Thursday, February 7, 2013

Changing the World

I have been eating almost all raw.  I have had a couple of the Mariani Bars which are all whole foods, but I doubt very much that they are raw.  I think I need to give them up.

I completely got off focus when I started searching for properties within five miles of my house where I could possibly plant some fruit trees.  Travis and I ended up spending an entire morning driving around and looking.  The main place I was interested in would be okay for someone a lot younger, but it is very hilly and there is enough work to be done there to last a lifetime.  By the time we got home I was settled back down, content with what I already have, and trusting God to take care of us where we are.  This tiny piece of property we live on will keep us busy enough.

I still want to plant some more fruit trees, get dechlorinators for the hose and showers, get a rain tank, fence the garden beds, put in a wood burning stove, find a source for trace mineral fertilizer, find some way to utilize shade cloth during the summer, and put in a couple of smaller garden beds.  That should keep us busy enough for a while.

After I got distracted, I could never get caught up on the things I had planned to do.  I'm sure my flute teacher could tell when I went to my lesson.  

Natural Grace is a book by Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake.  Rupert, the scientist, is looking at the world as a living cosmos rather than as a mechanistic universe.  In our culture we have been conditioned to accept the mechanistic universe model.  I think the universe can be a living cosmos and still be governed by eternal laws because I have seen (from my perspective) that the laws of God and Nature are dependable.  I agree with him that Nature is full of creativity.  There is a relationship between God and Nature.  In our heart most of know that we need to get back to Nature.  Matthew, the theologian, writes about the sacredness and mystery of life.  He asks, "What is prayer?"  His final answer was that prayer is a radical response to life.  Thomas Aquinas and others have stated that "God is life".  The scientist is standing up and saying NO to a mechanistic system and the theologian is saying NO to forces of injustice.

A mistake about creation results in a mistake about God. -Thomas Aquinas

95% of the worship going on today is like the mechanistic system so popular in our science and culture.  A new way of looking at science might possible lead to a spiritual renaissance.  The issue isn't God being dead, the Earth being dead, or our worship being dead.  Matthew Fox says "It's us.  It's our souls...Can we come alive again?  Is there a resurrection?"  Thomas Aquinas said that there are two resurrections, and the first is waking up in this lifetime.

Is it selfish to be awake (perception, again) and to focus on individual responsibility when it comes to health and happiness when the world is going to hell in a hand basket all around us?  Should we put all our energy into changing the world or in changing ourselves?  Is our main priority to reform the economy, politics, business, and education or is it our individual self-responsibility?

To change the world we have to first change ourselves.  What we see in the world is a projection of what is in us.  If we want to correct the world, we have to correct our vision.  When something makes us fear, we need to work on getting the fear out of us.  Even if we destroy the outside object of our fear, something else will appear to make us afraid.  We will never, ever kill all the snakes, spiders, or terrorists.  Our work is to overcome the fear within.

If we are serious about resolving our afflictions, we have to look within our own mind and heart.  This for sure will not always be pleasant, but this is the only way to truly change the world.

Health and healing, happiness and harmony are within us....not out in the world.

To health and happiness.

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