An odd sort of day

I’m having a baby shower! Please visit:

http://www.webbabyshower.com/mullen/

 

 

What a day.  I spent most of it on the couch, tired and well, just tired.  When I went to get Shabree from school this morning, Jerry had taken the van to go to court on a ticket he’d gotten because Sydni was wearing her seatbelt incorrectly.  So now he has to take traffic school.  Anyway, I had to walk.  Well, walking HURTS nowadays.  It hurts a LOT.  So I put Sammi in the stroller and went to get Shabree… who did NOT have her bike.  So on the way back, I got to push both Shabree AND Sammi in the stroller (it’s a 2 seater sit n’ stand), all 75 or so pounds of them.  UGH.  So I could barely walk by the time I got back in.  Plus, I hadn’t had time to get breakfast or any food at all, so I was blood sugar crashed and slightly nauseated.  Jerry made me a hamburger, but Sammi wanted some so bad, that I ate maybe 2/3rds of it and gave the rest to her… and the rest of the bun went to the dog.  I also had an orange we’d scrounged from the cafeteria at Shabree’s school.  I would have had fruit salad, but Shabree accidentally dumped it on the ground, and it went spilling out of its container :(.

Over the last few days/weeks, I find myself having more and more conversations about God, the Bible, and etc.   The amount of conversations I am having is DEFINITELY going UP.  I missed the Jehovah’s Witnesses this morning, they left a pamphlet in the door though.  Yesterday we missed the Mormon boys.  To those who say California is a religious wasteland, I say, you should TRY living HERE!!!!  LOL… there is an ABUNDANCE of religion in the area where I live. 

I had a sudden memory… When I worked at Apple, we had a cafeteria which I loved to eat at (they’d grill my onions for my cheeseburger…dang thing set me back 5 bucks, but it was worth every penny!)  and I was friendly with the cashier there.  She was a black woman, very pretty, had GREAT hair… loved how she did her hair.  I remember how kind of surprised, or maybe taken aback I was the day I asked her how her day was, and her reply was "Blessed."
Oh.  Well, good.  🙂
Nope, no SHORTAGE of religion in this area (especially if you’re black, let me tell you!) 
California amuses me.
ANYWAY, yesterday I received an email from a woman on my gardening group on Yahoo, and she included this little piece:

As Your Soul Prospers
"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and
be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
(3 John 1:2)
Once you begin to believe it is God’s will to prosper you, you
can’t help but wonder how He is going to do it. Is He going to
put a check in the mail?
Or start floating $20 bills down from the trees?
No. He’s going to do it by prospering your soul. He’s going
to plant the seeds of prosperity in your mind, will and emotions,
and as they grow, they’ll
produce a great financial harvest.
Go to the book of Genesis and read the story of Joseph. It’s a
perfect demonstration of what I’m talking about.
When Joseph was sold as a slave to the Egyptians, he didn’t
have a dime to his name. He didn’t even have his freedom. He’d
been sold as a slave. But, right
in the middle of his slavery, God gave Joseph such wisdom and
ability that he made his owner prosper. As a result, the man put
Joseph in charge of all
his possessions.
Later, Joseph was put in prison. There’s really not much
opportunity for advancement in prison, is there? But God gave him
insight that no other man in
Egypt had. That insight landed him a position on Pharaoh’s
staff. Not as a slave but as the most honored man in the entire
country next to Pharaoh himself.

He rode along in a chariot and people literally bowed down before
him. During a worldwide famine, Joseph was in charge of all the
food. Now that’s prosperity!

How did God accomplish all that? By prospering Joseph’s soul. No
matter how dismal his situation became, no matter how impossible
his problems, God was
able to reveal the spiritual secrets that would open the door of
success for him.
That’s what makes God’s method of prospering so exciting. It
works any- where and everywhere. It will work in the poorest
countries on the face of this
earth just like it works here in the United States. And you can
be sure that it will work for you!.

I found it interesting.  I started to reply to her, but I got pretty emotional about Jerry’s lack of doing anything for the MediCAL thing, and deleted the email before I sent it.  So she probably thinks I was totally offended or something.  I’m pretty hard to offend.  I need to indulge myself in a little prayer/meditation one of these days soon.  Right now, I am too tired to really make heads or tails of anything, though an HOUR AGO I had answers ;).  I have been leaving my diary for last lately, and I really ought to make it first.  Actually, I’m tempted to go back to doing what I did in the OLD days of my diary…just writing an entry whenever I feel like it, even if that’s 3 entries a day.  I just hate to leave anyone behind, because they don’t catch the fact that there are multiple entires for one day.  I just hate editing… I don’t know why.  But I’m still pretty tired, and I’m yawning like crazy, so I am thinking maybe it’s time to go to bed, even though this particular entry feels FAR from finished.

Here is an email I wrote to a woman, in response to a post from my frugal moms Yahoo group (I’ll see if I can find the original post I responded to, but here is my response:)

Who said God had nothing to do with it? However, God
DOES NOT rule our lives… God GUIDES our lives (IF we
choose to let God.) WE rule our lives, that is why
God gave us free will.

Esoteric: Well, it literally means information
confined to a select few. How I meant it was "out
there (in la la land)" lol.

My beliefs come from a variety of
religions/ideas/schools of thought, and finally, from
tons of prayer/conversations with God. I have taken
World Religion courses, spoken at great length to
people from various religions, including Mormon,
Jehovah’s Witnesses and 7th Day Adventists, etc. I
was raised Catholic, at one time had a Pagan
boyfriend, first husband was really into metaphysics,
second husband pretty much doesn’t like Christianity,
but is tolerant. We get the Mormon boys over here
about once or twice a week, my best friend is the
<span id="lw_1205477849_0" class="yshortcuts" style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0%50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;”>Jehovah’s Witness, my best friend since junior high
went to the same Catholic church I went to… what I’m
getting at there, is that I’ve discussed religion and
spirituality with other people since I was about 13,
it’s a subject that has always fascinated me. What
God is… I mean, is God REALLY a MAN? Why did no
women contribute to the Bible? Did they have nothing
to say about Christ? If God is a man, then exactly
what image were women made from? Okay, that isn’t a
fair question. Why does the Bible have so many
contradictions? WHY does the Bible say to spare the
rod, spoil the child? How many countless parents have
used that phrase to beat the life out of their
child(ren?) Now, I really believe God is a God of
Love, and I’ve even felt it… in fact, it almost
makes me ache, because it is so pure and
unconditional. But I really question the Bible’s
interpretation of God as an Angry God. Eh, I don’t
know about that one at ALL, perhaps God IS an
emotional God. I will NOT presume to KNOW God. I
just can’t believe in the Bible. It just seems too
Humanly flawed to me, and no one has had anything new
to add to it in 2000 years? Are we deaf, dumb and
blind to God’s Word in ourselves?

Wanna see a mind BLOWING video? Check out
http://www.zeitgeist.com

I used to kneel in church, because when you’re
Catholic, that’s what you do, lol, and I used to have
the STRONGEST feeling that I would have something to
do with the second coming of Christ. Then, before my
18 month old was born (before she was conceived even!
I felt God asking me if I would do it), I felt that
SHE would have something VERY significant to do with
it. Now, I’m no longer really religious, so I am
wondering how this child is supposed to get trained?
But I was told I’d figure it out, and it’s not all
about religion anyway. Religion IS one path to
spirituality, but definitely not the ONLY path. I
just can’t wait to see what the future brings. Though
I fear that in the near future, things will get worse,
before they can get better. And I most certainly do
not think my daughter will be the only one to have a
hand in it. But we’ll see. Life as we know it has
gone on pretty much unaffected for thousands of years.
Though the last 100 or so alone have left some
burdens on the earth that the earth may not be able to
recover from without some sort of (divine perhaps?)
influence or intervention.

I’m going to try and wrap this up… but it’s
interesting to me, my 12 year old says she doesn’t
believe in God, and I about had a fit. WHAT? I told
her, you know that’s against MY beliefs, right? Poor
kid was overwhelmed, because she HEARD about it in
school, too. We live in California, where the
liberals/secularists are supposed to RULE, lol… but
I’ll tell you what, religion is ALIVE AND WELL in my
part of California! So I started talking about God.
I mean, she really hasn’t had much of an exposure to
religion, so it becomes natural that she wouldn’t
believe in it… though I do think God and religion
are two separate, very distinct things. The 12 year
old is mostly silent on the "issue." I told her God
is where I turn when I have no one else to turn to.
Having God is literally what saved my life as a
teenager when I hurt so much, I was in danger of
killing myself. I’ve got no idea if it’s sinking in
or not, that when you need help, God is there to turn
to.

However, my 5 year old brings up the subject of God as
though she "knows." And I think perhaps she does.
She’s a fairly wise little girl, when it comes down to
it. I was telling her the other day, Don’t grow up, I
don’t want you to grow up. She tells me very
seriously, "Mommy, EVERYBODY has to grow up." Sigh,
too true.

My 8 year old probably lies somewhere between. She
hears the conversations, but really doesn’t have
anything much to say about it either. But she seems
to "know" as well at times.

Anyway, I’m going to send this off… You’re probably
thinking I’m fairly crazy by this point… and perhaps
I am. I don’t know. I don’t THINK I am, but I
definitely have had my share of "weird" thoughts, I
suppose! One thing I AM finding interesting, is how
the amount of conversations in this vein I am having
is going up. I seem to be talking about it to almost
everyone I meet, no matter their viewpoint. I don’t
believe in coincidences, so it’s significant to me how
often I am talking about God these days. The people
who just send me emails ABOUT God is going up. The
amount of people on my doorstep talking about
God…going up. Is it coincidence that my husband
offers to let his business partner move in with us for
awhile, and he just happens to be trying to get back
to his Mormon roots? He and I had a TON of
interesting and thoughtful conversations while he was
here. Many "agree to disagree" conversations as he
needs his religion to help keep him on the straight
and narrow. Some people just DO need religion. Some
people DON’T. Does the path matter so long as it
leads to God? Somehow I think not. I just hope it’s
a pretty, or interesting, or nice path. Pain should
not be part of the equation when it comes to God. 🙂
Though some people seem to need pain too… I don’t
get that.

But something is "up." Otherwise, I wouldn’t be
having all these conversations.

Here is the original post:

What is esoteric?

(I had stated "Not to be TOO esoteric)

"but I rather believe that we

choose where we’re going to live before we’re born…

I don’t think our "consciousness" ever truly dies, so

why wouldn’t we choose circumstances for ourselves

that are going to further our spirituality, our

understanding of the universe, and where we can

hopefully learn to be better people? I think humans

are much more powerful than we EVER give ourselves

credit for. " (This was originally stated by me)

Wow. that’s pretty deep stuff. I wish I could sit down with you and
share my point of life with you. I believe that we were created by one
God, that HE is in control of our world and our lives, including our
spirituality, even if we choose not to follow him, and that HE is more
powerful than any human being can ever even begin to think they are.

Just my ‘world view’

I am going to go bed now. I thought it would be easier to share some of my email exchanges than actually re-do or re-sum them up for you.

And my formatting is getting screwy… oh well.

I hope my switches between fonts didn’t mess anyone up in their reading… if so, let me know, and I’ll put things in different colors instead!