Goddess/God Is Life

  

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“God is in all of us as the very life and substance that we use….God is life; we make that life into living.” – Myrtle Filmore

Myrtle Filmore, 8/6/1845-10/6/1931, was the co-founder of Unity Church, along with her husband, Charles, within the “New Thought” movement. The graduate of Oberlin College also taught in Missouri. The tuberculosis survivor, born in Pagetown, Ohio, also resided in Colorado, Nebraska.

Mrs. Filmore hit the nail on the head. As the Creator, Deity, call Him/Her whatever you may, is in all of us. As such, we should treat each other and ourselves accordingly. Do no harm nor abuse to anyone or anything. We all share this common thread so by doing harm to one we are ultimately hurting ourselves as we are all one. Take a read at http://liomsaland.blogspot.com/2015/10/we-are-all-one.html for insight on the “We Are One” belief. This also means not being judgmental. No one judges us but ourselves. It means being accepting of beliefs of others regardless of how different from ours they are. There are many differences among Pagans, many different traditions, some chose to practice solitarily while others join groups of some kind. Some outwardly wear garb or jewelry denoting their beliefs while others prefer to keep their beliefs confidential. One way is not right or wrong. It is simply right for that individual and we have no authority to judge otherwise. The same holds true in our interactions with non-Pagans. Yes, it can be challenging at times, but look for the commonality instead of the differences. Again, we are not another’s judge.

This prompts me to another point I would like to bring up. As Pagan, we are in the minority. One of our biggest challenges is lack of knowledge on behalf of others. When you are identified as Pagan the natural human tendency is to stereotype and you become the face of all Pagans. Your actions then mirror and imitate, in the eyes of the uneducated beholder, those of all Pagans. Hold true to your beliefs and see the Goddess/God in all. Act and treat others accordingly, with respect, in private and in public.

In addition, express some gratitude for life and your Creator. We chose and were given the life, situation, body, best suited for us to experience what we needed to. Make the best of it. We are complicated beings in a complicated world, all synchronized by God as he spins the wheel of life, life that Goddess created.

Looking for miracles? Look in a mirror or take a walk outside and take in all the grandeur. (http://www.examiner.com/article/just-the-usual-miracles) The miracles are all around us in multiple forms. Be grateful for them and for the ability to acknowledge and enjoy them. See the Creator in all you encounter and your days will be brighter and more fulfilling. Try it. I think you will like the results.

Blessed Be!

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The Upside of Down Times

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When we experience difficult circumstances and situations, we develop a new perspective on life. Our priorities change and things that were once very important to us no longer hold the same level of importance and vice versa.
Those types of experiences also allow us to identify with the sufferings of others. They lead us form a camaraderie with others who have been through similar trials. A bond develops, allowing them to acknowledge to each other what they have been through without actually speaking of it. War vets, terrorism survivors, rape victims, transplant patients, cancer survivors, Holocaust survivors are all examples of this happening. They know how these trials and lessons affected others. These experiences also allow us to better perceive the life trials of others, regardless of their nature.
In the midst of these experiences, we seldom see the positives nor appreciate the opportunity to do so. Valleys are difficult to admire and appreciate while we are in them. However, once we climb out of the valley, we can look back and admire the terrain we passed through. We then are amazed that we prevailed and admire that those troubled times yielded more positives than ever thought possible. The experience, in hindsight, becomes a positive one and the pain and sorrow produced is put aside, replaced by the positive lessons learned.
These experiences also allow us to look at what others are going through with empathy, compassion and understanding, allowing us to comfort and aid them as fellow human beings, children of the same Universe. When you are in the valley of life, open your arms and accept assistance from those who have been there themselves. When you are atop the mountain, open your arms and reach down to help ease the trek of those making their way up. For every mountaintop, there is a valley and for every valley, there is a mountaintop. The journey over both is “Life” and all the children of the Universe, you and I, have traveled and continue to do so.
Blessed Be!

Bullying: Is Enough Being Done?

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According to Wikipedia and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bullying 

is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively impose 

domination over others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential 

prerequisite is the perception, by the bully or by others, of an imbalance of social 

or physical power. Behaviors used to assert such domination can include verbal  

harassment or threat, physical assault or coercion, and such acts may be directed 

repeatedly towards particular targets. Justifications and rationalizations for such 

behavior sometimes include differences of class, race, religion, gender, sexuality,  

appearance, behavior, body language personality, reputation, lineage, strength, size 

or ability. If bullying is done by a group, it is called “mobbing”."Targets" of 

bullying  are also sometimes referred to as "victims" of bullying.

Bullying can be defined in many different ways. The UK currently has no legal 

definition of bullying, while some U.S. states have laws against it. Bullying 

consists of four basic types of abuse – emotional (sometimes called relational), 

verbal,  physical, and cyber. It typically involves subtle methods of coercion such 

as intimidation.

Bullying ranges from simple one-on-one bullying to more complex bullying in 

which the bully may have one or more "lieutenants" who may seem to be willing 

to assist the primary bully in his or her bullying activities. Bullying in school and 

the workplace is also referred to as peer abuse. Robert W. Fuller has analyzed 

bullying in the context of rankism.

A bullying culture can develop in any context in which human beings interact with 

each other. This includes school, family, the workplace, home, and neighborhoods. 

In a 2012 study of male adolescent football players, "the strongest predictor was 

the perception of whether the most influential male in a player's life would approve 

of the  bullying behavior".

Bullying is when a person or group repeatedly tries to harm someone 

who is weaker or who they think is weaker. Sometimes it involves direct 

attacks such as hitting, name calling, teasing or taunting. Sometimes it is 

indirect, such as spreading rumors or trying to make others reject 

someone.

 

Often people dismiss bullying among kids as a normal part of growing up. But  

bullying is harmful. It can lead children and teenagers to feel tense and afraid. It 

may lead them to avoid school. In severe cases, teens who are bullied may feel 

they need to take drastic measures or react violently. Others even consider suicide. 

For some, the effects of bullying last a lifetime.

While bullying occurs across the entire spectrum of age groups, the fastest growing sector is among youth, primarily teens. The teen years are normally a tumultuous time during which identities are sought, self-doubt is rearing its head and the struggle to fit in is fought. An often chosen strategy to combat all this is bullying (often a leaned action from older role models). Other strategies include alcohol, smoking, drugs and gang involvement.

What is being done to to help the youth during their complex teen years? In Altoona, Pa., St. Luke's Episcopal Church has teamed up with The Beacon. The faith-based Beacon's mission, as stated on its web site, http://www.thebeaconpa.org/, is to seek to provide an alternative place for youth in a safe environment with structured activities, where positive adult role models can build relationships with “at-risk” youth and encourage them to make beneficial decisions in their lives.

Per The Beacon's website, The Beacon has provided a safe place for teens to meet on Friday nights since November of 2007. They aim to create a culture of respect for participants, property and staff. For many of the participants the Beacon is like a family.
On Friday nights they have several options of activities available for teens to choose from. For the more athletic teens they have dodge ball. For those who choose a less energetic activity, they have a game room available. It has a variety of choices such as: air hockey, ping pong, foosball and a Wii. They also have a room set up with craft materials. The teens are allowed to go from activity to activity if they choose or they can sit and visit with each other or go to a viewing area where they can watch dodge ball. Meals and lessons are provided each Friday and often have guest speakers who teach valuable life skills and share about resources available for youth in the community.
All this sounds wonderful on paper, but how does it work in reality? According to Jerry Rice, executive board member of The Beacon, the 501(c) non-profit hosts about 80-100 youths every Friday night. That number varies from week to week. The only admission requirement is that the individual be aged between 12 and 20 years of age. This large range in age limits, according to Mr. Rice, is to allow and 2^nd chance high-schoolers access. By 2^nd chance high-schoolers, he is referring to those individuals who perhaps dropped out of school for whatever reasons and need positive social interaction along with witnessing positive role-models (staff). The only requirement of those attending The Beacon is to respect staff, each other and property (St. Luke's Episcopal Church is the owner of the property where The Beacon operates). If any unacceptable behavior comes to the attention of the staff (8 staff members on duty on a typical night) the issue is addressed one-on-one with the individual, not publicly. This method is believed to difuse the situation, teach what is acceptable or not, and also, puts the staff in a positive role-model position. If the behavior continues, the individual is asked to leave The Beacon until the following Friday. On rare occasions, the suspension of visiting privileges may be expanded to a few weeks, according to Mr. Rice. It was explained to me that the building is divided into sections based on various activities and each area has as least one staff member supervising. They are also cognizant of any outside activity, such as groups gathering and/or any unacceptable behavior anywhere on the Church property. If things get out-of-control, the local police are summoned. The Beacon has not incurred and liability claims to-date.
I had the opportunity to chat with 2 teens about their experiences at The Beacon, a 13-year old male and a 14 year-old female. Both agreed that they like to have a place to meet their friends. They also pointed out that it is a gathering place where cliques join up. At times, these cliques partake in bullying tactics, making fun of those outside their clique for various reasons. This usually goes on unrestrained. This bullying, at times, takes on a physical form in addition to the emotional belittling. The male teen experienced a broken collarbone in one such altercation and the female was physically accosted with a cell phone. Neither incident led to police involvement despite meeting physical assault descriptions and apparently no insurance liability claims resulted. Both instances involved older teens being the aggressors to the younger ones.

The Beacon is applauded for their well-intended efforts. Some fine-tuning of the program may be needed, such as closing that 12-20 year old age range (maybe 2 separate nights to break the ages up?) While the program looks better on paper than in reality, more organizations need to take such a proactive initiative to involve youth in their mission statements. More importantly, values must be taught and reinforced at home with positive parental role models. If not this type of behavior will just perpetuate from generation to generation. It cannot be learned solely by reading or hearing about. It must be witnessed and it must be on an every day basis. It is not just “their” problem, it is our problem and obligation to change as a society.
Blessed Be!

The End May Also Be the Beginning

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“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.” – Ivy Baker Priest

Ivy Baker Priest, 9/7/05-6/23/75, was the U.S. Treasurer from 1953-1961. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints in Utah, she had two unsuccessful runs for Congress.

Despite some obvious differences in religious beliefs, I have to agree with the above quote, given to “Parade” magazine in 1958. I am sure you have heard all the clichés: The sun will rise tomorrow. Behind every dark cloud the sun shines brightest. The proverbial cup is half full or half empty. And so on.

One’s perception of a situation creates their reality. (For more about perception read http://liomsaland.blogspot.com/2015/08/perspective-mountain.html). I will share with you my perception that there is no beginning, no end, only change. Man-made elements that measure time put a so-called end to a period (hour, day, year) but the sun rises and sets daily, the cycle is never broken. The natural seasons do likewise as we sow, plant, grow, reap, rest to nourish and enrich the soil only to start over in the spring.

The Tree of Life represents this same thought. All parts equal, above so below, the tree sheds its fruit/seed to the ground to be reborn again. The leaves fall and become nourishment to the supporting soil. One ends only to start again in another form.

All this mirrors our lives – birth, growth, manifestation (reaping our experiences) and then the inevitable death (passing from this plane to another) followed by rebirth. One’s soul continues on. No end, only change. And change, while many do not like it, does not usually result in something negative, only different. Lose a job? Maybe you will find a new, better one. Maybe you will seek additional education to make yourself more marketable. Maybe you will follow a life-long dream of being self-employed. Maybe you experience an end to a relationship. This opens the way to another one. Health problems can arise or maybe you are experiencing financial difficulty for some reason. It often is a time to reprioritize and concentrate on what’s really important to you.

While all of these things can be traumatic in and of themselves, none are unbeatable. You can rise above the downturn in some fashion. Look for the positive and flip the situation. There is always a positive of some kind to stimulate you to drive on and right the ship.

Things happen for a reason. I believe they happen to allow us to experience something and to learn from it or to help teach others. It is often hard to see the rose bud among the thorns but while it starts small it grows and in time is the primary focus on the plant as it blooms. So can your turnaround from an experience. Look hard for it, nourish it and live it.

Blessed Be!

Law of Balance

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One aspect of the New-Age philosophy of “Law of Attraction” is that we become what we think about. If we think about giving, whether big or small, we will be provided for in return. I like to think of this as the “Law of Balance”. The world is full of balances, good/bad, Yin/Yang, black/white, positive/negative, masculine/feminine and balance in life is important. While at any specific point of time any one of these parts of the equation may bring things out of balance, in the grand scheme of things all balance out. At times these temporary imbalances are a result of our need to experience and hopefully learn a life-lesson, or, to aid another individual. My belief is that there really are no mistakes in making decisions as each choice leads us to a path that enables the learning experience. What we do on that path is largely determined by our perspective of the situation and subsequent reaction.

This reminds me of a story about a young woman who had been struggling and her lesson taught by her mother. In the kitchen were 3 pots of boiling water. In one pot, carrots were placed. In the second, eggs. The 3^rd pot held ground coffee beans. All were taken out of their respective pots after about 20 minutes, the water of the coffee bean pot being ladled into a cup. Mom pointed out that each of the items had faced the same adversity, boiling water and each had reacted differently. The carrot went into the water hard, strong and unyielding. It came out softened and weak. The egg had been fragile, its liquid inside protected by a thin shell going in but was now hardened inside. The coffee grounds had actually changed the water, its one-time adversary, into something pleasant. Many lessons presented by this experience. Make the most of your situation, you can't control the actions of others but you can control your reaction and you can change adversity into a part of your new, fantastic, balanced world.

Giving and taking are always equal in nature as the cycle of life and the interconnectedness is and has been the constant of eternity. In every day life, a financial, health, relationship crisis an bring valuable lessons to life. If dwelling on the “Woe is me” factor these lessons may very well go unnoticed and a learning opportunity missed. If we look at the situation as an experience, we will move on with life and see it as a wonderful experience. Try it – you just might like it!

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