Let me rant for a moment ...
Thanks to a 'donate' button on my website (which I have now changed to one more suitable - even though they don't have one on the merchant site and no instructions on how to create anything similar), a certain merchant program, world-wide, decided I was a charity and asked me to provide my registration certificates .. and various other documents .. to prove I was me, and a charity. Since I never registered with that merchant program as a charity to start with, and only used their donate button button so that people could decide how much of a gift they wanted to give me, once in a while, for all the work I do around the world solving paranormal programs .. I took their message for spam to start with, and ignored it. The third time it arrived I checked my account, and low and behold, it was 'limited'. People can pay in, but I can't get the money, and this is after having the button on my site for a few years now?
Sigh .. one of their requests was for a birth certificate .. the other was for utility bills to prove I live where I do. Well, guys, I don't pay utilities on this property. The bills are in my partner's name because he's been here far longer than me, or the owner of the house's name, who has owned it longer again. And then I was thinking .. how would my birth certificate prove who I was now and where I live? It has neither my (ex) married name, which I use for legal documentation, nor does it have this address, and I wasn't even born in Victoria!
So I sent the merchant company as many of the documents I could, not including the birth certificate, because I do not have a copy, and a few others to try and help (two of which have my legal name, address and date of birth and are government documents), and I am still waiting for them to get back to me. It's been three weeks now, since this muddle started, and I am still getting 'please send us your documents' emails from them two or three times a week? Why? Did they forget to click off the button that says 'she has already done this'? And some emails seem to be addressed by to my legal name and some to my business name .. have they got me in two files now? So I rang them today .. and it seems I'm still registered as a charity with them, although the first man I spoke to three weeks ago was supposed to have changed that bit of nonsense back then, at the time.
Is it any wonder I lost my temper .. but not with the lady on the phone, trying to communicate through a very faulty 'connection' .. that I think goes to America?
Hmm....
Love & Peace
Ama
Monday, September 12, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
How can blackmail be part of a spiritual group?
The other day my daughter and I went to visit a training group for mediums here in the hills around Melbourne. I had met the trainer through the local spiritualist church, where s/he had done a very good 'reading' for me .. or talked to a 'spirit' that was supposed to be 'with' me, and 'had been for some time'. Given that I can see ghosts and spirits just fine, I was slightly bemused at this new one, but thought I might possibly know who the lady was .. and I do love being told I am intelligent (so said the lady). Well, I wondered if this person's group might be an interesting place to learn new skills from, and suggested to my daughter she might like to check them out as well. I have since apologised to her.
So up the hill we drove, and parked, and went inside, to be greeted with friendly smiles by the two people there. One was the trainer, the other one of her/his students. I'd seen the student at the church on sunday as well. We gave our first names .. and then the comments started .. not questions like 'who are you and what do you do?', no, my first was 'what is your history with spiritism' or 'spiritual churches'? Well, my history is brief, since I've only been to a few, so I explained them, and then the trainer demanded to know how hard s/he could 'push me'? S/he'd put me "on the stage straight away" to do a reading. Push me? Being me I said 'as hard as you like', but as I wasn't signing on as part of his/her team I thought the question inappropriate for newcomer to a group, but I said 'no' to the stage performance - I had only come to observe .. and the conversation got lost in the arrival of a few more people. Sitting down there were about 15 of us, in rows of 5 or so chairs facing the podium in a very small, stuffy, room.
It was not going to be the usual 'chairs in a circle' this week, I guessed from a comment, it was because we had so many people. No, it was two 'readers' on the stage and the rest of us watching. And the readers were picked from the 'audience' and went up quite willingly, because they were not new to the group.
I won't comment on the readings because its not appropriate to the problem .. that came later .. so let's skip to after lunch.
After daughter and I came back from the local 7/11, munching on the way, we wandered back inside and I slipped away to the lady's room. When I returned a few minutes later, my daughter was sitting on a chair with her back to the corner of the room, with the trainer sitting in front of her, effectively boxing her in. Let's shorten 15 minutes of haranging, and only say s/he was demanding that she join his\her group .. because s/he was the only person to train her for her/his ARMY of mediums. Army? Yes, it seems we will need an army of mediums in the future, to rejoin everyone to Spirit. The problems really only started when she said 'no' .. up until then it had only been mild nagging, then it turned into stronger nagging, then it turned into emotional blackmail .. she HAD to do it her/his way for the future of humanity.
My daughter is a very old, very wise, soul even in her mid twenties .. and she recognises emotional blackmail for what it is, and calls it as she sees it. She explained to older person (late sixties) that s/he was coming from a place of ego (the person then tried to define why ego was important in ways that left both of us very puzzled - seems you divide it into 4 parts, but were are only 3 bits of it explained, 2 of which were the same, and there's a vacancy for the 4th??). The trainer didn't like being told what to do by a 'child', or what s/he was doing, and had proved a number of times over the conversation, that s/he certainly wasn't listening to one word my daughter, and then me, when I joined in the conversation about half way through after listening from one side, was saying .. no, the trainer had expected me to support him/her .. not a chance in hell .. I don't like bullies, and s/he was being a bully.
And so lunch ended and the group was being called back together for the second half of the gathering, by a bell being rung. Bells are good for energy of a site, I use them myself, to dispel negativity .. good idea in this case. And daughter and I left. We shall not be returning.
When I had rung up and asked questions of that group I had been told the leader 'did things differently'. The person I spoke to was right, s/he was definitely different. I don't believe that blackmail and bullying is a good way to gather members of the group - nor is feeding the egos of people who obviously are not good readers .. going by other members of her/his group that I have seen in the spiritual churches I have visited. You either 'can' do this work, or you 'can't', and no amount of hit and miss proves that the dead can still speak to us. Guess work is guess work by any estimation.
Perhaps some people need to be bullied into the work? But not us. We are already among the called.
Love & Peace
Ama
So up the hill we drove, and parked, and went inside, to be greeted with friendly smiles by the two people there. One was the trainer, the other one of her/his students. I'd seen the student at the church on sunday as well. We gave our first names .. and then the comments started .. not questions like 'who are you and what do you do?', no, my first was 'what is your history with spiritism' or 'spiritual churches'? Well, my history is brief, since I've only been to a few, so I explained them, and then the trainer demanded to know how hard s/he could 'push me'? S/he'd put me "on the stage straight away" to do a reading. Push me? Being me I said 'as hard as you like', but as I wasn't signing on as part of his/her team I thought the question inappropriate for newcomer to a group, but I said 'no' to the stage performance - I had only come to observe .. and the conversation got lost in the arrival of a few more people. Sitting down there were about 15 of us, in rows of 5 or so chairs facing the podium in a very small, stuffy, room.
It was not going to be the usual 'chairs in a circle' this week, I guessed from a comment, it was because we had so many people. No, it was two 'readers' on the stage and the rest of us watching. And the readers were picked from the 'audience' and went up quite willingly, because they were not new to the group.
I won't comment on the readings because its not appropriate to the problem .. that came later .. so let's skip to after lunch.
After daughter and I came back from the local 7/11, munching on the way, we wandered back inside and I slipped away to the lady's room. When I returned a few minutes later, my daughter was sitting on a chair with her back to the corner of the room, with the trainer sitting in front of her, effectively boxing her in. Let's shorten 15 minutes of haranging, and only say s/he was demanding that she join his\her group .. because s/he was the only person to train her for her/his ARMY of mediums. Army? Yes, it seems we will need an army of mediums in the future, to rejoin everyone to Spirit. The problems really only started when she said 'no' .. up until then it had only been mild nagging, then it turned into stronger nagging, then it turned into emotional blackmail .. she HAD to do it her/his way for the future of humanity.
My daughter is a very old, very wise, soul even in her mid twenties .. and she recognises emotional blackmail for what it is, and calls it as she sees it. She explained to older person (late sixties) that s/he was coming from a place of ego (the person then tried to define why ego was important in ways that left both of us very puzzled - seems you divide it into 4 parts, but were are only 3 bits of it explained, 2 of which were the same, and there's a vacancy for the 4th??). The trainer didn't like being told what to do by a 'child', or what s/he was doing, and had proved a number of times over the conversation, that s/he certainly wasn't listening to one word my daughter, and then me, when I joined in the conversation about half way through after listening from one side, was saying .. no, the trainer had expected me to support him/her .. not a chance in hell .. I don't like bullies, and s/he was being a bully.
And so lunch ended and the group was being called back together for the second half of the gathering, by a bell being rung. Bells are good for energy of a site, I use them myself, to dispel negativity .. good idea in this case. And daughter and I left. We shall not be returning.
When I had rung up and asked questions of that group I had been told the leader 'did things differently'. The person I spoke to was right, s/he was definitely different. I don't believe that blackmail and bullying is a good way to gather members of the group - nor is feeding the egos of people who obviously are not good readers .. going by other members of her/his group that I have seen in the spiritual churches I have visited. You either 'can' do this work, or you 'can't', and no amount of hit and miss proves that the dead can still speak to us. Guess work is guess work by any estimation.
Perhaps some people need to be bullied into the work? But not us. We are already among the called.
Love & Peace
Ama
Thursday, September 1, 2011
What is your mental age?
Today is obviously not a day for writing, since my daughter asked me to write an article about a definition of 'mental age' .. but I can't get into it .. for the child in me wants to chill out and play silly games instead. LOL But I'll give you a brief description, and let you take it from there ...
How does one define the mental age of a person? Defining the physical age is easy enough, most people measure it year by year, although I'm told the asian countries count a child as one year old when it is born, while western countries count it as one, one year after it is born.
What then is 'mental age'? Surely a person has the same mental age as their years since birth .. but no, many of them don't - just look at their behaviour, if nothing else. It all seems to come down to emotional maturity? Just how old is that person you are having that discussion with? Not how intelligent, (e.g. a gifted child of six can have a mental (coping) age of only three years, and many of the world's most brilliant scientists and great thinkers could not cope in social situations and would have temper tantrums), but how do they cope with life's challenges, and when people question their opinions or judgments? Or are you the one who might need to 'grow up' and deal with life differently? I know I have my moments. :-)
Oh dear, sometimes I can be incredibly 'childish'. It's ok to be child-like, but to call someone childish is an insult .. or a fact. So our mental age seems to be defined by our emotional maturity, but what does that mean?
Here is a good definition of emotional maturity -
http://www.michaelppowers.com/path/mature.html
And here's a bit of fun to see how 'old' you are?
http://www.mysticgames.com/mysticgames_cfmfiles/tests/showtest.cfm?TestID=24
I am quite old it seems LOL
Love & Peace
Ama
How does one define the mental age of a person? Defining the physical age is easy enough, most people measure it year by year, although I'm told the asian countries count a child as one year old when it is born, while western countries count it as one, one year after it is born.
What then is 'mental age'? Surely a person has the same mental age as their years since birth .. but no, many of them don't - just look at their behaviour, if nothing else. It all seems to come down to emotional maturity? Just how old is that person you are having that discussion with? Not how intelligent, (e.g. a gifted child of six can have a mental (coping) age of only three years, and many of the world's most brilliant scientists and great thinkers could not cope in social situations and would have temper tantrums), but how do they cope with life's challenges, and when people question their opinions or judgments? Or are you the one who might need to 'grow up' and deal with life differently? I know I have my moments. :-)
Oh dear, sometimes I can be incredibly 'childish'. It's ok to be child-like, but to call someone childish is an insult .. or a fact. So our mental age seems to be defined by our emotional maturity, but what does that mean?
Here is a good definition of emotional maturity -
http://www.michaelppowers.com/path/mature.html
And here's a bit of fun to see how 'old' you are?
http://www.mysticgames.com/mysticgames_cfmfiles/tests/showtest.cfm?TestID=24
I am quite old it seems LOL
Love & Peace
Ama
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Fundamentalist Christians
Let me be quite specific ..
I have no issue with what you as a person believe. I only make it an issue when you are rude to me, inform me I am wrong for broad reasons, and from badly translated copies of your personal Bible.
Don't tell me I am going to hell just because I argue with your interpretation of the Bible. If you want to have a discussion, be prepared to state Chapter and Verse, because I'll be checking it up, taking it back to the original languages, and questioning 'why' you think what you do. And I would expect you to do the same to me (but you don't?) So think it through!
And don't come onto a site where I am talking paranormal subjects with other people, and butt in and expect a friendly welcome. We have heard it ALL before, and most of us don't need to hear it ever again. And let me remind you, your Bible says you should not associate with people like me - so what are you doing on a site that defies the teachings of your Bible? We are not looking for missionaries. We do not need to be saved, and often, some of the people with me there do not even WANT to be saved .. by the God who hates instead of loving, who judges and torments, and finds us all wanting.
In that case I would have to question your judgment. Why love a being you fear? Isn't that what hostages come to do to their captors, and don't we see it as a mental illness, something they have to be cured of?
I am not the cure. I make no claim to knowing everything, or anything, about God, but I speak from my experiences, from the knowledge I have gained over the years through my readings in the theological field, anthropology, mythology, christianity and metaphysics.
You will not convert me to your way of thinking by throwing the Bible at me. For one, respect your books! For another, I will pick it up and throw it right back at you! And if you can't catch .. duck! LOL
And we love you .. says a quiet voice in my head. God loves you, all of you, so much. How could you possibly doubt that? Only 144,000 people are supposed to be able to go to heaven. Are we all so sinful that there are only 144,000 good people on the planet right now? Or was it the number of recognised Christians at the time the Revelation was written? What does logic say? I am frightened to think that there could be so few.
Love & Peace
Ama
I have no issue with what you as a person believe. I only make it an issue when you are rude to me, inform me I am wrong for broad reasons, and from badly translated copies of your personal Bible.
Don't tell me I am going to hell just because I argue with your interpretation of the Bible. If you want to have a discussion, be prepared to state Chapter and Verse, because I'll be checking it up, taking it back to the original languages, and questioning 'why' you think what you do. And I would expect you to do the same to me (but you don't?) So think it through!
And don't come onto a site where I am talking paranormal subjects with other people, and butt in and expect a friendly welcome. We have heard it ALL before, and most of us don't need to hear it ever again. And let me remind you, your Bible says you should not associate with people like me - so what are you doing on a site that defies the teachings of your Bible? We are not looking for missionaries. We do not need to be saved, and often, some of the people with me there do not even WANT to be saved .. by the God who hates instead of loving, who judges and torments, and finds us all wanting.
In that case I would have to question your judgment. Why love a being you fear? Isn't that what hostages come to do to their captors, and don't we see it as a mental illness, something they have to be cured of?
I am not the cure. I make no claim to knowing everything, or anything, about God, but I speak from my experiences, from the knowledge I have gained over the years through my readings in the theological field, anthropology, mythology, christianity and metaphysics.
You will not convert me to your way of thinking by throwing the Bible at me. For one, respect your books! For another, I will pick it up and throw it right back at you! And if you can't catch .. duck! LOL
And we love you .. says a quiet voice in my head. God loves you, all of you, so much. How could you possibly doubt that? Only 144,000 people are supposed to be able to go to heaven. Are we all so sinful that there are only 144,000 good people on the planet right now? Or was it the number of recognised Christians at the time the Revelation was written? What does logic say? I am frightened to think that there could be so few.
Love & Peace
Ama
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Called to Serve - Part 3
This blog is posted to answer questions from a comment by Arch on Part 2. Since Blogger would not allow me to post a comment after his, and I could not work out why!
His Question:
Is calling an internal or an external thing? Meaning do you regard it as something God asks of you, or is it something you choose to do? I guess the two are not exclusive, but I'm wondering if you have a different name for something God asks of you and something you feel compelled to do?
My answer:
Hi Arch,
The calling I feel in my heart, and 'know' in my soul, is a very internal reaction. It is based in calmness, peace and healing (though, having ego, I might not always react that way). All of us were created through the energy of love and curiosity. In other words, we appear to mirror our creator. Given the right circumstances, humans are capable of incredible Love; and when we are of a balanced mind and emotions, we become incredibly creative .. in a million different ways.
Created from love, we express love (give out the vibes/energy) when we are happy and satisfied, and the opposite when we are not. When we 'live' our calling, we share that love with the world in many forms, some more obvious than others. If you are Christian you might call it God's love; the Wiccans see the Goddess' love .. and then there is the 'wisdom' of Buddha or Confuscius, each of whom taught love in different ways. Here, then, is a very stong central theme .. Love.
A calling is something that satisfies our internal need to give love through external action. A person called to serve God might do so by praying all their waking hours. The act of praying answers an internal need, the external action might answer someone else's need to believe that people are capable of sacrificing their lives in prayer for others, or some other way, although they might also think them completely nuts. The Love the praying person is expressing through their prayers may change the foundations of the world, or a grieving person's heart .. and we might never know it, and nor might the person praying .. but change happens anyway. Remember the comment about the butterfly.
We were created with the gift of free will. We have the right to say no, and to control our own destinys, so I do not believe that God has asked me to do anything except be myself. I try to serve humanity in the capacity I was created to achieve. I know this from the peace it gives my soul. It is my choice to listen to the 'still quiet voice' that sometimes says 'write this' and sometimes says 'Ama, sit on your hands' (in other words, reconsider that paragraph or thought LOL). I follow because I want to, I am never 'compelled'.
In my opinion, a person may define God as anything they like, as long as they are at peace with their decision. My son says he is a Jedi .. that's fine with me.
May the force be with you,
Love & Peace
Ama
His Question:
Is calling an internal or an external thing? Meaning do you regard it as something God asks of you, or is it something you choose to do? I guess the two are not exclusive, but I'm wondering if you have a different name for something God asks of you and something you feel compelled to do?
My answer:
Hi Arch,
The calling I feel in my heart, and 'know' in my soul, is a very internal reaction. It is based in calmness, peace and healing (though, having ego, I might not always react that way). All of us were created through the energy of love and curiosity. In other words, we appear to mirror our creator. Given the right circumstances, humans are capable of incredible Love; and when we are of a balanced mind and emotions, we become incredibly creative .. in a million different ways.
Created from love, we express love (give out the vibes/energy) when we are happy and satisfied, and the opposite when we are not. When we 'live' our calling, we share that love with the world in many forms, some more obvious than others. If you are Christian you might call it God's love; the Wiccans see the Goddess' love .. and then there is the 'wisdom' of Buddha or Confuscius, each of whom taught love in different ways. Here, then, is a very stong central theme .. Love.
A calling is something that satisfies our internal need to give love through external action. A person called to serve God might do so by praying all their waking hours. The act of praying answers an internal need, the external action might answer someone else's need to believe that people are capable of sacrificing their lives in prayer for others, or some other way, although they might also think them completely nuts. The Love the praying person is expressing through their prayers may change the foundations of the world, or a grieving person's heart .. and we might never know it, and nor might the person praying .. but change happens anyway. Remember the comment about the butterfly.
We were created with the gift of free will. We have the right to say no, and to control our own destinys, so I do not believe that God has asked me to do anything except be myself. I try to serve humanity in the capacity I was created to achieve. I know this from the peace it gives my soul. It is my choice to listen to the 'still quiet voice' that sometimes says 'write this' and sometimes says 'Ama, sit on your hands' (in other words, reconsider that paragraph or thought LOL). I follow because I want to, I am never 'compelled'.
In my opinion, a person may define God as anything they like, as long as they are at peace with their decision. My son says he is a Jedi .. that's fine with me.
May the force be with you,
Love & Peace
Ama
Monday, July 25, 2011
Called to Serve - Part 2
Continuing on my theme of what it means to be 'called' ...
What is a calling? You could describe it as a voice in your heart that asks you to do something with total focus and dedication. It is something you feel you are born to do. The example in the online dictionary was "Samantha felt 'called' to be a doctor", or you could want to be a dentist or a car mechanic. For a Christian it can be a 'calling' to follow Christ. For an athiest it could be the exact opposite, a great desire to prove that there is no intelligent awareness in the universe? I think, sometimes, the problem with a 'calling' is the intensity in which it governs your life.
As a child I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, and yet I grew up 'knowing' I would follow God, and Christ, and help people with paranormal problems, and demonic ones. What a thing for a child of five to have to think about - particularly as it defied the teachings of the church that I went to. And then there were the thoughts and memories in my mind, of other lives, and other times, when I had done the same sort of work - and so my 'lessons' were more like memories than any formal teaching, and my teachers were angels, as well as people in the street. So the 'child' never really felt like a child, but very old, and was never sure she knew 'enough'. And yet I served, from the age of seventeen, and people, old and young, would come to me and talk and ask questions, and I generally had an answer that satisfied their need - and I bless the angels for that gift, and thank God for the angels.
To serve, or be of service, means that you must help people to find your own peace of mind. Pretending that you don't have to provides no satisfaction, nor relief. You cannot turn your back on the need to serve, anymore than you can turn your back on the desire to following your calling. People who do can become small, mean and shallow.
Following your calling means giving your heart to humanity in some cases, or to animal welfare, if that is where your calling lies. It means knowing the inside of a car upside and backwards, for a true mechanic, or being able to read the soul of a tree for those called to serve nature. It's more than an ordinary knowledge of your subject, its an indepth understanding of how the world works .. in relation to where you serve.
When you find your true purpose you 'know' it in your heart. You find a peace there that can be found in no other place, and when you do good for others, it touches the whole world .. not just the two of you .. but the love created by peace of mind ripples out into the ether, sparking other moments of enlightenment and helping others find their true hearts as well. Remember the old chinese saying 'a butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause hurricanes in the pacific' (or words to that effect), it applies here because one deed of goodness leads to another, and another .. snowballing ... and another saying, before I sign off. "It only takes a moment to make a difference."
And last of all, one of my favourites, for which we can thank Gandhi .. "be the changes you want to see in the world".
Ok .. so follow your heart and BE them.
Love & Peace
Ama
What is a calling? You could describe it as a voice in your heart that asks you to do something with total focus and dedication. It is something you feel you are born to do. The example in the online dictionary was "Samantha felt 'called' to be a doctor", or you could want to be a dentist or a car mechanic. For a Christian it can be a 'calling' to follow Christ. For an athiest it could be the exact opposite, a great desire to prove that there is no intelligent awareness in the universe? I think, sometimes, the problem with a 'calling' is the intensity in which it governs your life.
As a child I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, and yet I grew up 'knowing' I would follow God, and Christ, and help people with paranormal problems, and demonic ones. What a thing for a child of five to have to think about - particularly as it defied the teachings of the church that I went to. And then there were the thoughts and memories in my mind, of other lives, and other times, when I had done the same sort of work - and so my 'lessons' were more like memories than any formal teaching, and my teachers were angels, as well as people in the street. So the 'child' never really felt like a child, but very old, and was never sure she knew 'enough'. And yet I served, from the age of seventeen, and people, old and young, would come to me and talk and ask questions, and I generally had an answer that satisfied their need - and I bless the angels for that gift, and thank God for the angels.
To serve, or be of service, means that you must help people to find your own peace of mind. Pretending that you don't have to provides no satisfaction, nor relief. You cannot turn your back on the need to serve, anymore than you can turn your back on the desire to following your calling. People who do can become small, mean and shallow.
Following your calling means giving your heart to humanity in some cases, or to animal welfare, if that is where your calling lies. It means knowing the inside of a car upside and backwards, for a true mechanic, or being able to read the soul of a tree for those called to serve nature. It's more than an ordinary knowledge of your subject, its an indepth understanding of how the world works .. in relation to where you serve.
When you find your true purpose you 'know' it in your heart. You find a peace there that can be found in no other place, and when you do good for others, it touches the whole world .. not just the two of you .. but the love created by peace of mind ripples out into the ether, sparking other moments of enlightenment and helping others find their true hearts as well. Remember the old chinese saying 'a butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause hurricanes in the pacific' (or words to that effect), it applies here because one deed of goodness leads to another, and another .. snowballing ... and another saying, before I sign off. "It only takes a moment to make a difference."
And last of all, one of my favourites, for which we can thank Gandhi .. "be the changes you want to see in the world".
Ok .. so follow your heart and BE them.
Love & Peace
Ama
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Called to Serve - Part 1
.
My daughter is blogging at present. It's a pure joy to see the wisdom she has, although she is only in her twenties .. and me at her age .. well, she's a lot more grown up than I was. I was still a child then, with children, she being the youngest, and her older brother. A child raising children .. but isn't that the way?
Thinking of the actions of children led me to remember my favourite chapter in 1 Corinthians, number 13. It tells us what love is, and what it's not, and then says
Face to face - so many people are seeking what they 'are supposed to do' in this lifetime. So few of them think they find their true calling, or even recognise it when it is staring them in the face. They are so busy looking for 'grand adventures', but sometimes God simply wants them to do small things often, in kind and gentle ways.
When I was seeking I already knew my 'calling', but I was frightened to confront the reality of it, in a society that looked down upon people who were 'different', and I am very different ... though I can laugh about it now. I wanted to be like other people, not see things that others didn't, or know things they didn't, or have experiences that would frighten the hell out of most of them, but to me became part of the 'norm'. Or part of the normal. Because I wanted to be normal.
What I had lost in all that 'wanting' was that I had never been what I wanted. Being normal was not something I could go 'back' to, since it had never been there. What I was confronting was accepting that some of us are 'called to serve' in different ways, and that we have to ignore society's norms to help people who are caught up in things 'they cannot understand'. So whatever you are called to do, if it sits well in your heart, and makes you happy, then do it.
"Sits well in your heart" does not mean 'feeds your ego'. We should not glory in harming others, but in being of service to each person we meet, because this service is what is lacking in society now, so focused as we now are on 'serving' ourselves.
The ego is a child demanding attention. A frightened, lonely child who is only 'happy' when the being it governs obeys its commands, stays 'safe' and doesn't venture out of the appropriate behavours that make the ego feel protected. This is the child who spoke, thought and reasoned .. but when did we stop growing up?
Now that I am an adult I put an end to childish ways - or did I? I admit there are moments when I am hurt that I can act in childish ways. Hurt my feelings and I will 'turn the other cheek', but eventually even I run out of cheeks, and then I will say 'no more' in various ways. Sometimes simply by no longer talking to the person that has hurt me. In that way I do the least amount of harm, and I am here to do exactly that. Let me do no harm.
Every person on this planet was created to serve God (call it Spirit or Allah, or any other name that you think appropriate). Ignoring this knowledge is not going to benefit anyone. Oh, I know there are plenty of people who think God doesn't exist, and that's fine, as long as they are doing good, taking care of themselves and other people, I don't see a God in a fiery chariot coming down to smite them, just to prove s/he exists. Nor, for that matter, does 'God' smite those who do wrong .. regardless of what people are actually expecting. Sometimes I think we would all learn to be better adults if s/he did smite a few of us once in a while. But that is just an observation, and I, like the rest of humanity, know I deserve a smite or two.
Did you realise that being kind to other people was serving God? Think of it this way, there is a part of God (Holy Spirit .. or just plain Spirit) inside every person. An act of kindness to another is a way of showing love to that person, and to God. Pretty simple. God's ways are simple, clear and precise .. if what you are learning isn't, you'll know a human got to the information and complicated it. We are good at that!
My daughter asked me to write about being 'called to serve'. This is what came of the request. Expect more in part 2, but not today. LOL
Love & Peace
Ama
My daughter is blogging at present. It's a pure joy to see the wisdom she has, although she is only in her twenties .. and me at her age .. well, she's a lot more grown up than I was. I was still a child then, with children, she being the youngest, and her older brother. A child raising children .. but isn't that the way?
Thinking of the actions of children led me to remember my favourite chapter in 1 Corinthians, number 13. It tells us what love is, and what it's not, and then says
"When I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child;
when I became an adult,
I put an end to childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly,
but then we will see face to face."
Face to face - so many people are seeking what they 'are supposed to do' in this lifetime. So few of them think they find their true calling, or even recognise it when it is staring them in the face. They are so busy looking for 'grand adventures', but sometimes God simply wants them to do small things often, in kind and gentle ways.
When I was seeking I already knew my 'calling', but I was frightened to confront the reality of it, in a society that looked down upon people who were 'different', and I am very different ... though I can laugh about it now. I wanted to be like other people, not see things that others didn't, or know things they didn't, or have experiences that would frighten the hell out of most of them, but to me became part of the 'norm'. Or part of the normal. Because I wanted to be normal.
What I had lost in all that 'wanting' was that I had never been what I wanted. Being normal was not something I could go 'back' to, since it had never been there. What I was confronting was accepting that some of us are 'called to serve' in different ways, and that we have to ignore society's norms to help people who are caught up in things 'they cannot understand'. So whatever you are called to do, if it sits well in your heart, and makes you happy, then do it.
"Sits well in your heart" does not mean 'feeds your ego'. We should not glory in harming others, but in being of service to each person we meet, because this service is what is lacking in society now, so focused as we now are on 'serving' ourselves.
The ego is a child demanding attention. A frightened, lonely child who is only 'happy' when the being it governs obeys its commands, stays 'safe' and doesn't venture out of the appropriate behavours that make the ego feel protected. This is the child who spoke, thought and reasoned .. but when did we stop growing up?
Now that I am an adult I put an end to childish ways - or did I? I admit there are moments when I am hurt that I can act in childish ways. Hurt my feelings and I will 'turn the other cheek', but eventually even I run out of cheeks, and then I will say 'no more' in various ways. Sometimes simply by no longer talking to the person that has hurt me. In that way I do the least amount of harm, and I am here to do exactly that. Let me do no harm.
Every person on this planet was created to serve God (call it Spirit or Allah, or any other name that you think appropriate). Ignoring this knowledge is not going to benefit anyone. Oh, I know there are plenty of people who think God doesn't exist, and that's fine, as long as they are doing good, taking care of themselves and other people, I don't see a God in a fiery chariot coming down to smite them, just to prove s/he exists. Nor, for that matter, does 'God' smite those who do wrong .. regardless of what people are actually expecting. Sometimes I think we would all learn to be better adults if s/he did smite a few of us once in a while. But that is just an observation, and I, like the rest of humanity, know I deserve a smite or two.
Did you realise that being kind to other people was serving God? Think of it this way, there is a part of God (Holy Spirit .. or just plain Spirit) inside every person. An act of kindness to another is a way of showing love to that person, and to God. Pretty simple. God's ways are simple, clear and precise .. if what you are learning isn't, you'll know a human got to the information and complicated it. We are good at that!
My daughter asked me to write about being 'called to serve'. This is what came of the request. Expect more in part 2, but not today. LOL
Love & Peace
Ama
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