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the Pope’s visit

Posted in family and relationships, Historical, It's my life, news from around the world, spirituality, tagged the Pope's visit on September 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I realise this is a week late….but hey, it’s my blog 🙂

Last week, Britain saw and complained and complained, about the visit of the head of the Catholic Church to our shores, (how boring life would be if there was nothing to complain about!) Initially when this news first hit our papers, I was like well… so what?! What’s all the fuss about? It was splashed across the papers, some folk were way excited about it, others were complaining about that we had to pay for it (I would rather pay for that than for some greedy politician to go buy a duck-house for his pond!), about how he, the Pope, had swept the paedophile issues under the carpet and not dealt with them properly and about why did he have to come here anyway and blah, blah blah! It’s sells papers!

Initially I just took a passing interest, then watching the news, I saw about how the Duke of Edinburgh broke with tradition and greeted him at the airport, saw how this man with the lovely smile descended the stairs, and how tiny he is, and suddenly my interest was piqued. Here is this man, a short little guy, well into his 80’s who should be at home with his feet up in his parlour, relaxing and enjoying his old age….who in reality commands a massive institution, a man who has a profound influence on the world and whose word sways millions of people…… And that sudden realisation amazed me. Plus he has a bank balance greater than my mind could possibly conceive (they have a point about us paying for it!)

I guess when it is nearer to home it makes a difference. In Rome he is hundreds of miles away…a figure in a robe on the box, and he doesn’t seem real. But now that he was on home shores; I found myself getting caught up in all the excitement and bemoaned the fact that I was unable to attend any of the events in London – mmmhhh. But, I was glued to the TV when they showed the various events around the country and I found myself totally caught up in the excitement of it all. I was particularly enchanted that he was coming to London (how absurd). It was particularly fantastic to me when he visited Westminster Abbey… it represented reconciliation, acceptance of another’s beliefs and how they conduct that belief, it represented humility… he the Pope, head of the Catholic Church, a far more powerful and influential institution than the Church of England, was humble enough to step into the Abbey and worship on the grounds of a different, albeit similar faith. I also mused at the time that Henry VIII was probably spinning in his grave at the temerity of it all.

I found myself loving the traditions, and the flamboyance of it all. I got all emotional watching the ceremony of ‘beatification’ of someone who was significant in his, the Pope, and others lives, and yet most people had probably never heard of John Henry Newman. I loved that he drove around in a ‘Pope mobile’… how modern 🙂 I loved when he stopped to kiss and bless the babies along the way. This was especially wonderful to witness, coz of what it meant to their parents, how overjoyed they must have been that he stopped to bless their child. Not every kid gets to be kissed and blessed by the Pope. The kid’s life will most likely be defined by that one moment in time…’the day the Pope kissed me’. I would love to fast-forward 20 years and see what has become of that child…how has it affected their lives. If their parents are particularly religious, what responsibility will they now place on the child. It could be a blessing or a curse. I found myself getting all tearful for the parents (yeah, go figure), how must they feel…. it was obviously important to them or they would not have held the child up. There was one moment too on the day of the beatification – along the way he stopped the car twice to bless and kiss babies, and yet just a few yards further along, there all dressed up in a beautiful white dress was another baby…. held up in the hope of……. and he didn’t stop!!! I cried (daft I know) for those parents, at their dismay, their disappointment, and probably their hurt and maybe even anger. The child had obviously been dressed up especially….the outfit was of the christening kind, a lovely white, frilly dress and he didn’t even stop! I was shouting at the TV… “No! go back, you missed that baby!” He stopped for the other babies, why not theirs? How did that make them feel? How will it affect their future beliefs? Will they carry that with them forever or will they just shrug it off and it becomes the ‘day the Pope didn’t stop to kiss you’. Will it be talked about for generations (as these things are) and how will it then define the life of that child.

It also begs the question…..if as they say; the church is hiding paedophiles and brushes their misdemeanors under the carpet…why then allow the man who is supposedly responsible for that all to kiss your baby?

Paedophiles are a rotten curse on society…. they should be incarcerated and never see the light of day ever again. But, families hide these things, they hush them up, unable to face the horror that in their midst could be someone who is so vile. It is easier to shut their eyes and deny it…they brush it under the carpet. The church, no matter which one it is, is no different. They are a family, he is the ‘Papa’ and they have done what most families do, they try to hide it and hide from it. It is too horrible to face. There are also people and families who brave the onslaught that knowledge of these things bring, and face it head on.

My question is this….. why when after all, he is just a mere mortal, ok one who is more esteemed and apparently the conduit between heaven and earth, with the ear of God on his side….why is he expected to do any differently than anyone else. Many Priests ‘find’ their vocation and become caring, loving representatives of the church, they are good men, they teach and worship and tend to their flock. And then there are others who use this as a means to prey on vulnerable children, there are also those who are forced through their parents and families’ wishes and desires to ‘become a Priest’. What then makes them different to any other on earth? How, when we as mere mortals live on a daily basis with people in our families who go on to do dreadful things to others, and we never would have guessed, how can we expect this man to know? And how on earth can anyone expect one man to ‘know’ the mind and character of every Priest in his church.

Why are we so surprised when it is discovered that a ‘Priest’ has been found out of abusing children? What makes them different? Is it the supposition of ‘faith’, the supposition that coz they are Priests they should be good and pure? Is it the clothes they wear, the traditions they are meant to uphold and then desecrate that makes it all the more shocking! Or is it that they have abused their position in society? We live on a daily basis with our friends and our families…..and we never really ‘know’ them. It is impossible to know.

I totally believe that paedophiles should be hung, drawn and quartered for what they do, but why do people pin all the blame on one man. Yes he is the head of the catholic faith, yes he carries the burden of that position….but why make him the scapegoat. The law doesn’t really take it seriously and unless a child has died as a consequence, they get a jail term and are then allowed out early for good behaviour! Yes, they have been good….they are stuck in jail and unable to get their hands on little kiddies. Let them out and hey ho…off they go!

So now that all the hoolabah has died down, the crazies have gone back into their cages and the Pope has gone home…what now? What are the people who demonstrated and made such a fuss about the visit doing now? What are the people who flocked to the events doing now? According to statistics the number of church attendees has dropped dramatically and churches are half empty, unless you have a really charismatic Priest/Vicar or whatever. Have these people now started attending their church again and for how long before the novelty wears off? Have they found their faith again? Or is it just the celebrity aspect and the excitement of an outing that drew the crowds?

And what about the most contentious issue of the whole visit….paedophilia? What are the people who demonstrated doing about it now? What are we as a society doing about it now? Is it up to just one man to sort it out, or is it our responsibility as a whole?

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Gratitude by Jeremy Gislason

Posted in Inspiration, Interesting articles, spirituality, tagged Bill Gates, Discover The Secret to Lasting Abundance, gratitude, http://www.mindmaptoriches.com, Jeremey Gislason, Law of Attraction, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey on February 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Giving Back to the World, by Jeremy Gislason

Are you grateful for everything you have?

Consider this, whether you have a million dollars in the bank or a hundred — if you have a roof over your head, food on your table and the comfort of friends and family, you’re rich.

Millions around the world live a bare bones existence and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness takes a backseat to survival. If you have a roof over your head, you have food in your stomach, and you probably have at least one car, a bank account, and an abundance of creature comforts then by global standards, you’re rich.

Take a minute to look around you, wherever you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading this from the comfort of your couch, if you’re sitting at a table in a coffee shop, if you’re sitting in your car, on your treadmill or exercise bike, or if you’re enjoying the sunshine and reading this outside. Take a look around you and make a mental note of all you have. We’re not just talking about the material items either. Friends, family, mentors, and pets are all blessings.

What about you? You have a wealth of strengths, skills, knowledge, and experience too.

What Are You Doing With All Of Your Wealth?

Gratitude has the power to bring more abundance into our lives. We know this to be true and by simply expressing gratitude daily, in every moment of your life, you will understand it to be true too.

In addition to attracting more of what we’re grateful for, like wealth, love, and good health, gratitude also invites compassion into our lives. There are so many people in this world who suffer, who struggle and who do not have the wealth and abundance you have right now, today. It’s important to point out that this is an opportunity for you. Giving back benefits you in a number of ways.

When you give back, you feel better about yourself, your accomplishments and your wealth — you feel grateful.

When you give back, you learn about yourself and about others — this is a valuable opportunity.

When you give back, you make valuable connections with people who have the power to change your life in any number of amazing ways.

When you give back, you gain both spiritually and monetarily. It’s the Law of Attraction — which states you attract what you focus on. The Law of Attraction says: That which is like unto itself, is drawn.

When you possess gratitude, compassion, and generosity of mind, money and spirit, you attract those things back to you — all which make you richer, smarter, and surrounded by life, love and happiness.

Consider for just a moment the amazing contributions of:

Bill Gates and his foundation which partners with companies around the world to improve health and education.

Oprah Winfrey and her angel network which works on global and local networks to improve the lives of others.

And Kelly a small business owner who regularly motivates her social networking followers to generate thousands of dollars to families in need by donating her time and services in exchange for monetary donations from others.

You, no matter what level you’re at or what goals you are striving for, have the mind-blowing opportunity to improve the lives of others, including your own, in a number of ways.

1. You have the power to change the world, to better the world.

2. By embracing and acting on your power, you will gain abundance both materially and spiritually.

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”
-Winston Churchill

How Can You Give Back?

There are a number of ways you can give back to the world.

1.) Volunteer
Volunteer your time, skills and expertise. Volunteering offers a number of benefits:

-You Become Part of a Community
Volunteering has a meaningful, positive impact on your community. We depend on each other for personal and professional survival and when you’re part of a community, your personal and your professional life prosper. Volunteering helps, you build and sustain your community, which in turn will give back to you. It’s a win-win situation.

-Broaden Your Repertoire
People volunteer to contribute their skills and knowledge however it’s practically guaranteed that you’ll walk away with more knowledge and skills than you had beforehand. Volunteering is the perfect vehicle to discover something you are good at and develop a new skill.

-A Sense of Accomplishment
There’s little else in life that offers the same level of satisfaction like watching your hard earned efforts benefit someone in need.

Volunteering also offers you new interests, new experiences, new people, and authenticity and credibility in your industry.

2.) Donate funds
What’s your favorite cause or charity – something that’s important to you, your family or your friends? Perhaps it is the American Cancer Society, the Humane Society, or the Nature Conservancy. These organizations thrive on two things: Volunteers and Donations.

If you have causes, passions and charities which are near and dear to your heart, it’s important to do what you can to keep them in the black, financially solvent, and able to continue to provide their services.

3.) Use your business to tap into the needs of your prospects, community, customers, and associates
One of the truly wonderful aspects about being a business owner is the amazing power you have to give back. As a business owner, you have a rolodex jam-packed with contacts. This includes your lead list but it also includes your associates, vendors, partners, and always your friends, family and community members. You are a veritable Paul Revere — and one word from you has tremendous power, power to change the world and have a positive effect on the lives of others.

4.) Mentor
Mentoring is an exceptional way to share your knowledge and experience with others and give back to the world.

Mentoring is when you meet with someone one-on-one and help them learn and grow. A mentee can be a child or young adult struggling with choices, a professional who is interested in growing their career, or a person interested in starting a business similar to yours. A mentor/mentee relationship is essentially, however you define it.

The Next Step

If history and experience have taught us anything it’s that the more you give, the more you receive. When you take the time to give back to the world with the intention of improving the lives of others, the essential result is that you end up receiving so much more than you can possibly imagine. Give it a try. You’ll be amazed what happens in your life.

About the Author:

Jeremy Gislason is an entrepreneur, online business owner and marketer. He is also a philanthropist with over 12 years of offline and online business experience. Discover The Secret to Lasting Abundance in Mindmap to Riches Vol. 4 at http://www.MindmaptoRiches.com

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Spirituality – Acceptance

Posted in family and relationships, It's my life, spirituality, tagged acceptance, Baptist, beliefs, buddhism, can you be spiritual and christian?, christian, Church of England, Genesis, God, religion, Revelations, spirituality, Taoism, what does it mean to be spiritual on January 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Today being Sunday, I am of course blogging about religion and spirituality (just because I like to be orderly).

As a child my mother used to send us to Church (Sunday school) every week. There we got to learn about Christ and Christian principles and about God. We also had a load of fun colouring in pictures and listening to stories, and one of my most vivid memories of Christ was of him dressed in a long pure-white robe, a long vibrant sapphire blue cloak over that, brown sandals long brown hair and a beautiful smile. That image was portrayed in a large book my Mother had given us of Bible Stories.

As we got older and started going to grown-up Church, sometimes my Mother (or Father – depending on whom we were living with at the time) would come with us, most times not), I recall that the preacher – of whichever church was nearest at the time (we moved a lot), would stand on his pulpit and either preach about how God would punish us for various sins etc and banish us to hell, or would preach about a loving God who forgave all sins. This confused the heck out of me and I could not relate that to the pictures I had seen in the book or the stories I had read. (I do confess I have never read the bible through, only got as far as Genesis and touched on Revelations, as well as briefly on others in between).

In the fullness of time church went out the window and religion took a back-seat to real life, and we practised what my Mother called a ‘shot-gun’ religion – church for weddings, christenings, funerals and the occasional seasonal catch up. Although I then considered myself to be a Christian the reality was that I did not lead a Christian lifestyle. Neither I, nor my siblings were either; Baptised, Christened or whatever. We had conflicting experiences of how life should be lived and how life was lived – leading to total confusion. Although I pretty much gave up on ‘religion’ per se, I was still curious and over the years I investigated, albeit briefly, different religions; touching on Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, I went to different churches: Methodist; Church of England; Catholic; and Baptist and even ventured into the world of Seventh Day Adventists.

When my daughter went to school, I sent her to a Catholic School for most of her junior years, the result of which that she has sworn off religion for life (so far). (Actually, the Toasim venture, was unwittingly mitigated by her; through a Chinese school friend she was helping to learn English and who was teaching her Mandarin in return.) We were totally taken with the whole experience and faithfully attended services every Friday, which lasted till they told us that cats don’t have souls! Bearing in mind: I am a cat lover of note, had five cats at the time, one of whom had just been killed by a car that very day – bad timing). Taosim went out the window.

On the rare occasion I have attended church since my childhood, it is usually to pray for someone else (I do believe in an Almighty God/Entity), to attend Easter Service or Christmas Eve Mass (I enjoy the carols) and for weddings, funerals, christenings and very occasionally just because I want to enjoy the spiritual environment. Other than that I am totally taken with old churches and cathedrals and love wandering about whether they be whole or in ruins. It is more for the aesthetic beauty than religious, and I also love the traditions.

Which brings me to spirituality. I would consider myself to be a spiritual person; I had an amazing experience at Date With Destiny (see my book). And I have been thinking; what is religion as opposed to spirituality and how does spirituality fit into our daily lives? Doing some research, of course my first stop was Wikipedia and this is what I found.

Traditionally, religions have regarded spirituality as an integral aspect of religious experience and have long claimed that secular (non-religious) people cannot experience “true” spirituality. Many do still equate spirituality with religion, but declining membership of organised religions and the growth of secularism in the western world has given rise to a broader view of spirituality.

Secular spirituality carries connotations of an individual having a spiritual outlook, which is more personalized, less structured, more open to new ideas/influences, and more pluralistic than that of the doctrinal faiths of organized religions. At one end of the spectrum, even some atheists are spiritual. While atheism tends to lean towards scepticism regarding supernatural claims and the existence of an actual “spirit”, some atheists define “spiritual” as nurturing thoughts, emotions, words and actions that are in harmony with a belief that the entire universe is, in some way, connected; even if only by the mysterious flow of cause and effect at every scale.

Some modern religions also see spirituality in everything: see pantheism and neo-Pantheism. In a similar vein, Religious Naturalism has a spiritual attitude towards the awe, majesty and mystery it sees in the natural world.

For a Christian, to refer to him or herself as “more spiritual than religious” may (but not always) imply relative deprecation of rules, rituals, and tradition while preferring an intimate relationship with God. The basis for this belief is that Jesus Christ came to free humankind from those rules, rituals, and traditions, giving humankind the ability to “walk in the spirit” thus maintaining a “Christian” lifestyle through that one-to-one relationship with God.

Interesting! This is just a small sample of what I found. What are your thoughts? Of course there is much, much more on the internet and the subject could be beaten to death, however, please bear in mind that I am not decrying, deriding or slating any religion, belief or way of life, in any way – I am just voicing what is my belief and how I have experienced life. I do not wish to be ‘converted’ and if you leave any comments kindly do so at a constructive level, respecting the fact that everyone has a different set of beliefs, values and their own model of the world and that in my opinion we are all correct in our thinking and that we all have the right to our own beliefs. I also do not feel that any one religion or religious sect, or way of thinking or set of beliefs, is either right or wrong; it just is. How I do wish that we could all accept that.

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