Friday, November 6, 2009

"Wild Life on an Autumn Afternoon"

 [Originally posted to MySpace November 6, 2009, 5:06 PM]

So, my buddy Boyd and his coworker needed a ride to work today.  So, after dropping them off to work at the top of Basin Run Road, I took the Basin Run to Sylvan Grove way home.  On coming to the cut through the woods before the stop sign at Sylvan Grove, there right after V*****'s...halfway through...a deer runs across the road right in front of me, so I slow down as it crosses and then I stop.  The deer stops.  I inch up ever so slightly.  Few people travel these roads so I will generally stop if I see something and watch it as it goes on its way.
The deer does not move.  Its head moves as it eyes my car over while I inch up to get a better straight open view at the critter.  It is approximately 15 feet or so away from me off of the road right before the terrain goes up into an embankment.  I come to a stop and its head stops---looking right into my opened window at me.  Its eyes appearing to look right into my eyes.
The deer was a stag, a decent sized four-point with its left antler slightly lopsided, but otherwise, a beautiful specimen of nature.  I thought it was odd how the stag was just standing there looking at me and not advancing.  I wondered at first if there would be another deer coming out from my left, but couldn't see one anywhere.
For a good while I just sat there, on the side of the road, staring into the eyes of this deer, it appearing to look back at me.  It doesn't move.  It's waiting.  I inch up a little more to get a better view then pull my car into park.
We both look into each others eyes long enough that it is almost so awkward I feel I should start conversation.  Long enough that I start wondering what the deer is seeing.  What is it thinking about what it is seeing?  Long enough that I start wondering what the deer is feeling.
How is the food this season?  Are you ready for the winter?
It's black eyes stare hauntingly at me, like genius covered in stupid....vacant, yet they hold everything in their vacancy.  It's eyes are like a black hole, sucking in its perimeters.  I am the singularity.
I'm thinking, you jumped out of the way of my car, yet you're staring at me here and if I were a hunter with a gun you would be dead, but you don't seem to care at all.
He was in a rutting trance.  He was mesmerized.  He was on a mission.
His mouth grinds slightly, then stops.
But his head still had not moved away from staring at me.  And I am pretty sure I checked the clock a couple of times.
After I had decided I should probably make the first move, I eventually try to inch up a tad again, and then I hear leaf action from behind me and to the right, as he also moves forward slightly.  Then, I see what I had thought was there all along, another deer, a doe, climbing up the bank.
I watch her through the veil of small tree limbs and pine needles as she comes to a stop at the top, and immediately drops a pile of dung.
The stag has advanced only a couple feet up the bank and is now standing, head bent, looking up at her.  He turns and looks at me.  He looks at her.  He looks at me.  He looks at her.
I'm enthralled.  I feel like I'm inside the Discovery Channel at this point.  What is going to happen?  Is he going to mount her in front of me?
It's okay, I understand.  Go get her.
As I'm watching her watch him and watching him watch her and watch me, I notice a car coming in the distance.  He climbs the rest of the way up the bank, and is standing about 40 feet or so away from her probably.  They're farther away now, but I have my eyes on both of them through the trees.  I'm looking at him, as he's looking over at her, and I am thinking he will go right towards her, but he goes left.
As the other car advances toward me, I pull my car over an inch or so more and I turn to look at the car as they go around me wondering if they see, but the lady driving only looks annoyingly at me as she passes.
I turn back to the Discovery Channel.
Static.
I can't see them anywhere.  The stag or the doe.
I scan through the branches for their figures, desperately for a second.
A touch of sadness fell over me, but I figured I best leave them to their play.
As I drove away I was thinking of what a neat blessing it was to be able to experience and enjoy such a simple thing...and right then a female grouse ran out onto the road.
...and then I stopped.
She stopped.
I looked at her.
She looked at me for a moment and then slowly started walking across the road, bobbing her head.
I smile wide and my heart laughs watching it.  I love to watch the morning doves in my back yard chase each other around like this.  Birds that shape are like older overweight ladies in a hurry.  They look silly moving fast, like they're running in heals holding their skirts up, their heads bobbing and feet flopping.
I love Pennsylvania wild life.

-MS

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

"To boldy go where no man has gone before..."

Should I actually start the day or sit here in my underwear for a little bit longer wasting time... ?
Ehhh...I have some time.
So, I stayed up late watching an episode of Star Trek TNG I got sucked into.  Capt. JLP was locked onto by some type of probe they found in space. He ended up waking up in another life...on another planet...married to someone.  At first he fought it trying to find a way to find the Enterprise...but this civilization was about 1000 years behind and they were in a drought.  He found no way to possibly make contact at all. 
He was there for 5 years, and then he gave up and decided to have a baby with his "wife".  He actually started living his life there.  He has this flute he plays, and his son eventually ends up wanting to study the flute  instead of attending school.  He ended up living, probably around 40 years or more on the planet, because he ages into his 70's it seems, his wife dies, his kids have kids.  Eventually he's playing with his grandson and then they call him outside to watch the "launching of a rocket".  He asks "what rocket?" and his daughter says "You've already seen it the day you came here."  Then his wife is back suddenly, aged the same as when he came, as well as the town councilmen like the day he arrived, explaining it to him.  They said they sent it up so someone would know of them and tell their story, and that, in turn, would give them life again.  And he, as an elderly man, watches the probe they find on the Enterprise being launched and realizes that he is the "someone" it is meant to make contact with...and all of those people he was "with" had been dead for 1000 years.  Isn't that a romantic notion.   That simply by recognition, we are alive.  As long as we live in memory...we still exist somehow.  Cellular memory.  We exists in those cells...we exist in them.  That civilization "existed" in Capt. JLP.  He was supposed to tell the tale of them.  He lived for all of those years as one of them in their world as they did...what better way to have the chosen one get the story straight and be able to honestly explain how they lived?  When he finally woke up back on the Enterprise, they told him he had been out for about 25 minutes!!  They pulled the probe aboard.  And what did they find in it?  The flute.  That's an interesting concept for a story even w/o the Enterprise and JLP.  Space...the final frontier.  Now the music is stuck in my head.  haha.
At the end scene he was holding his flute in his hand, almost cradling it solemnly.  He plays some beautiful notes on it, he obviously had a lot of years to get better than he was when he first held it...40 or so "years" ago.  It was a beautiful scene. I love the cinematography of ST.  Some so cheesy, so simple, but many scenes are so thought out.  From the shine off JLP's head, down to the way he advances across the room slowly, in thought.  Good stuff.   I suppose his character adds a lot to the gravity of it too, perhaps.  He's so serious.
Anyway...I thought it was an interesting episode with an interesting concept.
And I guess that's what I'm still thinking about this morning.

"Love each other or perish..."

Nothing on my mind, other than Haiti and Cambodia and the starving people in those lands...the poor children with broken limbs, round parasitic bellies, and fungal infections on their heads too bad to be cured with topical ointments.  Some people are so naive to the truth of life that they really think they have it bad in America.  At least we have running water.  At least we have indoor plumbing.  At least the water we have isn't filled with parasites and other contaminants.  At least we have shoes.   At least we don't sleep in huts.  At least we don't sleep in dirt and feces.  At least we aren't stolen as young boys and forced to fight and kill in gang warfare.  At least we aren't forced into sexual slavery or prostitution at the tender age of 7, 9, 11...  At least as children we didn't pick through a landfill all day long looking for scraps we could sell to get a little food.  They're simply trying to survive. 
I am no fool, I am quite aware that there are poor people in America and there is suffering in America, but I don't think that it compares to the majorly undeveloped regions of the world.  We still are very rich.  They live without health care also...only they don't even have the option of going to a hospital to be treated and not paying the bill...because there are no hospitals.  They just suffer...and die. 
Joyce Meyer (Enjoying Everyday Life) is about the Hand of Hope outreach program all this week...makes me cry every time I watch it.  Good tears...for what she's doing...for her love.  For her compassion.  The Bible says to love your brothers..."Love isn't an emotion, it is an ACTION!"  It means it doesn't just happen, it's an effort on your part, you have to make it happen.  Take action.  Be a blessing.  Help your brothers and sisters.  Be a blessing to this world, not a burden.  "I give you one new commandment, that you should love each other the way I have loved you."  Unconditionally.  I don't think Jesus was talking about the American dream of "love"...finding a husband/wife, having a perfect house with a white picket fence, 2.5 kids and a two car garage...continuing to love him/her even when he/she cheats on you.  He wasn't talking about your fickle emotions.  It goes deeper than that.  Yes...it can go deeper than that.  Unconditional "Godly" love.  Compassion. 
Start your own Love Revolution.  Take action.  Fight selfishness...practice selflessness.   ;)
I'm not telling you to send your money away to other countries.  You can be a blessing in America...in your back yard.  I'm saying...be a blessing TO THE WORLD.  I'm saying...give a fuck!  The little things count.  Help an old lady take her groceries to the car.  Open the door for a pregnant woman.  Feed someone.  Matthew 25:40, man!  "I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me."  You feed someone, you are feeding "me"...you are feeding God.  Because they are God.  You are God.   God is feeding itself through you.  We are God's hands and eyes...and arms.   Hug someone.  Show humanity some love!  Give someone a big tip. Be there for a friend when you know you're needed!  Show compassion!  Forget yourself!  Lose yourself!!!  Rid yourself of the "poor me" inside of you.  Gorilla LoveFair!  Start a revolution!
 Be a blessing in your mind as well...stop sending those negative words and thoughts (which basically are negatively charged power and energy) out into OUR universe. (It IS a sin to even THINK it!)  Stop hating inside your head and judging and bitching and nagging.  You're cutting off the flow from "Go(o)d".  Most people think worse things than they even say out loud, so most people don't know how truly IGNORANT AND SELFISH people around them really are!  I mean, we can already guess, right? Look at our superficial, substance-lacking world today!  Take a look at what's driving us?  Just look around!  But could you imagine being able to READ the minds of others???  Horrible!  The Akashic Records are doing it...the Book of Life. If you believe that...you will be held accountable...for everything you say, think and do.  So, then why are some Christians some of the meanest and most selfish people, if they truly believe that they must give an account of their lives?  Because they don't truly understand or believe in their dogma.  (Like Peter...taking the authority of the church away from Mary...who probably truly understood the teachings of Jesus better and was his true peer...but the men founded "Jesus's" church.) 

"But, there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.  They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.  Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and BECAUSE OF THEM THE WAY OF TRUTH WILL BE BLASPHEMED.  In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words.  Their condemnation, long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep."
2 Peter 2:1  

Irony.

A lot of them I don't think even understand Jesus.  "I, Me, Mine...I, Me, Mine..."  STOP DOING THAT!!  Take it back, for Jesus...who was simply a man...a good man...that LOVED!  That LOVED with all of God's love and was "Christed"...because he knew the "truth".  So the Bible is our Aesop's Fables of sorts, spoken in Parables, and Jesus is our big brother character, that we should look up to...and strive to live like.  Jesus the Christ.  Buddha the Christ.  Mother Theresa the Christ.  The level where God's love flows out of you so freely, that you can give and give and give without it depleting you of any of your energy.  Because the overflow is just leaving you...going directly back to the source...to your brothers...back to God.
 PRAY in your head.  Be thankful in your head.  LOVE in your head!!  Where the mind goes...the body goes!    "Awww, look at that older gentleman, I pray he has a wonderful day and is safe and loved and his health is doing fine!"   I DO THIS...I actually do this.  I pray for my fellow humans as I see them out during the day.  My sisters and brothers.  I wonder about them.  I worry about them.  I pray for them.  "OOh, God, that guy is going pretty fast...I hope he will be okay and not cause anyone else to wreck either, may he be safe...show him he needs to slow down"  Instead of "WOW What an ASSHOLE!  He just cut me off!  I hope he fucking wrecks and dies, bastard!!!"  (You KNOW you do it!!!)  And what if a week from now, because a handful of selfish people saw him racing that  day to the hospital to get to his wife's side and they bitched about how much it INCONVENIENCED THEM, passionatley sending their ire and hatred out into the universe, he wrecks because it was "put out there" that Karma needed to take action.  What if we influence the Karma.  "Release the good."  I believe we make things happen.  I believe we hold a power in our minds higher than we will ever live to or grow to know. 

Thoughts are power.   Words are power.  We create this world.  We create this reality.  Let's make it better.

I just wanted to talk about Haiti and Cambodia and it turned into a love rant.  But this was more of a spiritual rant than a theological one.  What's that saying?  Or that cartoon, rather?  Two paths diverging with signs..."To God" down the one path...or "To Debates About God" down the other path??   "Go with Go(o)d."

"Love each other or perish!!"

-MS

Monday, August 3, 2009

Non-Christian Thoughts on Christ

It has been said that the flesh is weak, 
But it is also stubborn,
A child rebelling against the parent of the mind.  
The flesh is weak.
The spirit is strong.  
The will is mighty. 
The nerve is plenty.  
Mind over matter.
Mind over body.
Mind over stubborness.  
Mind and spirit unite to master body, 
Our own trinity.  
The Thinker.
The Temple.  
The Holy Spirit.  
Our own personal Jesus, Krishna, Muhammed, 
One Christ.  
The Christ, of Christ, 
In Christ, Through Christ.  
We are Christ.
Christ is the spirit within. 
Christed is perfected.
Jesus the Christ.  
Leona the Christ.  
Buddha the Christ.
Christ is the highest level of spiritual attainment.  
The perfect vibration.  
Jesus Christ is the way and the light - because he is our older brother,
a finger of Christ.
Shown the way to show to all.
That is how we are saved from sin,
He exposes it, shows us the difference.
Shows us our choice.  
Our love is our God.
The spirit within - that finger, that tentacle - dwells within us all.
A tiny ember burning, yearning for the breath of faith and the spark, 
That will grow it into its own full spiritual potential. 
Its Christ finger - link. 
We are all but a link in the chain of life. 
To not realize this and not put into the universe our full positive potential - is to break the chain,
and cheat us all, and God, 
From whence the chain dangles. 

[August 3, 2009]