JOYFUL WANDERING -- 77

+ I wonder what I will offer here in this post as I write this on April 5, 2022 at 3:19pm ESDT.  

+ I think I will begin where I left off in JW -- 76.  Baseball.  The 2022 season was delayed by a week due to a strike which got resolved.  The season will begin on April 7 and the Red Sox will meet the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.  So, right off, the great rivalry between these 2 teams is re-ignited.

+

+ During the Wilde Family Reunion in Pittsburgh in August 2019, we celebrated two 50th wedding anniversaries: Jeanette & Stewart Long (June 28) and Mary & John Wilde (July 12). We all went to see the Pirates play the Cubs on a very hot afternoon.  Fortunately our seats were in the shade.  The Cubs won behind the great pitching of Jon Lester who was a huge factor in the Cubs finally winning a World Series in 2016.

+ My other 2 blogs are somewhat organized.  This one is definitely not. Enjoy! 

But if you want the more organized ones, here are the links:

• The Abundancetrek Blog
• The Abundancetrek Travel Blog

The OUR AMAZING JOURNEY posts are on The Abundancetrek Blog. The latest one is OUR AMAZING JOURNEY -- 21.

 

+ I have been discovering a variety of mantras and chants and songs lately.  Here are links to a few:

• Heart Sutra sung by Julia Elena
• The Angels are Listening (Suni-ai) sung by Snatam Kaur
• Om Mani Padme Hum sung by Imee Ooi
• Water of Your Love sung by Snatam Kaur
• River by GuruGanesha Singh

+ I have been a blogger for 2 decades.  From 2002 to 2007 I offered MESSAGES FOR THE TREK.  Here is the one I posted on January 19, 2005, my 58th birthday:

A MESSAGE FOR THE TREK 1/19/05

+ Do you often experience life as a feast?  I do.  I didn’t always but now I do.  It takes fasting and other kinds of purification. It takes meditation and contemplation and prayer.  It takes all kinds of experiences and relationships.  I got to this point through many years of spiritual effort.  Now I am writing about the abundance and joy I am experiencing. Possibly this will be helpful to you. My growing awareness that life is a perpetual feast is based profoundly on the practice of stillness. Over and over again, I need to be still and allow my body, mind and soul to become centered and grounded again.  I have resisted mightily and I still resist but I have gotten past many of the blocks and I’m getting past a few more as I continue to be on this journey of discovery and delight. 

     In stillness I come into contact with everything there is.  It’s awesome.  It’s amazing.  It’s fantastic.  It’s delightful.  It’s heaven.  Yes, it’s heaven.  I’m in heaven and I’m enjoying being here in heaven a lot.  Are you?

     In no particular order the practice of stillness opens the door to the glorious experiences of silence, solitude, simplicity, detachment, discernment, devotion, delight, humility, healing, holiness and, finally, heaven.  Heaven is the experience of abundance, joy, wisdom, beauty, love, truth, peace, justice and freedom.  These are the nine characteristics of heaven.  Everyone of them could be called love.  God is love. 

     “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10a) 

     Know that I am love!  Know that I am beauty and truth.  Know that I am abundance, joy and wisdom.  Know that I am peace, justice and freedom.  What a feast God has made for us.  We’re all invited.  We’re all wanted.  We’re all cherished.  It’s a happening.  It’s happening now here.  Do you experience it? 

     Begin.  Be still.  Breathe deeply.  Breathe fully.  Be glad all over.  Celebrate.  Enjoy.  Lighten up.  Loosen up.  Be centered.  Be grounded.  Be yourself.  Begin again.  Be still.  Breathe deeply.  Breathe fully.  Be ... and the wheel of life keeps turning, turning, turning.  It’s a delightful journey and it’s simple, too.  Very simple.  Very simple and very good.

     There are many tools and techniques out there for becoming still, becoming you.  I have benefitted and continue to benefit from: Chi Lel Chi Gong (easy to learn from a videotape and workbook), Centering Prayer (quite easy to learn), Yoga (Erich Schiffman’s book and website and video makes this pretty easy, too), the twelve pathways to higher consciousness, chakra or energy work, working with archetypes and many others which I will cover in future messages or elsewhere at Abundancetrek.com.  Perhaps you already have an effective practice going. Please share.

     I am convinced that we can never get very far on our spiritual journey in isolation.  We are meant to be one unit which we might call a family or a community or a village or a tribe or a nation or a church.  These terms are not that important.  The main thing is to realize that we are intimately and intricately connected to each other and to the source.  There is really no separation at all.  In the practice of stillness this becomes totally clear.  But there are no words which can even come close to describing this mystery, this truth, this abundance, this joy, this love, this beauty, this freedom, this peace.  I believe this mysterious and wonderful oneness extends beyond earth to the whole universe.  I believe that the biblical event which possibly brings the most light to this mystery is the encounter of Moses with the burning bush during which God says: I AM has sent you.  I AM!  Moses possibly experienced this as a voice coming from beyond himself but it is never really beyond us.  It IS us.  I AM!  This is the holy name of God.  It’s God’s name and it is your name and my name.  Practice stillness faithfully and see for yourself.

     God is everywhere and God is complete wherever God is.  So, my experience of God is not an incomplete thing.  It is complete.  I’m not asserting here that I am God when I am living my life as this particular human being.  My particular life lacks all kinds of experiences and relationships which God encompasses.  When I practice stillness, though, I get in touch with the wholeness, the holiness, in a mysterious and wonderful and indescribable way.

     I believe that God is now creating the new church for the new age here on earth.  We have become a planet best described as a global village.  We can no longer hide from each other the way we once could hide behind mountains and oceans and jungles and deserts.  We thought and unfortunately continue to think that violence is necessary for our protection and security.  We have convinced ourselves and continue to convince ourselves that there is not enough to go around, that it is necessary to divide us into haves and have nots.  We have erected huge barriers which are looking pretty ugly in our global village.  There is the barrier between the rich and the poor, between the various races and religions and nations and cultures, between the healthy and the sick, the popular and the unpopular, the powerful and the powerless.  These barriers need to come down and that’s what God is doing by creating the new church for the new age.  The new church for the new age is Christian and Jewish and Islamic and Hindu and Buddhist and Taoist and lots of other wisdom traditions.  This is the church Jesus really wants, not an exclusive dining club but an inclusive one.

+ This is a link to all of the MESSAGES FOR THE TREK.

+ Thanks to the virtual Silent Retreat I was at today, April 9, I discovered a wonderful song to encourage us to get up and move > https://youtu.be/fCZVL_8D048.  It was good to get my body fully into this wonderful contemplative time.   

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 76

My immersion in post-season Baseball has begun.  Last night, October 8, I watched most of the Red Sox-Rays game in St. Petersburg.  And then I stayed up to see the finish of the Giants-Dodgers game in San Francisco.  The Red Sox and Giants are my two all-time favorite teams and last night they both were wonderful.  The Sox came from behind and trounced the Rays 14-6 to tie the series at 1-1.  The Bullpen led by Tanner Houck kept the Sox in the game from the second inning on. The hitters came alive and set records for their accomplishments.  Kiki Hernandez went 5 for 6 including a homerun and 3 doubles.  Altogether the Sox hit 5 homeruns.  But Houck is clearly the MVP of the game. What a performance. Here’s an article > https://www.mlb.com/redsox/news/tanner-houck-retires-30-straight-over-4-games

Great pitching was also on display in San Francisco.  The Giants won the first game of the NLDS series with the Dodgers 4-0.  Home runs by Giants sluggers plus the pitching by Logan Webb > https://www.mlb.com/giants/news/giants-win-nlds-game-1-2021

I did not watch the second ALDS game between the White Sox and Astros in Houston for very long.  The Sox could not hold on to a 4-2 lead and lost decisively 9-4.  The series moves to Chicago with the Sox on the verge of elimination.

The Brewers beat the Braves in Milwaukee 2-1.  Pitching by both teams was great but I did not watch that game.

It was Baseball at its best for me with those Red Sox and Giants victories with such great pitching and great hitting.

More about Baseball >   

I became a fan of the Giants when they were still in New York.  They moved to San Francisco in 1958 and so did the Dodgers.  I was 11.  So the NYC National League rivalry became a California NL rivalry.  The Giants did not win a world series in San Francisco until 2010. So I waited a long time.  Between 1959 and 1963 the Dodgers won 3 World Series and lost 1. They also won in Brooklyn in 1955 and in Los Angeles in 1981, 1988 and last year, 2020.  Overall the Dodgers have a 7-12 WS record.  Against the Yankees 2-8.    

I became a Red Sox fan in the 60s when I was at the Maine State YMCA Camp for 3 summers.  I can remember beginning to like the Red Sox in the 50s but I was definitely a White Sox fan and definitely anybody but the Yankees who simply were too dominant from 1936 to 1964.  In that period the Yankees won the World Series 16 times and lost 6.  The Red Sox won 5 World Series between 1903 and 1918.  They got into the World Series in 1946 and lost to the Cardinals in a seven game series. They got into the World Series in 1967 and lost to the Cardinals in a seven game series. They got into the World Series in 1975 and lost to the Reds in a seven game series. They got into the World Series in 1986 and lost to the Mets in a seven game series. Incredible frustration because they often had contending teams especially in the 40s, 70s and 80s. 

In this 21st Century the 2 most successful teams are the Red Sox and Giants.  The Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years in 2004.  They also won in 2007, 2013 and 2018.  They haven’t lost a WS in this new century.  The Red Sox are a hard team to beat when they do get into a World Series. In 78 WS games since the modern World Series began in 1903 they have won 49 and lost 29. Overall 9 WS victories and 4 losses. Only the Yankees (27) and Cardinals (11) have won more. The Athletics have also won 9. The Giants were not too successful in the twentieth century winning in 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933 and 1954 and losing in 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1923, 1924, 1936, 1937, 1951, 1962 and 1989. Five wins, 11 losses. But, like the Red Sox, this new century has turned things around.  They lost a seven game series in 2002 to the Angels but won in 2010, 2012 and 2014.  So now they are 8-12.  So, it’s Yankees 27, Cardinals 11, Red Sox and Athletics 9, Giants 8, Dodgers 7.  The Yankees have only won 1 since 2000, Red Sox 4, Giants 3, Cardinals 2, Dodgers 1, Diamondbacks 1, Angels 1, Marlins 1, White Sox 1, Phillies 1, Royals 1, Cubs 1, Astros 1, Nationals 1. It is wonderful that 14 different teams have won since 2001.  No team has won in consecutive years since 2000. The last team to do that was the Yankees in 1998, 1999 and 2000 (3 straight). Before that the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993.  The Yankees did it in 1977-78.  The Reds in 1975-1976.  The Athletics in 1972-1974 (3 straight). The Yankees in 1961-62. The Yankees in 1949-1953 (5 straight).  The Yankees in 1936-1939 (4 straight). The Athletics in 1929-1930. The Yankees in 1927-1928. The Giants in 1921-1922. The Red Sox in 1915-1916. The Athletics in 1911-1913 (3 straight). The Cubs in 1907-1908.  I think it takes at least 3 consecutive WS wins to be considered a dynasty. So, the dynasties are in bold. 3 for the Yankees, 2 for the Athletics. As I said, none yet in the 21st century.  The Giants have come close with their wins in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 75

+ A message from The Heavenly Council:

This is the good news: Miracles happen. We are all on an amazing journey and it gets really marvelous once we realize that we journey on behalf of all creation. We are never separate from every other creature. This realization changes everything since you now perceive all of your pain and joy as everyone's pain and joy. This is the way it is. The whole creation shares your pain and joy at all times, at this time, all the time. The pain and joy you are experiencing is inclusive of all the pain and joy everywhere, past, present and future. This is very mysterious. You gotta love the mystery, just love it. Love your pain. Love your joy. Let them become one. This is how miracles happen. There is no other way. 

JOYFUL WANDERING -- 74

+ Let's pray for the women and girls of Afghanistan. Here is a great source of information and wisdom and suggestions > https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/blogs/posts/praying-the-news/838/a-prayer-for-the-women-and-girls-of-afghanistan 

+ http://abundancetrekblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/our-amazing-journey-1.html is the first of a new series of posts on The Abundancetrek Blog. Unlike here at this blog I will be offering ideas for our journey in a way which can become a book in the arena of InterSpiritual Wisdom, Practices and Community Building.