01
Honor the Mystery! That is the essential orientation, and we spend our entire life learning what it requires-- and prohibits. It means abandoning the idea of God, for one thing. Treating the Mystery as though it is God is to fail to honor the Mystery. God has those Ten Commandments, and his (sic) Chosen People, and his merit system for earning his favor and deserving the accolade, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Master!" The Mystery is not anyone's "Master," and does not hand out rewards and punishments like some Dandy slave owner would do it. There is nothing to be gained and nothing to be lost with the Mystery. It is all to be enjoyed and relished with wonder and delight. Life is its own reward, or its own punishment, depending on how we live it, but there is no merit involved. It is all a matter of attitude, of perspective, and of how we do it. Sincerely, spontaneously, with no contrivance whatsoever is how to do it. Just being here, now, seeing what's what, knowing what is happening and what is called for in response, and doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done, the way it needs to be done because it needs to be done-- without keeping score or even noticing what we are doing, just seeing what's what and doing what needs to be done, moment-by-moment, all our life long-- with joy in what we are doing (Using our gifts/daemon/virtues/specialties/shtick to share and serve moment to moment), and with satisfaction for having done it. Period. To do that is to honor the Mystery. To fail to do that is to miss the point of our life. To be wrong about what is important. And to wander lost in the wasteland of discontent forever. Live to honor the Mystery!
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02
To take away a woman's right to abort her pregnancy is to force her to remain pregnant against her will. Oppression hides in denial behind the phrase "sanctity of life." Sanctity of life serves and supports COVID vaccines. Sanctity of life serves and supports gun control measures, including restricting the types of weapons sold and the places weapons can be carried. Sanctity of life serves and supports democracy's promise of Liberty, Truth, Justice, Equality for all people--with no discrimination or bias between/among people of any kind, at all, ever. Sanctity of life serves and supports a livable minimum wage, affordable health care, affordable housing, affordable education through undergraduate school, affordable child care, and an atmosphere in which people are honored and respected and welcomed with kindness and compassion, and allowed to go about their life without harm or threat of harm, and with good faith and genuine care and concern. Sanctity of life serves and supports an atmosphere/environment in which people are free to live their life in ways commensurate with self-awareness, self-development, self-discipline and personal responsibility, knowing where they stop and others start, minding their own business and tending their own affairs, without intrusion, harassment, intimidation or mistreatment from other people-- with liberty and justice for all-- where all of our freedom ends where our responsibilities begin.
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03
Things have to play themselves out. No one is in control. No one is in charge. No one is in command. Everything depends upon everything else. Nothing can happen until something else does. It's a complete mystery how anything gets done. Pace and timing, Kid. Pace and timing. Time and chance, Kid. Time and chance. Nothing can happen before its time. In the meantime, it is always the right time for something. Our place is to discern/perceive what it is time for here and now, and to live in the service of what needs to happen here and now, doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, where it needs to be done, how it needs to be done because it needs to be done, moment-by-moment, in each situation as it arises, all our life long. Each situation represents a birthing and a dying in that we die to our will for the situation, and bring to life what is needed in the situation, at the expense of our own desires. We submit to the situation in a "thy will, not mine, be done" kind of way, with the "Thy" being the need of the situation as a whole. We belong to the time and place of our living, and live there to share and serve the gifts/daemon/virtues/specialties/shtick that are ours to bring forth for the good of the whole-- for the joy of what we are doing, and the satisfaction of having done it. In so doing, we participate in the playing out of what is being played out-- in the coming forth of what is struggling to come forth, in the making real of what needs to be made real, and in the wonder of miracle, magic and mystery that constitutes the heart of life and being, that happens of itself, the way all play happens. The cosmos is the cosmos' way of playing with itself. And it is our place to be a willing, cooperative, part of the dance of life and being.
