Civil War Between Your Ears

Who defines your narrative, informs you of who and what you are?  Increasingly popular media has taken on that role.  I was reminded of that recently as a student repeated many of the media stereotypes of the American Southerner.  We have to be aware of who is proposing the current American narratives.  Most of it is done in NYC or Hollywood and it is becoming increasingly difficult to know which is producing entertainment and which is reporting the news.  With our current 24-hour media cycle and each of us owning a device tuned to it we can quickly become defined by it, to come to see ourselves as we are narrated.  The ones doing the narration will always propose themselves and their beliefs as the most reasonable, all others as suspect, and then pick and promote those on both sides, that most fit their stereotype as true examples of their wisdom.  Allow them to control the ways information is disseminated and you have a mind coup in your head. 

  

Lean To Steer

When we were young my siblings and our spouses use to whitewater canoe.  We would spend three days and 20 or 30 miles on a wild river in the east.  One lesson the river taught us; often our canoe was going to be carried along by the river faster than we could paddle and at that point a great decision had to be made, either hold on or learn to steer.  At first, steering was a means of not wrecking but with experience, we learned that steering was the best way to enjoy the whitewater river.  Such is all of life. 

The first river we did, The Big South Fork before it was a National Park.  

    

To Infinity And Beyond

Daily I should require myself to be in a place where my only company is the sky, the earth, water, all the wild things that live in those and God—The Wildest Of All.  I am infinitely insignificant unless known in the context of The Creation Story.  Only in that epic is my ultimate value and purpose revealed and I am a Wild Heir of The Wild King in the Extravagant Kingdom Cosmos—And Beyond!   

Do You Have A Pilgrimage Trail?

Our private pilgrimage begins today.  We will turn our hearts toward the east and begin the long trail toward Fair Haven.  Its solitude, its quietness, its abundance of wildness and its every flowing Tennessee are like The Stations of God each one requiring contemplative meditation as they lead us to love better, He Who made it and owns it.  All humans need a regular journey toward a greater spiritual significance—but one must get up and go.

Will You Live A Life That Matters?

There is a wild sound that comes to me every morning from deep in the woods, a melodic loneliness, a primal prayer for dawn.  I know not what it is or for what it calls but I can relate to its nature.  Dawn often brings a peace that passes all understanding, light and hope, both given by their Maker.  The turning of the earth toward the light and warmth of the sun makes all manner of animal lay itself down to rest, either in body or mind.  A hope-filled mind is rested in The Bosom of He who has prepared the day for it—for He never sleeps nor slumbers and always asks, “Will you live a life that matters?”  

Church in Ireland.

9-12

We have all had our 9-11’s.  I have faced the violent death of two best friends and have myself been slain and nearly slain twice by violent blades and boiling oils.  There is no remedy for violence upon the earth but only the post-violence, the long healing of violent acts.   No one conceived of redemption, it is gifted us by The Divine in Eden and spreads gently across the eons through The Cross, to today, the day after 9-11.

“Let us not become weary in doing good…”