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I Love You can be the most meaningful words in the English language or the most empty depending on who is speaking and their motivation. People toss around the word Love and Friend just as the emoticons on Facebook, Email or other types of social media. When you say I Love You to somebody that means you’re willing to stick your neck out for them, be there for them no matter what the circumstances and Love as well as Friendship entails some risk and/or inconvenience. Love is being in a bloody nasty E.R. of a hospital because the one you Love is badly injured or is facing a Life threatening illness. Love is going with someone to their numerous medical appointments or at least making sure they have the means/access to transportation to get to the doctor’s office or hospital. Love is opening your home when said Loved One is about to be evicted, Love is still accepting and valuing your “Friend” | Loved One once they incur a disability that changes their Lives drastically.
Love is making sure that person has food to eat and warm clothing to wear in the scarcity and brutality of winter. Love is unchanging and stable as your friends from childhood and young adulthood change bodily and are no longer able to do the things they once did. Love does not include passing judgment on that person or rejecting them when the chips are down. Love is truly accepting folks of different sexual orientations.
Before you say you Love someone whether it is your Lover, Spouse, Friend or Family Member read 1 Corinthians 13 and really, truly think about what it is saying. Love is not your church or your religion. It goes beyond that because most folks are just Pew Warmers. They attend church out of duty and obligation or fancy church as a type of social club. Until then Please Stop Telling Me that you Love me because obviously you have No Idea of the True Meaning of the Word. I have no use for “Jesus in a Box” Christians who pull him out like a talisman that will give authority to whatever stupidity is about to come out of their mouths or through their pens/computers. Keep your type of Love for those who fit your narrow criteria.
Also Read Luke 10:25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
Jesus spoke this parable because he knew his audience was composed of religious hypocrites who picked and chose who was worthy of their “Love.” Just Like today. I guess things have not changed all that much.
So many ancestries run through my veins. Africa, Native American, Ireland course throughout my circulatory tributaries. All merging into one.
I take the Warm Spring healing waters from Gaia’s womb. Water. Rain. Storms. Floods. Tidal Waves. Tsunamis. Showers. Oceans. Seas. Lakes. Ponds. Water possesses the powers of creation and destruction. River and Mountain Goddess meet. Fresh moving waters provide life. Stagnant still waters harbor seeds of death. Tears of sorrow, sadness and grief. Tears of joy, happiness and relief.
We create man-made fountains in the city to satiate our thirsty souls.
We spend the first nine months of our lives in our Mother’s amniotic waters.
Our bodies are approximately composed of 70% water.
Health officials recommend drinking eight glasses of water a day to replenish what we lose through sweating, excretion and elimination.
Water in most faiths is a method of cleansing and renewal.
Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan. (Matthew 3:13)
Most Christians are baptized at some point in their lives.
In Buddhism one of the goals is to wash away the illusions and delusions of Ego.
Hindus after cremation often scatter their Loved ones ashes into the sacred River Ganges.
At the end of the song they call upon Oshun, West African Orisha of Love and the Sweet Waters from the World Goddess. The Orishas call to my ancestral soul beckoning me to the indigenous beliefs of the Mother Land. I hear their cries mixed with those of my Native American ancestors calling me to return. Return Home.
Went to my Japanese girlfriend’s home for a Japanese Buddhist Purification Ceremony. The American Christian equivalent is a House Blessing or Housewarming without the gifts. Enjoyed the chanting, rituals and fellowship. My girlfriend and her husband are great hosts and a lovely time was had by all who attended. The Woman Minister who officiated the ceremony was great!
My girlfriend also surprised me with a delicious Birthday cake!! My Birthday is tomorrow so I was it was pure Joy that she thought of my Special day on her special home purification day. I am truly Blessed to have good friends from all races, faiths, countries, religions and ethnic groups!! Oh Happy Day!! At the stroke of midnight which will usher in Feb. 27th I will turn 57!! Woohoo!!
HAPPY DANCE TIME!!!
Rare Earth – I Just Want to Celebrate
The guests get to take home and eat the food offerings after the ceremony is over. Of course having several Americans in attendance including her husband who is Jewish American my girlfriend also supplied a very tasty luncheon which we all enjoyed.
I have been a Member of and attending the Shinnyo-en Buddhist Temple in New York for nearly three years. It has helped me develop spirituality and even deepened my Christianity. Eventually at some point in time I will travel to Japan with my girlfriend to visit all the Shinnyo-en Temples.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, which the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
“God will not have his work be manifest by cowards,”-
Matthew 7:24-27 English Standard Version (ESV)
Build Your House on the Rock
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers – Encourage Yourself
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 King James Version (KJV)
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
I salute one of the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America
Fannie Lou Hamer – “We’re On Our Way”
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
~ Kahlil Gibran
Ancestor Branches ~ A Photo Collage I made for the Employee Art Show in 2012.
French National Anthem – “La Marseillaise” (FR/EN)
My blogging buddy K.B. who lives in Paris is safe, alive and well. He is grateful to all Americans for their prayers, encouragement and support.
I totally disagree with the hate towards France being spewed on Facebook!! Yes we all know that France was a Colonizer back in the 18th and 19th Centuries but the people alive today, the people maimed and killed in those horrible attacks have nothing to do with with what happened centuries ago. Yes we do need to learn and heed the lessons of the past. Colonialism and Slavery must continue to be taught in schools so we recognize wickedness and choose another path. On that note yesterday I left a group that I thought was about the positive because of the evil statements made against France. People who return hate for hate are little better than the oppressors.
Winston Churchill – We Shall Never Surrender (Full Speech)
Governments often make problems that make others suffer. My parents, grandparents and great grandparents went through racism and Jim Crow but they did not hate this nation, their country. As a Black woman I experience bias, racism and bigotry often but that does not give me the right to lump all white people in the same pot as an excuse to hate and spew venom. As a Christian I represent Jesus Christ so I can never do this. My spirit and soul do not allow me.
Love Train [Original 12″ Version] – The O’Jays (1972)
Many of those murdered in France and on the Russian airplane blast were innocent children. Hatred solves nothing. We cannot go back and change the past. Also keep in mind on 9/11 many French, European and other nations supported New Yorkers and Americans. Being Pro-Black does not give me the right to be anti-white or anti-European. Why? Because the Love of God and His compassion is in my heart. Most people of color have experienced bias and bigotry in some form but I refuse to deny aid, support or prayer to those in need. I pray for everyone. I’m still praying for the innocent Russian people killed in that airplane explosion. Hate is divisive. Please do not use this tragedy as an excuse to incite or fan the flames of hatred. I wholeheartedly and unashamedly support and stand with the people of France and victims of terrorism worldwide! Show Love to all.
I know what it is to be treated with the wide brush of stereotypes.
Working with the general public can be a challenge and if you’re a Black Woman wearing a uniform, a uniform that designates a form of authority more challenges come your way.
My Great, Great Grandfather William Henry Halstead left his life as a Free farmer and joined the Union Army for the benefit of his enslaved sisters and brothers and for his descendants unseen and yet unknown. But maybe he did know that Stephen and I would reap the benefits of his sacrifice. My Dad Edward G. Palmer left City College and joined the Air Force to fight for an America that did not even consider him a man but duty and honor came first. Thanks to the sacrifices and Love from my ancestors my generation of Black Americans became the first generation to benefit from the Civil Rights Movement. I’m carried on the shoulders of giants.
My Mother, Grandmothers and Aunts rose above the indignities of Jim Crow.
Sadly some look at me and see only color or gender. I’ve been approached by white males thinking that I’m a drug dealer or available for sex. Obviously I had to set them straight. They needed to be firmly re-educated.
But I’m more than race, nationality or gender. Like most people on this earth Black, Brown, or white I’m a human being of complexity. That’s why I had to speak out against vile remarks being leveled at the French people. God created people. Humans created race & divisions.
I’ve come to think that the reason God placed me in the museum was to root out my preconceptions, illusions and delusions about people of other faiths.
Over the almost 8 years I’ve worked there the Ladies and Gentlemen I’m closest to are Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu & Jewish. By being around and in close contact with co-workers outside of my faith I’ve learned a lot and mostly not to be judgmental. I’ve even visited their Houses of Worship and learned that these faiths are not so different from Christianity. If I had been born in Iran, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, I would be a practitioner of that faith. We are all people who want the same things in life.
One God. Many Paths.
Earlier this year I spent two weeks in the hospital. The reason I’ll keep private but the person who visited me and took me home is Gay. Again another lesson of acceptance. Every time I’ve prayed for help God sent someone from another race, faith, gender, or sexual orientation to assist me.
I could lower myself to the level of bigots, haters, slanderers & spew a fountain of venom and vindictiveness but I choose not to. I choose if not to Love everyone but to at least to respect all people regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation. When I make mistakes or say the wrong thing I go back and apologize. Nobody is perfect but these errors in judgement provide me the opportunity to examine myself.
I’m sure as I make my way towards March 2018 and retirement God will have even more Life Lessons on my path towards Enlightenment.
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 