It IS all About the Journey, ya know.

I really DO NOT enjoy going tit for tat with anyone as far as religion and politics are concerned. Especially with someone who cannot see past their own nose. Apparently some Baptist preacher did a quick Google search ("all about the journey" spiritual blog ~according to my stat counter) and came up with my blog title and decided it would do to prove his point to a thorny commenter on his blog. Me, being who I am, cannot just let someone sling my blog around without any type of defense. So, here goes:


This is where preacher man, as I like to call him, is coming from:


"Your rescue from sin, death, and the wrath of God comes, not from inside of you, but from outside. Nothing that happens inside of you—no breakthrough, no epiphany, no resolution—can save you from your current situation. For that, you need something that happened outside of yourself, on a hill outside Jerusalem 2,000 years ago..."




This is wrong on so many levels...I don't even feel like starting to go there. Don't get me wrong, this guy can write a convincing piece. I like his sense of humor and some of his ideas about life, but when it comes to religion, he and I are on two totally different planets. 

I cannot imagine that he's read the JOURNEY from the beginning of this blog to now before summing me up…or dare I say, “judging” me so quickly. He must have read the title, some old posts, and categorized me as the "college sophomore" with the “empty, vague, ‘all about the journey’ Spirituality” (I actually doubt he's even read any of my posts, to tell you the truth).  

I was/am one searching, piecing God together from the fragments that made/make sense. I’ve been lost. I've struggled and rebelled against life, but I decided a long time ago to stop trying to run the show and to just let God/the divine, whatever you want to call it, guide me. I’m in a very good place in my understanding of God. 

Preacher man is wrong on the "feeling emptier than ever part" as far as I'm concerned. Dead wrong. I think people like Deepak Chopra and Robert Moss threaten every thing on which his belief system is based. Our basic human instincts are fight or flight when we are threatened, and we often seek to destroy (as he is doing to Chamblee54 who brought this dialogue to my attention) what we fear or do not understand. 

I understand this fundamentalism “by the book” mentality as I was raised by people just like him. They have to go to church, put on a good front, judge anyone that does not understand the world in exactly the same way and tell him or her they are going to hell because of it. He seeks to refute anything that does not fit into his predetermined by the Bible mold. 

That we could actually have our own journey with the divine that we don't need the institution of the church and the blessing of the preacher to mediate between the divine and ourselves. That there is such a thing as the “collective unconscious”, that we can connect directly with Source, without permission from anyone. Is it so unfathomable that we could journey to "heaven" and to "hell" in our own hearts while we are still living this physical life? That we are on this earth on a quest to learn certain things, to come full circle? To become more wise and pure through each lifetime? That we could communicate directly to God and angels without the interference of a Baptist preacher or dogma? Does he actually believe that when we die we will all go to a city in the sky where our every human whim is fulfilled? 

Yes, I'm often vague and searching in my writing.  Anais Nin eloquently explained it this way,

There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination.  Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic. 

If you stop looking for the truth while you are breathing you might as well lie down and die. What I found to be truth yesterday might be discredited tomorrow, as new insights are formed. At one point in time we have all thought we had it all figured out, only to be put dejectedly in our proper place by someone much wiser than ourselves or through our own trial and error experiences. 

If he thinks he has all of the answers as a mere human, he's deeply flawed. And he probably thinks dinosaurs didn't exist because they aren't in the Bible (despite the evidence of fossils). I had to go there based on his simple-minded (or calculatingly controlling) arguments. And, just so he knows, God is not a man in the sky with a white beard watching to see when we are bad or good like Santa Claus. When you say “he” and “him” you are minimizing what God is and equating God to nothing more than a human with superhero powers. That is not what God is, sorry. Thanks chamblee54 for including me in the conversation...and distracting me from getting any work done tonight.

I’ll end with two profound quotations about life. These somewhat allude to what my blog is about (besides the totally obvious journey of my every day life) and why it’s aptly named “It’s all about the JOURNEY”.

Robert Frost said, In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life.  It goes on.” It does, and on and on and on. (Even if some mean-spirited, judgmental preacher man wants to belittle a completely random person on the Internet).

Nancy Willard said, Sometimes questions are more important than answers. I could go on and on about this one, but I’ll leave it at that. 

Martin Luther King "I have a dream"

Today marks the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. 


It bothers me to the nth degree when people throw racist remarks around about this man. Just looking at the "dislikes" clicked on youtube for this video by the 1,000 plus people shows the ignorance and racism still running rampant today. I think, if those people took the time to listen or read the speech, that perhaps it would resonate with them. 

From: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. (2)]

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³

Life is Good

Tomorrow I turn 32. THIRTY TWO YEARS OLD. I am right where I want to be too. So much is in the works right now. Isaac started at his new "school" this week. For now Liliana will be home with me, then, when she turns five months, she'll go to Mother's Day Out two days a weeks so I can work. Yes, I have a job...as in, someone else paying me to do work for them. It's exciting too. I'm selling ads for a magazine that was born right here in my subdivision eight years ago. Neighbors Magazine. Of course this propels me to want to do so much more, so I've created a Neighborhood Link website for my subdivision and will be proposing it it to the board at their next meeting. And I'm writing an article about it. Okay, that and neighborliness. I am still selling books online...it's a pain trying to put together the website. I sell on Amazon, but want my own "store". I've been procrastinating with it. In the meantime I've also been working on my animal advocacy. I'll be volunteering with Spay Baton Rouge at their next Spay Day. I have huge ambitions with all of this. It is my life's work. To be the voice for the voiceless. To help not just rescue the animals, but to change the circumstances that lead to so many NEEDING to be rescued. I'll wait to see which path I'm drawn to and will follow it willingly. Life is good :o)