A Prayerful Friday Five

Prayer is a joy to some of us, and a chore to others, waiting likewise can be filled with anticipation or anxiety....So how do you wait and pray?

1. How do you pray best, alone or with others?

Alone, using contemplative prayer or healing techniques with visualization.

I rarely use words anymore, or not very many.

2. Do you enjoy the discipline of waiting, is it a time of anticipation or anxiety?

No I can be rather impatient. It depends, though. When I am sure of something, I enjoy anticipation, sometimes more than what I'm waiting for, really. But if I am unsure, I hate waiting.

3. Is there a time when you have waited upon God for a specific promise?

Well, I am sure there have been several! But the one that just came to mind began when I was 9 years old. I was being abused and basically, had a sort of out-of-body experience where I told God I wasn't going back.

God promised me that if I did, I would be healed and my life would be happy.

Well, the unfolding of that promise took more than 30 years!! But God kept that promise.

4. Do you prefer stillness or action?

Stillness. In prayer and in life, in general.

(*cough* Couch potato *cough*) (*cough* Love to read *cough*)

5. If ( and this is slightly tongue in cheek) you were promised one gift spiritual or otherwise what would you choose to recieve?

Wealth! (Hello...)

:)

Tuesday Two: Care Package

When I was in college, I looked forward to getting care packages from my family. I think the idea of it felt even better than the real thing did when it arrived. They say it's the thought that counts and I tend to agree!

Yesterday, a care package arrived from my wife, with presents for me and my son and "the perfect card" that she has been excited for me to receive ever since she found it.

It started me thinking today about care packages, both physical and figurative (emails, PMs, pics, phone calls). So here's a Tuesday Two about care packages...

1) What have you received recently, literally or figuratively, that made you feel loved?

My sweetie's perfect card! Here's a quote from it...

"I know it's crazy for me to think you're never more than a heartbeat away when there are so many miles between us. But in the precious moments when we're together, it's like the stars are perfectly aligned and everything's right with the world. And those moments are so incredible, that once they've passed, I can't get them--or you--off my mind."

2) What have you done recently, literally or figuratively, to express love or caring for someone else?

I created a scrapbook for my wife and sent it to her. In addition to pictures of us, and our family, I included journaling which expressed how much I love her and how much she means to me.

Bonus question: what has happened recently between you and God recently that felt like a demonstration of God's love for you?

Through a series of circumstances, I was able to get more clear about what I think I am meant to do.

~~~~~

So that's our Tuesday Two, gay Christian bloggers (and friends)! Post a link in the comments if you play.

Remembering Grandpa

I'm sure you'd assume from reading the title that you are about to read about my grandfather. Well, no, that's not the case. My actual grandfather abused me. So, no fond memories of him.

But I've adopted another one! Grandpa Walton from the Waltons.

I used to watch the Waltons as a child but was so young, I barely remembered any of the episodes when I began to watch it from time to time as an adult. Recently, my son and I started watching it together. We have fallen in love with it!

And I, as I said, have adopted Grandpa for my very own.

But on today's episode, the very next one after Grandma Walton came home following her stroke and the extended hospital stay, we found out that Grandpa had died! ...

Sadly, on April 22nd 1978, the beloved Grandpa of the Walton children, and one of America's best loved actors, died just before the filming for the next season of The Waltons was due to begin. It has been nice to see that his memory was still incorporated into the scripts of The Waltons, and he was, and still is, often referred to by the Walton family members, in just the same way as a loved grandparent might be in any family. His photo is still around the Waltons set, and we often see flashbacks as family members recall specific incidents.

http://members.tripod.com/~StumpJ/grandpabio.html

Both of us cried and felt as shocked as I imagine most viewers did who watched it all those years ago.

So I thought I'd take a few minutes just to celebrate him. You'll see why I wish he had been my Grandpa instead of the one I got stuck with by birth (and my Grandmother's remarriage).

Grandpa Walton was full of life! He was always laughing and seemed so accepting of anyone who crossed his path. He was very in tune with nature and had a strong faith. He enjoyed life and every so often would take a day off and "go fishing". But really he just seemed to need time to reconnect.

I hope for his sake that Earl Hamner's real grandfather was as wonderful as this one.

I wish mine had been!

Enchanted

I've had an enchanted day!

Well, maybe not the whole day, but so much of it was magical, wonderful and special that I'm officially declaring the whole day enchanted.

I also drank a little more sweet tea than usual. Is caffeine magical?

The first wonderful thing just might have been scrambled eggs for breakfast. But then, I took an Epsom salts bath (tell me again why I don't do that every day?). My son and I spent time together in between my sessions with clients. Hanging out with him makes any day better! And later, we went for a walk and spent extra time connecting with the trees.

He agreed with me that when the sun went down for a few minutes, it felt like we were on the edge of an enchanted forest. I felt like my energy embraced the fluffy clouds and the spring green, mossy trees. I could almost feel myself sinking into the cloud bed and folding my legs around the thick tree branch.

My neighbor invited us in to give Jonathan a lollipop, and after taking a peek at her decor, I was inspired to change my living room a little. The way that I moved my chair makes it look and feel much more cozy! And it opens up the window to the balcony in a way I didn't even know was possible.

I'm sitting here looking out of that double window right now and I love my new completely unobstructed view!

What a great day!

My inner voice keeps reminding me about the tea. Yes, I have creating an energetic "decongestant" formula on my to-do list. I need to figure out what combo of symbols, hand positions and crystals would function as a decongestant so I could lessen my responsiveness to caffeine. Okay, mom :).

Still a great day, though! I'm grateful for it.

So that's what God meant!

I think I've posted here before that I've heard whisperings and felt nudges from God about ministry.

Which puzzled me because I don't think of myself as the type who would ever want to be a pastor, and that's what comes to mind. The words "healing minister" have always appealed to me but I just didn't know how healing would be a part of a pastorship.

So I decided to just let it hang in the air and wait for more information. I figured whatever I needed to know would present itself one way or the other!

And now, I think that has happened. I had never heard of being a spiritual director before! Even when I saw the blog page of one of the RevGalBlogPals, I thought it seemed like a neat idea and even something I'd enjoy doing but I thought it must be a Catholic thing since I'd never heard of it.

But recently, I found out that people from any faith tradition can learn to be spiritual directors and it looks like it would fit together well with my healing practice. I even found a training program that seems perfect.

So I am definitely going to look into this and see what happens...

Friday Five: Just 24 Hours...

From RevHRod at RevGalBlogPals...

So here are the five things for you to consider...

If you could dramatically change your physical appearance for 24 hours, what would you do?

Well, since I am a minority, I would want an advantaged position. So, I would become a white male. A really good-looking one between 20 and 30.

I saw a Saturday Night Live skit once with Eddie Murphy where they made him up to look white. It was hilarious!! When he got on the bus and other black people were on it, everything seemed normal. But as soon as they got off, the music came on, the ballons were released and people were laughing!

When he went to the bank, the black loan officer seemed hesitant to give him a loan (I think he had no collateral). But the white loan officer took him into his office and pulled out a bag of money and said, "here, take it!".

When he went to the store, picked something out and reached for his wallet, the cashier said, "you know you don't have to pay for that!" and handed him the item he was going to buy.

I don't suppose that would be my experience during the 24 hours, but I do think it would be quite different than the 24 hours I'm about to have in my own skin.

If you could live in another place for 24 hours where would you go?

Well, I'd want to live in my dream house on the lake. So I'd have to go into the future.

You get to do somebody else's job for a day...

I'd want to sing and dance on Broadway. I'm thinking Mamma Mia.

Spend the day with another person from anywhere in time and space...

Well, I'm torn.

I'd like to spend a day interviewing Jesus--because boy, do I have questions! And I'd like to feel God's love up close with skin on.

OTOH, there are two Brokeback Mountain stars I'd like to spend a day with, one at a time, of course.

I'd like to spend Heath's last day with him so that it wouldn't be his last day, but also so I'd know exactly what the mistake was that killed him (and, of course, I'd try to prevent it).

But I'd also like to spend a day with Jake when he didn't know I was there (see my next answer) and felt completely safe from prying eyes. Let me just say that I don't think he'd be with Reese!

A magical power is yours. Which one would you pick?

Well, I'm getting my cake and eating it, too! Because one of the other questions allows me time travel into the future. What's good about that is that it would relieve my worries about how things turned out.

But for this question, I want to pick invisibility. One of my fave books fron childhood was Harriet the Spy, and there are still lots of things I'd love to know :).

***I thought of 2 bonus questions I'd like to answer***

Bonus question #1: If you could relive any 24-hour period, what would it be?

I think I would pick the day when I first realized I could look into my beloved's eyes and see her heart and her soul. It was when we first fell in love and we stared into each other's eyes a lot that day. It felt absolutely wonderful to be so loved and feel so close!

Bonus question #2: If you could create a 24-hour period in the future, what would happen?

My son's happy, romantic wedding day that he has created and paid for himself because of his wildly successful career :).

Finding Who You Really Are

That's the title of the chapter discussed last night during the webinar with Oprah and Eckhart. One thing that stood out for me was his answer to a question posed by one of the Skypers. She described herself as highly sensitive (I am, also) and asked how to avoid reacting to the "small stuff", as he advises in the book, when sensitive people are bothered by small stuff every day.

He asked for an example, and she mentioned noise and chaos, both of which bother me, too.

What he said was that the most important thing she could do would be to understand that that there are three levels. One level is her awareness of the bothersome stimulus (noise, etc), the second level is her reaction to the bothersome stimulus (irritability was one possible reaction) and the third level is her awareness of that reaction.

He did not deny that she was sensitive, but he did insist that she was more than her reaction to it and that as she became more aware of that distinction, she might find that her reaction would diminish.

Well, that would be great!

He also talked about experiencing spaciousness, which I think is what I do when I stare at the moon or watch the trees blow in the wind.

And I loved what he said about abundance because it was a great reminder to practice gratitude!

Each week, I am surprised by how much I get out of the webinar. Like Oprah said, the more you encounter the material, the more it sinks in and also, you may notice something you hadn't before.