As last year was ending, many organizations felt the perfect vision year of 2020 was coming. It would be a good year! Facebook posts were full of positive memes as well.

And, of course, as every year closes out, we look forward to a new year with the hope and vision that something better is coming.

The roaring twenties crossed my mind. As a teen I had danced in a tap class and we all wore cool-colored costume dresses with fringe all over them. The fringe shook wildly as we danced the Charleston to some really fun music. It was a vision representing fun with only good things happening.

Now it seems that the perfect vision for this year is not what good can come into our lives, but to look behind us and ask what good can we manifest through our time in connecting with God.

During a routine eye exam we usually read a chart of letters ranging from large to small. You read until you reach the smallest set of letters you can see. It tells the doctor at what distance you can read what a person with normal vision sees at 20 feet. The goal for most of us is to see 20/20. To support us with the best possible vision we may be prescribed glasses or contact lenses.

A chiropractor once told me our eyes are meant to be level with the Earths horizon. If they are not, our body might shift itself to make that happen. The shift might tweak our spine, head, shoulders or hips in a little different position so that our vision is level.

How is your vision looking for the year 2020?

We are approaching fall weather soon. Those are the months to look back over our year and see what worked for us and what didnt, so we can let fall away all that no longer serves us.

In evaluating the first six months of 2020, I see that my vision still needs prayer and meditation. After all, my memory of the roaring twenties and dancing the Charleston was fun. Looking back at 2020, I find no fun in the chaos of a pandemic or providing a church service during shutdowns.

In my household we are all adapting to everyone working from home. Following the news is more important now because a brief story in a Facebook post or a tweet does not provide enough information. And I never miss reading the daily newspaper now, either. The daily paper has my local news, and I find it provides a more historical view of what is happening in our world today. All of this keeps me busy and requires more quiet time to meditate and process the chaos.

One day while meditating I heard: Hindsight is 2020. This rings true. Sure there is chaos, but it looks better to you when can see that its happened before. For example, right now some people dont want to wear a mask. But, if you look back to the Spanish flu pandemic, you will find people held meetings against wearing masks.

The truth is, life has existed for a long time. Anything you see has surely been seen before. Nothing is new, and we are all attached to generations of people who may or may not have made the best decisions.

Use this year of perfect vision to look back, and using hindsight, lets make better changes for future generations to look back on.

What is your perfect vision for 2020? Dont use my example use what is in your heart that you feel needs to be healed. As you are meditating, see what thought comes to you. What is important to you? Does it reflect another time in your history or the history of the world? If so, what was the previous outcome?

Hold your thoughts on what you want healed or changed. Next, let that outcome go, and visualize only what you would have the best outcome be. Do not think on how it will come; let God take care of that.

I mentioned chaos, which is the opposite of peace. If we prefer to have peace, then during meditation, when we are connecting with God, the source of all creation, we must see in our mind what peace looks like to us. We do not have to explain what is not right to God. He knows all already.

So we focus our mind on seeing what is best. Hold in your mind and consciousness what your best vision is. Letting worry fall away, simply accept the peace in knowing, your best good will be.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Seeing you healthy, whole and perfect, just the way God made you!

Linda La Croix Is the Unity Director & Prayer Chaplain at Unity of Lake Orion. Find positive and uplifting posts on her Facebook page, A Spiritual Walk or at aspiritualwalk.com.

The rest is here:

A Spiritual Walk: What is your perfect vision for healing the world? - New Baltimore Voice Newspapers

I LOVE TRAVELING and having extraordinary adventures.

This is because experiencing other cultures and places gives me a sense of awe, wonder and transcendence a spiritual high, so to speak.

But what does that say about the ordinary?

Where does that leave the every day?

How can we possibly feel spiritually high when travel is limited by pandemic-related restrictions?

The late, great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once challenged people everywhere to cherish the ordinary, the here and now, and the every day.

He wrote that it only takes three things to feel spiritually awake and alive:

God,

A Soul,

and a Moment.

And the three are always here.

Yes, the three are always here even as we often forget or ignore them.

Discovering the spirituality of the ordinary begins by not taking things for granted.

The ordinary is already luminous. God and the sacred are not over there somewhere.

They are all right here, where we are.

Perhaps a silver lining of the coronavirus is that its providing us all with an opportunity to get back to the ordinary, the breath by breath, and the living in each moment more fully and seeing the sacred wonder therein.

Persian poet Attar once wrote us that:

Every breath

each breath

of your life

is a precious jewel.

Cherishing each aspect of the ordinary is a spiritual practice upheld in almost all of the world religions.

This is because doing so always brings us back to gratitude for the miracle of life.

So how do we nurture a spirituality of the ordinary?

How do we halt the practice of mindlessly stumbling over everyday miracles?

Here are some concrete steps you can take:

When outdoors, attend to the sounds, smells and sights that surround you.

Take in the stars, the clouds, the new growth on a tree, the birdsong, the smell of the mountains or sea.

Before beginning a meal, stop to light a candle and/or share some meaningful words or a prayer to acknowledge your good fortune for having food to eat.

When in traffic, on public transport, or out and about on the streets, recognize the divine spark in every other person in the same space.

Before entering a difficult conversation, stop and hold the others involved in prayer, wishing for their well-being as well as your own.

Every day when you awaken, think: Today I am fortunate to be alive. I have a precious human life and Im not going to waste it. God is here. My soul is here. This day is here. I am going to savor every moment.

The pandemic-related restrictions will eventually lift.

We will be able to travel again and be wowed by the extraordinary.

In the meantime, let us use this time to locate the immanence of the sacred in and around us.

Here. And now.

________

Issues of Faith is a rotating column by five religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. The Rev. Kate Lore is a minister at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Port Townsend. Her email is [emailprotected].

Link:

ISSUES OF FAITH: The spirituality of the ordinary - Peninsula Daily News

Who is our neighbor, and what effect do these words really have on our lives?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is a version of this Biblical quote, also known as the Golden Rule, in the sacred texts of every religious tradition. Love thy neighbor is a similar passage that also can be found, in some form, in religious writings all over the world.

But who is our neighbor, and what effect do these words really have on our lives?

Is our neighbor just the person who looks like us and thinks like us, those that we see regularly at work, in our families or in our religious institutions? Its easy to love those people, isnt it? Or, is our God, or Higher Power, or Great Spirit, calling us to take on the more difficult task of loving everyone, even those neighbors who look differently, or think differently, or speak a different language, or are from a different race or culture?

I remember some of the discomfort and controversy that arose when the rainbow flag started to become popular and we had conversations in our Houses of Worship about displaying it as a sign of being welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community. Many people didnt want to deal with their long-held prejudice, discomfort and beliefs that devalued the lives of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered neighbors. It made us uncomfortable to focus our attention on those people. Then we started to really listen to the stories of our LGBTQ+ family members, friends, neighbors and colleagues. We did not know how much discrimination, violence and hatred LGBTQ+ people faced on a regular basis. We realized that, in many ways, their lives were similar to our own and some of our fears were unfounded. We became more comfortable with seeing the rainbow flag, and with appreciating what LGBTQ+ people bring to our lives and our communities.

Now, we face a new challenge as we see a renewed Black Lives Matter movement and Black Lives Matter signs appearing throughout our communities. We have to face the facts that our Black and brown-skinned neighbors have suffered horrific violence and prejudice in our society. We are now being asked to deal with our own prejudices and the racial hatred that has been passed down to all of us in our society. It is scary and uncomfortable, as it always is, whenever we are asked to look deeply within and make some changes in ourselves and our lives.

Yet, if we are truly to love our neighbor and do unto others, it is beyond time for all of us to listen to the stories and the lives of our Black and brown neighbors. It is beyond time for us to stand with Black and brown-skinned people who have been oppressed and mistreated to proclaim that Black Lives DO Matter. It is our religious calling to do so. It is what is required of us as people of any faith tradition.

The Rev. Arthur Lavoie is the minister of First Parish in Plymouth, Unitarian Universalist.

Go here to see the original:

SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING: It is our religious calling - News - Wicked Local Plymouth

In a socially distanced ceremony in Jerusalem last month, Shira Sapir accepted her certificate as a Morat Horaah (authorized to provide direction in matters halachah, or Jewish law) and Spiritual Leader from Ohr Torah Stones Susi Bradfield Womens Institute of Halachic Leadership. The honor came in the wake of a landmark decision by the attorney general that grants womens Torah studies equal governmental recognition to those of men.

A mother of six from the religious Migdal Oz settlement in Gush Etzion, Sapir is the only woman in Israel to have successfully completed the five-year course. While shes not yet fully comfortable with any of the titles (including that of Rabbanit), Sapir said the role of women at the forefront of halachah and community is of paramount importance. She points to public institutions, such as jails, that desperately need female leaders but added that every community could benefit from women at the helm. There are people who say we want to replace men, or push them out, but thats not it at all. We need to change the public consciousness. I think that on a fundamental level its correct that it should be a shared role, but every community is different and the community needs to want there to be a woman.

There are people who say we want to replace men, or push them out, but thats not it at all. We need to change the public consciousness.

Sapirs family made aliyah from North Carolina when she was a baby. She recalled as a child asking her father halachic questions and looking up the answers with him in Jewish law books. These days, her children turn to her and pose halachic questions by jokingly prefacing them with, Rabbi Mommy.

I connect deeply to the language of halachah. I feel like its a new language I acquired, she said. In the dryness, in the details, I find the essence of Judaism.

In addition to Shabbat, kashrut and family purity the subjects traditionally mastered by men preparing to become rabbis Sapir passed another exam on the laws of conversion. She has worked for more than a decade with converts. It was her sense of otherness, she said growing up in an immigrant family with parents who were not born into Orthodoxy that fostered a strong sense of identification with her students. The question of Jewish identity is one we all grapple with, she said. Not just converts.

Sapir recalled a discussion with her students about the tough questions addressed to God by King David in Psalms. She emphasized the value of asking questions in Judaism. She said that in Christianity, adherents are often encouraged not to ask and just to believe. At that point, one of her students interrupted and said, No, in Christianity, if you ask questions, you end up here!

The history of conversion is a subject that fascinates Sapir and one she is hoping to research in her MA studies. Conversion has undergone seismic changes over the centuries. She said, Im looking to have a real impact on the discourse in the world of conversion in the State of Israel.

See the original post:

The Orthodox Female Spiritual Leader Working with Converts - Jewish Journal

Many major religious pilgrimages have been canceled or curtailed in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. These have included the Hajj, a religious milestone for Muslims the world over; the Hindu pilgrimage, known as the Amarnath Yatra high in the mountains of Kashmir; and pilgrimages to Lourdes in France.

Pilgrims have faced travel delays and cancellations for centuries. Reasons ranged from financial hardship and agricultural responsibilities to what is now all too familiar to modern-day pilgrims plague or ill health.

Then, as now, one strategy has been to bring the pilgrimage home or into the religious community.

Pilgrimage can be an interior or outward journey and while individual motivations may vary, it can be an act of religious devotion or a way to seek closeness with the divine.

Through the centuries and across cultures, those who longed to go on a sacred journey would find alternative ways to do so.

Reading travel narratives, tracing a map with the finger or eye, or holding a souvenir brought back from a sacred site helped facilitate a real sense of travel for the homebound pilgrim. Through these visual or material aids, people felt as though they, too, were having a pilgrimage experience, and even connecting with others.

One such example is the story of the Dominican friar Felix Fabri, who was known for recording his own pilgrimages in various formats, some geared toward the laity and some for his brothers.

Fabri was approached in the 1490s by a group of cloistered nuns, meaning that they had professed vows to lead a contemplative life in the quietude of their community. They desired a devotional exercise so they could receive the spiritual benefits of pilgrimage without having to break their promise of a life that was sheltered from the outside world.

He produced Die Sionpilger, a virtual pilgrimage in the form of a day-to-day guidebook to Santiago de Compostela, Jerusalem and Rome. In these cities, pilgrims would encounter sites and scenes associated with many facets of their religion: shrines to honor Jesus and the saints, relics, great cathedrals and sacred landscapes associated with miraculous events and stories.

Fabris guidebook sent the pilgrim on an imaginative journey of a thousand miles, without having to take a single step.

My current book project shows that from Lourdes to South Africa, from Jerusalem to England, from Ecuador to California, DIY pilgrimages are not just a medieval phenomenon. One such example is Phil Volkers backyard Camino.

Volker is a 72-year-old father and now grandfather, woodworker and veteran who mapped the Camino de Santiago onto his backyard in Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. Volker prays the rosary as he walks: for those who have been impacted by the pandemic, his family, his neighbors, the world.

After a cancer diagnosis in 2013, a few things came together to inspire Volker to build a backyard Camino, including the film The Way, a pocket-sized book of meditations, Everyday Camino With Annie by Annie O'Neil and the story of Eratosthenes, the Greek polymath from the second century B.C. who figured out a way to measure the circumference of the Earth using the Sun, a stick and a well.

For me, this guy was the grand godfather of do-it-yourselfers. How can someone pull off this kind of a caper with things at hand in his own backyard? It got me thinking, what else can come out of ones backyard?, he told me.

Volker began walking a circuitous route around his 10-acre property on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. It was a chance to exercise, which his doctors had encouraged, but also created a space to think and pray.

Each lap around the property is just over a half-mile. Realizing that he was covering quite a distance, he found a map of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route to track his progress, calculating that 909 laps would get him from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to the Cathedral of St. James.

To date, Volker has completed three 500-mile Caminos without leaving his backyard.

Thanks to a documentary film, Volkers daily blog and an article in the magazine Northwest Catholic, the backyard Camino has attracted many visitors, some simply curious but many who are seeking healing and solace.

The story of Volkers backyard Camino inspired Sara Postlethwaite, a sister of the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, to map St. Kevins Way, a 19-mile pilgrimage route in County Wicklow, Ireland onto a series of daily 1.5-mile circuits in Daly City, California.

The route rambles along roads and countryside from Hollywood to the ruins of the monastery that St. Kevin, a sixth-century abbot, had founded in Glendalough. Postlethwaite had intended to travel back to her native Ireland in the spring of 2020 to walk the route in person, but due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, she brought the pilgrimage to her home in Daly City.

Every so often, Postlethwaite would check in on Google Maps to see where she was along the Irish route, pivoting the camera to see surrounding trees or, at one point, finding herself in the center of an old stone circle.

Several joined Postlethwaites walk in solidarity, both in the U.S. and overseas.

After each days walk, she paused at the shed at her community house, where she had drawn a to-scale version of the Market Cross at Glendalough.

As Postlethwaite traced the intersecting knots, circles and image of the crucified Christ with her chalk, she reflected not just on the suffering caused by the pandemic but also about issues of racism, justice and privilege. In particular, she remembered Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger shot by two white men in a fatal confrontation in February 2020. She inscribed his name on the chalk cross.

For Berkeley-based artist Maggie Preston, a DIY chalk labyrinth on the street outside her house became a way to connect with her neighbors and her three-year-old son. There is a link here with the medieval strategies for bringing longer pilgrimages into the church or community. Scholars have suggested that labyrinths may have been based on maps of Jerusalem, providing a scaled-down version of a much longer pilgrimage route.

They started out by chalking in the places they could no longer go the aquarium, the zoo, a train journey and then created a simple labyrinth formed by a continuous path in seven half-circles.

A labyrinth gave us a greater destination, not just somewhere to imagine going, but a circuitous path to literally travel with our feet, she told me.

As neighbors discovered the labyrinth, it began to create a genuine sense of community akin to that which many seek to find when they embark on a much longer pilgrimage.

Volkers cancer has progressed to stage IV and he celebrated his 100th chemo treatment back in 2017, but he is still walking and praying on a regular basis. He offers the following advice:

For folks starting their own backyard Camino I think that creating the myth is the most important consideration. Study maps, learn to pronounce the names of the towns, walk in the dust and the mud, be out there in the rain, drink their wine and eat their food, relearn to pretend.

See the article here:

As coronavirus curtails travel, backyard pilgrimages become the way to a spiritual journey - The Conversation US

Ottessa Moshfegh. (Photo by Jake Belcher)

Ottessa Moshfegh plumbs the absurd and the profane for the few moments of clarity one experiences under great duress. Her fiction, with memorably unreliable narrators saddled with unorthodox desires, dramatizes the manifold ways that self-deception perpetuates the conditions of our own miseryand, sometimes, a descent into madness. Moshfegh achieves all of this with pristine prose. In this way, she hews closer to Vladimir Nabokov than she does to her contemporaries; for both writers, language is simultaneously a puzzle box and a revelation.Ad Policy

Moshfeghs latest novel, Death in Her Hands, was drafted between her breakout novel Eileen, which was short-listed for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, and 2018s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Hallucinatory at moments but always wry, the book begins as a mystery novel, with lonely old widow Vesta Gul finding an ominous note on the ground while out on a walk: Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasnt me. Here is her body. But there is no body or evidence of any crime, and the more Vesta lets herself hypothesize what might have happened to Magda, the more she finds herself turning her investigation inward, toward the sum total of her own life.

Before the books release in late June, the author and I chatted over Skype, with Moshfegh sitting in her backyard, taking puffs on a cigarette between her considered answers and an occasional whistle to her dog. We talked about divinity, her approach to art, and getting into her characters heads.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Rosemarie Ho

Rosemarie Ho: Death in Her Hands marks a departure from your previous work in that poetry pops up here and there as plot pointsW.B. Yeatss The Second Coming is incorporated into a note Vesta writes, and the last lines of William Blakes The Voice of the Ancient Bard becomes almost a refrain toward the end of her investigation. Could you tell me more about that choice?

Ottessa Moshfegh: Vesta is someone who hasnt really been all that authentic to herself in life, so when she starts telling her story, it has a sense of performativeness. The performance is one that is literary, because she is contained by language, basically, so that seemed appropriate. There was also something naive about Vesta, how she has been in arrested development her whole life, since shes never really been alone until her husband dies. She hasnt developed a side of herself that would enable her to make straight declarations and speak plainly. Shes somebody who needs to decorate what shes saying, because maybe she feels like no one will listen otherwise. Or maybe she doesnt really know what shes saying yet. I mean, I think a lot of the book is about her refinding her voice in her space.

RH: Its interesting that Vestas performativity is instinctually literary! The novel is a very self-referential book.

OM: I see what you mean. Its a book that writes about writing and the creative process. Its a character going through somethingi.e., investigating a murderthe same way someone might go through writing a murder mystery novel. So she is essentially being guided by writing principles rather than life principles. What that allows for is this kind of solubility in the reality of her world, where things that get written can cross over from the imagination into reality, that also mimics the breakdown of what we think is her grip on her sanity or her life itselfthat maybe shes losing her grip on her actual life. That was an effect I wanted for the book. I didnt want for the novel to be a murder mystery; I wanted it to be an exploration of character and the dissolution of a life, to see what it would be like if that dissolution was something agented by the life itself. I guess thats why I called it Death in Her Hands: because she dies. She didnt kill herself, but shes experiencing her own death in a way that is also the most alive time of her life so far, in some sense.

RH: Religiosity suffuses the book: Vesta is living in Levant, driving to Bethsmane (a portmanteau of Bethlehem and Gethsemane), listening to Pastor Jimmy on the radio, and trying to avoid a police officer she decides is named Ghod, who is hellbent on thwarting her investigation. How does that tie in with her inherent literariness?

OM: The Christianity in particular is just part of the fabric of her culture. I could have written the story in any culture, but I chose to write it in the culture that I grew up close to, which was America. She was raised in a culture that was Christian and moved to a place that is also Christian; I just accepted that was the culture that Im writing about and that someone of her age and impressionability would have internalized. Theres this voice coming through the radio that isnt the voice of God, but is speaking to her from some unseen place about God, that she could now question and be critical of. In its intangibility, theres potential for doubt and criticism. I saw that element as something that she could overcome perhaps, because it had been so fundamental to her belief system. That belief system had allowed her to live such an oppressed and repressed life so far that in retooling her spiritual paradigm according to her own imagination, she was empowering herself away from a paradigm that would have her be quiet and passive and just accept whatever the world handed to her or asked of her. She was taking her life back. MORE FROM Rosemarie Ho

RH: How does this search for freedom relate to art and writing in particular?

OM: Well, I guess thats what Im still searching for. Art, for me, is like an attempt to its an expression of God within ourselves. Its a transmission of our spirit. There has to be some substance that we feel out in order to know where our boundaries are and what our consistency is. And thats why humans need relationships to grow, I think, and why we learned so much from struggle. Freedom is the ability to choose what struggle you want in order to learn what you personally desire to learn. And if you want to grow according to your own path, you can go seek out the experiences and the people that you think will help you, rather than be pummeled by external forces that you havent chosen to act upon you.

We dont want to read a story about a character that just stays the same throughout the whole book. I mean, at least I dont. Like, if the story is about that character, I am interested in how that moment changes the character through the course of the narrative. I have to think about what that character is up against and how that conflict would lead her to new thoughts, decisions we wouldnt expect, realizations about herself and her past, where she was wrong, where she had been deceived. It would be great if we could all live freely, but we havent been. So I like it when people try to get free; I like those stories. Sometimes its really misguided or theres been trauma, so the way that you approach your own freedom might actually be deleterious to yourself, or it might mean that you cant live this life, actually, that you need to move on to the next one or something.

RH: Can art be transformative, then, in that sense of getting one to live more freely?

OM: Well, I think step one is that a story can be transportive, in that you can be in someone elses life and experience and consciousness. That expands you, to imagine that you are not you but someone else with different limitations and associations. And if you can let go of who you are and be someone else for the course of reading, or at least be in that persons mind, you might have an experience that you couldnt have if you were trapped in yourself.

I dont know if I think that the definition of art is transformative experience, but things that I like are things that make me feel like the human experience is larger than just my experience. That I can feel things that I hadnt felt before. I can imagine ways of being that Im not.

RH: How do you achieve thatto write about people who arent you, especially when youre a meticulously interior writer?

OM: I think that its a really important question. If youre a writer who wants to write in the first person, I think partly you have to allow your character to speak from a place that is their privacy, and partly you have to be the author and guide your exploration of that character toward a story in which that character can have some kind of epiphany. Its like playing the piano; youre using both of your hands. One of them is feeling and seeking to understand, and the other one is directing and manipulating.

Thats what so much of writing is: a surrender to language and the limitations of language, the expectations of a story, what a reader needs to feel that theyre being handled effortlessly through a narrative, and also the magic of communication, despite all these limitations that we have. All you have in a book is the written word. Through whatever combination of words, however you order them, those are the words that the reader is internalizing silently and hearing as a voice in their mind. Its like a virtual reality experience, in a way. Once you get in there, you start leading.

But language alone cant move someone. Like, if I just wrote one word over and over again, its not going to have the same effect as if I sang the same note. Like, you can sing the same note a million waysyour artistry can come through in how you do that. But I can only write words, letters. I can change the font, but its still going to be the word. So my job is to put one word next to another word to create a sentence or phrase, something evocative so that in your mind youre not going to just be seeing words; youre going to be seeing what Im evoking with them. Its something that emanates from the language but is not the language itself. I mean, thats the trouble, thats the trouble that I love: that we just have words when were writing, and we have to get them to do something, you know?

RH: How do you write divinity, then, to express God within your characters?

OM: Sometimes it looks like coincidencethats the most obvious way. As vague as this sounds, the way that I experience it as a writer is when I can detach from my own voice, or the expectations that I have for a character or a narrative voice, and hear something else that isnt me. Divinity is the thing that isnt me; its the thing that Ive been trying to hear. So much of my consciousness is like in this one area, and when Im writing, I have to somehow access this other area where other peoples stories and experiences can be larger than mine. Which isnt to say that I feel like Im writing about strangersI get to know my characters very intimately, and sometimes they feel friendly and sometimes they dont. McGlue [from her debut novella McGlue] was not a friendly narrator to me, and really, neither was the character in My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

RH: Really? In what way?

OM: I mean, she hurt me a lot. It hurt to put myself in her place. It hurt less to be in Vestas place because she wasnt so hard. Vesta is, I think, by nature a caring person, and shes motivated by her curiosity in a way thats empathic and appreciative of beauty. The pain that she felt is all in the past, so it was almost like its safe now, because its over. And yeah, shes a bit alienated from society, and her judgments can be harsh and maybe unkind, but theres a benevolence to her relationship to her world in general. I wasnt afraid of Vesta, and actually having to enter her mind and world and story was a relief.

RH: Can hostility be generative for art?

OM: Well, I dont know. I mean, people should be as hostile as they want in their writing. Do it there, dont do it out in the world to other peopledont fucking hurt anybody, basically. Writing requires, at times, an incredible amount of self-restraint and surrender. Sometimes anger or some other very powerful emotion can help you be motivated to get past your own shit and access the bigger thing that you want this book to communicate. Im not going to write a book about how somebody cut me off; that wouldnt be a good book. I think intense emotions can be good energy to make us want to be creative.

RH: Why are you attracted to the novel form?

OM:The process of writing a novel, for me, feels like the most exciting thing that I do. Its starting with nothing and creating everything. And the novels that I write, I feel like I put everything into themthey become my life. In a short story, I kind of feel like my point of view is stationary and the story just comes out like so, but with a novel Im moving in all these directions, and I feel freer. What Ive learned from writing each novel has been so immense and abstract, in many ways beyond the psychological. If my mind were space the way that Vesta describes her mind-space, I can feel that space shifting, changing dimensions, moving and filling and expanding in different colors I dont know, its a very spiritual experience. Its like conquering your own ego or something, which is impossible.

More here:

For Ottessa Moshfegh, Novel Writing Is a Spiritual Experience - The Nation

The word kindness is frequently talked about in the secular world, but what does it mean in the spiritual life?

Fr. Francis Xavier Lasance included thoughts from Fr. William Faber about kindness in his early 20th-century book, My Prayer Book, which help shed some light on the role of kindness in Christianity.

He begins by writing, The worst kinds of unhappiness, as well as the greatest amount of it, come from our conduct to each other. If our conduct, therefore, were under the control of kindness, it would be nearly the opposite of what it is, and so the state of the world would be almost reversed.

Faber continues by defining kindness and explaining how it fits into a Christian worldview.

Kindness is the overflowing of self upon others. We put others in the place of self. We treat them as we would wish to be treated ourselves. We change places with them. For the time self is another, and others are self. Our self-love takes the shape of complacence in unselfishness.

In this sense, kindness is not merely an external act, but chiefly an internal one, where we put others above ourselves.

Fr. Faber goes so far as to say that kindness in thought leads a soul closer to sainthood, If [someone] habitually has kind thoughts of others, and that on supernatural motives, he is not far from being a saint There is one class of kind thoughts which must be dwelt upon apart. I allude to kind interpretations. The habit of not judging others is one which it is very difficult to acquire, and which is generally not acquired till late on in the spiritual life.

The kindness Fr. Faber speaks of is not the empty variety, that only shows a false facade, but is more akin to a glacier, revealing only the tip of a much deeper spiritual state of life.

True Christian kindness reveals a love for your neighbor that goes beyond any selfish motive. It is a form of charity that imitates the love that Christ has for all of us, showing compassion for all people.

As Fr. Lasance says,

Kindwords are the music of the world.

7 Ways to show kindness in the age of social distancing

Visit link:

The role of kindness in the spiritual life - Aleteia IT

TREMONTON For the Nathan Hege family and many other farmers along the Wasatch Front, the harvest season spans from late July to late August.

Last week Hege, a farmer and bishop of the Northern Utah Mennonite Church, watched as his sons operated two red combines in a neighbors wheat field. Vernon Hege, accompanied by his 3-year-old son Leroy, drove one thrashing machine while 13-year-old Adrian Hege steered the other harvester. When each bin was full, the brothers took turns dumping grain into semitrailer parked nearby.

When asked what he enjoyed most about the annual harvest, Bishop Hege smiled and laughed.

Getting finished, he said.

While some of his crops have struggled this year, the bishop is grateful for the blessing of planting a seed, laboring with the earth and trusting in the Lord that the agricultural process will yield fruit.

You reap what you sow, said Bishop Hege, referencing the Bible. Were physically close to it. Many in the world get their harvest at the grocery store. I think there is a real blessing in seeing how God has made it all work. ... Its our reliance on God.

The Holy Bible and other sacred writings across many faiths are full of parables, metaphors and agricultural language that teach spiritual lessons and timeless truths about the law of the harvest. Whether its gardening, working with animals or harvesting crops, those who get their hands dirty in the earth not only find health benefits and satisfaction in producing quality food, but theres also a deep spiritual component that can strengthen ones faith, according to Wade Sperry, an agriculture specialist who supervises all the welfare farms for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

There is something about working in agriculture and in the land that is spiritual, Sperry said. When you get down to the basic things the Lord provided for us soil, water, air and sunshine theres something there that invigorates your spirit. ... It humbles people. It deepens their faith and makes them kinder, and gives them a different perspective on things.

Grid View

Patrick Mason, a professor of history and religion at Utah State University, will be the first to admit he has no special horticultural knowledge or skills. I struggle to keep a garden alive, he said. I get all my food from a store.

But even as a person removed from nature in terms of growing food, the professor can still relate to and understand the New Testament parables of the mustard seed, the sower and others. Mason said he drew upon principles of faith as taught in the Book of Mormons Alma Chapter 32 when writing his 2015 book, Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt.

They are so universally accessible, Mason said. Even if Im not a farmer, I can appreciate the basics of what it means to plant a seed in good soil, nurture and cultivate it. All of us can connect to it on some basic level. I think thats the brilliance of that language. ... I think all of that agricultural language is inviting us back into a time when humans were more connected to the land than most of us are now.

These universal principles extend beyond Christian scripture. Virtually every religion has sacred text with language about nature, trees, gardens, animals and vineyards, partly as a celebration of Gods creation of the world, the cosmos and humanitys place in that, Mason said.

Where did Buddha find enlightenment? Sitting under a tree. Similar things are found in Hinduism. ... Native American and indigenous spiritualities are deeply connected to the land and nature, he said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mason has observed people recognizing the importance of growing and preserving their own food. Not only is it wise to be prepared for hard times, but keeping a garden can be therapeutic.

To distance ourselves from nature and from natural processes, maybe when nature invites us back and maybe when we go back and get our hands dirty, and realize what it means to grow and harvest something, maybe we also relearn what it means to be human, too, Mason said.

Grid View

For many years, Pastor Michael Galica said Brigham Citys Holy Cross Lutheran Church was identified by its architectural design, which wasnt flattering.

For a long time we were known as the toaster church because the building vaguely resembles a toaster, Pastor Galica said. Now when you talk to people its the church with the garden.

The transformation started more than six years ago when Jenny Hill, a lifelong member of the congregation, lost her father. Hill explained that when a person dies, its customary for the family to give a memorial gift to the church. Her initial idea was to clean up a part of the churchs property covered in weeds.

Then an ambitious friend suggested a bigger idea the development of a community garden. She accepted the challenge and became a volunteer administrator. Looking back, Hill said the project was inspired.

I didnt plan my retirement to do this. I had no visions of doing anything like this in my life, said Hill, a retired registered nurse. This was a God thing ... and the response was dramatic.

With the churchs permission, Hill and others began cleaning up weeds in the space next to the building in 2014. Six years later, visitors can walk through a gate into a green and fertile maze of organized garden boxes alive with all kinds of vegetables and plants, along with a pavilion, picnic tables and a greenhouse. A long list of community partners, sponsors, organizations and volunteers have contributed to the gardens success.

For a fee of $15, individuals and families can take stewardship of a plot in the Box Elder Community Garden and grow fresh produce. Last year more than 3,600 pounds of fresh produce from the community garden was donated to local food pantries, Hill said.

Hill talked about the joy and benefits of gardening that came to a disabled Vietnam veteran and a 91-year-old woman who delighted in working the soil. Now there is a waiting list to get a plot, along with plans to expand the garden in the coming years.

To see how far the project has progressed over the last six years the fruits of their labor has been gratifying for both Hill and Pastor Galica.

For us, the fruit of this garden is an obvious representation of the fruit that we have from our faith. We believe that a big component of our faith is loving our neighbor, the pastor said. And it sure makes me feel better when I write my sermon to look out on the garden from my office window. ... Now were known for the garden and growing food for the needy.

The harvest is just one step in the process, but what a feeling, Hill said.

The whole gardening experience teaches you responsibility, respect for others and the earth, she said. Its a great way to grow.

As a seasoned agricultural specialist, Sperry has worked on Latter-day Saint projects all over the world. In managing all of the churchs welfare farms and ranches, which produce large amounts of vegetables, crops, fruit and livestock, everything he does revolves around lessons from the law of the harvest. His parents taught him to appreciate those scriptural lessons as a young man.

When you are an agricultural specialist, a farmer or rancher, you put so much trust in the Lord that hes going to help you take care of your family and your neighbors with crops. Most of the time he blesses quite abundantly, Sperry said. To me that is heavily intertwined with not only taking care of oneself, but also watching out for and caring for your neighbor and those in need.

In recent months, with a pandemic and millions of American out of work, the church has given aid to the needy through more than 630 projects in over 130 countries. President Russell M. Nelson called the effort the largest-ever humanitarian project of the church.

For that reason, its essential that agriculture carry on, he said.

Over years of travel, Sperry has observed that people who get outside and work in the earth are naturally happier. He recalled working in Ethiopia during a couple of different famines when conditions were dire. While some died, others who worked found physical, mental and spiritual endurance.

While developing garden projects in places like Mexico City and So Paulo, and even in Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, where soil had to be imported, Sperry said people who were willing to go out and put a little bit of soil into a little container on their balcony saw the world in a different light.

Youre out, youre working in the soil, youre getting sunshine, and youre doing something that I think encourages faith, Sperry said. And anytime you exercise faith, I think health follows that directly every single time. The exercise of faith, which is what agriculture is, and health care, are intertwined.

The rest is here:

Why Mennonites, Lutherans and other say farming has a spiritual side - Deseret News

He wondered if normalcy was something, like vision or silence, you didnt realize was precious until you lost it. -- Cassandra Clare, author

It was a risk. I know. Maybe even kind of a little dangerous. Taking this one chance, after 136 days of being locked up and locked in and prevented from enjoying one cherished past time in my life, thats been with me since I first saw the flicker of shadow and light projected onto a screen, as a little boy at the Wollaston Theater, my childhood palace of dreams.

This past Saturday, I went to the movies again.

It was an impulse decision. Reading the paper, I noticed a story about one of my favorite movie theaters here in eastern Massachusetts, the West Newton Cinema, reopening, after being shuttered since last March. Ive seen upwards of 100 movies there, probably more, in my adult life, so many Saturday nights with pasta at Comellas next door and then a film. Its not a cookie-cutter venue, a cinema one to infinity kind of place, a suburban movie factory located next to the mall, that shows mostly superhero flicks and other blockbusters.

No. West Newton Cinema is as local as local gets. As theater as theater gets.

Opened in 1937, the movie palace has been welcoming viewers into its quaint and cozy building for 83 years, showed its first film in the midst of the Great Depression, and has been entertaining movie buffs like me ever since. Stroll through the heavy wooden front doors as you pass under a marquee filled with titles of current attractions, and then get your ticket from a live person in a booth and enter a spacious lobby, the smell of real homemade popcorn and melted butter making your mouth water. Once a true movie palace, the Cinema boasted of being able to seat more than 1,000 patrons for a single screening, but now it has six screens, showing both art house and popular fare. Its been owned and operated by the same pair of brothers David and Jimmy Bramante (and now their families) for the past 42 years.

I had to go to the movies. I had to somehow get an experience of normalcy and comfort in the middle of the craziness we now call 2020 in this world.

I had to go.

And so, my friend Kacey and I did go, as we have so many times before, making our way up the lobby stairs to theater five, where we found our seats in the third row and also found ourselves the only patrons in the room. The theater has strict COVID guidelines, requires a mask and social distancing and limits capacity to only 25 folks per viewing, but in the end, we had nothing to worry or fret about.

Then the lights dimmed and the projector kicked on and there up on the screen of dreams was Casablanca, the classic 1942 film about life in wartime Morocco and lost love and broken hearts and fighting Nazis and a world all caught up in tumult and fear. It felt like watching a story from a million years ago and a story from right now. At least thats how I romantically imagined it, as I watched tuxedo-clad Humphrey Bogart and the elegant Ingrid Bergman exchange snappy dialogue and stolen kisses and drink champagne at Ricks Caf Americain.

Heres looking at you kid.

Its hard to put into words how deeply grateful and blessed I felt to be doing something so normal as going to the movies and munching on my popcorn, and arranging my long legs over the seats and staring up at the screen, where at 24 frames per second, I was reminded of how much I love films. And art. And a shared creative experience, not just a solo viewing of another movie on Netflix, as I push back in my La-Z-Boy, day 137 of COVID-19.

I know with more than 149,000 already dead in the U.S. from the virus, and millions more infected and the disease now reigniting across the country, my joy at returning to the movies may seem kind of trivial or even insensitive, considering how many folks are struggling right now. And yet, ask anyone who is sick and tired, just exhausted from the COVID marathon that is not near over yet, and I know theyd tell you that they, all of us, we just need a little taste of normalcy right now. Something to soothe our souls and lift our spirits. Something as simple as going to the movies.

As Rick says to Ilsa in the dramatic final scene of Casablanca, Im no good at being noble, but it doesnt take much to see that the problems of three little people dont amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.

Someday we may look back on these intense times of COVID and understand, maybe even see how we grew and stretched as humans and children of God, and were each called to be our best selves in these days, courageous, even noble. But for now?

Im going to the movies.

The Rev. John F. Hudson is senior pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn (pilgrimsherborn.org). If you have a word or idea youd like defined in a future column or have comments, please send them to pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.

Read more:

SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING: A trip to the movies - Milford Daily News

This column is part of our ongoing opinion commentary on faith, called Living Our Faith. Find this weeks reader question and get weekly roundups of the project in your email inbox by signing up for the Living Our Faith newsletter.

We are in the middle of Ordinary Times. Though the times, of course, are far from ordinary.

In the church calendar, the season between Pentecost and Advent is called Ordinary Time, roughly June through November. Devoid of major celebrations and the observed seasons of fasting and prayer that precede them, this stretch is the longest in the church calendar, and on its face, the most mundane. (Another shorter period of Ordinary Time occurs between Christmas and Lent).

But things are not always what they appear. As is the irony with so many aspects of Christianity, the least of these turn out to be some of the most important. Ordinary Time is not a season to simply endure or get to the other side of, with the lure of nativity scenes and Christmas trees on the other side. Rather, its a season for deep spiritual formation. The banners at the Anglican church I attend (now virtually) are changed to green during these months, signifying growth. The green season is a time to delve ever more into the Scriptures, discipleship and prayer.

I cant help but think that weve found ourselves in another sort of ordinary time, a seemingly lost season or one in between something else. We are in the dog days of summer in Texas, exhausted by COVID-19, which has gone from surprise and panic to an admittedly depressed kind of settling in, the uncertainty of the school year and flu season looming. The excitements and festivities that used to mark our weeks and months are fewer and further between. Theres a growing temptation to hunker down for the long haul, shut our eyes, wish ourselves to the other side of this.

Gone are the illusions of control by finding an extra roll of toilet paper or taking on a new home-cooked recipe. Turns out theres no magic to summertime, where the virus would dissipate and wed all get a break, even a temporary one. For many people, the year has been marked by unthinkable tragedy: lost lives, incomes and relationships; forgone funerals and weddings. Weve cycled through denial, grief, and everything in between, and still we find ourselves here.

The extraordinary has become ordinary, at least in so far as 2020 is concerned. And with that comes a delicate balance. As Christians, we are to pray fervently for the pandemic to end and for wisdom and breakthrough for our nations leaders. We are called to take action to provide relief to people in need and to love our neighbors, which means wearing a mask and social distancing. (In his now nearly 500-year old letter, reformer Martin Luther spared no words for those during the plague who refused to use good sense, caution and heed science, which he equated to recklessly tempting God.) We are to push against the season in every way possible in an attempt to shorten it, lessen it, dull its pains.

And yet while doing everything we can for the suffering to end, theres also a level of living and growing within it. How are we to live in an atomic age? C.S. Lewis wrote, I am tempted to reply: Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night. ... [Atomic bombs] may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

This is where the lessons of Ordinary Time come in, revealing an alternative to gritting-and-bearing our way through long seasons, but to live and thrive within them. This is all the more important because most of our life is spent in between the highs and lows and in a sort of ordinary time, changing diapers, putting in long hours, making dinner, cleaning up, working on relationships.

To thrive in the seemingly mundane is to develop lasting habits and rhythms, such as gratitude and prayer, that lay claim to the seemingly endless time loop. Its setting aside moments in our days around the dinner table or in the morning to say what we are thankful for. Its developing deep friendships, letting a handful of people into our inner circle and walk through life with them. Its being intentional with the patterns and rhythms that develop discipline and character that weve long put off.

Ordinary Time is a season to hang the green banner instead of wave the white flag. The pandemic is all around us, but in our best moments, we can stop ourselves from thinking of it as a lost six months or lost year a sort of purgatory and waiting it out. Rather we can see this as a period of time set aside for (painful) growth, re-anchoring to what really matters, establishing habits to persist after the trial is done. This is of course more easily said than done, requiring deep spiritual dependence, community and humility. Theres a reason why Ordinary Time cycles around each year in the church calendar. It is not learned all at once.

Oh, how we long to see the light at the end of this tunnel. And yet the discipline, the lesson of Ordinary Time, is to learn to live within the waiting, and in some mysterious way beyond our own ability, to restore it from lost time to that of growth.

Abby McCloskey is an economist and founder of McCloskey Policy LLC. She has advised multiple presidential campaigns. Website: mccloskeypolicy.com

Read more here:

The pandemic can be more than purgatory. It can be a time of deep spiritual formation. - The Dallas Morning News

Six years after Energy Transfer Partners began the project, its Dakota Access Pipeline for Bakken shale oil remains a fundamental affront to environmental safety and tribal sovereignty. A federal judgerecently ordereda shutdown of DAPL while its permit is reconsidered, thanks to the legal challenge ofStanding Rock Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This week, an appeals court reversed that order. The pipelineremains in operationfor now.

The contest over DAPL came to the worlds attention in the autumn of 2016, when Native people and their allies created an encampment community of resistance at the path of the pipeline in North Dakota.Mni Wiconi/Water is Life:Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereigntyis a collection of essays, interviews, art, and photos that memorialize the unprecedentedphenomenon created at Standing Rock.

Excerpted here are accounts by photographer John Willis and Harold C. Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. They describe just one telling scene from Standing Rock: the violent attack on Water Protectors at Backwater Bridge on the night of November 20, 2016, when police deployed tear gas and water cannons, rubber bullets and concussion grenades. Its one dramatic moment that illustrates how people resisted state-sponsored force over months to protect the water supply for the Standing Rock reservation and surrounding communities. They drew strength from movement solidarity, the wisdom of Indigenous culture, and deep spirituality. Theyre still doing it.

The night of November 20th on the Backwater Bridge I never knew no negativity, no cussing, no swearing; nobody was violent on our peoples side. I did see a few water bottles thrown towards the cops, but, I mean, who wouldnt? That night I could never forget, and to this day I never looked at anybody I didnt know. I didnt care whose color or skin, I didnt care where they came from or their tribe, and sometimes I think about that night, and you know its emotional and upsetting at the same time. The cops had no right to do the harm that they did to our people, and for what? Nobody tried to cross the line. The cops inflicted a lot of harm to our people.

All of those things they said in the media are lies, and now I think the truth is coming out about what really happened that night. And its really upsetting as a tribal chairman to know that the Bureau of Indian Affairs knew what was happening that night, and they are the federal agency that is supposed to protect the people and their resources, and they did nothing. Even though I stayed there the whole time, till 3 or 4 in the morning they were still using that water hose, and it was crazy.

Ive been saying that all my life I never heard the word trespass. I always felt that God made me who I was, who I am. All these liberties that we are all supposed to enjoy in America, its just unreal how few could benefit and the rest of us cant. Thats just not right. You know under the Declaration of Independence it says that all people are created equal. We have been saying that the American government has failed us, the American people have not. Thats why you [non-Native] guys are here, and I thank you guys, and we at the very least have to get our message out there so that people that do care can hear it and maybe help us.

People said if the Indigenous people can do this, we can do this, too. It was amazing to hear that courage and rebelliousness. It wasnt a wild, dangerous rebellion; it was We need to be proud of who we are and protect our Indigenous people and the environment, and we can do this. Theres nothing that says that we cant. I asked them what caused them and prompted them to get out of their comfort zone, and all of them said it was the Backwater Bridge incident.

We are going to fight the government and protect the environment.

I awoke unsettled, two days after the Backwater Bridge action in which more than 300 Water Protectors required medical attention due to clear overreaction by the police to prayerful demonstration. No police were hurt. The evening conflict began when a small group fromOceti SakowinCamp took it upon themselves to begin unblocking the ND 1806 bridge. The police-supported blockade of the highway had been in effect since October 27th. More than three weeks earlier, the police said that the road would be kept clear and open, but no such effort was made. Not only was the roadblock affecting the protesters, as the authorities call them, but it also caused the entire community south of the roadblock to drive an additional 30 minutes or more out of the way to get to and from Bismarck. Even ambulances and emergency vehicles could not pass through the police barricade, which increased risk to people from across the reservation and the many communities living south of the barricade.

Camp members tired of waiting for the police to reopen the road took a tractor-trailer to the bridge and towed a burned-out truck out of the way. Before they could manage to remove the additional barriers, the police began a barrage on the Water Protectors in a series of events that lasted more than 10 hours. Water cannons mounted atop armored vehicles were used to spray people almost continuously during the freezing-cold night. Tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag ordnance, concussion grenades, and LRAD sound cannons were used repeatedly, as the crowd quickly grew to more than 1,000 people standing in opposition through prayer.

Of the more than 300 Water Protectors who were injured, six were immediately taken to hospital by ambulances. This included an elder who was in cardiac arrest. According to the camp medical providers, more than 100 of the injured had hypothermia from the water cannons. A female Water Protector had her arm severely injured when a concussion grenade thrown in her direction detonated. An Indigenous war veteran on the camps volunteer medical team brought this woman to the hospital. Her response to seeing the patients wound? This clearly is a combat wound. Another protector was still in critical condition after being shot in the head with nonlethal weapons.

Believing in communication to overcome controversy, I engage pro-DAPL people when opportunities arise. The intensity of the miscommunication I come up against is striking. While not too surprising, it is nonetheless disappointing. I spoke to many people in the nearby communities who believe the Water Protectors were paid as much as $36 per hour. I have yet to find anyone who was paid. On the contrary, most people made large sacrifices to be here.

The Sacred Fire Circle prayers began on 22 November, 2016, before dawn, with Guy Dull Knife, a Lakota elder from Pine Ridge Reservation, and J. R. American Horse, from Standing Rock Reservation, who are both veterans, waking up the camp. Wake up, Water Protectors! You are here for a purpose! It is time to rise up, greet the new day, and stop this Black Snake. Guy stated that he could not say good morning to everyone because it was a sad day. Guy had been in the hospital recuperating from walking pneumonia. The news of the standoff at the bridge reached him, and he tore off his intravenous tubes when he was notified about the wounded protectors in danger. Guys return was to offer the morning prayers. He thanked us all genuinely for supporting the movement from near and afar. Guy said, They are trying to kill this movement and are willing to kill us if needed. He said there should be millions here.

That is what is needed: to stop corporations from treating life as less significant than humanity and the natural environment. We can live without oil. We cannot live withoutMni Wiconi, the sacred water of life. We are here for our families, our children, their children, and those still unborn. We are all one family standing together. The strength we have is in prayer, especially in numbers. Millions are needed to let the authorities know that people from all walks of life, all religions, all cultures are in tune with the Creator and are coming together to take a stand. We were not paid to come from all parts of the world as we did. We were not against the police. In fact, we prayed daily for them and their supporters. We hope they can see into their own hearts and have compassion to come join usor at least walk away from their oppressive jobs. We send the call out to the Creator,Oyinkiyapo, to come and help us in the collective power of prayer.

Melanie Stoneman, a Sicangu Lakota woman from Rosebud Reservation, spoke to this being a different kind of fight, a spiritual war. We must take care of Mother Earth and all of her children, she said. Living life in a good way is living in prayer. Every action is a prayer. Mother Earth needs all of us to add our prayers. Anyone is not only welcomed, but encouraged to speak at the sacred circle.

This edited excerpt of text and photos fromMni Wiconi/Water is Life:Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous SovereigntybyJohn Willis (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019) appears with permission of the publisher.

FALL FUNDRAISER

If you liked this article, please donate $5 to keep NationofChange online through November.

Read the original:

Police violence meets spiritual resistance in the struggle over DAPL - NationofChange

While I was trying to remember where I heard or read about the concept of letting your hate for someone else control your life, I realized that maybe someone needed to read about it. So here it is. Now I am not talking about just not liking someone. I am talking about not being able to control your emotions when it comes to a particular person.

I mean having complete and utter disdain for another human being, so much so, that even when you dont want to think about them, you cant help yourself. That person occupies too much of your mental space and saps your waking time and energy.

Look here. If you cant stand someone, cant get along with someone, still hurt after someone left you long ago, you really need to let it go. I guess it exemplifies a very practical approach to Let go and let God. The premise is simple enough. Without forgiveness in your heart, you are forever bound and chained to that which you despise most, are fearful of and have been seriously hurt by.

Have you ever been around someone who continues to relive a past relationship, a broken heart, wrongful termination, missed opportunity or a personal slight, over and over and over again? Thats all they talk about. When they see something or hear something that reminds them of that someone or that thing, you know whats coming. And they expect you to join them in the pity party theyve thrown for themselves. In fact, its the same one they threw yesterday and the day before and you know its the one theyll throw tomorrow. Maybe youve attended a pity party or two, even thrown on for yourself.

Without forgiveness in your heart and mind and your spirit, youre essentially doomed to be shackled to what scarred you in the first place. My bible says the truth shall set you free. And the truth is you better let that madness go, so you can live a life of freedom.

You can never be the person God wants you to be, if you continue to let these people and events and circumstances have that kind of power over you. Thats right, power! Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you are letting your thoughts rule your behavior, your attitude and your outlook. Thats too much power to give to anyone or anything who is so negative to who you are in the eyes of God. Its a mind game and its your mind.

Paul says, Be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Romans 12:2. Let God reshape your thinking into what you can be instead of what they you say are not.

The truth is God cant or wont even deal with you until you comply with the rule of forgiveness. He says, If you come to the altar with your gift and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift and go be reconciled with your brother; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23. You got to let it go. You have to in order to claim your freedom, your peace. Until you do, you cant receive all that God has for you.

My point is that the process begins from within. It takes intestinal fortitude to forgive ones enemies in the face of their attacks, old and new. But you must. I know you can. Just remember this. When you do let go and let God, It is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He knows its in you because He put it there. May God bless and keep you always.

The rest is here:

Spiritually Speaking: Don't Throw Your Own Pity Party and Attend - Dallasweekly

Join Live at 2:00 PM ET: A panel of educators from Chabad yeshivos will be discussing raising emotionally and spiritually healthy bochurim, in the first of a series of panels on chinuch.

By Anash.org reporter

A panel of educators from Chabad yeshivos will be discussing raising emotionally and spiritually healthy bochurim, in the first of a series of panels on chinuch.

Titled Raising a Tomim the panel will take place on Monday, 20 Av, August 10th at 2 PM ET and will be broadcast on Anash.org. The panelists will discuss challenges and problems facing current-day bochurim, and debate the best way to approach these issues.

On the panel will be Rabbi Shlomo Sternberg of Chovivei Torah, Rabbi Mendel Gordon of Yeshivas Lubavitch London, and Rabbi Osher Farkash of Yeshivas Lubavitch Argentenia. Moderating the panel will be Rabbi Levi Kaplan of Cheder Chabad Monsey.

The panel is the first of a series on chinuch, with upcoming panels planned to discuss girls education and other topics.

Join live via Zoom:Zoom ID: 815-0726-2562Passcode: chossid

Read more:

Live: Raising Emotionally and Spiritually Healthy Bochurim - Anash.org - Good News

COVID-19 has brought a lot of change and a lot of learning in the past several months. It has been a season of humility. This pandemic keeps bringing me face-to-face with to the fact that I am not in control.

Being the type A planner that I am Enneagram 1 for all you followers that lack of control is tailspin city for me.

Recently, in a wave of anxiety that stymied yet another attempt to fall asleep, I spent my time mulling over everything that still wasnt done, people I hadnt checked in on, decisions still to be made. (You know, pesky little things like school plans, how to get enough people interaction for the extroverts while still being safe and not putting anyone in danger.)

In the midst of this tailspin, came a holy moment. A question from Holy Spirit/God: Do you trust me?

The answer, if I am honest, is not really. Wasnt that what all my plans and lists were about? Why I couldnt fall asleep?

Then, a piece of a Celtic prayer came to mind: Bless the work that is done and the work that is to be.

We are never fully done or fully in control. There is no arriving at completion. Of check box control. Of a decision lasting with no re-dos. Thats not the way life works.

Normally theres enough stability to blink away that painful truth, but right now theres no ignoring its stare. Believe me, Ive had my fair share of toddler-level tantrums at this new reality, but theyre exhausting. And fighting this new reality doesnt help. I want to sleep again. I want to be able to flow in and out of the online, hybrid, in-person phases instead of each one being a hard stop that levels me.

Im pretty convinced that in order to do that Im going to have to learn trust God. The humility to gather up what is un-done at the end of the day and place it in Gods hands trusting that God will spend the evening sifting it all so that come morning I only pick up what is good for me and for others. After all, a piece of humility is not thinking of myself more highly than I ought like assuming my trying to manage and control it all is whats best and needed.

Glendale UMC is spending the month praying the following prayers. Many lines come from the Northumbria Communitys book of daily prayer. Were going to help each other figure out this trusting thing.

Wed love all the help we can get if you want to join us. And if youd like to talk about what youre learning praying these prayers, I want to hear your story. Pop over to 13550 Glendale Road Tuesday from 5:30-8 p.m. or Thursday 2-5 p.m. Ill be outside the church ready to chat.

Morning prayer for walking humbly with God:

Christ as light, guide us to the work you would do in us and through us

And will do in spite of us.

You who are I am who I am,

Teach us to be who we are.

Christ beside us on our left and our right,

Protect us from ourselves and from the powers of evil we encounter.

Help us to live this day as instruments of your love, Amen.

Calm me, O Lord, as You stilled the storm.

Still me, O Lord, keep me from harm.

Let all the tumult within me cease.

Enfold me, Lord, in Your peace.

Shield and sustain me this ___ [moment, meeting, project, encounter...]

Evening prayer for walking humbly with God:

God. [Mother, Father, Savior, Holy Spirit, Holy One & Holy Three, Shepherd, Potter, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Giver of Sacred Worth, ___ ]

Bless the work that is done

And the work that is to be.

Bless the church that we are [person I am]

And the church that we will become. [person I will become]

Continue to work in us, through us, and in spite of us

So that your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Kate Payton is pastor at Glendale United Methodist Church in Savage.

Originally posted here:

Spiritual Reflections: It has been a season of humility - SW News Media

90 Day Fianc stars Kalani Faagata and Asuelu Pulaa have disagreed about many things so far on the fifth season of TLCs 90 Day Fianc: Happily Ever After. From parenting their two young sons to traditional gender roles, flying to Asuelus home country of Samoa during a measles outbreak, and giving money to Asuelus family, the couple has often been at odds about nearly every aspect of their life.

But, in a new sneak peek of an upcoming episode of TLCs 90 Day Fianc: Happily Ever After, Asuelu and Kalani revealed that they have at least one shared belief: They believe in ghosts and hauntingsand they even believed their rental home during a vacation was haunted by unwanted spirits.

In a 90 Day Fianc preview, Asuelu and Kalani woke up in their rental home in Washington after an awkward day on the road and a big fight. The couple had traveled from Utah to Washington with their two sons, Oliver and Kennedy, in tow in order to meet up with Asuelus mom and two-half sisters, who were currently living there.

Asuelu was frustrated at the end of the long road trip when he learned it was too late in the evening to reunite with his mom. He resented Kalani for wanting to head back to their vacation rental and get some rest for the boys and herself after the long car ride.

But before they discussed their argument, the 90 Day Fianc couple had more pressing mattersof a paranormal nature, no lessto talk about.

I still feel tired, Asuelu told his wife. I barely sleep last night.

When Kalani asked Asuelu why hed gotten so little rest, he told her matter-of-factly, Because I saw a ghost.

The 90 Day Fianc star claimed that, when hed gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night, hed seen a little girl looking at him.

Asuelu told 90 Day Fianc producers that the experience had been nothing short of harrowing.

Most Samoans believe in ghosts, Kalanis husband explained. Last night, I saw, its likea shadow of a little girl standing in front of the bathroom.

And after the alleged paranormal encounter, Asuelu said, hed never been able to relax.

I feel like Im standing in the air, and I feel like I have big, big head, he said of his terror after witnessing the ghost. And I didnt really go to sleep last night. I was wake up whole night and in the morning. I feel very scared.

RELATED: 90 Day Fianc: Kalani Faagata Asks Followers Not to Insult Asuelu Pulaa On Social Media

But instead of telling her husband he was imagining things, Kalani seemed to fully believe Asuelus story. In fact, she said, she shared Asuelus belief in ghostsand claimed to have experienced the same ghostly presence the night before.

Okay, thatno, Kalani said incredulously, her eyes wide. I didnt tell you because I didnt want to scare you, but last night, I heard someone talking. I held my pee because I was too scared to go to the bathroom.

Kalani told 90 Day Fianc producers that she truly believed there was a harmful paranormal presence in the couples vacation rental.

I 100% believe in ghosts, the mom of two said. Sometimes, you encounter bad ones. Never really happened to both of us at the same time, but I believe that there is a bad one here.

Kalani and Asuelu might not have agreed on much, but they certainly agreed on one thing: They didnt want to stay in their rental home.

The 90 Day Fianc couples discussion of ghosts led to an unlikely moment of bonding at a strained moment.

Im happy us being freaked out about ghosts made us talk, Kalani told her husband.

She explained that Asuelu had freaked out the night before because they couldnt go see his mom right away.

But, unlike in their other recent fights, Asuelu seemed to have taken accountability for his actions.

After the boys went to sleep, Asuelu apologized, Kalani said, adding that she hoped this was a sign of his choice to turn over a new leaf.

Asuelu, too, hoped the couples visit with his mom and half-sisters would provide a fresh start after a time of tension in their relationship.

I promise Kalani I not get angry this trip, because things went so bad in California, he said, adding that he vowed to do better from now on in his relationship with Kalani.

Read the original post:

'90 Day Fianc': Kalani and Asuelu Reveal Their Rare, Unconventional Shared Spiritual Belief in New Sneak Peek - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

All of a sudden I am interested in all the sayings involving iron,captivating, uses, discoveries and sentences including iron metal.

I read close to a book every two weeks. My current one is bent on the use of this amazing wordin court cases, alibis and large manufacturing companies.

Iron, the name, comes from Anglo-Saxon iren and was discovered in the Eastern part of the world, thousands of years ago, used for various ceremonies but was also considered too valuable and expensive to use in everyday life.

Its chemical element is Fe. It is silver-colored,plentiful, common and cheap, very useful for many products and seems more valuable than gold.

Today, it is found all over Texas and more parts of America.

In the 19thCentury, mainly Navy vessels were sheathed in armor (iron), seemingly unbreakable and impenetrable,compared to the former wooden boats. Once again, amazing use for protection and strength.

Ironclad

My current booksparked a word-research common activity in me, and here goes some of the sentences!

I am a born-again, free, full-of-the-Holy Spirit, peaceful, joyful, healed Christian, and that is without a doubt ironclad because of God and His Son, Jesus, covering me with angels and His armor according to the scriptures:

Please e-mail me if you need a Bible or counseling:kathiedeasy@hotmail.com

So, if whatever you think isironclad, make sure the iron isntrusty.

Kathie Deasy writes about religion for Port Arthur Newsmedia. She can be reached at kathiedeasy@hotmail.com.

See the rest here:

KATHIE DEASY Ironclad sparks ideas of being armed in spiritual iron - Port Arthur News - The Port Arthur News