Goats

Okay, my friend Fran posted this You-Tube of goats on her blog.  It was so darned cute that I couldn't resist sharing it with you.  I also put it on ny facebook, but I can't get a picture to share with you.  It's very cute, though -- go watch it.  I have parishioners who raise goats, and she describes one stage of "kid-hood" as deet-dee-deet-dee-deedley-deet."  That's what these babies are doing.  If you watch this video, you'll also see links to lots and lots more of them.  What fun!

My friend Fran also is immersed in lots of art-making.  She is a trained facilitator for Soul Collage, and makes really fine pieces herself.  I miss doing that, and may drag out my own collage book and work on a page.  This is, of course, a way to avoid what I really need to be doing, which is gathering, wrapping, and mailing Christmas gifts, finding who's left gift-less on my list, and making plans to purchase and send those gifts, post-haste.  I'm terrible about gifts, and mostly get them out before Epiphany.  Some years, if things are busy at church, I admit I don't get them out at all.  That's especially egregious as my friends and family are so very good about making sure that I have gifts to open on Christmas morning, since my holidays are spent mostly alone.  There's nothing nicer than coming in after Midnight Mass and opening a gift or two before bed.  Then I rewrite my sermon for the morning as I listen to carols, and fall into bed, only to get up Christmas morning for another service.

My Buddhist book group was cancelled today because an ice storm is expected.  We're studying Pema Chodron's Start Where You Are, one chapter per month -- and the chapters are really short!  But I'm finding that the month really gives me time to make the material part of who I am, part of my own thought process.

I find much of what Chodron says to be helpful in my dealings with other people, and in my parish work.  For a long time I've felt as though there's great overlap between Christian spiritual or wisdom teaching and Buddhist teaching.  This was first brought home to me when reading Thich Nhat Hanh.  Marcus Borg also refers to it in Reading the Bible Again for the First Time.  There are lots of conservative Episcopalians who would find my saying this horrifying, but it's true -- anyone can see it, if they take the time to do a little reading and study.

It has been so cold here that I've been drinking lots of hot tea -- decaf chai, whole milk, no sugar.  I make it in my coffee maker -- just run hot water through into the pot where the tea bags await.  A pot can last me a day or even two sometimes.  I use 8 bags for 10 cups of hot water, and just leave the bags in till the tea is all gone.  It doesn't get bitter or too strong.  Or maybe my taste buds are just failing me!

Everyone stay safe and warm, and pray that no harm or damage come to us up here on the Plateau, if the ice storm really hits.

Comments

[Evelyn Jackson]

I'm doing an online Advent course and we're making SoulCollages. It's been a very enlightening activity! I was pretty sure I had it all figured out, but then when I actually did one, I was totally surprised at what appeared! I find a lot of similarity between Buddhist teaching and Christianity as well...that whole detaching from outcome is to me like..'let go and let God.' Is this heresy???

[Sharon]

This is the third time in a week that someone has mentioned Pema Chodron to me, so guess I better take the hint and read her. In my recent Seeker's Path class, three people recommended the book "Without Buddha, I Could Not Be A Christian," by Paul Knitter. I certainly don't think "overlaps" should startle or horrify anyone. We need to have many, many more overlaps with other faith traditions, IMHO.

[Ann]

Yes, absolutely, Evelyn and Sharon -- let's hear it for points of agreement, rather than always emphasizing differences! In my spiritual director training, another student had a lovely illustration of a hand -- the five fingers being Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism, but all connecting back to the same palm. Whatever our religious tradition, and whatever we call it: Wisdom, Enlightenment, God, Allah, Spirit -- we're all seeking union and relationship with the same thing. Sometimes it's hard to be a priest, delegated to teach church doctrine, when what I really believe is that the doctrine itself doesn't matter -- it's what the doctrine is trying to POINT TO that's the main deal!

[Fran aka Redondowriter]

Thanks for the mention, Ann. I love your nativity and the whimsy of all the animals gathering--and your advent wreath and old ornaments is lovely. I am also interested in FA. I burned out of OA. I'll have to look into this.

Here we are galloping towards Christmas.