Goddess Blessings

At a convention, my husband paused to converse with a new face. At the end of their discussion, the man smiled and parted saying, "May the Goddess Bless you."

My husband smiled broadly and replied, "May God Bless you too."

Too often people take affront to a beautiful Blessing offered when they realize that the sender does not follow the same religious beliefs. Instead of seeing what it truly is, they treat it like a curse and trample it under their feet.

Some people follow the Blessing with curses of their own. Some coldly turn and storm away. Several Christians follow this with a string of bible quotes used as spears.

This is not how any of us should treat our brothers and sisters.

Few realize that if one studies our Judaic roots, one finds several names of God, including the female "Shekhinah." There are pluralistic names as well. God is NOT just male, nor just female, but neither and both at the same time. God's very nature IS a paradox from our perspective.

My husband did the right thing in that situation. He saw what the man offered as it is - a heartfelt Blessing from the highest source the person knows. In turn, my husband offered the man the same.

May Blessings be yours each new day

May Divine Love always flow your way

~ESA

Divisions and Fear

Someone once asked me what I value most in this world. My response was, "Seeing other people cross dividing lines and work together.

There are many in this world who would divide. We are divided by geography, income, politics, religions, genders, lifestyle, cultures, and languages. Some thrill at diving people and putting each in our place.

But are we not all one - humanity? Do we not all have the same color blood running in our veins? Do we not all live under the same sky, where the moon and sun touch our lives?

I've even seen fellow Christians bicker among themselves over who has what right.

People quote the bible as an excuse to draw lines. "If you're not with me; you're against me!" or "Christ came to divide sheep and goats, so I am called to do likewise!"


Say WHAT?!?

Do you really believe that is what Jesus / Yeshua wants? Did He not tend to the Roman centurion and the Samaritans as well as the Jews? Did He not reach out to everyone who crossed his path, and tell a beautiful story of blessing for the one that stepped across a dividing line to help a fellow human being?

Christ asks that we love each other and work together - not divide ourselves, fight, and hate each other. That is the teachings of the adversary.

Once, I attended a healing Mass with my husband and in-laws. My mother-in-law is Protestant, and thus cannot receive communion in the Catholic church. When the priest saw that she did not come up, he approached her after finishing the line. She refused demurely. When asked why, she explained that she was Protestant and not allowed. To emphasize, she put her hands before her mouth.

The priest pulled down her hands, put the Eucharist in her palms and said firmly, "That doesn't matter." There were whispers all around us; many had plans to report this priest to the church. But I Bless this priest for what he had done. He crossed that line to extend Love.

Fear divides us from our fellow human beings. We fear them, whether we see that as despising them, hating them, or cutting ourselves from them. We are running as fast as we can in the opposite direction, even when we don't admit it to ourselves.

Fear can also be used by others to keep us quiet, obedient to their greed and desires, and have us fight each other. Fear is used to divide us. Fear is used to keep us from saying or doing something to change things - especially when things should be changed!

Why?

Because, division is the antithesis of what humanity is actually growing towards and what we can be. There is a statement that practically screams from my being when I see how much fear has crippled what we can be.

We can achieve far more together than the sum of our individual efforts.

Together - as one.

When we are divided and running in so many different directions, we fail in that.

How much can we do working together? Even as recent as one generation ago, we walked on the surface of the moon.

But we can do much more. When people work together, they erase the dividing lines. They unite in heart and mind and create something strong and lasting.

We create a better world, a brighter world.

We come up with solutions to life's problems, with no loss to any, no answering to corporate greed that sees the poor masses beneath its notice.

We bring Peace into our lives and our world. 

We bring Love to live in our lives and the lives of every one of our sisters and brothers.

We are all one, though fear tries to tell us differently.  Let Light shine to dissolve the fear - and bring us a better world.

~ ESA

Home for the Holiday

It is sad when there are so many dividing lines in the world. When I stumble across the ones in my own life, I sit back and wonder why they are even there. As I have just mentioned to someone on Twitter, while I was raised Christian, I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. So wishing others a Happy Hanukkah did not seem wrong to me at all... until I was accused of possibly trying to convert them to Christianity.

*Sigh*

The home where I was raised had a Mezuzah beside the door, like every other house in my neighborhood. It was there when we first moved in. When my dad explained what was inside, it reminded me of the words I read in our Old Testament. No biggie - same writing / same God.

While we were one of three families with tree and Christmas lights, in a neighborhood of over 300, I wondered why we didn't have a Menorah glowing in our front window like all the rest. It was explained that we were Christian, not Jewish. That was the first dividing line.

Around our Easter celebration, I actually looked forward to matzo in the supermarket - I used to nibble them row-by-row as a child for a snack. There was also my neighbor's famous matzo ball soup when we sat down to the Passover Seder with them, unless it fell on Easter, at which point we had family gatherings for our holiday that day. Another fine dividing line.

In December, there were many craft and holiday flea markets held selling goods. My mom was a shop-a-holic. So after-school we were dragged to many different places to attend these events. They were many in the local temples, one at our Catholic school in the gym, and one in a parish hall from a Mormon Church. While I and my siblings towed behind my mother from table to table at these events, I had plenty of time to examine the stuff that hung from the walls. I can't read Hebrew, nor could I then. So I asked my mother about the writing in symbols that looked closer to Chinese in my young eyes than the Greco-Roman letters in which I read/write. She explained they were Hebrew and that is what the Jewish teachings were written in. We don't speak or read it because we were not Jewish. Another dividing line.

When I was still in grade school (where I attended Catholic school from grades 1-8), I received my Confirmation. Friends of ours attended it, even though they were not Christian. We also attended their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs too. In fact, several of our class trips in the later grades were to the temple to learn about Judaism. While I heard rumors that the Hebrew grade school did the same as part of a cooperative program with our Church, the majority of the kids in our area attended public school. They found our ceremonies strange and bizarre while we had some vague notion of what theirs were about. After all, Jesus, the focus of our own religious education, had celebrated Jewish holidays and practiced Jewish customs. But my neighbors understood little about our customs and holidays. Another dividing line.

High school wasn't fun for me; I attended an all-girl Catholic Academy. But unlike grade school, I had to take two school buses. I was picked up by the local high-school bus, that rounded up ALL the high-school children in the area - public, Catholic and Hebrew schools. The majority of the public school kids were Jewish. While there was more than one Catholic high school kids in my town attended, overall, in our neighborhood, we made up less than 10% and had to wear these atrocious uniforms. I believe the Hebrew school had uniforms or a dress-code too, but they were not as glaringly obvious as the plaid skirts, ties and school color blazers and sweaters with the school emblems on them. A very obvious dividing line.

We ALL were dropped off at the public school. Then the public school kids went inside (or at least had to be inside by the first bell). The rest of us stood outside as our second bus would travel from town-to-town picking up the kids for our respective high school. While this may have made sense to some administrator, it was torture for us. We had to wear clothes that distinguished us as "separate" from the others, and we were major targets for bullies, teasing and bad-mouthing both on the bus and at the public high school. Why? Because we were not Jewish. They outnumbered us; we were supposed to always forgive, so they assumed there would be no retaliation as well. We had no other way to get to our school; we had to share the ride on "their" bus. At the public school, we had to stay put while they had the opportunity to walk away when they wanted to. They would ask: Why were we living in the neighborhood anyway? It was a JEWISH neighborhood! Christians were not welcome. Even the local "Y" was a YMHA, not a YMCA.

Why were we there? My father worked hard for a living, went to night school to get a law degree and then worked long hours in "the city" (New York City) to earn a good enough living to have a big house in a nice neighborhood for his family. There was no application indicating what religious affiliation we had to have to buy the house. That would be illegal - this is America, home of religious freedom. Right? The other Christians we knew had homes half the size or smaller. Why could we not live in that neighborhood in a big house for a big family?

In the years to follow, I observed further divisions. It was OK to have friends across that religious line. It may even be acceptable to date across the dividing line, if someone better is not available. But one would never assume it's OK to marry across the dividing line... "Think of the kids; they would be confused," was an argument I heard many times - from both sides of the fence. Yet it's the same God...

*Sigh* That was three to four DECADES ago: over a generation.

I don't hold grudges; I am called not to. What was in the past stays in the past - as it should! Hate and division only begets hate, war and violence. None of which I want.

Times have changed, thankfully for the better. In my lifetime, I have seen a growing acceptance across many lines - race, religious and sexual preferences being predominant. There has become a stronger division in political and income lines in these past few years, though. My heart longs to see these reversed too...

I followed my mom back to Long Island Monday, as we are visiting with friends and family here this week as part of our holiday travel. On the way we stopped at the local strip mall to pick up a few items. In the large window before me, the local florist had a winter-scape display with a large menorah predominantly at the center with the correct number of candles aglow. Tuesday at the bowling alley as we were heading out the door, I spied the manager turning the bulb to "light" the last candle as sunset dimmed an already rainy afternoon. I am still a Christian and will always be, but these sights made me feel like "home for the holiday" more than I can express, as much as the scent of a freshly decorated Christmas tree.

We are all brothers and sisters in this world. One race, one humanity. Why do we keep dividing ourselves?

-ESA

A Response

There has been many tweets about a particular individual who gets nasty and venomous when he sees people have unfollowed him. While I have read the reports, I also did my homework and researched it myself to confirm this. There have been many requesting I unfollow this individual as well. I would like to share with these people, and all who may be interested, why - after prayerful consideration - I will not.

You are not the first to request I unfollow one person or another, due to a wide range of reasons, including that those I follow may be:

- homosexual
- pagan
- atheist
- jewish
- muslim
- republican
- democrat
- liberal
- conservative
- right-to-lifer
- pro-choice
- Obama supporter
- Obama hater
- OWS supporter
- OWS hater

... you get the idea.

As I state in my blog "About Me" - I'm an open, friendly person who gets along with any type of person and welcome anyone to converse with me on any subject. Everyone brings with them something I can learn no matter their ability, background, education, income, intellect, lifestyle, nationality, position, religious beliefs, or any other lines with which humanity tends to divide itself. The world is filled with wondrous variety and I strive to find the Light and Love that exists in each and every person.

While this particular case is about one person, I still see the trend, a pattern. The call to isolate and banish someone. I grew up the outcast one! I was the outsider! Even the kids that were picked on and beaten up by the class bullies did the same cruel things to me, just to prove to themselves they were not the very bottom of the social pecking order! I hated it. I still hate it! When I see a group rally to do that to someone I cringe. I cry.

I will not unfollow, nor will I promote what is wrong - on either side of this battle. I am here only to erase lines - not draw them. I am here to connect with all of humanity - we are all the same under the skin. I encourage people to shine the Light within and share the Love we all have inside. I will not encourage hate.

If I choose to unfollow, I only do so for two reasons: either they are not following me, and I need to free up some follows to follow others who are interested in interacting with me, or their profile page reads like an advertising column. I get enough sales pitches in my day job and on TV.

I will not condone your reasons for not following one you find offensive; that is your right and your choice. But I recall that Christ was found in the company of tax-collectors, prostitutes, lepers, Romans and those whom others found repulsive and avoided being seen in their company. I choose to follow where He leads, not where others tell me to go.

I choose not to cast a stone.

Thank you for reading this.
May Peace be found in your heart.
May you follow Love from the start.

- ESA

Elephant Story (Story)

There is a destiny that makes us brothers,
None goes His way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others,
Comes back into our own.
-Edwin Markham

All of us are interconnected to each other - whether we want to be or not. We can delude ourselves by believing that we are safe in our own social niche and whatever "bad things" are outside our little comfortable space.

Break through that wall of illusion and let some Light shine in on the truth! No matter what lines we divide ourselves with - religious groups, nationalities, political or family ties, economics - therein lies the lie. We are one race of people -- humanity -- living on one very insignificant mudball spinning through the vastness of space.

So many times I hear or read statements that reiterate the same thing: Sure, I'll agree we are one, but I'm the one that's right. They have to come around to my way of thinking.

There's a story I like to share, an elephant story:

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Five blind men approached an elephant for the first time in their lives.

The first blind man reached out and touched the elephant's trunk. "The elephant," he described, "is like a long flexible hose with a tough hide."

The second man reached out and found the elephant's ear. He agreed that the elephant had a tough hide but he argued that the first man was wrong. "The elephant is NOT like a long flexible hose but rather like a large thick parchment."

The third man approached the elephant's side and told the first two they were wrong. "Clearly," he debated, "the elephant is some huge immense beast for it goes on beyond my reach in all directions." When he placed he ear against the elephant, he could hear the elephant's thunderous breath. But, he conceded, the elephant had a tough hide.

The fourth man approached the elephant carefully, after hearing what the third had to say. He was a bit surprised when he found the elephant's leg. "The elephant isn't so huge," he laughed at the third man, "for I can wrap my arms around it. But the elephant is strong, feel the muscle under the tough hide."

By far the most curious now, the fifth and final blind man approached the elephant and stretched out his hand, completely uncertain what he would encounter. His hand touched and grasped the elephant's tail. Feeling it in detail, the man paused in wonder. "Why, this is no more than a flexible stick with a tough hide and tuft of hair on it's end, not too different than a paintbrush."

Which blind man truly saw the elephant?

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Thus it is with humanity, we've been blessed that we are allowed to see things from many different perspectives. Only through collaboration and cooperation can we all come to understand things fully.

All five admitted that the elephant had a tough hide. There is, likewise, common ground we all share - we smile, we cry, we laugh, we love. We can either use the different perceptions we have to divide us or let us grow in mutual understanding of something much, much greater than ourselves.

One Light. One Love. Many ways through which humanity is touched.
Do we continue to draw lines?
Or do we open minds?

- ESA

Erasing Lines

The world as we have come to know it is a large, vast place full of wondrous variety and diversity. But sometimes the nature in human beings to classify, to list -- to pigeonhole comes out in us all. With this we draw lines - circles, boxes, squares. We separate ourselves and create a we/them dichotomy that creates alienation, segregation, separation, war, feelings of loftiness and even hatred.

There is a poem, I often quote:
They drew a circle to shut us out.
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout!

But Love and us had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that took them in.
- Original by Edward Markham

In the late 1960's, humanity saw something that it never saw before, pictures of our world as seen from a vast distance: one blue-green world with white lacing; no borders marking countries, no name tags on cities. This is an image that stuck in the minds of many who had the fortune of being around in those days -- we're one world.

Then we went back to our borders, our religions, our races, our cultures, our political beliefs, our myriad ways of separating ourselves from our fellow human beings. "We are not like them," we told ourselves. "They are so different and strange." And wars continued; prejudices still thrived. And we kept telling ourselves that our little circle was the ONE TRUE circle and all others are wrong.

The "if you're not with us, you are against us" mentality still exists today as it has for thousands of years. We never really changed, even when we saw with our own eyes that we are of ONE WORLD.

Now over four decades later, people are seeing the world through different eyes once again. The internet has allowed us to step outside of our little circles and explore what exists in others. In doing so, many have come to see "Hey, we're not so different." In fact, many have reached out and befriended others around the world, regardless of country, religion or politics. They find they share common interests and some common beliefs even if they are expressed differently within the circles they were brought up in.

Language barriers that often were an overwhelming hurdle are now simply overcome as more and more online translators make communicating with others easier. People are able to hold conversations with people anywhere in this world - in real time (if they are awake at the same time) or within mere hours - with someone who doesn't speak the same language.

We still find the old adage is true: a smile is still a smile; a laugh is still a laugh; and a tear is still a tear, regardless of where we are and what language we speak.

My hope is that this is the time when many will come forth with not pencils and mark "This is ours; that is yours," but will turn that instrument of destruction around and erase those lines!

We are all human beings. We are of one world surrounded by the vastness of space. When we continue to squabble like spoiled siblings in a household, we will fail to reach our true potential. It's only when we reach out and take each others hands, erasing the lines between us, can we discover how much common ground we really have. And it's on this common ground, we can build the foundation to a better world.

Can one person do this? No. But one person can make a start, reaching out to anyone to whom (s)he contacts. In turn, those people can do the same. Little steps lead to bigger ones.

I was born in the year man first set foot on the moon and looked back upon the Earth. Before my time is done on this world, I'd like to see it reach the point when one person looks at another, all they see is a fellow human being. One who shares the common ground of living in the same world, and may have many other things in common as well.

All one needs to do is reach out and discover them.

Stop drawing lines.
Start erasing.

- ESA

Elephant Story (Story)

Hello folks,

There is a story I love to share with others, an elephant story. This is based on an oral story passed on to me.

__________________________________

Five blind men approached an elephant for the first time in their lives.

The first blind man reached out and touched the elephant's trunk. "The elephant," he described, "is like a long flexible hose with a tough hide."

The second man reached out and found the elephant's ear. He agreed that the elephant had a tough hide but he argued that the first man was wrong. "The elephant is NOT like a long flexible hose but rather like a large thick parchment."

The third man approached the elephants side and told the first two they were wrong. "Clearly," he debated, "the elephant is some huge immense beast for it goes on beyond my reach in all directions." When he placed he ear against the elephant, he could hear the elephant's thunderous breath. But, he conceded, the elephant had a tough hide.

The fourth man approached the elephant carefully, after hearing what the third had to say. He was a bit surprised when he found the elephant's leg. "The elephant isn't so huge," he laughed at the third man, "for I can wrap my arms around it. But the elephant is strong, feel the muscle under the tough hide."

By far the most curious now, the fifth and final blind man approached the elephant and stretched out his hand, completely uncertain what he would encounter. His hand touched and grasped the elephant's tail. Feeling it in detail, the man paused in wonder. "Why, this is no more than a flexible stick with a tuft of hair on it's end, not too different than a paintbrush."

Which blind man truly saw the elephant?

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Thus I believe it is with God and humanity. We all see God but from a different perspective. Only through collaboration can we all come to understand the God that works through all our world's religions. One Light. One Love. Many ways through which humanity is touched.

- ESA