Noah's sons have been fruitful and multiplied. "The whole earth had one language and few words." WOW! What could be better than that? A common language -- that everyone understands. Not too many words to cause meaning to be misinterpreted. Nothing lost in translation. Sounds good to me.
They said to one another, "Come let us a build a city.." Another WOW, a common goal. Working together for the same purpose. How great it that? Continuing on they said, "..and (build) a tower with its top in the heavens,..." The common goal gets even better. Isn't that the plan? That we be one with God? That is my take anyway.
"... and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Oops! God doesn't like this last part at all. God feels challenged. I guess God thinks it is God's job to do the naming. But wait, didn't God create Adam and give to Adam the job of naming all of the animal and birds and every living creature. So what is with this?
"Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this in only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." Ah, they might become Godlike. Well, it isn't likely to become one with God if we don't become Godlike first.
"Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." Well, that was certainly successful. Look at us now. Languages up the kazoo. Translations gone awry. Interpretations ending in war. Yes, the world is now a very big mess and language complications are a very big part of that.
"So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city." The last great common effort -- gone. The wondrous sand castle wiped away by the tide never to be again.Genesis 11:1-9
... and it is not me. Bill likes to cook. He likes to ask advice/opinion about how to do many things. He does NOT want to really hear my advice or opinion. It took me a longa, longa time to figure this out. There have been a great many heated 'discussions' during the makings of dinner. I have learned to just stay out of the kitchen while he is cooking.During my past life, I was the kitchen person. I planned and cooked the meals. I did the shopping and planned the organization of the pantry shelves. I knew where every single utensil was because I was the only one that used them. Enter this relationship with Bill. He likes being in the kitchen. He likes cooking. He even enjoys doing the grocery shopping The difficulties arise when I feel that my territory is being usurped. Bill has no usurption sense. I have learned to just stay out of the kitchen while he is cooking.I've learned another thing too: There is no such thing as constructive criticism. Not in this household anyway. For either one of us. If I say 'maybe not quite so much seasoning on the chicken breasts,' that is NOT accepted well. If he says to me, 'don't you want to turn the grill up a little?' I am NOT a happy person. In other words don't suggest, don't offer alternatives, don't make any comments whatsoever. STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN!
There was the threat of snow this evening so I was close to NOT going to Reiki Share. I have not been for several months and I said that I would be there. But there was the threat of snow. It is a thirty five minute dirive -- IF traffic is moving along smoothly at rush hour. And we are talking I95 here. AND there was the threat of snow. AND I really felt like staying home.But, I went. Took the chance that the snow wouldn't come. Braved the rush hour traffic on I95. Put to the back and behind me the fact that I hadn't even practiced Reiki for some months. No snow. No traffic. And the Reiki was tingling in my palms -- just thinking about it.There is something very special about the gathering of a group of women for Reiki Share. We come humbly and vulnerable. We come open and accepting. We do not have expectations nor do we make apologies. We are who we are and we come together in love and trust. We offer the issues of our current situations and we listen to one another -- in love and trust.We pray together -- we offer prayers for those that we know are in need of help and prayer, we offer "distant" Reiki for those individuals whose concerns are close to us. We remind ourselves of our place in the world by reciting the Reiki Principles: Just for today, I will not worry; just for today, I will not be angry; just for today I will be grateful; just for today I will honour every living thing. We are a Christian Reiki group so our principles are based on the teachings of Christ. I like to think that the first commandment is here, and as Jesus taught us, the second -- to love one another as Christ loves us.And after our sharing and prayer we practice Reiki. I am not going into all of that right now but basically it is healing energy flowing from God, thorugh the practitioner, to the receiver. We take turns being the practitioners and the receivers. We give Reiki and we receive Reiki. This goes on for an hour or so as we each take our turns. It is a time that we are connected with God. We pray, we touch, we give, we receive. It is a Holy time when the Holy Spirit is with us in the form of Reiki energy, which we receive from God.Thanks Be To God!
There was a period of time from sometime in November to sometime after Christmas where I seemed to have just checked out. BUT, I'm back. And how do I know that? Well, for starters, I am willing to challenge scripture in a very big way. And I probably will continue to do that. Hopefully.Secondly, I am working again with design. Jeffri gifted me for Christmas the book "the dot" by Peter H Reynolds. And what did that tell me? Anything is a beginning. Creativity is a growth of a spark of thought that can develop into something/everything. And, yes, it doesn't matter if it is a work of art. What matters is that I am able to set color pencil to paper and let it happen. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be publishable or even acceptable. It can just BE. And even more, I am willing to experiment with givens. Try something different. Now this may sound silly, but as a soup maker, I am thwarted by the 'mess' of soup making. Today I was willing to push the obvious and try something different with the new slow cooker inserts. And, guess what, my experiment works. The inserts will hold the mess that can be thrown out, easily.And even further, I purchased a 75% off 2008 calendar because I like the monthly pictures and hope to make boxes from the pictures. I am taking a chance that I will follow through on this. I am investing in the future which I was not willing to do for a period of time. Yes, I'm back. Thanks be to God!
"Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark." Hmmmm. And a little later "God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.' ... and from these the whole earh was peopled." I hope not. OR God messed with their genes to produce healthy generations. When traveling, I have come upon families that come from some of the back regions of this country and the inbreeding does NOT produce bright, intelligent people. SO, I'm thinking God had a BIG hand in the fruitful part.I have a really hard time with some of these Bible stories. Especially when it deals with the prophets and their prophesying. Why? Because the New Testament relies on the fulfillment of the prophesying. And they seemed to have made things fit the way they wanted them to fit. And I have an even harder time with the New Testament ending with Revelation. God did NOT stop talking to people with Revelation. God has spoken to me. And I have heard from others that God has spoken to them. Christianity is suffering from the limitations that "man" has left for us with the ending of the Bible. We all need to wake up to the fact that God is still talking. Most of us aren't listening, but God is still talking.Write it down! Shout it out!
It occurs to me that the Genesis stories are not right. What kind of a parent is it that accepts the offering of the creative gift of one child over the other? Why was Abel's offering so much more acceptable to God than Cain's offering? Not fair. Not right. Is this the 'beginning' of sibling rivalry? Why must there be a judgement/acceptance?Going back a little farther: what kind of a parent sets up a fail situation for their child and then punishes them for the failure? This is a lesson in life? NO! It is God's injustice. Here is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. One can have anything in the garden but not anything from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. SO! As a kid, what do you want? ANYTHING from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And so it happens, just the way God set it up for the human failure.And so what did God expect? God set up the world to defy, question, challenge, and then God punishes. Enter Noah. Humans have abandoned any sense of right or wrong and are greatly into wrong, and God is upset. Hello, God, what did you expect?One wonders how Noah found favor in God's sight. We don't get to know what the GOOD attributes are, we just get to be reprimanded for the bad stuff. Anyway, here comes Noah. EVERYONE else on the surface of the earth is going to be innihialated except for Noah and his wife and sons and wives. Now what kind of justice is this? God found favor with Noah so I guess the wife and offspring found in favor by association. DUMB!SO, the flood comes. Noah, his wife, his sons and wives, and pairs of animals are the only survivors. What kind of justice is this? ALL of the people who died were bad? I just can't believe this. Something is very wrong with this story.There are many stories in the Bible that leave me hungering for justice, guidance, a sense of believing in a God who loves God's people.
This day has not been long enough to accomplish all that I had planned or all that planned itself as the day happened. Plans, people. Did you get that? I have plans. Starting with breakfast and continuing through exercise....plans. And goals accomplished. I am overjoyed with this new set of happenings in my life.Yes, a new shelf in the cellar pantry. Yes, file drawer hanging file supports. And, yes, even the 'put things away' part after these were accomplished. Such simple little achievements really can make a day worthwhile.And then the realization that my new drawing was bogged down in lavender hues. Added art store to the day's errand running and purchased green. I am NOT a green person but this graphic, free form, creation is crying out for green. So green it is. This is something new. Something that just bubbled up out of nowhere and said 'draw' and so I did/am. Maybe it needs some yellow too but not quite yet. I am new to this kind of thing. Will let it sit on the table and just 'zen' it for a while.One of my goals -- established frivolously at a church gathering -- is to produce and send two greeting cards per week. Well, I just said send two cards but I am so personally conceited that I have to produce my own with my own art in some form or another be it a photo or poem or drawing or something original. Today I was doing a photo and the color ink cartridge went gone and produced a picture on the card that was really quite an art form. Given this 'mistake' I am now pursuing other color options with my photo. Great fun.And I didn't get it all done and tomorrow is another day and I get to do even more. Life is good!
