'The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang.
But the man did not hear.
So the man yelled "God, speak to me"
And the thunder and lightening rolled across the sky.
But the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said "God, let me see you" and a star shone brightly.
But the man did not see.
Then the man shouted, "God, show me a miracle" and a new life was born.
But the man did not notice.
So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here"
Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man,
But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.'
<3
18 comments:
i know, i know, they can't hear X:-/
Made me cry, it is so true. xoxo
Thank you Vicki. What a great way to start my day. Sometimes "positiveness" is hard to find, but you found it for me.
This is so sad, but so true....we all see and even know people like this.
I am thankful to know so many people who CAN see God in so many places.....he is everywhere.
So glad we have "met". Stay strong....
♥ Robin ♥
That would be just my luck too! Just as God was about to touch me, some stupid little old butterfly would come along, and probably leave a brown spot on my white shirt! This is why prayers are best offered indoors.
Lol! Snow *You* Always ~make my day~ X:-)
Annie, JenniWren & Robin <3 <3 <3
Oh, Nolly, I just noted that this was posted in MY honor--or at least for my benefit--so I should offer more of a reply.
First things first. The story is reminiscent of one of my favorite Bible passage:
"The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.' Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper... "
Second things second. I gather from the story that God appears to us in many guises, but that certain people are so fixated on God appearing in certain guises that they don't recognize God in other guises. I will for the purpose of a response, assume that God--in some prayer-answering form--exists.
So, then, how are we to recognize that a given guise is God? Is a butterfly God? Apparently, although the story doesn't make it clear whether ALL butterflies are God, or just the butterfly that appeared in answer to the man's prayer. How about birds, stars, lightning, and babies? Again, it would appear that these things are God some of the time, and possibly all of the time. But, then, is God in a lightning strike that, however beautiful and magnificent, kills someone? How about in disease, cruelty, and death--is God in these things? The story offers no insights, all of the things mentioned being either warm and fuzzy or, like the lightning, beautiful but presumably non-fatal.
So, Nollyposh, I know you're trying to tell me something, but I don't know what, so unless clarification should appear, I will just have to thank you for thinking of me.
My Dearest Snow, This kind of Understanding comes from having your Heart opened in a certain kind of way... i know this because i was the man shouting to God (That is why this is my favorite piece of writing)... i came to understand that Faith is not about having the same understanding as a certain religion but ~seeing~ the patterns and understanding the signs in one's own language of the Heart... For instance a Butterfly may mean an insect to you, but for another it may be symbolic of the Soul, or a particular Soul... it matters not which, just as long as it is met with understanding and resonance within one's own Heart... i guess what i am trying to say is that it is not about the 'What is questions?' because it differs for everyone, but mostly it is about the language that we write for our individual~selves that helps us to interpret that which surrounds us (Perhaps this is why the Shaman's of olde were so important for they helped one interpret ones own 'language' problems)... it has come to be my understanding (as i have come to know it through my own pain and sacrifice) that our worlde around us is simply a reflection of our inner landscape... so what is yours my friend?
Well, first I would like to thank you for not losing patience with my questions. I find that in matters of religion--as with politics--most people do not like to be challenged too closely, if at all. I also recognize my inadequacy in expressing myself in a way that will encourage dialogue rather than alienate people. Part of the reason I care for you is that we somehow find it possible to delight in one another despite our often expressed differences. I can talk to you in trust, and I hope you feel the same.
"our worlde around us is simply a reflection of our inner landscape... "
I was at first puzzled by this, but taken in context, I don't believe that you meant to deny the existence of external reality. For example, I may see a painting as pretty, and you may see the same painting as ugly, but we can agree that the painting exists as a real part of the real "world around us" just as the two of us exist as real parts of the real world around us.
That aside, in your response you seem to emphasize what we think and feel about WHAT IS as being more important (at least to our private lives) than the actual nature of WHAT IS. I agree, but I carried away a very different lesson from your story.
In your story, God existed as an external, and even a pervasive, reality, namely as a conscious being who was able both to hear prayers and to attempt contact with the person who was praying. On the surface, this attempt at contact failed because the person was insensitive to the various guises under which God appeared.
However, as I further reflected upon the story, it seemed to me that the primary agency of failure (in establishing contact) was not the seeker, but the God he sought. One could blame the seeker for his insensitivity, yet there was no indication that his attempt to communicate with God was anything less than sincere; and certainly his failure to recognize God as a star or a butterfly (for example) was understandable by virtue of his fallibility as a finite being in search of an infinite reality.
But what of the God he sought? I would argue that he/she/it, by virtue of being God, was without excuse. The God in the story was either unable to make contact in a way that was understandable to the seeker, or he/she/it was unwilling to make contact in a way that was understandable to the seeker.
So, whereas you take from the story a lesson in what I interpret as pantheistic openness and sensitivity, I take from the story a lesson regarding the failure of what might be considered a loving God to respond to our search for him. I can but therefore conclude that such a God does not exist.
Perhaps, you would agree. Perhaps, you would define God as an attitude rather than a presence. Yet, I couldn't conclude this from the story, so I am still puzzled as to who your God is.
"My" God is me...
and you too Snow...
We, i believe, are both expressions of "God" in human form, simply learning to ~Be~ ...This of course being in my mind the "Human Struggle"
In my experience the 'hard part' was in believing that we are ALL ~Sacred~ and that we are all ~here~ for our own personal evolution BUT once i allowed myself this understanding/view then my ~Life~ became a whole different place and my struggles so much more sacred to me (Yes that was my greatest surprise!)... i guess to me at least 'The illusion' is that Life is just about our possessions, because i have found Life to be so much more than that, and yes i still moan about money, the bills, my health and my relationships with some, but i ~see~ so much more depth to it all now ...and my experiences i now 'see' as a beautiful interactive play of synchronicity (co-incidences you might say) ...and beauty, and yes even the horrible times now have a scared beauty about them... Now you might say to me Snow, that i have simply just donned 'rose colored glasses' and have opted out of reality? But i see it more as having unplugged myself from the Matrix
(Ps)Thanks for asking Snow, i love our chats too because i think that you have a wonderful depth of Spirit, are a beautiful writer and i always laugh and learn from our bloggy friendship x
"We, i believe, are both expressions of "God" in human form"
What is this God of which we are expressions, and how do you know of him/her/it? Does he/she/it have an all embracing awareness that includes us, but also includes the rest of the universe? I imagine here that you are taking a "Course in Miracles" stance in which our "evolution" consists of realizing our true identity as spiritual beings. Is this true?
"we are all ~here~ for our own personal evolution"
...Nollyposh, I don't how to continue because too many many questions are coming to mind.
My difficulty in talking with spiritually oriented people (if I may presume to call you that) is that you make what I regard as faith-based statements concerning things (such as the above statement about us being here for our personal evolution) that might seem apparent or self-evident to you, but which are anything but apparent or self-evident to me. This makes dialogue impossible unless I am willing to assume the position of the challenger, yet my experience is that this approach leads to estrangement rather than understanding. Therefore, I am at a loss.
I should think that people of goodwill should at least be able to communicate their differences in a a way that is comprehensible to one another, yet what it seems to come down to (regarding religious/spiritual matters) is that one believes, or one doesn't believe, but that belief cannot be supported by evidence.
Because I don't know what else to say, I will leave it there.
That's cooL Snowbrush, at least we didn't start a war over it! X:-)
Cool? Not for me. I take it as a failure when understanding is impossible. In fact, it troubles me a great deal. So, I can now either shut up, or I can give you my best analysis.
My best guess is that belief is a psychological coping mechanism, and that my failure to understand it is at least partly due to my efforts to examine the contents of belief rationally. As I see it, your beliefs have a psychological rather than a rational foundation, and my determination to understand your beliefs also has a psychological rather than a rational foundation. I am simply psychologically incapable of accepting the (apparent) fact that most of my species is irrational in regard to their core beliefs and values. I need people to be other than what they are. Just as I see belief as a result of weakness, so do I see my unwillingness to accept that fact as a result of weakness. I also possess--to a very small extent--a desire to be won over so that I too might enjoy this happy world that many believers inhabit. I say to a small extent because I consider this to be as close to an impossibility as a thing can come without being 100%.
Snowbrush i understand your concerns for they were mine too BUT if you just close your eyes and take a leap (of Faith) what i found was that the rational side of my nature started to be satisfied with "proof" ...Yes i said proof! But like the poem states it comes packaged not in the wrappings of illusion but in the cellophane of Faith ... i know sometimes my words sound 'airy faerie' but i am in fact a very rational person, a Capricorn afteral and still very much caught up in the illusion of my humanness BUT when i took that leap of faith (in 1998) i learned to see things through the eyes of innocence, and with that unobstructed view my Life has become so much ~more~ ...As if the invisible has been made visible... Doesn't mean i don't still fall down, but never as low as i once did without this inner core strength that i now have... Does that sound like a weak person to you? x
"Does that sound like a weak person to you? x"
I am tired and discouraged tonight as my shin pain is back with a vengeance, and since it's not orthopedically connected, it gives credence to the grim diagnosis I got last Monday. But, I will speak to what you wrote somewhat...
People can be quite rational in some parts of their lives and quite irrational in others. As for faith, I grew up with it, and couldn't understand at age eleven why I started losing it, and no one else I knew did. I thought they were privy to some knowledge that I lacked. I later (much later) learned that they simply didn't ask as many hard questions about what authority figures--including the Bible--told them was true. This malleability they called faith.
I went to a Christian college for three years partly so I could study religion, and hopefully regain the belief that I had started to lose at age eleven. I went to chapel regularly and rededicated my life to Jesus occasionally, but I couldn't force myself to believe. People who encourage faith seem to regard it as a matter of letting go or of willpower. Letting go into what--that which my rational brain tells me doesn't make sense? Willpower to do what--put aside my best thinking in favor of that which I don't believe?
As for whether you are weak, I'll leave the question to you. To do otherwise would be to presume too much. I can but say that, for myself, I never turned to religion (what you call spirituality, I believe) except out of a deep desire for reassurance and security. These needs in themselves are universal, of course, but my attempt to satisfy them through religion indicated a lapse of integrity. In plain English, I tried to do a number on myself, and I never could succeed in pulling it off. Every time I tried, my own rationality and my own integrity sabotaged the effort.
* Hmmmm Snow i too sat in many different churches trying to touch "God" i too became lost in despair that everyone else seemed to have a 'something' that i just couldn't grasp (Let alone understand) but in retrospect i think now that what the 'problem' was (at least for me) was that i was searching outside of myself...
Religion we both agree is a man-made man-controlled crutch (In it's most extreme and i don't mean to put down anyone by that statement, this is simply my experience/observation)
but i do believe that in these times of planetary ascension/awakening that man is out-growing this archaic need to be so controlled and even the religious are now demanding more of their churches and church leaders, of their faith... Religion is evolving/changing in these times too i think...
And so my particular understanding of 'Spirituality' became the "process of reaching into and experiencing/understanding/sensing the 'true self'"... A touching of the inner spirit and once i 'found' THAT, faith no longer became a question for me... Because i had 'proof'
i see it like this: Religion throughout history has served the purpose of teaching but also controlling the masses, the simple/easy way to teach the more simple/naive was with fear, and so (the story goes) when some more evolved folke popped up, the church simply controlled it by burning them as witches etc... keeping everyone suppressed... Whereas now many are expecting and rightly so i feel after so much suppression (and perhaps because are not so afraid now) they are having/looking for personal individual/experiences of their faith/God
My personal hurdle with this process understandably given my understanding (and in my lonely struggle) was in the recognizing and then the suspending of my ingrained subconscious belief system/s, perhaps ingrained in a genetic sense for eons and thus i had to learn (still am) that to experience the intangible that i need to fear not... The fear being (for me) that the tool to understanding is no longer my 'mind'... but something much deeper and more learned and more sacred within...
i see many people confused (as was i) and afraid to take the plunge 'into the self', making excuses (that i too did) often based on the fact that no two experiences are the same, all very confusing if you are coming from an ancient understanding/background of 'packaged religion' and have been so controlled about what we even think!
'Proof' of the experience of spirituality does come (or it did for me) but in a very personal/individual language... It's like trying to decipher a dream... In my experience you can't just pick up a 'know it all' book (Like the Bible) You have to instead keep a record of your dreams over time and build up your own text/symbolism/language (Because of course no two people have the same experiences/life) and in the process of getting to understand your own personal language, you come to experience that intangible innate inner landscape that is your spirituality/God
The exciting thing that i am now learning is that the more i reach into myself, the more i find that my inner-scape reaches out to encompass my outer worlde... Sometimes i actually feel like i am in a Harry Potter novel... But hey that's just me and maybe i'm just mad or worse a witch! Lol! *wink*
Mind you i wish i were a witch and then perhaps i could release you from your cursed pain dear Snow X:-(
(Ps) Snowbrush i have just turned our little conversation into my latest blog post... because i'm thinking that we may run out of space here Lol! X;-)
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