buddhist, moslem, atheist, hindu, christian, or jew: lobby for those who may believe different than you.

with five days left for nanowrimo, I'm stuck at 35K words.Go figure.A purported amateur writer doubting his style and God's grace, denying the call, downing alcohol to save face.

here's a couple of quotes from the excellent After the Ecstacy the Laundry....it's amazing how human beings don't see that problems we perceive as being complex have simplistic answers....love thy neighbor, do unto others.my grandmother taught me these lessons when I was knee high to a grasshopper and yet they're the most profound guiding posts one could ever ask for on the road to a peaceful life.Is the terrain treachorous?Yes.Is the call to carry the occupation soldier's pack two miles humbling, ego shattering news. Of course it is.

3AM Saturday morning after drinks and good times, a car full close friends witnessed the aggression of testosterone & ego. A group of six twenty somethings punched, kicked, wrestled, and attempted to dominate one another.We called 911 and were mocked. Certainly there are more important emergencies in this vast city by the lake than a group of adolescent assholes defying lessons learned in kindergarten.Luckily for the 911 operator who took our call, the violence didn't escalate beyond fisticuffs.Instead, the drunken desire to display male dominance led to a few bloody, broken noses and a couple shattered ribs - proof that violence solves nothing. Life begets life as strife begets strife. A deed indeed saves the whole world, in time.Do unto others and pray for those who persecute you.

namaste

From After the Ecstacy the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path

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in the author's words....

Without understanding the source of suffering, human beings strive to gain happiness by possesiveness and greed, through violence and hatred. We act out of delusion and ignorance, creating pain as an inevitable result. Our grasping, our agressive entanglemen in the world brings with it unavoidable struggle and loss, yet all is done purportedly to seek safety, to find happiness.

a nun he quoted......

Then Jesus was there in my body, and we were holding it together, the suffering of the world.And I could see that to hold it in mercy was divine. It broke open my heart.It became the holy pain that opens the heart. This is God's purpose for our sorrows, to connect all our heats.There is so much mercy.Mercy within mercy.

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