Category: Random Thoughts

Apr 21

40 Days of Meditation

ascensionI had never thought of the day of Jesus’ Ascension as a holiday until this year.  I’m not all that familiar with Catholic holidays, but I don’t think very many Protestant churches in the United States celebrate the Ascension.  Oh, the minister preaches about it.  We know it happened between Easter and Pentecost, and we don’t deny its importance, but it just kind of gets lost somehow.

This year, probably because of my Religious Studies courses, I feel the need to spend some time meditating on our Christian rituals and holidays.  Several people of my acquaintance have annoyed me with their attitudes about Easter.  They have suddenly discovered that most major Christian holidays match up time wise with pagan festivals and also share many rituals.   Because of this fact, they think the Christian worship is being degraded.  They are re-enforced by the reaction of many conservative Christians who are horrified by this “news.”

Christians who delve more deeply into their faith than childhood Sunday School lessons already know this, have always known this and see it for the irrelevancy that it is.  We know that Easter has nothing to do with any pagan god or goddess anymore.  The word may have come from there originally, but that “god” died with its last believer.

As pagan people were converted to Christianity, they brought their traditional ways of celebration with them.  The people and the new focus of their worship were the important feature, not the origin of the activities.  Christians today, know they are not worshiping Ishtar and the timing of Easter is tied to the Jewish Passover season, not some pagan fertility rite.

As I dug into research to prove my thoughts on this, it occurred to me that we seem to be missing a very important day in our holiday lineup.  The day that Jesus ascended into heaven should be more important to us.  We should be paying more attention to it.  What it represents is a major part of our faith.  Without his Ascension, our hope of an afterlife would be a very different proposition.

There is no way for us to know for sure, at this point, what the actual date is, but tradition tells us it was 40 days after Resurrection Day.  So our Easter season should extend from Ash Wednesday, through the 40 days of Lent, to Easter and then another 40 days to Ascension Day, which is supposed to be on a Thursday.  This year that will be May the 29th.  Like Easter, it will move every year along with Passover.

During the 40 days between Resurrection and Ascension, Jesus did not go into the city or countryside to make new converts.  He spent his time in meetings with his Disciples instructing them on how they were to carry out His teachings.  On the 40th day, they watched Him ascend into Heaven.  Ten days later the Holy Spirit descended on them at Pentecost.

So, I am making a new commitment.  A promise to spend this time studying and meditating on my religion and what it means.  I recently bought a book by Bishop Spong titled The Sins of Scripture.  It seems like a good place to start.  I also have many other religious books that I and my mother before me have collected over the years.  I am sure I will have no problem finding material.  I’ll keep you posted.

 

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May 12

Breathing….

It’s Mother’s Day. I am being lazy, so here’s a chance to catch up on some posting.  Of course, I went to church this morning and the Baby Boy, aka Damion, went with me.  He is so amazingly good during worship service.  Something I’m sure he’ll outgrow.  After services, we stopped for our usual lunch.  So far, a pretty routine Sunday.  I’ve checked email and Facebook.  Heard from one son, two daughters, and several granddaughters. The baby is asleep and I’m relaxing.  This evening, I’ll be going out to eat with two daughters and a granddaughter.  That has actually become an annual thing.

School is finished.  I made an ‘A’ in Middle Eastern Religions and a ‘B’ in Religions of Asia. Admittedly, I already had a working knowledge of much of the information, but I gained a deeper understanding as well as picking up new information along the way.  I have two summer classes scheduled.  First is The Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures during May.  It only lasts three weeks so I’m guessing it will require lots of work on a daily basis.  The second is Christianity, which lasts four weeks during the month of July.  I expect both to give me a new perspective on topics I have been familiar with for my whole life.

It looks as though, somewhere in there, I’ll be making a Roadtrip to Charlotte to pick up a grandson who hasn’t quite outgrown “visiting Mamaw” or perhaps to take him home after the visit.  Plans aren’t set in stone yet.

A busy summer doing what I love most.  What more could anyone ask?  Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers I know and those I don’t as well.  It’s the most difficult and rewarding job in the world and there is no ‘retirement.”

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Feb 16

Echoes of Small Stones

As I was trying to catch up on Social Media today, running around clicking links like a whirling dervish, I ran across one that made me stop and think.  When you consider the time and effort required to master this, it is truly amazing.

I was entranced and couldn’t understand how the people in the background could just walk away in the middle of the performance.  So, a “Small Stone” experience that calmed my scattered brain.

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Jan 28

Small Stones

I have come to the conclusion that my life is too busy for scheduled moments of quiet contemplation.  There are too many interruptions and unexpected events for me to succeed with a daily commitment of any kind.  I do well to check email regularly.  It didn’t used to be this way.  I used to work 40 hours a week at a day job that was an hour away from my home.  That meant roughly 11 hours a day, including lunches, was committed.  I got two days a week off and spent them doing chores, shopping, and paying bills. I still managed to read, watch TV, socialize.  I didn’t have a lot of free time, but I didn’t really notice for a long time.  When I did notice, it was how much time I spent on the road, driving back and forth.  I began to resent those two hours a day.  I wanted to be able to spend them doing something else.

Then I “retired.”  It wasn’t too bad at first.  I was going to school and that meant everyone knew I still had job-like obligations.  They didn’t expect me to be available 24/7.  Whenever they saw me with books or on the computer, they assumed it was for school and accepted it as necessary.  Then I graduated.  It took a couple of months for everyone to realize I didn’t intend to get a “job.”

Once I was “officially” free of outside influences, they began to impinge on my time.  It seems they don’t see why I can’t drop whatever I’m doing to help them out.  Don’t misunderstand, I usually can and I’m usually willing to do so.  It’s just that there’s no boundary.  I’m always getting interrupted.  Every interruption is a single drop, but all of them together form an overwhelming flood.

So, I’m putting people on notice.  I am back in school.  This semester, I will be taking one online class and one on campus.   We’ll see how it goes.  I now have “real” obligations, not just my own desire to write, not just posting to blogs, not just research for myself.  I will have deadlines for papers, classes to attend, tests to study for and reading that must be done.

Maybe I will get fewer interruptions and I won’t be able to say, “Sure, I can do that,” every time someone asks.  Maybe I’ll even find a couple of hours a week to do my own research and writing.  Small stones to build a dam with so that I can stem the flood.

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Nov 07

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Melody Pearson

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On Facebook, many people are participating in a 30 days of saying Thanks.  Each morning you post an update to your status with a different thing that you are grateful for.  Some are extremely personal, others have a generalized lifetime gratitude kind of attitude.  Some are uplifting, others amusing, but the overall theme is lets think positively about our lives and appreciate the things we have instead of complaining about what’s missing.

Although celebrating a day of Thanksgiving on the third Thursday of November is an American tradition, this exercise can be international.  Everyone, wherever they are in the world, can look at their lives and think, “What can I find to say Thank you about today?” Then share it with the world. ( Read more )

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