In these financially difficult times, when everyone seems to be worried about making ends meet,  I found this blog by Catherine Austin Fitts pertinent. Solari Blog
In these financially difficult times, when everyone seems to be worried about making ends meet,  I found this blog by Catherine Austin Fitts pertinent. Solari Blog
The bottom line is that if Americans really knew the Bible, and, God forbid, put its teachings into practice, both conservatives and liberals might be unsettled.
Which is reason enough to start a federal Bible education program.
Call it “No Believer Left Behind.”
David Gibson has written a very insightful article regarding the contemporary American fashion of quoting Bible verses to back up one’s argument, while avoiding passages and contexts that go against or modify that argument. It’s well worth your time, for the Bible is too often turned into a weapon rather than a plowshare. Politics Daily
A couple recently came to me for counseling. They were relieved that I honored their sense of spirituality, especially their Christian faith. They’d sought counseling from a couple of pastors before. They told me that such counseling had been ineffectual because the pastors told them they had to love one another but gave very little help on how to do that.
I’ve found over the years that this is not an unusual complaint. When I was married, I insisted that my wife and I sought counseling too. We tried various pastors and got similar advice. It just wasn’t enough. We needed specific–and tested–directives to follow.
Spiritual counseling, pastoral counseling, all counseling, must help clients work out their problems. The counselor must step in and not just listen to airing of those issues but step in with ways to help people come to grips with them. He or she must help the clients try to solve their problems so that they CAN love one another.
This is not always easy, especially if things have gone too far. Both parties have to be committed to trying to work for a better relationship. Then we can make adjustments to the system that will help them have a satisfying relationship.
Kaiser Permanente, Inc.
is offering free Body, Mind, Spirit widgets (little computer-operated games that help us stay healthy). Go here to download them and keep updated on their latest widgets. The widget to help keep the brain active and the Yoga
widget are very helpful.
http://www.kpwidgets.org/index.html
My little grey Beardie/Beardie mix, Flopsy, one of many rescue animals that have been part of my life.
The easiest, sweetest dog I’ve ever had.
Wisdom for Our Days
In these very troubled times, we must be centered.
We center by integrating the various aspects of our thoughts, beliefs, and actions.
We avoid extremes. This process is facilitated by meditation, prayer, and reading insightful books. All of us need good guides—reliable therapists, coaches, teachers, healers, ministers, and friends.
We must own our Shadows so they do not own us. We can, and m ust, remain positive without being unrealistic about the evils that beset
us on every side.
Times of trouble test us. We rise to the occasion and become better people because we pass the tests that life presents to us.
We move toward wholeness. If we consistently avoid, and fail, our tests, we degenerate into something less than human, deformed, less than what we have been intended to be.
I offer various services—some of which may not seem closely related at first.
Yet on deeper inspection we realize they are. They are part of a life and intelligence that is creative and expansive, valuing good relationships among all things—human, animal, plant. My teaching background is related to my writing, just as my counseling and coaching are part of who I am and what I hold important. My life, like my work, is holistic.
I garden because gardening teaches us vital lessons about our existence.
We do not reach wholeness alone. We reach it in partnership with fellow journeyers, through sustained and cooperative efforts even with species that do not at first seem very sympathetic.
Thomas Ramey Watson is an affiliate faculty member of Regis University's College of Professional Studies. He has served as an Episcopal chaplain (lay), trained as a psychotherapist, done postdoctoral work at Cambridge University, and was named a Research Fellow at Yale University.
In addition to his scholarly writings, he is a published author of poetry and fiction.