July 13, 2007

I want this website to be one that is meaningful. Yet when I began to discuss this with Brian I realized that in order to express meaningful thoughts I would need to sit down and prioritize those people, events, happenings, things that have been and are meaningful in my life.

What better way to do this, I thought, than to make a list. As I have mentioned I believe in lists. Once it is written it shall indeed be done.

The mother in me wanted to put my CHILDREN at the top of the list.

The woman in me decided though that at the top of my list I will need to write WORK. And so it is.

I believe my list of priorities will go something like this (always subject to change of course).

(1) Work

Oops! Already I need to make a revision to my list. Let me begin again.

(1) Faith

(2) Work

(3) Family

(4) Home

(5) Friends

(6) Learning

(7) Sharing

Without faith I would be an empty shell. Without work I would not have been able to support myself and family. Without family I would not have cared so much about providing a home. But as I look at my list I realize that they are all inter-connected. I don't believe I could have had one without the other. And even this list of seven does not begin to express everything that to me in this life is meaningful. But it is a beginning.

As my mother used to say, "If you want something done then simply begin."

And so I will begin with my FAITH.................

July 21, 2007

Many thanks to my dear friend, Linda Wilkins Parker, for her inspirational poem "Soul Flight" which reminds me that I am not just a human being having a spiritual experience. I am, indeed, to steal a line from Wayne Dyer, a spiritual being having a human experience.

To talk about my faith I think I would need to go back, way back, to my early childhood.

When I was a very young girl, when asked about religion, I would respond that I was Jewish. My parents were Christian and of course that would suggest that I, too, was Christian. At that very early age the terms Christian and Jewish meant very little, if anything, to me. Yet I had a knowing that I was Jewish. Where did this knowing come from? How could a little girl who knew nothing of religion have such a clear knowledge and awareness? Needless to say this practice of telling others I was Jewish did not please my mother when she learned what I was up to. I was ordered to stop telling such fibs. After that if anyone asked me what my religion was I would not reply at all. I can remember once a friend asking me, don't you attend the Salvation Army services? No, I answered. Why did I lie?

As I grew a little older I adapted to my Christian lifestyle. I enjoyed Sunday School, my friends, church activities.

As I grew even older though I totally rebelled against the limitations of the fundamentalist religion I was being raised in. I refused to believe that I would burn in hell for wearing lipstick or going to a school dance with my friends as my Captain would tell me. By the time I was 14 or 15 I decided I could not put my soul into such a prison. Fundamentalism was not for me. Yet, as my faith in my church diminished, my faith in God grew ever stronger.

Later in adult life I had persistent dreams about being a small child in a grown-up's car which to my horror crashes and I am killed. Clearly in this dream I could see a little doggie hanging from the rearview mirror which hung in front of the divided windshield, clearly a car that was manufactured in the late thirties. This vivid dream convinced me that the child in the car was me and that this child was a Jewish child who lived in Germany. An amazing dream that I can never forget.

Yet in reality I was a Christian girl born into a fundamentalist Christian home.

From my earliest childhood I have struggled with the challenge of walking the line between dogmatic limiting religion and the soul aching to be free, to be one with God.

Consequently from a very early age I have been blessed to be able to draw the distinction between religion and faith; human being and spiritual being.

Sunday July 22, 2007.......

I have just returned from church on this beautiful Sunday morning. I was pleased to see announced in the church bulletin an opportunity to participate in a study being conducted by Saint Paul University in Ottawa. The study is entitled "Defining Spirituality and Religiosity". Talk about synchronicity! I believe I will be a participant.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11.1 (3)

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Continuing with the topic of faith I have learned that it is a good idea to every once in a while take stock of what I call "My Beliefs"...........to take a good, honest look at those things I say I believe and to ask myself, "Do I really believe this?"..........Often I find that, yes, I do believe it. Other times a realization will sink in that, "hey, this is something that was taught to me in my early childhood days by my mother, my father, my teacher, my minister, my friend, my ...............and the list continues. Perhaps the thought was a genuine belief of the person who passed it along to me. Perhaps I adopted the belief as one of my own without actually thinking about it.

This morning I forwarded to some friends the following list of "beliefs" that had been forwarded to me by another friend.

These beliefs did not originate from me, but when I read them I liked the sound of them. I have yet to take the time to take them into my heart and see if they find a home there or whether they are just visitors.

But I received an email in response from one dear, long-standing friend of many years that has encouraged me to place these beliefs on to the page today. She told me that, "Sometimes an e-mail comes at the right moment."

I wrote back to my friend and told her that since "the beliefs" were very helpful to her this morning that I wanted to put them on this page in the hope that they will help others.

I don't know who the original author of these words is..........but my thanks and many blessings to you, whoever you are, for sharing your insight and wisdom.

And my thanks to my friend who forwarded this to me so that I might share it with others.

The forward begins,

A Birth Certificate shows that we were born.

A Death Certificate shows that we died.

Pictures show that we lived.

Have a seat...Relax...And read this slowly.

I believe that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

I believe that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I believe that no matter how good a friend is, they are going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I believe that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I believe that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache throughout your life.

I believe that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I believe that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I believe that you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I believe that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I believe that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I believe that heros are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I believe that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I believe that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I believe that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you are down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but it doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I believe that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them, and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I believe that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I believe that no matter how badly your heart is broken, the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I believe that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I believe that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I believe two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I believe that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

I believe that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

I believe that credentials on the wall do not, of themselves, make you a decent human being.

Many thanks to the original author of the above beliefs. Thanks to my friend for sending the page along to me. And special thanks to my dear friend, Maureen, for her response upon receipt of the page from me.

And to add one belief of my own I would just like to say.........

I believe that I need to take the time to make a list of my own beliefs; to take a long, honest, non-judgmental look at my list and then delete from my mind those that no longer truly apply; add some that I have acquired as a result of my own life experience and, first and foremost, I need to remember that there is a great distinction between "belief" and "knowing." I believe that taking the time to do this will be a very worthwhile and rewarding exercise to undertake.