Wednesday, January 25, 2017

SILENT SPRING

“If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem.” 
― Rachel CarsonSilent Spring


BELITTLING THE GIFT

A listing of Sufi Nafs, things we should be alert to and try to dissolve from our lives.
It prompted me to answer a text I had snubbed from an old old friend. 

Being proud of one’s spiritual state
Arrogance
Envy
Miserliness
Being vengeful
Denying the giver of gifts or belittling the gifts
Being dissatisfied and complaining about one’s state
Ceasing to have hope for God’s Mercy
Being sure of God’s punishment
Condoning tyranny and helping tyrants
Speaking against decent people
Being hungry for approval and compliments
Fearing criticism
Setting traps for others
Fawning over people for personal benefit
Being happy about disasters that fall upon people
Taking pleasure in people’s suffering
Gossiping
Being a hypocrite
Being a coward
Not keeping one’s word
Believing in bad luck
Leading a life of no responsibility
Making excuses
Not keeping to one’s path due to laziness
Lamenting the loss of things
Not accepting one’s error and continue insisting on it
Being afraid of poverty
Making oneself depressed
Taking pleasure in belittling others
Being disdainful of the poor
Forgetting about one’s own shortcomings and being preoccupied with the shortcomings of others
Excluding from one’s heart the love of God

Friday, January 20, 2017

NOT MY PRESIDENT? NOT MY BROCCOLI.

He might be THE President, but for me, the jury is still out whether he is mine. We'll see. He could win me over the way Clinton did.
Back when I first started working for Hyatt and doing banquets, I went through a spell of overcooking the broccoli. I'd put 500 portions in the steamer, and let it go a minute too long, and instead of being pretty and green, it was the drab green color of an Army tank. And I'd have to go get 8 more cases and try again.
One night it was a close call. It was just a LITTLE overcooked, so I went with it.
As we are plating up, the chef is giving me dirty looks, and the broccoli I thought was just a little overcooked didnt look so good anymore.
At some point I said to the chef "Chef, I'm ashamed that your broccoli is not what its supposed to be"
He looked at me, and took a portion of broccoli and tossed it in the trash can.
"Its not MY broccoli" he said.
I never overcooked the broccoli again.
So if somehow it slips out of my mouth in the next four years that Trump is "not my President", that will be what I am talking about.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

DIVORCE AND SEPARATION

ARE HARD, BUT MURDER IS ALWAYS AN OPTION.


Thursday, January 05, 2017

TRUMP AND THE PEARLY GATES

So Trump, Putin, and Clinton all show up to the Gates of Heaven at the same time. St Peter says “I can only let one of the three of you in.”
So Donald steps forward and says ”I gave all my money to Charity”
Then Hillary steps forward and says “I fought for the women and the children of the world all my life”.
Putin gives Peter his best innocent Commie smirk and says “I’m knowing now the stpeter@pearlygates.com” and winks.
Peter raises his arms in glory and says, in Russian:
"Заходи оттуда Владмир, мой товарищ, и сделать себя как дома прямо сейчас!"
which translates roughly to:
“Come inside from there Vladmir, my comrade, and making yourself at home now!"

I ALMOST FORGOT

HAPPY NEW YEAR!







REFLECTIONS


Sometimes people ask me how a non-religious person can believe in God. The best answer I have is that I have come to believe that a power greater than me can restore me to sanity. Can make me better, soothe me, heal me. That power takes on several different forms. If I'm open I can find it even in the different religious literature.
A crescent moon, the melting snow, the cry of a tiny baby.
I may not be able to see it, smell, touch, or taste it, but I know when it happens.
I know when its there.
How do I know?
I know by what I am reflecting.
Not my thinking.
Reflecting.  By what is shining from and through me.
What it means to me is that no matter whatever gets thrown at me, I always have the opportunity to live by the principles I have learned in my program, to demonstrate how a higher power is working in my life, and that no matter what may shine on me, I am responsible for what shines from me.

Inspired by Richard Thompson

Wednesday, January 04, 2017

THE ALPHABET OF GRACE

Two from Frederick Buechener

"Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back--in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you."

"If there is in heaven or on earth or under the earth anywhere any justification for my presence at this table in this room it is that I have something so good to say that I can be forgiven everything else if I will only say it. I must believe that I have such a thing to say. I do not always believe it. Let somebody else now say it for me."