"Do not hide your light..."

"Do not hide your light, your divine creative powers, under a bushel and thus allow human creativity to be manipulated and misused by forces of war making, destruction, pessimism, and bureaucracy. Find the creative person, the 'I am,' the divine child at play and at generativity in yourself. Give birth to yourself – your lifestyles, your relationships, your learning, your sexuality, your joys, your healing, your work – and build up in one another the same courage to create. Enter the great power of the universe, a power of constant generativity and do not be afraid. For I am with you always when you are creating. I, too, am a Creator, sometimes called the Creator. But in fact I ask you to be my companions, to share the birthing of images with me, to be my co-creators. Do not bore me by refusing. Do not scandalize me by saying 'I can't.' Do not oppress Mother Earth and her future by refusing to create and co-create. Come, play with me. Let us create together. - Matthew Fox

"A Thousand Words"

A Thousand Words from Ted Chung on Vimeo.

I used to not get 'shorts' but I think I am beginning to understand just how powerful they can be. Here is another cool one I came across today. It really brings home the point that we all desire relationship even if we put up our false self. It also shows how sometimes we have to risk something to find it or we may once again be left alone. Even though this video may have a romantic edge to it you can still see the longing that everyone has to know someone else intimately. Many of us desire deep and authentic relationships with other people but many of us are afraid to risk something to find it. Over the last few years I have realized that this is exactly what everyone wants and desires - we were made for relationships. All to often we let our fear get in the way of something truly satisfying. Reach out to someone.

'Mankind is no island.'

Sometimes I just have nothing to say. And sometimes that is just not enough, sometimes it requires something more.

Christian Icongraphy: The Cross or the Chair

This may be a slightly different view of the cross. By no means is the intent of this article to offend anyone, or to in anyway diminish the significance of what Christ did for us on the cross. However, this post does address the rise of the symbol of the cross as the foremost symbol of the Christian religion.

For sometime now I have looked at the crosses hanging in churches, from necks and atop steeples, and wondered how the cross came to the the ultimate symbol of Christianity. My strange little mind of mine begins to wonder what the Christian symbol would be if Christ was sentenced to death by beheading, the electric chair, or even lethal injection. Would our symbol as Christians then be the "holy axe," the "holy chair" or even the "holy syringe"? Wouldn't that seem weird? And a little morbid? I think so. I was in a church recently where people turned towards the cross when they sang and it all seamed a little weird to me.

I have really never found anywhere in the Bible were the cross has been elevated to a symbol of Christ. Therefore, we have to assume that the Christian symbol of the cross came about from a historic tradition, which is fine; historical traditions are often important things. There is nothing inherently wrong with symbols. However, when did it become so important? When did the symbol of the cross become the ultimate symbol of Christ? And why didn't another symbol come to be that celebrated his resurrection. I mean in all seriousness, many people died on a cross, but not to many rose from the dead and rolled back a stone to leave their grave.

I began a brief research into Christian iconography and was reminded that early Christians did not use the cross as a symbol of their faith, but instead used the ichthys (fish) and after that the Chi-Rho (the first two letters of the word "Christ" in greek). Once again, I am not saying that that Christians should not use the Cross as a symbol of their faith. I am saying that we need to think about why it is a symbol of our faith, outside of the obvious reasons.

All of this to say that I really think it is important to think about what you believe and why you believe it. To ask yourself why you believe something to be true. We create imagined realities in our mind. We create idealized versions of the truth. We remember Noah and all the animals, but have we actually thought about that story recently. I mean its a kid's story right? Or how about the parable of the prodigal son? That ones about rebellion right? Or is about the father, or how about even the oldest son? Or all three?

Just a thought.

Transitions: Beautiful and Difficult

Today I watched blue skies become grey and then once again return to blue. I watched the day become night through a beautiful display of light. As I watched the sunset it made me think about how the transition from day to night and night to day is the most beautiful part of the day. In photography it is the first and last few minutes of the day that reveals the best light. Then I thought about my life and my own transitions. And I remembered how hard those transitions are, but I also remembered how beautiful they are. We all have transtions in our lives.

I have so many friends that are in currently transitional times. They are thinking about moving to a new cities, what to do after graduating from school, looking for a new careers, etc... And as you know its just hard, really damn hard to figure it all out. But watching the sunset tonight made me think. It reminded me even though transitions are hard that their is also beauty in transitions that can't be found so easily in other times of our lives.

We all know that tough times are often the ones that shape us the most. They are the times that make us think about who we are and force us to become self-aware. Transitions not only force us out of our apathy, they force us to confront our emotions and fears. To think about our priorities - to face our deepest fears. And there is something beautiful about that.

The sunset also made me think about priorities in our lives. In my own experience what we all desire most is community. We may not always realize it, we may pick a job or even a city over true community. I may find a city that I love, but if I can't find an authentic community to live in there - the city becomes dead to me. A city is almost a material good, we often shop till we find one in which we want to live and then in the end are disappointed when it doesn't fulfill us. Not that there is anything wrong with moving or experiencing a new city, because there isn't. I probably think of moving to new cites and places more than most people. However, I have to remind myself that they only thing in this world that fulfills us is relationship. I search for it like a diamond in the rough. True community is hard to find, but it is easy to know when we have found it. And that is beautiful.

Transitions are hard, they suck, and we all get sick of them. Nothing is going to change that. But today I was encouraged to watch the sun fade away in an awe inspiring spectrum of colors. Because it reminded me those tough transitions are also beautiful. So hang in there my friends, hang in there.

I already posted this song on my other blog, you can find that post here. This song is just to perfect for this post. It's sad but hopeful; Beautiful yet tragic.

Ron Sexsmith - "There's Gold Them Hills"

Super Serious Post

For a few weeks now I have wanted to write a deep and insightful post on what I have been learning recently. However, today I sat down to write just such a post and instead I remembered this (Thanks Anna!). I guess that I am just going to have to write a super serious post later.

Happy Thanksgiving

So maybe I have a taste for dark humor. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.