Whenever I hear or think the phrase, “What a waste of time” or “That’s just a big waste of time”, my mind occasionally brings up lines from one or both of two movies that I have watched. The first is in the movie, “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. The basic premise of the movie is that Bill Murray, who begins the movie as an egocentric jerk, gets stuck in a time warp and is forced to re-live the same day over and over again. During his time in this time warp he attempts to seduce his co-employee Andie MacDowell. As he is wining and dining her over dinner in a restaurant, he is feigning interest in the various aspects of her life. During this charade he asks her what she majored in during college. She answers that it was nineteenth century French poetry. Murray can’t help himself and starts derisively laughing saying, “What an incredible waste of time”. The other movie line comes from the movie, “Middle of the Night” starring Frederic March and Kim Novak. In this movie March plays a successful businessman and lonely widower in his early 60’s who begins a romance with Novak, his secretary who is in her late 20’s. Almost everyone around March (family, friends, etc.) strongly disapproves of this romance, especially his daughter and his sister. One day as March is struggling as to how to proceed, his business partner, who is stuck in a loveless marriage, counsels him to follow his heart. If the romance does not last, then so be it, he says to March. The business partner, named Walter Lockman in the movie, disparages his own life for not doing so and during the conversation says to March, “You know what they’re going to put on my tombstone – Here Lies Walter Lockman – This Was A Big Waste of Time”.
The Post-Death Life Review
There are times when I reflect upon my own lifetime thus far and wonder if that is what is going to be inscribed on my tombstone when I die. In my mind I observe my many successful positive manifestations as well as my numerous failures and flaws. I observe the minor miracles I have gratefully been privileged to experience as well as the stupid blunders I have made. I review my life as a son, a grandson, a brother, a father, a spouse, an employee, a friend, a businessman, a neighbor and so on. As I review my life now, during my lifetime, I look it as a kind of rehearsal for the big enchalada life review that will take place when my spirit exits the body at death and moves on. I will be looking at successful opportunities and missed opportunities…intuition followed and intuition ignored…productive use of my alloted time and time thoroughly wasted on trivial matters…keen perception and total lack of perception. To manifest a reality in these final few years of my life that will give that life review movie a happy ending is the one focus of my remaining time now.
And Yet, If You Have Breath, You Have Hope
As I was formulating the idea I wanted to convey in this post, I was led to this quote from the author Alexander Solzhenitsyn from the book, “The Gulag Archipelago” – “There is nothing that so assists the awakening of omniscience within us as insistent thoughts about one’s own transgressions, errors, mistakes.” With these last ten years or so, it is my heart’s desire to take full advantage of all oppprtunities, to explicitly follow my intuition, to use my precious time on things that matter and to continually sharpen my perception. Will I succeed? I sure hope so. How about you? Every day of life, regardless of whatever current circumstances which you find yourself in, is a new lifetime, with new opportunities. If you have breath, you have hope. Even in the midst of the prison gulag hellhole, at the end of one day in his life, Ivan Denisovich could say to himself – “All in all, it was a good day”. With that sixteen or so hours that you have to work with each day, put everything you have into whatever it is that you are doing, wherever you happen to be. Everything. Then at night go to sleep “living in the end” in your Imagination. It is your choice. It always has been. It always will be. And by your choice, the shape and texture and substance of your life is sculpted.
The parable told by Jesus found in Matthew 25 is commonly referred to as “the parable of the talents”. To give a rough outline, this is the parable about the head of the estate preparing to leave on a long journey. He left the estate in the hands of his servants. Not wanting to leave his assets lie dormant, he chose three servants and gave each of them a substantial amount of money to invest for him while he was gone. The amount of money entrusted depended on the demonstrated skills of each of the servants. The largest denomination currency of the day was called a “talent”. One talent equalled 6000 denarii. A day’s wage was around one denarus. So you are talking about a huge chunk of change. Eventually when the household head returned, he found that two of the servants had invested wisely and were able to yield good profits. The third servant was not willing to risk any type of investment with the funds entrusted to him. He looked upon the household head as a hard and cruel man who would punish him if the results were not satisfactory so he merely buried the talent where nobody would get it. He thus provided zero profit to his master. The first two servants delighted the household head and were invited to enter into his joy. The third servant was soundly rebuked for his action and chastised for merely burying the gift of the household head and not doing anything productive with it.
Sunday School Discomfort
When I first heard this parable as a child in Sunday School, I was troubled by it. I felt at that time that the third servant was being treated unnecessarily cruelly. After all, he had kept the talent entrusted to him safe and sound and duly returned it to the household head upon his return. Yes, he could have put the money in a bank and at least gotten interest on the money but what if the bank was robbed or failed. Then he could expect severe punishment. The Sunday School teacher explained that the money entrusted to the servants could be likened to skills, abilities, and opportunities that we possess. If we bury them, we are not being good stewards of these skills, abilities and opportunities. I responded with a “yeah, ok, but” that expressed my discomfort at the severity of the punishment of the third servant – the taking away of everything from him and giving it to the two servants who already had plenty. At that time I noticed the other kids in the small group were looking at me disapprovingly so I decided to just keep my mouth shut. Inside however, I was still not totally satisfied with the teacher’s answer.
Use It Or Lose It
In time, I developed resolution to this dissatisfaction by continuing to search for an answer that was acceptable to me. That answer is this: every human being on the earth whose mind is capable, has been gifted with the limitless Kingdom of God through Imagination. Imagination is our union with God. Imagination, the ability to see and feel yourself already in possession the object of your desire, which culminates in creating a reality, is the treasure that all are freely gifted with. How is this treasure being used? Many choose to bury this treasure by worshiping the things around them – all the facets that make up a society or culture.
Whatever your desire may be, it can and will be yours if you persist in imagining it as your reality and dwelling in its fulfillment (also called “living in the end”). With regard to this, be forewarned – refrain from imagining with hate or malice in your heart. That never, ever turns out well for you.
To the servants, five talents were given to one, two talents to the other and to a third, one talent. Then one day came the accounting and those who used their imagination and expanded the talents were invited to enter into the joy of their master. And the one who was afraid to use imagination, the one who refused to even try, was rebuked and the knowledge of the true power of imagination that was his, was taken from him through atrophy.
The talent referred to in the parable is God’s free gift to you of Imagining and Creating Reality. It is entrusted to you for your use. Use your talent or lose your talent. The choice is always yours to make. You have been gifted with Free Will. Use your talent tonight by falling asleep in the assumption that you are right now – not tomorrow, not some time in the future – but right now, in the circumstances you desire to be in. Persist. Regardless of the rate of speed of the manifestation – persist. Persist in your imagined assumption as your reality. Persist as you fall asleep every night in the “reality of your Imagination”. Although your human reason will deny your assumption, if you persist without backsliding, your desire will, in time, harden into fact, as a result of stepping aside and letting your Imagination “run the show”.
Have you ever heard of the term absurdism. No it has nothing to do with an instructional school for clowns. And speaking of clowns, no, neither does it have anything to do with our politicians. Absurdism is a term coined to reflect the writings of the twentieth century French author and philosopher Albert Camus, shown in the image above. It is the belief of absurdism that human beings exist in a purposeless, meaningless universe. Thus, according to the absurdism philosophy, there is something intrinsically “absurd” about the ongoing strivings of a human being to find meaning in their life. The absurdist remedies this tension between universal meaninglessness and the human desire for meaning by revolting against this meaninglessness through “constructed passion” in their daily chosen activity. One could generally say that absurdism is in the middle ground between existentialism and nihilism.
The Fork In The Road
According to absurdism, humans, in some manner or form, attempt to find a meaning or purpose to their lives in some way. Usually this search follows two basic paths…..the fork in the road. The first path is the conclusion is there is no Supreme Being from whence we came — a-theism. The universe has no deeper meaning other than…..it just exists. That is the whole ball of wax so to speak. Each of us must take what he or she is presented with in life and then construct their own meaning, even if that meaning is ultimately pointless. The second path that you can take is that your life has a true purpose established under the auspices a higher power – theism. This requires that you step off the road of logic and take the proverbial “leap of faith”. Camus called this leap of faith “philosophical suicide.”
You Make The Choice Of Which Road You Take
At some point along the road of life, every single person in the world that has the ability to make a choice at that fork in the road, will in fact make a choice. This choice is always made, either consciously or unconsciously, but make no mistake, it is made.
First Choice
Perhaps your life experience has led you to conclude that with all the pain and suffering and violence and avarice and greed and indifference and ignorance in the world, that there is no underlying inherent meaning to any of it. The whole thing, the entire universe is a rudderless ship chaotically bobbing along. When one or more of those things that cause suffering keeps slapping you or a loved one in the face, it is only natural for a human being to wonder……….why? And if nothing has any intrinsic meaning, all that you can do in order to make it through another day is to focus with passion on whatever life activity you are doing because you do in fact exist, you do have life and suicide as an escape or revolt from the pointlessness is simply not an option. The choice of absurdism can be described as human freedom through a “self constructed meaningfulness”.
Second Choice
The other choice that you can make as a soverign being is to go ahead and take that “leap of faith” that there is indeed a Divine Power and that your life has a definite purpose in line with a master plan of this Ultimate Intelligence. Every ripple your life creates is part of “the long game”. Every single event, every single person, every single happening, every single breath, has meaning, regardless of whether you are able to perceive it or not while you live on the earth. If you choose this belief, then when the body finally shuts down, your life continues on in the realm of spirit and your perception becomes clarified.
So what do you think? Is this life truly absurd? Or Is there underlying meaning to it all?
Sin-kro-NIS-uh-tee. The word rolls off the tongue with a flair, doesn’t it. Just what is a synchronicity anyway. Let’s go to the writings of Carl Jung for a little clarification. He actually provided two good definitions for the word. The first is ” circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack any causal connection“. The second is ” a meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved“. I will add my own humble definition to the mix – a sign, signal, person, or event, either requested or unrequested, representing communication to you from the dimension of the Unseen. Even an a-theist will confess that things do occur in the realm of “physical reality” that cannot be explained via our current knowledge of the physical laws of science. The spiritual-based person will agree but will state that the unexplainable circumstances are an intertwining of the physical world and the spiritual world. Thus, a synchronicity can be described as a “long distance phone call” from a totally different dimension – a dimension of spirit rather than our physical world constructed of atoms and molecules.
A True Life Example…..251
I will present to you a true real life example of a synchronicity. There was a person that I know well who was grieving the death of his mother. He and his mother were very close. At the end of her life his mother spent ten days under twenty-four hour hospice care before she passed on to the next realm. This man was also at that time experiencing several very trying and challenging problems that had to be solved, not the least of which was a lack of sufficient funds. As the many challenges were pressing in on him at a time of profound grief over the end of the life of his beloved mother, he felt overwhelmed one day and just dropped to his knees to pray. He asked his Creator with all his heart and soul for some type of sign or signal, anything, that would let him know that he was not all alone. When he finished praying nothing different happened except he felt better by voicing his concerns to Divine Presence. He went about his business of everyday activities. A few days later, he was stopped in traffic at a red light. On the license plate of the vehicle in front of him were the numbers “251”. He took notice of it because that was the room number of his mother’s hospice care room. About an hour later, he drove by a large billboard advertising a business and noticed the telephone number xxx-xxx-x251. Still later he stopped in a convenience store and made a purchase. His change came to $ 2.51. He felt it was more than a coincidence and that his prayer had been answered. He was not alone. Pursuant to an inner urge, he decided to purchase a lottery ticket for that evening for the number 251. He had fifteen dollars in his wallet and purchased the ticket in the amount of ten dollars. The odds of winning were one thousand to one but sure enough the ticket was a winner that evening, paying off a total of over four thousand dollars on an investment of ten dollars. If he had had more faith in the synchronicity, he would have gotten more money and purchased a ticket for a higher amount. Nevertheless, he used the faith he did have, and received the sign that he had prayed for. If you have not already guessed, that man was me.
Stop. Look. Listen. Act. Thank. Receive.
Ignore synchronicities at your own risk. There were many aspects to the above happenstance. Taking the time and effort to be aware of my surroundings. Acting on what I observed and perceived. Being thankful, even before learning of the winning ticket, that somehow just continually seeing the number 251 meant to me somehow that I was not alone. Receiving the windfall with humble gratitude. You do not need to walk around like Sherlock Holmes with a large magnifying glass closely inspecting everything around you. You do however, need to pay attention to what is going on around you. You may be in the middle of a synchronicity that you need to act on but the window of opportunity may be short.
Use Your Connection
You have your own personal wifi “hot spot” to synchronicities. It is called true prayer. An earnest and unrelenting indwelling on Divine Intelligence, Original Source, the Almighty, God, Jehovah, whatever name you choose to ascribe. It is yours…..free of charge. You are invited to use this connection. You are expected to use this connection. You were created to use this connection. If you do so, your lifetime here on this earth plane of existence can manifest all manner of good things for you. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
In the world of consciously manifesting your reality, have you ever heard of the concept of “flipswitching”? It is a manifesting technique introduced by author Lynn Grabhorn. It is elegantly simple in concept. It is totally free. It can be done by anyone, with any level of education, at any level of society, anywhere in the world. As in most manifesting techniques however, the “catch” is that it requires total commitment on your part to the process. It also requires your patience, your perserverence and your determined self discipline in order to for you to produce successful results. It is not for those who dabble in it, then flitter off to something else when they hit a roadblock or become impatient. If you decide to get onboard with it, it can be a fun and enjoyable activity that you look forward to each day as opposed to a chore that you have to do in order to get something you want.
A Way To Break Free
Whenever a detrimental thought infects your mind, like a virus, if you allow it to settle in, you have just made the choice to go backward. And you will. When a negative thought comes in the door of your house so to speak (your mind), immediately flip your switch. By this is meant, immediately think of something that makes you feel good, something that you are or that you have experienced or are experiencing now that you appreciate, that you enjoy. It could be a person or group of people, a past or future event, something about your personality or your body or a skill that you have that makes you feel really good. It could be something that has occurred in the reality of your innner mind but has not come about yet in the physical realm. It could be…….whatever. Once you decide on about a minimum of a half dozen items in whatever category you choose, then practice holding each thought (and the accompanying pleasurable feeling) for between fifteen and thirty consecutive seconds. Train yourself. It sounds simple and it is but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It will be difficult at first to do it for more than a few seconds but just keep working on it. Keep the “feeling good” thought fully occupying your mind and no other thoughts will have room to barge in and take over.
Old Habits Will Strenuously Object
Warning: If you decide to dive into the pool of “flipswitching”, your addiction to negative emotions (fear, worry, doubt, panic, etc.) will strenuously object to this manifesting technique. You are evicting them and they will not go quietly. Just like the junkie who is hooked on drugs, your old habits of thought and feeling will tell you life can’t go on without a fix. You may start flipswitching, see nothing happening after a while and give up telling yourself that it’s just a bunch of baloney. If you really and truly commit to the process, you will most assuredly ultimately begin to see good things happening. That should give you incentive to perservere. At the very least commit (no matter what) to thirty consecutive days (no days off). Another warning: negative feel goods (ie., hurting others, imagining harm to others, etc) won’t work to bring you what you desire. The Universe will give you something but it will not be what you want.
Backsliding Will Turn Off The Flipswitch
Everyday responsibilities and chores can be overwhelming. They can squeeze the juice right out of you. You might have three or four (or more) things at once to deal with. You may find your inner focus swerving over to a multitudes of “if I don’t do this, then this bad thing will happen to me” and “I don’t have time to focus on anything but my problems.” Once you allow your focus to change, the flipswitch gets turned off and the good stuff that is on its way to you comes to a screeching halt. In my own experience, I have found the toughest part of the flipswitching “feel good” experience is staying there once you get there. Also, I have found that the manifestation usually comes much slower than I desire, causing impatience, causing switching my focus to other things. All of us humans have faults and frailities that tend to trip us up. There are a number of ways to approach flipswitching. Experiment. Search for the way that works best for you. Then, stick with it and reap the rewards.
OK, now where did you put those New Year’s resolutions that you wrote down back in January? It’s time to dust them off and see how much you’ve been conning yourself these past six months. Whether it was one resolution or twenty-one, now is a good time to assess precisely where you stand. In the parlance of a football game…..it’s halftime 2021. In halftime of a football game, while the marching band is performing on the field to entertain the fans, the teams go to their respective locker rooms to rest and re-evaluate. Rest up for the final half of the game, hydrate, attend to any injuries suffered in the first half, and generally prepare for the second half. Led by the head coach, the team reviews what happened to make the score what it is at halftime. The team will be advised by the coach what they need to do in the second half to either maintain their success or remediate their failures.
180 Days: July Thru December 2021
You are in life’s locker room now. It is July 2021…..halftime. Your coach is the Holy Spirit of God. Deep prayer is your method of evaluation. Ask. Seek. Knock. Expect. Receive. Thank. If you really desire it, guidance will be given to you. Thoughts will enter your mind. Situations will unfold before your eyes. Someone may say something that is exactly what you needed to hear. Something may bubble up to the surface from your deep intuition. Stop, look and listen. Then it will be up to you to act. Act according to whatever guidance you receive. If things are going well for you, the guidance will be how to sustain it. If things are going poorly, the guidance will be how to improve your situation. If things are just going “so-so”, ideas or avenues will present themselves to you to allow you to bust loose to the “things are going good” plane of existence. Ask. Seek. Knock. Expect. Receive. Thank.
This Game Called ” Your Life”
In 1925, the author Florence Scovil Shinn wrote a book entitled, “The Game of Life and How To Play It”. It is interesting reading and is available to you free, as it is in the public domain. Agreeing with what you need to do is never enough to fulfill those resolutions and change your life circumstances for the better. You need to do. You need to do. Allow the eternal I AM to work through you by you actually doing what you know you need to do. It is halftime 2021 my friend. Time for you to play the second half of the game. If you are ahead in the game, be aware that the other team will come out ferociously in the second half to reverse your position. If you are behind, take stock, put the non-essential aside and come out of the locker room with a calm ferocity to win the game in the second half. If the score is tied, it means you have done some things right and some things wrong. Now is the time to double down on your winning game plan. For the next six months, twenty-six weeks, one hundred and eighty days, live and breathe winning the game through sustained right action. Embrace the guidance of the Holy Spirit and proceed accordingly. If you make the choice to do this, the year 2021 will end with you as the winner and you will enjoy the wonderful fruits thereof.
Back in 1934, the author and lecturer Emmet Fox wrote an essay about how to conquer fear entitled, “Be Still — A Treatment Against Fear”. It is freely available on the internet. Read it for yourself. Print out Psalm 46 from the Bible and use it to follow along as you read the entire essay. He breaks down Psalm 46 verse by verse, going underneath the surface of the words in that beautiful Psalm. In this post I will attempt to condense the gist of the essay through my own understanding of it.
Fear Is A Stalker
Mr. Fear is a debilitating stalker — always lurking and smirking in the background. He is always ready to use any set of circumstances in your life to take your attention away from God and on him. This is the way he gains control of your inner thoughts and emotions. His end game is to take control of you. It is the way he “gets off”. Through listening to the whispers of this SOB, you then go on to obediently accept restrictions, continually rehash old grievances, and focus constantly on what is wrong in your life. You dwell on the problem. Thus you generally manifest for yourself a vortex of ongoing worry and anxiety that sucks you down a rabbit hole of misery.
A Ready Solution To Fear
Within Psalm 46, you are offered an ready solution to the malevolent whispers of fear. The way to conquer Mr. Fear is revealed in Psalm 46, Verse 10 — “Be Still and Know That I Am God.” There is a lot of symbolism contained in this Psalm. A lot. Much meaning under the surface. The essay by Emmet Fox goes into detail about what it all means.
The way that it is suggested that you conquer your fears is simplicity itself. You must however, fully commit yourself to do it. You must do more than just agree with it. It is necessary to do more than just talk about it. You cannot “dance around the maypole” with it. Discipline your mind to do it every single MF day of your life.
The Solution
The object of prayer is to raise your consciousness of the Presence of God in you, through you, around you. You must believe in God as your God. Dwelling within you always. Your refuge. Your very strength. Not just with words but with a relentless belief, a knowledge. When you experience a feeling of doubt, of terror, of despair, of fear, you must make the choice then and there to tenaciously cling to the thought of God, the One True Presence. The Kingdom of God is within you. The problem or problems that you are facing, cannot withstand your constant indwelling of the Presence of God. Fear will recede like a rain puddle recedes as a result of the continuous rays of the sun. It has to because it cannot resist the Presence of All That Is.
To conquer fear, it does mean effort on your part. You CAN rid yourself of this bastard, Mr. Fear, but there is work involved on your part. You have to make the choice to just commit yourself to this method and the work that is involved. But — Oh those beautiful rewards. Those beautiful rewards that stand patiently waiting for you. They are worth your work many, many times over. Even if you have six problems coming at you at once, just make the choice. Make what you know about God, the focus of your thoughts…morning, noon and night.
Is What You Are Doing Now Working For You?
Is what you are doing now working for you? If so, good. Stay on that path. If not however, then you know that you have nothing to lose by trying this method of conquering your fears. Refuse to accept restrictions. Refuse to rehearse grievances. In your mind, refrain from dwelling on the problem. Entertain just one visitor to your mind — the omnipotence of Eternal Supreme Intelligence, God.
It is hard to stop constantly going over those problems and worries, I understand, It is hard work, especially if you are in pain. But, you can do it. You must do it. If you will just fully commit yourself to focusing on the Presence of God, The I Am That I Am, you will conquer Mr. Fear. If you persevere, no matter what, you will begin feeling within you an inner joy and peace that you never thought you could ever experience. It will probably come when you don’t expect it but it will come. An inner peace and joy that is not dependent on outside circumstances. You will be free. It is a glorious feeling.
Be Still – Know That I AM God
From Psalm 46 – “Be still and know that I am God”. What a beautiful, incredibly powerful verse. Not a passive “doing nothing” but an active and potent recipe for whatever trouble you are in, whatever fears you have. Always remember this eternal truth – the Kingdom of God is not up there or out there or over there – the Kingdom of God is within you.Within you. Can you grasp the actual meaning of those glorious words from the mouth of Jesus Christ?
An Acronym To Remember
Here is an acronym for you. Ten attributes that emanate from the Kingdom of God, the eternal I AM. The acronym is: LITE-PPPP-IC. Dwell on these wherever you happen to be. Let them flood your mind. They all perpetually exist within the Kingdom of God. When you dwell on these attributes, you are dwelling on God. Mr. Fear despises it when you do this because it means, if you persevere, he will ultimately lose his control over you.
Love – deep affection, deep devotion. The strongest energy force in the universe.
Intelligence -everything there is to know.
Truth – pure and simple, truth is what is.
Energy – the pure light of the universe
Prosperity -the universal cornucopia.
Power – relentless, unrestrainable force.
ComPassion – we are all one. what helps one, helps all, helps you.
Peace – a knowing stillness; being centered in the Presence of God.
Imagination – to see what you want to make real.
Creativity – to make real in your mind what you see
Dwell on the Presence of God within you. Don’t look to the right. Don’t look to the left. Refrain from looking at your problem. Look at the I Am That I Am that lives within you. If you are able to maintain the rays of the sun by being still, in steady faith, the waters will recede. Mr. Fear will fold up his tent and go after easier pickings elsewhere. He will have no choice. He simply cannot coexist with the power and peace of the Presence of God.
Mr. Fear Will Exit The Scene
Keep your focus on the Presence of God. Your problem or problems will in due course be overcome. Sometimes quickly. Sometimes little by little. Perhaps they will be overcome in the way that you expect. Or perhaps in a way that you never expected. If you do your part however, the problem will be successfully dealt with. You will have the ability to be still in all circumstances. And Mr. Fear will avoid you like the plague and go after the one who focuses on him. You will enjoy that beautiful peace, that success, that you deserve in your life. Try it for sixty consecutive days without fail. Experience for yourself the power of Psalm 46 – Be still and know I am God. Once you get that taste of the inner peace through practicing the Presence of the Divine Eternal, fear will have no place in your life.
I recently completed a five part series of posts about recollections from my childhood in the late fifties, early sixties. As I was looking up at the sky the other day, I realized I forgot to mention the underated activity of “cloud watching” that I used to do as a kid. Cloud watching is a wonderful summertime activity that puts a stop to all other thoughts and cares. It gives you a refreshing pause, a “time out” so to speak, in these days of ever-increasing daily activity and ever-growing things to do lists. Sometimes, doing absolutely nothing can ironically be the most productive thing that you can do for yourself. It lifts you out of your “duties and responsibilities smog” and allows you respite that your spirit definitely needs from time to time. In theory, daily prayer time is supposed to be that time where you refresh your spirit, resting in the presence of Divine Providence. A lot of times however it doesn’t work out that way as we have a tendency to look upon prayer as just another daily chore to accomplish and try to stuff it with as many petitions and “I’m sorry’s” as possible. If you think about it however, clouds and the sky are part of God’s creations, part of God, if you will, just like all of nature. If we spend some time dwelling on the clouds in the sky, we are kind of doing what we should be doing in prayer, resting in and dwelling on God.
Modern Day Shepherds
It has been said that the constellations in the night sky were first visualized and named by shepherds who watched over their flock at night to keep the sheep safe from predators. With nothing else much to do by look up into the night sky, they saw different groupings of stars as representative of different beings (mythical gods and animals) as well as inanimate objects (think the Big Dipper constellation). When I was young, I used to do my best cloudwatching over at the empty grass outfield at one of the baseball fields in our town. There was an area in the outfield that had a small rise. I would lie on the grass with my head on the rise and lock my two hands behind my head. Maybe alone or maybe with a friend. The clouds had to be like the image above. Then as the cloud formations oh-so-slowly moved by, I would look at each one and visualize each cloud being something else. I might see a giant, or an ocean liner, or an oddly shaped horse or King Neptune himself complete with trident. It was just best if you let your mind relax without a care in the world and just let your eyes see what they chose to see. Sometimes you would come up with some really weird scenes but almost every cloud formation brought some new image. Then as one formation eventually left the scene, new ones would drift into play. Everything else in the world melted away as you just focused on the clouds, with the blue sky providing an excellent backdrop. Sometimes you would look at a particular cloud formation from a different angle and get a totally different picture of something else than what you originally saw.
Be Still and Know That I Am God
One of the most famous verses in the Bible is found in Psalm 46 — “Be still and know that I am God”. Looking at the word “still”, it comes from the Hebrew word “rapah” which roughly translated means relax, release, cease. To stop all frantic inner activity and simply sink into a resting in the presence of God. To sink into the silence found deep in our hearts and be still. In that very stillness, the Holy Spirit will meet us and invite us to experience the “peace that passeth all understanding”, that inner peace that deep down, every human being on this planet truly desires.
It has been 47 years now since my brother died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage in June of 1974. My memories of him are still so fresh and clear that it is really difficult to believe that forty-seven years have passed by since he died so unexpectedly due to a burst brain aneurism. Even though his body stopped working, I sense that his spirit, his energy, still lives on in “the great beyond”. I felt at the time of his death that there had to have been some colossal celestial bureaucratic error somewhere regarding his death. He had so much good to give to this world. One time I had a random conversation with a shop owner and the discussion breifly veered to what happens to us after we die. He looked at me with eyes that had seen suffering and said, “All I want when I get there is some answers”. Yeah, me too.
Growing Up Together
My brother and I were three years apart in age. He was born in 1950 while my year of birth was 1953. As we grew up together in that era of the 1950’s and 1960’s, we experienced a lot of things together and shared a lot in life together, even sharing a bed in our bedroom until I was about seven or eight years old or so. (“move over, you’re on my side”). As time went on, we both developed our different skills and personalities, strengths and weaknesses. As human beings, created in the image of the Almighty, we get the opportunity in our lifetime to demonstrate the presence of God within us (the Kingdom of God). We do this through expressing attributes of the Divine. Among these are love, intelligence, light, truth, beauty, abundance, power, compassion, peace, joy, imagination and creativity. My brother demonstrated these in his life. Like the conclusion in the book of Job, I can only acknowledge my ignorance of the divine perspective of Universal Supreme Intelligence. Maybe however, there should be some type of cosmic option whereby we are forewarned when someone we love is going to die to allow us the opporunity to at least make the offer to the grim reaper to substitute our life for theirs.
A Man of Substance
What does it mean to be a man or a woman of substance? Everybody has their own definition. A person of true substance is is defined by an ongoing series of life choices followed by actions to implement those choices. Every day…every hour…every minute…a person makes conscious choices and then engages in actions to support those choices. What must be done now versus what can wait. Playing it safe through avoiding risks versus taking risks and opening the door to the possibility of failure. Conforming yourself to the culture in which you live versus being true to your inner self in every situation regardless of possible consequences. Being the center of your universe versus being a part of a greater good. To give you a prime example of a person of substance that many are familiar with, I put forth the person of Atticus Finch from the novel and film, “To Kill A Mockingbird”.
Carl Jung
Let’s take a look at this statement from Carl Jung: “In this overpoweringly humdrum existence, alas, there is little out of the ordinary that is healthy, and not much room for conspicuous heroism. Not that heroic demands are never put to us, on the contrary — and this is just so irritating and irksome —the banal everyday makes banal demands upon our patience, our devotion, our perserverance, our self-sacrifice, and for us to fulfill these demands (as we must) humbly and without courting applause through heroic gestures, a heroism is needed that cannot be seen from the outside. It does not glitter, it is not belauded, it always seeks concealment in everyday attire.” If you look at those people who outwardly appear to be men or women of substance, oftentimes you find self-seeking egotists. Read that quote from Jung again. Men or women of true substance are often closer than you think.
The Right Choices
In my brother’s life, I believe he made the right choices. He was a man of true substance. I was privileged to be his brother for the twenty-three years that he was on this earth. The bottom line of one’s lifetime when you reach the end of it comes down to this — Did you give more than you received — Did you enhance rather than subtract — Did you fully use what you were rather than waste what you had. Right now, wherever you are in your life journey, you have a choice. You can either be a human being of true substance or a human being of smoke and mirrors, masks and shadows. Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, making the choice to be a person of substance while you proceed with your lifetime on this planet will greatly enrich and enhance your precious life experience. The choice is always yours. Which do you choose?
Store Bought Fruit. Fruit was always one of the “special items” in the weekly supermarket shopping. The big three were: (1) oranges, (2) apples and (3) bananas. Both my brother and I loved fruit. Try as we might to make the fruit last until the next week’s grocery shopping, the supply always ran out before then. I loved those navel oranges with the thick skins. Sometimes I would even nibble on the outer skin after peeling the orange. Our favorite type of apple was the tangy and juicy Stamen winesap apples. In the autumn, we would usually get a basket of them from a nearby orchard. The bananas were rarely eaten alone. We always saved them for the morning bowl of cereal. Used to slice them longways down the middle, then slice each half into pieces. It made it seem like more. In season, sometimes we would get a watermelon which was a real treat.
Free Fruit. There was also “free” fruit to be had. Along the backyard far fence, away from the street, we had some grapevines bearing purple grapes. We also had two green apple trees in the back yard. The birds seemed especially attracted to them and would always be pecking at the apples on them. Down the street on a neighbor’s property was a large cherry tree (about 25, 30 feet tall) and a couple of pear trees (about 20, 22 feet tall). The neighbor did not mind us kids eating the fruit. Another neighbor had a big mulberry tree. The drooping branches formed a curtain around the tree. I liked to go “inside” the tree (behind the curtain). It was almost like a tent. When the mulberries were ripe, they were good eating but their juice stained my clothes (which Mom didn’t like). She said the stains were hard to get out. Also from the berries on the ground, I would get the berry juice on the soles of my shoes. I had to take off my shoes and wipe them down with a wet rag before I went into the house. Yet another neighbor had a section of their yard that they never used or even mowed. Nobody ever went back there. It was a little patch of land that nobody ever bothered with. One day while exploring that area I found a small patch of wild strawberries, a rare find. I brought those home in a paper bag for Mom because I knew she loved strawberries.
Play Wars
Besides the “play wars” that we had with toy guns back in “the woods” (see blog post of 5/13), there were two other types of wars that took place, one in the summer and one in the winter.
Pear Fights. There were two big old pear trees in the neighborhood that were on private property but were unattended. Bartlett pears. Good eating. We were permitted by the neighbor to eat the pears from the tree. You couldn’t get at the pears at the top of the tree because it was too high. There were not any branches close to the ground. As the pears ripened, they would drop to the ground. Or we would use a damaged pear to throw at a pear to knock it down and catch it before it hit the ground. We would pick up the pears and use them for “pear fights”. Either choose up sides or just an “every kid for themselves” free-for-all. The rules were (1) don’t ever aim at the head, (2) don’t hit any houses or cars, and (3) no throwing at anybody from close range. I don’t remember any injuries as a result of getting hit with a pear. A lot of times you saw them coming so if you were hit, it was just a glancing blow but sometimes they did really sting. You had to be careful around the pear tree or picking up a pear from the ground because those nasty yellow jackets also fed off the pears and you definitely didn’t want to tangle with them.
Snowball Fights. These were big. We had anywhere from two to five kids on a side. We would roll up giant balls of snow and create a wall (fort) and stockpile snowballs. Two cardinal rules were “no ice-balls” and no aiming at the head. The goal was to rush the other fort (on the other side of the yard) and overtake their fort. If you made a rush to the fort and got hit with a snowball, you were “out” (killed). If the other team rushed your fort and everybody on your team got hit, the game was over, as the other team won. If there was only one person left on each team and you hit each other at the same time, it was a draw. When one game was over, you started another one. In between games, you would go over strategy for the next game, strengthen your defenses, make more snowballs, etc. You could get covered with snow from head to foot by diving in the snow to avoid a snowball.
Cops and Robbers. A third game we played with opposing teams was on bikes called “Cops and Robbers”. A minimum of two kids to a team. One team was the cops and the other team was the robbers. Each kid was on a bike and the robbers got about a twenty second or so head start to “get away”. That twenty seconds would go by fast, so if you were a robber you had to get away from the starting point quickly. No real boundaries but we had to stay within a reasonable distance of the starting point, maybe five or six blocks. No hiding in garages or houses, you had to stay on the street. If you were actively being chased, you could cut through yards to get away. The cops had to overtake the robbers and force them to stop by cutting in front of them and forcing them to the curb. Most of the time when the cops were alongside the robbers, this would be enough for the robbers to slow down and surrender. Sometimes however, kids did take spills from their bike but I don’t remember any serious injuries. When a robber was apprehended, he had to become a cop and tell where the location of the other robber(s). When all the robbers were caught, the kids would switch roles and start a new game. One time a kid cut through a yard and knocked down an entire clothesline with clothes drying on it. Boy was that lady mad. I think she called the cops because we saw a cop car heading to her house but we didn’t stick around to see what happened next.
Toys And Such
Of this late 50’s, early 60’s era, from the age of five to twelve, here are some of the toys and different things that I played with or enjoyed using during that time, in no particular order.
Cap guns — These were metal toy guns (usually six-shooters) that you threaded with a roll of caps that made a loud sound when the gun hammer hit the little round percussion cap.
Pea Shooters — These were little more than large size heavy duty plastic straws that kind of acted like little blow guns. You put dried peas or something equivalent in one end then blew hard on that end. The pea would come flying out the other end.
Water Pistols — These plastic guns had a small resevoir to hold water. When you squeezed the trigger, water shot out. The really expensive ones could shoot a long distance. Many a water pistol was confiscated in school from kids by the teacher.
Marbles — Two types, the colored “cats-eye” type and the “clearies”. Used to play a game with marbles similiar to bocce.
Baseball Cards —- Not a toy but more of a collection type of thing. Trading was tough because nobody could bear to trade their best cards (think Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, etc.). We would play a game however called “topsies”. In this game you would stand a good distance from a wall. You would take a stack of your cards and shuffle them up. Then the other kid playing would grab a handful off the top of your stack. Then I would do the same from the other kid’s stack. Then he would hand me back the bunch from my stack and I would hand him the bunch I picked up from his deck. Then you would start flipping the cards, one at at time, as close to the wall that you could., first me, then the other kid, me, then the other kid, one at a time. The idea was to try and land your card on top of the other kid’s card. If you did, you were now the owner of that card. All cards remained “in the flipping field of play” until both decks were exhausted. If he topped one of your cards, you could still claim both cards by topping those two. Whatever card was the one on top at the end of the flipping session entitled the owner of that card to get all of the cards in that pile. If one of your valued cards come up to be flipped, you would flip it wildly so that it would be hard for the other kid to top it. If you saw that he flipped a valuable card, you might use the next ten cards to try and top that card. When your deck was all flipped, you collected all the cards that you “won”, said good-bye to all the cards you “lost” and picked up your untopped cards and put them back in your collection and the other kid did the same. Sometimes you won, sometimes you lost. You had to be careful who you were playing against. Some kids just had a knack for the game and could clean you out of your good cards.
Toy Guns — Had a number of toy guns. One of my two favorites was a rifle that you could cock before shooting and when you squeezed the trigger it made a shooting sound. The other favorite was a machine gun that you could pull back on a lever and when you squeezed the trigger, it made a machine-gun sound.
Hula Hoop — Yeah we had a hula hoop but I never was much good at it. I did like to throw it around the yard like a frisbee though.
Molded Plastic Playsets —- Had two different sets of those little plastic playsets that had the flat base so the figures could stand up….one set was soldiers (one side green, the other tan)…the other set was cowboys and Indians
Transistor Radio — Small radio about the size of a standard cell phone but thicker. One year for Christmas both me and my brother received one of these, his was black, mine was red. A prized possession. I used to listen to Phillies games with mine.
Bicycle — Another prized possession. Mine was made in Czechoslovakia and was dark red in color. Started with training wheels and it was a big day when they finally came off. First I stayed within the neighborhood but as I got older, I used that bike to ride to places miles away from the house. It was my “car” before I had a car. It was very simple to repair. There were no gear shifts and for the brakes you just push backward on the pedals. Whenever the tires needed air, I would just take it down to the nearby gas station and use their air hose.
View Master — These were sort of like stubby binoculars into which you would insert a small round disc about six inches or so in diameter. The disc had about a dozen color transparent photographs on it situated in a circle on the disc. It had a small lever on the side that you pressed down with your finger in order to advance to each successive photo. It was like having your own miniature slide projector. The photos could be of famous travel locations or Disney characters or famous fairy tales or whatever. I loved my View Master but the discs were kind of pricey so I never had a whole lot of them.
Sports Equipment — I had my own baseball glove and my brother and I shared a baseball bat, football and basketball. I remember that we had a small can of something called neatsfoot oil that I used to rub into my glove from time to time to keep it soft and supple.
Board Games — I remember a number of different board games that we played throughout the years. The various board games that we had included — Monopoly, Clue, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Checkers, Chinese checkers, Chess, Concentration, Parcheesi, Risk, and Battle Cry Civil War
Playing Cards — Always had a deck of cards around the house. We would play two games mainly, war and go fish. At my grandparents’ house, I played pinochle with Grandmom and Grandpop.
Enclyclopedias — First set we got in the late fifties was a set of Golden Book encyclopedias geared for the younger ages. You got one book a week at the supermarket for forty-nine cents a book. That set got me hooked on reading encyclopedias. A few years later on we got a used set of World Book encyclopedias. I think they were published in 1958 and we got them about ’62 or ’63. I loved reading those encyclopedias. I would sit and read them like other people would read a novel. They also came in handy for school work (of course there wasn’t any such thing as the internet back then).
Odds And Ends
Here are some various random recollections that continue to stick in my memory banks from that late 50’s, early 60’s time frame, in no particular order.
W T Grant — this was a national chain small department store (think walmart but much smaller in size) everything for sale on one floor. They sold everything from pencils to household appliances. They even sold wall paintings there. One year i bought one of those framed paintings for Mom for Christmas (still have it to this day) and brought it home with me on the bus.
Robert Hall —Robert Hall was a chain clothing store where my brother and I used to get our Easter suits every year. Mom would always make sure when we were young that we had new suits for Easter. I remember one year I even had a matching fedora hat! (Holy 1950’s Batman!). Robert Hall also had this very catchy jingle on their radio and tv commercials (where the values go up, up, up and the prices go down, down, down, Robert Hall this season, will show you the reason, low overhead, low overhead).
E J Korvettes — a large department store that opened across the way from W T Grant in the summer of 1961. it was much larger than Grants and had three stories, an escalator and an elevator. It was right at the bus stop and was adjacent to a Woolworths, Thrift drug store and J C Penney store. I used to love to walk around the store and see all the stuff they had. This was my “go-to store” for all my family gifts (christmas, birthday, etc).
Bank Taffies — When my parents had any business to conduct at the bank I always wanted to come along when I was really young because when the teller would see me I would get one of those bank taffies that they gave out.
Aunt Marge — Not really an aunt but we called her that, she was a friend of the family. Once in a while, my Mom or my father would drive over to her house in Camden. She was always on the upbeat side. The big attraction here was a bowl of menthol infused hard candies that she kept in a bowl in her living room. She always allowed me to take some while I was there. Those things were ultra strong (peppermint flavor). They could clear out your sinuses.
Catsup Sandwiches — Occasionally on the days before grocery shopping day, we would essentially be out of food. One time my brother made himself a catsup sandwich. Just what it sounds like, two slices of white bread and some catsup. After he first made one, I tried it. If you were hungry, it wasn’t that bad. Afterwards, I used to make them also.
Drive In Theatres — Once in a while, we went to a local drive-in theatre. There were a whole bunch of them back then. Usually there was a double feature and in between the movies they would show those tantalizing commercials for the different foods available at the concession stand. I’d be in the back seat of the car practically drooling.
Adolphe’s — This was an independent drive in food stand called Adolphe’s that we went to every so often. They had the best hot dogs. We used to joke that the guy’s name was probably Adolf and he made sure to change the spelling of his name.
Webers & Stewarts — Oh those frosted heavy glass mugs of draft root beer. Absolutely delicious. Both Webers and Stewarts had that distinctive orange building. You would sit in your car and the waittress would bring you the mugs on a tray that was hung on the window (You would wind the window down about half way).
Water Fountains — Back then every public place (schools, government offices, large companies, parks, stadiums, etc.) had one or more public water fountains. When I was very young, I remember that there was a neighborhood girl that used to push her baby sister in a baby carriage on a daily walk. She passed by our house and Mom let me tag along for the walk. The highlight of the walk was when we stopped in the service area of a local Chevrolet dealer to get a drink of the ice cold water from their water fountain. There was a particular park that Mom took us to that had a playground where we always worked up a sweat and made sure to get a good long drink from the water fountain before we left. In the late 50’s, early 60’s, I don’t ever remember seeing any bottled water for sale anywhere (except those big jugs in office water coolers).
Sears Roebuck — Sometimes we went to the Sears Roebuck store on Admiral Wilson Blvd. in Camden. I remember they had this little food stand inside the store that had a gigantic root beer barrel that sold root beer and hot dogs. They had the hot dogs on one of those rolling hot dog cooker things and you could inhale that pleasant hot dog aroma from far away.
Johnstown, Pa — One time we drove out to Johnstown, Pa ( a long drive, about four hours or so) to visit with a woman and her family who lived in Johnstown, Pa. She was a woman that Mom had worked with at Bell Telephone before Mom got married. They had a large corn field. I remember eating several pieces of corn on the cob and as many hot dogs as I wanted and afterwards had a great time with their kids running through the corn stalks playing tag and hide and seek.
Haddon Heights Park — There was a county park in Haddon Heights that Mom took us to frequently. Plenty of shade trees, a playground, a ball field, walking trails, an amphitheatre, a pavillion for picnics and a water fountain. After playing in the playground and having a sandwich at the pavillion, my brother and I would walk over to the amphitheatre and take turns giving speeches.
Fort Mott — This was a decommissioned army fort that was built in the late 1800’s. It was later taken over by the state and turned into a state park. It was pretty far away from our house so we only went there once in a while. It was in Pennsville at the mouth of the Delaware River. The fort had battlements and a picnic pavillion. It was right on the water. When we were pretty young, Mom took us there and she packed bologna sandwiches for us. As we were walking along eating the sandwiches, all of a sudden big flies started going after our sandwiches. My brother said, “The flies are attacking our sandwiches. Let’s make a run for the car. We didn’t want to give up our sandwiches.
Fort Mercer — This was a revolutionary war fort about 8 miles or so from our house. It was cared for by the county. Mom took us here frequently. I loved going to Fort Mercer. It was right on the Delaware River. When we arrived at the fort, we drove to the parking area. There were cannons interspersed throughout the park. These were cannon salvaged from sunken British warships. There was a huge statue on a pedestal of General Hugh Mercer. There were different trails and a walkway bridge that we could walk under. There were the remains of battlement trenches. There was a colonial age house on the premises that served as a hospital during a battle at the fort when Hessians attacked the fort. The house still had a cannonball embedded in the exterior of the house. There was a picnic pavillion. They had those binocular things attached to a post where you could look down the river and at Philadeplphia. The fort was under a flight route for planes going to and coming from Philadelphia International Airport. Sometimes a hugh freighter would go by on the river. To get close to the river, you had to go down about a hundred steps or else walk to the other side of the park where it was leveled out. Fort Mercer was a free and fun place for me and my brother.
