Ishtar Sunday

Easter ( from Oestre, Estre, Ester, Ishtar) is the first Sunday after the First Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. It is well known as a major Christian religious holiday, even though the themes are Pre-Christian and come from Pagan religious roots..( as does the name of this important holy day), which celebrates the return of life and the rebirth of nature as the time of light conquers the time of darkness. The symbols of the rabbit (fertility) and the egg, (new life) are sacred to the Goddess. This gives rise for some traditions to refer to the Spring Equinox (Ostara in Wiccan traditions) as "Lady Day." Easter is a blend of religious themes and it (like an interfaith organization) blends well, simply because it celebrates a common idea.

Rabbits are very sexually prolific. Eggs are the manifestations of the beginnings of life.. as can be considered by extension, the act of procreation. Therefore there are underlying sexual connotations to this Holy day. Sex/Love is the theme here. And making love and not war, would easily fit in to this same thought form. This happens to also be the message within all religious traditions and paths. "To love and honor one another." Not to hate and harm. "To help your brothers and sisters of the human race." Not to make war and maim and kill. "To give generously of yourselves to those in need." Not to take that which belongs not to you. "To seek to better yourself spiritually." Not to accumulate a lot of "stuff". Because true wealth is measured in terms of love and spiritual attainment, not monetary acquisitions.In fact some of the happiest and wealthiest people I have ever known had hardly more than the clothes on their back. But they had the wealth of love and family. They didn't hate, they did not envy, they had little to share but share they did. Then some of the most unhappy and "poorest" people I have known were quite well off financially. More than one of these were multimillionaires. They were stingy, resentful, cold and they coveted that which someone else had, that they did not as yet possess. They reveled in flaunting their wealth .. their material wealth, their "trophy wives" and bragging on the size of their house, how many expensive cars they had and yet they were still the most unhappy people I have ever met. I actually felt sorry for them. They thought all they needed to do was warm a pew on a Sunday morning, give a tax deductible contribution to the Church and they could buy a ride on that bus to Heaven. Because the rest of the week they certaintly did not follow the teachings of their own faith.

Even though the individuals I had these experiences with called themselves Christian, the same thing can be seen in other faiths. The "Islamic Terrorists" for instance.. well thats really a misnomer. They may call themselves Islamic, but they do not follow the teachings of Islam. If they did they would not be terrorists. Christians tend to dislike the Jews and Muslims, while Jews dislike Christians and Muslims and Muslims tend to dislike the Christians and Jews. Yet they all are followers of the God of Abraham. They are Brothers and Sisters in faith. They share the same religious roots. Yet their religious leaders, (or at least many of them) fan the fires of discord, and hate, while their religious teachings call for love and unity.

It is a sad thing that religious leaders teach hatred and intolerance, when their religious philosophy teaches love, tolerance, understanding and compassion. And Pagans are well aware of the persecutions we have endured by the mainstream faiths. In fact there is an interesting article written by a Christian in the Church of Seven Planes website http://www.sevenplanes.org/Sermons/morris%20taylor.htm that even uses biblical quotes to explain the validity of Wicca as a positive religious path. It is because of the unity of diverse religious paths that I became first an Interfaith Minister then finally a Bishop of the Church of Seven Planes. We have Bishops and Ministers from nearly all religious paths, and we work together in complete harmony and acceptance of all religious paths. The basic philosophy behind an Interfaith Church is "One God, many Names" For many years, something that I have tried to teach those who were actually interested, is that we are all going to the same place, we are just walking different paths to get there. And although my personal path is Wicca, I have worked with people from several other religious paths, and used their personal path to help them find the connection they needed to the Divine. How is this possible? read the website its all there  http://www.sevenplanes.org

Night Fright in the heat of the night

This old house is so drafty it really cannot be heated with a furnace. So we have used an old Earth woodstove in here for the past 22 winters. The old stove finally burned itself out, the firebrick fell out the steel brackets that hold the brick in burned away and it had gotten dangerous because a fire in it would quickly run away and catch the chimney on fire. So we decided to invest in a new wood stove. The new stove was the largest one they had and it had a glass door. We never had a stove with a glass door before. But that was the way it came. Finally got everything jury rigged and the stove installed with the old pipe because the stove collar did not come with the stove and it needed to be ordered. The new stove has a blower on it which blows heat into the room from the back of it around the heat shield. It also has a smoke re-burner in the top so the flames do not shoot directly up the stove pipe, like they did in the old stove.

The thing is when you fire up a new wood stove the paint has to cure. That paint causes some smoke in the house and smells like smoking hot metal. I got the fire lite and in short order we had to open the outside door and tune a fan on to blow the smoke outside. This was @ 5-6 pm. The smell of the curing paint still persisted but was decreasing by 11 pm. @ 9:30 pm I banked the stove for the night. I had put in a rather large chuck of wood @ 8 pm and in the old stove that would have been gone by 2 am so I laid another flat chunk on top of it. After doing so I wondered if that might have been a bit much. But that was what it took in the old one to keep a fire all night. After the stove had simmered away for an hour and a half and everything looked just fine, I went to bed.

@ 2:30 am I awoke. I noticed the curing paint smell was stronger. I got up to check on the stove and saw the room flickering brightly from the light from an intense fire. I hurriedly shut the stove and damper all the way down and turned the fan and blower on high to cool the stove down. The top piece of wood had fallen and slid forward and was right against the glass door and it was that piece that was blazing away with the intensity of an inferno.

Just  then the smoke alarm decided to start blaring. Not wanting to wake everyone up I fanned the alarm to quiet it and went to open the outside door. The alarm blared again. So there I am running back and forth in the dark between alarm and stove trying to get the stove to cool down before the chimney ignited and vent the smoke to the outside. Annwn walked in the room to see what the world I was doing dashing around in the dark and making that alarm blare again and again.

I finally got another fan on to blow the smoke out of the bedroom and keep the alarm from blasting my wife out of bed. Annwn had vanished, the door was wide open. The hunk of wood was still laying against the glass door. It was wet outside but wasn't raining or snowing hard that I could tell. I called him, and thankfully he had retired to the living room instead of dashing out the door in a bolt for freedom.

By this time the flames had died down, so I cautiously opened the stove door and pushed the big hunk of flaming wood forward enough to get it off the glass. A few minutes later the stove began popping as it started cooling back down.

Now I am wide away in the middle of the night. Everything seems fine. but still.. waking up and seeing a room brightly lit by flickering flames is not something I am at all used to. Maybe I need a stiff drink LOL! At least I can breathe again without choking on paint fumes. But between the flickering flames and the smell of hot metal. I am too nervous to sleep. Next time I will know not to put that extra piece in.. I hope..

Do people really fall for this crap?

About once each month for the past several months I get an advertisement from the phone/internet company trying to get me to "upgrade now and save money!" RIIIIIIIGGGHHT.. I honestly fail to understand how spending $15- $25 MORE each month will save me money. And then the "savings" are only good for a year then there is another price increase. They want us to "bundle" out internet and phone for $10 more per month that we are currently paying, and I think it is already "bundled" because they are on the same bill all figured together. They want to increase our internet speed from 1 MPS to 3 MPS for only $15 more per month and we will "save" money for the rest of the year then there is another $10.00 increase. MMMMM Yeahhhh RIIIIGGHHT.. As long as we don't change our current plan they cannot increase the bill, because the price was locked in with Verizon before Frontier took it over out here. And yet they have tried, and it took me 3 months to get the extra $20/month charge off the bill. Plus they cannot even keep 1 MPS operating reliably it is always going off sometimes several times per minute, and frequently is off for several hours at a time and when tech support is called they just say we are in an "outage area" When asked if the time we have no service will be deducted from our monthly bill, they find that query extremely humorous, and explosively laugh uncontrollably for some reason..  The service sucks, the company really sucks, the support sucks, and if there were an affordable alternative available out here we would cheerfully tell them to pucker up and kiss where the sun doesn't shine. But it is either this or dial-up because satellite is well out of our budget range, and besides it goes out every time there is a hard rain, or so I have heard. But with the current drought situation, rain would not have been a factor for the past several months. Still I have to wonder how many people actually fall for that line? "Spend more and save money!" Yeah RIIIGGGHHTT!!!!

Amazing What you can find

Very few of my readers know that I have some health conditions that severely restrict what I am able to do. Among them are COPD with severe restrictions, I have about 1/3 the lung capacity I should have, along with several heart blockages, most minor, one is a 100% blockage in a main artery that could not be opened up, though the surgeon managed to open another 95% blockage in another part of my heart. Since then I have been able to do a bit more, and feel better with more energy than I had felt in a long while. So to help improve my health conditions I began walking as much as I could. At first I could only walk a few hundred yards before weakness over took me and I became short of breath, but I kept pushing and finally got up to 1/4 mile, then 1/2 mile then 1 mile and not sometimes, I can walk 4 miles. Now I do walk with my dog Annwn, there is some debate as to who is walking who there I suppose. Annwn is a Doberman Pinscher, and for those unfamiliar with Dobies, they are "High Energy" dogs. They are like a vehicle with a high performance engine under the hood that is difficult to keep under 50 MPH without riding the brake. He walks fast, and in a slow trot can out distance a conventional bike being pedaled as fast as you can pedal it. I have seen him overtake a running coyote with more than a 200 yard head start on him, going from a dead stop to passing said coyote before the coyote can run another 100 yards! Now according to my book on animal speeds, a coyote can run 43 MPH just to give you an idea. Then with a 200 plus yard head start and Annwn at a dead stop, from his starting point, in a run of 300 yards he has already caught and PASSED a running coyote! I say passed because just as he is about to catch it, the coyote dodges and Annwn is moving so fast he cannot make the turn, by the time he can get turned the coyote has another 100-150 yard gap between then but just for a couple of seconds, before Annwn is right on his ass again and time for another quick dodge. There was about 4-6 inches of a fine powdery snow on the ground out in the open field where he was playing tag with mister Coyote, so with the white spray flying in the air, often the action was obscured by a white cloud of snow sent airborne by their flying paws. I mention this only to aid understanding of the speed of a Dobie. Like I said "High Energy" so he cuts me no slack in walking. We cover ground. And its not a slow leisurely walk either. Annwn is both a service and therapy dog. He does know when I have reached my limits, and will ease up then, but will push me and keep pushing me and has greatly helped to expand my limits. So with the digression of some background out of the way, back to the topic..

While out walking I could not help but to notice an abundance of aluminum cans, and with the current price locally being about 57 cents per pound, and the need for a few more bucks, I decided that while out on my walks, I would pick them up. It did not take long for me to get all of the cans gathered up near the house, so on trips to town or on errands, I would watch for stretches of roadway where there seemed to be enough cans that had been tossed out to at least pay for a short drive over there to park and walk the road sides. We hit all of the major country roads near by first then began walking along the highways. Now you see a lot of stuff along country roads, but you see a greater variety of refuse and lost articles along highways. Things such as all sorts of containers that used hold wonderful goodies to eat, like candy bars, potato chips, hamburgers, a thong, french fries, chicken micky nuggets, & etc. Fishing equipment, sinkers, bobbers, Styrofoam minnow buckets, even a new wire mesh fish bag.. quite bent out of shape from road impact and traffic. Things that people like to play with or has held things people like to play with, like toy boxes, beach balls, golf balls, a thong, CD's cassette tapes, pieces of furniture, articles of clothing, shirts, pants, a thong, did I mention the thong? Anyway just all sorts of stuff, much of it deliberately thrown away, some accidentally lost along the way.

Now maybe it was hallucinations brought on by the beginnings of heatstroke or the lack of oxygen to my brain, but as Annwn and I were walking along the road way, the monotony and rhythmic steps tend to allow time for reflection, and it occurred to me that you can pick any road to travel and this would be any physical road or any life-path road or spiritual road, in short any type of road you can think of either real or metaphorically, and you will find similar "stuff". On every road, there will be things that people have deliberately thrown away, because they felt those things had out lived their usefulness to them, and you will find things that people wanted to keep, but through accident or design, have lost along the way. We have all lost things and people we wanted to hang on to, but for some reason, the Universe decided that we needed to get along without that which we lost. So we were forced to adapt. Also at some point, someone may com along that same road and find value in many of the things we have discarded, or that the Universe has decided that we no longer need. (Humm. I wonder if who ever lost that thong still felt the need for it..)

Walk along any road and if you try to see it, you will begin to realize that what you are  doing  is walking along a metaphor to what is the reality of your own life path...especially if you are suffering from heatstroke, dehydration and lack of oxygen.

What we have here is a failure to Communicate

Communication is probably the most important thing in all types of relationships. Although in these times of fast communication, texting, emails, chat programs and nearly everyone is attached to a cell phone, real and honest communication is still difficult. I saw a piece on the news a few days ago where a survey was done and surprise! surprise! people find it much easier to lie and deceive via text messages, and email, and since chat programs are similar I would include them in this too, than by actually talking over the telephone. And we all know that people routinely lie and mislead over telephones. So although the electronic marvels at our fingertips can make communication much easier, what it has done is make miscommunication much easier. Just think about how many times you have typed something and sent it to someone who took the message in a completely different way than the manner you had intended it to be taken and the other person often became offended or angry with you because of something you were trying to get across, in a friendly or joking way? When the other person cannot see your body language or hear your voice inflections it is very easy to be misunderstood, and conversely it is easier for you to mislead the other person. Many Television commercials even demonstrate how easy it is to lie and mislead with the new smartphones, apps and technology that are out there now. But what is always overlooked is that a lie or deception will always eventually catch up with you and the situation will become much much worse than it would have become if you were honest with the people you care about in the first place.

Communication is also a two-way street. One can talk and share honestly and openly and the new technology makes this easier over long  distances. But if the other person is not as forthcoming, not as open and honest as the first one you have miscommunication. Another problem is where one person is quite open and honest about everything while the other one is secretive, evasive, or not as divulgent, leaving the the first person guessing about some things. This guessing leads to projecting, which is never a good thing and can indeed in some cases destroy a very good and close friendship. If someone's openness and manner of expressing themselves troubles you, then instead of acting like everything is fine, just tell them they are making you uncomfortable and explain why. By avoiding this, you are actually making the situation even worse for yourself. In close relationships, such as marital or love relationships, emotions are easily touched, and sometimes we fear to ask the questions we suspect, because we fear the answers to those questions. So we don't ask the questions, we hold them inside, begin projecting and internalize that, the result is that our projections hurt us emotionally, we internalize the pain, the pain grows, becomes anger, then one day the pressure becomes great enough that we have to act. We explode emotionally, over our self-created scenarios, which are more often than not, far from the true reality of what was actually happening. Whereas, if we would have just communicated with the one we care about in the first place we could have saved ourselves days, weeks, months or even years of pain, grief and anguish.

Real communication is important, but so are the relationships we value, and if we truly value the relationship we will need to learn to communicate openly, honestly and candidly on both sides of the street. Not doing so will eventually destroy that which we value the most.

I am a Stag of Seven Tines

Its an old poem and also a bit of a puzzle. Some say it is a calender, some say it is the cycle of reincarnation and rebirth. I think it is something more, something which is both so simply obvious that it is overlooked and so profound as to be a great truth that hardly anyone ever considers in this day and age.. yet our ancestors took it for granted that everyone was aware of this most basic fact.

"I am a stag of seven tines,
I am a flood across the plain,
I am a wind on a deep lake,
I am a tear the Sun lets fall,
I am a hawk above a cliff,
I am a thorn beneath the nail,
I am a wonder among flowers,
I am a wizard: Who but I sets the cool head aflame with smoke?

I am a spear that roars for blood,
I am a salmon in a pool,
I am a lure from paradise,
I am a hill where poets walk,
I am a boar, ruthless and red,
I am a breaker threatening doom,
I am a tide that drags to death,
I am an infant: Who but I peeps from the unhewn dolmen arch?

I am the womb of every holt,
I am the blaze on every hill,
I am the queen of every hive,
I am the shield of every head,
I am the tomb of every hope.

Thinking about this old prose in modern day terms makes the puzzle nearly impossible to decipher. So lets take a journey back through time and first try to grasp the concepts of the universe as our ancient ancestors understood them.

Much of the ancient knowledge is resurfacing and our focus has been turning from the patriarchal concept that the Earth is something to be conquered, subjugated and exploited to the beginning of the comprehension or I should say "re-comprehension" that the earth is a living breathing organism. Our ancestors knew that everything was connected, everything was related, that the spark of divine fire existed in everything that is. Everything that is was or shall be contains within it a part of the creator of all things simply because when something is created the one who creates it puts a part of him/herself into it. It is through that spark of divinity which exists in everything we see and feel and experience that causes us to be a part of the whole. Every part, every creature and thing are all parts of the whole, similar to the cells and molecules of the body. Our ancestors, and these days you hear it mainly from the Native Americans knew that the rocks were both the bones of the earth and our brothers and sisters. The trees and grass and other vegetation that covers the earth were the hair/fur/garments of the earth, for they clothed the earth mother and they were also our siblings. The streams and rivers were the flowing veins and blood of the earth, the oceans were the heart of the earth circulating the living waters, the blood of the earth to every part, carried by the winds. They knew and understood that each animal, plant and stone were all of importance because they were and are all a part of the whole system. When one was gone, destroyed and removed from existence, the whole system suffered a great hurt. With enough hurts the whole system begins to suffer and as the hurts grow in number and frequency  the suffering of the greater organism of which we are but a small part suffers and that the greater the wounding or damage done the longer it will take for complete healing and recovery. They also knew that as in everything there comes a point where the damage gets so great that the organism sickens and dies. Furthermore they understood that everything comes and goes in cycles, the great cycle of life. Birth, growth, decline and death to transformation and life anew. What we consume becomes a part of us and upon death we become a part of something else which continues the whole cycle along.

With all of this in mind, you should now be able to solve the mystery.

Yellow Light

I received this as a joke in the email today though I do not know who composed it.

Subject: The Yellow Light .............

 

The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing,

stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red

light by accelerating through the intersection.

 

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in

frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection,

dropping her cell phone and makeup.

 

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked

up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered

her to exit her car with her hands up.

 

He took her to the police station where she was searched,

fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

 

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened

the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the

arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

 

He said, ''I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind

your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in

front of you and cussing a blue streak at him.

 

I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life'

license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker,

and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally

I assumed you had stolen the car.''

********************************************************

 

I chucked over it, then got to thinking how many times I have seen something very similar  pop up in my daily life. But it is not isolated to any one particular religious faith. I have seen people of all spiritual paths act in opposition to the tenets, teachings and philosophies of their chosen spiritual journey. And it also seems that the more devout the person professes to be the more that person transgresses upon the tenets of his/her belief system. None of us are perfect of course, by a long stretch, and we all have times and moments when we do not act in accord with our faith. But if we truly wish to better ourselves spiritually, this is something we should acknowledge and try to grow past as we strive to evolve and become better than we are. Consider each individual as a work in progress. Yes there are guides and teachers, and there are parameters set here and there designed to help us along the way to perfection within our personal belief systems, but they do us little good unless we own what we do. We all need to face our spiritual imperfections and short comings if we truly wish to evolve spiritually. Only by facing ourselves candidly can we achieve that which we all are striving for. We are all a work in progress, but only we can do the work. No one else can do it for you. Become attain and enjoy the journey.

Angioplasti

Well the day started at 4:17 am, I got up, took my meds and a breathing treatment then took Annwn out for a morning walk. 5:00 am  we headed out the door for Union Hospital in Terre Haute. I checked in at 6 am then was taken a speedy trip through the maze  in  a wheelchair to Coronary section where I was prepped. I laid there for about an hour and a half before being wheeled to the operating room. The Doc was pretty much on time at 8 am and I laid there on that uncomfortable table long enough that my tail bone felt like it was strategically placed on a bolder. After an hour of working on me the Doc finally announced that they were done. Then he told me that he has gotten the 95% blockage opened and the stint put in but that he could not get the 100% block opened. He said it was like hitting a concrete wall. So the treatment will have to be blood thinners and cholesterol meds. Then he vanished while post Op team moved in and got me mobile and back on the bed laying flat again. I laid in the recovery room for a short while then was taken up to a room on the 3rd floor, where AI had to lay flat for another 2 hours. Now I have always had  a problem with laying flat. If I lay too flat I get a sick headache and nauseous. I have always been that way, so it was quite an ordeal for me. During the whole thing except in the Op room and recovery, my wife was at my side. Finally about 12:30 pm she had to leave and go take care of our Furkid, Annwn who was himself quite worried about me. Annwn, my service dog is basically my shadow, we are hardly ever apart. About 12:30 pm they removed the tube from my leg, while the nurse held hand pressure on the wound for 20 minutes. Then I had to lay flat for another two hours, staring at the ceiling or out the window. The BP monitor squeezing my arm every 10-15 minutes and the nurse running in to check on me every 15 min prevented me from dozing off. then finally I was able to sit up and my wife returned with my comp and glasses so I could see to read. While I laid there another 7 hours. My tailbone had been screaming at me for several hours and my back felt like one huge knot by the time I was finally unhooked from the assortment of wires and tubes and allowed to get out of bed, of course with quite a draft going on in the back. The Nurse had to stretch to reach the top ties then she tied off the bottom, and holding the back end closed, took me for a stroll around the wing. Since I did not fall on my face or spring a leak I was pretty much turned loose to be on my own. I stood up just enjoying the feeling for at least 20 minutes and watched TV. Then puttered around a bit in the room and sat in a chair, to watch some TV reruns and do one last facebook update. Sitting here doing this blog entry and watching the news the gown is getting where it is not quite enough to ward off the chill. I know the bed would be warmer  with the pile of blankets but I look at it in dread though I know that sooner or later I will have to bite the bullet and crawl in there to sleep. But right now I am just not sleepy. The nurse said that when I go to bed she needs to check me again. Then hopefully I can sleep through the long night and be able to go home in the morning.

tomorrow it is

Sitting here in the ole chair looking out at a dismal looking morning that finally holds the promise of rain. Some had fallen over night, not much of course but enough to wet the porch and sidewalk. looking at the clock I notice that in 24 Hr from now I will be undergoing heart surgery to open one of the blockages. I am not fond of having any sort of surgery, but the idea of someone poking around in the ole ticker is even less appealing. But the alternative is worse and sometimes in life we need to select the lesser of two undesirable choices, simply because the outcome we actually want is just not a possibility at that point in time. I see this in politics all the time. I have not seen a really good candidate for a political office in many many years. So the choice is boiled down to having to choose from a rotten apple and a REALLY rotten apple. But there are other life events that are similar. Hard times limit a persons choices. When you have no money and the bill collectors are hounding you and you cannot buy food for your family, the choices you see are very limited and none are actually good or ideal by any means. Some people resort to robbery, which is probably the worst choice, some borrow money and get further into debt, then a very few individuals and I stress very few in this day and time, will knock on a few doors and ask if there is some sort of work the house holder may have in exchange for a little food or a few dollars. No not always good choices but we always have a choice. My choice is to try to live longer and regain my health so that I can again lead a somewhat productive life, given my own limitations. But still I do not look forward to the procedure. Sometimes we just need to "suck it up and bite the bullet" For that too is a part of life.

surgery Post Poned

well here I was all ready to go in for the heart surgery tomorrow morning and the docs office called to postpone, It is now scheduled for September 15. I guess that will give me time to get some better tires on the front of the truck. But will set me back about a month on any firewood cutting. Hopefully the weather will not suddenly turn off cold,