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Post by CherieKropp on May 3, 2011 9:05:22 GMT -5
scholargirl wrote:
Good idea, SG!
In this connection, it might be appropriate to also mention some of the "reasons" used by workers to reinforce and keep workers IN the work...
You'll never be happy if you leave and marry...
Something will be wrong with any children you have...
You wont be able to succeed at things you undertake...(careers, etc.)
You will lose your reward for all you did while in the work if you leave the work...
etc...these were just off the top of my head. There are more I'm sure.
Do you think it would ever come to the point where someone could just offer to be in the work for 5 years? 2 years (like the Mormons). Offer to go as a married couple? Why does the offer "have" to be for a lifetime?
How do the F & W view those who leave the work?
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Post by squekey12345 on Jul 11, 2011 17:40:38 GMT -5
Alan in response to your question of if god allows these things to happen I do agree with you on that and I think that his Reasons are because of something that may be going on in your life that you need to change. I am saying this from a personal ex I had about a year ago in Jan 2010 I almost lost not just one but both of my folks and they are both professing. with that said I was in a very dark place and I feel like god used this as a wake up call so to speak for me to realize what I had. and make me Grateful for the family that I do have. just my thoughts on this thanks for sharing.
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Post by Linford Bledsoe on Jul 21, 2011 18:23:49 GMT -5
scholargirl wrote: Good idea, SG! In this connection, it might be appropriate to also mention some of the "reasons" used by workers to reinforce and keep workers IN the work... You'll never be happy if you leave and marry... Something will be wrong with any children you have... You wont be able to succeed at things you undertake...(careers, etc.) You will lose your reward for all you did while in the work if you leave the work... etc...these were just off the top of my head. There are more I'm sure. Do you think it would ever come to the point where someone could just offer to be in the work for 5 years? 2 years (like the Mormons). Offer to go as a married couple? Why does the offer "have" to be for a lifetime? How do the F & W view those who leave the work? When I went into the work,I felt called to go. When it came to the time to go , it was just as clear in my mind that it was time to leave. I faced no repercussions by leaving. I have not in any way been punished by God,rather blessed. |
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Post by Alan Vandermyden on Jul 24, 2011 2:57:52 GMT -5
scholargirl wrote: Good idea, SG! In this connection, it might be appropriate to also mention some of the "reasons" used by workers to reinforce and keep workers IN the work... You'll never be happy if you leave and marry... Something will be wrong with any children you have... You wont be able to succeed at things you undertake...(careers, etc.) You will lose your reward for all you did while in the work if you leave the work... etc...these were just off the top of my head. There are more I'm sure. Do you think it would ever come to the point where someone could just offer to be in the work for 5 years? 2 years (like the Mormons). Offer to go as a married couple? Why does the offer "have" to be for a lifetime? How do the F & W view those who leave the work? When I went into the work,I felt called to go. When it came to the time to go , it was just as clear in my mind that it was time to leave. I faced no repercussions by leaving. I have not in any way been punished by God,rather blessed. My experience felt much the same, Lin, though it took me a few (4 or 5) years to determine my direction as far as education and "career." And I did find the adjustment in relationships significant, probably similar to the change anyone finds with the death of spouse (or a divorce) - people can be unsure of the new "relationship," and a new one needs to be formed, at least in some cases. I remember one person who actually criticized me, and two who expressed disappointment in a rather disapproving way. But one I just knew as a friend who just expressed her opinions (and she had rather strong feelings on things), and the other people were simply ones from whom I expected as much, and I hadn't ever placed much weight on their opinions anyway. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2011 14:41:46 GMT -5
While in the work, I had 15 assigned companions in three states and two countries, and spoke in meetings and or conventions in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, B.C. Canada, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Mass, Holland, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
Writing of my own motivation to "go preach:" I went into the work because I thought it was what God wanted of me, and it was far more difficult to leave than to "GO" in spite of knowing the certainty that being a "worker" was NOT what God was expecting of me. Concluding after serious untreated injury that I was not expected to remain a worker, I returned to the USA on borrowed money for a ticket to my home state.
Going in the work and abroad was supported by many workers and friends everywhere, so that was not as difficult as leaving that work to live without it. When I eventually discovered much of what I believed and taught was simply not the entire story, I vowed to dedicate at least as long a period of my life to relating what came to mean more to me than fellowship with any other person.
So that is a summary of worker years and experience filled with much sorrow and grief in learning what I had been taught about the fellowship as the only true way was plain and simply not true. As God has done for others, (specifically Abraham who many do not know had Katurah as his wife to bear him six sons and daughters after Sarah died) I was married to one woman for many years, and now have been blessed with another in my life, smiles, my "Katurah" so to relate.
She is an RN, an NP and a CMW. She has no previous history with the 2&2 preacher sect. We both trust in Christ as OUR substitute righteousness and who sacrificed HIS life in death for us that we might live. He alone is our Absolute. Kay has been a widow for a number of years. As she lives in Dickenson Texas, and works at the UTMB hospital in Galveston and the UTMB Clinic in Pasadena (South and West of Houston) and has some period of time left before she can leave this area, I will spend time both here in Texas where I am now and in SW Washington as I am able.
We just sold our first tiny dog born in this area. We have two small females here, one who is 4 months old, and another who is expecting a litter in a few weeks. I have "Tike" my 2.25 lb. medical service hypoglycemic detecting dog with me at all times, and he has saved my life repeatedly. He has even gone and gotten help for me when I could not get it for myself when a brittle diabetes crash episode occurred during sleep. We are seeking to preserve those genes in future offspring, as he has been the first and only dog I have ever had which was able to perform this service for me, more by direction from a creator than of myself.
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Post by lazarus66 on Jul 28, 2011 21:59:47 GMT -5
I have to agree with you Dennis, and glad to see you active here. We need to judge things we allow into our lives and how we are going to act, or react to other influences and situations.
I think when judging a person in a totally unfounded way one is treading on thin ice. When you have facts, then you still don't have to judge them, but you can warn others when necessary, and it has no bearing on the assessment you have made. When facts bear out that a person is dangerous to others, they need to be warned, and that is just common sense.
I never liked the "sweep it under the carpet" Philosophy, and after knowing about some things that have taken place, I think that is worse than letting others know when a person is a potential danger to others and they need to be made aware. Are you not being an accessory after the fact if they harm someone you could have warned?
Keep on trucking Dennis, hope to talk to you soon...............Dale
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Post by Greg on Jun 4, 2015 2:51:24 GMT -5
I usually drink the darker coffees. For regular I drink Folgers and for decaf I drink a French roasted, but I cannot remember the name of the maker.
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Post by Alan Vandermyden on Jun 4, 2015 17:14:36 GMT -5
I usually drink the darker coffees. For regular I drink Folgers and for decaf I drink a French roasted, but I cannot remember the name of the maker. My first companion told me that decaf was like "having a form of coffee but denying the power thereof" - This was actually joking between workers at a special meeting rounds lunch . . . but that worker did take his coffee quite seriously! |
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Post by ira on Aug 5, 2018 4:02:23 GMT -5
I love coffee and I prepare it in an Italien Espresso machine and it tastes great and helps me wake up!
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Post by dmmichgood on Aug 5, 2018 13:23:23 GMT -5
I love coffee and I prepare it in an Italien Espresso machine and it tastes great and helps me wake up!
Discovered espresso coffee in Italy and have made my coffee like that ever since. |
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Post by emy on Aug 5, 2018 14:15:15 GMT -5
I like good coffee, especially with friends, but I don't have much luck making it. I use a Keurig, because normally I just drink one cup a day.
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Post by snow on Aug 5, 2018 14:46:15 GMT -5
I like good coffee, especially with friends, but I don't have much luck making it. I use a Keurig, because normally I just drink one cup a day. That's me too. It's rare for me to have more than one. I have found a new coffee flavor though that I like. It's a French Vanilla Caramel combination. It's pretty good if you don't like your coffee black. |
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Post by dmmichgood on Aug 5, 2018 18:37:31 GMT -5
I like good coffee, especially with friends, but I don't have much luck making it. I use a Keurig, because normally I just drink one cup a day. That's me too. It's rare for me to have more than one. I have found a new coffee flavor though that I like. It's a French Vanilla Caramel combination. It's pretty good if you don't like your coffee black.
I guess it is the way a person started drinking coffee, but I nearly gag on sweet favored coffee! 
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2018 20:07:46 GMT -5
once a month i have coffee with the older guy saints and mine is plain coffee with sugar and cream, can't stand it any other way....
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Post by emy on Aug 5, 2018 21:01:27 GMT -5
I like good coffee, especially with friends, but I don't have much luck making it. I use a Keurig, because normally I just drink one cup a day. That's me too. It's rare for me to have more than one. I have found a new coffee flavor though that I like. It's a French Vanilla Caramel combination. It's pretty good if you don't like your coffee black. I love flavored coffee. What brand is it? |
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Post by ellie on Aug 6, 2018 6:06:32 GMT -5
I love coffee and I prepare it in an Italien Espresso machine and it tastes great and helps me wake up! Yum!! I start with a large quantity of French press to wake up but enjoy espresso after that. So good!! |
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Post by snow on Aug 6, 2018 13:17:14 GMT -5
That's me too. It's rare for me to have more than one. I have found a new coffee flavor though that I like. It's a French Vanilla Caramel combination. It's pretty good if you don't like your coffee black.
I guess it is the way a person started drinking coffee, but I nearly gag on sweet favored coffee!
I like the new salted caramel ice coffees from Tim Hortons. They are so good they should be illegal ha! But I know lots of people don't like a sweet coffee. I am not one of them.  |
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Post by snow on Aug 6, 2018 13:18:24 GMT -5
That's me too. It's rare for me to have more than one. I have found a new coffee flavor though that I like. It's a French Vanilla Caramel combination. It's pretty good if you don't like your coffee black. I love flavored coffee. What brand is it? International delight I believe. I don't know if they have it in the States, but we just got it in Canada. At least it's the first I've noticed it. |
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Post by snow on Aug 6, 2018 13:21:12 GMT -5
I love coffee and I prepare it in an Italien Espresso machine and it tastes great and helps me wake up! Yum!! I start with a large quantity of French press to wake up but enjoy espresso after that. So good!! I like coffee in Oz. It took a little getting used to but by the time I flew home I loved it. I remember the first morning we were there ordering a coffee thinking I'd get a big mug of coffee like we do here. Instead it was a very little cup that was powerful. Loved it after awhile but the first one took me by surprise. It was more like our expresso. Also found an instant coffee while we were there that I liked. Made it easy to pack in my back pack while traveling and living in hostels. |
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Post by emy on Aug 6, 2018 13:43:46 GMT -5
I love flavored coffee. What brand is it? International delight I believe. I don't know if they have it in the States, but we just got it in Canada. At least it's the first I've noticed it. We do have International Delight. I'll look for that flavor. Thanks! |
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Post by snow on Aug 6, 2018 13:56:20 GMT -5
International delight I believe. I don't know if they have it in the States, but we just got it in Canada. At least it's the first I've noticed it. We do have International Delight. I'll look for that flavor. Thanks! Yes I have bought international delight in the states before, just never saw that flavor before. In the states or here. Hope you find it, it's really good! I also like the Irish Cream one. |
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Post by ellie on Aug 7, 2018 5:21:35 GMT -5
Yum!! I start with a large quantity of French press to wake up but enjoy espresso after that. So good!! I like coffee in Oz. It took a little getting used to but by the time I flew home I loved it. I remember the first morning we were there ordering a coffee thinking I'd get a big mug of coffee like we do here. Instead it was a very little cup that was powerful. Loved it after awhile but the first one took me by surprise. It was more like our expresso. Also found an instant coffee while we were there that I liked. Made it easy to pack in my back pack while traveling and living in hostels. It probably was espresso based. If you ordered it black it might have been a tiny short black. More than a little disappointing after the long flight! |
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Post by snow on Aug 7, 2018 14:02:41 GMT -5
I like coffee in Oz. It took a little getting used to but by the time I flew home I loved it. I remember the first morning we were there ordering a coffee thinking I'd get a big mug of coffee like we do here. Instead it was a very little cup that was powerful. Loved it after awhile but the first one took me by surprise. It was more like our expresso. Also found an instant coffee while we were there that I liked. Made it easy to pack in my back pack while traveling and living in hostels. It probably was espresso based. If you ordered it black it might have been a tiny short black. More than a little disappointing after the long flight! Travel and learn ha! I ended up enjoying them quite a bit. So it's all good! |
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Post by curlywurlysammagee on Aug 8, 2018 3:50:22 GMT -5
This is Alan Vandermyden. I recently suggested to the admins here that it might prove interesting if former workers were allowed to post on the workers’ board, and they seemed to like the suggestion. So, here I am! All are welcome to stop in and listen a bit. Any of you others with experience in the work ready to step in and chat? Incidentally, Coffee Talk is the name of a small coffee shop about three blocks from our apartment in Kaimuki, Honolulu. It's one of those "collegey" places, with just a few very good sandwiches and such on their menu, as well as the usual choice of lattes and mochas . . . and they still have free wireless! You know what the workers said about the wireless. It's the devil talking! |
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Post by vedge on Oct 5, 2018 22:14:17 GMT -5
I ran across this board whilst having some “memories” of past ‘friends’ and people I’ve had opportunity to share life experiences with. I may come across as cryptic, but that’s because of a rather reclusive upbringing, part of which is due to the inherent secretive nature of the “two by two” doctrine emanating into every part of many adherents lives… So I’ll share as much of my story as I feel comfortable sharing, without disclosing too many details of people or some particular events. I feel that in doing it in this matter that some of the more harrowing experiences of those tenser moments will be mitigated out of my memory. In my current Oriental studies, we’ve been encouraged to talk about and expose past heart-mind stones, so they can be dealt with, so here I go… So this board is for ex workers and I affirm that I am a member. I became a part of the 2x2 ministry about 30 years ago… wow how time flies. It was in a West coast state. Alan suggested some key points as a structure, I’ll try to stick to some of those... • Feelings about being "called" into the work - At the time I felt as if I had heard the actual voice of God speaking to me in a way in which I had never experienced before. After leaving the ‘work’ I sometimes wondered if it wasn’t the voice of the ‘deceiver’ that I’d heard… • Offering for the work - From memory, it seemed to be a formal secretive meeting of questioning and doing what needed to be done (giving up certain things) in order to satisfy the Godhead. • First time speaking - Pure stage fright, literally climbing up on a stage and doubtfully getting no more than 5 minutes of stuttering words out in front of 1000+ people… Seriously, there should have been psychological training for that… Either that or speaking first to ‘gospel’ meetings followed by special meetings then kick you into the ocean in front of 1000+ people… • Changed relationship with the friends upon becoming a worker - Really never had much of a relationship with too many of the friends previous to being in the work, never was much of a ‘social butterfly’, so it was nice having and building relationships with people that I’d never known in the past while being challenging with people that probably would be contentious no matter what Christian group they would have been affiliated with… It’s the oddity of each individuals humanity, some we get along with great, establish close friendships, and some are ho hum, average and others are like oil and water. • Changed relationship with other workers - Spending time with someone in varying degrees of time is, well, very revealing… The more you’re around someone, you either establish a ‘working’ mental relationship with that person or it goes from bad to worse… • Companion relationship/interactions - See below. • Gradually assuming/being given more responsibility - within a field and with the regional administration - I wasn’t ever trusted with ‘regional’ administration affairs as far as I know, unless it would be in getting called to another ‘field’ to deal with ‘challenges’ and there was too much of that, as the ‘sisters’ had no final say authority to finalize a decision, due to the patriarchal organizational structure. As far as being given more responsibilities, it seemed to be a break from the daily grind. I just had issue with being asked to do something, plan events then after I did, it was micro managed and questioned severely… I’ve always had issue with and don’t trust people that set you to do an assignment with no up-front guidelines then the guidelines / rules come out later… • How did you handle the change of bed, diet, etc. every few nights? As I recall I didn’t have to much problem with this. • How did you handle the annual change of fields and companions? Oh it built into a dreaded “anticipation” of what seemed like a herd of cats running to see “the list” and wondering who you’d be assigned to be with for the next while… Most times hushed on the side (QT) “comments” about what the personality you could expect from your future ‘companion’ from those who had been with them before. • What was the most enjoyable for you in the work? After convention excursions to get away from it all and recuperate mentally. • What was the most difficult for you in the work? See next. • Did you ever see something in your companion that concerned you, yet you were afraid to bring it up? Or did you bring it up? What happened? I’ll start with the reminder that growing up as two x two’s, some people were raised much more ‘cloistered/reclusive/conservative’ than others who were more used to openness of expressing themselves. So I’ll be deliberately vague about this… Yes to the first question… To the second question, no I didn’t bring up the ‘event’, but some time later, the ‘other party’ brought up the event, in what I remember was an explanation of their side of how the sequence of events occurred. Then after the floodgates of that explanation was opened and were released, I remembered a mountain of complaints about me that I had no idea where they came from... At the time that happened, I don’t remember if I ever revealed what my feelings were to anyone at that moment, even to my closest friends, ever, but that was the first time in my life I felt like committing suicide… Being a passenger in a car being propelled down the road, and I was looking for the next upcoming low bridge railing to open the car door and end it all… I knew then that I had to end my relationship with what I had been raised to believe “was right” after that happened… I hold no malice toward that individual, but that event changed my life profoundly. • How about leaving the work? What was the most difficult thing in this experience? What/who was a help to you in this? A changed economy in ‘the world’ created a challenge in establishing some normalcy, but a very close relationship with a very dear family whom I loved very much were very helpful in offering me a place to stay for a while. • And what about transitioning from the work back to "civilian" life? My definition of “Civilian life” meant more that working to make money to meet the basic necessities of living. To me “civilian life” was also a required eventual separation from the ideology of spirituality that I had grown up with. I started out my ‘transition’ slowly while keeping friends with people I could trust, while breaking down the wall of ‘separation’ that we were taught to be a security blanket to our soul… I made my mind to explore other avenues of spirituality in order to dispel and dissolve the “one true way (the ONLY WAY)” paradigm… I started with exploring other cultish ‘christian’ groups (hey, it seemed to be attractive with a similar family unit, cultish way of thinking) but with vastly different ideology. Then I meandered into what is now classified as evolving Christianity, John Shelby Spong, John Pavlovitz, Unitarian Universalism, etc. I’ve also studied a great deal about many Indigenous peoples of the world spirituality and find great comfort and rest within myself when communing with nature. This also includes studying the spirituality of all peoples prior to their often forced conversions into Christianity and the other Abrahamic religions. The book, When God was a Woman will stretch most any Christians viewpoint to reveal what the world may have been like before the Noah's ark fable began. I hope I’m not proselytized to come back, because I’ll have to share the story an old pagan couple wrote, “We are the Other People”. For the past year I’ve enjoyed reading about Daoism and Qigong while studying the Tao Te Ching. I’m still revealing and exposing the heart-mind stones that were buried in my heart & soul to transform them into a fruitful, healthy life, but there is now life in my life. Life is open, there is fullness, richness, sweetness to life. Just tear down the walls, grind the stones to powder, mixing it back into the earth so that the new soul life can flourish. So now, my true soul being can flourish without being restrained by an imprisonment of confining beliefs. Life is now about renewal, transformation and regeneration.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2018 23:14:53 GMT -5
interesting testimony don't like the leaving part but interesting nonetheless...
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Post by dmmichgood on Oct 6, 2018 1:20:31 GMT -5
I ran across this board whilst having some “memories” of past ‘friends’ and people I’ve had opportunity to share life experiences with. I may come across as cryptic, but that’s because of a rather reclusive upbringing, part of which is due to the inherent secretive nature of the “two by two” doctrine emanating into every part of many adherents lives… So I’ll share as much of my story as I feel comfortable sharing, without disclosing too many details of people or some particular events. I feel that in doing it in this matter that some of the more harrowing experiences of those tenser moments will be mitigated out of my memory. In my current Oriental studies, we’ve been encouraged to talk about and expose past heart-mind stones, so they can be dealt with, so here I go… So this board is for ex workers and I affirm that I am a member. I became a part of the 2x2 ministry about 30 years ago… wow how time flies. It was in a West coast state. Alan suggested some key points as a structure, I’ll try to stick to some of those... • Feelings about being "called" into the work - At the time I felt as if I had heard the actual voice of God speaking to me in a way in which I had never experienced before. After leaving the ‘work’ I sometimes wondered if it wasn’t the voice of the ‘deceiver’ that I’d heard… • Offering for the work - From memory, it seemed to be a formal secretive meeting of questioning and doing what needed to be done (giving up certain things) in order to satisfy the Godhead. • First time speaking - Pure stage fright, literally climbing up on a stage and doubtfully getting no more than 5 minutes of stuttering words out in front of 1000+ people… Seriously, there should have been psychological training for that… Either that or speaking first to ‘gospel’ meetings followed by special meetings then kick you into the ocean in front of 1000+ people… • Changed relationship with the friends upon becoming a worker - Really never had much of a relationship with too many of the friends previous to being in the work, never was much of a ‘social butterfly’, so it was nice having and building relationships with people that I’d never known in the past while being challenging with people that probably would be contentious no matter what Christian group they would have been affiliated with… It’s the oddity of each individuals humanity, some we get along with great, establish close friendships, and some are ho hum, average and others are like oil and water. • Changed relationship with other workers - Spending time with someone in varying degrees of time is, well, very revealing… The more you’re around someone, you either establish a ‘working’ mental relationship with that person or it goes from bad to worse… • Companion relationship/interactions - See below. • Gradually assuming/being given more responsibility - within a field and with the regional administration - I wasn’t ever trusted with ‘regional’ administration affairs as far as I know, unless it would be in getting called to another ‘field’ to deal with ‘challenges’ and there was too much of that, as the ‘sisters’ had no final say authority to finalize a decision, due to the patriarchal organizational structure. As far as being given more responsibilities, it seemed to be a break from the daily grind. I just had issue with being asked to do something, plan events then after I did, it was micro managed and questioned severely… I’ve always had issue with and don’t trust people that set you to do an assignment with no up-front guidelines then the guidelines / rules come out later… • How did you handle the change of bed, diet, etc. every few nights? As I recall I didn’t have to much problem with this. • How did you handle the annual change of fields and companions? Oh it built into a dreaded “anticipation” of what seemed like a herd of cats running to see “the list” and wondering who you’d be assigned to be with for the next while… Most times hushed on the side (QT) “comments” about what the personality you could expect from your future ‘companion’ from those who had been with them before. • What was the most enjoyable for you in the work? After convention excursions to get away from it all and recuperate mentally. • What was the most difficult for you in the work? See next. • Did you ever see something in your companion that concerned you, yet you were afraid to bring it up Or did you bring it up? What happened? I’ll start with the reminder that growing up as two x two’s, some people were raised much more ‘cloistered/reclusive/conservative’ than others who were more used to openness of expressing themselves. So I’ll be deliberately vague about this… Yes to the first question… To the second question, no I didn’t bring up the ‘event’, but some time later, the ‘other party’ brought up the event, in what I remember was an explanation of their side of how the sequence of events occurred. Then after the floodgates of that explanation was opened and were released, I remembered a mountain of complaints about me that I had no idea where they came from... At the time that happened, I don’t remember if I ever revealed what my feelings were to anyone at that moment, even to my closest friends, ever, but that was the first time in my life I felt like committing suicide… Being a passenger in a car being propelled down the road, and I was looking for the next upcoming low bridge railing to open the car door and end it all… I knew then that I had to end my relationship with what I had been raised to believe “was right” after that happened… I hold no malice toward that individual, but that event changed my life profoundly. • How about leaving the work? What was the most difficult thing in this experience? What/who was a help to you in this? A changed economy in ‘the world’ created a challenge in establishing some normalcy, but a very close relationship with a very dear family whom I loved very much were very helpful in offering me a place to stay for a while. • And what about transitioning from the work back to "civilian" life? My definition of “Civilian life” meant more that working to make money to meet the basic necessities of living. To me “civilian life” was also a required eventual separation from the ideology of spirituality that I had grown up with. I started out my ‘transition’ slowly while keeping friends with people I could trust, while breaking down the wall of ‘separation’ that we were taught to be a security blanket to our soul… I made my mind to explore other avenues of spirituality in order to dispel and dissolve the “one true way (the ONLY WAY)” paradigm… I started with exploring other cultish ‘christian’ groups (hey, it seemed to be attractive with a similar family unit, cultish way of thinking) but with vastly different ideology. Then I meandered into what is now classified as evolving Christianity, John Shelby Spong, John Pavlovitz, Unitarian Universalism, etc. I’ve also studied a great deal about many Indigenous peoples of the world spirituality and find great comfort and rest within myself when communing with nature. This also includes studying the spirituality of all peoples prior to their often forced conversions into Christianity and the other Abrahamic religions. The book, When God was a Woman will stretch most any Christians viewpoint to reveal what the world may have been like before the Noah's ark fable began. I hope I’m not proselytized to come back, because I’ll have to share the story an old pagan couple wrote, “We are the Other People”. For the past year I’ve enjoyed reading about Daoism and Qigong while studying the Tao Te Ching. I’m still revealing and exposing the heart-mind stones that were buried in my heart & soul to transform them into a fruitful, healthy life, but there is now life in my life.
Life is open, there is fullness, richness, sweetness to life.
Just tear down the walls, grind the stones to powder, mixing it back into the earth so that the new soul life can flourish.
So now, my true soul being can flourish without being restrained by an imprisonment of confining beliefs.
Life is now about renewal, transformation and regeneration.
I am so happy for you!
I wish you the best! |
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Post by Alan Vandermyden on Oct 9, 2018 16:29:44 GMT -5
once a month i have coffee with the older guy saints and mine is plain coffee with sugar and cream, can't stand it any other way.... I don't mind an occasional (as in once every six months) sweetened coffee drink, but I tend to prefer black. We used to get these great cappuccinos up on the northern California coast - Mendocino and Humboldt counties, which are kinda "hippie country" still - en route to Orick convention preps. They weren't as sweet as today's cappuccinos, and I loved them! I seem to be an oddity now, as I order my English Breakfast tea, iced tea or coffee unsweetened... |
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