Running a little later than usualy this year but finally got the graveyeard up - bring on the trick-or-treaters!

I live very near the town forest and many days, weather permitting, I go for a bike ride in the woods in the morning. I say hello to the trees, get some exercise, and meditate with my favorite tree if the mosquitoes aren't too bad (Spring and Fall, mostly). It's a great way to start the day off! Thought I'd share my ride with you.

The sun is just coming up

casting long shadows across the trails

It's been so rainy...there are so many wonderful mushrooms!

both big and small

and delicate

A lovely little river runs through the woods

and meets up with a much larger river.

I always try to stop and say hello to my favorite tree, and meditate a bit in the circle I made in front of it.

Remnants of some fierce storms that came through this summer - several trails are still blocked by fallen trees, but some have been cleared.

Lots of old stone walls from way back when - just think that this whole forest was once someone's farm!

And back home again - thanks for coming with me on my ride today!

 I heard a great version of the old story about God helping those that help themselves. It was on the podcast "A Pagan Heart in Maine" (which is an excellent podcast) and the basic story went like this: A man was trapped in his house with a flood coming. Someone drove buy and offered to drive him to safety, and said no, that his God would save him. The waters rise and he moves to the second floor. A boat comes buy and they offer to save him but he again declines saying that his God will save him. The waters rise more and he is on his roof and a helicopter comes by and offer to save him. Of course, he turns down the offer saying that his God will save him. So of course he drowns. He  goes to heaven and asks God, "Hey, why didn't you save me?" God replies "Gee, I sent you a car, a boat and a helicopter - what more do you want of me?"

The Gods will answer reasonable requests - I do believe this - but the answer may not be what you expect and you have to look for it. Most of our Gods and Goddesses have some sense of humor and it may not be the same as ours! Even if they don't play tricks on us, their idea of how to help us may be very different than ours. We are not talking about humans - we are talking about the divine - and it is presumptuous of us to assume we know how they think. So yes, maybe you did receive divine intervention - it just wasn't what you expected. Look for it, be open to it, be willing to work with what you receive even if it wasn't quite what you asked for.

And if you are going to receive divine intervention, you also need to do your part. Tapping into the primal power of the divine does not mean snapping your fingers and making outlandish things happen. This is not Charmed or I Dream of Jeannie. You are asking a God or Goddess to change the course of nature, and do so in a way that may be contrary to what others are hoping and praying and casting spells for. It's pretty egotistical to think that you can overcome all of that pressure to make unlikely events occur through divine intervention.  But you have every reason to expect the Gods to help give you a push down the path you are already on...

There is also the old story of the devout person who kept asking God to help him win the lottery. Finally, as he is praying, he hears a great voice from above saying, "Help me out here - at least buy a lottery ticket."

To paraphrase slightly an old Christian saying: "The Gods help those who help themselves." It's like I constantly tell my kids when they ask me to do something for them - I reply that yes, I'll help them to do it themselves, but I won't  do it for them. And I'm not even a God!

So the challenge I give myself each day is to try to remember to ask my Gods for something reasonable, to do my part to reach my goals, and be willing to recognize and appreciate divine intervention even if it's not quite what I expected.

Just for fun...

Happy Monday!

I recently finished reading a fascinating book titled "Simplicity" by Richard Rohr. Despite that fact that he is a Franciscan priest, much of this well written book will resonate quite well with Pagans. Richard identifies and speaks against many evils that Pagans struggle with as well, and the only place where we differ is in the final solution which for him, of course, involves accepting Jesus. I highly recommend it to anyone as a great and thoughtful read.

Richard talks specifically about how shallow and materialistic our society has become, and what a trap it is. He points out how difficult it is to be truly spiritual if you are addicted to material possessions. This struck a chord with me since I confess to being a total Pack Rat. I collect stuff. Good stuff, bad stuff, useless stuff, but never "junk"! I hate to throw things away, and if I have a chance to add something to my collection of "stuff" I do so. Who knows when you might need it? To be fair, my biggest problem is that I have way too many hobbies, and each one has its own collection of tools, supplies, etc.

Now I'm trying to slowly recover from my addiction to stuff. I go through things and try to weed out stuff I haven't used in 3 years or more. Even if I might need them someday. Recycle, sell, or throw away. Part of the problem is admitting that some hobbies I just won't ever have time to come back to. Instead I work at concentrating on a few key passions. And while I have far to go, I must admit that I feel a little freer and lighter with each batch of stuff that leaves the house. And I'm doing pretty good on bringing new stuff into the house at a slower rate than old stuff is going out.

Thinking about this, I was reminded of the Janis Joplin song "Mercedes Benz" which she wrote to poke fun at materialism and I thought it would be fun to record a version of it. Using some of my recording "stuff" I did a multi-track version of it by myself. If you are interested you can check it out at http://www.bluesparksmedia.net/Music/MercedesBenz.mp3 - just a litte fun!

Janis' song is particularly interesting because in it she keeps asking God to "give" her things. Not only are they things that she doesn't really need, but wants because all her friends have them, but she doesn't want to work for them - she just wants to have them handed to her!

BTW - Janis died 4 days after recording her original version. Fortunately, I have made it well past that mark.