This and That

I don't really have one cohestive blog post right now but I do have several things running through my twisted lil brain so I figured I'd just toss em all together! First, true to our New Year's vow to improve ourselves including spiritually and socially we've been visiting a new UU church for the past few Sundays. It's a nice place, friendly people, and I'd really been looking forward to their Morals and Ethics discussion group. We made it to yesterday's but I have to admit I was a bit stunned at the direction the chat went. We were presented with a story of an 80 yr old woman and man, both widowed with children, who got married then after one year the man needed to be admitted to a nursing home. The woman went into the marriage with a good bit of money while the man had none. Medicaid would only pay for his expenses if they had used up all their own money first so the question was should they get divorced. The general opinion of the group was she should divorce him to protect her money! Wow. That bothers me.

Training is going so nicely with the horses and dogs!!

Since Son #3 is still grounded he doesn't have a whole heck of a lot to do except sit in his room and read. On the one hand he's got a book that he's enjoying (it's about a dragon which he's just mad about!!!) and getting some great reading practice in. On the other hand he's feeling a bit shut away from the rest of the family which we don't want. Today I wanted to keep up his grounding, of course, but still get the poor kid out and with us some so since it was such a pretty day he came out to help us with outdoor work. Then he tells his dad that he needs more lunch money. His dad did a little calculating and said the kid should still have a good bit in his lunch account. So Son #3 comes clean. Along with buying lunch he's also been buying up a load of extras like ice creams, chocolate milks, and whatever other junk food they offer. This isn't the first time he's done this and we've told him that he's not allowed to do this! If he wants something extra every now and then that's fine but he needs to ask us for the bit of extra money that will cost before he buys it so that we can keep track of what we're spending where. What is with this kid and the lying, sneaking around kind of stuff???

And for the best surprise of my day today Lauren from
The Lauren Daily Experiment has gifted me with an award!!





That's a really cute one too. It reminds me to keep on learnin to make lemonade with those lemons! lol Thank you so much, Lauren! And now for the award rules:

*Put Lemonade Stand logo on your blog or within your post.
*Nominate 10 blogs you really enjoy
*Link the nominees within your post
*Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
*Link to the person from whom you received this award

Which I'm off to do right now so adios, amigos!! Vaya con Dios! Hasta la pasta and all that groovy jazz!

Stamping out stagnation

These last two days I've been having a lot of fun playing the little flirt but today I've been thinking on Jon's last post, Resisting Stagnation. It really is seductively easy to fall into a routine in order to get everything done that we need to in today's busy world. Routines can be comfortable but before you know it that routine has somehow turned into a rut. Ruts tend to limit us to a point where we aren't flexible enough to handle anything new that might come up in our lives. I'd even go so far to say that if you have allowed yourself to become stagnant you aren't really living! You're surviving, existing but to really LIVE a life you've got to be willing to stretch, explore, and grow! We ALL do it but I do agree with Jon that it's something to guard against and if we find ourselves in a rut we have to fight free.

My contribution to stamping out stagnation today is one of the core beliefs of many Wiccans and Pagans, the Rede. Trying to get all Wiccans and Pagans to do things the same way is as useless as trying to herd a massive group of cats so I don't speak for all but when someone learns from me the first thing we thoroughly explore together is the Rede. Whereas Christianity has the 10 Commandments Wicca has only the Rede and it says "an it harm none do what ye will." Well heck, that makes things really simple doesn't it! As long as I don't hurt anyone I can do whatever I want!! That is what many who come to our religion think but I challenge practitioners to go further to test the bounds of this deceptively simple rule.

The logical place to start seems to me to be defining "harm." Is it anything that causes physical pain? Maybe it's anything that causes actual injury! Then what about mental/emotional/spiritual pain that leave no measurable injury that can be pointed to but does it count as "harm?" If I sliced the front of you open with a sharp object have I harmed you? What then about a surgeon who makes the exact same cut into the abdomen of a patient in an attempt to heal? Is it ok to harm some but not others? When we breathe we kill thousands of microscopic creatures but does the Rede ban harming yourself by not breathing? If we accept that killing these creatures in order to continue our own lives is still abiding by the Rede we must then ask what creatures are ok to kill and which aren't? Where's the line? Most of us have come to rely on our technology to live our lives but much of this comes at the expense of certain types of living creatures. So are we obligated to learn to live without as much technology as possible? How do we decide what we can and just simply can't live without?

The Rede is actually much more complex than it appears at first but in our struggle for self improvement it is something that I feel must be examined this closely. If we are to truly live by the Rede we must build upon it a practical working moral and ethical structure that forms how we live our lives. It's how we decide right from wrong and should be our touchstone for all aspects of our lives. I hope I helped you to stretch a little today :)