ponderingwhynot

[ponderingwhynot]

Truth

What is truth?  Have you ever stopped to #ponder this question?  I mean, think about it...Truth, the word itself seems to stand up and say, ‘I am’. Truth is.  The very definition of Truth makes it impossible for any ‘shade of grey’ to defile it.  Truth is not dependent on anything but itself.  There is no higher authority than Truth.  We must be VERY careful that when we think about this fact that we do not confuse anything less than complete Truth with ‘Truth’.  The fact is, our world looks at everything on a sliding scale of Truth, how true is this or that?  Truth is not objective, Truth is, period.  ‘Truth is like a lion.  You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose.  It will defend itself’ - St. Augustine.  How ‘true’!!  We cannot be fearful of Truth either, The Truth sets us free.  Which brings me to this point, are we afraid of freedom?  Why would this be?  I propose we fear the unknown as we fear the power we possess.  We are made in the Image and likeness of God, how powerful is God?  Infinitely powerful!  We cannot even understand what that means, it is so profound!  We are afraid that if we were set free we would encounter Truth and when a soul first accepts and sees the face of Truth, they will NEVER be the same.  We enslave ourselves to ‘stuff’, be it money, drugs, sex, power, video games, pornography, pride, work, etc.  The list is as long as the number of things in the created world.  More ‘stuff’ will not fill the void that exists in every person who choose to live without accepting the reality of God’s influence in their lives.  We hide behind all of these things because it is easier than changing our lives.  But isn’t this just a perpetual cycle of living in fear and consuming the world to fill an ever growing hole that cannot be filled with ‘stuff’?  That is literally the definition of insanity!  I am not saying it is or will be easy, but with God’s grace, it will be possible, and it is worth it!  Do not fear!  What is/are your alternative(s)?  Live in fear?  Live in freedom?  It’s your choice, what do you have to lose?  (besides your eternal soul?)  Give freedom a try...why not?

[ponderingwhynot]

Slow down

I was speaking to my mother the other day and I mentioned to her that I don’t recall another time in my life feeling so busy.  My mother has been trying to organize a gathering for a few months to sort of celebrate and to say thanks to those of us who helped out at harvest last fall.  In truth I have simply not had time to think about it, whether it was because my wife was directing the musical, or because she is also pregnant for the 5th time, or maybe it is because I have a full time + job and three other part time jobs?  Whatever the reason, I want to establish something right here and now, I am not complaining!  The business of being busy is a struggle for our modern world.  Sometimes we choose to be busy because it is easier than not being busy.  You see, when we take the time to slow down, to rest, we are forced to listen to the sounds of silence.  If you aren’t aware of what that sounds like, I encourage you to try.  Finding a place or the time to be silent is tough, look around our world.  In fact, perhaps this is exactly the way the world wants it.  In my experience, when you dare to enter the silence of your mind and heart, you are confronted, no, assaulted, with some truth bombs.  Who am I?  What is important?  Who is God?  What is God?  Where is God?  Is God?  God?  It’s not that simple, nor that direct, but these are the questions, that given time, will develop in the abyss of silence.  Silence is not a thing, silence is a place, a place in time, a place in your own mind where only you can exist,  a place where you have nowhere to hide; a place that can be as cold as the arctic circle or as warm as the noon day sun on the beach!  Further, you are the only one who can change the thermostat there.  What are you running from?  You do not have to live this way!  Are you living your life on purpose and seeking the silence to guide your ship?  Or are you letting the decisions of others and those scenarios close the door on your silent escape?  Slow down, put down the phone, turn off the TV, don’t listen to the radio, listen to yourself...when your mind begins to wander, start over, and repeat.  Are you too busy to slow down?  Are you too afraid to ‘turn the quiet up and turn the noise down’ (thanks Eric!)?  What is at the other end of the tunnel you are staring down?  Many people get old before they realize that they wasted their time and, frankly, their lives, isn’t it time to slow things down a bit?  Why not?

[ponderingwhynot]

Are You Pondering what I am pondering?

Lots of things on my mind today.  First, my heart is breaking as the country further crumbles under the weight of yet another shooting at a high school.  I feel we are in a difficult position, once again.  On one hand we have the folks who are good and decent people who use their guns for sport and for hunting, on the other hand we have folks who have no good intentions with their gun(s)  How do we draft a law that will not take the guns away from the folks who have proven they can use them responsibly, while at the same time keep them away from the folks who shouldn't’ have them?  I think the solution is both more simple and more complex than it may appear on the surface.  We need to build a society of individuals who are part of a community who looks out for each other, a community who cares for each other, a community who loves one another.  Now, stay with me here, the community I am describing exists in a Utopian dreamland that has never existed on the face of the earth...however, we can and MUST do much more to end this scourge.  We have to start with making decisions that promote health.   Healthy foods, healthy animals, healthy soils, healthy environment, healthy homes, healthy schools, and healthy people have existed for thousands of years.  What changed?  When?  Why?  There is a theory called ‘follow the money’.  So, I suggest we follow the money.  We have to decide, do we serve money or do we serve each other?  From our farms to our factories and everywhere beyond and in between, we use budgets to decide who gets hired, fired, promoted, and demoted.  We have elevated money to the highest good and in so doing we have put humans below money.  Money is worthless without people NOT the other way around!  We buy cheap foods, full of sugar and chemicals (because they are cheaper) and feed them to our kids.  Why?  So they don’t complain?  Because its not worth the fight?  Let me tell you, our children are worth the fight, you better know they are worth the fight!  We are made for greatness!  How can we achieve our highest level of performance in life by eating the chemical filled foods that line our grocery shelves and that are slapped onto our children’s lunch tray each day?  I am not a food scientist (Why do we need food scientists anyway?) but it stands to reason that what we put in our bodies, whether it goes in our eyes, our ears, or our mouths will impact us and we will respond to stimuli.  If the food, music, video, etc. is bad for us, we will think differently, we will act differently and eventually lose sight of who we are.  There is a problem in the under current of all of our institutions, we have lost ourselves.  We have sacrificed our sons and daughters to the great god of money.  Because we have to have a new truck, and a boat, and cable TV, and a smart phone, and because we just want to pretend to be happy while we robotic-ly consume pharmaceuticals to keep us from opening our eyes long enough to see that we are miserable.  And not just miserable, but we long for so much more.  The misery is founded on the unquenchable desire of our hearts that we refuse to listen to.  We have been lied to.  We think that our bodies and the cravings and impulses of our bodies are the highest good.  All of the entrapments of this world are bought and sold all day with money.  I am not saying that money is evil, money is necessary.  When I think about the things of this world and their relationship to money I prioritize them in the following order.  First we buy the things that we need.  Food, clothing, shelter.  Next we buy things that make it more simple to take care of food, clothing, and shelter.  The next thing we buy is/are those things that might entertain us, music lessons, take in a movie, go to a game, etc.  And then we start to buy luxury versions of those same things and at the same time we begin to rationalize why those luxury items are needs.  After we have bought all the things we need and want, then we begin to buy things that we should not have, things that are dangerous for us.  At this point we have now lost sight of what would be a healthy set of priorities.  We are addicted to our vices by this time, we are a shadow of the person we were meant to be, and we allow our bodies and our cravings to set the pace of our lives.  Where did we go wrong?  I certainly don’t know all the answers but I do know that we have to begin to heal our families, heal our culture, heal our world and that starts with a mirror.  Is the person who looks back at you doing ok?  Are you happy?  Are you who you want to be?  Change!  What other option do we have?  Would you prefer that we continue to sacrifice our future and our children for just one more temporary high?  Strive for more!  Be better!  You are worth it!  You do NOT have to live like this, there is a better way!  People often ask, from the end of their ropes, ‘what do we have to lose?’  Well from where I stand, we have already lost a whole lot if we find ourselves asking this question.  I prefer to try something different, clearly what we have now isn’t working.  What do we have to lose?  I say, ‘let’s give it a try!’  Why not?

[ponderingwhynot]

Ponderingwhynot? Haha, me either, HE LOVES you!!

[ponderingwhynot]

If your church bends to whatever is popular, it is not God’s word you are following.🌹📿🌹

(via tradcatfem)

It’s really not

(via thebeautifulcatholicfaith)

Truth!

[ponderingwhynot]

Why not try this one?

Vegan Chickpea Cookie Dough

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Get your FoodFfs stuff here

[ponderingwhynot]

Why not give these a try?!

GLUTEN FREE BLUEBERRY BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES

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Get your FoodFfs stuff here

[ponderingwhynot]

The Why and The Not

Have you ever found yourself daydreaming?  Maybe you are sitting at your desk staring at your personal computing device (there are too many options these days) and realized that you are NOT paying attention to what you are doing?  Perhaps you are thinking about your evening plans, or your friend coming for a visit, or the game last night, or the never ending list of things you need to get done.  Perhaps you are feeling low because the political arena has sufficiently exhausted all of the participants and everyone seems to be running around with no pants on calling each other names....too pre-occupied to see their own  ‘wardrobe malfunction’.  I too have found myself to be in this position.  I have spent a great deal of time wondering about some of the questions that I have determined to be increasingly important, that we all need to answer on our own.  Not because we need to share our answer(s) but because how else can we know who we are unless, well, we know who we are.  Why was I created?  Does my life matter?  Can I make a difference?  Is this all there is?  What defines me?  Am I loved?  Do I love?  How do I even figure out how to answer these questions?  Each question, (and there are MANY more) opens and closes a series of doors.  Each question burns a hole in your soul until the moment that you finally can be honest enough with yourself to begin to answer.  I have learned that we cannot lie to ourselves, we may think we are holding things together, that we are ‘happy’ whatever that means, but until you look yourself in the mirror and own the person who stares back, there can be no change, there can be no growth, no ‘happiness’.  I should pause here, and ask yet another question, ‘what is happiness?’ And, ‘do I deserve to be happy?’  This is my first blog post, I intend to write one blog post each month in 2018 and see how that goes.  I am trying to be realistic, I would like to write a post each week but in my own experience of asking questions of myself, I have learned to be honest with myself.  So, this is WHY I chose to write this blog, to share my experience, to ask new questions, to collaborate with new friends, to become a better me.  And, sometimes I find myself staring out the window of my office, when I should be working, asking myself all of these questions.  In truth, I have more dreams and ambitions than 5 lifetimes worth of good health and a never ending cash pile would allow for.  I simply refuse to allow that hard reality to deter me from trying to accomplish as many of these ‘dreams’ as I can.  So far i 2018, (it’s January) I have launched a furniture company, Lepanto.  Why, I am really not sure.  I think I could write a book that would begin to answer that question but I don’t have the time to write the book.  Over the last couple of years as I have wrestled with my own struggles and learned to face the reality that I am perfectly NOT perfect and that being NOT OK is OK, I have found that the answer to many of my questions is, ‘I don’t know’ and that too is OK.  Lastly, I would be described, by all those who know me, as a VERY private person.  So, as to WHY I am doing this blog, and starting this company, and choosing to put this out there, “WHY NOT”