One More Chance To Love

"Another day, another chance to cherish those who have cast their lot with yours."
~Robert Brault

Better Houses... Lesser Men

"While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings."

(Henry David Thoreau)

Alone In What Matters Most

"In what concerns you much do not think that you have companions —know that you are alone in the world." (Henry David Thoreau)

Ask To See God... No Servant

When you travel to the Celestial City, carry no letter of introduction. When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants. ~Henry David Thoreau. Letter to Harrison Blake. March 27,  1848

You Blind Me From Seeing God.

"When you knock, ask to see God — none of the servants."
~Henry David Thoreau

Trust Is Average Of Lies?

"If there be no God, then what is truth but the average of all lies."
~Robert Brault

Travelling At The Speed Of Time

"No matter how you rush about, you will find at the end of the day that you traveled at the speed of time."
~Robert Brault

Unknown Shrines?

"We are Godseekers all, though some be churchgoing believers and others pilgrims to an unknown shrine." ~Robert Brault

God Tried To Be A Secret..... but then....

"If God had wanted to be a big secret, He would not have created babbling brooks and whispering pines."
~Robert Brault

My Joy and Life Sucking Need To Be "Right" Causes Me To Be So "Badly" Wrong

I believe the core problematic issue within the human experience has something to do with the inherent desire of wanting to be certain we are 'right' (aka, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). This to me is the root of the core problem within our united journey as mankind because as soon as we feel certain we are 'right' we then believe we have the grounds to judge others. As soon as we convince others they can join us in our 'rightness' we can create power in numbers to do as we believe our 'rightness' demands of us.

This is where all the evil in life takes place, isn't it? Right there in the assumptions that bind judgement of others together; for no matter what actions follow judging others, they are always justified in our minds for we are certain these judgmental actions are for the greater good, no matter how awful these actions truly are....

We still have our beliefs, but we hold them in open palms instead of closed fists. We love with our beliefs instead of fighting with them. We choose to be human, and embrace our oneness as humanity. Most of all, we choose to enter into dialogue and discussion where we previously only entered into battles and angry defense."

(Mick Mooney.  How to Be Free in Faith Instead of a Slave to Religion-Made Certainty ,12/10/14 10. Huffington post)

Love Mingled With Grief Grows Greater?

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater."

~J.R.R. Tolkien. Lord of the Rings

Unflinchingly Following The Light

"No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly."

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Becoming Alive... Tolkien

"Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick."
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

There Is A Savage Savage Greed In Our Genes (Farley Mowat - Canadian Author)

"I think,  that there is a blind greed, a savage savage greed that is in our genes. The best that we can do with it is mask it. And that is what a lot of writers, including myself, I think,  have been doing, without realizing it. We tend to act as apologists for our own species. We tend to mask our detrimental aspects. And most of us don't ever realize that we are: I can't say we are being used, because who is it that is using us? We are using ourselves or abusing ourselves for the good of mankind, the apparent good, leading to the ultimate destruction, not only of our own species, but of many other species too.... It's confused, and I am confused."

(Farley Mowat ). Interview

Putting Back More.....

"A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out."George Bernard Shaw

Confusing Accepting A Belief Position With Connection with A Life Giving Spirit

"In our society, we tend to swear unyielding allegiance to a rigid position, confusing that action with finding an authentic connection to a life-giving Spirit."
(Rich Mullins. Forward to "Ragamuffin Gospel", Brennan Manning.

Does God Embrace My Humanness Even If You Don't?

"I discovered how little I had to do to deserve and receive the love of God and that He loved me more than I had ever imagined. Suddenly, instead of fearing and denying all of my real or imagined shortcomings, I could embrace my humanness. I could see God pursuing me through it and in spite of it."
(Michael Smith. Forward to "Ragamuffin Gospel. Brennan Manning)

I'm An Alive Child Soldier Boy

"Grateful that I am alive and was lucky enough to survive the civil war in my country, Sierra Leone, where I fought as a child soldier at the age of thirteen. " (Ishmael Beah)

Your Christian Noose

" Religion has programmed you with fear.

Fear of God’s rejection and disapproval
Fear of God’s discipline and punishment
Fear of Hell Fear of forfeiting God’s blessing
Fear of what you feel inside
Fear of trusting your own inner guidance
Fear of thinking for yourself
Fear of being wrong
Fear of being rejected by others

This is what religion does to some people. Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles. Courage is a muscle that needs exercise to get strong."

(Jim Palmer. Notes From Over The Edge)

Christian Kissing..... Let's Talk Kissing

Who wants a Left brain kiss? Bla! Speaking about how life is not so scripted....

"When we kiss someone, we don’t left brain it; we right brain a kiss. We don’t analyze a kiss before we do it, or plan it out according to some rule of thumb. We just make it up as we go along, following the signs, signals, and feedback loops of the one we’re kissing. We “kiss” life the same way."
(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

Love God And Do As You Will

“Love God, and do what you will.” (Augustine)

There Is No God Plan For Your Life. .. Only a Purpose

One of the biggest clichés in the church today has provided legions of people with untold comfort and consolation: “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” .....  it’s time to hack our way through the underbrush of presumption. Are you ready for the whack hack? Here it comes . .  . There is no plan. God didn’t give us a plan, but a purpose; not a map, but a mission; not a blueprint for tracing, but a blue sky for exploring. God’s plan is for us to spend our lives doing whatever unlocks our tear ducts, makes our throats deep with song, keeps the gales of laughter surging in our souls, and turns our feet to dancing."
(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

A Piñata Jesus: Piñata Worthy Jesus Clichés

I once had a student whose daughter, in year, went from being deep into SpongeBob SquarePants to being deep into Jesus. She wanted a Jesus birthday party . .  . with Jesus cake, Jesus candles, Jesus napkins, Jesus balloons, and, “Mom, can we have a Jesus piñata?”

No one is more tired than I am of seeing Jesus turned into a piñata for hacked-off people to hack away at to their hearts’ delight. But certain clichés about Jesus are piñata worthy  — and I give fair warning: I have just now become a hacker."

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

A "Come See" Pilgrimage

"In whatever age you’re in . . .  to wherever places your pilgrimage takes you, from First-Age tinkering to Third-Age world changing, just keep following that voice: “Come and see!”"

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

A Christianity Of Celebration and Festivals?

"Before much of the church sold out to a muted and moderate Gutenberg culture of words and propositions, Christianity itself was a celebratory culture of feast days and carnivals and festivities where artists of various media were employed to design architectural settings, paintings, music, clothes, food, sporting events, dancing, speeches, liturgy, movement. Festivals were as dynamic and dramatic, authentic and lunatic, noisome and fulsome as life itself."

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

Play-Doh For The Spirit?

I suspect that a prime reason why Bethany was Jesus’ favorite place on earth was because he enjoyed Martha’s cooking. The problem was that feeding Jesus had become work for Martha, not play. She had gone from the joy of cooking to the burden of cooking. The Bread of Life yearns to be fun: not workspace for the stressed, but Play-Doh for the spirit. Most of us are like Martha: too busy to party."

(Leonard Sweet. The Well Played Life)

I Wanted To Kiss You This Way.

"I didn't want to kiss you goodbye- that was the trouble- I wanted to kiss you goodnight. And there's a lot of difference."  -Ernest Hemingway

How We Lived and Died

"Every man's life ends the same way. IT is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another."
(Ernest Hemingway)

Harmony Among A The Brokenness

"When you became a part of her family, you stayed a part of the family. It didn’t matter. When her youngest daughter divorced, Grandma still kept contact with the ex-husband. He was one of the pall bearers at her funeral, right alongside the daughter’s current partner. When her grandson (my husbands cousin) divorced, his wife still came to help Grandma clean her house. The ex-wife’s daughter (cousin’s step-daughter) was still very much a part of the family, even though there were no blood ties.
She was feisty, a hard worker, fiercely loyal, and outspoken. Everything I aspire to be. Man, I miss her. I am so glad I knew her."
(Carrie Marshall- "Remembering" About her husbands grandmother)

http://awefilledwonder.blogspot.com/2014/11/remembering.html

The Sound of Peace When It Goes Away.

"When Peace Goes Away, it Doesn’t Make a Sound"  (David Cain)

Inspired Repulsion While Weeping

"She had died quite suddenly in a garret, according to one story, of typhus, or as another version had it, of starvation. Fyodor Pavlovitch was drunk when he heard of his wife’s death, and the story is that he ran out into the street and began shouting with joy, raising his hands to Heaven: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,” but others say he wept without restraint like a little child, so much so that people were sorry for him, in spite of the repulsion he inspired.

It is quite possible that both versions were true, that he rejoiced at his release, and at the same time wept for her who released him. As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naive and simple-hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too."
(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Looking After Nothing Else?

"But he was one of those senseless persons who are very well capable of looking after their worldly affairs, and, apparently, after nothing else."

(Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov)

Swimming In God

You go to church to find God but any God you found in church you brought in with you.... You are swimming in God, Truth and peace but you are oblivious to them."
(Jim Palmer. Notes From (Over) The Edge)

Religion Taught Us That We Should Be "Nice" And "Conform"

"Religion taught you that you should be nice, considerate, polite, amiable, and selfless. An antonym for “nice” is “improper.” “Improper” is defined as: “not being in accord with acceptable behavior and procedures; not in keeping with conventional mores.” Yep, that was Jesus! The road to Truth has improper written all over it. People traveling this road are a threat to all the nice people. Don’t expect them to be nice anymore, at least to you. Your world works because it hinges on you being nice. There will not be a crowd cheering you on. Knowing Truth is not a popularity contest, and the road to your freedom and end of suffering will be lined with people expressing disapproval. Every step on the path of Truth is an act of non-conformity.There will be resistance. There will be a lot of chances to turn back. Keep going! Be fearless! How much suffering will you tolerate? How many things will you continue doing and believing that have not worked and never will? How long will you put on that fake happy face, be nice, go to church, and conform?"

(Jim Palmer. Notes From (Over) The Edge)

Your Neighbour Must Eat Before You: Said Mohamed At The Fall Of Mecca

" Meanwhile, a few weeks before I meet Faizan Peerzada in Lahore, the Muslim Salvation Organization posts the even-harder-line view of a Mufti Ebrahim Desai from www.ask-imam.com’s fatwa department who claims that “[ t] he use of the drum as a musical instrument is expressly forbidden. . . .” Apparently percussion is not permissible but an online fatwa department is.

Dancing right in his chair (Faizan Peerzada, Pakistan), and playing air duff and nay to illustrate his story, he recounts: “All these things were present at the fall of Mecca, when Prophet comes down from the camel.” From that moment in Islamic history, Faizan sketches a tolerant, humanist Islam. “The first thing the Prophet Muhammad says is, ‘The smaller jihad is over today. Now begins the biggest Jihad.’ To fight with yourself to be a good human being. Your neighbor on the right and left must eat before you, as simple as that.”

(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here : Untold Stories From The Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism)

Art The Only Protest Left Against Islamic Fundamentalism

<blockquote>" “Now art is the only way we can fight fundamentalism.” (Madeeha Gauhar, director of Ajoka Theatre, Pakistan) In an era when so many successful performers in the West are busy hawking perfume, modeling designer frocks, or dancing with the stars, this is an entirely different vision of what it can mean to be an artist."
(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here : Untold Stories From The Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism) <blockquote/>

Let The Children Sing Without Fear

Two years earlier children and parents were bombed by radicals for attending this theater with play and song. But the people of this Pakistani city would not give in, and the children perform their play anyway.

"Though the bombers made headlines here two years ago, this night and these people are just as important a story....
When I leave, I come across an open drawing space covered with graffiti. Someone has scrawled two words: NO FEAR."
(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here) 

Wounding The Beautiful Kind Of People. ...

Wounding the best kind of people. I've seen it, and sadly, I've probably done it too...

“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.”
- Ernest Hemingway

Sadness On Earth.

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

I Don't Live At All.....

"Why, darling, I don’t live at all when I’m not with you."
(Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms)

I Forgot You Are Suffering Quiet One.....

"You are so brave and quiet I forget you are suffering." (Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms.)

Islamic Radicalism - Just Cry?

These witnesses knew that the best hope for politically defeating Muslim fundamentalists is that their atrocities be exposed, so they testified through their tears. Even after twenty years of such interviews, it remains hard to know the best way to react. I usually say, however uselessly, how sorry I am. It is the least that decency demands. On these trips, I developed a policy that I would not cry during the interviews, no matter what someone told me, or at least I would try not to. The people attempting to get through their awful tales with dignity deserved at the very least that I hold it together."
(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here)

The Woman Who Makes People Weep

"Making people tell awful stories has been part of what I have done for several decades as a human rights lawyer...

I was then a legal adviser for Amnesty International in London, collecting nightmares for a living in order to combat abuse in places like Lebanon and...
When your job is to document horror, as it was for me at times when writing this book, you try to convince yourself that it is inherently good for people to tell their stories. I am not sure that is always true. Some of the people I interviewed were desperately eager to recount their travails. An older woman at the offices of Djazairouna, the Association of Families of Victims of Islamist Terrorism in Algeria, rushed into the room and started talking at breakneck speed before I could manage to get my new digital recorder turned on. But for some it was terribly difficult. Another person I interviewed went into a depression afterward. With this research, I again became the woman who makes people weep."
(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here)

No Africans Or Asians In My Sunday School Material.

"I saw no African people in the printed and illustrated Sunday school lessons. I began to suspect at this early age that someone had distorted the image of my people. My long search for the true history of African people the world over began."John Henrik Clarke

Sunday Morning Inside Four Walls With Clean Blood and Organized Drawers

“I am not a Sunday morning inside four walls with clean blood and organized drawers. I am the hurricane setting fire to the forests at night when no one else is alive or awake....." 

(Swiss Musician Charlotte Eriksson) 

What Immortals Do on Sunday?

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." (Susan Ertz)

A Giant Thousand Mile Step

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." (Lao Tzu)

Christians Offer Charity Not Change.

"Much of the fundamentalist leadership is middle or even upper class. It is with a distinct agenda that their movements sometimes offer social services where governments fail to do so. They distribute headscarves along with health care and fatwas with the food. Like the Christian fundamentalists, they offer charity, not change in the economic status quo. They usually justify the protection of private property against measures like land reform.
According to an Algerian fundamentalist fatwa from the 1970s, prayer performed on nationalized land would not be accepted by God. In fact, Muslim fundamentalists often seek to defeat the movements most likely to be able to tackle social injustice— social democrats, the humanist Left, trade unions, human rights advocates, women’s rights defenders. These fundamentalists spend more time talking about who gets to the next life than about who gets what in this one. “I have never heard them pronounce on structural adjustment and what Islam would say about it. Not once,” Codou Bop fumes in Senegal."
(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here)

Islamic Radicals Punish Fellow Muslims. Those Suffering Need Us.....

"An Afghan woman having her nose cut off by the Taliban becomes a platform for saying that there is violence against women everywhere. I think when we talk about Muslim fundamentalism, we have to actually talk about it. It exists. It gravely menaces the human rights of people of Muslim heritage. It is just as deserving of critical discussion as U.S. foreign policy or the Israeli government or anti-Muslim bias. To quote one of the last articles published by left-wing Algerian educator Salah Chouaki before his assassination by the same forces he warned against, “The most dangerous and deadly illusion. . . is to underestimate fundamentalism, the mortal enemy of our people.”

The Algerian journalist Mohamed Sifaoui once told me that he often has to explain to European leftists and human rights advocates that “the Muslim fundamentalists are our extreme right.” All too often, because they are (sometimes mistakenly) assumed to be the enemies of the same Western governments criticized by the Western Left, parts of that Left confuse the Muslim fundamentalists with allies....

The people I met while writing this book deserve for us all to rethink our positions, to neither advocate violations of human rights and discrimination against Muslims in response to the actions of Muslim fundamentalists, as some on the right do, nor tolerate the fundamentalists in response, as some on the left do. Instead, these progressive opponents of Muslim fundamentalism on the ground need our principled support."

(Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here)

Blissfully Ignorant Of Islamic Fundamentalism

"While the Western Right sometimes advocates international crimes and bigotry in response to Muslim fundamentalist violence, the Western (and global) Left often refuses to recognize the relity of that violence and the actual danger posed by its underlying ideology. Both of these positions have drastic consequences on the ground for the people......
I must admit, however, that I am more shocked by the failings of the Left and the human rights movement because I am in their camp. For example, my former employer Amnesty International, which has done so much good on many human rights issues, suspended and then forced out the head of its Gender Unit, Gita Sahgal, after she publicly criticized the organization for cozying up to a jihadi sympathizer and former Guantanamo detainee, a British Muslim named Moazzam Begg, and his pro-jihadi organization CagePrisoners. While Begg had clearly suffered at the hands of U.S. authorities, and deserved defense while detained without trial, he himself had a nasty track record of support for the Taliban, of running an extremist bookshop in the United Kingdom, and of numerous visits to jihadi training camps. Yet he was lauded as a human rights defender, brought in to judge a children’s poetry competition, depicted on Amnesty’s website reading his own poetry about “tyrants,” and repeatedly given a platform by the organization. When Gita Sahgal went public with her concerns, several of South Asia’s leading women’s rights defenders wrote an open letter to Amnesty that garnered two thousand signatures, including those of such prominent women’s rights defenders as the leading Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani, and pioneering Egyptian feminist writer Nawal El Sadaawi. In response, the acting secretary-general of Amnesty would write a letter claiming that advocacy of “jihad in self-defense” is not “antithetical to human rights," thereby actually endorsing a myth that has been used to justify fundamentalist atrocities from Iraq to Afghanistan to Algeria. Gita Sahgal was absolutely right to speak out, and she paid a high price for doing so." (Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here)