Life Changes

Life is very strange for me these days.  I am in the process of selling my house.  Everything has to be “clean and tidy” for the staged showings.  Everything is off the walls with the exception of one or two very generic pictures on each wall.  If you look into the oven, you will find a box of tissues, a cup of pens and my grocery list.  The closet is filled with the items that are usually displayed in the bathroom and on the countertops.

Not only that, but I hate living in “clean and tidy.”  Granted, living in a clean environment is wonderful but having to put everything away every day is the pits.  Now, where did I stash that remote control for the television?

I have had to ask the question, “Do I want to sell the house?” several times during the last days.  It motivates me to want to get the work done and load the puppies into the car for the time the perspective buyers are checking out the house. 

         This morning, after loading up the dogs, getting what I needed out of the house, and driving away, I realized that I needed something else.  Instead of driving back home, I stopped at the local grocery store.  Knowing that I was only going to be there a short time, I wasn’t too worried about the dogs. 

         When I came out of the store, the car, next to me had pulled in and the guy got out with three children crying at the same time.  I opened my door and heard my two dogs crying.  Glory Be!  I had a chance to be really grateful that I had dogs instead of children. 

         There are times when all I really want to do is complain to anyone who will listen.  More and more, I am realizing that I don’t have that much to complain about.  Sure, things still irritate me but I find that all of that just makes for a more interesting life. 

         I am grateful that my life is as interesting as it is and that the changes are what I have chosen to experience.  All of this is because I said “yes” to a new relationship, soon to be new marriage, soon to be living in a new house and soon to be in an extended family of furbies. 

         It doesn’t get any better than this!

         

Expanding Consciousness

The last several years, I have been exploring different methods of expanding consciousness.  I know that life experience, discovering new adventures and being open to different ways of doing things all contributed to the process. 

One of my books stated that writing with your non-dominate hand would do the same process.  Not only that, but how extraordinary would it be to be ambidextrous?  That means not only can you use each hand well, but in being skillful in many ways.  I love being skillful in many ways because it proves to me how smart, clever and industrious I am. 

But learning how to write with the other hand is a skill that is very challenging.  I did a search on “how to learn” how to improve penmanship and got the usual drawing of circle O’s, and small, medium and large E’s.  That took me right back to grade school. 

Doing the exercises is hard.  One of the websites said that all that was necessary was to practice, practice, practice.  Well, of course, with practice everything becomes easy. 

Now, I have incorporated writing with my other hand as I start my journaling in the morning.  Starting with copying an affirmation to start my day, I notice that my mind really has to slow down and concentrate on how to formulate the letters I am using.  The pace of my life has certainly slowed down for this practice. 

Is it fun?  Not yet!  I wonder how I will feel about the end result?

Divine Plan or Pattern?

In several of my readings recently, I have come across the idea that all of us have a Divine Plan or Pattern for our lives.  I am not sure that I agree with the term “plan” or “pattern.”  Either one sets up a “set” path that doesn’t feel good. 

Long thinking about that and I have decided that no matter what the plan or pattern is, the Divine way of it is, that it is all good.  We have options in either a plan or a pattern and all of it is for the highest good we can imagine for ourselves. 

My pattern based on my “tribe” or childhood would have been staying in North Dakota, probably marrying someone with a family farm, improving my milking, rock picking and butchering skills along with having a vegetable garden and learning how to can the proceeds.  That option of the pattern wasn’t for me and I was gone three days after I graduated from high school.

In looking back in my life, I realize that every option or opportunity I took advantage of helped to prepare me for what I ultimately choose in getting into the ministry.  All of my past helped me to deal with or to give me the ways to tap into my intelligence to resolve or find a solution to whatever was going on in my life at the time.  It certainly prepared me for what I didn’t want to experience ever again.

I think this happens with everyone.  We just don’t take the time to put it all together or realize that all of our experiences are connected to get us to where it is that we want to go.  I know that when I started out, I didn’t know where it was that I was going, just that I needed to get there.  A very uncertain way to live but I think a lot of us do just that.  Unlike most of my peers, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, just that I wanted to get out of North Dakota and be “someone.”  Now I realize that I was suffocating in the midst of the tribe. 

Somehow, without a direct plan or pattern, I stumbled into the ministry.  It has been a wonderful way for me to get an education in all areas of life.  It has afforded me the opportunity to travel internationally and the United States, which has allowed me to witness different ways of living, people and culture.  It has set up the opportunity for me to start a new way of thinking and a new way of living what it is that I have learned in my writing.  And I am sure that I can probably come with several more ways of taking advantage of all that I know and all that I have done in a new direction and a new way of filling up that part of me that yearns for meaning and purpose in my life. 

Another thought I had was that the “plan” is golf.  The “pattern” is the golf course.  Each of us has the opportunity to choose the course and choose the irons or woods or putters to get through the course.  Within each plan or pattern are a myriad of choices or opportunities in which to excel or just have a good time.  Along the way, there are sand pits, trees, waterways and sometimes animals just to make it more interesting.  Our life plan or pattern is exactly the same.

Every stage of my life has served a purpose.  I am ready for the next stage and the next adventure of what presents itself for me.  How exciting is that?

What did I just hear?

While at Asilomar several years ago, I went to a class where we started with a meditation.  So, being the dutiful student, I closed my eyes, got still and then heard the most beautiful music.  I had to do it.  I opened my eyes to see what was playing.

The workshop leader was playing the oddest looking flute I had ever seen but it had the most gorgeous, melodious, heart felt music I had  ever heard.

After the class, I went forward to speak to the workshop leader to question her about the instrument.  She told me it was a Bass Flute and that they were very rare.  I mentioned that I would do some research when I got home to see if I could find one. 

She told me, “Don’t bother.  They are very expensive and you probably couldn’t afford one.”  Excuse me?

Thinking that if she could afford one, so could I.  So, I asked her, “How expensive?” 

She replied, “About $10,000.”

My feeling when I left that workshop was, “Well, we will see about that!”

Since I was serving in one of our San Francisco Centers, I went home and told that story the next Sunday.  One of the men in the congregation came up to me after the service and said, “I have two Bass Flutes, want one?” 

“Yes, how much?”

“$1,000.00,”

“Let me think about it,” I said.  A tenth of what “she” told me I would have to pay.

Time went on and during the next six months, I did a lot of work with his wife who was nearing the end of her life.  About three months after she had made her transition, I call him to find out how he was doing.

He told me that I had been on his mind and that he wanted me to have the Bass Flute.  Again I said, “How much?” 

“$100.00,” was the answer. 

“I’ll take it.” 

We met the following week and when he came into my office, he was carrying two instrument cases.  One was the Bass Flute and the other was a “G” flute.  He told me that he just wanted me to have the other flute.  How wonderful!  So, for the price of $100.00, I received two flutes from the universe. 

Doesn’t get any better than that! 

House Rules

I have service people on my mind.  Getting ready to sell a house is the bottom of the most desirable things to do in life.  But here is my all time pet peeve – the fact that it just started in the last two weeks is immaterial.

What is it with guys?  I can see when they are in their own homes, they get to do whatever it is that they want, be as slovenly as they choose, and revert to the “caveman” status whenever their little minds and hearts get the pleasure urge.

But when in my house…my rules RULE.  Take the bathroom, for example.  Okay to use it but, please, put the lids down when finished.  BOTH lids.  If your hands are filthy, use the paper towels that are sitting next to the sink and not the towel hanging on the rod.  And, please, if you use the towel on the rod, fold it again in the way you found it.  If you have dripped dirty water in the sink, faucets, and surrounding area, clean it up.  Something else to think about: If you have the skill to write your name in the snow, can stand on a precipice and hit a rock at 3 or 400 feet below you while aiming into the river, you can certainly hit a toilet bowl at one foot!  Practice.  Bend your knees and hold onto yourself to make your aim true and do it without splashing.

Asking for water is okay.  Drinking water is okay.  WATCH where you are putting that glass down!  Is it too much to ask or to think that you know your way back to the sink in the kitchen?  Where did you get the water to drink in the first place?

When coming in from outside, wipe your dirty shoe bottoms on the mat provided for that purpose.  Little chunks of dirt clods on a clean carpet or tile is very gross looking.  If you are sweaty, smelly, or otherwise, in a working decrepit state of dress, DO NOT SIT OR LOUNGE on my sofa!  Fabrics pick up all of the smells that are on you and now I have to live with it.  There isn’t enough Fabreze in the world to get rid of the smells you leave behind.

If you are drilling, peeling, tearing, cutting or anything else that leaves a back trail, clean it up.  I know that little particles of plaster, paint, glue and other disgusting bits of surrounding material are reminiscent of your former life but if you love them so much, take them home with you.  Or, let me give you an operating lesson on the dust busters that are ubiquitous in most homes.  May I even be so forward as to suggest you carry one in your over stocked van that you use in your service calls.

Why are there still smokers in the world when everyone knows how harmful it is to health?  But those of you who still need that nicotine fix, please do not leave your butts in my driveway to accumulate in the cracks of the concrete.  Litter in your own front yard but leave mine as you have found it.

Mothers, if your children grow up to be service people, teach them the service etiquettes. Wives, do not allow your husbands to go to work in yesterday’s clothes.  Teach him how to use the washing machine if you don’t want to do the extra laundry.

Life, save me from having to deal with service and repair men.  It pays to find a “fix-it” man to live with so as not to have to deal with all of the issues that come with untrained behaviors.

Where Am I, God?

Traveling north to Oakland for a meeting one day, I realized that since I had been on this freeway, there was a lot of construction going on.  My off ramp was closed.  This was unfamiliar territory for me and I didn’t know where I would end up?

         I remember thinking, “now what?”  I heard this voice in my head as though someone were sitting next to me in the car that said, “Take the next off ramp.”  The next one?  I am in the inside fast lane, and have to cross three other lanes to get there? 

About the time I wanted to answer, “Are you nuts?” I drove into an area where the cars next to me and behind me seemed to disappear.  I had a clear shot off the freeway.

Now I am in an industrial area with huge long warehouses, massive 18-wheeler trucks and me in my little trusty car!  “Where am I?”  Again the voice, said, “Take the next right.”

This is where trust really kicks in.  I was committed and I knew that I had to get out of this area because there wasn’t a friendly face anywhere.  So, right turn I did.  I drove for several blocks and again the voice said, “make this right.”  I did.  I drove another block and I knew I had to turn left and I was on the street I needed to be on.  Five minutes later, I was at my destination.

Sitting in the car for a moment, I asked myself, “What just happened?”  I got myself into and out of a situation that could have delayed me, really gotten me lost, and no one would have been the wiser as to where to look for me.

Thank you, God in me, for always knowing where I am and speaking loud enough for me to hear the directions I need to get to where it is that I need to go.

Location in San Francisco

While I was the Spiritual Leader at the Church for Today in San Francisco, we were looking for a new location to do church on a full time basis in one location.  Someone found that location and I asked, “How do you know it is the right one?”

He replied, “Well, it is located on Hayes Street.”  I lived off of Hayes Street in San Jose.  “It is across the street from ‘The Sacred Grounds’ coffee shop and ‘Cindy’s Market.”  I got it.  We moved in shortly thereafter.

When we ask for guidance and direction, we need to open our awareness to be able to recognize that what we have asked for is right in front of us.  The biggest stretch for us was the fact that previously we were paying $100.00 per Sunday for our meeting place, going into a location, which was going to cost us $1,100 per month.  Big gulp!

Then I realized that God would not find the perfect location for us and  not provide the money to go along with it.  All I had to do is relax in and let the process play out.  I did and it turned out to be a great location for us.