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Hi there!!! I have decided to share with you, part of why I am, the way I am today. Part of why I feel and act the way I do towards others. This is NOT a challenge to your beliefs, just an affirmation of my own.
Much Love to you all, in all aspects of your lives.
Background:
I had studied religion(s) for many years. I had sought to find a connection that others seemed to find so easily. Or was it based on repetition? Was it based on a "learned belief"? Buddhism, Judaism, Catholicism, Mormon, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, were any of these for me? Was anything for me? Did I need this? I never seemed to find a true answer to my questions.
Spiritual moment:
A few years ago I was in a grocery store near my house. It was a normal day, like any other. To much to do, not enough time to do it. I wasn't really in a hurry though. Just sort of going through the motions of the day. I was about halfway through with my shopping trying to remember that one thing I would yell at myself for forgetting once I got home.
I was going up and down each isle, looking for something, anything to spark my memory. I was about 80% finished, and figured if I didn't see anything by the last isle, I would just go home.
Suddenly, as I came around the corner into the next isle, a woman with her cart was coming the other way. The next few seconds could have taken an hour for all I knew. When I saw her face at first, I saw the look of pain and despair behind her eyes. I knew this was a very bad day, and that this was not even close to her first.
Then something stopped me, but not physically, it seemed to stop me in time. I knew, just knew what to do at that split second. I gave her the most honest sincere smile I could, and she smiled back. I also knew it was her first smile of the day, maybe the first in a while.
Also at that same moment, I knew why I am here. If I could bring just a little happiness, Just a little better than before for others, THAT is what God has me here for. I knew that I would be judged by how I treat my fellow man (or women) And that the specific things I was taught as a Catholic, such as whether it rained for forty days and nights, and my belief in those things would have nothing to do with how I will be judged as a person.
I finally knew what I was supposed to do. To make the world a better place, one interaction, one person at a time. No matter how small the improvement, I was to make the world better than I found it.
This is my spiritual awakening. For me religious practices were no longer necessary. I had found my connection to God.
-Kevin-
"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
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A simple word Kevin............. COOL.
Some people spend their whole lives chasing that elusive something that will validate them. You found it and didnt even have to look, isnt God wonderful?  I hope my "moment" is as good.
People have a habit of changing your direction through life
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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God is in the laughter of a child, soft rain on your face, the sound of the waves on the shore, a kiss from someone you love, your mother's arms.
When you sit at the beach, the sand running through your fingers, realizing that you are like one of those grains of sand and yet you make a difference. Everyone you touch, everyone you meet is somehow changed by you.
That woman needed your smile. We need your smile,too Thank you for sharing it.
:::smile:::
smith
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You mean so much to me. And so does your post.
You are so wise, thanks for being you.
**Kevin smile big at smith**
Thanks again,
Kevin
"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
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It was kinda cool huh? At least for me. But I did look for that for a long time, just not at that moment.
I hope for the best for you, and I am SOOOOOO happy your here.
Thanks, and a BIG HUG,
Kevin
"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I wondered first "Do I say 'wow'?", and that slowed me down. Then I wondered "Do I tell of mine?", and thought that would be selfish, woudl remove attention from something worthy and worthwhile.
So, mea culpa, I left it,though I spoke to Kevin about it.
I realised today that it should have been acknowledged, but I have not the words to acknowledge it well.
All I can say is it imspired me to think.
Thank you Kevin. If you never knew before, know now: You are welcome here.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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No Message Body
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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warren c. e. austin
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Likes it here |
Location: Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 247
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Like you, Timmy, I been troubled about how to respond to this manifest declaration of what could be considered to be universal in context.
Like you, I too, have spoken with Kevin about this - very late this past evening, or perhaps it was morning in fact - and stated that I was still mulling over how to frame my response this revelation of his; my silence NEVER BEING that I was either ignoring his *post*, or I had found it distasteful somehow, or disagreed with him, or some such.
I truly, for once in a good long time at any rate, found myself comletely and utterly speechless. I had no certain reply.
Kevin: You are who you are. The sum of all your parts, whether good, bad or indifferent, is what makes you whole. That you could embrace a concept such as you have expressed here in this, A Place of Safety, makes you of simply awesome proportions in my eyes. How could you ever feel you do not belong, I cannot ever fathom. You do. Spirituality and all.
Warren C. E. Austin
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And i have. Thank you. This thread was very personal for me. It is a big part of who i am today.
timmy, you have said you don't agree with my politics, that is OK. You also said you don't want that part of me here, I cannot divorce part of me. You see it IS all about this thread.
I need to help people and improve the world as this thread shows you I think. It is part of me.
I volunteer my time to gay community organizations, work a crisis line for gay people in distress, and yes, I try to help put people in government that are friendly, or support laws and policies that help "US".
Politics is a means to an end for me. It is just one way I try to help. This time of year, once every two years, politics occupies my mind more than other times. But all these things are a part of who I am and what I am passionate about.
Unforunately, this part of me, is not appropriate here anymore. Restrictions, like kindness, hateful comments and others I can live with just fine. But to not be myself, how can I do that?
You are all my family here.
Perhaps I am the proverbial black sheep in this area. I will remain a friend to you all, because I care about each of you here.
So in the interest of not wanting to ruin your site, and to respect your wishes, I think I should go.
Maybe someday, it will be OK for me to return. I look forward to that day. Till then, bye for now.
Much love to you all,
Kevin
"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I could write a treatise here. Instead i wllwrite something simple:
Whether I agree with or disagree with anyone's politics, your politics, matters not at all. That oyu have beliefs and express them well is a matter of record, and I defend your right to have them and to express them. Not just you,Kevin, though this reply is primarily for you, but anyone here.
Nor do I ask you are anyone to suppress who they are.
I care passionately about two big things, and sometimes a minor conflict arises.- Each and every one of you is important to me. Massively important. I care about each of you in more ways than you can imagine, and sometimes you tear me apart, all of you, or some of you, or one of you.
- Because you are all so important I guard this place jealously. Not green eyed jealousy, but a guarding and protecting jealousy. My objective is not always possible to achieve. It is to create and maintain a safe place for all of us, every last one, to be ourselves
And that is a challenge when a simple issue arises that suddenly threatens the fabric of the place for some of you, and at present, Kevin, especially for you.
What I hope will happen now is that a sense of proprotion will prevail. We are political, all of us, youngest to oldest. In th emain our lives are governed by spirituality (in its widest sense) and not politics. And at times politics becomes importan to one, some or all of us. All I ask is that it keeps its place. That place is "limited". By which I mean it is welcome as long as it does not become the sole topic of conversation and does not cause fights. For example, lobbying for a particular candidate here would be wrong, but stating that (IMHO) Tony Blair is Bush's poodle, is a simple statement that is not even partisan.
This board is as much for any one of you as it is for me as its creator (OK, megaman did the hard work). Every one of you is welcome. Simply don't turn it away from my primary purpose by allowing politics to dominate. Try very hard not to be partisan. Do not get embroiled in political fighting.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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My spiritual moment 
Amen, Kev 
Thanks smith ... 
