For Myanmar: "Bring Me a Higher Love:" Buddhist Blessing and A Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal)

First, just some random photos I had on file to show you on the way out...over the past two years....:)










...just a picture Bubby took of me on confirmation day. I wore black and white, to represent my Taoist/Buddhist influences....refuse to adhere to just one philosophy...such a rebel.;)

I kinda look drugged ...Heeeeee! Dude, seriously....what the he...um...I mean...what the heck (whups, confirmation day)... was I off in thought about?

(Southern Belle accent) "Why, I was thinkin' about...Jesus, of co-ahse, dahlins!" *bats eyelashes*

"Rev J...gosh, hi there...yeah, um...I was...thinking....about your last sermon...
...mm hmm, I WAS....no, really.... ;) "

RANDOM PICS OF PEOPLE I LOVE...who have stuck by me through thick and thin......:)

Zack (McKenna's father...who, despite fussing with one another regularly for fun, is actually one of my best friends), Confirmation Queen, McKenna (she's lost 16 lbs since that photo...give it up for ma girl!), and his mother, Charline, also a dear lady and friend...)

I like this picture of the two of them...HE looks like a member of the Bush family, tho...acts like him too, some days...always the conservative, but he has a heart he likes to hide.;) Money, money, money....football, football, football, though...pttthbbbbttttttt.;)

This is our confirmation day, our "class" as true "Pisckies" ...baptismal candidates too...clockwise: Jack, Mike, Pam and Luc...second row...Jan, me (overly cheesing because we were laughing right before this was taken...can I help it if the bishop was funny?), Queen Bubbina, Zach, Michelle, Brynna, Julie, Kailey, Julie's parents. Back row: Bishop Sauls (still want that haaaa-atttttttt:), David, Marianne, Sarah, Renauld, can NOT think of Julie's husband's name. Argh! Julie's other daughter, Caitlyn, is in the wheelchair...broke both legs due to a fall off a horse..:(

Dat's me, ma grandma (91, pretty good for that age and with lung cancer, eh? This was taken before the fall and when she could still walk; now in the last stages of lung cancer; mom has finally resumed primary caretaking of her), and the Queen of the Day, Miss Bubby.:)

Clearly, these photos have been untouched, and you'll be happy to know that no further harm of the images has been done because, well...that's just not possible ....I look bad enough already. No Photoshop, just lightened them...

It's a BLOG, people, not your ticket to stardom or men....just the real deal...as it should be.:)

I wish I had a recent picture of my best friend, Amber B or my lil sister, Ruthie, but...

A) Neither one would let me, at this point, considering what some did with other pictures of mine and you scared them off from commenting a long time ago.

B) It would take at least three years to find one they'd approve of...but Amber still reads here today...love you, Amber.:)

~~~~~~~~~~~ORIGINAL POST~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had the weirdest dream last night...

Besides the fact that once again, someone I wish I'd never met two years ago, created an ID and ran around the internet with it again...oh wait, that wasn't a bad dream that actually happened...again.

No, no.... I guess my mind was on the mounting tension in Myanmar/Burma, or at least my subconscious was.

I was in an Episcopalian church, but not mine...more like the old-style cathedrals.

There was Jan, my former priest (and friend) at the pulpit,...with the Dalai Lama standing there beside her, smiling at each other and taking turns offering sermons?

I turned to my right, and there was Bubby, smiling up at me like the little cherub she (mostly) is. I kissed her on the cheek, put my arm around her.

I turned to my left and smiled up to whom apparently was my husband.

Who was it, you ask?

Famous Buddhist, Richard Gere, of course... duh... ;)

Actually, I...don't...know where th...?????

It was a dream, whaddya want from me?;)

(There were, however, no gerbils in sight, just in case you were wondering.;)

From both religions, whose common goal is (or should be).... to end all suffering....

For Priests of Myanmar and their people:

Traditional Buddhist Blessing:
Just as the soft rains fill the streams,
pour into the rivers and join together in the oceans,
so may the power of every moment of your goodness flow forth to awaken and heal all beings,
Those here now, those gone before, those yet to come.
By the power of every moment of your goodness
May your heart's wishes be soon fulfilled as completely shining as the bright full moon,
as magically as by a wish-fulfilling gem.
By the power of every moment of your goodness
May all dangers be averted and all disease be gone.
May no obstacle come across your way.
May you enjoy fulfillment and long life.
For all in whose heart dwells respect, who follow the wisdom and compassion, of the Way, May your life prosper in the four blessings of old age, beauty, happiness and strength.

Prayer for Peace, Book of Common Prayer
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth:deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

...the last stanza of this Southern Episcopalian hymn, a personal favorite, can be applied to both religions....whose common goal is...or should be... the end of suffering...

What Wondrous Love Is This....
...and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
...and when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
...and when from death I’m free? I’ll sing and joyful be...
...and through eternity, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
...and through eternity, I’ll sing on!

You ain't heard nothin' until you've heard a Southern A.M.E soloist sing this song from the perspective of their history...and from their very soul.:)

And finally, my own prayer...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PRAYER~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Mychal Bell in his jail cell and the Jena 6, bring them a higher love

For Justin Barker, recovering from injury, and his buddies, bring them a higher love...

For the Jena, Louisiana DA, Reed Walters and the jury, bring them a higher love...

For Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, and the NAACP, bring them a higher love...

For the Buddhist priests in the streets of Myanmar, withstanding tear gas and shots over their beliefs and personal freedoms, help them remember their higher love...

For the military agents on behalf of Myanmar government (questionable Chinese stance?), bring them a higher love...

For the American Soldier in a foreign land, stroking his family's picture in his hand and saying a prayer, off to perform his ordered duty, bring him a higher love...

For the Iraqi "insurgent" who fights against him on ordered duty, holding his family's picture and saying a prayer to the same God, bring him a higher love...

For the Ultra-Conservative Republican Southern Baptists and the candidates they vote for, bring them a higher love.

For the Ultra-Liberal Democrat Atheists or Wiccans and the candidates they vote for, bring them a higher love...

For everyone in between...bring us a higher love.

PLEASE bring George Bush, Dick Cheney, and General Petraeus a higher love..hehehe

For all members of Congress and the Supreme Court, bring them a higher love...

To those in the public eye of fame, being publically humiliated or publically humiliating others and those who think that cruelty is a form of entertainment, from their rehabs, their "news" positions, the comfort of their "cribs," or other self-chosen prisons...bring them a higher love....

For those trying to achieve fame, going to any means to get there...whether on stage, in the media, behind the scenes or...even on these blogs...bring them a higher love.

For my ex-husband and his family, bring them a higher love...

For my mother and father, sisters and brother...bring them a higher love

For my friends and family, McKenna's teachers and McKenna and whatever trials they face, bring them a higher love...

...and then there's me...bring ME a higher love....:)

UPDATE: 09/27/2007: Woo hoo! The DA lessened the charges to juvy, set him free on bail!!!

But...um...Walters...dude...I'm so embarrassed for you right now, my arrogant "Christian" brother...

Mmm no..."Jesus Christ" and/or God will NOT rescue either you OR Mychal Bell from the consequences of either of your poor choices....he promised he wouldn't step in with free will...so YOU did this...

Your interpretation of divine intervention stopping violence against you actually makes no sense, considering the whole issue is about violence towards one ya boys to begin with, or helllooo, perhaps he would've intervened in this situation earlier, hmm?

Ha, wouldn't THAT be nice!

Oh well....back to focusing on MY missteps in faith/misinterpretations, MY screw ups, and MY "sin.":)

No, wait a minute, I'm sorry...I get to do a little happy dance right now...teee heee! All that AND the house and senate defy Bush's threat of veto on the children's healthcare bill and pass it..? Is it my freakin' birthday? I've been waiting for years for this shit!

"Uh...ahem, passengers...this is your pilot, Captain Elizabeth Swan, speaking to you from the Mostly Friendly and Tolerant Skies of Moderate-To-Liberal Airlines....

As I told you last week...just a friendly reminder to fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentleman...

...and put your tray tables in their upright and locked positions....

...though we may hit some turbulence...

...it appears we're actually coming in for a landing....

...it's time for social change...."

At last. :)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

P.S. I want to put watching that truly... um...crazy-ass display of the darker-side-of-human-nature-in-groups in blogland behind me...and go out feeling the way I felt the moment I wrote the above post..enriched by higher love.:)

Peace be with you...

What a surprise! Suddenly, Osama's Back! Grab Your Plastic and Your Duct Tape;)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(BTW, for the intelligence-impaired, this post is written in that "crazy new style" called sarcasm...look it up.)

So...let's see...

Petraeus didn't get the reaction they were going for with his report, nobody's really happy with him from any perspective along the political spectrum; a report chosen to be done on an emotionally charged day for effect...though no correllation has ever been found conclusively between Iraq and Osama bin Laden OR that Iraq ever had weapons of mass destruction.

.... then a huge antiwar protest in D.C. occurs last week.

Suddenly, what a freakin' coincidence! Is it? Yes, I believe it is! There's the face that "strikes fear in the hearts of all Americans" all over the news... again....Osama bin Laden! AAAAK! (Again...sarcasm, people.)

......it's curious that we don't seem to care much what Osama bin Laden's doing until the popularity polls for the war are down, do we? ;)

I can hear it now...

James Earl Schlub says: "Well, golllll damn, Betsy....there's dat funny-lookin' A-rab feller with a sheet on his head again, the one who killed on them people on 9/11? Where's he been, that sneaky critter, I almost forgot about him.

Wait, didn't The Lord's Holy Henchman, Dubya, tell us.......wuddn't he like...the King of Eye-Rock or something and that's why we're there?

Yeah, that General Patsy-Us was talking about them EvilDoers in Eye-Rock on the TEE vee, last week.

DAMN that Evil Eye-Rock with their...evil...eyes...tryin' to be' all...evil....and stuff. Honey, get my checkbook and my shotgun..."

Betsy Lou Schlub says: OMG!!!....*Mia Farrow-fist-in-mouth*... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...oh, hep me, lil sweet baby Jesus lying in your manger! Hep me, Dwight D. Eisenhauer, hep me General Patton! Hep me Joseph McCarthy...hep me Andrew McCarthy!!! Whatta we do, daddy, whatta we do???

Southernspeak4 says: Well, Schlubs, let's all run right out and buy our plastic and duct tape *eye roll* (....which would perhaps protect me from all rational thought, but certainly not against Anthrax).

I wish we WOULD go after OBL for a change, instead of Iraq, there's a novel idea...since it IS called the "war on terrorism" and he was the actual terrorist.

"Men of God"... chosen leaders to fight the "evildoers?" I think not...

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye will know them by the fruits of their labor... " Matthew 7:16

Dudes....this fruit you keep feeding us costs a bundle and it tastes like crap, it's rotten...and going to get it is killing our young. Were not even sure why we're still eating this shit or ever were. In fact, the only people that seem to enjoy this shit are the oil companies and...well, YOU and your buddies.:)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Uh, this is Captain Elizabeth Swan, speaking to you from the Friendly, Tolerant Skies (mostly) of Moderately Liberal Airlines...

Just a friendly reminder to fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentleman...

...and put your tray tables in their upright and locked positions....

we're coming in for a landing....

......it's time for social change...."

At last.

:)

Don't Forget "Talk Like a Pirate Day," September 19th

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EDITING NOW COMPLETE.

...this made ME giggle anyway...but then, it IS me, after all.;)

This is how cool my priest (and friend), Jan, is...***don't read if you can't mix spirituality/religion with a sense of humor.




She sent me this rewording of the liturgy on that day to read to McK, who is a die-hard Johnny Depp/Pirates of the Caribbean fan.

I dared her to actually do it on that Wednesday night service and not say a word as to why... just act like it's a completely normal occurrence...but she WON'T, God...bless her.

What if I provide the dreadlocks and hat? No?;)

Here's a snippet of it....

The Great Thanksgiving:

The celebrant says to the people:
The Lord be wi' ye

People: Aye, and also wi' ye....

After breaking of the consecrated bread, the celebrant faces the people and continues:

Da gifts o' God fer the people o' God, take 'em in rememberin' Cap'N Christ sank down to Davy Jones' locker fer ye, and feed on the lad in ye hearts by faith.

....On the night he be givin' over to sufferin' and Davy Jones' locker, Cap'n Christ took the hard tack, and when he'd beat the weevils out, he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his maties, and said, "Take and be eatin', this be my body; do it in 'membrance o' me..."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The following was my response:

... she'll get a giggle out of it... I think your sermon should start like this... "Aye, ye scalawag Pharisees that call yeselves the Christian Coalition and His Majesty's Royal Navy...take the barnacle out ye own eye...." ;)-----

...and her response...

.I'll do it! (Just kidding...but I wish I were brave enough ..)

Thanks for the laugh.

Hope McK feels better soon.

Blessings, J+

I wish she would...but "people like us bleedin' heart liberal" pirates already take heat in this conservative, southern, back-asswards town.

Btw, McK just has a bad cold, no worries...I know you all were.



Gonna miss you, Rev J...you rock it old school.:)

MY Expressive and Creative Content...hehehe

Below is the end result of reporting "Terms of Service" violations to Blogger, after I reported the second round of chronic ID impersonation... (see examples, this same ID name, this time with no right-clicked/saved picture of me, on the blog links in the post below this one...note the number of profile hits on the fake versus the number in my real ID).

...followed by my "creative impersonation" of their response letter....;)

Hello,Thank you for your note.

Please note that Blogger is a provider of content creation tools, not a mediator of that content. We allow our users to create blogs, but we don't make any claims about the content of these pages. We strongly believe in freedom of expression, even if a blog contains unappealing or distasteful content or presents unpopular viewpoints.

We realize this may be frustrating and we regret any inconvenience this may cause you. In cases where contact information for the author is listed on the page, we recommend you working directly with this person to have the content in question removed or changed.In cases where the author is anonymous, please note that in accordance with US state and federal law, it is Blogger's policy to only provide a user's contact information pursuant to a valid third party subpoena orother appropriate legal process.

Blogger

Well...here is my "creative impersonation" (cough, cough)... excuse me...I mean "creative interpretation" of your words:

Hi...what us your name again?

We believe in "freedom of expression;" even if one (or more) blogger's "freedom of expression" smear campaign all over the net resulted in the oppression of YOUR "freedom of expression" and right to defend yourself, and the ability to blog anywhere, any time, without being followed shortly thereafter by "freely expressive" harrassment by the other blogger's mob in the comments section.

We have a difficult-to-find, useless "report abuse" system. This is a site at which you can bubble in an area of concern, such as impersonation, for your own amusement. This is simply to give you, our valued blogger (what was your name again?) a false sense control over your environment; and besides, people just like bubbles.

Everyone likes bubbles. We are very proud of our bubbles. People have remarked on our bubbles. Do YOU like our bubbles? Give us some feedback...we care about what you think here at Blogger. What was your name again?

In other words, we have all the power, you have none...nanny, nanny boo boo.

Though we have the power to restrict illegal activity such as identity impersonation on Blogger, we're not going to and you can't make us, There's nothing you can do about it.

We take no responsibility for our ineptitude or general lack of foresight when we instituted this site.

In short, we will make no effort whatsoever to rectify any of these inherent problems now, or at any time, in the near or distant future.

However, we wrote you a nice note back with a friendly greeting, which should suffice to make us appear responsive, along with the standard bullshit that hides behind the first amendment to the Constitution.

(Actually, we enjoy watching this shit because we got tired of watching porn, playing with our Star Wars action figures, and playing quarters in the back room instead of repairing one of our servers, and we decided to watch someone be harrassed for fun!)

Otherwise, haveanicedaybuhbyenow:)

Blogger

Do ya like MY "freedom of expression?" But...have a nice day.:)

"Hatshepsut Was Here"

... despite frantic efforts to "chisel away" her place from historically-accurate written record ...... & attempts to defile her true image....

Centuries later, she was found in a relatively modest tomb, wrapped in royal linen; a pleasant-yet-determined countenance, a clenched hand where a scepter had once been.

She had died from natural causes, in the end; having bowed out gracefully; allowing others to misunderstand & judge mercilessly, not having enough information. She let them think whatever they would.

There was no gold; no other distinguishing accoutrements of royalty; thieves robbed her of any remaining traces of her previous status, desecrating her remains.

All previous propaganda had finally been disproven; her actions better understood with more information.

She was remarkably well-preserved, of course,;) completely restored, & finally resumed her rightful place in history.

The End.