to be enough to tell us that we are up to our necks in tactics too close to sadism to overlook. Tactics that break the minds of innocents and decay the soul of those who call themselves victors."

This fear of safety goes along with John Cory's writing in the post below this: America, Land of Fear?

Chittister compares the way the U.S. has used torture with the way the Church used it during the Inquistion, citing the inquisition and heresy trial of the Knights Templar in 1307 and the maneuverings of PopeClement V and King Philip VI of France. There is an October 13, 2007 newspaper article about this: Vatican to tell true knights' tale.

The article is concluded with:

"But therein lies the lesson: Material gained under torture is simply not credible, a conclusion reached by Eyemeric, the Grand Inquisitor of Aragon himself in 1357, who said, information gained under torture "is deceptive and ineffectual." Which means that the torturer isn't credible either. Or, to put it another way, how can we ever hope to stop the school shootings and gang warfare we abhor while we're doing it ourselves? How do we tell our children that their violence is bad but our violence is good?

"From where I stand, torture is too unreliable an item to build the morality, the credibility, the integrity of a church -- or a nation -- on it. After all, we can't have it both ways. Either the Inquisition was good -- or it wasn't."

I always like the way Joan Chittister expresses herself. Go to her original article and read it!

America, Land of Fear?

By John Cory t r u t h o u t | Perspective Wednesday 17 October 2007 "We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men." - Edward R. Murrow They have presented us with their sinister box gift-wrapped in a thobe and ghutra tied in a bow with a chapan and pakol. And when the package loses its luster, they light the ribbon-fuse and toss the sparkling box into the air for all to see and remember and shudder. Such a lovely parcel, this box of fear; carefully packaged and marketed with shiny toys of death inside and extra coupons on the back to order more. Don't be the only kid on the block without one. When did America change from "the land of the free" to the land of fear? When did we become a nation afraid of tubes of toothpaste and shampoo and water bottles? Who taught us to fear brown people in all their shades? What is it that makes us fear and despise oral sex more than torture? How is it that a nation founded on revolution and free speech now cowers in "free speech zones" and trembles at every utterance of its citizens? How in the heck did we come to dread the truth from 12-year-old children? We were a nation inspired by thought and words. Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death." Dr. King, "I have a dream." The hymns of the heart like, "We Shall Overcome." Suddenly we say "Give me less liberty so I don't worry about death." Standing on the mountaintop, we exclaim, "I have no dream." Overwhelmed by paranoia and despair, we lament, "We cannot overcome." In the film, "Seven Days in May," a revolution is underway to overthrow the president of the United States. Behind it are members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, led by Gen. James Mattoon Scott. When fingers are pointed and the presidential adviser says it is time to face the enemy, President Jordan Lyman responds, "He's not the enemy. Scott, the Joint Chiefs, even the emotional, very illogical lunatic fringe: They're not the enemy. The enemy's an age - a nuclear age. It happens to have killed man's faith in his ability to influence what happens to him. And out of this comes a sickness, and out of sickness a frustration, a feeling of impotence, helplessness, weakness. And from this, this desperation, we look for a champion in red, white, and blue. Every now and then a man on a white horse rides by, and we appoint him to be our personal god for the duration. For some men it was a Senator McCarthy, for others it was a General Walker, and now it's a General Scott." There have always been those who capitalize on our fears for their own power-starved greed; who gave us Manzanar, and "restricted" clubs and hotels, the Red-baiting scare and blacklists; those willing to violate the sanctity of freedom by spying on their own citizens while loudly proclaiming the need for "the right kind" of thought and expression to save the cherished American dream - who count lapel pins as patriotism. How long ago did we lose the ability to meet and greet our friends and loved ones at the arrival gate in the airport? Do you remember? And no, it was long before 9/11. And that, my friend, is the seditious subtlety of the politics of fear. It is never sudden, but creeps slowly into the mainstream. Small steps and small fears that acclimate us to the need for protection - from what or whom doesn't matter. It is enough to be afraid and sit quietly in the dark and wait for "them" to identify the danger and offer their warped protection. America has always been more myth than reality, but it was that magical mix of fiction and fact that made the dream of America larger than life. We were a cross between Paul Bunyan and Paul Revere, and that was our charm. Tall tales and brash "can-do" Americanism lifted us on the swells of rising dreams all around the world. The greatness of America was never its armies or corporate empires - it was its citizens, the everyday John Doe on the street. It was and should always be "we the people." Immigrants came to America to be part of "we the people." They came to work, no matter how menial; it was all just a stepping-stone to the new frontier of being American. They believed in the myth and the magic despite the posted signs, "Irish need not apply" or drinking fountains labeled "Whites Only." America was Little Italy, Chinatown, Harlem and Little Saigon. Now we have become a nation besieged by desperation. Politicians running for office sneer at us, holding themselves up as "leaders" rather than "representatives" of we the people. Demographics and demagoguery pass for political discussion, and the rubber stamp echoes through the halls of Congress. One party clutches frantically to power, while the other is smug in the knowledge that we the people want change so badly we'll probably vote for anyone but the current regime. They do not fight or stand, but choose to nod weakly while democracy passes by. In the play "Inherit the Wind," an allegory for the McCarthy Era, Henry Drummond speaks about wicked laws and fanaticism: "I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy, you can only punish. And I warn you, that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys every one it touches. Its upholders as well as its defiers. Can't you understand?.... And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding." I disagree with President Lyman above - it is not a nuclear age or terrorism, but rather the men and women of the age who determine whether the disease of dictatorship and fascism continues to infect or is killed in the sunlight of pure democracy. America deserves better. We the people deserve better. This will be my America and my vote: (Are you listening, Democrats?) An end to the war in Iraq and an end to its funding. An end to the lies that kill. A Sunday morning bathed in autumn sunlight, presidential candidates and members of Congress standing on the tarmac at Dover AFB, ready and willing to serve as pallbearers for the caskets that cradle our American pride and joy now stilled by this senseless war. A mosque in Detroit surrounded by Christian and Muslim Americans embracing their love of GOD and rejecting the fear of GOP. A border town bulldozing chain-link fences and reciting Robert Frost. A multinational corporation showing up at a veterans' hospital with building materials and employment counselors and funding for those for whom duty and honor are not political marketing slogans. A child, born in the security of never going without health care, and parents never having to choose to which of their children they can afford to give medical treatment or where they will all live after selling off house and home to pay hospital bills. Impossible, you say? Impractical and unreal? My friend, this is America. We have danced on the moon and scuffed the dust of Mars. We once put pen to paper and ignited a revolution heard round the world. We are not descended from fearful men. John Cory is a Vietnam veteran. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V device, 1969 - 1970.

Friday Five: Homage to Top Chef

RevHRod brought forth this week's Friday Five for RevGalsBlogPals:

This Fall my family has been energetically watching Top Chef on the Bravo channel. My teenage daughter watches with the dream of some day being a chef. My husband watches because he loves reality shows and I mean, really loves them. Plus the whole competition thing really works for him. Me, I love cooking and good food. Every so often I get an idea from this group of talented young chefs who are competing for big money and honors galore.

The winner for this season was Hung. Not the fan favorite, but he won fair and square. In his bio, he says if he were a food "I would be spicy chili - it takes a while to get used to, but once you eat it you always come back for more!" With that in mind, here is this week’s Friday Five.

1. If you were a food, what would you be?

Kiwi fruit—looking somewhat boring from the outside, but surprisingly interesting inside.

2. What is one of the most memorable meals you ever had? And where?

When my new husband CB went on our honeymoon to San Francisco, we went to a fancy restaurant before seeing “The Nutcracker Suite.” We were (only) 21. I don’t remember the meal so much as the elegant place and having Baked Alaska for dessert. I’d always heard about that from my mother and had wanted it. It looked much more gratifying than it tasted.

3. What is your favorite comfort food from childhood?

Baking and eating Christmas cookies. I remember fondly those cut-out cookies that we iced. My mother was so patient! It always intrigued me when all were iced that when you put all the remaining colors of icing together, a grayish-purple frosting would be created.

4. When going to a church potluck, what one recipe from your kitchen is sure to be a hit?

Sorta-lasagne from the La Leche League cookbook, Whole Foods for the Whole Family.

5. What’s the strangest thing you ever willingly ate?

I probably had some strange things when we lived in Japan when I was in junior high, but I don’t remember. The only thing I can think of is “rape” (a greenish root leafy mush), which was always accompanied by nshima when I was in Zambia in June 2006. Nshima is made from ground maize (cornmeal) flour that is known locally as mielie-meal.

Nshima (top right corner) with three relishes

Bonus question: What’s your favorite drink to order when looking forward to a great meal?
Boring though it is, water.

From Ellie at Meditation Matters:

It's not them, it's you.
It's not there, it's here.
It's not then, it's now.

~ Author Unknown ~

Poem

Waking

Get up from your bed,
go out from your house,
follow the path you know so well,
so well that you now see nothing
and hear nothing
unless something can cry loudly to you,
and for you it seems
even then
no cry is louder than yours
and in your own darkness
cries have gone unheard
as long as you can remember.

These are hard paths we tread
but they are green
and lined with leaf mould
and we must love their contours
as we love the body branching
with its veins and tunnels of dark earth.

I know that sometimes
your body is hard like a stone
on a path that storms break over,
embedded deeply
into that something that you think is you,
and you will not move
while the voice all around
tears the air
and fills the sky with jagged light.

But sometimes unawares
those sounds seem to descend
as if kneeling down into you
and you listen strangely caught
as the terrible voice moving closer
halts,
and in the silence
now arriving
whispers

Get up, I depend
on you utterly.
Everything you need
you had
the moment before
you were born.

~ David Whyte ~

(Where Many Rivers Meet)

Dorothy Day on the defeatist attitude

As mentioned in the Kinky Boots! post, it is sometimes easy to fall into a defeatist attitude. Dorothy Day from readings out of The Class of Nonviolence writes about futility in the essay entitled The Scandal of the Works of Mercy:

"One of the greatest evils of the day is the sense of futility. Young people say, 'What can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we can only lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform these actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes."

I once had a friend who loved to point out moments of "synchronicity," which always irritated me. However, finding this quote of Dorothy Day's right after I wrote about an aspect of futility that was overcome in "Kinky Boots" seems to fit that Jungian word. My friend Judy D. must be chuckling at me off in the Divine Beyond.

Kinky Boots!

Husband CB and I watched this movie this past weekend. It sat around our house for several weeks, because the title "Kinky Boots" did not sound inviting to him. Watch the preview!

It is a wonderfully funny and heartwarming movie! And it gives a terrific message to the defeatist question, "What can I do?" Sometimes I have felt that way, and I'll have to remember, at such times, that uppity girl telling Charlie that it's pointless to ask a question like that, instead to find his place ("niche market"). Hearts are opened in the oddest and seemingly minor characters in the movie.

Since it was made in 2005 in Britain, probably you in Great Britain have already seen it or heard of it. But CB and I never had, but thanks to Netflix's quirky recommendations on past rentals, we got it. We're both glad.

At least, watch the watch the preview!

Personality Test

I saw this over at Wyld's Q & A, though he ended up with prettier colors than I did.
It's at Your Personal DNA.

Pieces of the Puzzle

"There must have been a time when you entered a room and met someone and after awhile you understood that unknown to either of you there was a reason you had met. You had changed the other and he had changed you. By some word or deed or just by your presence the errand had been completed. Then perhaps you were a little bewildered or humbled and grateful. And it was over."

Each lifetime is the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
For some there are more pieces.
For others the puzzle is more difficult to assemble.

Some seem to be born with a nearly completed puzzle.
And so it goes.
Souls going this way and that.
Trying to assemble the myriad parts.

But know this. No one has within themselves
All the pieces to their puzzle.
Like before the days when they used to seal
Jigsaw puzzles in cellophane. Insuring that
All the pieces were there.

Everyone carries with them at least one and probably
Many pieces to someone else's puzzle.
Sometimes they know it.
Sometimes they don't.

And when you present your piece
Which is worthless to you,
To another, whether you know it or not,
Whether they know it or not,
You are a messenger from the Most High.

~Lawrence Kushner
Honey from the Rock: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Thanks to Mike at The Mercy Blog.

I was mostly Dedicated Reader, with some Book Snob and Literate Good Citizen thrown in. Reading the Harry Potter books got me into a smidgen of Fad Reader.

From Fran in her post

Blog Action Day - Plastic Water Bottles & The Environment


Fran really hit me with all her info and passion about this subject. Although I am almost fanatical about recycling, I see that re-using a water bottle (NOT a plastic one though!) would be more beneficial. Thanks to Fran's link to My Sigg water bottles, I've actually acted and ordered one for me. I am even thinking this would be a good Christmas present for each member of my family--if they'd choose their own design! I couldn't resist getting one for myself that has leaves on it, which was the same price as a plain one.

A Zulu John Wesley?

From the Gratefulness post right below, there is this quote by a Zulu child:

Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.
– Nkosi Johnson, twelve-year-old Zulu boy

Doesn't that remind you of the beloved saying of John Wesley?

Do all the good you can.
By all the means you can.
In all the ways you can.
At all the times you can.
To all the people you can.
As long as ever you can.

How Universal is Gratefulness?

Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.
– Hausa proverb from Nigeria

The happy heart gives away the best. To know how to receive is also a most important gift, which cultivates generosity in others and keeps strong the cycle of life.
– Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, speaker, author, musician and spiritual leader in the Eastern Tsalagi (Cherokee) tradition

Whenever feeling downcast, each person should vitally remember, "For my sake, the entire world was created."
– Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer, Baal Shem Tov,
founder of Hasidic Judaism

Under affliction in the very depths, stop and contemplate what you have to be grateful for.
– Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science

A thankful person is thankful under all circumstances. A complaining soul complains even in paradise.
– Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i Faith

There's a self-expansive aspect of gratitude. Very possibly it's a little known law of nature: the more gratitude you have, the more you have to be grateful for.
– Elaine St. James, author, leader of the simplicity movement

Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.
– Nkosi Johnson, twelve-year-old Zulu boy, living with AIDS

Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.
– Yoko Ono, Japanese-American artist and musician

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman stoic

As life becomes harder and more threatening, it also
becomes richer, because the fewer expectations we have,
the more good things of life become unexpected gifts
that we accept with gratitude.
– Etty Hillesum, Dutch Jewish writer known for her diaries and correspondence from Westerbork concentration camp

Grateful living: an alchemic operation
of converting "disgraceful" things into grateful events.
– Raimundo Panikkar, Roman Catholic priest from Spain specializing in comparative philosophy of religion

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
– Native American prayer

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art....It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.
– Joanna Macy, eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism

Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
– G.K. Chesterton, writer and Christian apologist

I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable...but through it all I still know quite certainly
that just to be alive is a grand thing.
– Agatha Christi, crime-fiction writer

Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
– Jacques Maritain, French philosopher and political thinker

Thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
– Jalaluddin Rumi, Persian Sufi poet, from Camille and Kabir Helminski's Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance

Gratitude is so close to the bone of life, pure and true, that it instantly stops the rational mind, and all its planning and plotting. That kind of let go is fiercely threatening. I mean, where might such gratitude end?
– Regina Sara Ryan, former Roman Catholic nun now aligned with the Bauls of Bengal, India

How Universal is Gratefulness? found at Gratefulness.org.

Amazon.com

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a very regular buyer at Amazon.com. With the few books in the libraries around here, I had to order books to get all the theology books I've been directed to by bibliographies, footnotes, and lecturers. My husband CB likes to tease me that the brown truck has to stop in front of our house every weekday (not true). Anyway, that's why I found this cartoon so funny:

Thank you to Miss Cellania.

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - Letter from God

This is from Magdalene's Musings. Thank you!

I love trees.

Tea

19th century cartoon linking tea and health
when plumpness was considered healthy

I never learned to drink coffee, though I like it if it is half cream with sugar! But why waste the calories? I like hot tea, but not in hot Texas. People here drink iced tea, but I don't too often. If it was cooler in the mornings, I would drink tea. I drank more tea when I lived up north. I also drank it when visiting in Korea and Zambia! I remember going to Murchie's in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with my mother and buying tea--loose tea called Earl Grey and English Breakfast and Darjeeling. My local supermarket (the HEB monopoly in Corpus Christi) stopped stocking Twinings tea, so I ordered it from Amazon! Maybe I should learn to drink green tea? It's supposed to be healthier.

Friday Five: B-I-B-L-E

Mother Laura at RevGalsBlogPals wrote:

I have been working on an expansive language version of the Psalms and the Liturgy of the Hours/Divine Office/Breviary. (For you non-liturgical gals and pals, that's a set of prayers for morning, noon, evening, etc., mostly consisting of Psalms and other biblical texts).

So I have been thinking a lot about the Bible recently, and how we encounter it as God's Word--or don't--in our lives, prayer, and ministry. (Great minds think somewhat alike this week, as yesterday's Ask The Matriarch post dealt with ways to help as many people in a community as possible engage with a scriptural text in preparation for Sunday worship).

So, in that spirit, I offer my first Friday Five. I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's experience and reflection on these B-I-B-L-E questions:

1. What is your earliest memory of encountering a biblical text?

My first introduction to the Bible was at the Camp Pendleton, CA base chapel Sunday School. The teacher in third grade did Bible drills, so I had to have a Bible! I don’t remember seeing a Bible or hearing anything from the Bible before this. My mother or my father would drop me off for Sunday School and then come back when it was over to get me, neither of them ever attending church.

2. What is your favorite biblical translation, and why? (You might have a few for different purposes).
My favorite translation always ends up being NRSV, probably because of the classes I took in seminary. Still, I love reading my parallel Bible with both NIV and The Message. That’s more for myself. However, every week in the lectio divina group I facilitate, I choose scriptures from the coming Sunday’s lectionary in the NRSV translation.

3. What is your favorite book of the Bible? Your favorite verse/passage?
My favorite book is Mark. I like its honesty, simplicity, and early composition. Seeing the disciples in a more authentic light always helps me.

In Mark, I especially like the story of the Gentile Syrophoenician woman’s faith (Mark 24-30) and how Jesus starts out by rejecting her, and she argues that “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” He relents and heals her daughter from the demon possession. I like Jesus’ full humanity and identification with his Jewish life and that he changed his mind!

4. Which book of the Bible do you consider, in Luther's famous words about James, to be "an epistle of straw?" Which verse(s) make you want to scream?
Luther didn’t want to include Revelation, and I feel that way when people use it to predict Apocalypse, interpreting each disaster as something fulfilling Revelation. Those Left Behind books drive me crazy, with their popularity, fundamental interpretation of Revelation, and poor writing.

5. Inclusive language in biblical translation and liturgical proclamation: for, against, or neutral?
I’m pretty neutral.

Bonus: Back to the Psalms--which one best speaks the prayer of your heart?

I love Psalm 131 with the image of the weaned child held by his/her mother. Maybe that’s because I nursed all my children and can relate to holding that weaned child. I still remember when I was newly brought back to Christianity at the Methodist Church, a minister talked about an SMU professor telling her to read this every day to promote one’s humility. I find it comforting.

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,

my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

Can't sleep

Looking down below
doesn't help
right now~
So how about a poem?

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

~~Langston Hughes (1902–1967)

and

You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who cannot repay you.

- Ruth Smeltzer

The Class of Nonviolence

The Class of Nonviolence is being taught for eight Wednesday nights at All Saints Episcopal Church. I am most impressed with the resources at this site to read. You would not have to be in a group to read everything, though more insight would be gained through a community discussion. Each lesson has about six articles to read by such authors as Mohandas Gandhi, Eknath Easwaren, Dorothy Day, and many others. The site states:

Solutions to Violence is an eight session class developed by Colman McCarthy, founder of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. It uses classics in peace and justice literature to teach peacemaking. This course can change your life and you can change the world.

Go and look at this and some (or all) of the articles!

Our class is on the second lesson, so I am going to go and read the seven articles I just printed. Since I like the books written by Eknath Easwaren, I am eager to read his articles, as well as the others.

Linear Thinking

"Linear thinking makes us follow our noses along tightly logical lines, consuming or rejecting what immediately appears in front of us according to the limited criteria that is in front of us, and that it makes us feel good or not. Linear theology leads us to such absurdities as so-called natural law that has nothing to do with the way God in fact made the universe. This so-called natural law has, among other tragedies, led to the condemnation of a whole segment of the population. The homophobic seem unable to perceive that in addition to condemning people of same-sex orientation, they are also condemning God for making the world according to the divine wisdom instead of according to their pinched human prejudices."

Ross, Maggie. Pillars of Flame: Power, Priesthood, and Spiritual Maturity. NY: Seabury Books, 2007. xxxix.

(I'm still reading Maggie Ross' introduction!)

Why?

This is what the sky looks like today, with intermittent showers. Wouldn't you think that that "looks" cold? It's 84 degrees.

As I am procrastinating from vacuuming up all the pets' hair and debris on the carpets, here I am looking at blogs. . . . I was struck by Jan at Happening Here posting quotes from an older book of Desmond Tutu, which describes how I wish Americans would feel about killing other peoples, that any number is unacceptable:

"Our country is on the brink of disaster. Many of us have had to anesthetize ourselves to the agony and suffering of our fellow South Africans. Many of us have had to invoke the kind of defense mechanism that had to see us, we hoped, through this horrendous period of carnage and bloodletting. We had reached dangerous levels when many of us would sigh with relief and say 'Oh, it's only five,' or 'It's only six or seven people who have been killed. Thank goodness.' Only! That is so utterly unacceptable ... Those five or six or seven or eight or ten, hey, that was someone's husband, father, son. That was somebody's brother, somebody's sister, mother. ..."

Jan posted more of this piece of writing about South Africans fighting against each other. Go there to read more.

Why do we accept the numbers being killed and hurt? Why do we ignore the numbers of people starving and being mistreated? Why? Why?

In the introduction of Maggie Ross' book Pillars of Flame, I was struck by her quoting what "Robert Oppenheimer remembered from the Bhagavad Gita, after the first [atomic] bomb explosion: 'I am become Death/ The destroyer of worlds'" (xliii).

Maggie Ross writes, "Always reluctant to mirror the God whose power is expressed through the wisdom of self-restraint, we now appear to have rejected self-restraint as either impossible or undesirable. There seems to be a direct relationship between the rise of technology and the decline of wisdom" (xlix).

Then she quotes Ursula K. Le Guin in The Farthest Shore:
"'. . . .Do you see, Arren, how an act is not, as young men think, like a rock that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that's the end of it. . . .When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls the universe is changed'" (lii).

I've been reading so much about cosmology and theology lately that I am seeing how interconnected all of creation (including the cosmos) everything is. Violence and love have far-reaching effects that we know little about. I am reminded of Evelyn Underhill's description of an act of love being like a pebble thrown into a pond that reverberates on and on to all shores. I think Evelyn also wrote that an act of unkindness shrinks the pond from all edges.

I have no answers, only questions and fears. But here's another quote from Maggie Ross:
"Faith is the security to risk going forward in insecurity. . . ." (lvi)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And to further question yourself, as I am questioning myself, go and read "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin. This a disturbingly beautiful story that my daughter AE posted on her blog.

Poem: Day calls you to your life!

Wake up. Day calls you
to your life: your duty.
And to live, nothing more.
Root it out of the glum
night and the darkness
that covered your body
for which light waited
on tiptoe in the dawn.
Stand up, affirm the straight
simple will to be
a pure slender virgin.
Test your body's metal.
Cold, heat? Your blood
will tell against the snow,
or behind the window.
The colour
in your cheeks will tell.
And look at people. Rest
doing no more than adding
your perfection to another
day. Your task
is to carry your life high,
and play with it, hurl it
like a voice to the clouds
so it may retrieve the light
already gone from us.
That is your fate: to live.
Do nothing.
Your work is you, nothing more.

~ Pedro Salinas ~

(My Voice Because of You, translated by Willis Barnstone)

Please help!

Please suggest a GOOD, not sentimental or superficial, Advent book for the Wisdom Class book group! I've been racking my brains and can't remember one. I will appreciate suggestions so very much.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now I've looked on my bookshelf and found three books that might fit, but I'm not sure. I'll have to read them again. Let me know if you like any of these:
1. Mary: The Imagination of Her Heart by Penelope Duckworth
2. Living With Hope by John Polkinghorne
3. Season of Promises edited by Mitch Finley

HOT in Texas!

I felt sweat dripping down my face when I hung sheets out on the clothesline. It is how I anticipate feeling when I watch daughter MJ's soccer game at 2 o'clock, which will last for about two hours. It will be around 87 degrees but will FEEL like 95 degrees! At least, I won't be running around like the girls playing soccer--If I tried, I'd probably have a heart attack or at least I'd collapse!

Today I facilitated the fifth and final Sunday School lesson on "God, Consciousness, and the Cosmos." We watched a dvd ordered from The View From the Center of the Universe, which I now have watched twice and probably would like to see several more times. You can also download it to your computer, and I would urge you to do so!

With Fr. David gone, attendance at church today was sparse. I heard that there were only 15 in the earliest one, but that's always a small service. I was glad I was there and felt blessed during the Eucharist.

Books Meme!

Moonmaid tagged Gartenfische who passed on the book meme to me. I love, love, love books, so this will be fun! Moonmaid has a lovely accolade about books at the beginning of her meme, in case you'd like to read it.

Total number of books? LibraryThing counts 1467, but I know I have more that have not been listed there. So I'll be like Gartenfische and say up to 2,000!

Last book read? The Five Stages of the Soul: Charting the Spiritual Passages that Shape Our Lives by Harry R. Moody, which I wrote about in this post October is here!

Last book bought? Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up by Norman Fischer and Pillars of Flame: Power, Priesthood, and Spiritual Maturity by Maggie Ross.

Five meaningful books? This is too hard to choose, but the landmarks in my spiritual life that I can remember right now are:

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, which brought me into the world of ecumenical thought about Christianity as I didn't know where to look or what to read. And that is described in Faith Story 6.

Gratefulness is the Heart of Prayer by David Steindl-Rast, who also has the website Gratefulness.org.

Clinging by Emilie Griffin.

Up from Eden by Ken Wilber.

View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos by Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams, which I wrote about in my post Good Links to the Universe.

I love the books of Thomas Merton, Frederich Buechner, Dorothe Soelle, Jacques Ellul, Walter Wink, and on and on. I am just starting to read Ken Wilber's books. Plus, you all may remember I love the Harry Potter books!

How about favorite children's books? There are too many of these, too! But I'll try to remember from my own childhood and not my kids'.

I loved the Hardy Boys series, Little Women (even though AE has pointed out how sexist it is), Cherry Ames series, and the Adventure series by Enid Blyton.

And I'll add--What about favorite cookbooks? First two that my mother gave me: New Casserole Cookery by Marian Tracy and The Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook by Susan Mahnke Peery. And Whole Food for the Whole Family compiled by La Leche League, Delicioso! compiled by the Junior League of Corpus Christi, and Jane Brody's Good Food Book, as well as her Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet.

Now I'll ask these friends to share about their books: Katherine E., Mompriest, Suzy, Jiff, and my daughter AE.

BAH! HUMBUG!

Bush Says Interrogation Methods Aren't Torture

Cartoon thanks to Ellie at Child of Illusion.

A hooded and wired Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison who reportedly was told that he would be electrocuted if he fell off a box.

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
The New York Times

Washington - President Bush, reacting to a Congressional uproar over the disclosure of secret Justice Department legal opinions permitting the harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects, defended the methods on Friday, declaring, "This government does not torture people."

The remarks, Mr. Bush's first public comments on the memorandums, came at a hastily arranged Oval Office appearance before reporters. It was billed as a talk on the economy, but after heralding new job statistics, Mr. Bush shifted course to a subject he does not often publicly discuss: a once-secret Central Intelligence Agency program to detain and interrogate high-profile terror suspects.

"I have put this program in place for a reason, and that is to better protect the American people," the president said, without mentioning the CIA by name. "And when we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we're going to detain them, and you bet we're going to question them, because the American people expect us to find out information - actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That's our job."

Without confirming the existence of the memorandums or discussing the explicit techniques they authorized, Mr. Bush said the interrogation methods had been "fully disclosed to appropriate members of Congress."

But his comments only provoked another round of recriminations on Capitol Hill, as Democrats ratcheted up their demands to see the classified memorandums, first reported Thursday by The New York Times.

"The administration can't have it both ways," Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement after the president's remarks. "I'm tired of these games. They can't say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program."

In two separate legal opinions written in 2005, the Justice Department authorized the CIA to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

The memorandums were written just months after a Justice Department opinion in December 2004 declared torture "abhorrent."

Administration officials have confirmed the existence of the classified opinions, but will not make them public, saying only that they approved techniques that were "tough, safe, necessary and lawful."

To read the rest of the article, go here or here.

Purpose: Change the World!

Eric Drooker, scratchboard; Kathe Kollwitz quote; Erin Davies, colorization. SCW© 2004

Kathe Kollwitz was a 1920’s German artist whose powerful woodcuts such as a Never Again War! came to symbolize a generation’s horrified reaction to World War I.

Syracuse Cultural Workers, Peace and Justice Publisher since 1982:
Tools for Change!

Starburst Cluster in NGC 3603

Every day you can find a beautiful picture of the cosmos by going to APOD: Astronomy Picture of the Day and click on the date you want to look at. Here is today's picture, which you can see more completely by going to the website.

Ellie at Child of Illusion finds the best political cartoons, like this one. Thanks, Ellie!