Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Have Faith Like That of Children

by Y | August 27, 2013 at 1:07 PM

OneFamilyManyFaiths.blogspot.com

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The Patheos website published this request on The Divine Feminine website:
"If you could create your dream curriculum — a set of materials for the spiritual development of children and adolescents — what would it look like? Go into your deep wisdom and send us a blog of 300 to 700 words."
Have Faith Like That of Children

We are so busy attempting to keep adult control over children that we forget that they often see truth much brighter and more simply than do we. We are all children deep in our emotions, where it may be that our “souls” reside. For certain purity of spirit resides in the child before they learn about life through our own actions and reactions. Our religions strive to deny this purity of spirit at birth, but I believe this is an effort to continue priestly power.
Lesson #1 - How to be perfectly still in their souls, even if their bodies must move to accomplish this.
Meditation in nature
Lesson #2 - How to listen to the small sounds
Hear their own breathing and that of nature around them, including the sounds of humans. Identify all natural sounds
Lesson #3 - How to collect their free-flowing thoughts
Flash card with simple words and sounds that came into their consciousness while meditating.
Lesson #4 - How to tell their own stories
Encourage them to tell their own experiences through pictures, words, movement, music
Lesson #5 - How to ask respectful questions
Encouraging opening the mind to different interpretations of the same shared experience
Lesson #6 - How to give respectful answers
Encouraging personal experience as valid, and often necessary, background information
Lesson #7 - Explore concepts of point-of-view with the children
Why do you think or feel this to be true? How do you compare what you believe to be true with what others believe?
Lesson #8 - How to look each other in the eye
Encourage children to identify emotions based on body language of each other and other animals
Lesson #9 - Taking turns as a form of respect
Encourage children to bring out the ideas of others, so that all participate without fear of ridicule
Lesson #10 - Identify connections
Help children to create circles of community with chains, intersecting, and overlapping where similarities occur.

I believe these methods of allowing children to explore what is all around them and explore with wonder, instead of pre-programmed prejudices based on fears instilled by others, would reignite the wonder of childhood which is where I believe the openness to the spiritual level of life resides. We teach compassion for themselves and the world in which we live out of our children with fear-based religions and rites of passage.

Have Faith Like That of Children

by Y | August 27, 2013 at 1:07 PM

OneFamilyManyFaiths.blogspot.com

Tags:

Have Faith Like That of Children

by Y | August 27, 2013 at 1:07 PM

OneFamilyManyFaiths.blogspot.com

Tags:

Have Faith Like That of Children

by Y | August 27, 2013 at 1:07 PM

OneFamilyManyFaiths.blogspot.com

Tags:

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Women as Partners, Not Only Parents

http://worldpulse.com/node/76447

by Y | August 24, 2013 at 9:28 AM

OneFamilyManyFaiths.blogspot.com

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We have been taught that we are incomplete until we allow another to enter our bodies and produce new life coming from the male. We have been told that we must produce children in order to produce life. This is not true. Every day that we interact positively with another living being, we are fruitful, and that fruit multiplies as those we touch, touch others. We, as humans, are capable of channeling our energy into endeavors that can create change. It is important to create a mission for our energies early in our adult lives, so that our focus can always be on positive change. We can use our times of pain to plan how to direct our new energy. Our partners must be willing to be involved in the complete process.

Some stress is necessary to all growth. A seed swells until new life bursts open the "womb" in which it was enclosed. The newborn baby cries out when forced out of the womb. Women work through stress every month after they begin to menstruate. Our wombs "clean house." At this time, we often "clean house" emotionally, expressing pent-up emotions and beginning anew with our most intimate relationships. We are creatures of, not only birth, but rebirth and renewal. Neither birth nor rebirth can happen without stress.

We must be able to give voice to passion as we process memories of the past and burst forth with a new outlook on life. During each period of monthly regeneration, we must draw to us those who are not afraid of our deepest emotions. Our men make a mistake running from and fighting our pain; those who help us in our pain also earn the privilege of sharing in our greatest pleasures. We know that men are capable of this kind of courage and camaraderie; they show it in the workforce and in foxholes with each other. It is time that they see us, and we see ourselves, as potential partners, not only as parents.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Let it shine!

It occurs to me how many of us have been shamed by our successes and those of our children. The best arguments I have against this religious policy for adults are twofold. One is that we are admonished by sacred scripture to be good stewards of our assets, going forth and multiplying them. The other is that we are told to let our faith be as that of children, as embodied in the hymn that is taught to children, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm gonna let it shine. We should all let ourselves and our students (and children) shine as brightly as possible to guide those who are seeking some source of light.

Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine!

Monday, August 19, 2013

Blessed Bubbles

It seems that the greatest joy is obtained in the anticipation and afterglow of achievement. Fear and shame block both. My favorite times of day are slowly waking up and drifting off to sleep, when my mind is in its semi-conscious state. It is then that the plans for the future begin to present themselves and the events of the past come out to play.

My religion taught that I should spend my evenings examining my conscience for all the evil I achieved that day. It also taught that it was sinful to dwell on one's successes or earthly pleasures. I longed for ways to simply stay in bed allowing the goodness of life to freely enter my soul. My bed became my magic carpet out of the pain of the present. I knew idleness was sinful, so I took to writing and reading, That way, it would appear that I was "doing something useful." What wonderful worlds others created with their competencies. I could at least celebrate what I saw in others without committing the sin of pride.

It has taken me many years to learn to wallow in wonder without guilt or regret. I see so many people eternally running from processing the past and missing out on their own present with the inability to bask in the joy of the moment. Life should be lived as a child blows and catches bubbles, each event creating crystals of pure memory to float into our eternity. We should be able to rest in the auras of these blessed bubbles whenever we are presented with stress.

A problem seems to be that so much anguish is also contained in our memories. We fear the we will drown in grief and shame, so we frantically try to cover them up with mountains of "better" memories. This need to hide from ourselves and our real lives poisons us in our deaths. I don't think we can stop fearing death until we are able to celebrate the ever-evolving, eternal aura of our own special souls being shared in this life.