Showing posts with label Thought For The Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thought For The Day. Show all posts

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Story of the day - Would you rather be right or be happy?

She said, "You made your bed so you got to lie in it. Don't look to me."
No, no, no he said to himself. It would be, is a big mistake, to look to her for anything, because she was so hurt, so closed hearted that she had nothing to share. It would be too risky like letting her guard down, taking a brick out of the wall that not only surrounds her but has ivy growing thickly all over the walls. She'd been like that all the years he had known her. She had been abused as a child and carried very heavy baggage which for the most part, went unacknowledged.

For 35 years she was never wrong about anything, never apologized, never, not even once, said she was sorry, and he had sucked it up to make the marriage work, but no longer.

"I'm not even talking any more about it. You just do what you want to do anyway!"

He'd never done just what he wanted to do anyway because he was too scared, too scared to rock the boat, and get her upset, and then there would be hell to pay for days if not weeks. In his panic, the Holy Spirit whispered to him, "This is no way to live. There is a better way."

So in his panic attack he stuttered, "Yeah, yeah, well...............you're right. I am going to do what I want to do anyway." He walked away and he knew it was the end. This was the very abandonment she feared, and her suspicion that he would one day abandon her turned out to be true. She would rather be right than be happy. She had backed herself into a corner and sued him for divorce. She couldn't chance his opposing her again.

And so it passed that they got divorced after all those years, and there is no mercy, not for his sins. There is no forgiveness in her heart, she can't afford it. Can't get blood out of a rock as they say.

Compassion, justice, equity? Not here, not in their house. Not in this relationship, not in this life time.

He turned it over to his Higher Power, God's will be done and all that jazz. Since the time he told me his story, he has gone to heaven, and she, she still resides in the hell of her own making. One day perhaps she may realize that she could have had peace instead of what she created which the children, now adults, have described as a dysfunctional hell on earth.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Thought for the day - The pillage and rape of Mother Nature

"While on one level it seems like an important and reasonable thing to do, protect the habitat of the butterflies, human beings have been used to the idea for the last 2,000 years, and especially the last 200 since the advent of the industrial age that the environment be damned. It is there simply for the pleasure and the profit of human beings and God, in the story of Genesis, has given homo sapiens the permission to dominate Mother Nature to their will and to do with her as they would including pillage and rape."

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/19/14

Friday, July 18, 2014

Thought for the day - We are a light unto a cynical "I don't care" world

"We are a light unto a cynical world. We are a group that still believes that justice, equity, and compassion is important in our personal lives as well as in our community and corporate. It takes great courage, energy, and sacrifice sometimes to stand in solidarity with those oppressed and speak truth to power. "

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/18/14

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Thought for the day - Hitting bottom means recognizing there must be a better way


“Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however, dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point.” ACIM, T-2.III.3.:5-7

A Course In Miracles

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Thought For The Day - Follow me or worship me: What did Jesus really say?

"Jesus clearly taught the twelve disciples about surrender, the necessity of suffering, humility, servant leadership, and nonviolence. The men resisted him every time, and so he finally had to make the journey himself and tell them, “Follow me!” But we avoided that, too, by making the message into something he never said: “Worship me.” Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk-free; actually following Jesus changes everything."
Richard Rohr

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Thought for the day - Homo sapiens responsibility for Gaia

"As we move into a geological era of the planet earth some have called the anthropocene, a geological era in which homo sapiens will determine the evolution of Gaia's development, we need to raise our consciousnesses so we can not only make wise choices, but change our patterns of living on earth to be respectful of the interdependent dynamics that maintain and promote good health and well being for all species."

David Markham, 07/15/14, UU A Way Of Life

Monday, July 14, 2014

Thought for the day - Is there a better way to do justice?




However, as we have learned increasingly over the last 25 years, there is a better way to do justice and the term that has been applied to this way is "restorative justice." 

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/14/14

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Thought for the day - Saint or sinner or a little of both?




"And so is Dellarobia a sinner or a saint or like most of us, perhaps, a little of both?"

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/13/14

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Thought for the day - True love renders justice moot.



"When a person is kind and acts out of love, justice is not necessary, justice is not an issue."

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/12/14

Friday, July 11, 2014

Thought for the day - UUs must show the world the way




"Unlike sheep though we are conscious creatures who can influence to some extent our own fate and whether this new fate will be founded on love, compassion, and justice or on attack, jealousy, and oppression remains to be seen. It is in our hearts and hands as Unitarian Universalists to show the world that there is a better way."

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/11/14

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Thought for the day - The criminal justice system is often not just



"Today's criminal justice system is criminal. It is only a naive person or someone politically cynical who would expect any kind of "justice" to come from it. The criminal justice system has very little to do with justice or the truth."

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/10/14

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Thought for the day - Who gives two hoots? The owls maybe?



Dellarobia senses that there is more at stake in logging this mountain than money; we might be talking the extinction of a species, and this fact of the situation might lead one to question, "Who gives two hoots?"

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/09/14

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Thought for the day - Priorities of compassion


"People are dying of starvation around the world and Americans spend more money on pet food and lawn fertilizer than any nation in the world. What's up with that?"

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/08/14

Monday, July 7, 2014

Thought for the day - Religious or crazy?




"Now you're talking crazy. Is this something religious?"

Barbara Kingsolver

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Thought for the day - It can be just but not fair



"The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer as is happening at an ever accelerating pace in America as well as around the world, based on a supposedly market driven capitalism, may well be just but it is not equitable."

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, 07/06/14

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Thought For The Day - Seeing straight through to the center of your being



"She was pressed by the quiet elation of escape and knowing better and seeing straight through to the back of herself, in solitude. She couldn't remember when she'd had such room for being."

Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior

Friday, July 4, 2014

Thought for the day - What kind of justice are we talking about here?



"So what kind of justice is it that Unitarian Universalists are promoting and affirming in their human relations?"

David Markham, UU A Way Of Life, July 4, 2014 

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Thought For The Day - It is appropriate, now, to beg for mercy

"While that might be helpful, it is limited without repentance and acknowledgement of our sins which we have committed either knowingly or unknowingly, but what we knew and when we knew it, Mother Nature has no interest in. The bad karma is based on actions not necessarily intentional or malevolently motivated. Now that we know, to beg for mercy seems an appropriate response to the advancing environmental changes we will see with the terrible consequences for human beings and other living things."

David Markham UU A Way Of Life, 07/03/14

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Thought For The Day - Moral arc of the universe bends which way?

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

Unitarian minister, Rev. Theodore Parker.



This saying is often mistakenly attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. who used it many times, but he got it from Parker. More more info. click here.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Thought For The Day - What is your spiritual connection to nature?

"Mystical experience of nature can be of particular relevance to our troubled age, bringing deeper into our consciousness and emotions the logic that nature sustains humanity as humanity, in turn, sustain nature. Rationality alone, however, cannot be our guide in the task of restoring our environment. A spiritual connection to nature must inspire the emotional commitment that is the yin, complementing the yang of intellectual understanding." p. 7

Von Essen, Carl, Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience Of Nature As Spiritual Guide


Name one way you have a spiritual connection with nature?

How does this connection nurture and enhance your spiritual life?

 Share your answer in the comments.

My Kind Of Church Music - Over The Rainbow/It's a Wonderful World, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

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