Natural as a tree growing in sunlight

From this website:

As natural as a tree growing in sunlight, creativity permeates our lives and the world in which we live. We cut ourselves off from its constant ebb and flow as we entrain to the rhythm of day to day affairs.

Occasionally, everything falls effortlessly into place; our thoughts, our emotions, our bodies move in sync, as if guided by some force beyond ourselves. We move to a different rhythm, the rhythm of the cosmos.

In those moments of holism, we transcend skill and create things greater than ourselves. We create as if to meet global needs, as if in collective awareness.

Often, creating is left to the "talented few," who we believe, are gifted.

In this time of change, we must reach within, find courage, and go beyond ourselves to the still point of a turning world. In that point of tension is born inspiration and every new idea.

In that still point, we entrain with the universe and break free of the bonds that pattern our lives. In the still point, we heal and recreate ourselves.

--Carlisle Bergquist, Ph.D

Growing old

I have a good friend whose father is 102 years old. I had dinner with him Saturday night. He is still mobile, able to get around with a walker and he has more moments of lucidity than confusion.

But honestly, I hope I never grow that old. Why does God allow someone to grow this old, this feeble, this vulnerable?

If you believe that in all life there is purposefulness, that God has some intent for us, then what is the purpose of this old, old man slowly shuffling through every day? Is he teaching something to people around him? Does he have things yet to learn? Is he bearing witness to something yet unseen? All questions with no answers. Only God knows.

If it were my choice, I wouldn't ever grow that old.

Credulity

defining credulity: tendency to believe readily

I'm reading an article from Salon called "Manufacturing Belief." It opens this way:

In Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," Alice tells the White Queen that she cannot believe in impossible things. But the Queen says Alice simply hasn't had enough practice. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." That human penchant for belief -- or perhaps gullibility -- is what inspired biologist Lewis Wolpert to write a book about the evolutionary origins of belief called "Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast."

As a spiritual person, is credulity an advantage .... or a disadvantage?

A bit difficult is RIGHT!

You know ... I used to read my horoscope at Astrodienst because it was interesting and entertaining and sometimes, it prompted me to think and reflect on things going on in my life.

Now ... I'm getting long-term horoscopes like this one. Troubling.

A bit difficult
Valid during many months: This may be a period of extreme crisis in your life, if you have been attempting to hide certain inner forces from yourself or from others. The psychological changes that take place now may make it desirable for you to undergo psychotherapy or a similar treatment in order to get more in touch with yourself. With this influence it is extremely important that you get more in touch with yourself!

On the purely psychological level, you may find yourself face to face with aspects of your personality that you have chosen to ignore in the past because you thought that they were "evil" or "weak" or otherwise unacceptable. But they are real aspects of yourself, and their energies can only be suppressed for a time, not entirely eliminated. Under this influence the energies will surface.

The process may start with compulsive actions that are hard to understand. Strange drives may emerge that seem to take over your life, without any regard for your conscious intention. Sometimes the compulsions are so subtle that you are not aware of them at all, except that they affect people around you; in fact you may only encounter them when others respond to you. This can be very upsetting, and you may feel that you are being victimized by some outside force, although the force is within you. Even under the best of conditions, you can expect your relationships to change considerably as others encounter the changes within you. A close relationship such as marriage may undergo especially great changes at this time.

The best tactic with all of these effects is to recognize them and try to understand how they fit into your personality. They are there for a reason, and if you understood yourself thoroughly, you would see that they have a positive purpose in your life, if you allow them to be expressed. Now is a chance to release these energies and make them a positive part of your conscious personality. Even if the effects of this influence are a bit difficult, the final purpose is positive.

Transit selected for today (by user):
Pluto Conjunction Ascendant Pluto(null)ConjunctionAscendant,
activity period from end of December 2006 until middle of October 2008.

In case you missed it, this astrological "influence" is projected to continue for another 18 months. Yikes!

From RLP

Real Live Preacher is a blog that I read on a regular basis. I can usually count on that RLP will speak to spiritual matters, in one form or another.

Several days ago, I found this posting and feel compelled to excerpt part of it. This captures for me some of the mystery and the poetry and the enigmatic qualities of seeking God:

Some Questions ...

Is the earth ancient and are you a young child, wandering her surface and running your small hands over the bumps and buckled plates of her wisdom? Or are you the old one, tired and cynical and wise, trying to recapture your innocence by walking barefoot and kissing the feet of a newborn morning?

Is goodness somewhere deep in your heart, laid in before the ages and waiting for the year of jubilee? Or is goodness a damsel locked in a distant tower, and you the prince charming who will redeem her at any price?

Are you dragging store-bought values behind you on a little string, smiling like a rube and looking for applause from the masses? Or do you listen to the mysterious voice that lives in the low places beneath your heart? Will you proclaim those words in public, or don't you have the courage?

Can God be jerked out of the heavens and thrown to the ground? Will you leer at her there and run your clumsy hands over her body? Will you brag to your friends later that you’ve known God? Or is God the ultimate seductress, unmoved by our adolescent advances, laughing at our wanton desire and sitting, legs crossed, just outside the orbit of our highest thoughts?

And if you do meet God on the way, how will you stand?

Will you stand frightened and cowed, mired in ancient dogma that binds your feet like sheets in a dream? Or will you laugh in the face of God, smirking and superior? Will you cleave instead to the cyborg beauty, the sacred science you have set apart and called your own?

Or perhaps, having tried all of these things, you will cast off your clothing and stand naked before the horizon, watching God flutter away like a butterfly, soaring beyond all words, swooping east and west to gather all mystics and cynics into the delight of her bosom.

Who are you?

Where are you?

What are you, and what do you intend?

Tell me, for you intrigue me, and I would know you like a father or a brother or a lover or a friend.