This site is a work in progress... So if you are here (I see 20 people visited yesterday! Who are you and how on earth did you find it?) it's undergoing major changes all the time as it emerges and evolves.
Background?
This journey started with the consequences of my self-centeredness; I found a solution to that problem in alcohol and bulimia; when that solution almost killed me, a new, truly liberating solution found me through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (hence the need for a pseudonym since we maintain anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, social media, etc.).
An essential component of our way of life is honest self-examination - to face and be rid of old ideas, ideas I didn't know ran and ruined my life. Now I see those same ideas in the larger culture, often unexamined and running rampant (just as they often still are in myself). The private, personal, individual experience truly does play out at the public, institutional, organizational, cultural level.
Without help, I'm blind as a bat; realizations have bubbled or burst to the surface through steady communication: prayer, long and short talks with mentors, sponsors, friends, pastors, teachers, professors, folks on the bus, family, readings of all kinds. Through this site, I hope to clarify some truths and misunderstandings I see in myself and in our world, especially those about religion, spirituality, and history; these seem to be the most pervasively damaging, divisive, and debilitating to the common welfare. I also just want a place to express myself and share so you might stumble across poems and wedding ceremonies, insights and my new learning.
Audience?
This site is for my beloved children, their children, friends, spiritual family, blood family, for neighbors, for strangers. It is for you and your children if anything within its words resonates for you, nurtures you, wakes you up, seems important, helps you pay attention. If it does nothing for you, it's not for you!
Green Text?
Green text indicates a quote from scripture.
What do I mean by scripture? Sacred text, spiritual food that has channeled the living God, allayed the fears, awakened the conscience, given purpose, direction, wisdom, and vision to people of every nation, culture, color, creed, sexual orientation, demographic, geography. It is text that has awakened me and continues to awaken me out of a sedated dream-state to the Great Reality.
The first scripture I ever memorized subsequent to my spiritual awakening was the Third Step Prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous.
"God, I offer myself to thee, to build with me and do with me as thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy way of Life. May I do Thy will always."
(Big Book page 63)
The next was Proverbs 3:5-6 from the Old Testament which I stumbled across written on a plastic card. (I never would have been seen with a Bible at that time and didn't know the Proverbs were in the Bible, anyway!!)
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
(Proverbs 3:5-6)
I am sure that in meditating on these two selections, it's evident how they are pointing in the same direction?
Scripture?
On the site, there will be two primary sources of scripture, the New and Old Testament of the Bible and the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. I wish I had another lifetime to include others. Please forgive me, my brothers and sisters from all faiths! In your comments, if anyone would like to make connections to their own scripture or faith, please do.
I love scripture! It gives me access to a steady flow of prayers, human stories, God-showing-up stories. Some stories take centuries for despair, loss, and devastation to turn to hope, grace, and restoration: others seem to rectify and heal pain and suffering, injustice and despair in a moment or steady sequence of moments.
The Big Book and the Bible?
"Be quick to see where religious people are right.
Make use of what they have to offer."
(BB page 87)
Martin Luther King, for one, may not have read or used the Big Book, but he found a Rock, the Holy Spirit, through study of, immersion in, and application of the message from Biblical Scripture. I totally understand why people don't "get" the Bible, having been in that category myself. Parts are absolutely repulsive and wrong. That said, as I read it more, I do feel the wisdom, insight, power, guidance, teaching, peace, movement of God; I understand better the words of the prophets and the radical life-changing truth/wisdom/experience of Jesus. I can see ways it is misinterpreted in some institutional churches, too (See "Alive," "Black or Brown" or "2. Hope.").
"I am the LORD your God,...
who leads you in the way you should go."
(Isaiah 48:17)
I ask Isaiah, "Can you please clarify what God means by 'the way you should go?'"
Isaiah replies, "I don't need to. God sent the Big Book because God realized "the way" was not explicit enough and religion has distorted everything for God's children so abominably. God despairs at the way in which the Word has been used to lie, oppress, manipulate, murder, and imprison."
The Big Book offers "clear cut directions," shares "precisely how we have recovered." It is a "How-To Book," a text for those who seek freedom. The first choice for the title of the Big Book was "The Way Out." Clearly, the 12-step's explicit path to accessing and sustaining a spiritual experience (without the spirit of alcohol!) has gained much interest in the church, as its steps and spiritual principles are in complete in alignment with the "good news," or the gospel. I attended an extremely reputable seminary. "Recovery Ministry" is a choice for a major in advanced degrees. The Big Book and works such as Richard Rohr's "Breathing Under Water," are required reading. Rohr's book makes connections between the Big Book and the Bible. He writes:
"Almost 25 years ago, I gave a set of talks in Cincinnati to link the wisdom of the Twelve Step Program with what St. Francis called, "the marrow of the Gospel." I was amazed how obvious and easy a task it was, and was surprised this was not equally obvious to everybody involved in either of these fields. So the least I can hope to do here is to make what seems obvious a bit more obvious." (Richard Rohr, "Breathing Under Water,'" page 1)
Purple Text?
All quotes within the site that are not from from the Big Book and the Bible are in purple. All of us have the potential and are called to channel an experience of God and God's love into one others' lives.
Gender Neutral Pronouns for God
I wish I felt more comfortable with a gender-neutral pronoun. I have chosen the following at times, a convention based on traditional pronouns.
Apostrophe'
He or she is laughing. E is laughing.
I called him or her. I called h'.
His or her eyes gleam. 'Es eyes gleam.
That is his or hers. That is 'es.'
He or she likes him or herself. E likes h'/h'self.
(Wikipedia entry)
We are ALL God's messengers
"And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD."
(Jeremiah 31:34) (Hebrews 8:11)
"...at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope."
(BB, Forward to the Third Edition)
So, as I said at the beginning, "WELCOME! I'm so glad you are here."
Background?
This journey started with the consequences of my self-centeredness; I found a solution to that problem in alcohol and bulimia; when that solution almost killed me, a new, truly liberating solution found me through the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (hence the need for a pseudonym since we maintain anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, social media, etc.).
An essential component of our way of life is honest self-examination - to face and be rid of old ideas, ideas I didn't know ran and ruined my life. Now I see those same ideas in the larger culture, often unexamined and running rampant (just as they often still are in myself). The private, personal, individual experience truly does play out at the public, institutional, organizational, cultural level.
Without help, I'm blind as a bat; realizations have bubbled or burst to the surface through steady communication: prayer, long and short talks with mentors, sponsors, friends, pastors, teachers, professors, folks on the bus, family, readings of all kinds. Through this site, I hope to clarify some truths and misunderstandings I see in myself and in our world, especially those about religion, spirituality, and history; these seem to be the most pervasively damaging, divisive, and debilitating to the common welfare. I also just want a place to express myself and share so you might stumble across poems and wedding ceremonies, insights and my new learning.
Audience?
This site is for my beloved children, their children, friends, spiritual family, blood family, for neighbors, for strangers. It is for you and your children if anything within its words resonates for you, nurtures you, wakes you up, seems important, helps you pay attention. If it does nothing for you, it's not for you!
Green Text?
Green text indicates a quote from scripture.
What do I mean by scripture? Sacred text, spiritual food that has channeled the living God, allayed the fears, awakened the conscience, given purpose, direction, wisdom, and vision to people of every nation, culture, color, creed, sexual orientation, demographic, geography. It is text that has awakened me and continues to awaken me out of a sedated dream-state to the Great Reality.
The first scripture I ever memorized subsequent to my spiritual awakening was the Third Step Prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous.
"God, I offer myself to thee, to build with me and do with me as thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy way of Life. May I do Thy will always."
(Big Book page 63)
The next was Proverbs 3:5-6 from the Old Testament which I stumbled across written on a plastic card. (I never would have been seen with a Bible at that time and didn't know the Proverbs were in the Bible, anyway!!)
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
(Proverbs 3:5-6)
I am sure that in meditating on these two selections, it's evident how they are pointing in the same direction?
Scripture?
On the site, there will be two primary sources of scripture, the New and Old Testament of the Bible and the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. I wish I had another lifetime to include others. Please forgive me, my brothers and sisters from all faiths! In your comments, if anyone would like to make connections to their own scripture or faith, please do.
I love scripture! It gives me access to a steady flow of prayers, human stories, God-showing-up stories. Some stories take centuries for despair, loss, and devastation to turn to hope, grace, and restoration: others seem to rectify and heal pain and suffering, injustice and despair in a moment or steady sequence of moments.
The Big Book and the Bible?
"Be quick to see where religious people are right.
Make use of what they have to offer."
(BB page 87)
Martin Luther King, for one, may not have read or used the Big Book, but he found a Rock, the Holy Spirit, through study of, immersion in, and application of the message from Biblical Scripture. I totally understand why people don't "get" the Bible, having been in that category myself. Parts are absolutely repulsive and wrong. That said, as I read it more, I do feel the wisdom, insight, power, guidance, teaching, peace, movement of God; I understand better the words of the prophets and the radical life-changing truth/wisdom/experience of Jesus. I can see ways it is misinterpreted in some institutional churches, too (See "Alive," "Black or Brown" or "2. Hope.").
"I am the LORD your God,...
who leads you in the way you should go."
(Isaiah 48:17)
I ask Isaiah, "Can you please clarify what God means by 'the way you should go?'"
Isaiah replies, "I don't need to. God sent the Big Book because God realized "the way" was not explicit enough and religion has distorted everything for God's children so abominably. God despairs at the way in which the Word has been used to lie, oppress, manipulate, murder, and imprison."
The Big Book offers "clear cut directions," shares "precisely how we have recovered." It is a "How-To Book," a text for those who seek freedom. The first choice for the title of the Big Book was "The Way Out." Clearly, the 12-step's explicit path to accessing and sustaining a spiritual experience (without the spirit of alcohol!) has gained much interest in the church, as its steps and spiritual principles are in complete in alignment with the "good news," or the gospel. I attended an extremely reputable seminary. "Recovery Ministry" is a choice for a major in advanced degrees. The Big Book and works such as Richard Rohr's "Breathing Under Water," are required reading. Rohr's book makes connections between the Big Book and the Bible. He writes:
"Almost 25 years ago, I gave a set of talks in Cincinnati to link the wisdom of the Twelve Step Program with what St. Francis called, "the marrow of the Gospel." I was amazed how obvious and easy a task it was, and was surprised this was not equally obvious to everybody involved in either of these fields. So the least I can hope to do here is to make what seems obvious a bit more obvious." (Richard Rohr, "Breathing Under Water,'" page 1)
Purple Text?
All quotes within the site that are not from from the Big Book and the Bible are in purple. All of us have the potential and are called to channel an experience of God and God's love into one others' lives.
Gender Neutral Pronouns for God
I wish I felt more comfortable with a gender-neutral pronoun. I have chosen the following at times, a convention based on traditional pronouns.
Apostrophe'
He or she is laughing. E is laughing.
I called him or her. I called h'.
His or her eyes gleam. 'Es eyes gleam.
That is his or hers. That is 'es.'
He or she likes him or herself. E likes h'/h'self.
(Wikipedia entry)
We are ALL God's messengers
"And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD."
(Jeremiah 31:34) (Hebrews 8:11)
"...at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope."
(BB, Forward to the Third Edition)
So, as I said at the beginning, "WELCOME! I'm so glad you are here."
This cactus and many others were everywhere as we raised our family. The cacti taught our children to pay attention, love beauty, appreciate slow growth, see patterns, educate others about potential danger, recognize that all of nature has tools for self-protection... The only time one of our children hurt themselves on a cactus was my fault!!