Day 26: Can I leave the label out of the conversation?

"Some need religion, some  need chocolate, some need both,  some don't need either.  But maybe we can still sit at the same table and enjoy each other while we nibble on what tastes good for us."  RN

"Maybe its a pipe dream, but what would this world look like if it didn't matter what someone else thought or believed?  What if we didn't need to have others on the same page as us or even in the same book.  What if we could all be a library, still sharing space with our own expressions and perspectives?" RN

Three out of four of my Day 26 readings had something to do with food.  So I figured maybe today, I can talk about food.  Two years ago, I talked about being a Carnivore Atheist.  I looked and saw that for some reason, that day I was okay to label myself as an atheist.  I'm not that fond of that label now.   It doesn't say much about me.  Truth be told, the label of Carnivore doesn't say much about me either.  I can tell someone I'm a Carnivore and then I still have to go into a lengthy explanation as to what I eat.  So why don't I just go right to the menu and leave the label out of the conversation.  

I still eat beef, pork, fish, eggs, and occasionally some poultry and goat yogurt.  

I have been enjoying Pete Holmes take on spirituality lately.  I was listening to a conversation he had on a podcast with an evangelical Christian.  It was so encouraging to hear his honesty and ability to counter the topics so laced with Christianese.  They had a very cordial conversation.  It didn't get heated up once.  There were a lot of disagreements, but they did it very gracefully.  

Their interaction actually scared me from ever wanting a conversation like that myself, even though I have said often that I would love it.  It doesn't look easy at all.  Pete Holmes is a professional entertainer and comedian.  Words come easy for him.  I'm only confident in the words that my fingers bring to reality... not my mouth.  

Maybe Pete didn't convince the host, but from my perspective... I find it a lot easier to embrace the story of life with Pete's take on spirituality, than the host's.  

In the end, the ribeye tastes better than the chocolate ever will!!! 

Day 25: Nothing is Complete

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." Nietszsche

I found this quote in one of my readings this morning.  

The picture I chose today is of the 3000 pc World Puzzle Map that my Mom and I worked on for a good two years.  Mom finished it and there were five missing pieces.  I'd like to think that is a better picture of our planet than a complete puzzle.  There are holes in most everything we deal with as a human species.  Holes are a part of the story.  

We are all looking at life through our own lens.  That in itself gives us holes.  Nothing is complete.  The only way doesn't exist. Nietzsche was... well maybe not correct... the correct way doesn't exist either.  Nietzsche had a good point.  It makes sense.  And making sense... that is the best I can hope for!  

Day 24: It's still Friday the 13th in Hawaii

It's 3:48 am... the day after the day I was supposed to write this post.  Oh well... I'm getting old and forgetting is part of the journey.  It's nice to finally incorporate that into Authentic Lent.  But it is still Friday the 13th in Hawaii.  

I will share the picture I got on Friday the 13th.  This is a garden handcrafted by Alma who is a beautiful four-year old that I have never met.  Her mother and I are friends, but for her, I am just the person who has been donating members of her stuffed animal collection to her.  She has never met me.  I hope one day for that to change.  I would love to meet her.  I guess that would require a change in the relationship of her mother and I.  Up until now, we have only connected in places of work.  

I am back in that place wondering what I could do to connect more with special people in my life.  Am I responsible for the lack that occurs?  Could I do something more to make certain relationships more connected?  I wish I knew the answer to that question.  

Time to go back to bed!  

Day 23: Bunny Envy

I'm having a day where I envy this bunny.  I don't envy being out in the cold.  I don't envy being coyote bait.  I don't envy having to hunt for my food in a frozen tundra.  I envy his ability to live in the moment and take what comes at him.  I envy his freedom from organized systems and agendas.  I envy his freedom from technology.  I even envy his caution of humanity.  

I am, however, having interactions with people this week that are encouraging me to keep positive about connecting.  My human interactions this week are telling me it's okay to reach out.  Risk being loved.  Risk being rejected, but risk being loved.  

Day 22: Jesus made the cover of Newsweek!

Not sure what else to say today about this.  I was getting goat yogurt in Safeway  today and found this by the checkout counter.  I just took the picture.  I was not interested in spending $18 to find out what Newsweek had to say about Jesus this Lent.  I can't say they have an evangelism agenda as an organization.   Who knows?  It's Lent.  Maybe they figured that Jesus sells during Lent.  Oh well.  That's it.  That's all folks!  
 

Day 21: Reconstruction

 

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

   a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

     a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

     a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

     a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

     a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

     a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 (NIV) 

I've been listening to Pete Holmes in conversation with Rob Bell, Richard Rohr and Pete Rollins.  I am wondering why I missed him in my journey until now.  Maybe I missed him, or maybe it's perfect timing to listen to his conversations with three people who have already had a significant impact on my journey thus far.  Pete Holmes offers a different perspective, a different vibe and opens up new avenues of inspiration with the voices I'm so familiar with. 

One recurring theme is reconstruction.  It's a idea that I didn't want to hear about for the last few years.  I was content to just tear down the walls of the structures that didn't work for me and stand in the rubble.  I felt no need to build anything new.  

I've recently had the joy of seeing the stages of a new construction.  My nephew is building a house.  He is going beyond what anyone else in his family has done.  He is doing his own thing and building something entirely different for his new family.  I am proud of him.  I get to see it again today.  For him, the time is to build.  He has seen a lot of destruction in his life and it didn't stop him from dreaming bigger.  In the words of the author of Ecclesiastes... there is a time to rebuild. 

But what does that look like for me in my journey?   What have these conversations of these influential men taught me about the need to keep going?  What does reconstruction look like for me?                     

Alongside my daily readings of AL, I am also reading through what might be called my "reconstruction".  In 2024, I wrote what I call "I'm Still Somewhere".  It is a collection of 44 short essays or chapters of how I see life now that I am past the letting go of what I how I used to see life.  Some thoughts are consistent with how I've always seen life and some thoughts are just realized and now have the freedom to be in my expressions and in my understanding.  

After some years of letting go of the stuff that didn't work for me, I felt I needed to put into words what was working for me.  Even if I would end up being the only person who read it.  So far, I am the only person who has read it.   

Pete Holmes, Rob Bell, Richard Rohr and Peter Rollins seem to have one thing in common that interests me from an outside perspective.  They all seem to still value the Bible as something still worth accessing as a resource.  They have all either departed from or never had the Evangelical Christian idolization of the perfection of the document.  But they still find nuggets within the pages of the story.  

I wonder sometimes if I will get to a place in my journey where I will go looking for nuggets again.  I am still not interested in picking up the Bible in any format for any duration of time.  Right now, it would be like diving in to the very waters that I saw in a Drew Binsky video yesterday.  For me, those waters are still polluted, septic and insanitary... and yet, I see people swimming in them with joy.  

Maybe I don't have to swim in those waters... maybe a cruise along the channels in a boat will give me something more one day.  For now... I am just watching others head in that direction and for some reason, they are able to navigate those waters with a lot of grace. Maybe there is hope... I did open up this blog post with Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.                                                                                                                                                            

Day 20: Castilleja... inspiring creativity.

I dug this photo out from the archives in my iPhone.  It was taken on my husband's birthday back in 2020.  Paintbrush, (or its botanical name "Castilleja" that I just learned today)  is my favourite wildflower.  I grew up in Northern B.C. and Paintbrush was a common appearance on our farm.   Now I have to go on a two hour drive to find it in bushes or the ditches alongside the highways west of me.  

It may not be the prettiest of flowers and it doesn't have an amazing fragrance, but it's wild and that's what I love about it.  It grows in its own place on it's own time and with no need to be domesticated in someone's garden.  

I admire the things in nature that stay in nature.  I realize that they face their own dangers, but they make the world a beautiful place without the manicuring hands of humans.  

Castilleja is Spanish for Castle.  Castilleja, the wildflower, was named by botanist José Celestino Mutis in honor of Spanish botanist Domingo Castillejo.

"In Native American cultures, the [Castilleja or otherwise labelled as Indian Paintbrush] has been a symbol of creativity and artistic inspiration. Tribes such as the Apache and Comanche believed that these flowers were gifts from the Great Spirit, meant to inspire painters and artists." (Wikipedia)

What's not to admire about a flower that inspires creativity.  Now I know why my heart fell in love with this flower... and I didn't even realize it until now!