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My brother in law Howard can speak the Chippewa language and with my sister, adopted Clarence, a Chippewa boy many years ago and now enjoys his children. I have learned much from him over the years about Native American ways. Though I actually feel I know little, the Spirit has touched me. One of the truths he taught me is that the animal kingdom also has it's priests and holy creatures that bless and are present in our lives for signs and healings....The eagle is one such creature. I am blessed to have them soaring at times where we live. Almost every time it seems connected with a special grace---a touch that I need for that moment....I was reminded of this today, amidst some sadness, when I read the following poem....peace, ken.
________________________
The Eagles Call
By Katie Philbrick
The Call Of the eagle, and the call of the red-tailed Hawk, I feel it every time I see one fly.
The Call of the birds the sound of the wind, I hear it speaking to me as if I am a part of them. I understand their words. They are the words of God. The Wind speaks to me, For it is Gods creation. The Earth speaks to me for He created it also. I have found a special place where I can cry, Pray and Pass the time away.
And yet even still its back away but civilization is closing in on it day by day. A bike track in the front, the fields to the back, and the farmers house just on the other side of the hedgerow. The Hill that once protected it is gone and a house was built where the tiny falls used to be.
Of course the falls were dry, but it was still interesting to look at and a nice place to be.
Tags: Divine Presence In Pain....Inner Healing
With all the suffering that so many are going through on this site in the recovery healing process, the opening paragraph from another reading yesterday in Streams In The Desert, caught my eye.....Through the "pounding" of struggles and pain in our lives, we are not only being strengthened from our higher power, but our lives are reflecting a deep value that we and others are enriched by. _______________________________________ Around the turn of the twentieth century, a bar of steel was worth about $5. yet when forged into horseshoes, it was worth $10; when made into needles, its value was $350; when used to make small pocketknife blades, its worth was $32,000; when made into springs for watches, its value increased to $250,000. What a pounding the steel bar had to endure to be worth this much! But the more it was shaped, hammered, put through fire, beaten, pounded, and polished, the greater its value. ___________________________ As I come to know more of you on this site, as well as so many in meetings, and those I work with weekly, I see the tremendous pounding of life's blows so many of us have received---so much pain and hardship and often times barely surviving.....But I also see a very deep strength emerging, in fact that is one of amazing results I am seeing "again for the first time." There is this deep inner strength from slow, inner healing and I realize that recovering addicts and alcoholics are some of the strongest people on the planet. With God's help we can do anything, and through are Higher Power, are doing so much as our lives and other's lives are being changed......what amazing value! peace amidst our hammering and pounding---our transformation and strengthening ken/pr
As an artist and appreciator of art history over the years, I have always been deeply moved by the devotion of Renaissance catherdral builders I've read about and witnessed their work whose motivation was not mainly to build something, or for a job, or for their own glorification, but to glorify their higher power---God as they understood that creative force in them.
I've been to a number of these cathedrals and saw for myself that generation of families, architects, sculptors and masons, were invovled in building these "heaven on earth" god-structures, where all were welcome, from the peasants to the kings. What impressed me most, however, was that many of the sculptors and masons were assigned to build parts of the cathedral that no one would ever see, but God. Some were assigned to build statutes of angels and saints in places that no human would ever see them, due to height and location, but they knew their god would see them---many spent their lifetime building things that only god and no one else would see. It's not as if they had a gift shop behind the altar that sold colored illustrations of every corner of the cathedral, inside and out, like we do today---but for many of them, just knowing that their god would see their new creations, was enough for them, sustained and motivated them. I was reminded of this memory this morning as I read the first paragraph of one of my readings, "Letting God," (Christian meditations for recovery) for October 24th: There was once a great master architect, who, while supervising the construction of a great cathedral, was constantly pestered by an apprentice with one request. The apprentice wanted to design and arrange the glass for just one of the cathedral windows. Even though the architect did not want to squelch his helper's enthusiasm, neither did he want to risk a novice wasting costly materials. Finally the boss allowed his apprentice to try his hand on one very small window, but he would have to provide his own materials. Thrilled with the chance, the helper collected all the bits and pieces of glass that had been cut and discarded and with these remnants worked out a design of rare beauty. When the cathedral was opened for its dedication, people stood in awe and praise before the one small window designed by the apprentice. My favorite parts of these words is the "enthusiasm," of the apprentice artist and that he used discarded, cast off pieces of glass to pour his heart into his new creation---a creation that caught the attention and hearts of so many who came, more so than the rest of the cathedral. That's kind of like one of the deep truths in the movie "Dead Poets Society," where the phrase carpe dieum, "seize the day" was lived out, Robin Williams' character whispered into the minds and hearts of his students the fact that reading, writing, and arithmetic are key and critical and necessary to any education, but it's the arts---music, poetry, painting, sculpture, etc., THAT PEOPLE LIVE FOR, and that lives through them to others---empowered and empowering others. A sad comment often on our modern education system where out of the top 12 subjects that are funded, art and music are usually at 11 and 12, right near gym class, and are most often only offered as electives, causing many to miss the empowerment and beauty they could have received. What a miracle that our Higher Power has taken all the bits and pieces of the discarded glass-pain-and-shame of our lives, and IS MAKING a stain glass window beyond words, full of beauty, letting His light shine though, deeply touching the hearts and lives of others.
Tags: Surrender Focus HP Intimacy
The presenter this morning was caught off guard and "unprepared" to lead with the topic, forgetting she signed up last month for this day....but, she had already "stepped up" at the beginning of the meeting when it was asked "who needs some personal time before we begin..." she shared deeply from her heart about her cravings and near relapse just the day before......For the topic, she simply said, "I've begun the topic already when I began, it's SOBRIETY, and with that I'll pass and listen."
We then read the opening readings: "As Bill Sees It," "How It Works" "Daily Reflections" and "Twenty Four Hours A Day." I was struck in that last reading when it asked the question if we were marooned alone on a deserted island, (and had cases of alcohol available and were going to be there for quite some time), would we drink? It reminded me of the same question I've been asked: If you knew you only had six months to live, would you use again? The whole discussion of almost everyone sharing around the group seemed to graviate toward a new way of life, a lifestyle, and not an excuse to use, misuse and abuse alcohol again, plus, some shared "Why would we want to drink poison on an island, or if we only had a few precious months to live??? Why wouldn't we want to celebrate the best of life and dreams and hopes, connect with as many as possible, tell them how much we love them, leave a legacy of hope and faith and love???" Of course, how could any of us really know how we would respond in those situations unless we were castaways or terminally ill???....Guess in some ways we are all "terminal" and only have today......Plus, we certainly all know what it feels like to be a "castaway," feeling like we're on our own deserted island, not being able to medicate ourselves but "forced" to endure and find a way to survive. Some shared that they have felt at times like the Tom Hank's character in "Castaway" who was so depressed he tried to take his life but couldn't even do that right!!! Thank our Higher Power for the "wings" and waves and wind we are given beneath those blessed wings in our recovery life, supported by our miraculous recovery family... I opened up my AA book this morning at the meeting and read the names and "well-wishes" of my in-patient treatment friends that wrote in my book when I left two years ago after 33 days. One of them left his number and I have the strong urge to call him and will this week, seeing where he's at,encouraging him in his sobriety/serenity the way he did me......I also noticed what I wrote over a year ago in my book summarizing the 12 Steps:
Steps 1-3: GIVE UP Steps 4-6: CLEAN UP Steps 7-9: MAKE UP Steps 10-12: KEEP UP God's true sobriety/serenity to us, living out the miracle of this program with the POWER provided us. Peace, Ken/PR
Tags: AA MEETINGS WISDOM ENCOURAGEMENT LOVE
I've always liked the phrases: "I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day," and, "Your talk talks and your walk talks but your walk talks louder than your talk talks!" As a recovering alcoholic I know a general character defect is that I can deceive myself believing that because I've said something, that I've already done it, or already practiced it. But, when I think like this it helps me to remember the difference from the 4th step to the 5th step---what am I going to do with that fearless moral inventory, keep it to myself??? For me, the preperatory step 4 is at least getting ready and bringing my stinking garbage out to the garbage can along side of the house; but, step 5 is bringing it from my house to the curb and let the Higher Power garbage removers take it away---as far as the east is from the west and dump it in the deepest ocean. Then, as Corrie ten Boom often said, God puts up a sign after He dumps them in the deepest ocean saying, "NO FISHING!!!!"
I continue trying to learn and listen to "the sounds of silence," or re-learning, and often learning much for the first time, about the re-creating power of silence, simple meditation. This is often so difficult for me to make time for, especially on a Monday of a new week---especially when I'm easily distracted by getting my other needs met rather than my spiritual needs. So, I cling to the phrase---"Well begun is half done," and the 'well-begun' part is just being here with my recovery family, encouraging, being encouraged already this morning by two other blogs for today, and making progress without wanting perfection......this is going to be an amazing day in many ways.....
So, let me finish with a brief reading from my "new" book "Inviting Silence" by Gunilla Norris, in the third section about practicing what we're preaching or being a living sermon for ourselves and those around us..... "PRACTICE" Walking, eating a meal, dancing, breathing, chanting---anything can be a practice so lnog as we are fully present. There are many ways, many traditions. To bring silence into our bodies and minds, we must learn to be quiet. We begin by being still. If a period of physical stillness is all we can muster, that is enough. We have begun to practice. If we can simply learn to follow our breath in a steady way---attending to the inhalation and the exhalation until we feel that we are no longer breathing, but are being breathed ---we have grown in practice. The point of practice is not to perform, but to participate---not to achieve specific experiences, but to develp a new relatinoship to experience itself. When we no longer need to know or be something other than what we are, we are free. We can then experience the pure unfolding of life, the rapture of living. This makes happiness possible. From the deep well of silence, joy is constantly bubbling up and flowing out. Practice reveals that we are immersed in that joy. Pracitce also reveals what is bloking the flow. ___________________________ My favorite line in all of this is: When we no longer need to know or be something other than what we are, we are free. Towards that freedom together with our Higher Power's help. Ken/pr
Tags: Practicing Recovery Living Our Beliefs Just Do It
Was again blessed by a C.S.Lewis quote this morning, like Mother Teresa quotes, and wanted to share 59 of them (read when you can, leave when you must)...............one beggar sharing found bread with another....
ken/pr
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C. S. Lewis
A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.
C. S. Lewis
A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.
C. S. Lewis
Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.
C. S. Lewis
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. Lewis
An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.
C. S. Lewis
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
C. S. Lewis
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
C. S. Lewis
Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.
C. S. Lewis
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
C. S. Lewis
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
C. S. Lewis
Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
C. S. Lewis
Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.
C. S. Lewis
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
C. S. Lewis
Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.
C. S. Lewis
Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.
C. S. Lewis
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
C. S. Lewis
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
C. S. Lewis
Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.
C. S. Lewis
How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.
C. S. Lewis
Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.
C. S. Lewis
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
C. S. Lewis
I gave in, and admitted that God was God.
C. S. Lewis
I sometimes wander whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.
C. S. Lewis
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
C. S. Lewis
If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.
C. S. Lewis
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
C. S. Lewis
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
C. S. Lewis
It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. Lewis
It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.
C. S. Lewis
Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.
C. S. Lewis
Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.
C. S. Lewis
Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.
C. S. Lewis
Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.
C. S. Lewis
Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.
C. S. Lewis
No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.
C. S. Lewis
Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.
C. S. Lewis
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
C. S. Lewis
Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.
C. S. Lewis
Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.
C. S. Lewis
Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.
C. S. Lewis
Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.
C. S. Lewis
The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
C. S. Lewis
The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.
C. S. Lewis
The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.
C. S. Lewis
The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
C. S. Lewis
The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.
C. S. Lewis
There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."
C. S. Lewis
There is, hidden or flaunted, a sword between the sexes till an entire marriage reconciles them.
C. S. Lewis
Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.
C. S. Lewis
This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.
C. S. Lewis
We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
C. S. Lewis
We are what we believe we are.
C. S. Lewis
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
C. S. Lewis
What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.
C. S. Lewis
With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.
C. S. Lewis
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
C. S. Lewis
You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.
C. S. Lewis
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
C. S. Lewis
Tags: Word-blessings
I'm slowly, steadily being drawn into the "re-creating silences" even though I try to run away from it with noise, distraction, cross-addictions and more....How does the C.S.Lewis quote go, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." I don't want to "blame" the Spirit too much here, but I'm thankful I cannot get away from it and was given the book "Inviting Silence" at just the right time to "get my mind (and heart) right," or at least to adapt Step 6, "be completely ready to have more of my many distractive lack of silence habits removed."
Under Part 3, 'Practicing Silence,' the whole theme of "presence" and the power of practicing daily presence is presented:
We cannot really experience anything without being present to it. True presence requires that we be attentive to what is happening here and now. It is an offering of our awareness, our participation, and our willingness. This is a basic and profound courtesy. By such courtesy we are deeply transformed.
In silence we discover ourselves, our actual presence to the life in us and around us. When we are present, deeply attentive, we cannot be busy controlling. Instead we become beholders--giving oursleves up to the mystery of things. We become more willing to let things be. And, as a consequence we can also let ourselves be.
This is so simple . . . and so hard. Many of us have become uncomfortable with silence. We do not regard it as a friend. In it's presence we feel uneasy, out of control. We seek superficial reassurance for our busy minds, instead of the deep confidence offered by our silent vitality.
It takes time to rediscover the treasure of silence. In it we can be found again. But we learn this only by learning. By being present, moment to moment, we may discern the richness of silence in oursleves and in each other.
Through silence our days are illumined--like rooms filled with light---so we may inhabit our lives.
Tags: Presence Peace Meditation Silence
I have been richly blessed by a hundred page paperback book teaching principles of meditation entitled, "Inviting Silence" by Gunilla Norris. It is as incredibly simple as it is deep. The four short sections remind me a bit of the 12-Steps in their layout: Beginning Silence, Growing Silence, Practicing Silence, Sharing Silence.
Let me share a little bit from two readings from the first section that touched me again today in my quiet time:
"Beginning Silence" Within each of us there is a silence--a silence as vast as the universe. We are afraid of it...and we long for it. When we experience that silence, we remember who we are: creatures of the stars, created from the birth of galaxies, created from the cooling of this planet, created from dust and gas, created from the elements, created from time and space...created from silence. Silence is the source of all that exists; the unfathomable stillness where vibration began--the first oscillation, the first word, from which life emerged. Silence is our deepest nature, our home, our common ground, our peace. Silence reaveals. Silence heals. Silence is where God dwells. We yearn to be there. _______________________ "Learning to Pause" In almost all traditions of spiritual develpment there is the understanding that our wills need to be trained. Without willingness we cannot enter into stability on behalf of our inner lives. Willingness is not willpower, the--"pull up your boot straps"--kind. Willlingness is more like surrender to one's deep longing. It orients us according to the heart's desire instead of the ego's demands. This requires recollection. A little space of time to remember. Thoreau called it living with a wide margin. We can start by giving oursleves just a tiny, small margin. Without it being any more than simply stopping we can pause all through the day to feel ourselves in time and space. This allows us to be located. These little stops bring something of ourselves back to the whole, the way a bee brings nectar to it's hive. When we learn to do this many times a day--before getting out of bed, before meals, before leaving for work, before turning on a light or shutting it--the pauses add up. We are expressing a little pressure of the will. Over time the habit of recollection leads us back to the center, to stillness and listening. There we can begin to find a new center from which to live.
Tags: Spirituality Silence God Presence
an amazing, blessed day off.....one thing a very busy schedule has taught me, as well as growing slowly in practicing the presence, is that a full day off can be like a weekend off, if it is lived fully...I used to BI**H about only having a day off then having to work the weekend...and, I still do sometimes...but I am learning slowly to treasure the moment.....which reminded me of what happened this morning.....sleeping in, roller-blading with my dog (she still doesn't have rollerblades yet, but maybe.....) going into my 3-seasoned porch, lighting incense, sinking into a comfortable chair, smoking my occasional Backwoods honeyberry cigar (which makes me feel like I'm camping and "really" on vacation) and just working towards being fully presesnt with everything around me...... As I was sinking into the moment, I heard myself say,jokingly, "All of my life has been leading up to this very moment!" Then I thought about that and realized it is true....All of my life has been leading up to that very moment.....I am able to see how everything, including the worst of my guilt and shame of use, misuse and abuse, has led to this point.....and, by the Spirit's grace, as I am empowered to work the life-changing-Steps and program, is being transformed......I am thankful that all my life, and all of our lives together, as we support each other in more ways than we know...is leading up to this very moment. i often say that I take all the broken pieces of my life, give them to my Higher Power, and they are taken and made into a brand new sculpture---even better than before---one that could have never happened if I had never been broken.....At an AA meeting the other day I heard the same in a different way. My sponsor's daughter said that all the broken pieces of her life has been taken by her higher power and made into a beautiful new mosaic......I like that too.
blessings on your day and your day(s) off. thank you! ken/pr
Tags: Presence Present Being Absorbing Living
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