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Your Old Men will Dream Dreams

Jesus said when he returns he will come “as a thief in the night”.

Remember Christ says, “When I come, it will surprise you like a thief! But God will bless you, if you are awake and ready. Then you won’t have to walk around naked and be ashamed.”

Suppose he does just that, and returns in the dead of night, in secret, but… only comes into the hearts and minds of those people who really, truly are his followers. Those who are really, truly ready to receive him, his knowledge and power. He would know which ones, because it’s easy for him to read our hearts. He knows what’s really there, regardless of what we present to the world as being our true selves

Suppose they, or we are “caught up” spiritually, and don’t physically disappear, but instead are “raptured” while in our sleep? Changed and transformed to wake as new beings.

Suppose then, believers wake up as totally different beings. Spiritual, supernatural beings capable of changing anything and everything about the world around them, including people, animals, plants, the oceans, the mountains and the air.

Suppose that we or they, really are the inheritors of the Earth, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “The meek shall inherit the earth.” An inheritance, as in something which is left behind by a person who is no longer there, for their heirs to take as their own property and do with it as they will.

A new earth.

A new heaven and a new earth. Brand new, unspoiled, teeming with life and beauty. Imagine the most beautiful sunrise you have ever seen and then multiply it by a thousand times. That’s the kind of newness and beauty I am talking about. That’s the kind of newness and beauty which I saw.

This was a dream that I dreamt last night and I woke up startled! I was not yet changed into that spiritual being which I wanted to be, but I wanted to be ready to be changed.

I thought about it for a long while. I said a prayer that I might be ready if that wonderful dream ever becomes a reality.

Then, I turned back over and went back to sleep and had another dream.

I woke up again this morning early and got up to exercise for an hour and thought about that dream again. It’s totally antithetical to the type of dreams I usually have. I wondered where in the world the impetus came from for that dream.

“Perception is reality” That’s a quote I used to hear quite often from the last manager I worked for. It’s not how you really are which counts, but how you are able to present yourself to the outside world, and to the people around you which counts the most. How then, are people really? How many of us hide secret hates and prejudices in our hearts, but are able to make people “perceive” that we don’t. How many of us really “put on” the airs of Christianity one day a week and are “perceived” as good Christians, but step around beggars on the sidewalks thinking “you outta’ get a job” How many of us wish ill to people behind their backs, but pat them on the back and ask them how their family is doing to their face. Our country is in deep trouble because of the false “perception” of our own greatness…when much, perhaps most, of the world sees us in a much different light. Different cultures “perceive” they way they wish to live differently than we do and when we try to forcefully install our values on them, they hate us for it. So, how do we change our reality as individuals and as a country? How do we change “perception” being reality?

Again,…at the public places so much hate is spouted that you wonder what this country has come to. How can people hate so totally and completely, and echo such hurtful and ignorant words so loudly and carelessly? And when one dares retort….they are called names: “yellow dog” you are….Not a true American are you…” I have traced my ancestry and my 6 times Great Grandfather on one branch of my families, was William Bradford who came over on the Mayflower. My Davenport ancestors were in Virginia in 1670, I have ancestors who fought in the Revolution and 6 who fought in the Civil War, so I think I’m pretty American and thereby entitled to my opinion, without being threatened because of it. Even if I had just come from Mexico last year, but had gotten my citizenship…I would also be entitled to my opinion. When it gets to the point where people want to get in your face and fight you because of some of your beliefs, then you begin to wonder if America is so great after all….

We are all made from a pattern. A very closely related pattern. The pattern of the human species.

Perhaps all of us are like a blank coloring page. Those of us in the same family have the most similar pages, a lot of the same blank squiggles. Identical twins have the most similar pattern, thus the most similar pages. Once the pattern is made, and the die is cast that part of our page cannot be changed. From the human coloring book our page is selected. From the different sections of the book, our page is chosen.

But then the differences begin. What is simply penciled in to begin with, begins to be colored by our experiences. By our environment comes some color. How much we are loved or not loved. We begin to see ourselves in shades and hues that are of our own choice. We go down different paths seeking the tones which we think match our own personal color palette, and unexpected changes sometimes take place. There are no erasures, but you can color over some spots…but that mostly tends to leave gray areas. Our choices are our own, but always within the confines of the page we are given.

Some even color outside the lines, but that tends not to work out well, although rarely something brilliant is formed.

That page IS us, and we work to fill in the blanks all our lives. Many of us choose to replicate another blank page in the process of our own work. Takes two intersecting to accomplish that. In the end we all get to where we get before our crayons are taken away.

But really, human life is about much more than our genetics and our experiences, and our interactions. It’s about much more than being born, and living a life with other people, and dying, isn’t it? If it’s not about more than that, why not just take a black sharpie and color it all in?

Life is about touching and being touched. It’s about expressing your joy and your sadness.

It’s about the first time your child smiled at you, or said your name. Or about their first step, or their first game, or their graduation or their wedding.

It’s about breaking things in anger. It’s about regrets and victories. It’s about finding someone with whom to share your journey.

It’s about reading a good book, or baking a cookie and eating some of the raw dough. It’s about loss and how you cope with it. It’s about sorrow and if you can pick yourself up and go on from that pain.

It’s about the spark of light we are all given…yes given, we cannot take it on our own. We may be the product of eons on the drawing board of nature, but without that spark we are nothing but a pile of carbon stardust waiting to be blown away by some solar winds.

So hold someone’s hand tomorrow. Kiss them if you can. Remember that even the meanest of people started out exactly the same way you did, but somewhere, sometime…somehow, something went wrong.

Life is like brown sugar in the mouth of a baby. Sweet and melting with the warmth of their little bodies. Sticky, yummy and good.

Life is the breeze on which the Monarch rises high into the sky and flies thousands of miles every year in order to propagate and survive.

It is a thunderstorm and an old patched quilt on a front porch swing…and the music of a violin on a sweltering New York City night.

It is a first kiss and a final kiss…and every one in between. A touch or a caress; hurried or languished for hours. Its inconsolable grief and monumental happiness.

It is all of these things. I have seen and experienced them and cry for more! More to come no matter how long or how short, I will bask in them. I will revel in them.

The beat of life…and the beat of our hearts..

It goes on every day. Don’t let it pass you by without noticing. Don’t let today pass you by today without loving it.

If I could fly, oh if only. Human beings have yearned to fly since they first caught sight of the birds in the air thousands of years ago. Jealous of their freedom.

Icarus and Daedulus tried and failed from getting too close to the sun. DaVinci drew plans for the Ornithocopter, but it never was built. Too busy paint Mona Lisa?

And oh I do know the Wright brothers gave us a flying machine to ride in, but that is not the same.

R. Kelley sang: “I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky.”

But it was all metaphorical.

“I’ll Fly Away, Oh Glory” ….but will I really? When I was a child, I used to dream of flying. Not in a plane or copter, but just spreading my arms and soaring. God, those were good dreams. I wish I could dream them again, but it’s been years. When I was a child, I thought and spoke like a child. But now I am grown and must put away childish things. No more Peter Pan, fairy dust and Neverland.

But I do wish I could fly. I’ve had some well wishers want me to give it a try as they have frequently asked me to go jump off a cliff, but thankfully I never did.

I think perhaps when that spark which resides within us all takes leave of this vehicle it is in, I will get my wish. I hope I can at least look back over my shoulder and see the trees and mountains and lakes and rivers one last time. That’s not asking for much considering all the hours I have put in here at the “office” is it?

I don’t think so.

Lying is now an accepted way of life. People of all ilks try to see how much they can “get away with” when it comes to untruths. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook have exponentially increased the number of lies that are published on a daily basis, coming from the top down, among all manner of people.

Our world today is accurately described by Isaiah’s description of ancient Israel:

“None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.”

How then can we continue to survive in the modern world?

We can look again to the knowledge of the ancient text of Proverbs

. It tells us to trust in God with all our hearts; and lean not unto our own understanding. If we will acknowledge him, he will direct our path.

If we acknowledge God, and accept that we cannot understand how he created us, or our world, I believe he will give us the understanding we need to navigate the mind field of lies we must navigate every day we live in this modern world.

If we chart our course through life nowadays, based on what we think is true, we will certainly be deceived. Look around you, and you can see it happening every day, “tweet after tweet”. I don’t think God deals with us through Twitter. I think he still deals with us through our hearts.

What do you think?

Where are your memories?

I know people say we should “live for today” or “the present is all that matters”. But I don’t think so.

On some days, like today, my memories are all that sustain me. The present doesn’t work the best for me, and living for today is like an October dust devil…swirling through and kicking up leaves. It’s here and gone before you can even identify it.

More than anything else in my life, my biggest fear is losing my memories, forgetting where I’ve been, and who I’ve touched and kissed and loved. Losing me.

One of my older friends at Trade day took a nasty fall today. He said it was just a weird blank feeling, and he fell and pulled over his table while I was standing there and spilled his things. As I was helping him pick them up he kept saying he just didn’t know what had happened. There was a look in his eyes. Seventy six, just lost his wife this year. An uncertain look.

Then this afternoon I found out my Eli took a nasty fall at school and busted his chin on the pavement. He looked so pitiful and frail this evening when I saw him, and that same uncertain look in his eyes. He will remember that spill all his life, just as I remember riding my tricycle down the steps of our house when I was four and busting open my forehead. He will for sure remember this.

My older trade day friend may not remember his fall too long. He will for sure not have the chance to store it in his vault of remembrance near as long as Eli will his. And so the difference that seventy some odd years make. A lifetime started, a lifetime lived, and the memories are what makes the life. They are us, and we are them.

Where are your memories? I can still find mine most of the time right now, and for that I am so very grateful.

Remember my friend, and little Eli. They both need healing thoughts.

I got to thinking about the old saying that “life is just mind over matter….if you don’t mind it don’t matter!” Now I now that’s supposed to be funny, but really it’s kind of true. If you don’t mind what people say about you, it don’t matter. If you don’t mind you don’t have as many possessions as others around you, it don’t matter. If you don’t mind that someone cuts you off in traffic, it don’t matter. If you don’t mind you’ve gained a little weight, it don’t matter. If you don’t mind there’s a little dust on the furniture, it don’t matter.

The things that DO matter are our peace of mind, and happiness, and our relationship to the people and the world around us.

It matters how we treat our family and our friends. It matters if we help someone who asks for it, but also it matters when we help someone who needs it and DOES NOT ask for it…cause some people who need help are too proud to ask and some are so far gone, they cannot ask.

It matters if we care about humanity….not just American humanity but ALL of humanity.

So today don’t mind about the loudmouth in the aisle ahead of you at Walmart talking on their cell phone about things best kept private, it don’t matter. Don’t mind about what the talking heads on TV are telling you, in the long run it won’t matter. Don’t mind if so and so don’t agree with your politics, or pulls an online rant on you, in a month or a year, or in 100 years it…won’t…matter. Period.

Do mind about telling someone you love them…that does matter. Do mind if you help somebody who is sick, or feed someone who is hungry, that does matter. Do mind about hugging your kids, and your old people. Do mind about dealing with those around you with kindness. Those are the tenets of living which will live on far beyond us all. That is the morality upon which an unbreakable civilization will one day be founded, and out of which a new paradigm of life will emerge.

If you’re a Christian, read the gospel and do what Jesus says. If you’re an atheist treat others with integrity, compassion, and understanding. If you are of any religion, stand for the good which all religions include…don’t make up you’re own rules. Don’t surround yourself with hatred. Don’t think that revenge will end with the last person who acts with revenge in mind. It won’t. An eye for and eye only ends up making everyone blind.

Perhaps I am naive to think these things. To think that we will be able to solve our own human problems by our own human selves. But I do

I really do.

Take everything you know or think you know, and do a “role reversal” in your mind.

Now, think about it for a while…….is it possible that we (as human beings) are wrong about some things? Is it possible we are wrong about some people, or groups of people?

Is it possible…could it possibly be possible, that we are just not thinking?

One thing that I make sure and do on a daily basis is to say out loud: “I will not let hate and fear rule me!” I know that if anyone actually saw me, they might think that’s pretty weird. But, my opinion is that “vocalizing” our thoughts makes them more of a reality then just thinking them in our heads. I also really believe that part of our problem in this society is that we do not vocalize our thoughts and opinions enough to other, actual in the flesh people. We have a habit of expressing our thoughts and opinions here in cyberspace, and it’s just…not…the…same, as having a conversation in person.

For most people, excepted for the dedicated and practiced “entertainers” in our world who are adept at acting out and inciting others…for most people though, besides those entertainers…it’s harder to express hatred and fear to somebody’s face, than it is to write it out on this digital page.

Most of us are not of the mindset yet, to act out hatred and loathing by performing actual deeds of violence in person against other people…although, the instances of those who are doing so is becoming a more common occurrence. People who are on the fence….on the cusp of doing violent acts against other people, are often pushed beyond the edge of inaction to the tragedy of real action, by things they read, hear or come in contact with via the virtual world.

I hope that it doesn’t get worse. I fervently wish that we can all start to again become more communicative with each other in person, face to face. I want for there to be a world for my children and grandchildren to inhabit, in which they have a chance to live and enjoy themselves the way I have….the way we have.

If we think, like I said at the first of this post….if we think about just not ourselves, but of those who come after us in this world, maybe we can solve some of the severe problems which we are now encountering. Listen to your heart, your own heart…not the rhetoric of anyone who wants to sway you away from what you know in your heart is right.