The Peace Preceding Homo Sapiens

Until "Christians" confess to one another, I have no use for the farce. Jesus criticized the hypocrites that confessed to god, but did not approach each other with humility and repentance. He made it very clear that there was no relationship with god without peace among the bodies that god inhabits on earth. There is only one Sacred Spirit in all the universe, and Homo sapiens have been given the unique gift of exemplifying this Spirit in our flesh. Why would we continue to waste such a precious blessing if we were actually reasonable animals?

The only conclusion I can come to is that Homo sapiens aren't ready to bear such a beautiful "burden." I'm not sure we ever will be, and that is why we are intent on our own species' and habitat's destruction. I only hope I am not around to see the end of our earth. What fools we have been to believe that we were better than what we refer to as the "lower" animal species. Religion and philosophy have only made us more arrogant.

When we replaced childlike wonder with the need to know more than the neighbor next to us, we set the stage for the destruction of us all. No person is an expert on the final answer to anything on earth. Earth is ever evolving, or it, and we, would die. How did we get to a point where we believe we are about obtaining answers, rather than believing it is the depth of our questions that count?

The basic question in any relationship should be, "How deeply do you want to relate?" The rest can only follow once we have the answer to this. Until we stand emotionally naked before each other, there is no hope of reclaiming the peace preceding Homo sapiens.

The Great Gift of Conception Control

It is my opinion that conception control is a gift given to abolish the need for killing. Scientists blessed with the ability to inhibit procreation, while enabling the physical enjoyment of a couple that promotes family stability, are to be lauded for using their gifts for good. It is a mystery to me why so many of the religious "right" have identified conception control with abortion in order to stigmatize and attempt to abolish both.

While I am not a proponent of abortion as a method of birth control, I do believe that it is a greater wrong to give birth to an unwanted child, and to abuse the child (through neglect, words, or otherwise), than it is to give the seed of a potential child, a conceptus, a painless exit back into eternity.

As a mother of both a daughter and a son, I was certainly not willing to have anyone declare whether either of them was genetically superior enough to be allowed to live. I realized that, once I chose to keep the conceptus, I would have to put the life of the new being above my own survival, and I freely chose to do this. Parents who can't, won't, or don't do this should be able to end the potential person before they bring into the world another Homo sapiens animal that will have little chance to become a full human.

I submit that we, as humans, with the ability to make informed choices, have a responsibility to prevent the birth of any more of our own children than we and our communities are ready to shelter, above our own instincts for self and our own genetic preservation, from harm. What is the greater wrong? To euthanize a potential life, or to bring a child into a world where he or she is guaranteed a life of nothing but abuse?

Effective conception control gives Homo sapiens the ability to control where and when we have children, based on the resources available to us to protect and provide for their needs physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I cannot understand why any thinking person, with any compassion for parents and/or children, would object to accepting this scientific advancement as a blessing to be embraced.

When the preachers of religion refuse medical intervention for all their own physical discomforts and diseases, I think it will be time to entertain their assertions that we should all, without scientific/medical intervention, acquiesce to "the will of God" in conception. When every conceptus, including those created in fertility factories, is assured of the resources to live in full human safety, acceptance, and dignity after birth, we can begin to talk about the morality and justice of forcing unwanted pregnancies to be brought to the births of more Homo sapiens on our earth.

There has been no greater gift in my life than the privilege of mothering two Homo sapiens that seem to have, as adults, chosen full humanity for themselves. The sacrifices were more than I could ever have imagined, even though I was blessed with healthy children and a co-parent who did support his offspring. The rewards are much greater than the sacrifices because my children choose to act as adults not dependent on my continued sacrifice for their survival and that of their children. Not all who conceive are so blessed as I have been.

We, as a society, are already allowing those with choices bought with power and privilege to choose when their own children will be created. It is injustice to deny the same human dignity of decision to the poor who serve us in our greatest times of vulnerability. That is, unless I am correct in believing that the privileged have a vested interest in continuing to encourage creation of more desperate poor people to serve them.

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.