Actions of Acceptance

Stop saying my face of The Sacred is false simply because you don't have the same eyes as I.
Stop saying I'm deaf because my ears are not attuned to the same tones that, as to yours, apply.
Stop attempting to teach me. Stop wondering about what will greet me after my physical life.
We must stop looking for approval in words and allow our actions of acceptance to suffice.

Is it possible that we can experience the same Sacred Spirit though our beliefs are not the same?
Can we ever communicate when The Sacred in our lives has different manifestations and names?
I have struggled to know from whence you speak, as I once spoke like you and your religion do.
You seem to see me as misguided or confused; those who believe like I aren't among the few.

Sacred language of faith is not about words, no matter what mouth speaks or pen writes them.
It is about taking the time to connect The Most Sacred Spirit that, in sharing, makes us human.
How can a one-in-spirit husband not hurt as he wipes away his wife's anguished tears?
How can a one-in-spirit mother desire anything more than salving her children's fears?

When we have clearly hardened our hearts to the innocence of the other's little child spirit.
It matters not how loud the overwhelming passion is expressed, I don't think we can hear it.
There is no threat, only sadness, as our beloveds, in anger or regret, turn, from us, away.
The look in the eyes of the abandoned leaves no need for the words that we may want to say.

What if we carefully chose a few of our words on which we thought all full humans agreed;
And looked into others for truths we don't already possess, for which we may have need?
The stories on which we base our lives and friendships, we refuse to admit are humanly flawed.
Though, by the same seemingly Sacred realities on our shared earth, we admit to being awed.

Some walk away from others' Sacred beliefs, allowing persecution of those they call friend;
They may not want to punish their actions, but to the forces of hatred, they abandon them.
When will all stop the talking, and start listening, while looking into the eyes of different others?
Only, in this way, to know who around us are, in The Universal Sacred Spirit, sisters and brothers.

Simply Sacred

It seems to me that all religions, from the beginning of time, have been seeking the same thing, which is a sense of the sacred in our experiences on earth. It also seems to me that we have put too much emphasis on limiting our quest to defining the who, when, and where, and not enough on defining exactly what makes a moment in time or action, by ourselves or others, sacred.

I wonder whether people deliberately deny that we are all capable of both embracing and creating sacred moments in our own physical spaces on earth. What but this capacity delineates the difference between the animal that is simply homo sapiens and a fully human member of this same physical genus and species?

We know from our own experiences over the ages that where two or more people feel, see, or hear the same manifestations of energy in their midst, this energy bonds them in a sense of sibling-hood. When we are very small, we know that we feel the energies in a room, and we gravitate toward energy that seems safe to us. Even at the time of birth, the beginning of teaching us not to trust our own instincts begins. We are often taught that the desire for others to feel affirmed by and filled with our innocence is more important than is our own need to be protected from those who will breathe evil expectations into us and innocence out of us.

I applaud parents who carefully control who has access to the bodies, minds, and spirits of their pure children. The job of a child is to wonder and to absorb awe, creating sacred spaces simply by their presence. Too many of us want to tamper with this work, force feeding them answers for which they have not developed questions. It seems that we spend too little time with eyes and ears attuned to see and hear what their wonder and awe is revealing to us.

It seems to me that we would see what is actually sacred on our earth if we simply sat back and observed the safely guarded little children. Allow them to gravitate toward ceremonies that appeal to their sense of awe, making sure they are given time to rest and process what their wonder leads them to explore. Honor the wisdom that they are sharing about what we can no longer see or hear by writing down what they tell us, in their own words. Let them lead us to rituals of sharing the secrets of the sacred that only the truly innocent can hear and see. Perhaps, then we will be able to seek sacred peace on earth.

Our Eternal Earthly Energies

Either we believe in responsible compassion in humans, or in "gods;"
We can't simultaneously believe in both understandings of eternity.
The organizer of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council said it best:
"God" doesn't change, but our understanding of "God" continues to do so.

I, among others, have come to the point in my spiritual journey
That I don't believe the term "god" accurately reflects eternal energy.
How blind we have been, not seeing that all gods are based on homo sapiens,
Rather than that full humanity is based on eternal compassionate energy.

Why are homo sapiens so resistant to new attitudes and information?
Without growth and adaptability, every species on earth dies.
Unless we are willing to concede the end of homo sapiens civilization,
It's time that we acknowledge that we're already parts of eternity.

We can't hope to keep up or understand all universal knowledge;
We can only hope that our children allow us to observe the fruits
Of the labors we willingly offered up to sheltering and teaching them,
Trusting in the basic values of responsible compassion we shared.

Our era was created out of invisible universal compassionate energy;
We must not pull our heirs backward out of our own fear of change.

How the Sacred Spirit of their universe is manifested is beyond us;

Embrace the energy of The Eternal Sacred we impart while here.

Let them fly, knowing that our values are the tails on their kites;
Our earth is spinning at a rate that we could  never conceptualize.
How horrible it would be to consume our children's sacred energy
Because we're afraid of losing these dear physical parts of ourselves.

My most fervent wish is that the energy I've imparted to my children and others
Will bear positive energy, in many others, for many generations upon our earth.
I believe that the only heaven is the one we begin here in our shared universe;
What we sow in our earthly lives, many generations will continue to reap and re-sow.

What If We...?

Is it possible that Abraham loved his sister/wife Sarah,
Though her prostituted her to protect his own hide?
And why do we honor as our many nations' patriarch
A man who sent his son and her mother to the desert to die?

How can we ever change the way we relate to The Sacred Spirit
Until we admit that some of the scriptures weren't so sacred?
We lost our willingness to be true to our universal siblings
When we stopped standing before each other spiritually naked.

Hair we are given as mammals covers some of our vulnerabilities;
What we add to protect our identities is only window dressing.
The layers of clothing, housing and other indications of wealth
Cover sins that we should be, to our worldwide siblings, confessing.

How can we honor Abraham while we demonstrate against human slavery?
The many young brides of Muhammad deny any right to innocent faith.
Even Gandhi and MLK confessed their abuses of their own wives.
The stories of Jesus called for the world's focus to be on earth's future.

And Jesus stories demanded that we confess our sins against each other;
It has been the hallmark of honest relationship since the Garden of Eden.
The demand that we ask for forgiveness from those in our communities
Is the only non-negotiable way to become honest and eternal friends.

We are conceived as animals with an instinct toward survival of self;
Homo Sapiens have the option of opening ourselves to self-sacrifice.
To be fully human is to stop marking territory only for ourselves,
But to allow all of the sacred universe to put an eternal mark on us.

What if we got rid of the masters of law who only want to win power?
What if we made mediators of conflict our most highly paid profession?
Would we finally be able to live in truth and in worldwide peace,
And only those who create consensus would win places of leadership?

Alpha Animals

Do dogs ever ask themselves whether they have done the right thing to please their alphas, or are they more confident in their actions than we? Do they wait around all day, feeling insecure when their alphas are away?
I think they do, and that we are really no less needy of companionship than are most other mammals. We have need for familiar touch, taste and scent of those in our packs of people.

We have been led to believe that mutual need in community is a weakness in our human natures. Some have gone so far as to label mutual dependence on another as an illness. My husband likes to call our relationship co-dependability, rather than co-dependence. I am blessed that he honors our need for each other, though both of us can sometimes feel burdened by our mutual commitment to helping each other be our best selves.

I don't think humans are any less evolved because we still act like other mammals. In fact, I think we've done ourselves and others a disservice by pretending that this fantasy about our superiority is a good thing.  Early in our relationship, my husband clarified what he believed about the difference between us and other animals. He declared, "Humans have the ability to say no." I think this sort of sums it up.

I have noticed that, even a dog can be taught to deny itself immediate gratification, when taught to do so by a firm, yet responsibly compassionate alpha. The sad thing in denying our animal underpinnings is that we fail to see that dogs are best taught by observing the actions of others. If parents would strive to be better alpha animals, perhaps we'd be creating humans that act less like wild beasts.

A granddaughter recently said to me, "Granny, you said that you taught my mama to cook, but she said that you didn't." My reply to her, "I cooked while she watched and helped. That is how poor people teach their children. We didn't have the money to send her for lessons in everything." If we focus on walking in the direction we want our children to follow, maybe we will wear a path that they will feel is a comfortable permanent home. Even when we are gone, they will wear our spirits on the insides of themselves.

Favorite Photograph

I have a favorite photograph of my toddler son and his first female friend, in the kitchen of my first family home. She is squatting on the floor, hysterically crying, while he looks on with that look dogs give of, "What the heck is happening here?" This happened when they were both less than two years old, so it cannot have been training, only instinct. I see this as the perfect picture of the communication tactics of men and women.

Neither child had much hair, and the little girl's hair grew out red. I don't know that her hysteria was an omen of her hair being red, but I do know that her passion in life didn't diminish as she matured. Neither did my son's sense of wonder about what makes women tick.

My son complains about the favoritism I showed his older sister. It wasn't favoritism; it was simply something that came with our both being females. How could he understand menstrual cramps and mood swings accompanying menstruation, when he would never be inflicted with either of them? This was just as I understood that, when he reached puberty, I could never teach him how to act as a moral man. He went to live in his father's man cave.

As a family man, my son has made a married friend to whose home he can escape when he needs a place of safety and solace from his female. I hope, for the sake of both families, the two friends women's cycles never synchronize. He has also created an outdoor substitute for a "man cave," as his home is small and he enjoys the luxury of living in the deep south of the USA. His wife and her friends can have the house; the men will be out in an area with greater space.

I will never understand the need of men to escape into their own shells after confrontation by their females, but I do know that this instinct seems to be universal. How many hunting parties would never have been organized if it hadn't been for the need of men to have space to absorb and organize what their women expected of them? When men were confused, the family was fed.

The challenge in our modern world seems to be how to create prosperity without confusion and accompanying conflict. We must create areas where males can step away while they absorb and organize what others are meaning with their words. Only then can we hope to have a fully human family of peace on our earth. If churches/temples/mosques don't offer these areas, what real purpose do they serve on our earth?

Humans, including men, have abilities to reason that are not available to dogs or wolves. Why are we still acting as if we have no choice but to obey our animal instincts? When religions promote reason over worship of outdated idols, perhaps we'll succeed at exceeding our own dogs' abilities.

Looking at Life Like a Dog Does

Sometimes, I feel like I am listening to human speech like a dog does. You know how dogs cock their heads about thirty degrees to one side as we speak to them? They know you are saying something important, but the simply don't understand the words. This is how I feel when most people talk about God.

Even when I hear and read the same words, I experience different messages than do my most religious friends. Does this mean that they have special spiritual powers that I don't have? Many seem to think so. Religions seem to insist on all agreeing on everything in their professions of faith. I don't claim to know the truth for others, but I have come to comfort with what is true in my mind and spirit.

From the beginning of human ability to reason, it seems that all gods were to be feared, and demanded great sacrifices as punishment for their displeasure with their own creations. It seems that humanity was in dire need of crossing over from these fearful superstitions, into an era when we would understand our own indwelling ability to embrace, share, and grow The Sacred Spirit on our own earth (now the greater cosmos).

The energy of the universe we are, and to universal energy we shall return. This may be why we are admonished by Jesus to work toward heaven on while we are still physically on earth. What we sow, our universe will reap for many generations. For this reason, I believe it is a great evil to sow fear in any form.

I have come to reject any belief based on the fear of any power. This journey began with words spoken to me by my daughter, twenty-five years ago. "I don't think God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. I think God is like a good parent waiting at the door for his children to come home." This is when my head cocked thirty degrees to one side.

Once my way of "listening" to The Sacred Spirit was with head cocked to the side by thirty degrees, I never could hold my head straight in hearing what people say about The Sacred Spirit. Along the line of my research and isolation in the tomb-like quiet, I have lost contact with the term "god" as a good thing.  Looking at life this way, the whole story of original sin and repentance with a blood sacrifice son made for this purpose made no sense to me.

Just like a dog, I will obey a master that I fear, always looking for an escape from the feeling of fear, but I would die for those who fully open their spirits to me, and I to them.

I see the Judeo-Christian Bible as a collection of stories leading from the fearful superstitions of early humanity to the enlightenment of Pentecost. Only by a human's actions (fruits) will any know who is living in enlightenment and who is still bound by fear. Greed is a fruit of fear, as is hate and war.

Perhaps if we all start listening and living more like well-loved dogs, we can get past language and belief barriers and move onto universal agreement on The signs of The Sacred Spirit in ourselves and all others.