MORNING

  

The California Scrub Jay in all it's glory. It's described as a song bird. Generous description since it seems to have exactly one call and after a couple of hours you are grabbing the headphones with your own personal ocean. I don't do operatic sopranos, Irish tenors or violins. My ears start begging for mercy and I start looking for the headphones. 

June sun well up. Whispy white clouds moving slowly towards the east. Haze on the horizon. Inversion or  smoke?  Can't be sure. Checked out the currrent fire map, nothing much in Oregon but there looks like three or four small ones in Idaho. With no wind to speak of the last couple of days the smoke sort of settles in and sticks around until another front moves in.

 A couple of squawking scrub jays accompanied about half of my early morning excercise. Jays don't chirp, twitter or cheep. They skreek. And it's a rusty skreek. A sort of fingernals on the blackboard skreek. 

With it getting light so early it's hopeless trying to get back to sleep, especially since the sun is coming through my window until at least six thirty this time of year. Might as well the first, longest, session out of the way.  

TREES AND STARS

Read in reverse order. Candles first, then the Universe, then Trees and Stars.

OoooooK. This shot is barly close to that mental image I had all those years ago. Trying to get my mind back to where it was. I definitely need to reread some of my old maerial along with basic geology and Heaven knows what all. And ok I'll hush up. For the day at least. 

When I first wrote the  Candle piece back in September of 2007 I tried to conjure up a mental candle or lamp because I knew I’d want to say it in times when I didn’t have a real candle handy. Well I asked for one and got a room full. Big ones, little ones, short ones, tall ones. All reflecting off each other. And this is where it got a little weird. Ok, really weird. Those “imaginary” candles tended to do crazy things, like zip out of the room when I thought about someone who needed a little extra “hey look out for ……” And go in the right direction I might add. One of our old J Land buddies was having some problems. And about the time I was thinking “I wish I could…” one of those little candles set out for Kansas.

Anyway, I got lazy for awhile and didn’t get back to it as often as I really should have. And at the same time I was working on the idea of a world tree. Well I went to my little candle room. Only it wasn’t a room anymore. It was night and the stars were shining. Glowing with brilliance I’ve never seen in this life. And then the Aurora just popped in. How did it do that, but come on in and join the party. Ok, just go with the flow here, obviously was not the one controlling the party that night. 

Anyway, as I read through the piece and let my candles light up, they weren’t bunched up in a room. They were in a line stretching away from me and going up, as if they were climbing up the side of a mountain. At the top of the mountain was a great tree, black against the stars. And the candles climbed up into the branches of the tree until it was filled, overfilled even, and it rivaled the stars.

Um, I still don't think I was responsible for all those lights. I just think I tapped into a whole lot of people doing the same thing, and that's how my mind interpreted it. And just think how it would look if the whole six plus billion people on this little ball lit a candle whether they had a real one to light or not. Heck for all I know they were. Keep them lit folks, we still need all the help we can get. In fact we need it more than ever.

THE UNIVERSE CAME CALLING

 And this one grew out of the earlier ones. 

The prayer that ended up in the entry in I Offer This started out as a more traditional litany. I wanted to use it at work, but I couldn't use a real candle so I decided to try to imagine one. I had a Christmas card that I had scanned in to use for my own cards. Just wanted one little ol' candle. I ended up with a whole room full. Without asking for them by the way.

OK I've got candles. Lots and lots of candles. Blazing candles. And this is where the universe got just a little bit wierd. This was back in the AOL Journals world when there was more interaction between bloggers. Anyway one of the guys who was following was having a hard time. If I remember it right I was commenting along the lines of "gee I wish I could help" when the universe did its thing. The candles popped up and one of those little beggers took off. A sort of US map was in the back ground and I swear that little flash of light headed in the right direction.Without any help from me. OK.

A few days a later a good friend was having some problems. And gee I'm sorry I'm down at the bottom of the valley and you are up north. Repeat performance. Only the candle headed north and it didn't go quite as far as the first one. The first one looked like it ended up around Kansas. The second one ended up just west of Portland.

I believe that's enough about the universe attempting to get my attention, at least for now. And frankly I've never really been sure about how I feel about this. Call me a Work in Progress.

CANDLES

 We kindle this flame in honor of the Creator of Creation. We are grateful for the plenty that blesses us. In a world where many walk hand in hand with hunger we have abundance. In a world where too many walk in fear we can speak as our hearts lead us and show our faith freely. In a world where too many are alone, even in a crowd, we are rich in family and friends.

 

We kindle this flame in honor of the earth and the star that warms it.

 

We kindle this flame in gratitude for the changing seasons, for the coolness of rain, for the shifting mists and warmth of sun.

 

We kindle this flame to ask healing for our battered world. May we learn to use only what we need and to respect what we use.

 

We kindle this flame in gratitude for theplants, animals, air and waters that sustain us. Their infinite variety is wondrous.

 

We kindle this flame in honor of all who share this little world with us.

 

We kindle this flame in gratitude for our fellow travelers. We kindle this flame in gratitude for birdsong, the glory of infinite colors of flowers and trees, for the seas, the rivers, the rolling hills and the soaring peaks.

 

 

We kindle this flame to honor the infinite variety of our brothers and sisters.

 

We kindle this flame to ask for healing for those who lash out in fear.

 

<BSTYLE="MSO-BIDI-FONT-WEIGHT: normal?>We kindle this flame to ask for healing for those who lash out in anger.

 

We kindle this flame to ask healing for those who lash out in ignorance.

 

We kindle this flame to ask for healing for those who are ill in body or spirit.

 

We kindle this flame to ask for healing for their caregivers, family and friends.

 

We kindle this flame in honor of the river of faith. Help us to remember that many streams enter the river of faith that sustains us. Help us to remember that this river has many wells to refresh our thirsty spirits.

 

 

We kindle this flame in honor of our family and friends.

 

We kindle this flame in gratitude for their love and support.

 

We kindle this flame to ask for healing for any sickness or injury. We kindle this flame to ask that they may find the love and support to live the lives they were meant to.

 

We kindle this flame in faith that we can return the love and support that has been so freely given to us.

 

I posted an earlier version of this last year. I haul it and re read it periodically. And something a little unexpected happened after I finished it. I like to re read it, but you don’t always have a lamp or a candle handy. So I tried imagining one. Well I got my candle all right. I got a whole room full of candles. Candle after candle after candle.

 

And this is where it starts to get, strange doesn’t really describe what I’ve had happen. I’m not sure I have the right words. Anyway, one of our fellow bloggers was going through a tough time and I was repeating the line asking for healing and suddenly I had a vision of one of those candles breaking away from the group and heading out. In the right direction.

 

Granted, what I saw may owe more than a little to the movie Fantasia. At least as a way for my brain to put this in a way I can understand. But, the thing is, I wasn’t thinking about road crew candles. That puppy took off on its own. It’s happened a few times since then. I can’t explain it and I’m not sure that it can be explained, in words at least.

THE LITTLE ENTRY THAT GREW

 This started out as just a few notes and it grew and grew. Then it took the bit in its teeth and headed for the tall timber

OK. I'm just spitballing here. I was raised Methodist. And never really felt like it fit. Wasn't especially comfortable in my own skin, if that makes any sense. Currrently identify as Quaker sort of. Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I discovered believers who identify as Quaker Pagans or even Quaker Cahtholics. 

I've spent time exploring pagan paths and some of the less well known Christian communities, especially the Celtic church. Fruitful. Especially the history of Western Catholicism and some of the Protestant offshoots including the Methodists. All of them proving over and over again the all too true the suspician  that once you have an organization most of the energy (and money) goes to protecting the organization and the hell with the souls you claim to be serving. 

I find myself truning more and more to the mystical side of the faith. Ahhhh, mysticiam aond contemplation. Google anything even resembling centering prayer, meditaiton, mysticism and you will find dozens of entrues warbubg you to keep out, the demons will get you. I suspect that what these commentatos are really afraid of is what the Catholic church calls private revelation.

 How you gonna keep 'em funding those private jets and jumbotrons if the believers realize that, within careful limits, they don't need you prancing up and down the stage yelling into your microphone probably won't answer their questions.. Or that claims of turning away hurricanes are so much hot air. That gays who love each other getting married won't or shouldn't affecct your marriage. That recognizing the rights and humanity of others does not decrease my rights or humanity unless I choose to let it. 

How are you gonna keep 'em following your rules when your former believers have discovered that you are pretty much full of hot air. That you may be asking them to believe that dinosaurs were on the ark with Noah or that the Grand Canyon probably wasn't created in the great flood or that the Cascades were built over millenia by volcanic eruptions. Or in the case of North east and South east Washington were largely created by flood basalts on the Columbia Plateau between fourteen and sixteen million years ago. 

My personal unfavorite is the so called Prosperity Gospel. Followers are encouraged to give generously, whether thay can afford it or not, and God will reward them with greater wealth and riches. All you have to do is believe. And if it doesn't happen it's your fault. Your faith wasn't strong enough. In the meantime your pastor may be living rent free in a multibedroom parsonage, may have purchased a private jet or even ANOTHER private jet. More than one televangelist has used the excuse that they have a lot of places to be and don't have time to wait in airports, or they don't like being recogized with fellow passengers pester them with questions. And so on.

Oops. I started out A and ended up in the briar patch. Again. Just don't be surprised if things get even weirder for awhile. Comments are welcome. Feel free to call me a blithering idiot. I won't be offended. I suspect I may be there already. Or offer suggestions. Who have you been reading and did it either help or offend?