Religion of Deed, Rather than Creed

There is much discussion about whether sanctity comes through faith or through good works. Faithfulness isn't simply believing something to be true; faithfulness is following the path that is dictated by these truths.

Judaism seems to lay out a path for peace among those beings born with the special spark of Divinity that gives us the potential to be human. Jesus said that all the commandments can be boiled down to faithfulness (love, commitment) to The Divine in the heavens and The Divine in each other. "Love God (Godliness) with your whole heart, soul, and being, and your neighbor as you love yourself."

We are creatures that can turn belief and intent into action, if we choose to do so. Loving with one's whole being calls for doing. Giving our lives in the service of justice is the essence of faithfulness. It may be harder to live for a cause than it is to die for one.

My friend Susan, a devout Jew wrote, "loving deeds are the manifestations of godliness in each of us. And, it's also why I can really relate to the idea that Judaism is a "religion of deed, rather than creed." The operative word here may be "loving."

"Good" deeds for self-serving reasons are not loving. A corporation that gives to charitable causes to build business for itself may be contributing to society's well-being, but it is the loving deeds of the money in ministry through the hands of the ministers (every one of us called to action) that are the living out of one's faithfulness to The Divine way.

Limitless Love

It seems to me that the question is not whether God, Yahweh, Allah is a person, but whether God, Yahweh, Allah is also other forms of energy and matter. I think the answer is yes, and that we are each able to "see" The Divine in many manifestations: rivers of milk and honey, manna, a parting sea, a burning bush, a bit of bread and wine, a man living a perfect life physically ministering to others and giving his life to show his sincerity, a flame descending from the heavens onto our heads. Each of us is given a gift of experience in the manner that will be most effective for our souls. Mostly, I experience The Divine in the eyes, voices, touches, work, and smells of other people as they share their bits of Divine Energy with me.

It believe it is wrong to pretend that my manifestation is the only valid "face" of Divinity. This is probably why the Jews had laws against physical representations of The Almighty. It is too limiting. I find myself praying to all those who came before me, physically living and physically dead. When I ask a friend for a favor, with full faith that this friend will respond lovingly to my need, this is as much a prayer in my life as any other prayer that I pray.When friends simply show up, and I don't even know how they knew my need, this is as much Divine intervention as any other gift of Grace.

My beloved Richard wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for my angels on earth who held me and him while he lay in a coma. Would it have been the will of The Almighty to take him if these people didn't show up to intervene? Probably, but their love for him and me was so great that they were willing to pour it out onto us until our light was strong enough to go on again alone. Would we have had the same result if we had all simply sat in a circle and prayed. I'll never know, but I don't think so.

Two physician friends, with two specialties that were needed to save him "happened" to be our best friends and "happened" to show up at the critical times in the critical places. My daughter and son and their children came and loved us with huge passion for physical life. Other friends brought toiletries and clean undies for me. Some simply prayed. One called and made me laugh. Some came to visit, and some who couldn't bear to come sent their spouses in their stead. One prayed and gave her blood.

These are manifestations of "the image and likeness" of The Almighty in which I believe. These people choose to use their talents to help me. I believe it negates their sacrifice to thank "God" without acknowledging the human hands which feed my soul while ministering to my body.

Miraculous to Me

There are many things in life that are nothing short of miraculous;
To believe in miracles does one have to believe in a personal god?
Can't we believe in Divine Energy without putting on a face or name?

Whether we call that Energy Great Spirit, Yahweh, Allah, or God,
Whether we see The Spirit in sunshine, trees, man, woman, or child
All Divine Energy with any name or face, in essence, is still the same.

We rejoice in a new baby as it wakes to the wide world;
We thrill to the words of the poets and prophets sharing visions;
We are exalted by the music from souls who hear heavenly melodies.

The blooming in spring, dying in fall, and the long sleep of winter;
The food planting, the growing, the cooking, and the eating;
We celebrate Life's Holy Spirit in each small part of these.

Don't tell me that it's not God in the brilliant red of a maple leaf;
Don't say that my precious innocent newborn is born in sin;
I feel The Spirit in every breath and every cycle of life and death.

The awe of simply waking in the morning brings me to my knees,
With the absolute wonder of the Miraculous Energy around me.
I am often so overwhelmed, I silently pray to give my soul a rest.

Blood and Belonging

It is not only blood that defines who we are;
We pick up parts of others from near and far.
All of theses pieces make up the whole,
And help in the process of molding a soul.

Family is not always there to protect each other;
History is full of brothers who kill their brothers.
There is much about parents who sacrifice their young;
These are not families to which I want to belong.

Blood line can mean little when there is disagreement
On the very reason each of us, to earth, was sent.
The values that we follow once we reach maturity
Will define the family in which we choose to be.

In Love with Love

I guess I am in love with love. Why else would I still fall in?
Every time I see my husband's smile, it all begins again.
I am the same way about my children and their kids
I feel as great a love for them today as I ever did.

There are certain friends and some of my close relations
That cause me to feel the same sense of immense elation.
It hurts the most in love when we give some of ourselves
But the loved doesn't allow any of themselves to, in us, dwell.

Expressed emotion scares those who see love as simply action,
And don't trust feelings that are based on mutual attraction.
While it is true that all fires of passion wax and wane,
Truly committed love will always remain the same.

I believe that passion and commitment can exist together.
For me, the many ways of expressing love feels better
Than silently doing all the things that must be done.
Commitment shouldn't preclude having a bit of fun.

"Let the good times roll," is part of Louisiana life.
"Work hard; play harder," is our response to strife.
We laugh hard, and cry hard, and love just the same
We hold little back very while we, on this earth, remain.

When Did She Become a Woman?

My baby girl is forty-one today, but she's still a baby to me.
I know she's a matriarch to others, but my child is what I see.
It was a surprise to hear from someone she's a middle-aged woman,
That surely we've outgrown mother/ daughter, and are now friends.

I always thought I could make that leap and see her as my peer,
But she has so many superior qualities that I hold most dear.
She became my best friend so many years and so many lives ago,
I have never been strong enough to be the friend to whom she'd go.

I am so grateful that she has found others to be her confidants;
To give our children freedom of choice is what a parent really wants.
But my soul and heart still cry whenever I know she is in great pain;
There are many times I wish I could shelter her with my womb again.

I am concerned how she will fare when her baby walks away;
She has given so much of herself that, for her wholeness, I pray.
Without her presence in my daily life, I was so severely bereft;
Perhaps she will hold it together better than I did when she left.

Maybe eighteen is no more the age at which we set our young free;
Maybe this is too young for them to be who they're meant to be.
Maybe we have more years of innocence with our dear children;
Time when they can be both our sheltered children and our friends.

A Sister Tree and Me

My father used to say about his hormonal teenagers that we were "in love with love." It is true that the letting go of parts of oneself and putting new parts from others in the place of our old selves is quite exhilarating. Much of that exhilaration is actually anxiety that is a natural reaction to foreign entries into ourselves. Anxiety and lust are what we often call love because we are addicted to excitement. Love really means giving a part of oneself to another and taking a part of another into oneself. How carelessly we throw these words and our own bodies and souls around.

A good gardener looks for compatible stock before joining the two to one source of life. Love takes time to grow, just as a graft to a tree takes time to become part of that life system. And without a strong and compatible root system, the graft cannot flourish. You cannot succeed in grafting an apple to a banana tree. How foolish we are to imagine that we can create good grafts of ourselves with others without knowing anything of the habits and the seasons of the other.

All grafts begin with an "excitement" of cells that causes either permanent bonding or rejection. The graft is not successful until this "excitement" has subsided. Once the stress of introduction of the "life blood" of each being introduced into the other is complete, a new entity is formed.

When I met my childhood friend for the first time, I was mesmerized. Here was somebody who looked like me with her blond hair, flashing eyes, and ready laugh. Her family, like mine, was Catholic. It was "love at first sight." My six-year-old self decided that she was my sister, but the graft didn't take. We both grew up to be strong trees, standing straight and tall, but it didn't seem that our root stock could ever create a successful new entity.

We have decided to reclaim each other and have opened ourselves to learning the others habits and seasons. We are exhilarated by each others presence, but the process is anxiety producing. We are finding much in our values that seems to be compatible, even though we approach life from very different angles. We both seem to have our own strong root stock, so we will probably never be grafted one to the other for survival. But it sure is nice to have a neighboring tree that can sometime shade me and that I can sometime shade. We are both much enriched by the parts of each other that are becoming parts of ourselves.