I tweeted this link yesterday about the forgiveness of a
family that lost their daughter to a car accident. http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/79698172.html?page=1&c=y Forgiveness is so crucial to healing, both for the person
wronged and the person that did the wronging. By holding on to the pain caused
by being wronged, illness is created throughout a person’s entire being—biological,
psychological, sociological, & spiritual realms. Negative energy is created
and emitted, causing further suffering and illness. As a future holistic health
practitioner and energy healer, I have learned about the necessity of positive
energy in creating and maintaining a healthy person. The only way to reverse the effects of this is to practice
radical & complete forgiveness.
However, one needs to learn how to do this. Forgiveness isn’t simply saying I
forgive you. It’s not just words. It is a process of letting go of one’s
attachment to the security of their pain. It is scary to radically and completely forgive someone
because it opens you up to be vulnerable. Many people are afraid of being hurt
again, and they believe holding on to the pain of being wronged acts as a
protective shield. However, the perceived shield only blocks healing love from
being both emitted and received. One needs to let go of their pain. One needs to let go of
their fear. One needs to learn how to do this, and there are many ways to figure
this out. I use two ways: the example of Jesus Christ as the forgiving healer
in the Gospels and mindfulness as practiced by Thich Nhat Hanh. These two have
helped me realize the healing power of forgiveness. The negative forces of
bitterness, resentment, and anger no longer bind me. If someone wrongs me, I
recall the healing power of forgiveness as explained and witnessed by Jesus. I
use mindfulness to be awake in the present, which helps me see the wronging for
what it is and the reasons for its existence. By seeing the causes and dealing
with them, I can let it all go to history, where it no longer emits negative
energy.
I spent the last week or so reading Thomas Merton’s No Man is an Island. Surprisingly, this has been the first Christian theological work I have read in quite a long time. I think four-plus years of Christian education helped contribute to this much-deserved break. Now, I am well rested (in a Christian theological sense) and eager to dig right in to some good stuff. To appreciate Merton’s work, I had to understand the book was written in 1955. This means I had to realize both his male-centric writing (using the word man in place of humanity) and his negativity to other religions. Merton’s theological writing is Roman Catholic, though he does not write with a dogmatic style of a canon lawyer or apologetic theologian. This book reads more like religious philosophy than theology simply because of the questions and answers it raises. Here are some ideas I found interesting. ‘We must, therefore live by the commandments and the counsels and by the Sprit of Jesus. And in order to do this we much search the Scriptures and understand the Gospels, in order to find out what Jesus is like and what His commandments are” (59). This is Christ centered thinking, unlike the Pauline emphasis often found in Christian thought today. I believe this statement is the simple Christianity that can resurrect the faith today. “All men seek peace first of all with themselves. That is necessary, because we do not naturally find rest even in our own being. We have to learn to commune with ourselves before we can communicate with other men and with God. A man who is not at peace with himself necessarily projects his interior fighting into the society of those he lives with, and spreads a contagion of conflict all around him” (121). This means we can and should heal ourselves before even attempting to offer counsel to others. If we are hurt, how can we expect to heal others? By taking care of ourselves first, we can have enough energy and attention to devote to helping others without distraction. “The arguments of religious men are so often insincere, and their insincerity is proportionate to their anger. Why do we get angry about what we believe? Because we do not really believe it. Or else what we pretend to be defending as the “truth” is really our own self-esteem. A man of sincerity is less interested in defending the truth than in stating it clearly, for he thinks that if the truth be clearly seen it can very well take care of itself” (195). This is good reading for the fundamentalist evangelicals who push their brand of Christianity as absolute truth. Many of these same people will become notably angry when pressed about their beliefs. If one believes they know the truth, they can rest easy in confidence. If you know the truth, there is no need to defend it. “Anxiety is fatal to recollection because recollection depends ultimately on faith, and anxiety eats into the heart of faith. Anxiety usually comes from strain, and strain is caused by too complete a dependence on ourselves, on our own devices, our own plans, our own idea of what we are able to do” (224). Merton talked about recollection as a “change of spiritual focus and an attuning of our whole soul to what is beyond and above us.” It is like becoming awake and practicing mindfulness, which allows us to see things as they are. A thorough understanding of Jesus’ life and teachings gives us confidence to not only shed anxiety, it allows us the peace of mind to become awake & mindful. Christians become anxious when they doubt Jesus’ life and teachings and instead turn toward the abilities of human beings (Paul, other people, or themselves) to help them.
I was tagged by arulba. She was tagged by tagged by Kay. Thanks! Summarize the Bible in five statements (fifteen words). The first statement – one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people. Comprehensive (The book is comprehensive in content and form. There are so many nooks and crannies full of meaning. Most of the literary forms are represented in the Bible.) Human made. (This cannot be emphasized enough. Despite what many have said about Divine inspiration, the Bible was written and assembled by humans, specifically men. Imperfect human beings make imperfect writings and books, and the Bible is no exception.) Remember the metaphor. (The Bible is an imperfect book written in many literary forms for many different audiences. To read it as literal truth is to ignore these realities, which is dishonest to both the book and to the person reading it. Metaphor can help us make the book relevant for our particular time, though this requires work and thought. And whenever one interprets a dream [think Revelation], metaphor is the best tool one can use to pull meaning.) Read the Gospels first. (This helps set one’s mind in a Christian sense, providing one is reading the book in that framework. Then, read the entire Old Testament straight through before reading the rest of the New Testament, starting with the book of Acts.) Paul writes letters to others. (What many Bible readers and believers should to realize is that Paul’s letters are written to a particular group of people in a particular time and place. It is important to not take these letters out of context. Many Christians believe Paul provides a practical application of the Gospel. However, Paul is actually providing his own interpretation and application of the Gospel for groups like the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, etc. One is actually reading a one-sided conversation. For a universal message, turn back to the Gospels. Jesus’ message is simple and universal enough for one to apply without clinging to Paul’s [or anyone else's] ancient interpretation.)
I follow the Christian Post on Twitter because I like to keep up with the ideas and thinking of many Christians. Today they tweeted the following:
The amount of work in graduate school is shocking. I fancied myself as a seasoned academician and the shear volume of reading and writing has taken me by surprise. My blogging and extracurricular reading life ground to a halt. My classes end in early December and I do not have to return until February, so I’ll have plenty of time to catch up. I also learned about the Upaya Institute, a place in New Mexico that teaches caregivers and healers how to deal with death and dying. I have a belief that many people suffer from a fear of death, which then causes great suffering in their lives. I feel that some of my life’s work will be helping people work through their fear of death. I have an assignment for a foundations course that is asking me to come up with ten ways that I am going to integrate the course themes into my practice.
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
My humble and sincere thanks to all veterans who have served to keep my country and my liberties safe. My heart goes out to all of you, especially to those who have made serious sacrifices. While I go about my daily business and snuggle down safe and sound in my bed, many of you are guarding a wall, battling with the enemy, or rescuing people off rooftops during a natural disaster. Some of you are tipping your last-call glasses of beer down in the halls of the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Your time of service has passed, yet a part of you lives always in the men and women who now serve. Some of you are praying, alone or in groups, that all sons and daughters, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, and parents are home by the next Veterans Day. You know He can grant your prayers, but it's unlikely given the evil in the world.
Many of you will march in parades -- some of you will be escorted in your wheelchairs -- and be either encouraged by the numbers of people who gather and wave flags along the parade route or disappointed by the numbers, which seem to dwindle more each year. But you should know that the intensity of pride and sincerity of gratitude from just a few who gather are much richer, fuller, and sweeter than all the speeches, blog posts,and five-minute clips on the late news hours.
Some of you are homeless. We can argue about whether you are crazy or on drugs or a victim of the recession or whatever it is that makes you chronically without shelter, but I am at a loss as to how this could happen in my country. With the billions of dollars we borrowed from the Chinese to give to banks and companies who turned around and thumbed their noses at us while they got massages and played golf at an exotic resort, we couldn't spare a couple or three to shelter people who, conscientiously or not, went and stood in the way of bullets when others did not? I apologize to you, for both looking the other way and not being sincere enough to promise you I will not do it again. But I know that you sacrifice to this day for what you did for your country and I live in the grace of your sacrifice.
Some of you are recuperating in a hospital, trying to recover physically, mentally, or spiritually. Some of you are being taken care of by people who care about you, and some of you were forced to endure deplorable conditions at a military hospital, where people were supposed to care for you and try to make you whole as possible, in the name of the American people whom you served. I cannot understand this breach of faith and I'm angered by it, as I believe other Americans were, but like other government-run horror shows it appears to have been easy to sweep under the rug.
I am one of those people who get a lump in their throat when they see an American flag backlit by the sun's rays. A sucker for icons, I get it when anyone plays the national anthem, even though I love "America the Beautiful" a thousand times better, or a color guard comes out onto a baseball field, or some jets fly over a memorial. The arresting sight of a string of motorcycle guards heading to a funeral to protect a grieving family from a bunch of evil nutcase protesters from a Topeka church makes me want to pull in line and follow them to their destination.
But I get downright weepy when I walk through the tombstones of Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, whether they mark the graves of Civil War soldiers, entire crews of planes shot down in World War II, or soldiers from other conflicts. And, even though some of the graves are for World War II and Vietnam vets from my own family, the the saddest to me are the newer graves of people who have died in recent wars.
I mourn those men and women who kept the wolf at bay.
And thank those who today still keep it from my door.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
Links from my Neighborhood
Weather - Sky 9 Cams - Bay ...
Click on the image to open the movie. You can left click ...
Check out the RockMe. Schedule. I'm not sure if this is a...
Tour de France 2007: News F...
Great. Even better.
