Seeing The Sacred Spirit

Until we stop worshiping a "god' of war and blood-lust, I don't see our earth becoming what we envision as heaven, nor do I see the Israelites ever being at peace. Jesus said that the men of the bible were hard-hearted toward women, and yet we still justify our actions by following these men. Jesus exemplified compassionate friendship with women and men from all religions and walks of life. He treated them with respectful compassion, as he did those who were his friends.

Jesus is portrayed as a real man, with a special respect for his mother and father, even as a teenager. He is also portrayed as having a special relationship with a woman of flesh and blood, kissing her often. Perhaps he never married and bore children in compassion for how persecuted his family would be because of his actions and beliefs.

Jesus had a real legal father, whether by adoption or sex is unimportant in appreciating the example that Jesus set for compassionate community. I choose to believe that Jesus was especially enlightened by The Sacred Spirit nurtured by his earthly Jewish family and community in which they brought him to adulthood. I choose to believe that nature, as well as nurture, endowed him with a marvelously strong and Sacred Spirit that burns to this day in the souls of those who live lives of respectful compassion for all of creation.

I believe that our understanding of The Sacred Spirit must evolve with the nature of humanity. We should not limit our seeking to only the manifestations passed down by our ancestors. Ancient man was the most powerful human form, with his greater physical strength and his ability to reason. In seeing the spark of The Sacred Spirit in man, man began to worship himself by putting his own face on "god." Was this a reaction to the awe that man experienced at the power of woman to "create" human life?

Isn't it time that we stop fearing feelings of awe that make us feel vulnerable? Isn't it time that we celebrate and embrace that which makes us wonder, without attempting to bring everything down to our capacity to identify everything, physical and spiritual, with absolute precision? Even science understands that what we accept as truths are only what existing information allows us to see today.

We must all embrace our own vulnerabilities and those of others. Vulnerability is the only way that we bond with the spirits of others. It is wrong to ridicule and otherwise abuse vulnerabilities instead of looking for ways that we can complete each other. It is wrong to hand absolute power to any one person, whether in governments, religions, or families. All manifestations of The Sacred Spirit are, by their very natures, interdependent. Religions teach that all manifestations of The Sacred Spirit return back to their source for renewal and resurrection. And scientists know that all energy continues; it simply transforms from one manifestation to another.

I believe it is time that we shake off the shackles of fear of the unknown and immerse ourselves in celebratory compassion for what we experience as enlightening. I am not afraid of burning in hell; I am afraid of being so afraid of making mistakes that I forget to embrace life and love. While I live, I will continue to attempt to share a bit of my view of how to see and live "heaven on earth" and be a devoutly respectful Israelite (one who struggles with The Sacred Spirit in creation and tries to remain faithful).

I am one woman, born of Judeo-Christian man and woman, seeking to see The Sacred Spirit in all I encounter on earth.

Serenity and the Sacred Spirit

Blessings of My Baby Sister

It all boils down to what do we want the most, approval of others or approval of ourselves. I know a great many people who never ask themselves about their own priorities, and many who act as if all their desires are "god" ordained to be filled immediately by others. I like to live with a balance of self and other's approval; it's a good yardstick for measuring my balance with the rest of creation.

It is true that I've not always been discriminating enough in choosing those with whom I want to commune; there are many who will attempt to bring me down no matter how hard I try to share insights with them. A friend of mine who is into Buddhism says that we simply need to know what the boundaries are for our own "gardens."

A couple of years ago, when we were gardening with Mountain Mama, another family decided to plant their own plot next to ours. They contended that weeds were good for the soil surrounding their vegetable plants. They refused to use insecticidal sprays or weed their plot. They also refused to plant in rows with space for tilling. Mountain Mama contends that they had a very poor yield, but we were too busy our plot to do a comparison. I do know that their decisions made our gardening more difficult.

For years, I had not heard about tending our own gardens. I allowed others to enter our home and lives without laying down rules for sharing space in our hearts or homes. The weeds grew so strong that they overshadowed our relationship, threatening to suck the life out of all we had so long worked to attain. I had to ask myself what is the order of my priorities and the boundaries of my spiritual and emotional garden?

Once I realized that my children and the children of my siblings were all well into adulthood, and that I could no longer guide their growth, I could see that my garden was my relationship with myself and my husband. I have taken much time to feed both of our spirits without inviting in those who would suck us dry. We are still willing to share our Sacred Spirits with others, but only if we are not expected to allow the weeds of others to encroach upon our garden.

I am still working through the guilt of feeling selfish for self-preservation without the justification that I must survive to bring up my babies. My writing and relationships refresh my spirit by bringing in the spirits of others to nourish the garden of my soul. I am working hard at approving of myself. With the sharing of The Sacred Spirit coming from my friends and some family, I think I may succeed in blooming.

My recent time with Mountain Mama and the last twenty-four hours with my baby sister have been a great blessing to me and my garden.

Competition, Corporations, and Christianity

Jesus, our most famous Jew, encouraged cooperation; he also spoke very harshly to those who incorporated competition into their ideas of salvation. And yet, after almost two thousand years, we are still fighting. "My daddy (God) is bigger than your daddy (God)" and "My daddy (God) likes me more than he likes you." Not until we stop limiting The Sacred Spirit to the faces and motivations of humanity will we "get" it. We all have places on the tree of life, if we simply choose to grow as a small part of a huge system, not worrying about whether the blossom is better than the bark, or the leaves are more important than the seeds. In the grand scheme of nature, even death feeds new life.

In the tiny Appalachian community of Coker Creek, there is still the institutional memory for the most American of values, cooperation. In industrialized America, we have forgotten these virtues; greed has long since supplanted human need. It is a travesty of Christianity to continue to call America a Christian country while we allow corporations to create poverty for the majority of our citizenry. Poverty is, and always has been, powerlessness. Slavery, lack of access to conception control, and herding of humans into cages for the purposes of corporate convenience has created a frightened caged-animal society.

In the beginnings of American immigration law, we had people declare their abilities and prove that they had places to contribute to our society in productive manners. We also had families and friends identified who would vouch for those entering our country. Our corporations are protected from any responsibility in the dehumanizing affects of creating their human automatons, and yet our Supreme Court offers them protections as people with conscience and culpability. There is no Christianity in corporations because there is no personal accountability. Christians are, by definition, cooperative and accountable to each other.

Christian cooperation still works in parts of rural America. Those who have been around forever don't easily accept outsiders; they look for others of "good (productive) character" to vouch for the integrity of the newcomers. They are happy to teach you what they know about survival, but only answer questions that others respectfully ask. The community long survived by trading goods, information, and talents with neighbors. Much is accomplished by barter.

Unfortunately, without increasing the numbers of families willing to go back to the times when we knew and taught the difference between need and greed, our country continues to make a mockery of the bedrock values that made Judeo-Christianity (and our early small communities) great. Unfettered capitalism has replaced Judeo-Christianity, pretending that worldly material success and leadership by fear is "God" ordained.

We continue to feed the anonymous, unaccountable masses created by corporate greed, crumbs from our tables to keep them out of our orchards, where they should be picking the ten percent we leave on our vines. We don't press them to learn how to do for themselves by assisting and asking respectful questions of those who know how to "make do." We treat children and the poor like dogs that are acceptable as long as they are not visible or raising their voices.

We have allowed religions to hand out tax-payer funds as if they were donations of charity. We have created a devil's deal by allowing clergy to preside over legal contracts. The "God' that is on our money is the god of greed. The "God" in our Pledge of Allegiance is the god of war. Is it any wonder that so many of our youth are anesthetizing themselves instead of continuing to search for good examples in their own communities?  Is it any wonder that so many people are rejecting the man-made faces of "God?"

The mission of the masses is to see and connect to The Sacred Spirit in all of society. We must help each other to identify, trade, and teach our strengths fairly and respectfully. Maybe rural boot camps for all citizens would be a place to start. It was successful as The CCC during The Great Depression; it can succeed again. Coker Creek could serve as a model classroom. Mountain Mama Mamie could be our Appalachian Survival School's dean.

The Ruritan Club could serve as headquarters, and the Coker Creek Elementary School could teach Appalachian community ways. Housing and additional classroom space for teachers and students could be provided by Coker Creek Christian Camp, Coker Creek Village, and the various rental properties in the area. The Heritage group could recruit instructors and advertise programs. The properties that are being used in the traditional ways would be classrooms for practical internships.

Let's create communities instead of relying on the bubbles that corporations build and destroy at will.

Males, Females, and Faith

The Arts of Manhood

February 1, 2013 By Jim Burklo ://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/2013/02/the-arts-of-manhood/

The author of this blog post posits a list of characteristics that define "real" men. This prompted a cry regarding the definition of "real" women from a man who had been abused. As the divorced mother of  grown children, both male and female, both with teen children of their own, I have this to offer:

Real men are built by real women who are not afraid to truly love the boy in the man, warts and all. Too many women allow their boys to raise themselves in the packs of male animals roaming our streets. Others deny and disrespect those qualities in boys that define them as male. So many boys are torn from their mothers because the mothers refuse to fight for their young men long enough for them to become "real" men. This includes sheltering our boys from the wiles of women who want to take advantage of their innocence to build themselves up in the eyes of their own societies, or to garner societal support through their production of progeny.

The building of "real" men and women is an almost impossible task when we have so much of our "godly" society following the paths of the gods of blood sacrifice and war, but it can be accomplished when we love our sons and daughters enough to protect them. Sadly, too many of their fathers promote disdain for the love of a woman and counterfeit ways for their daughters to seek support.

Too many men are taught to hide their vulnerabilities by exhibiting animal behaviors of territorial cruelty. Too many women are taught to use their sexuality as a trap for the unsuspecting male. Too many in our society who call themselves 'Christian" accept animal instinctual behaviors as "the way we are made." We may have been made as animals, but it is a part of our religious ethic that we teach our children to rise above animal instinct. We do this by example, as well as by our words.

In our feminist society, we have sought to diminish men. This is probably in retaliation for the diminishment of women, caused by fear of the power of procreation obvious in a woman's body, but less so in that of males. It is time that we realize that people are meant to seek balance in partnerships and that procreation is only sacred when we honor both sides of the seeds that create life. Even without procreation, all energy is meant to be expanded by balance of strengths and weaknesses and respect for all that is part of nature.

For those of a "Christian" culture, ask yourselves, "Why did your god desire a woman to create your savior?" If god is a male, he must have thought that the Y chromosome was important to balance in creation, but he did not create this new breed of man without a balance of the yin and yang. I am so very tired of the pendulum swings. It is time that we all stand for respect and balance in nature and the responsibility to guide this given only to the human animal.

In the Eyes of Others

What we see reflected in the eyes of others,
Especially the eyes of our fathers and mothers,
Is a great influence on that which we become.
This can be the greatest life's tragedy for some.

For weeks, I have basked in celebrations,
And was rewarded with much admiration
By those who believe I have great value,
Not based on what I think, say, or do.

We all need networks of unqualified support,
To which we can, in times of stress, resort.
For many, there is nobody to respect
Our intrinsic values that society rejects.

Many, in their relationships, seek their own reflections;
What they see should often lead to introspection.
The great danger is when what they see brings shame
For the observer's own weaknesses, the observed is to blame.

We sometimes have to die to those whose refrains
Are filled with reasons we deserve their disdain.
We may be blessed along our life's new path
With freshly-found friendships that will hold fast.

I feel that I have been brought to death many times,
Though the killing of souls is not considered a crime.
I have somehow always been blessed with new energy
For returning fully to who and what I am meant to be.

And there have been times that my grief in lost love
Has created shared Spirit that's thicker than blood.
When we seek to enjoy others, rather than control,
Our conjoined spirits may make us both more whole.

Being Bonded in The Sacred Spirit

As wild animals, we are mostly motivated by fear. As beings into whom The Sacred Spirit has been breathed, we become motivated by the security of being bonded to something greater than ourselves. Some may call the desire to continue this inclusion a form of fear, but I believe it is something much more deeply spiritual than that.

Before we are born, we can feel our mother's reactions to our presence in her womb. Much of how she feels about our unborn essence is shaped by the circumstances of our conception and the treatment of her by those who surround her in her time of greatest vulnerability. As she rejoices in our inclusion in her life, our Sacred Spirits begin to grow. If her spirit resents or rejects us, either while we are in her womb or after our births, our Sacred Spirits begin to wither.

Upon our birth, if we are loved, our parents breathe their spirits into our nostrils and share their souls with ours. We are one with our protective parents. This bond becomes unbreakable when it is a true and unselfish sharing of The Sacred Spirit.

In healthy relationships, the family is strong enough in their bonds and boundaries to include others in their web of family and faith until the children are able to form their own separate families. In unhealthy relationships, the parents either seek to live through their children or send their children out on their own before their spirits are fully formed.

Without proper spiritual bonding and boundaries, we are nothing but wild animals, led by fear. This is not what humanity is meant to be. Why have we fallen for the interpretations of scripture that present The Sacred Spirit as a blood-thirsty force for fear instead of a protective parent breathing the breath of life into all creation?

My vision of The Sacred Spirit is not as King, Lord, or Master, but as The Breath of Loving Life that I feel breathed into my nostrils and poured into my soul by those who truly love me without self-serving motives. My attempts to stay included in their auras is not motivated by fear, but by a deep longing for their spiritual sharing with me.