Resisting the homework assignment

At the writing course this morning, our homework assignment was to write about a mystical experience, a dream, or personal vision.  My back went up and I realized I did not want to do that.  Understanding why took a few minutes, but it mostly ended up as “It’s nobody else’s business.  That experience was for ME, not others, and I don’t want to cheapen it by writing it down. ” Of course I did write the experience down within 24 hours of an occurrence.  Somewhere in my old journals are the accounts of what happened.  I have told a few trusted friends about a mystical experience, but I have no intention of sharing mine with a group of  people I don’t know well.

Then I remember reading a book by Theresa of Avila.  I was fascinated by her accounts of mystical experiences.  If she hadn’t written about them, no one would know about them.  Mysticism, forgiveness, and dreams would remain as seen as “woo-woo”, earning skepticism and judgement from most people in society.

Perhaps I will do the homework.  I don’t have to share the writing with the group/

 

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Another Technological Challenge

I’ve spent an hour on my other website, one that promotes my book “Your Invisible Bodies”.  Except it looked very different from the one that usually appears.  The old one appeared, but not the new website developed by Lisa Francis in 2012.  That one is much more attractive, and cost me a bundle!  All I wanted to do was add a new page, and then put my current spiritual thoughts on that page.  However, more than an hour later I want to be able to talk to a person at WordPress.  Lisa used Joomla to create that website.  I need to get back to it.  In a few weeks my colleague Carla will be at the Healing Touch International Conference, and will give out free bookmarks about my book.  So I have updated my website…. and now it has disappeared!  Every time I upload a new offer, these technological tasks get more complex and less easy to use!  Arrgh!

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Another writing course

Yesterday I attended a writing course offered by Carolyn Pogue, whom I respect.  I’ve read most of her books, and I know I can learn from her.  So, too, do the thirteen women and one man who attended this first of 4 sessions.  She asked us to draw our life, comparing it to a river.  All our drawings were different, and people shared brief thoughts explaining them.  I wasn’t fond of my drawing.  I did the exercise, ending with the thought of ‘untapped energy’.  There are parts I don’t write about, because too many living people would be affected.  So I will write about what I have learned in my 80+ years of living.  I can still learn.

I am mindful of Jung’s comment “In our dreams one is never 80”.  However, I dream A LOT and I write some in my journal.  This morning I had a compensatory dream.  I was with my partner and another friend, relaxing on a beach beside a warm lake.  How nice!  Much better than the snowfall outside my windows.

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The Big Picture

 

To Alberta Views (one of my favorite magazines!)

I am concerned about the biased view presented in your Jan/Feb issue concerning the pipeline debate.  Bias in a writer is natural, and difficult, if not impossible, to prevent.  I have lived a long time and have learned that peoples’ realities are dependent on their position in life.  What is real to the radical environmentalist is not real to the labourer who lives and works in an oil or gas town.  A person’s viewpoint is formed by his or her background and position in life, particularly the current situation.  I believe that the closer one is to the front line, or center of the situation viewed, the more focussed and informed one is of the problems involved, and therefore of the alternatives for problem-solving.

However, the further away one is from the front line, the more able s/he is to see the big picture.

What is lacking in the pipeline debate is the big picture.  As I read the pros and cons of the pipeline divide, I learned a lot that I didn’t know before.  I rely on Alberta Views to inform me, particularly about front line concerns.  However, my jaundiced and somewhat cynical mind thinks, “They’re not addressing the big picture.”  Perhaps the writers  are too close to see the full context of the issue.  I try to see the big picture, and I have lived simply for the last six decades, hoping that our country can move forward to a more sustainable future.  I question what is presented on all sides of a debate.  I ask, “Where is this person coming from?  What parts of the big picture does s/he bring?  What parts does s/he not comprehend?  What is missing from this analysis?”

This forces me to listen, to read, to think, and to learn.  I examine my responses to see if these learned opinions will cause me to change my behaviour and attitudes.  The big picture in which climate change is embedded includes economic structures, government regulations, capitalism, how governments are funded, the Canadian constitution, treaties with indigenous nations, population growth, global financial agreements, war and violence across the world, immigration, poverty, economic inequality, diverse religions, and societal attitudes to gender roles. All these factors are part of my big picture.  There are no minimally palatable  solutions within the pipeline debates, or to changes in individual’s viewpoints, feelings, and thoughts.  Most Canadians appear to build their lives upon the central belief that the bottom line is measured in financial terms, and money matters more than anything else.  I hear others claim that our current situation is more important than historical evidence, or future dreams.

The debate is complicated, and will not be resolved within the life span of any democratically elected government.  Nor within my lifetime.  Sad.  Sadder still for my great grand children.

 

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