The origin of this blog

I used to walk frequently, and for long periods of time, in the desert.  Never gave it much thought, really.  I used to pack a sandwich, some chips, and a cooler full of beer, and drive out to my "thought spot," which was really an area that was a few square miles of dry, cactus, mesquite, and creosote bush covered area.  It could be 100+ degrees in temperature, but I used to walk for up to 2 hours or more without even thinking about carrying water with me.  The beer always tasted good, of course, when I did get back to the car!

But I used to talk to the brush, the cactus, the birds and lizards, and, of course to God while I was out there.  In fact, talking to God was one of the reasons that I started going out on those long walks.  Those conversations didn't always sound all that nice at times.  I have been known to be pretty strong when it comes to speaking my mind, and it doesn't matter to who.  If I think they've done wrong, I don't mind telling them, and that includes God.

And you are saying, I suppose, "what kind of a sane mind believes that they have the right and responsibility of telling God that he screwed up," right?  He's got to be addled.  And maybe you are right, and maybe I have a different sense of God than you do, and He and I share a mutual respect - or at least I think we do, or is that, really, I hope we do.

We covered some pretty serious subjects out there on those walks.  I probably took a dozen of those "venting" walks before I finally realized that this really was a two way conversation.  I would go out and at times scream at Him for things that was happening.  And like most people, I would ask a question directed at Him, and wait to listen to what I would hear if anything, just as if He was going to materialize and start talking.  But one day it was different.

I said all the ugly things I normally say, and then started to say more things.  And it was when I actually thought about what I was saying that I realized that something had happened, as I wasn't saying things or seeing them in the same way.  I realized that although I had not heard a sound with my "ears," God had obviously spoken "through" me to me, as what I was saying was looking at the same thing from a different point of view!  Yes, I actually DID have my questions answered, I just wasn't paying attention to what He was saying, as I was listening with my ears, not with my mind and heart.

So before you say you never heard God say a thing to you, stop and ask yourself, was I listening with just my ears or was I really open minded for an answer?  My biggest regret at this time is that I didn't realize "how" to listen for God's replies when I was much younger and was trying to find a way out of the mess I had made of my life.  If I had known then what I believe I know now, my world would be so much different.  And this entry is going to start a group of I don't know how many that will reveal some of the things that we discussed.  I hope you read them with an open mind, as in many ways, He is talking through my fingers.

Thoughts on Veteran's Day

Isn't it amazing how far things have gone in 20 years of presidencies that never served the flag in active duty service?  How cavalierly they launched war after war, dragging our country, her people, and the flag through the muck of wars that did not have to be?  And we now suffer through another term of presidential service offered up by yet another non veteran, willing to wage even more war, to shift the military from Iraq to the "good war" in Afghanistan, a nation that in it's 3000 year history has proved to be a hell hole for every would be conqueror, and has never been conquered by any, including Alexander the Great.

I wonder how many more body bags will come home before we finally come to realize that war isn't worth the blood spent in it, and certainly if not for a just cause.  And even if Bin Laden had still existed, any more lives sacrificed would not be worth the price of removing him.  If he was on dialysis before the war started in 2001, he surely was dead years ago in spite of the fake tapes trotted out by "intelligence" to prod us on to war.

God blessed America with an abundance of resources enough to last her forever - unless we develop a throw away society for the greater profit of the few.  He gave us leaders that believed in his teachings, who sat up a country based on a Constitution that would allow prosperity for all.  We throw him out into the gutter, allowing his name to be mentioned in earnest only in the sanctity of the home, the prison, and the church - you can curse it any time you like.  We go to war in spite of the fact that his teachings and his son's teaching all speak of the sanctity of human life, and we do it in "their" names.  No wonder this country has spiraled into the gutter over the past 20 years.  I wonder if we will ever find ourselves again.

Yes, God bless the veteran for he gave much, received little, and is being replaced not by citizen-soldiers, but by mercenaries, who will have no respect for human life by the time they leave "service."  They are an entirely different breed from those that served nobly in the wars to end all wars.  I don't condemn them since they are a product of their times, their training, and the philosophy of their leaders.  I only pity them and fear them.