Hello, followers.  :)

This morning, 1:19 a.m....

Today, after watching and listening to a message on TV about false doctrines, false Christs, etc., I got to thinking about the widespread belief of being able to talk to your dead loved one or believe that they're "watching over" me, or they've been reincarnated into something else, possibly more beautiful, freer, etc.  And I began to wonder why anyone would want to limit a loved one to this world as it is.  The only answer I could come up with is that's how little they think of themselves.  That's why Jesus reunited us with God, so that we can one day live the life He meant for us to live when He created us in the beginning.  So, I'd rather not limit my loved ones to this life, but hope instead to be reunited with them in the New One.  It's much more beautiful.  The beauty in this world is only a grain compared to the beauty that awaits us in Heaven.

7:06 a.m. October 13, 2013

Woke up thinking about memories and how important it is to create good ones.  If not, our spirits have a way of remembering the best ones to carry us through our latter years.  And in the very end of life as we're fading away how the memories seem to leave, even the good ones.  Maybe it's God's way of preparing us to enter the new life with no baggage.

Tonight

Oh, well.  I decided to walk into the garage and enjoy the storm.  The closer I got to the window, wearing my headlight to illuminate my way, I noticed a car stopped in front of the house and a person holding a flashlight, squatting down next to the car in the street.  It was dark and hard to tell, but my first thought was somebody or something was hurt.  So, I walked back and pressed the garage door button, the lights came on accompanied by the roar of the rolling door, and then 2 cats darted away from the "scene" in opposite directions.  The person holding the flashlight was trying to coax her cat into her car to go home.  Seems the 2 cats were having a rendezvous under our truck.

Midnight.  Can't sleep.  Wish I could do something for the people in Japan.  All I can do is pray for those who've lost their homes, their loved ones, their hope.  Feeling unworthy yet blessed and grateful.  Thinking about the bus, too, that turned over in New York and 15 people died, others severely injured, today.

Proud and Prejudged

I spend, well, enough time reading political comments and commentaries all the way from the left to center and extreme right, and various levels in between, and I am really impressed, at best, and appalled, at worst, with the ones who are brave enough to actually admit their position on some topics.  I find most interesting the seeming inability of some to leave their post just long enough to try to understand in a favorable manner the opposite pole.  What does it hurt to do that I ask myself?  And using myself as an example, on various controversial topics, I try to imagine just dipping my toe into the possibility of another view, with extreme caution, mind you, fearing I may be swayed to live with a shifted paradigm.  Sacre' bleu!  But the anger generated by attacks on the opposers is what I'm focused on for this writing.  Isn't that how riots are incited?  It begins with one, who is angered by another's words, who shares the words with others who are angered, and so on.  It doesn't cause me to stop and think about your view on a positive note if I don't agree with you.  What is the anger about?  Are some of us addicted to anger?  I realize anger has a good side that motivates change for the better.  But the addiction to it, as with any other addiction, is self destructive.  And it would appear that like other addictions, misery loves company.  There are some who have addictive tendencies anyway and for some of those anger is the drug of choice.  Unfortunately, I see it in places it should not be, as in these political forums and blogs and I see a kinship to other types of addictions in places they shouldn't be.  Alcoholism in the cockpit of a commercial airplane or a pedophile priest, for two small, albeit important, examples.  But what it comes back to is accountability.  Why are some flawed in that area?  The slander of others for their fundamental beliefs comes easy these days because people aren't held accountable enough.  I heard years ago, when I was a child actually, that our words float up into outerspace and are still out there somewhere.  Well, as a more concrete thinker at the time, I pictured the words actually doing that.  Obviously, it was intended to create a visual so we should choose our words carefully and respectfully because there are words out there that have our name, or picture ID, attached to them.  So, to sum it all up, I just wish there was a pill or something to take to help us sort it all out or, better yet, the right words to say.  Wouldn't it be great if we could travel to the future to see what our words have done or what our words might do if we don't stop and think first.  Harsh words never changed anyone.  It's okay to have a different point of view, but why hate the other person for not believing or thinking the way you do.  You're wasting your energy on that addiction.  That kind of energy controls you.  Love, compassion, regard, respect are all within our control.  Why not use them instead?  I used the title "Proud and Prejudged" for this because maybe false pride is the seed and to prejudge by experience is the fertilizer and we're all guilty of it at some point in our lives. 

Malachi 3:5

 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.