Sunday, August 30, 2020

Election 2020 : Let LOVE Lead







Portland Oregon "Mothers for BLM" [conflicted views of each other]

 It is 4am and I am up writing this political subject blog from my reactions to watching parts of the DNC and RNC in times of COVID. There were no large arenas or masses of citizens roaring in response to their party candidates. I have been in an artist mode creating several satirical cartoons about my observations. They are full of questions about how our country has an incredible way of reacting to our government and to fellow residents of this large land. I am going to begin my observations and reactions to past and recent events and finally, hopefully, find my responsibility in this political environment. 

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.


I want to profile myself first, as a 71-year-old "baby boomer"woman born after WWII. Raised in a small suburban neighborhood, my parent's American Dream home, south of Portland Oregon. I was the first in my family's generation to graduate high school and to go on to receive my BFA from UofO. I came from a modest home, although a struggle for my parents to keep steady employment, I lived in  the same home until I left for the university in 1967. I have traveled, lived, and worked from Alaska to Florida and Vermont to California since graduating in 1973. Currently, I live on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.



"Evolution" [from a "white life"]

I realized the year 2020 also means "hindsight" and that's where I will start. To take a look at all I have lived through and seen over the decades along with historical studies. I believe our country, perhaps the world is bearing its true soul to us all.  One blessing from the pandemic?

                                  Who we are, who we want to be in the world,

                          who we are going to respect, who we are going to include,

                     who we are going to give compassion, who we consider essential,

                         who we want to feed, who we want to have a livable wage,

                              who we will provide affordable medical care for.

The hope of finding some answers will require "the endurance of a relay race." [ Michele Obama's phrase in Aug podcast]. It could take weeks, months, years and even decades to see the changes required by hearts. To move on to a more loving society in the future, I will suggest a closer look at the past first. The following are some of the duality of America's intentions in the world.


We are those that built a new country for the freedom of worship and independence from tyrannical rule.

We are also the conquerors that committed genocide of native peoples for the land's natural resources.

We are the companies that built the infrastructure across the land on the backs of immigrants/slaves from the Orient and Africa.

We are who opened our doors to the world for the persecuted to build a life of freedom and do the dirty jobs at the lowest wages.

We are the country the world's "dreamers" have traveled to, to thrive and some to just survive.

We are the leaders in capitalism that still fails to encompass all residents of all colors.


"United Shades of America"

We are white workers fearing loss of jobs {failing economy] and rejecting our growing "melting" pot.

We are who believe that any move to be inclusive of all citizens to uphold their inalienable rights is a move towards socialism, a virus on the capitalist way.

We are global warriors in the name of peace and expanding our trade beyond our country, along with providing the war machines for the world. 


 Next a look at what I have witnessed since my birth and shaped my political thinking. I was a teenager watching the turmoil from three assassinations, equal rights riots, with deaths, and seeing elected officials finally enforcing the amendments made 100 years earlier. Especially the right to vote and access to equal education. Women have 100 years of voting history and people of color since the 1960s. Basically, we have only 60 years of true democracy for all. Still dependent on the area of the country and its enforcement. As a college student, I personally participated in anti-Vietnam war protests, participated in a "mock" political convention after witnessing Nixon, Kennedy, and McCarthy [ shook hands and spoke to all three] speak. I also embraced feminism gratefully. I became so disillusioned by the mid-70s I stopped voting until the nineties. 

 Finally, I realized that not voting was letting others vote for me! By the year 2000, corruption in politics was very clear to me. Now 20 years later I believe we are in a time of change and reckoning.



"Strange Bedfellows".[ how we see them ]


So, what has love and God got to do with it?

First thing first, "Love thy neighbor as thyself". With this commandment, I will frame my decisions when I vote. I will listen to the platforms and watch the actions of those that are representing me and my "neighbors".



"Running out of time?" [endagered species and polution]

I have said and made my peace with the politics of this country. Thank you for listening to my "ranting and ravings". I implore you to take your vote seriously and "lead with LOVE" in your mind and heart.

thank you.






Sunday, August 23, 2020

LOVE Songs [ Audio update Aug 28]

 As you can see I chose a song for the title of my blog.


What has love got to do, got to do with it?

What's love but a second-hand emotion.......

Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken.


There are so many events in my life where I had wished I could hurt less. There has been so much loss in my life and I reacted in unhealthy ways..definitely avoiding feeling at all.



My first lesson in life about coping with loss was to learn how to feel again. Avoidance of my emotions has fueled the addiction I have spent many years in recovery of. 

In this time of isolation, I have listened to more music in my studio as I paint. I have discovered several songs that with a few word changes, have been about my relationship with God. I have found joy in creating "hymn-like" songs for me to sing to myself. The song I first noticed was "You are the Reason". the following is my revised lyrics.






Audio melody only

Lord, You Are The Reason

******

There goes my heart beating cause you are the reason.

I am losing my sleep, pray come back now.

There goes my mind racing and

You are the reason, Lord.

That I am still breathing, I am hopeful now.

I'd climb every mountain and swim every ocean

just to be near you and fix what I have broken.

Oh. you want me to see Lord that you are the reason.

There goes my hands shaking. Lord,

and you are the reason.

My heart keeps bleeding, I need you to know now, oh Lord. 

You have turned back the clock

made sure the light defeated the dark.

I will spend every hour of every day knowing I am safe.

I don't want to cry no more

I don't want to hide no more

I don't want to fear no more

come closer now.

Lord, you have climbed every mountain and crossed every ocean.

Just to be with me, to forgive where I am broken.

Oh, cause you want me to see,  that I am the reason.

So, I promise to climb every mountain and cross every river.

Just to stay with you and to be forgiven

Cause, you want me to know

Lord, that LOVE is the reason.



Thanks for reading my posts and helping me to feel connected with my friends, my loved ones.


Two more songs I love 

with no need to change the lyrics

"Only Love" by Jordan Smith




"Let love lead." by Terrain




Saturday, August 15, 2020

ONE Commandment : LOVE

 


The first

Yeshua said,

"You are to love THE LORD JEHOVAH

with all your heart

and from all your soul

and from all your power

and from all your mind."

Aramaic Bible


The second is like unto it

"Love thy neighbor as thyself."

MATTHEW 22: 34-40


Jesus was asked which is the great commandment in the law?  He answered with the one and only laws of Love. To love God , the Creator, and all others as The Lord loves us. All are Gods son's and daughter's, creatures and plants of this garden called Earth.

HEART

First mentioned is the heart. We best understand that Love is an emotion, yet I have many emotions that contain love.  Joy, kindness, gentleness, meekness, courage and trust and are all forms of Love and mentioned in the Bible. Fear is also mentioned in the phrase "God fearing'...Proverbs 9:10 exclaims; "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." I am understanding from my own life, that all my emotions were given to me to experience. "With all my heart" means all emotions are to be expressed in order to fully give my love to God. So when I am in fear and the emotions of anger, anxiety, depression and frustration  arise, this becomes my opportunity to go to God and ask for guidance, for Rest and for Peace.  My Creator wants all of me.


SOUL

My soul..it is described usually that we HAVE One. I looked to hebrew for the origins of this word. It was enlightening to find the word for soul is "nefesh". meaning throat and wind, two definitions. Further commentaries reminded me that in Genesis 2:7, "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Therefor man/woman IS a SOUL. So through the "throat" and "wind"  comes a living being. With this image I can see how the trees are my partners.  The soul, my breath is one with them. Also as a child in the womb breathes through the mother until that first "gasp of life" brings her soulful being into this world. I have concluded to "love God with all my soul" means with every breath of every minute and each day to be ever so grateful for a new one.

POWER

Next I will point to Proverbs 18:10. "Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength." Hebrew for strength is koach. Meaning comes from an unused root, to be "firm".  My first thought is to have the resolve to not bend away from my relationship with God. To trust in my journey and know God's will is far greater than my own.

MIND

Last is , "from all my mind " and I am not sure I can love God from all my mind on my own.  My mental health has affected by a traumatic life as a child and further events as an adult. The result is a mind that has been broken. Therefor my ability to make decisions in my life has been challenging at the least. At my best I have been able to follow my own journey home with help through therapy, meditation, and ultimately knowing who I am. I am not only my mind. My long boughts of depression kept me in the past, full of anger, shame and guilt. Anxiety and panic attacks came from the worry and fears over the future and even if I had one. After my baptism on August 5, 2017, I have come to a place of forgiveness that has shown me how to release the past, have it be complete as it is. My future is promised to me as an inheritance. I will be guided home. Peace and Rest are available to me now. When I accept my mind with all its potential for fear, I give it fully to Him and all is well.

Love thy Neighbor

This commandment is like a mirror of the first or even as a coin has two sides. Both are about love in our relationships, with God and others. My first response to hearing these commandments was, "How can I love this much, I am not able to do this! I struggle everyday just to love myself". So my conclusion is to realize I am struggling to love at all, GOD or others. My prayers are about Gods grace. I have a clue as too how much God loves me and how I can love others, when I surrender to His grace. Only then my eyes are open and my heart knows. Love comes from Emanuel, "god with us". Every page of His Word has Love in every line.  

"I am .. I am God...I am in relationship with you...I am love."