A Lover's Defence - Post #2

An Accuser’s voice,

"But you have violated so many rules. Doesn't this make you rethink the course of your actions?"


A Lover’s response,

“Rules have been crafted by insecurity. Something very painful has happened and the shallow response has said, ‘Let's make it so this never happens again.’ Rules have been the response to pain since the Garden of Eden. Creator did not use rules this way but, even before there was violation, made known Divine will. This spoke of life and freedom and expectation – this was unmitigated joy. This is the joy of being all Creator has made you to be.

A man's eye is drawn toward his female loveliness. His smell and taste confirm her deliciousness. His hands thrill at the entanglement of skin. His ears make him melt as she whispers his name. The dance of mutuality and of respect and of response moves two bodies to meld into one. Words consummate. Eyes mingle. The feast is mutual and consummate. The song of love is sung in the delight of Creator's dance. The musky smell of response thrills to pleasurable explosions of delight.

Where are rules in all this? Where are the boundaries? Where are the lines drawn? Where are the referees and judges? Where are the condemning voices? Where are the stern looks? Where are the accusers with their rules? They are not here. There are only lovers. There is only mutual joy and response. This is the delight we all seek, unmitigated by human violation and impropriety.

What rules have I broken? Only the rule that says, "You shall fear." I am happy to break that rule for perfect love casts out fear. True love is violent with that which assaults dignity and that which hinders Creator's joy. I will ever break those rules of fear and indignity!

A Lover's Defence - Post #1

An Accuser’s voice, 

"How do you respond to all these charges of impropriety?"

A Lover’s response, 

“Have you ever met genius and art that so fascinated you that you could think of little else? Do you know what it is to be attracted by some glimmer of light and brilliance and then, as you draw closer, a loveliness unfolds that surprises and delights you? Your smile grows larger and the contemplation that inspires only grows fonder with the passage of time. It is like coming across value and wisdom that, at the time, you are not able to apprehend. It escapes your conscious notice but something on the order of pheromones never-the-less draws you and moves you inexplicably. It is the mystery of all the choices we make before our conscious awareness even notices what is going on. It is as though we are drawn on by unseen forces - God if you will. The triggers of sight and the visceral response of smell captures your attention and somehow you are awakened to loveliness.

“I know this great joy and I have struggled all my life to respond to it in a way that feels like fulfillment, like naturalness, like unmitigated joy. I do not regret the courage of my responses that have been this way. There are too many examples and anecdotes I can give of fear, of the opinions of others, the pressures of family and followers and that of leaders that have diverted me from the quantum pull of my own heart. Where I have turned aside to see a burning bush but I did not stay long enough to listen. The clamour and clutter of the agenda of others clouded my perception and the clear experience of my own soul.

“The forces of history and the contextual pull of the present are propelling me into the consummation of the future. It is the inexorable flow of destiny. When I have yielded to this flow of destiny and courageously initiated movement toward this natural visceral response I have traveled decades and miles in moments. I found myself in heaven, in a place where I wanted to live forever. I saw things that made me weep. I heard things that melted my heart. Something in the aether moved through me and I could see/hear the end of time. I saw and heard humility and power. I watched as human artifice and pride crumbled and melted into the soft simple care of a child who listened and learned. The smoke of Babylon rose up and those who were moved by this something in the aether were unmoved by the great pull of power, wealth, and pride.

“When I looked into her eyes they ravished me with embrace. I saw my own worth. I became better than I was. I became more whole and a more true expression of myself. I am glad I cast off restraint. I am happy to have followed my heart. I have tasted heaven and I am so rich and my eyes have seen beyond the pale of this unfulfilled and longing world.

“What do I say to accusations and to the shame inferred by this word impropriety? I say I am happy, I am free, I am full of love, and I would do it again a thousand times over!”

I am invisible

I am invisible
I am an Aboriginal man
And I live in Edmonton

I am invisible
You walk right through my space
And you don't even flinch

I am invisible
You never look at me
I might ask you for money

I am invisible
Until I walk into your store
Then everyone greets me
And follows me everywhere
Shadowing me in case I steal

I am invisible
I am an Aborignal man
And I live in Edmonton

I am invisible
Until I live in your building
Then you give me the once over
Three times up and down
Ending with a gaze upon my shoes
I am feeling judged

I am invisible
You never look at me
No smile ever on your face
I must remind you of someone
Some Aboriginal man

I am invisible
Immigrants ignore me too
My reputation has preceeded me

I am invisible
I am an Aboriginal man
And I live in Edmonton

Time Travel and Therapeutic Fiction

God is with me wherever I go.  He plays music for me over and over again to bring tears to my eyes.  The Times They are a Changin' by Bob Dylan is now playing in this cafe.  I am closer now to the end of my days and indeed, the times, they are a changin'.  I look back now on my life and see "the good ol' days."  I did not know how fortunate I was but now in comparison to the present reality I was fortunate indeed!  Some things were worse back then but so many things were much better than they are now.  I suppose every generation feels this way in this stage of their passing.
    
I hear the crying and fussing of a little child in this cafe and I remember the struggles in raising my own children.  Although my reaction is one that does not envy the young parents dealing with this I long to be able to go back to this time in my own children's lives and possess this revelation of old age.  It is my dream that I would have a new appreciation and a differing perspective on the struggle and would fare better in my parenting and have made my children's lives better in the process.  And yet here I am with brokenness all around.
    
It is no wonder that time travel is such a human fascination.  We ruminate about "what if..." and all the schemes that could make it a possibility.  What if I said this?  What if I did that?  What if...etc., etc.?  Perhaps it is this imagination of ours that makes life bearable in unbearable reality.  I have gained an appreciation for fiction.  My austere evangelical Christian upbringing eschewed fiction and looked down its condescending nose at such frivolity.  My broken soul now sees how therapeutic fiction can be for all the tangled ends of the fabric of my life.  If only momentarily, if only fleetingly, if only imaginatively, the fictional story knits these tattered rips of pain into another garment of hope, still scarred but with a new beauty and hope.
   

Do lions believe they are king of the forest?

“The subconscious mind is one million times more powerful in processing information than the conscious mind. Also the subconscious mind controls our behavior about 95% of the time.” Dr. Bruce Lipton

We sometimes describe the lion as a creature that is the king of the forest.  The Cowardly Lion of the movie Wizard of Oz tried his best to talk himself into this royal position if the Wizard of Oz would only give him courage.  The above quote indicates that our behavior arises from our subconscious and so the little bit of "positive confession" that the Cowardly Lion did would be of little impact on his behavior.  I would suggest he get intouch with his inner lion instead. 

If 95% (probably more) of a lion's behavior arises from its subconscious then king-like behavior is inherent in the very genetic/biologic nature of the lion.  The further 5% (probably less) of king-like behavior then comes from the learned behavior passed on by other mentoring lions.  What we observe and then describe in our metaphor "Lions are king of the forest" arises primarily from what I will describe as grace - a gift not earned but received.

My application of this to the human experience is to say that human life is a gift of the Creator in a much more profound way than we understand.  We live, move, and have our being primarily by grace - this 95% of subconscious autopilot given to us in our creation.  The little bit we learn and give ourselves credit for is by comparison a very small thing.  We are foolish to boast, comparing our tiny bit with others tiny bits, and thinking we are so great.  Creation and it's gift of life humbles me!

A Quantum Understanding of Relationship

When any measure is taken of an object, the measure is a reflection of the one measuring and not simply an objective quantification of some quality of the object measured.  You measure yourself when you measure something.  This is the lesson of quantum theory.  It seemed enough of a stretch to embrace the Einsteinian revolution that overturned the simplicity of the Newtonian view of the universe.  Now Einstein must stretch to deal with quantum issues. 

At the heart of this seemingly intractable dilemma is relationship.  When we love someone else we are responding to some information coming from them; sight, sound, smell, taste, feel, emotions, words, concepts, laughter etc.  We then evaluate or measure this information.  Our measure is really a reflection of us or a revelation of ourselves rather than some objective description of the one we love.  Love in this way is essentially selfish or self centred.  It is natural and the way of all human relationships.  Altruism, love for another for the other's sake alone, is what we struggle with.  Transcending the natural order is what we collectively remember in our cultural meta-narratives.