Idyllic

Yep, no doubt there, life is precious, and loved, and when a body dies it isn’t going anywhere it isn’t carried, but the soul, the soul is more to me than just the body. When I see somebody comatose in a hospital and their brain is basically dead but their body is still functioning, that which made them, them, has left the premises, they are no longer the “person” we knew, the soul has left the body, makes that plug easier to pull and watch that last breath expel without the intense desire to plug it back in, the breath may come back but the soul is gone. The body may be buried/cremated but the essence of the person is no longer that which we discard, the memories are the soul, the soul is made from the memories of a bodies’ life and those memories go on (for me) and they go on young and healthy and happy as they did in the bodies youth before the body simply began it’s rot, imho. This is a part of the gift of life for me, the gift of faith and the gift of uniting in death, with the universe and the love of my ancestors, especially my family and friends. (and yes, my cat)

I don't believe in a vengeful God, I know man can be vengeful and that man has used God as a way to control people, but God is simply about a oneness with the universe and universal love for all animal-kind and the environment itself, the universe, etc, that really is all God and faith is for me.

Yep, I say these things too, I merely add that when you die you will become one with the universe, one with all mankind and will find peace in that moment, that you will be with your ancestors and the ones you love, how can this hurt. I do not teach death or dying for a cause or that death is a reward for anything. Life is the greatest gift and a gift, as we all know, is to be appreciated and we should be grateful for it, to be thankful for life, to be cherished and that ALL life on earth is a gift also, ALL life has a purpose, one that should be respected in its living and that nobody has the right to take the life of another, to take the gift of life from another living thing. (I am still pro-choice, and non-judgmental regarding choice from the God perspective, and you know I eat meat, contradiction, nah, reality of my experience, Indian ancestors, thankful for thy bounty, etc., also believe in self preservation and defense, physical only, not ideological)

I don’t focus on death, quite the contrary I focus on life, life is the gift, death is simply the completion of life, but in that completion are those who await me, that death is just the beginning of another story, isn’t it? So why can’t that story involve the ones I love and a peaceful rest, what is so wrong with that faith?

I also think the worth of my life is decided by my actions and that by just asking for forgiveness over and over again is like saying your sorry over and over again but continuing the offense, doesn't work, so does most man, repeated offenses against humanity regardless of apology does not work, which is why prisons exist. I celebrate the life of a person who has lived kindly (not the same as religiously) and who lived a life with the knowledge that the gift of life if for everyone (not religiously defined here either) and to take that gift from someone or to intentionally hurt someone is against not only the laws of man, but are contrary to God’s love, God’s love does not appreciate killing other humans. That said I recognize human self defense has its necessity in living, still, killing is against God’s law, imho. I do not believe that death is a reward for anything, ever! Life is the reward, living is the reward. For ME, being a human being on this earth, living in faiths’ light helps to make MY life complete, in a sense, a heaven on earth, there is work in this, a lot of work, but the reward of more that a life of pain is worth it, is part of the human experience for me, is the greatest gift God ever gave me, LIFE! (and my mother of course, maybe even mother earth, Wicca, and yeas, my father and their parents and my life's' teachers and etc. being this over sensitive can be tiresome, I agree).

I don’t understand "death by God," everyone, imho, has a time on this earth, some shorter, some longer, God does not cause man’s death, for me God just smooth’s the transition. Yes, when a child dies, or somebody dies accidentally, I have been know to say it was their time, God has a plan for them, but that can be seen in either mans laws changing to help prevent these “accidents” from occurring again or simply the reality that humans are fragile and sometimes life just does not develop sustainably, again, finding peace in the untimely death of a loved one through God is not anti-living nor death condoning, nor ignorant, faith can and does bring some peace to many who need something to fill the emptiness left behind other than, it’s just life, it’s just death, it’s just natural, most of us know this, I understand biology and I believe in evolution, Darwin and all. If you see death as a reward, than life is valueless to you, imho, unless life is terminally pain filled, in which case, I believe in assisted death as a choice for the terminally ill, in some cases death may be a physical “reward”, mentally anguishing to make that call, but with a loving faith one may be able to pass easier thinking it is a beginning and not just an end, faith rocks, imho, for terminally ill patients who are ready to end their pain (unless of course you are anti-suicide and stuck in that bs doctrine). This is not the same as dying for a cause, however, or even close to killing for a cause, especially a humankind, religious doctrine, crusade/jihad, blah, blah, blah, humankind haters, tyrannizing… yeah I’m ranting. You want to die for your cause, go for it, you want to kill for your cause you are simply a killer, no cause, no excuse, no reward, a human killer. You need to defend yourself from a killer, we can talk about this one, this is where humankind is involved not God, God has just seemed to become mankinds’ excuse to kill and die for, don’t blame God, blame humans. Don’t block my god, block the killers, block the tyrannical self serving greedy humans who use omnipotence as a weapon, this is not god for me; this is fucked up humanity, fucked up by humans not gods. (not “you” specifically, I am saying anybody who wants to behave or live this way, that way, tyrannies way, power hunger at the expense other human beings, etc, I am not being personal here)

I don’t see how someone can consider life a gift if in that gift you are rewarded by not only your death but the death of others, this to me is not faith or love, this is tyranny, and this is man using omnipotence as a weapon against life. It is only when your life is so bad and humans convince you that death is better than life and you believe it because you feel life is void of love, void of value, void of happiness that the reward of death seems more valuable than life, that is man, not God. This is another issue, but this is why freedom and the end of tyranny are so important and that those who use religion as a weapon and use people who view death as a reward or death as an escape because of the tyranny they are subjugated too must stop or the deaths will continue. For some death is more valuable than life, the God I have faith in finds more value in LIFE, than death, period. This is why I am so offended when so-called religious people use an omnipotence to tyrannize others who are in situational pain in life and would choose dying in an escape from living under tyrannical rule, or believe that killing in the name of a “god” is rewarding, you kill in the name of man, not God. (again, this is my opinion of faith, I recognize I sound preachy, how else do I say these things? How else do I express my thoughts and feelings, I am not trying to sway, convince, convert, blah, blah, blah, I am merely trying to explain why and how I view God the way I do and why I am offended when I read things that say to my children “GodBlock” I don’t want them to feel subjugated because they believe in a God, I don’t want them to think any less of children who do not believe in a God, I do not want them to think less of someone who believes in any faith, period. I especially don’t want them to be victim/vulnerable to somebody using their own faith against them, or the lack of a religion, this is why I teach them about other faiths (I view atheism as it’s own form of a faith) and that God for me is only about love and tolerance, kindness and gratitude for the gift of life, all life. Love, respect and gratitude, and the Universe is one, we are all the children of a “god”, we are all siblings of the Universe, we are one. Can’t we live as one, faith will not ever go away, people will always want to know the unanswerable question of what is it all for, people will always be divided on their own perceptions’ of reality, can’t we find a way to accept that in this questioning we are all doing the same thing, trying to understand our existence and stop killing each other for searching the answers.

Kama Sutra Baby. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…….. wait, Oh Brahman, Oh Brahman, Oh Brahman!

I don’t think less of anyone, (though I question the soundness of the thinking of guy that wanted to inseminate as many women as possible with no real care for the offspring and scary child lover dude really freaked me out and NM, I actually found in need of some serious manhandling by a woman who knew what the hell she was doing while he just relaxed and tried to get over himself, or just admitted he was gay and embraced it, I don’t think less of them, I just wish them a reality where nobody around them is injured, physically or mentally, marcy.... restraining order….),

OCM, I love you and ring, I am honored that your even post with/for/about/etc. re: anything I have to say and appreciate all that you and ring have to teach me, I love learning about life and I have never been one to say I am right, but I like to think I’m not too far off, don’t we all? I am wishing my kids will find their own relationship with or without God but which ever they choose I really simply hope they find one that gives them peace in life (especially when it gets hard and lonely) and peace in death, not only their own, but the death of those they love that really is my pov. I lived a long time not really believing in a God, I lived a long time angry that if there was a god he/she must surely be a sadistic S.O.B. (though the universe can be quite the bitch, eh) but in the end, I have found my peace in a faith that just helps me face the days with the belief that one day, after living my gift of a life and celebrating in the living of it I will be reunited with the universal love of mankind, especially the loved ones of my own experiences in this gift, this blessed gift I call my life, I am just so grateful to be a part of the human experience. I am so grateful for all the lives that have come before mine that made this tiny moment inside a moment inside a moment on the hairs breath of a blink possible for me, I am so grateful for the reality of our universe and it’s creation, whoever, why ever, it simply fills my heart to acknowledge the amazing circumstances that must have occurred for human kind to have evolved to the point that we can really live together, and know each other the way we do because we do, we know each other as human kind has never know before (Hi OCM, Hi ring, Hi B_G, Hi dlish, Hi TFP, etc), and I am in awe of it, it is too overwhelming for me to believe it just happened, life has purpose, imho, what that purpose is, I don’t know, maybe it is just to live it happily and that is what faith gives me, a happiness both in my living and a happiness in the perceived unity of my death and the death of those I love.

p.s. I hope they never decide to make a BeerBlocker or I am really screwed hehehe

you know. I just realized I talk a lot about drinking and I am sorry if I offend anyone who is sober, I am experiencing my own issues in my life and am in no way making light of the realities of addiction, I hope I am not offending anyone with my remarks about drinking, eventually the truths about my experience will “leak” out and I will be exposed to the choice I have to make, now isn’t it. yes, I am blah, blah blahing again. I love life, living can seem "sucky" at times, but God, I LOVE LIFE, right now anyways, and yesterday, I loved life yesterday and I will love tomorrow too, if God will gift me with it, Yeah God, each day, no matter, is a gift, even if it is like a sweater knitted by your mother-in-law, as a birthday present in the middle of summer, that is too small, because you need to shrink into it.

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you can tell them all you want but it won't matter until they think it does

p.s. I contradict my contradictions, with or without intention, sometimes.