Writing conference, part three

At the Writing for Your Life conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, I attended a workshop led by Jeff Chu, author of  ”Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America” It was top notch. An excellent speaker, Chu was honest and humble and helpful. He strove to take away fears that come with writing and to instill hope.

By this time, we attendees started opening up and getting acquainted with one another during “free time.” I discovered that although most of the attendees were pastors or preachers, they did not carry dogmatic attitudes. It was supremely refreshing. They left behind ministries and churches focused only on the opinions of leaders and outdated concepts and practices. They were willing to face their fears to learn how to write and join the conversations today meant to embrace diversity and unite and heal, rather than convert and make a homogenous society of believers, who ultimately portray an us versus them.

There was no us versus them at this conference, that I noticed. We didn’t use our differences as a means for demanding better treatment. The diversity was appreciated and combined to show a big bright picture of an infinite good God.

I barely could get to sleep that night. I was exhausted and riveted at the same time. Sleep finally came about 9 p.m. I woke at 12:45.

A.M.

12:45 a.m., awake and compliant to get out of bed and start driving home.

Nighttime traffic was much easier than daytime traffic.

Five hours later, I was driving out of Washington D.C. and could see on the other side of the highway lane incoming traffic. I’d just missed morning rush hour.

I made it home just before noon. Dog-tired but delighted to see and hug my cats. Worn but calmed to see my chickens. Drained but filled with the desire to keep living that which has no end, creativity and the sense of belonging to an expanding and generous mind.

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Writing Conference, second part

First part.

Second part:

Arriving early in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the Writing for Your Life conference, I drove to St. Mark’s Methodist Church, host to the Writing for Your Life conference. The hotel where I was staying let me check in early.

The conference started with an amenable worship service. There were about 140 of us attendees. Then Barbara Brown Taylor spoke, giving us tips on writing based on Imagination, using the imagination to say what the reader wants to say, using body language to transcend the body.

Now, I never heard of Barbara Brown Taylor, but other people had. The woman sitting next to me shed tears after she got to meet Taylor personally. I asked the woman if she wanted me to take a picture of her with Taylor. Yes, she did. I took the photo with her phone and then thanked Taylor for her advice on writing. She really was a good speaker and teacher.

Workshops were attended during the day. I learned what I’ve been doing wrong. Ha, lots.

But, that night, I lay awake figuring out how to fix my mistake, or oversight is a better word.

Apparently, the title, subtitle, and back page are SUPER important. Well, on my memoir I don’t have a subtitle at all. Easy fix. I’d do it as soon as I got home. I slept a few hours.

The next morning Taylor spoke again but on provocation. The importance of provoking yourself as a writer to venture into new ideas. Take risks with creativity, work hard, and respect the “incubation” period. Sit on an idea and let it grow, before the illumination and translation processes.

More in a few days.

Trilogy on a writing conference

If you want to attend a writers’ conference, I recommend “Writing for your life.” It is Christian based, but the leaders aren’t preachy. In fact, they tell attendees, “don’t be preachy in your writing.”

I just returned from the Writing for Your Life conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Before leaving for the conference, I mapped my route from home to Raleigh and figured it would take me about 11 hours to drive. The big decision was whether to drive it in one day, or two days.

I chose the two-day plan, to decrease the chances of me showing up at the conference feeling dazed and wiped out.

The first day, I made it to Fredericksburg, Virginia and stopped at a Tourist Center.

“Hi, can you tell me about the Monopony Indian Reservation?” I asked the staff.

Silence on his part, embarrassment on my part. I was weary and only could remember the term Monopony. I’d looked it up before leaving because I knew I’d have extra time and I wanted to visit an Indian Museum or reservation instead of visit a Civil War Battlefield or Colonial Museum.

When studying religion, I realized the world lacks written material on the spiritual practices of Native-Americans, a population traced back 15,000 years. So far.

I dare to say that Indian spirituality transcends my Bible backed spirituality, despite my conviction of not pinning the Bible stories to a timeline. I don’t believe Adam and Eve were the first human beings on the planet Earth about 6,000 years ago, or whenever.

Anyway, the gentleman on staff at the Tourist Center was kind enough to understand what I was referring to and gently asked, “Do you mean the Mattaponi Indian Museum?”

“Mattaponi,” I repeated twice. Mattapo-nee. “Yes,” I answered.

“Their museum isn’t open but three days a week,” he said.

“Could you give me directions?” I asked.

He did and when I looked out at the traffic on Interstate 95, I knew I would not make it before dark. I found a motel. It wasn’t fancy, believe me.

Awake early, I drove to the Mattaponi Indian Reservation. As the road got less and less dense with traffic, it was easy to find, following sparse signage.

I watched the sun rise over the Mattaponi River from a dock in the Mattaponi Indian Reservation. It was solemn, silent, sacred and inevitably nurtured my appreciation for the thousands of Native-Americans who did, somewhat similarly, the same thing for thousands of years.

More in a few days.

 

Freedom of the Press

Check out below this full-page ad in the New York Times, from the New York Times. Admirable.

Freedom of the Press means freedom of the readers. We are the image of universal Mind. We reason with divine thoughts that meet our individual circumstances. We are the reflection of eternal intelligence. We have broad views and big pictures. We are the children of Truth and this enables us to read even those things we don’t want to hear.

Don’t get isolated on an island by reading only the words you want to hear, or that are familiar and adored. As the New York Times encourages, read, read, read. And if words don’t speak to you: dance other dances, paint different pictures, run many races, or embrace new friends.

Quoting from science & religion to God:

“Taken literally the words, “Clean your room,” produces decent results. But when dealing with less concrete concepts, open to wide interpretations, such as, “Be nice,” the results can vary. Spirituality comes to our rescue.

“Divine interpretation gives us the deeper meaning our hearts yearn for. Spiritual interpretation maintains our life purpose and makes our experiences, words, expressions—even myths—useful. It points the way to non-intrusive healing.”

Why I can love the sinner but not the sin

“No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.”

Mark 3:27 provides a basis for separating the person from the evil. The “strong man” is the devil, a demon, and Christ Jesus cast out demons or evil spirits, leaving behind healed individuals.

The “goods” of evil are depression, jealousy, fear, for examples. Christ is my authority to bound evil and plunder those goods. To bound evil is to immobilize jealousy, fear, and self-doubt. This weakens the devil and strengthens us to clean out our house and experience a freer consciousness.

I listened to Eva Schloss and Wonder Woman

The date varies each year, but Holocaust Remembrance Day will be May 2, 2019. This year it was April 12.

Different countries designated other days also to honor the victims, rescuers, and survivors of the Holocaust, defined as destruction or slaughter on a mass scale by Nazism.

A few days ago, I visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. On the third floor is the New Dimensions in Testimony℠ installation, a place where you can ask survivors questions and their full-size image answers.

After touring the exhibits, I watched the documentary by Davino Pardo, “116 Cameras.” With the audience, we also listened to a discussion with Pardo, Eva Schloss, and Michael ?, I didn’t catch his last name, but he was a brilliant moderator.

Eva Schloss is a survivor and an amazing woman. After World War II, her mother married the father of Anne Frank who wrote the book “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

I can’t begin to tell you her story, but when she was asked how she maintained her “resiliency” throughout her trials, Schloss answered, “I love nature, I love life, and it is love that keeps me going…I don’t want to see another war.”

I would say, Schloss learns and experiences spirituality. From 21^st Century Science and Health, “Earth has little light or joy before Life is spiritually learned.”

It’s difficult to describe spiritual learning. We all do it differently. But we can.

The next day, after humbly listening to Schloss, I watched Lynda Carter perform her show, “Red, Rock n Blues,” at the Lincoln Center. She and her group were entertaining. But she too shone light on the power of love, although next to Schloss, Carter is a privileged woman of a different generation.

While Schloss wears a tattoo on her arm, stamped as a Jew in the concentration camp, and suffered terribly, Carter portrayed Wonder Woman in a 1975-1979 television series.

They both raised children and talk of the power of love and talent and truth.

Davino Pardo on left, Eva Schloss, and Micheal at Museum of Jewish Heritage 2018

 

Refining our thoughts and words

Until human beings had words, nouns specifically, the ability “to think” was vastly limited.

The thoughts and words of our very far ancestors could have been: Get food. Eat. Ran away from scary thing. Find cave.

Time passed. Ideas came. Nouns were detected and identified and thoughts advanced, maybe to: Hey Rocky, you’re better at running and I’m better at aiming, so how about we work together to get food.

Today, human beings repeat this advancement process.

For example, if I see a child with too much screen time, my first reactions may be: Bad. Lazy. But, after a bit of contemplation and inspiration, new ideas and new words come to light. Maybe: Honey, there are better things to do, let’s go outside and pick up litter. You don’t want to lose your mind to what other people want you to think and do. We aren’t here for entertainment but for improvement.

In this process, no one is at fault really. Distant ancestors had what they had to work with and we have what we have. The key is advancement. Advancement out of thoughts and words that lead to discrimination and fear. Advancement toward thoughts and words that lead to scientific foresight and capabilities.

Therefore, my book 21^st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A revision of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health, will constantly be revised.

You’ll see below, a recent revision I’m working on. To keep it in context, two paragraphs are included:

Eddy’s version:

“We need a clean body and a clean mind,—a body rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water. One says: ‘I take good care of my body.’ To do this, the pure and exalting influence of the divine Mind on the body is requisite, and the Christian Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves it most out of his thought, and like the Apostle Paul, is ‘willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.’

“A hint may be taken from the emigrant, whose filth does not affect his happiness, because mind and body rest on the same basis. To the mind equally gross, dirt gives no uneasiness. It is the native element of such a mind, which is symbolized, and not chafed, by its surroundings, but impurity and uncleanliness, which do not trouble the gross, could not be borne by the refined. This shows that the mind must be clean to keep the body in proper condition.”

From 21^st Century Science and Health:

“We need a clean body and a clean mind—a body rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water. One says: ‘I take good care of my body.’ Physical care requires the pure and spiritualizing influence of the divine Mind on the body. The body is best taken care of when it is most out of thought. The Apostle Paul said he “would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.’[1]

“Take the hint from a combination of archival and experimental studies that shows links between air pollution and unethical behavior and anxiety. Experimental findings published in Psychological Science[2] reveals that increased exposure to air pollution, either physical or mental, accompanies increased crime and cheating. Hint: Align with divine Mind and strive to purify the environment, and human mind and body.”

Back to me, Cheryl and I conclude:

If you find yourself in a situation where communication with someone else feels blocked, it’s okay to give up on the human will trying to hard to get a point across, and its better to rely on the divine will which enables better thoughts and words that show truth and love has the final say.

 

[1] II Cor. 5:8

[2] Jackson G. Lu, Julia J. Lee, Francesca Gino, Adam D. Galinsky. Polluted Morality: Air Pollution Predicts Criminal Activity and Unethical Behavior. Psychological Science, 2018; 095679761773580 DOI: 10.1177/0956797617735807 (Accessed 4/13/2018)