Christin Lore Weber's Comments

Is Ted Kennedy Worthy of Praise? - I Say NO! by Jane L.

Aug 27, 2009 | rating: 6.6 | comments: 249

Christin Lore Weber Aug 27, 2009, 7:58pm EDT

Let's be careful. Who really knows what was in the man's soul?

Ed Nudelman Leaving Gather by Edward Nudelman

Jun 22, 2009 | rating: 9.4 | comments: 107

Christin Lore Weber Jun 22, 2009, 5:40pm EDT

Somehow I always thought that when I finally made my way back here, I'd find you.

Gut-level Faith: A road less traveled by James Stemmle

May 30, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 9

in reply to a comment by Christin Lore Weber

Christin Lore Weber Jun 1, 2009, 11:13am EDT

Yes, Jim. I do live...in that up and down way of this first year after John's death. But I've passed the anniversary, and am more than a month into year two. Still not completely steady, but doing better. I always read your words, even when I don't respond. In the world of God-Talk, you and I speak the same language..

Christin

Gut-level Faith: A road less traveled by James Stemmle

May 30, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 9

Christin Lore Weber May 30, 2009, 5:54pm EDT

YES!!!

The God Game by James Stemmle

Mar 6, 2009 | rating: 10 | comments: 3

Christin Lore Weber Mar 6, 2009, 1:40pm EST

My sense of the passage is that it has little or nothing to do with rules, but rather with focus on God, on Light, on Grace, on keeping ourselves aware. This, I think, is the "oil" in the lamp. If we squander the oil, lighting up what is not-God, then we won't have the light to see the Bride and Bridegroom in the moment, and that could be any or every moment. I think it has to do with consciousness of the Holy (the wedding feast). It takes place within us all the time. If the door is closed, that means we have not paid attention. It isn't punishment -- it's just that we can't see that to which we've made ourselves blind.

Is this US? by Mary Bradley McCauley

Feb 27, 2009 | rating: 9.4 | comments: 72

Christin Lore Weber Feb 28, 2009, 11:04am EST

I'm noticing that people around where I live (rural) are beginning to organize into self-sustaining, off-the-grid survival groups. Bartering. Home-spun entertainment. Home schooling. I'm watching with interest and thinking of attending one of their monthly meetings. My husband and I were savers. "You'll be fine," he said before he died. And I said, "but what if the stock market collapses?" And he said, "If that happens, then the government will also fail and the entire nation will be in the same boat." He obviously didn't believe it would come to that. But now I'm not so sure.

A Gospel of Awakening by James Stemmle

Feb 23, 2009 | rating: 9.7 | comments: 3

Christin Lore Weber Feb 23, 2009, 1:38pm EST

Dear, Dear Jim. This is exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you for listening to God's invitation to set these words down.

Blessings,
Christin

Obama and Hamas-Tell Me It Isn't So! by Mary Bradley McCauley

Feb 15, 2009 | rating: 6.6 | comments: 152

Christin Lore Weber Feb 15, 2009, 11:37am EST

What's that old saying: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

Found on the beach: A message in a bottle! by Beryl Singleton Bissell

Dec 16, 2008 | rating: 9.6 | comments: 63

Christin Lore Weber Dec 17, 2008, 10:48am EST

I love your many adventures, Beryl. Is it because you keep all your senses open to the world at all times? You are one of the graced ones with ears to hear and eyes to see. And all of us benefit.

How Not to Design a Church by James Stemmle

Dec 6, 2008 | rating: 7 | comments: 3

Christin Lore Weber Dec 6, 2008, 4:26pm EST

I've been looking for members of that third church for a long time. Slowly, quietly it could be emerging in our midst.

A Sunday Night Must See by Mary Bradley McCauley

Dec 4, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 41

Christin Lore Weber Dec 4, 2008, 11:02am EST

Thanks, Mary. . . echoing most of what others said.

I Got Spammed On Gather by Mary Bradley McCauley

Dec 1, 2008 | rating: 9.7 | comments: 51

Christin Lore Weber Dec 1, 2008, 11:50am EST

Yikes! And I actually have some friends so naive that they would DO this!!

JEANS IN THE CLOSET--SOCKS IN THE DRAWER by Christin Lore Weber

Nov 19, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 11

Christin Lore Weber Nov 19, 2008, 12:31pm EST

Thank you, Svetlana. Your friendship here is a treasure. And that cyber hug and all the blessings feel good this morning.

A Song for the Cosmic Bandwagon by James Stemmle

Nov 18, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 4

Christin Lore Weber Nov 18, 2008, 12:10pm EST

OK, Jim, here's the deal. Gather all these little tilted homilies together, get a catchy title, and send them off to Harper SanFrancisco. Another place (less prestigious and large, but very sound) is the publishing house of a friend of mine (if you are interested, give me a holler and I'll give you her name). You have a gold mine of spiritual wisdom here, and those publishers have the audience that's waiting to mine it.

Please do consider this.
Christin

AUTO INDUSTRY BAIL OUT & BUSINESS CYCLES by Richard Maffei

Nov 16, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 16

Christin Lore Weber Nov 16, 2008, 8:28pm EST

Thanks, Dick. As always I learn from you.

What do we want from God? by James Stemmle

Nov 14, 2008 | rating: 7.8 | comments: 24

Christin Lore Weber Nov 14, 2008, 11:04am EST

Jim, you become daily more eloquent. Thank you for this meditation. It came just after a conversation I had with a life-long friend who was questioning the mercy of God. Is God merciful? She'd begun to believe God is not. Too much violence. Too much suffering and pain. Your words might be perfect for her. I thought about mercy all that day, and by evening this thought popped into my mind:

In a material universe, matter does what it does which includes dissolution, death, and for beings with consciousness, the suffering that goes with that. Humans develop ego to (among other uses) control that aspect of matter. Human violence even against other humans results as an expression of that drive to control the death-side of materiality. Violence says "You must be controlled or even die so that I can be free to live." This includes, I think, even the violence we do to aspects of ourselves.

So violence is human resistance to the reality of the material universe. This resistance causes what we call suffering which is different from simple pain because pain is matter's simple response to dissolution--but suffering is ego's reaction to loss.

Mercy and compassion are acceptance of the material universe in all its aspects. If we say that God is that ultimate creative consciousness/Being that spun forth materiality, is within it and beyond it -- then the responsibility of consciousness in the material universe is mercy towards all that dissolves, all that dies. It is done by surrender rather than by violence. If God seems unmerciful, it is because human consciousness has not permitted God to express that mercy. We are responsible for the mercy or lack of mercy in the world.

In the language of fellow Gatherer, Richard Maffei, we must live in Existential Wonder. This precludes judgment of the processes of materiality and intelligent surrender to the totality of Being. The surrender is not a collapse or giving in, but an opening to the expression in the world (through each individual and human system) of the magnanimity of the Divine. Then Mercy will be experienced even in the experience of death, because we will understand that materiality is in a constant process of transformation.

Of course we are young in this process. Mercy expands as ego diminishes and is replaced by Existential Wonder.

Christin

ORION IN THE MORNING by Christin Lore Weber

Oct 18, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 13

Christin Lore Weber Oct 25, 2008, 4:26pm EDT

Amazing, Jim -- I don't find your thoughts disjointed at all! Maybe I'M disjointed, so they fit. I don't mind be disjointed (double-jointed-able to move in all directions?) I also like being eccentric (on the edge of the center, on the circumference). Maybe eccentricity was the quality that gave creative vision to the Dutch school teacher. Counting stars is an excellent way to find ones place in the universe as we hunt with Orion for the essence of it all.

ORION IN THE MORNING by Christin Lore Weber

Oct 18, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 13

Christin Lore Weber Oct 19, 2008, 3:23pm EDT

Verie, well that does it! I'm opening my curtains at night. When I first moved here I didn't want drapes, but John liked to sleep late and the entire wall is a big window looking out at the trees and the ridge. The morning light woke him--something that never bothers me because I love getting up early. And who's to look in? It's all wilderness out there. There's a 400 year old oak tree, though, that might obscure the stars. But anyway -- I'll see something for sure. Maybe a racoon will peek in, or that bear that's been prowling around here, leaving scat on the road. I'm not as eager for the bear.

ORION IN THE MORNING by Christin Lore Weber

Oct 18, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 13

Christin Lore Weber Oct 19, 2008, 3:18pm EDT

Dick, I always admire your comments, but that last paragraph in the second comment above was awesome. It sounded Buddhist.

ORION IN THE MORNING by Christin Lore Weber

Oct 18, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 13

Christin Lore Weber Oct 19, 2008, 3:11pm EDT

Jerry, you certainly bring up much to consider. Life's hard for a carnivore with reason and moral principles! How is it best to die? For any of us animals? All animals who die in the wild eventually get eaten. That's just a fact. Do I ever order venison roast or buffalo burgers in the restaurant? Well, actually, no; but I've been to dinner with those who have. Is it more or less moral to gather food from the supermarket, or to stand face to face with another living creature who will become food for me? And if I'm not willing to do the latter, do I have the right to do the former? I ask myself these things, and end up eating very little meat, and when I do I tend to dissociate. I shot a squirrel once when I was a girl, and haven't shot another living thing since. But I have eaten my dad's venison and duck and partridge. And I did tell Tim and Clint they could use my land to get to the mountain. I made sure, first, that I got their promise not to kill one of the magnificent six point bucks who show up from time to time (Not MY buck, right, Flit? :-) The deer are getting thick around here even though coyotes abound and cougars prowl. During winter some of the deer starve. But if Tim and Clint come down from the mountain with their tender young buck, I don't want to watch.

So there's the issue. We live in ambiguity more than in relativity. Almost never are choices clear, no matter the perspective. But we need to choose, nonetheless. Sometimes it almost drives me crazy, because with any choice of consequence, I incur a loss, a tangle, something like a sin. There used to be a saying: The saint sins seven times a day. So what about the rest of us?

Thanks, Jerry, for the chance to think about all this. And you simply must learn to spot Orion! He's wonderful the way he strides across the winter sky, hunting for . . . it's all relative, right? ;-)