Declarations of Resistance - "What you do not know will not hurt you - so mind your own business!"

Declarations of Resistance - “What you do not know will not hurt you – so mind your own business!”

Everyday “Declarations” fill the air. “Mayor Ford” uses media scrums and voice to declare a position and hold onto a belief in who he believes he is. Government departments issue press releases and updates – hoping to assure and maintain the “commonly held beliefs” of the citizens. Such declarations in today's society are really words sought and iterated to keep whatever story / group / true to whomever is making the statement. There is no difference between Mayor Ford and the Alberta Governments response to the Obed Coal Mine wastewater containment failure as both are Declarations of Resistance.

I live by and drink water drawn from the Athabasca River. I am a counsellor working with persons living in violence cultures. I assist individuals to understand how others may perceive the choices and behaviors such individuals choose. Much of what I do is to try to name and explain my observations to shine a sliver of light to open awareness and comprehension of those I meet in my work. Such awareness and insights can lead to change and growth to living in healthier relationships.

When one considers “addictions” often present in any person or group statement – the denial factor can be blind spots and a reactionary resistance to any declaration presented to me. Time and changes to behavior is a measure of the “evidence of change” in rehabilitation work. I realize I am deluded by other's statements when I recognize and experience actual behaviors which do not fit the viewpoint of the declaration. The frequency of declaration might be a significant cover up to truth. Such frequency may be a flashing light of desperation of an unconscious broken inner child. When we live with the myth of who we believe we are can be dangerous for our well-being.

The media has been filled with Mayor Ford's declarations of innocense and upstanding citizen of meritorius service to the people. The people choose to accept or deny such declarations. Mayor Ford's behaviors are ultimately his choice and the ingrained behaviors of survival and what he consciously or unconsciously has learned through life experience. In terms of a story is it tragic comedy or pathetic reality of reaching a vision somewhat unattainable in the near future of one individual? The impact of Mayor Ford's behavior is an example that may assist many others to recognize their own need for adjustment and change. The story is important as I believe it is a current individual reality of a large percentage of Canadians. The story needs to be told.

Such addictions to our current existence however painful – keeps many of us from seeing and accepting our own needs to change. We believe our imagined heavenly vision is descending upon us now. The declarations we accept and believe hold us in our own denial. Recently in a “Chicken – Little Dance” I too have been proclaiming things I believe to be true but my declarations only stir resistance and hence rejection by others. What I am about to declare may upset and stir anger in many people who rely on the Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund for their “secured future”. Shareholders in companies like Sherritt International may include myself. CPP payments are connected to the innvestments in a fiscal belief system so many of us are part of as well.

The cost of the environmental destruction of our way of life is an expense fast forwarded to the future. It may also be a significant factor in our well-being and health or not. The impacts of toxic chemicals released in the 2^nd largest coal mine slurry containment failure in North American history is being flooded and covered over by declarations of resistance by the Alberta Government. There is much more to this story that needs to be told. Will our grandchildren really know what happened? How is our lifestyle damaging our children's health here in the “tragic gap of what is to what could be”. I will continue to declare resistance to that what destroys life for all for such is the business we are all into!     

Open letter to Premier Redford

Dear Premier Redford,

           Let me begin by congratulating you on your triumphant victory to leadership of the "ship of state known as Alberta".   As a ship captain you are sailing in turbulent, stormy and even uncharted waters.  Once pristine forests with their ecological and biological tapestries containing riches beyond our imagination were once whole - providing life for citizens of the planet in a complimentary way.  Life and opportunity still abound in this treasure house filled with many amazing gifts.   I believe the recognition of the individual importance of each gift requires a thoughtful and gracious approach as to what should be done with each gift.   It must be like going through an old jewellery box of an ancestor who has passed it onto the next generation. Your task and response abilities are "legion".

          I am writing about the unseen dangers lurking below the water line and shores where your "ship is sailing" and what appears to me to be destruction and wasted opportunity for the whole ship of state of Canada.  Trying to "get one's head around" the complexity of an economy is like trying to understand the one who cannot be named - aka God - or life in its full regalia.  Humans are a curious animal with a penchant to figure things out - and often the only way to do so - is to begin by taking things apart to see how they work.  Another approach is to try something and if it works try harder and faster.  In my humble opinion this is the current approach of fracking for oil and gas industry world wide.  Not knowing the impact of what the results of the approach are - because they are not being measured,  combined with denial of  possible impact is in my estimation setting the possible outcome similar to the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.

       As a trained biologist, theologist, psychologist, I have many lenses to observe and contemplate the possible outcomes that may occur over time from any action.   I also know that when testing and observations are compiled in experiments knowledge and information can be helpful.  Science usually works with only a few variables to limit probabilities and permutations.  Such partial answers also eliminate what may need to be known.  Political science often fails to acknowledge the complexity of power and many variables of such power as to how it can build up or destroy - depending on the chosen variables for the outcome desired. 

          Corporations and people can provide insight from the micro to the macro as to outcomes of behaviors.  Those with the most money and capital can buy what they want and need.  If corporations or citizens always get what they want, beyond their needs, the greed and course of actions may be more about the unconscious destruction of life for multiples of others remains unacknowledged and unaccouted for.  Now that foreign governments and their state agencies are buying into the oil-sands operations in Alberta so that they can have access to the golden geese in their own lands, via the technology and where with all they have will one-day provide a surplus of energy beyond the human needs.   Such speculation can spell out the boom will burst as most alway do.  The lack of support in "sailing a diesel powered ship" for alternative models of energy and efficiencies is that the icebergs of disaster, although seemingly becoming less visible (by warming water melting them all) does not eliminate the dangers and "black holes" that can take down a ship without warning.

           Since the investments of foreign states as they remove the oil and gas from our land, and hold in reserve their own tar sands and un-fractured oil and gas opportunities, what will future generations of Canadians have to meet their own needs at prices.  Like food shortages, water shortages, and clean air and other ways that limit the possibility for life are unseen icebergs.  I believe as a community we  need all eyes, ears, and ideas to chart the course of the future.  Your governments role as directors of investment and opportunities should be cautious and discerning using critical factors for the course ahead to the final destination.   

        Finally the "black-hole" of the future is in my perception going to arise from the poisoning of the aquifers underground in our land.  This era of poisoning water  will impact life around the world.   Using the fresh water - for oil and gas aquisition through fracking will be "the contaminated needles of life" for life in future if we can not heal our addictions to the life we know versus who we can be.  Fracking into the underground where cracks and crevices are part of the infrastructure of earth the transmission and contamination possibilities unknown yet probable is the approach of denial.    I hope you can find and listen to what is really happening in the land and water, as you sail your ship that seems impervious to the voices and life beyond the walls of power and in places you never see or experience.  

             My children's children are depending on you and your government to accept the responsibility of your actions, whether they are acts of commission or acts of omission.  Such responsibility must make your soul weary.  I will continue to encourage and support you with my observations and thoughts.  I hope you have access to read this.

Sincerely - bruce 

Staying Awake In Alberta - Out of Site - Out of Mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRQt3Q0xPc  

The election is over.  Why do the media in Canada ignore this topic?   If you live in rural Alberta you may now or soon will be getting your drinking water from a regional pipeline connected to a river system.  Why do we need this to stay healthy? In the video above "Jessica Ernst" speaks of her truth to the most important issue facing future generations of life on the planet.

It became clear in the latest election in Alberta the political parties and media picked up on our sexual repressed human rights issues.  What about the right to clean - safe - drinking water?  Just because the water looks clear does not mean it may not be dangerous to consume or use.  The ongoing violence and abuse by the misogynistic culture of entitlement and power of the real rulers of Alberta (the oil and gas - energy industries) in this fascist state leave the citizens abused victims.  When people try to figure out why an abused person finds it difficult to leave it is often due to the invalidation and control by fear the other has over them.  The citizens are aware but like any mob continue in denial or like the rabid sports fans at hockey - football - extreme fighting events do not recognize the violence and how they dispense their deeply rooted expressions of their own invalidation in their past.  Most of us have our mark of "voldemort - the one that can not be named!"  but we do not recognize the violence that our culture has inoculated or acculturated us with.

In the past forty years - I have seen destruction of water wells that fed communities and people.  Oil spills that have contaminated the water in many Alberta communities.  The Town of Innisfail - used water wells dug by the CPR in 1890's to provide the water for the steam trains as a community source of water.  This town source water was used until drilling for oil and gas in the region began in the 1960's and by the 1990's the water was unfit for human consumption - smelled of rotten eggs - hydrogen sulphide dissolved in the water.  Where I currently reside beside the Athabasca River  within the published  fishing guide that accompanies a licence to fish in the rivers in  Alberta a warning to fisherman not to consume the fish (as it is a threat to life - especially for pregnant women) from the Athabasca river is published.

In the current pro - oil propaganda the idea of "natural occurring" contaminants within the water of the Athabasca river could be a fact.  A University of Calgary - Hydrologist has pointed out that over 80 percent of water flowing in most rivers in Alberta is sourced from ground water.  Ground water comes from the underground aquifers that flow across the province at various depths of the geological strata.  With the millions of oil and gas wells now drilled throughout our province what assurance is there for the "natural occurring" pollutants in the rivers that they are not residual collateral damage to the lives of all people living in Alberta and across western Canada? 

As a family violence program facilitator - the violence in the "body politic" - and the invalidation of people who speak up and speak the truth is mirrored in the children who attend our schools.  Our grandchildren and life on planet earth hangs in the balance.  Meanwhile the institutions of higher learning have adopted the sinister approach of the Milfoy's - group as known in the Harry Potter Chronicles using their wizardry for evil rather than the common good for all.  See previous post Expensive Lipstick

I belong to a church that appears to fiddle while Rome burns as the organization reorganizes it's state of affairs to match its relevancy.  Trying out new models of leadership - unconscious of its colonialism mind set of its arrogance and supremacy and inculcated racism.   I know that my statement may be an example of invalidation of others' own person and may lead to my own crucifixion but to hide my "enlightenment under a bushel basket" may only be a rant until one day people will wonder who were the voices that tried to let us know?  Which is truth -  To be right when everyone else believes your are wrong or to be wrong until others realize you were right?  I am not sure which side of truth I stand - but I sense the feeling of being on the cross.  When will resurrection of the truth become part of the mindset of Albertans and all Canadians?

Hope resides in sharing and recognizing my own dangerous tendencies and how deep my denial can lay a blanket over my mind. 

Meanwhile I will go plant my potatoes - as I can expect to live beyond the coming winter and will need food to sustain me.  Perhaps like my forefathers from Tipperary, Ireland the blight will cause me and my family to move.

Preparing for election - Anger - Invalidation - Power - the blessing of story

In honour of all I have met in the last month

Once upon a time - long ago there was a young boy who had many questions.  He went around asking people "what are you doing?" The linemen on the telephone poles - the men in the ditches - the women in the kitchens.  The butcher, the baker, the plumber and even the people on the "honey - wagon" coming to haul away the buckets of excrement from the outhouses down the back lane.  Why were there so many dead chicks in the garbage cans behind "the hatchery"? Why was the man with the horses in his yard so grumpy?   As a child - the memory as to the response went something like this; "just making little boys ask questions!"  The statement contained a profound truth that imprinted on the author during that critical stage of development a neural pathway deep within the recess of memory.  So many years have passed - but such memory is foundational to my own sense of self and for my readers such inquisition continues.

Growing up in a community where a toddler felt safe - asking questions - wondering around the ever expanding neighbourhood -  many marvelous discoveries were made.  The expeditions of "wondering boy" granted him a world view that it was okay to ask questions of who, what, where, and why "life" was the way it was.  This remarkable journey of discovery had many risks and depending on how such risk was measured it may have been deemed; foolishness or brilliance - depending on who was making the commentary. In school we were told stories of the work of the people at the United Nations who were helping to build a world where everyone could live in peace.  We were told it was important to learn and grow - imagine beyond what we thought we knew.  We were tested - and shown how to write with a stick with a metal nib that we dipped into little strange shaped bottles - the contents in a variety of colors - careful not to spill or "the blotter" was engaged.  The confines of the subject matter in collusion with the personality and level of grace and blessing of the teachers the experiences of schooling was often either a blessing or a curse for many.   The blotter effect of both the blotter which left the offending blot not as significant, may not have had the same outcome of the words, responses and behaviours of the teachers and the systems they were involved with in attempt to provide a common destiny for all.

The words, responses and behaviors of the human factors dispensing the insidious power of cultural formation of the social body left many wounds.   The testing - the negation - the invalidation of termed as "the right: answer - idea - word - way including not using one's left hand and other inanities marred and covered up the soul and spirit of many along life's journey."  Other markers of spilled colors included privilege - race - superiority - class - wealth and a dominant (mob) violence towards the weak, the vulnerable and the different.  I was granted a valid passport on the first class train rolling across our nation because I could recite back to the gatekeepers what they wanted to hear and see.  I was informed of duty, service, and the obligation to challenge authority.  Much of my life has been lived in resistance to power.  But like the single tickets to ride the buses - public transportation - or ability to go to school or hospitals have "portioned out moments of validity" and when such moments end - one is forced to leave - step off the system "marked or deemed invalid" - left vulnerable to the ill-winds of righteousness and narrow visions of political masters.  The legacy of invalidation provides my heart - breaking work with survivors of domestic violence helping them recover their precious "little - elder" self of innocence beauty and awe they were blest with when they were born.

I have learned from my brothers and sisters and as a witness to their pain, shame and suffering what resilience and life lived valiantly is about.  Living with a legacy of invalidation I honor the survivors of all schools - especially the ones who endured "residential schools - and those taken away from their families", I admire their courage to get up and speak truth to power - I have no excuse not to do the same. I experienced overwhelming evidence of shared grace, courage and hope spoken in truth and love at the gatherings of the Truth and Reconciliation events in Halifax and Victoria.
trc.ca

In this Easter season, I will pick myself up and come out of my cave - with new life to bloom for a short while. I will get on my bicycle and go down the hill to vote for hope,  optimistically allowing the vision of being part of the amazing spirit of life, to grow and thrive in a community that values love and all life. The saving grace is that together using canoes and other amazing ways of travelling together we can slow down our lives- heal and recover - and allow mother earth to restore and hold us close once again. 

Remember you are nothing less than beautiful

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIn-q7YkVSo&feature=related

Expensive Lipstick and Truth Suppression.

http://www.campusalbertainnovatesprogram.ca/Energy&Environment.html


It has been along time since Pasteur / Fleming and other scientists developed - penicillin which saved multitudes of people and animals from biological attack on their person. Today in the land of the free'con'omics a plan to research the use of microbes to solve the energy / carbon crisis of our time is an opportunity not to be missed. The search / research to find the “antidote” to the poisoning of mother earth's aquifers, part of the collateral impact in recovery of all available carbon based gas and oil, is in theory operable and ongoing. To search deep in the rocks and life – underground in the “mordor of middle earth” - for the new microbes to vaccinate, prevent and cure the damage from in part where the  life giving water flows.

 The damage is a result of fracturing the layers of the earth using toxic poisonous substances. Framing such “holy grail” quest to find such key to eternal life, to maintain our lifestyle -- might be named as a state of delusion. Such is an exercise in obfuscation to continue the obsession to find the last gas and oil at all cost might reveal psychopathic tendencies if looked at in another perspective. Could it be that “The Alberta Innovates Program” is truly a rouge to dress up the situation so people won't see the beast as it is?  Rouge and lipstick on what ever "beast" or wolf , we require  few woodsman to decapitate and relieve us of our impending death.

Could it be from their knowledge of Black-water Whiskey and the sulphur bacteria in most water found in rural Alberta today (long-term effect of oil and gas exploration) that they have placed such misdirected hope or was it just the whiskey of power and the elixir of greed?

Will our miniscule presence in time be known in future decades as to when they poisoned humanities source and sustenance of life – the water of life transformed to the water of death.
 
Still wondering

Call me Ishmael.

I have been away - visiting - listening - sorting out my narrative. I ponder Herman's words written so many years ago in the tome "Moby Dick". Call me Ishmael. What has changed in the human condition? How much of Captain Ahab is in my being? Are my obsessions leading me to my own death? Is my destiny unfolding as the fates are directing? Is my life providing sustenance for others?

 I live in Canada a country where the Captain's - obsessions are destroying and holding many entwined to a dream - more like a nightmare! The narrative of my country is not based on a victory on some foreign soil, where our patriots left their bodies for the worms as the military mongers proclaim! Yet our government is promoting and using the military budget to do just that.  Canada's great victory in the war of 1812??? Huh?

I am painting my own "white and black" house with strips of "dried red blood". Old Mexico is the color. What lies hidden in the unconscious of such choice? A house planted on territory that from many was said to be unoccupied - yet perhaps stolen by the newcomers intent on building a new life for themselves! People from crashed and war torn countries were "advertised to" by the corporate interest who marketed a dream of "the new land".   I am now coming to recognize my Canadian identity as a member of Treaty 6.  As it takes two parts to a treaty I am beginning to identify with my responsibilities of the treaty.

They had promised to share the land - water - and resources. Many are still in wait for promises made years ago.  I too complicit in the ongoing story - wanting to hide my white shame privilege through busy-ness and distraction.  It seems like Chapter 90 in Herman's Tome. The winds of time - still blow "the Pequod" the ship of life that I am on - towards the unknown future. Yet it is known - like the whale oil industry - taking everything than innocently lives - and regardless of the cost - there still is blood on the light in my house and the gas in my car! I confess - and promise to repent! But when Jesus asks -

"What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' He answered, 'I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, 'I go, sir'; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Why can I understand it but not implement the choice I need to change! Grant me forgiveness - so I can heal - and take steps to the new life that is upon us.!

Just still wondering -  Have you made changes in your life lately??

Friends we need to know!!

I discovered something about myself today.  An article at the Toronto Star challenged my sense of my own being.  I have to interpret my own competency.    http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1137874--why-incompetent-people-are-too-incompetent-to-know-they-re-incompetent?bn=1#article 

Are humans questioning what is happening in their world?  The impacts of the internet has help us to look at ourselves. It has the potential to challenge and assist humans to confront or use critical questioning as to what they believe they know with what they actually know.  An example of misplaced assumptions in Canadian parliamentarians filled the House of Commons with mea-culpas as some realized some incidental truths of what they thought they knew, had to be confessed only to find out what they claimed a few days before as truth was false.  The Vikileak and Anonymous related to issues in some way creates a level of mis-trust that leaves everyone's integrity in question.   What appeared  yesterday as attempts to "save face" perhaps will provide a saving grace that will reduce their ego's impact on the denial of truth and what is spoken.  Consider  the possibilities of the internet becoming the "new Parliament of the Canadian People" and the impact on the current institutions and procedures.

I sense Parker Palmer in his description of "standing in the tragic gap" may have an insight we can use. His call to introspection of our living and using community to as part of the reflection model may offer a way forward.  Watch the video



It seems to me that with opportunities to gather people from all over the world in conversation small groups the world could be changed dramatically for the better.  If each of us was to treat everyone as a friend and others as a friend I haven't got to know yet we could make a difference.  I want to thank the person I did not know across the table at a pancake breakfast - ask me the question - "What will you be doing with the rest of the day?"   A good way to enter deeper into relationship with those we do not know as friends.

Hope you see new ways to encounter others in your life!  Would you recommend a community that is welcoming and challenging?

Still wondering

Life below the Tropic of Capricorn

President Sarkozy's little brother - wants to assure the world that the private financiers will maintain the economic order in order to replace the central banks of many of the smaller countries.  As Chief Executive to the Carlyle Group - one of the large alternative sources of capital available to the world - drawn from the exploitation and non - sharing of the wealth derived from the energy and resource rich regions of the world; assures us that all will be okay according to a report in "the Australian" a few days ago

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/private-equity-can-help-europe-says-sarkozys-brother/story-e6frg926-1226217666803

The one percenters believe their own humble opinions as the messiah's who will rescue humanity from its depravity.  We should not be fooled by foolishness alone.  The reality of most of humanity is defined by struggle - survival - violence - and the in-ability to participate and offer their gifts to the whole of life.  I appreciate the freedom to speak foolishly into the mix of the madness of the new "wonderland" we now live in.

May the days of the journey ahead - whether it is flight to another country until the tyrants have died or been replaced, or for the child born in the outback village in the territories - may they be symbols of hope that one day - soon - a new way of life will emerge.  Here in the lighted half of the world where the days are reaching their longest periods of light may we be awake to the darkness around us.

May this season be filled with hope - joy - and grace

on the way to Uluru to watch the sunrise and set

bruce 

Being alive - feeling good!

Finding one's voice in the wilderness can be difficult and suppressed by one's own imagination and mind.  I am offering to others to what I wrote to my activists friends who I feel were responding to what is going on around us.  The words I offer are in love and in the tradition of claiming my role as a deacon within my faith tradition.

I too want to thank the posters / cross posters.   I have edited this on the evening that I heard Danny Michel - sing Maybe You Can Find it in Your Heart.

http://www.dannymichel.com/newsite/welcome.html 

I can declare that where humanity is today - in the midst of a huge reorganization on many institutional and confines of the contexts - ways of living -  based on the human desire of the old ways to live beyond a scarcity mind set on consuming more.  Such current narrative being promoted by those with the most is falling apart.  The ancient seven wonders of the world remind us of civilizations that have disappeared.  Our current one - is like the one described by Ishmael - in Herman Melville's tome - Moby Dick.  We are on the Pequod - together sailing towards our end at the bottom of the seas of time.

http://youtu.be/6Ugkain3QUg    Danny's song Feather Fur and Fin


Such knowledge and information can very easily effect our moods and ultimately take us into the darker places where we find ourselves living.   Such moods include - Dispair - Resignation - Cynicism - immobility - victimization - blame - resentment - anger and fear.   What has happened and is happening will continue to happen. We too will experience the impacts as are all other life forms on Mother Earth.  Coming to the realization and acceptance of what is and how we chose to respond to what happens to us is a powerful skill to become who we intend to be.   If we continue to operate out of the behaviors we have come to use based on the old story we create to explain ourselves to the universe we will get stuck in the mud of the lakes where the water has disappeared.  When I am given the choice to respond to a situation - I can choose a different response and choose to live in a different mood.   This is the activist dance that then goes on in our mind.

I offer that I have found myself in exagerrated cycnicism and sarcasm - but if I can stand up turn around from looking backwards to looking forward in inspiration of a vision using my creativity to live fully alive with what I have - around me and by working together as citizens of earth we can support each  other, including our enemies.   By taking out of our vocabulary the word "enemies" - replacing it with "the friends I do not yet know and appreciate" I can change my being.


If I declare I do not like being a victim and take responsibilty for where I / we are together we can create  options and actions - including civil disobedience - to invite others to do the same and to invite the powerful to engage in dialogue.  Such when we sing and dance together our hearts and minds can be changed.


If I can get forego the resentment - anger - self pity and all the energy it requires sitting in such space, transformation can happen.   I can allow acceptance of what has happened and what is happening may continue. It is what it is.  I can turn into the realization and responsibility that I have the power within myself and along with the community to make a difference.   Accepting such I can be the person I am destined to become as I can be.


If I let go of the moods of resignation - and use the energy that is currently immobilizing in such situation - and convert it to ambition to do and stand and walk on the path of an aliveness and sense of healing and vitality.

I have recently returned from a program called "returning to Spirit" which gave me the tools and path towards empowerment. Why does it take me fifty years to become "When I'm you" especially to find the happiness that comes with letting go of the imagined person I thought I was.  Now I can be the you I really am.  I have experienced finding "the spark in my heart."  I was lost in times old ways!!!!!

http://www.returningtospirit.org


Such work included getting in touch with the basic core belief I held unconciously for most of my life. The lie perpetuated was; I am not important!!


The behaviors and patterns I used to support and grow my "concept story" were when I was in the four ugly moods - were exagerrated cycnicism / sarcasm and inserting my story and my crap into the conversations. Persons were unable to hear or listen as I suspect they became tired of my "incessant wisdom and need to explain" such as I am doing now.


Our mind and our behaviors when we do the dance of moods I described above for me was that I could not pay attention or hear others. I was self absorbed and often isolated and withdrew from being fully alive. I dare say a form of depression - and would by others be described as "mentally ill" which is a term often used by the powerful to discredit anyone who could not dance the power and oppression dance - of the delusion they invite and encourage us to live.


So I offer my weekly "sparrow speak" - chirping my voice to the universe - because it is now out there and as James Brown sings "I Feel Good!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzlpTRNIAvc&noredirect=1

so good -


bruce

P.S.  Thanks Danny for your insights and music to wake up the nations.  Bob Marley likes it !!

Poetry or Prose

Living in the chaos of dysfunction
Accepting and living a response ability
Beyond the meager walls of my self contained
a yearning to be "Rhinestone Cowboy"



the song embodied in my soul
leaving fragments of greatness
to leave behind
as story and legend

oh what is such psalm of ages past
wandering the land of being
in tune with life around us?

Many cry out in despair -
Critics of all that is wrong
wounded by injustice
in their minds eye

the easy place of critique and pain
desiring more
yet unable to lift a step
a finger to forge ahead

such oppression - such lingering doubt
no sympathy for others on the path?
Why brutal - lateral violence -
such human living contain?

Godde help my soul proclaim
Yet why such madness
mental illness often proclaimed
blame the victim
self included - such fear -
such dread of night -
holds on so tight.

A voice caught in the trap of changing rules
by politicians vagarious choice
wondering why the time to issue visas to return
to menial work - as lowly servants
tests the patience and endurance.

(plight of many foreign temporary workers aka slaves)

Such patience and endurance -
lived values
our own fore-parents
did accept when offered passage
that built the nation within where we dwell.

Why such mean spirited ignorance
consequences of actions and words
come to destroy the will to live
as such is the result?
Could it be pathology within those who quest for power
failing to recognize the impact
on those imposed.

Is it not such named pathological?

Is such thoughtlessness
or extended righteousness?
Imposed to placate the little soul within
the drunken sailors at the
parliamentary ball?

Why such misery needs to be imposed
Is it fear like ancient kings of Eygpt?
Where are the midwives to deliver the future generations?
Or are these coming angry children going
to give up and wander in limbo
between life and hell of greatest pain?

Yet from strange lands we take the rich
the educated - professionals in mimicry
of Nebechenezzer of Bablyon.
To let them live
or send them home to Jerusalem
with riches for them to carry on
Curse the Samaritans - who were not chosen
Stayed behind - like the older son -
While the younger prodigal
did spend the inheritance for life secure
only to find he too was welcomed home.

So where is this home that people long for?
Why can we not invite the strangers in to our tents?
To try to claim as ours
As was only lent to us to care for
Yet we still dance the same old story
as it was in the beginning - is now - forever yet to be?

If such godde is still alive - growing - changing - welcoming us home
Can we not do the same - and in grace - celebrate and sing
so all are welcome in this time a place?

Such stiff - necked people we have become
Our hearts turned inward on our souls
Yet in the days ahead -
Let us dance the freedom dance -
sing the songs of celebration yet again
Hoist up the cup of grace and reconciliation
To begin again - the new day dawns eternal
here and now in this space "The Eternal Now"

With thanks to Paul Tillich and Glenn Campbell and the calls for help I recently received?

Do we need "a" reality? Carl Roger's prophesy of contemporary Canada!

Carl Rogers essay near the conclusion wrote "we are wiser than our intellects, that our organisms as a whole have a wisdom and purposiveness which goes well beyond our conscious thought. ...men and women, individually and collectively, are inwardly and orgasmically rejecting the view of one single, culture - approved reality. I believe they are moving inevitably toward the acceptance of millions of separate, challenging, exciting, informative, individual perceptions of reality. I regard it as possible that this view like the sudden and separate discovery of the principles of quantum mechanics by scientists in different countries _ may begin to come into effective existence in many parts of the world at once. If so, we will be living in a totally new universe, different from any in history. Is it conceivable that such a change can come about?" Roger's concludes his essay

"..that if nations follow their past ways, then, because of the speed of world communication of separate views, each society will have to exert more and more coercion to bring about a forced agreement as to what constitutes the real world and its values. Those coerced agreements will differ from nation to nation, from culture to culture. The coercion will destroy individual freedom. We will bring about our own destruction through the clashes caused by differing world views."

mms://64.41.121.56/saybrook.edu/NeedReality1.wma

He goes on to offer hope: "But I have suggested an alternative. If we accept as a basic fact of all human life that we live in separate realities; if we can see those differing realities as the most promising resource for learning in all the history of the world; if we can live together in order to learn from one another without fear; if we can do all this, then a new age could be dawning. And perhaps -- humankind's deep organic sensings are paving the way for just such a change."

mms://64.41.121.56/saybrook.edu/NeedRealty2QA.wma

I had an experience in listening to this - that it mirrored the disciples at the feet of Christ listening to the master. My response to first reading the quote and then listening to Roger's deliver the essay at a conference - I was struck by the polarization that he concludes would occur. The message mirrors what has happened in Canada's election. On the one hand a message of values that the world has abandoned - and how the described "zealots" want to make life where everyone is in agreement to the leaders demands versus those who appreciate the amazing diversity and wonder of everyone's powerful unique perception of reality and being able to honor and listen to each other.

Now as I hear the words that the state will have to apply more coercion to have people comply and give up individual rights in order to implement thier agenda I can understand the needs for prisons. When we hear and cheer for the death of Osama Bin Laden - we are allowing a precedent to be set that it is okay to seek out and kill another human being because their ideas may be contrary to our own. The years ahead with a "strong and stable majority government" should be looked at with sceptism and foreboding as to what lengths the "authority chooses to unleash on the masses" of oppressed people - blind to their oppression.

To be subversive is a calling Jesus had .... will you join him on the journey?

The Revolt of the Elites and the Moral Deficit

The May day parades are over for another year. Did you hear about the throngs of people who took part? In the years to come - their significance may once again emerge. The pendulum swings slowly over the ages.

The future became much clearer for Canada last night. The great divide between the rich and the poor - those with the right "stuff" will be able to victimize the poor - broken as simply stating it is only the result of their choices. Clarity will be shown by compassion and how we treat the strangers - beaten up and left by the side of the road on the path of progress of the free - market economy.

Perhaps the new jails and prisons will become the poorhouses where many will be forced to go when they have no other choice. What will be the color of the uniforms of the selected enforcement agencies?
Will they also be trained at Fort Benning? Or will the School of America - come to Fort McLeod in Canada?

http://soaw.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100

The need to have more dialogue and discussion to recognize the way forward is the tension and the tragic gap that we live in today.

The Revolt of the Elites and the Moral Deficit

If you have a sense of unease - perhaps George Monbiot will be able to help clarify the dilemma of the human condition.

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/05/02/the-lost-world/

May we all gain the vision of our time - as to which path through the wilderness we may take.

Merging Markets and tax giveaways to the "job-creationists"

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2011/02/07/a-corporate-coup-detat/

The writers extolling the blessing on the merger of the Toronto and London Stock Exchanges seem to believe that the value and opportunity for sales of shares is what defines the economy and provides opportunity and growth. It is true that one can believe what ever they want. That is why freedom of religion and free - markets go hand in hand. They are both "belief" systems. When enough people believe that money made on speculation contributes to an economy there is generally a bull market. When people believe that the market is not necessilary the best investment they try to find other places to park "their money". Now consider that the value of a dollar is a belief that a dollar has the potential energy or value within to exchange for something of "value" purchased by said dollar. Having a bigger market to gather and sort out the values of any one stock on any given day nurtures a belief that the economy is continuing to grow. John Galbraith in his little treatise on the financial industry and its short memory reminded us that when paper money and shares are exchanged for other paper money or shares then some time in the future - everything will return to "real value". Such collapse of the inflated market can even reduce the value to a negative force which will suck up what is real and reduce it to nothing. One might suggest that such is a "black hole". But in the ever expanding universe of the stock market trading world when belief turns to disbelief the surreal may become real. Many will be left holding no money and governments waiting for the "job creators" ie large corporations reducing their expenses and becoming more profitable by "corporate welfare" or large scale tax rate decreases will only have to resign- when the people discover the cake they promised is only dust in the wind.

Weavings | Diving Deep for Wisdom: Spiritual Discernment

Weavings Diving Deep for Wisdom: Spiritual Discernment

End of month 5 of my healing - restoration - retreat from paid accountable ministry I celebrate:
- grace bestowed by the Great Mystery.
- the consciousness sharing provided by the Internet.
- the spiritual tradition of lectio divina.
- love that is incarnate in all life.
- patience - silence - and the gift of hearing the "spirit".
- Kairos time to interpret and reflect apart from cultures dominant "Chronos as money".

Only in the past few weeks have I begun to feel again.
The lectionary for this week contains the beatitudes - Matthew 5: 1 -12.
As I listen - I hear words of feelings. The intangible - the unseen that can not be measured as facts that can be scored on a form. The wisdom that confounds those who believe they know.

I give thanks to Ann Siddall for her offering linked above expressing many of my experiences in pastoral ministry the past 11 years. Living Christianity is not a set of words - repeated in a ritual on Sunday mornings. Living Christianity is informed by the Spirit of the Living Christ in "all that we think say and do" expressed often in Rotary International gatherings 4 - way Test.

I give thanks to the sense of wondering /wandering in the wilderness - allowing me to be challenged - transformed - and led to a promised land. May I be grounded in humility - knowing the spirit will dance within and beside me all the days of my life.

Amazingingly Graced by all continuing to heal

Drumming For Healing

Drumming for myself has been a liberation journey. My health and sense of well - being has improved greatly. Drumming allows the emoting of unhelpful energy and often brings me back into rhythm with what is going on around me. The circle is a gathering of support and each person brings their own dimension and spirit to the expression of diversity in the community.

Slow Transition

October is a good month for the Spirit to appear as if I am on a vision quest. Deep listening - awakening - attentive to what is present in presence around me - dreaming - visioning the future beyond the church walls in the community.

Finding the courage to take the steps into another way of being seems to running in the family. I walk a little more gently now. I am able to listen a little more deeply. All is good.

A new page - a new path

I want to thank RevThom for his post on why ministers burn out. It affirms me this day as I begin to walk a new path apart from the congregation where I last celebrated at two wedding services on Saturday Aug 21. Today I am attending a new course on 'spiritual companioning' which is what I believe I am called to be about. This is not a recent call but one that I received many years ago.

I have been given the blessing of working in a congregation for the past 8 years. Much of what is mentioned in the article on why pastors burnout applied in my situation. In reflection and prayer I was able to say good-bye and now am concentrating on refining my gifts to be able to offer my calling in the community in a different way.

From Rosemary Heights Retreat Centre - and the Pacific Jubilee Program in Spiritual Companioning I give thanks.

Oh freedom is a blessing - and I give thanks and praise to the source of life - the sacred way.

Peace be upon you all

Bruce

DND, families of dead soldiers say leaked friendly-fire report is wrong - thestar.com

DND, families of dead soldiers say leaked friendly-fire report is wrong - thestar.com

"A truth about war is the first thing lost, is truth itself." Much of what happens in war has an "official cause" and then there is the actual. The island of Kiska in the Aleutian islands during WW2 was suspected of being occupied by the Japanese. Indeed the Japanese had been there and had even had supply bunkers equipped and filled before they vacated the island. A veteran who was in the landing party to recover the island of Kiska, shared the incident of the American soldiers to be killed following such landing. The troops had been ordered to dig in and not to move until they were given the word. The "trained" soldiers were tired of doing nothing and decided to sneak up the hills from the coast to figure out what was going on. This was when they found the supply bunkers and went in to investigate. They found uniforms and armament and decide to fool their buddies and dress up and come down in the new found uniforms to have a little fun. This is another story from those who were their - http://canadianheroes.org/henri/the-battle-for-kiska-story.htm

When they were spotted by the Canadians coming down the hill, they were mistaken for actually being Japanese and were shot by the Canadian soldiers. The newspaper and official release was that they had died in battle fighting the Japanese. My source who shared the story with me several years ago, I believe he told the truth. My father discovered the truth of war several times in his military career that was different from the "official decision". His dream of what he was being offerred to serve was not what he had signed up for either.

I mourn the loss of all soldiers who for what ever reason ended up dying, when it was the leaders of their countries who reclined in soft chairs wearing their white gloves to cover up the blood they did not want to show their mothers.

May we one day end the madness of recognizing what are leaders say is the truth and realize what it really is. Just another little lie in the scheme of the mission. Remember that power - politics and priviledge are the steroids that feed and grow the bulk of arrogance, that people believe is strength and character behind the padding and glitz of the uniform.

Scharper: The price of political expediency - thestar.com

Scharper insight and reflection on democracy and what is happening needs to be shared.

Scharper: The price of political expediency - thestar.com

Maintaining vigilance and awareness by naming and helping others to perceive how the actions of the minority and people with power can abuse others is critical in a democracy. One should not fall asleep in our lawn chairs without pondering the consequences of the actions that go hardly noticed. Hope people can rest up and prepare themselves for the hard work of the elections and resitance needed, to prevent the abuse and misuse of power by those whom we have turned over our political power to in our complacency.

Other wise the world is alive and life is amazing. Such a paradox we live within.

Happy fishing in the lakes with no fish.

Abram - Mary - Martha - Spiritual awakening

I must pay attention to the strangers who arrive in our midst especially when I find myself sitting under a tree in the desert. Like Abram, when I perceive the 3 strangers coming toward me, it is better that I welcome them and call for the celebratory banquet of welcome and sacrifice - the giving up of something in expectation of something to be better in future.

Perhaps as I prepare myself for the journey to follow the wandering Aramean where the holy mystery leads, I look forward to the spiritual direction course and further discernment of call. I yearn to be like Mary and sit at the feet of the teacher and allow the wisdom to emerge. Is such wisdom already there, and do I only need to let it come out like a doe and her fawns who wait by the water's edge to safely drink at the lakeshore? Can I give up my busyness - and distractions like Martha with all my attendent duties and obligations that I have entwined myself in as a result of my covenant and promise to settle amongst the people of the whispering hills?

Why is it when we want someone else to do something we ask Jesus or some other authority figure to do our asking for us. As I am discovering the idea of being triangled into someone else's issue is never comfortable for all involved. Why do we hesitate to ask directly? Fear of rejection - fear of not being listened to? Is the deeper fear of abandonment and how such request for them to join in what we believe is our duty or obligation somehow tied to our worthiness and acceptance?

When the holy angels or agents of the divine appear, how do we respond? Do we deny and ignore - so we do not allow ourselves to be hurt again by relationships gone wrong and hang onto the special intended lamb for the future that will not really sustain us or may never come? Do we let go - call for the celebration and in return be given the promise of a new birth - and Isaac the one who laughs in our midst in the near future? Such is faith - trusting in risking and welcoming and offerring hospitality?

Can a faith community become such a place of welcome - that in the days to come we will give up like a new parent the self-centered narcissitic life realizing our responsibility to the next generation and our brothers and sisters who dwell with us on spaceship earth? Will we give up our need to be voyeurs on the pain and sufferring of those who are not in our over-privileged status that we believe has been endowed upon us by reason of our intelligence and hard work and actually befriend them as holy guests? (one might consider a case for delusional living) and recognize the need for treatment and healing).

What will be your response to the visitors? Will you seek the spiritual dimension of eternal life and wholeness - sharing the banquet of life with all? Or remain distracted by duty and obligation imposed on us by the pharoahs and our own unconcious behaviors that lead to the abyss rather than life in all its glory, struggle and resurrection into the ever-birthing options that the holy - mid-wife births us into!!