February

It's February!
I am looking forward to some warmer temperatures, although I think the snow covered ground is keeping them a little cooler these first few days of the month. I think (hope) most of that will be melted away by the end of today. I realize that we are just at the mid point of winter and there is plenty of cold weather ahead, but I am ready for spring.

I got some fabric planting containers that were delivered yesterday. I am excited about that and ready to get started on gardening. 
I am looking forward to spring gardening as much as I have ever been. I don't know if it's because I'm looking to do more in the way of vegetables or if it's just that I am really tired of winter and ready to be doing something in the way of working outside. I am ready to stop with the sweatpants and long sleeved shirts and get back to shorts, t-shirts and bare feet!
I don't believe that I suffer from SADD, but the desire for longer days and warmer temperatures is real.

It's the third today
A bit late to begin now
I'll skip haiku month

John

Eleven Years

Today marks eleven years since the official end of my career as an air traffic controller. 
As much as I enjoyed the ATC gig, being retired from it is way better! I haven't engaged in supplemental income through contract work as an instructor or staff at any facility and don't understand why others have. I am apparently much less driven to have more, do more, or be more than many of my former coworkers. My pension, Social Security, and Thrift Savings Plan are enough to support my simple retirement lifestyle. 

My retirement from the evangelist/gospel magician gig came a few years later when we were unceremoniously invited to leave the church where we had served for a couple of decades because we didn't object to allowing a transgender woman to be a part of the fellowship. 
Wow! Talk about blessings in disguise! 
Admittedly, I kind of miss the magician part -- more than the ATC gig, and definitely more than the church/religious bullshit. In fact, these days I rarely make an appearance in church of any kind, and when I do it is with a small group from church that meets at a brewery!

My life today is much different that what I might have imagined it to be eleven years ago. 
But I am a much different person than I was eleven years ago, so it makes sense. 
Life happens.
People change.
People grow.
Or maybe people stay the same and you (or I) grow.

I am at peace.
I think I've always been able to find the centering peace within me, but it is helpful to be truly aware of oneself and to be able to purposefully find the calming, peaceful, almost magical presence that connects us to everything around us. Perhaps mystical is a better word than magical.
I wish I had been paying attention to that voice rather than allowing myself to be controlled by the church voices and others that speak and teach from outside of myself. 

If I were ever to go back to preaching, that is what I would teach -- that the Spirit of God lives within you. Find that voice.
Nurture that part of your being -- feed it, exercise it, help it to grow.
Learn to recognize that same spirit in others. 
Let the spirit connect us to each other and to the world around us.

Think about the philosophy that we are not bodies with souls, but rather we are souls with bodies. When we begin to view life from a spiritual perspective rather than a physical perspective everything changes.

Earthly status doesn't matter in the spiritual realm.
Wealth doesn't matter in the spiritual realm.
Power  doesn't matter in the spiritual realm.
Skin color doesn't matter in the spiritual realm.
Gender doesn't matter in the spiritual realm.
National borders don't matter in the spiritual realm.
Even the religious beliefs of us humans don't matter in the spiritual realm.

Find and strengthen the God spirit within yourself, then look for and connect with the God spirit in others.

I don't think it is a message that will preach well in our world today. Too many want to cling to the perceived power or control that their current beliefs give them.
Fair warning!!! -- Following Jesus is way harder than worshiping Jesus.

There!
I said what I said.
Now you know why I don't preach anymore.

John

Can We Just Skip Ahead to Spring?

January is finally coming to an end, but it looks like the disturbance in the polar vortex will continue to bring cold weather to the Midwest and beyond into early February.
Sacrebleu!

Although February is really in the very heart of winter, I always feel like spring is getting close. MLB teams are all in spring training camp by the end of week two, so it has to be close, right?

This stretch of cold weather has me a little out of sorts. I haven't even been reading much lately.
Maybe it has to do with the addition of snow cover that lasts for more than a few days. 
Maybe it is the extra nights of working.
Maybe I am getting too old for this cold weather crap and need to move to a warmer climate.
Maybe it's that SADD thing getting to me this season.

I'm not sure what it is, but I am ready for spring!

There is a part of me that wants to be present in the moment and appreciate the winter and what it accomplishes in the cycles of nature. But I am also very much looking forward to planting a garden and watching flowers grow. I don't like spending too much energy on the days ahead. It feels like I am cheating today by doing that. I can tend to my early plants and do things to prepare for the coming weeks rather than just wasting time thinking about it. 
I ordered some containers for tomatoes and have already started my tomato plants. I think I'll also grow peppers (also started) in containers and I bought some larger containers for potatoes and sweet potatoes. I'm wondering how that will go and also wondering how I will do on the crops that require more patience than some of the others.

This weekend marks eleven years since I hung up my headset and retired from the ATC gig. It is hard to believe that it's been that long. 
Talk about privilege! Wow!

Enjoy the remaining moments of January. 
Retirement in any month is better than going to work!

John

Regrets

Earlier this week I read a post that someone shared about their parent's regrets about not having been active during the civil rights demonstrations of the 60s. I'm wondering if this is our moment to either be active now or regret it later when it comes to demonstrating or actively speaking out against the government injustices that are taking place.

It also got me thinking about my own regrets.
I have come to terms with my past religious teachings, knowing that I was teaching what I had been taught and truly believed I was doing the right thing. But now I am wondering if maybe I have stepped away from religion long enough and it's time to begin to share how my beliefs have evolved into being less of a worshiper of Jesus and more of a follower of Jesus.

Although my past observation of -- The farther I got from religion, the closer I got to God -- still holds true, I'm now wondering how evangelism works when it comes to helping people recognize the Spirit of God that resides within themselves and also in the people around us.
How does one follow what Jesus taught, and teach what Jesus taught, and manage to leave religion out of it?
Is the St. Francis model of preaching by practice and only using words when necessary an effective way of following Jesus? Is it an effective way to teach others what Jesus taught?  
Is it even necessary to teach others what I know or believe about following Jesus?
...or just about living a peaceful life?

I think I need a warm day and a good cigar to figure it out.
It might be a long time before that happens.

John

Wednesday Wisdom

 

When Monday Mornings Aren't Mornings

This winter is making for weird Monday mornings. Working at the cold weather shelter on Sunday and Monday nights means that my Monday mornings are really Monday evening. 

On what is actually Monday morning, I typically end my Sunday overnight shift by going out to eat (breakfast) at a little diner along Old Route 66 with one of the other shelter workers. Then I head home and eventually sleep from 11 to 5pm or so and then get up and get ready for another overnight.
This becomes my Monday morning.

This evening time "morning" still has coffee as a part of my wake-up routine, but not much else is the same. Today I am getting in a little time on the Chromebook and blogging, but that hasn't been the case most of the winter. A little less screen time is never a bad thing these days.

The coming days are going to be bitterly cold and Springfield MO is woefully under equipped to help shelter our homeless population. Even on our best nights, we have fewer than 300 beds for the nearly 1000 unsheltered people in the area. Our little shelter has added a few cots recently and made room for a few more pets, but we are at capacity. Last night I had a couple of cots in the hallway and one person on the floor. We were literally wall-to-wall with people and pets.
The next 10 days or so will be extremely challenging and quite dangerous for the unsheltered population of SWMO.

No time for a Monday Meditation post. I have to get ready for work.

John

Brrr...

Much of the Ozarks is waking up to frigid temperatures this morning. "Feels like" -4 (-20c) means that it's coffee by the fireplace for me today. I will have absolutely no reason to venture out into the cold until this evening when I will make my way into the shelter to keep a few dozen people and their pets company throughout the night. 

I haven't felt like writing much lately, but I have been reading. 
It has been a long time since somebody has talked to me about reading The Bible, but one of the overnight guests at the shelter asked if I'd ever read through the complete book before. 
I have, but it has honestly been some time since I have made it a part of my daily habit. I am not going to read through it from beginning to end again. I can't think of a single reason to do that. But I am going to read through the new testament with a different perspective than I have in the past.

It is difficult to set aside nearly all that I was taught about The Bible as I read through it again, but much of what I learned was weaponizing the ancient text to control a society into blindly serving some made up, bullshit religion and worshiping a god of its own design. I'm pretty much over the religion of Christianity that worships Jesus, but fails to do -- even actively opposes -- the things that he taught concerning how to live in harmony with one another. 
Studying the life and teaching of Jesus without the cloak of religion is both challenging and freeing, but takes a little more time and effort than simply reading the gospels. I am hoping that I will have the persistence to see it through.

     * * * * *

Switching topics to Things I Learned This Week

Did you know that the word myriad once represented a specific number of things rather than being a countless quantity?
To the ancient Greeks a myriad was ten thousand.

Did you know that poecilonym (PEE-sill-oh-nim) and polyonym are both synonyms for synonym?

Both from my Word Nerd calendar.

Have a great week!
John

The value of a day

 

It's the weekend! (It is, isn't it?)

Normally, weekends aren't a big deal for us retired folk, but this has been a weird kind of week. Yesterday (Friday) was the first day all week that I didn't have to go somewhere or do something. It was nice to just stay at home all day. I didn't even manage to go down the street to check the mailbox.

Aside from being a busier than normal week, the first week of January was also unseasonably warm. It was nice to spend a couple of days doing some yard work and sitting in the sun. Winter is returning and that means it is back to work at the shelter for a couple of nights.

In a recent conversation with an overnight volunteer we discussed some of the reasons for volunteering or working at the shelter. There was a time when it gave me a sense of accomplishment or made me feel good about myself for doing a service in the community. I'm not certain that still exists for me. Now I feel like I am doing it just because it needs to be done and I don't really get the same sense of personal satisfaction from doing it that I once did. I just do it.
I don't think it's a good thing nor a bad thing. It's just the way it is. And maybe it does keep me from being the absolutely least productive member of society, although not by much.

     * * * * *

In other news -- I finished my first book of the year! It was the historical fiction, The Runes Of Victory about Anglos and Saxons defending against Viking attacks in early 9th century England. Today, I will finish Let Them. 
I've already started a new non-fiction book, Inner Anarchy by deconstructed mega-church pastor Jim Palmer. I believe this is his most recent book. I should probably read some of his earlier works, as well. Fwiw, this is another paper and ink book. I'll figure out what fiction book I'll read from my Kindle library later today.

I may help setup the shelter cots tonight, but otherwise it looks to be another non-productive day in the life of John. If you are doing something to make the world a better place -- thank you. 

John

Too much to do!

Monday -- midday shelter work
Yesterday -- doctor's appointment.
Today -- early car appointment
Tomorrow -- morning shelter work

Whatever happened to my quiet, non-productive retired life?

Actually, the past couple of days have been decent days and I have managed to take advantage of the warm weather by getting a few things done around the house; nothing major, just a few things that needed to be done now are. 
There are plenty of things like that. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours tilling an area for spring planting. I may go over it again today and then once more before planting. Anyone that has tried tilling or plowing land in SWMO understands why there is no crop farming here. The ground is hard, mostly clay, and full of rocks. A couple of hours behind a tiller can beat you up. I'm a bit surprised that my hands and wrists aren't sore today.

Working outside in shorts and a t-shirt was nice for early January. We will have a couple more warm days before winter returns. I am looking forward to spring and planting my Christmas seeds -- pumpkins, sunflowers, and popcorn.
After working yesterday, I sat in the sun and enjoyed a cigar and a tequila and soda. I am looking forward to many similar days. I know that this simple life isn't for everyone, but I do enjoy it.

I hope you have a chance to enjoy whatever today holds for you. 
It's time for me to take a car to the shop.

John