Pussy Riot will be released - Mazel Tov

I was just listening to Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me while catching up on my dish washing.   Wait Wait Don't Tell Me reviews the weeks news in a very amusing manner.  This is the first I've heard of V.  Putin's decision to release Pussy Riot.  That development may explain the incredible jump in hits for this blog.  The number climbed to 1125 for last month.

Huffingtonpost coverage of the positive outcome for Pussy Riot


Best Wishes to the artists and their families.

Vatican Survey

This is a great example of why I still love the Catholic Church so much despite events of wide fame involving corporal punishment and corporal indulgence. 

why annonyme?

    

When I started this blog I'd just come out of a very difficult patch and was wanting to reconnect with guidance from times when the road seemed to rise up to meet me rather than hit me upside the head.

In my life there's been a strong current of guidance without complete understanding (hence guidance rather than straight information).  The knowledge or experience of recognition comes first.  Then I hold the idea for years and years while the meaning develops.  Rilke said something about 'loving the question' and that mood is where I live.  'annonyme' is a misspelling of the French word for anonymous, anonyme.  anno is Italian for year as in "A.D." the year of our lord.  Anon itself has something to do with time in french it seems to mean immediately and in old English it seems to mean later (maybe it was used by royalty to mean "...when I darn well feel like it."  When someone says I'll be there presently you kind of get the sense that it might not really be now because they are not  presently with you.)  Anyway, all of that is in the appeal the misspelling has for me.  It also sort of means year name... a promised time whose significance and impact are blurred as yet.

And of course,  I love Duchamp and the Societe Anonyme was a part of his panoramic contribution.

Something weird happened last month....


I've been working my day job and several other jobs for basic ends meeting purposes. Had some down time due to illness and lost a friend to domestic violence. Sharing ideas has been something I couldn't lift my gaze towards.  For some reason though, this blog had over 900 hits last month.  Perhaps it's just artificial intelligence reading itself via automatic trolling programs.  I've been averaging between 3 and 4 hundred/month for a good long time.  Wish somebody would leave a comment.... 

such as:

 'I got here looking for porn not spirituality but hey it's cute.' 

or "This would be better with music."

 or "I read that book."

I think about writing all the time.  At some point enjoyment will outweigh weariness and I will write despite the fact that my axle is dragging and my settings are stuck on stagger.

p.s. I love Pope Francis.

kids today!

http://www.upworthy.com/this-is-why-your-lover-thinks-you-re-gorgeous-in-a-holey-t-shirt-and-sweatpants-2?c=ufb1


I came home from running errands to find my daughter watching this.  It's pretty great.

The Leadership of Pope Francis

The Leadership of Pope Francis  (Link to Interview text)

I haven't had the opportunity to read this yet.  I've been working lots and lots of hours which is also part of why I haven't posted too much lately.  But I am overjoyed that a Catholic Pope has the attention of the world and that he is choosing to say that judgement is not our mission as followers of Christ. Judgement in the hands of 'man' usurps God's role in the lives of individual souls.  There is so much potential for good in any organization which seeks to broadcast the Word.  The word can never be denigrating or pejorative.  A worldview based  on 'the hardness of the world' has already excluded God.  Newsflash, God didn't create 'the hardness of the world'.  There is nothing in the New Testament telling us to adapt to the hardness of the world or else.

Four Themes of Reform of Pope Francis

There is nothing for me in a Democracy based on Dominion by mid -level management types or shipping and receiving stars.  Exploiting and manipulating the mineral resources of the planet does not make anyone my master.  Somehow that's the message I always hear from the far right.   There is nothing for me in a church which mouths the cant of Ayn Rand.  There is everything for me in a church which assists me in honoring the presence of Christ in my life as well as honoring the freedom and inherent worth of all my brothers.  I excel at Caritas.  I have zero interest in judgement.

I feel excited to hear more from Pope Francis and grateful for what he has already done.

We all know a little about Francis of Assisi.  It's a good time to learn more about Saint Ignatius Loyola.

The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything by Father James Martin on Amazon

sudden spike in page views after midnight

I'm up late folding laundry and watching "Secrets of the Jesus Prayer" on WHUT (Howard University Television).  Earlier I checked in on my 'stats' and definitely saw zero views today.  Now however there have been 13.  Possibly because I have so many 'hits' from China and the Ukraine? ?  Interesting.

I have read the Philokalia *    and The Way of A Pilgrim (The Way of a Pilgrim several times).  It's a good read.  My favorite part of this program for television was the speech of a blind monastic guy named Theophile (lover of God).  I will paraphrase for now:  The Jesus prayer links the mind and the heart.  The linking of the mind and the heart is the work of God.  I like this particularly because, in my effort to understand the way my own mind works I have come to realize that for me the progress is always from affect to cognition.  I love/respond first and then I understand.  Sometimes much, much later.

* (I read something I thought was the Philokalia but when I just looked it up on Amazon to create the link it's like 1600 pages and that I did not read.)

A Homily from The Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal

A Homily from The Christian Community Movement for Religious Renewal

I decided to copy and paste the whole thing even though the beauty of blogs is that you are directed by hyperlink to read elsewhere and then come back for thoughts on the subject.   The link goes to the original site.

Regarding St. Johnstide:

St. Johnstide John 1: 19-28, 29-34, 35-39 This is the testimony of John, when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" Freely and openly he made confession. He confessed, "I am not the Christ [the Anointed]." Then they asked him, "Who are you then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "No, I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." Then they said, "Who are you? What answer are we to give to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" He said in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "I am the voice of one crying in the loneliness: Prepare the way for the Lord [so that the Lord may enter into the inmost soul [self]." And those who had been sent by the Pharisees asked him, "Why do you baptize if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water. But someone is standing in your midst whom you do not know, who comes after me although he was before me. I am not worthy even to untie the strap of his sandals." This took place in Bethany near the mouth of the Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day he [John] sees Jesus coming to him, and says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the burden of the sin of the world. He it is of whom I said: 'After me comes one who was before me, for he is ahead of me [for he is greater than I].' [After me comes one who was (generated) before me, for he is the prototype.] Even I did not know him; but for this I have come, and have baptized with water, so that human souls in Israel might become able to experience the revelation of his being." And John testified: "I saw how the Spirit descended upon him as a dove from the heavens and remained united with him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend, so that it remains united with him, he it is who baptizes with the [breath of the] Holy [Healing] Spirit [and with fire].' And I saw this, and so I testify that this is God's Son." The next day John was again standing there, and two of his disciples were with him. And as he saw Jesus walking past, he said, "Behold, the [sacrificial] Lamb of God [through whom humanity's sense of self will be purified.]" The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, "What are you seeking?" They answered, "Rabbi [Teacher], where are you staying [where do you live] [where do you take refuge]?" He said, "Come and you will see!" And they came and saw where he stayed [lived], and stayed [remained] with him all that day. It was about the tenth hour [four o'clock].

Homily: 2nd St. Johnstide July 7, 2013 John 1: 19 - 39 Each of us, at the core of our being, has an eternal self. This eternal Self clothes itself in different personalities, with its own particular time and destiny. Our self-awareness is usually limited to our current incarnation. The eternal core self is hard to find, hard to recognize. When John the Baptist is asked who he is, he answers from an awareness of his temporal self. 'I am not Elijah, not the Christ, not the prophet.' At the same time he is clear about his personal destiny - that he came to baptize. He is also clear about Jesus' identity. He sees past Jesus' earthly personality to His eternal core as the Lamb of God, upon whom the Spirit of God descended and remained. And he is aware that his own destiny is to serve Christ Jesus. Awareness of one's own eternal core Self is a gift of grace. Perhaps it is more important to develop an awareness of the eternal selves of others than it is to look for our own eternal core. Perhaps it is more important for us to stand as witnesses for each other - to recognize, as John did, the eternal self of the other, to accompany their destiny. Perhaps this is part of the change of heart and mind that John advocates: that we turn away from self-involvement, toward a humble support of others. As someone said: Attention is not concentration.  Attention is interest.  If you're interested in something, then you're attentive.  And if you're attentive, you discover many things.[1] [1] Anonymous. My Response: Steiner said somewhere that each human is his own species.  I associate that thought with the words spoken to Moses via burning bush ; I am the I am.  The I am is a font of consciousness, the source of all self awareness identified almost as if 'It' were an element with properties.  It constantly puzzles us to think about because it's two mutually exclusive ideas declaring their oneness... the principal of individuation with no parturition.  How does that work? coeur volant  - Duchamp Not too long ago I watched the Wishes Fulfilled program by Wayne Dyer on NPR.  I struggle with his suggestion that we go around saying 'I am God'. (He talks about Moses conversation with the Bush too.)  I feel that it's important to go through the realization that we are God together.  In the movie Before Sunrise the Julie Delpy character says that God is the space between us when we are in communication (not exact words at all). I feel very happy with that way of articulating how "human souls in Israel might become able to experience the revelation of his being."   I love the story of John still in Elizabeth's womb leaping with joy in recognition of the presence of Christ, also yet to be delivered.

Thinking About Thinking

I Googled Synthetic Thinking and found this site.  (click on Title)  I love it.  It's intended for IT people, and I am not one.  The language sort of starts my engines though.  Thinking about Thinking is my favorite thing.  It almost always winds up with a wink and a nod from God but I don't necessarily start out to prove anything.  I just get overtaken with a question and follow it.

11,000 views all time. wow

If you've come to this site more than once please leave me a comment and tell me why.  It's gone a lot more slowly than I'd imagined when I started posting but I'm still enthused.  I wonder what it looks like to others.

11000 is a big number.  It would be lovely to find that I'd amused someone for a moment at some point.

Shalom

The Universe is Conspiring To Do Me Good

Pronoia

We must eradicate from the soul
All fear and terror of what comes towards Man
Out of the future
And we must acquire serenity
In all feelings and sensations about the future
We must look forward
With absolute equanimity to everything that may come
And we must think only that whatever comes
Is given to us by a world directive full of wisdom
It is part of what we must learn in this age, 
Namely to live out of pure trust
Without any security in existence.
Trust in the ever present help of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do
If our courage is not to fail us.
And we must seek this awakening within Ourselves
Every morning and every evening 

~Rudolf Steiner

One of my hesitations about writing has been the acknowledgement of how 'new-age' ish my thinking can seem.  I come by it naturally and have definitely not worked to acquire the appearance.  I just love the positive, the healing and the hopeful.  I love to learn from the truths behind these things and I love to recognize them in the minds and work of other people.   As time goes on that focus only gets more pronounced although I'm not always happy and seeing happy things.  I'm drawn to the work of people who are better at accepting only the eternal.  This verse from Steiner used to make me laugh, though. because when you read it you think, 'Holy Cow!  what the heck is coming to us out of the future?  What will be so very difficult to face with calm?'  And where can I go to avoid it?  Now I emphasize the return to an acceptance of help from the spiritual rather than the implied variety of nightmarish scenarios that may confront a person on earth.  It's the uniform irrelevance of any earthly horror, whether prophesied by Nostrodamus or not, next to the Reality we've turned away from which interests me.

The first time I ever went to the Catholic parish I'm still associated with the deacon giving the homily was talking about how nobody strives to be a good sheep.  There are no seminars on how to be a good follower, he said.  This is partly because sheep are seen as passive and any sort of receiving, even from mighty spiritual beings or God Himself, is really not seen as a good thing at all.  I need to work on that myself.  I want to get back to the frame of mind I was in when I confessed happily to the pessimist who later became the father of my daughter, "The Universe is conspiring to do me good."

Tanis Helliwell's newsletter

Tanis Helliwell's Newsletter


This nice lady wrote Summer With The Leprechauns and Pilgrimage with the Leprechauns.  I enjoyed both works.  My Dad and his wife sent the first one to me as a gift.  They work best as fictional stories since that way you can enjoy them without asking yourself whether you believe in Leprechauns.  I do believe in elementals and the Loch Ness Monster, thank you very much.
If this grants them greater reality I am happy to share it.  If the same principle works in reverse then I don't believe in people who undermine programs helping children thrive and learn.

Withholding belief: a story.

A college roomate returned from a break with this tale involving withholding belief.  She'd been at a casino with a friend.  They'd both read the same self-help book about choosing your own reality.  A man in a seat which backed up to theirs was berating his wife.  The two young women were increasingly horrified on her behalf.  My friend, Ellen, turned around to address the man bullying his wife.  She said pointedly to him, "You are Not a part of my reality!"Tanis Helliwell's Newsletter

my pinterest page - a little self-revelation

So since

• I really haven't succeeded in writing with any regularity (not that I'm giving up) 
• and since the point of the title of the blog isn't to hide identity but rather to broaden it
• and since I just gave advise to my friend Ann, who kindly linked her art page to this endeavor, to tell a little about herself as part of her professional identity as a way of acknowledging that we are all looking for a little divertisement with our advertisement

 I'm sharing a link for my own Pinterest Page.  I love Pinterest.  I can sit and look at my own Pins and feel a sort of uplift.  These are things my predilection has revealed to me.  I feel reconnected to my predilection itself which is sort the mystery behind all my activities and interests.

I don't feel spiritual as in ascetic or characterized by renunciation.  I feel spiritual as in dedicated to something which has no one form in the physical world or the soul world, and which by the process of elimination, I think is probably arising in Spirit.  This guidance in the form of response to people, places and things, mostly in the areas of art and theology is the backbone of my personal identity.  Everything I have tried to say in the past four years of fitful blogging relates to the gifts of this personal phenomenon and the effort to stay aligned to it.  (Which I think is the meaning of the word Religion - re linking).  The effort has always been present in my thinking from my earliest memory.

Not I but Christ in me

I checked with the 'stats' page and find that my friend Ann's page has referred several viewers.  http://anndeutermann.artspan.com  Thanks Ann!

Crimson Light

This is Ann's recent painting which I immediately saw as Christ in Mary. Or Christ in the incarnate female.  Trying to stay awake with Him.  

So many thoughts... so little time...

they reside in the eternal, fortunately.  They will still be there next week and the week after that.  And probably next year.

In the process of getting pod snack back I had to recreate my playlist.  It did take me at least a week to complete.  I left my computer on for a week with the pod snack pages open till I figured out what was holding me back.   That was three or so tabs sitting open on my computer for a week in my kitchen while I made coffee, did the dishes, went to work and did whatever I could for my 15 year old daughter (some limitations must be acknowledged).   It occurred to me that keeping tabs open all day on the WWW is a little like leaving your door wide open in the city.  (Whatever that means).

After all the noodling and re-noodling I had to do, I ended up with Joni Mitchell's God Must Be a Boogie Man on the list when it wasn't there in my first playlist. I do love this song, which is playing on a loop right now.  I think she actually did rewrite the bible for Mingus in this one song.  I remember reading about her rebuff of Mingus' initial invitation to write words for his compositions.  I think it was probably People Magazine circa 1980 something.  He noticed her after Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, the cover of which showed her in black face having an awfully good time. Or it could be the liner notes to the album...?  At any rate, her initial response was  "No, thank you, I'd rather rewrite the Bible."   Eventually he persuaded her and she made the album Mingus simultaneous with his treatment for cancer.  I think she did rewrite the Bible for him. This song is a condensation of all the themes which can't help but intersect when one looks from Art to Religion and back again.   I love Art and Religion as one.

(Pod Snack was very helpful once I found the time to focus on my wee blog.  It all had to do with limiting the number of songs and the lengths of the songs and then allowing a pop up, etc. etc., part of my point here was to give them credit for still having a free option and for supporting it with patient humans.)

pod snack is back

I can't figure out how to get this link back as a gadget but as a post it just falls to the bottom of the pile....
I think if I modify it everyday it will at least stay near the top where visitors, purposeful or accidental, will recognize the option to play.  I liked the sort that used to just be on your page and start playing happily

Pussy Riot on 60 Minutes

I have been posting so infrequently that I can't remember how I hid a link behind other text.  It's not my most entertaining or considered post but hey, it's a web log not an article for The New Yorker.  But thinking about that makes me want to do a pen and ink drawing of the band in front of St. Basil's.

link for a 60 Minutes piece with Leslie Stahl on Pussy Riot's story and recent history:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57575969-10391709/why-the-pussy-riot-story-is-important/

coverage of Pussy Riot on Democracy Now    <---- Link

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confetti and streamers

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But no comments ever...

In case you missed it:

Transcript President Obama 2013 Inaugural Address    

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