ronirvine

[ronirvine]

My Mom’s Tears

My mom’s tears break my heart. I took the bus from Detroit where I live to Rockford where mom lives in a retirement assisted living home called StoryPoint. The first night I spent with her, we both woke up to her crying in her sleep in her bedroom. I checked on her to see if she was ok or if she needed anything. She woke up unaware of her weeping but wasn’t surprised that she had been. It was so…

[ronirvine]

The Decline of American Faith

in my face throughout my whole life or should I say, “The drowning of American Faith under the weight of the American Empire?) “The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for…

[ronirvine]

The Sacred Path of the Warrior

A Fearless Gentleness Warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity. —Sitting…

[ronirvine]

The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Fearless Gentleness: Warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity. —Sitting…

[ronirvine]

The Path of Inner Peace

There is no path to inner peace. The path of inner peace lies within. Cultivating Contentment and Inner Peace Conquering others takes force. Conquering yourself takes true strength. Knowing what is enough is wealth. There is no greater calamity than not knowing what is enough. There is no greater fault than desire for success. Therefore knowing that enough is enough is always…

[ronirvine]

Whose life is it anyway?

Never negotiate your identity or your worth with another. All people have personal boundaries that can be violated if we are not sensitive to how we approach a person and how we talk with them. If you say things that put them on the defensive or takes away their agency, then ask yourself what personal boundary did I just violate because along with this violation comes trust that is broken. The…

[ronirvine]

The Trap of Respectability

The Trap of Respectability

Respectability is not a step upward toward Success, Rightness or Righteousness. Respectability is a step downward toward Conformity, Sameness, and Blending into the herd. “Following Jesus is not a respectable religion, and I suspect it was never meant to be. It is a call to truth, justice and liberation for those oppressed, excluded, and disempowered.” (Diarmuid O’Murchu) Throughout the 12…

[ronirvine]

Reframing my Perspective

Reworking my World and Life View From the ground up How do I begin? First, rather than asking to what extent I have been conditioned, I ask myself, do I know that I have been conditioned. Count the many ways… Most of conditioning lies in the subconscious mind tricking us into conformity, making us feel guilty when we don’t fit in, when we go against the current, when we think…

[ronirvine]

Camus at 100: "Live to the point of tears"

Camus at 100: “Live to the point of tears”

“And then came human beings; humans wanted to cling but there was nothing to cling to.” “Live to the point of tears.” ~ Albert Camus

[ronirvine]

Liberal? What does that even mean???

Liberal? What does that even mean???

 Liberal definition = freedom and abundance I see this as a very similar approach to life as: Living with Open Hands as an Expression of an Open Mind, Open Heart, and Open Will. Did you know… that historically and politically we live in aliberal democracy organized under classical liberalism? Did you know… that a Liberal Democracy includes “the equal protection of human rights, civil…

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The Essence of Democracy... The Essence of Reality

The Essence of Democracy… The Essence of Reality

(Stuff we already know) We Have Forgotten What It Means  to be Citizens of Democracy!!! Democracy Requires That We See All Sides of Every Issue. We have forgotten what it means  to be human and to understand reality. Being Human Requires an open mind  that is seeking to understand; seeing all sides. Remember: none of us is right, we are all wrong,  because we are imperfect, puny human…

[ronirvine]

A Christian Nation???

Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? Let’s consider what it means to be a democracy.Let’s consider what it means to be a Christian.Let’s consider what the founding fathers said. “Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.” (James Madison) 1. What is a Democracy? If America is a Christian Nation governed by its democratic will, then it…

[ronirvine]

Bibliography

Works Cited  Alphabetically (182) Living with Open Hands 1.0 & Living with Open Hands 2.0 “209 Seconds That Will Make You Question Your Entire Existence.” BuzzFeed Videos. BuzzFeed, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. Anders, Vesterberg. “Resilience.” Vesterberg.se » Resilience. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. <http://www.vesterberg.se/tag/resilience/&gt;. “Andrew Harvey Biography | Author, Mystic,…

[ronirvine]

Alternative Reality

Do You See Reality as it is? OR Does Your Worldview Create an Alternative Reality? Or is it your information source that is preventing you from understanding people that are different and stopping you from hearing their voices, thereby altering your worldview? How can we understand our world if we do not listen? And how can we listen if we have a political, cultural, religious, or any other…

[ronirvine]

Mad World -- are we listening?

Mad World — are we listening?

We hear only what we are listening for…We hear only what we want to hear… Does this mad world have a voice in your world? Can you hear the voices coming at you everyday? Can you hear this still small voice of madness within? It is there. Are we listening? Do we want to hear? All of life is our teacher but can we hear? All around me are familiar facesWorn out places, worn out facesBright and…

[ronirvine]

Caring Too Much

What Do You Do When You Care Too Much? What do you do when enough is enough? The time has come to choose the good, the human, the humane. I can no longer identify with perversion, corruption, deception. Why so much fear? Why so much hate? The Christians I knew when I was young, the ordinary, the leaders, the role models, used to care about all people without a derogatory word to say. It…

[ronirvine]

If Only...

If Only…

If Only I Could … I spent most of my life strutting around, touting the answers, thinking I know. Then life flattened me, uprooting everything, including all those so-called answers. Learning to live the questions completely changed the trajectory of my life in such an aggravating and life-giving way. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions…