Back home....

We're back home! Jen's sleeping on the couch after returning from the surgical center. Still under the influence I'd say! (Anesthesia and waking up at 4:30 am).
We stopped at Wendy's and brought home lunch for us both. (She hadn't eaten since last night).
Anyway, she's doing fine. The cartilage in the knee repaired and even some arthritis was cleaned up, though that will return probably in time. All in all the doc said all went well and she should feel a lot better after recovery and therapy.
We are thankful. To God and all of you.
In another post I'll tell how I had to fork out a ton of money out of pocket unexpectedly for the surgery I assumed was covered by Blue Cross & Blue Shield. Yeah, right! In the meantime here's a news item I found on the net a while ago....

Buying the pharma

Last year's Medicare drug benefit bill was a pork-filled giveaway for pharmaceutical companies and for insurers unable to compete with Medicare on a level playing field. (Not so coincidentally, seniors were recently hit with the largest Medicare premium increase ever). Now, investigators have found that, before the drug bill passed, then-Medicare head Tom Scully - who already had one foot in the revolving door to become a big-bucks health care lobbyist - threatened to fire Medicare's chief actuary if he told Congress how much the bill would really cost.
Learn more....

Jennifer's surgery....

A quick update: My wife Jennifer undergoes surgery on her left knee as we speak to fix torn cartilage. Supposedly not a biggie, but you never know. They will have to put her completely under because of acid reflux and the risk of asperation (fluid backing up and getting in her lungs). Normally they just do a pain block to her knee. I will go back to pick her up later about 10:30 this morning.
Thanks for your prayers, although by the time you read this it will be over. However, the recovery might be a little difficult. Fill you in later.
Ron

Musings....

Why is it that no matter what color of bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why is it that no plastic garbage bag will open from the end you first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those closed light fixtures?

Considering all the lint you get in your dryer, if you kept drying your clothes would they eventually just disappear?

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

Is it true that the only difference between a yard sale and a trash pickup is how close to the road the stuff is placed?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

If at first you don't succeed, shouldn't you try doing it like your wife told you to do it?

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends ... if they're okay, then it's you.

Conspiracy of Cordiality....

What we call “church”
is too often a gathering of strangers who see the church as yet another “helping institution” to gratify further their individual desires. One of the reasons some church members are so mean-spirited with their pastor, particularly when the pastor urges them to look at God, is that they feel deceived by such pastoral invitations to look beyond themselves.
They have come to church for “strokes,” to have their personal needs met. What we call church is often a conspiracy of cordiality. Pastors learn to pacify rather than preach to their Ananiases and Sapphiras. We say we do it out of “love.” Usually, we do it as a means of keeping everyone as distant from everyone else as possible. You don’t get into my life and I will not get into yours.

Choosing between friendly religiosity and the hard-won peace of Golgotha

Source: "Resident Aliens" by Stanley Hauerwas.

Harry Truman....

"There is nothing more foolish than to think that war can be stopped by war.
You don't prevent anything by war except peace". Harry Truman.

Ponder this....

Here is a paragraph to ponder. Something to meditate upon. Don’t try to figure it out intellectually. Just mull it over a while. Let it roll around on your tongue like a fine wine. If you can’t understand it after a while, that’s okay. Just put it on the back burner and let it simmer. The day will come when it will hit you like a ton of bricks and you won’t feel trapped anymore.

People typically feel trapped by life, trapped by the universe, because they imagine that they are actually in the universe and therefore the universe can squish them like a bug.
This is not true.
You are not in the universe; the universe is in you.

From ‘One Taste’, pg 448, Ken Wilber

Goody goody?....

It's got nothing to do with being a perfect, goody-goody, selfless, sacrificing, spiritual saint.
Blagh! Some of those things are not bad it's just that
that whole characterization was meant for a different audience at a different time,
and they really had issues.

It's got everything to do with being yourself,
trusting the magic,
following your heart,
dreaming big,
and having fun.

Jib Jab....

I know most of you may have already seen this, but it was so funny I had to pass it along for those who have not seen it.
here's the link to JibJab
Have fun!
Ron

Bumper Sticker....

I'm not usually a bumper sticker type but I couldn't resist this one. My new bumper sticker says:

"When Jesus said, 'Love your enemies,'
I think he probably meant don't kill them."

From a song by Linda K. Williams, First Church of the Brethren,
San Diego, CA

9/11....

Really Important

Antoine de St. Exupery

The only really important time in our lives
is the time we waste with those we love.

Readings for the third anniversary of 9/11

Bruderhof

Peace....

Finding peace.

It is there, deep within you, like a vast

tranquil lake engulfing your very being.

Remove all the useless

clutter you have placed on top of

the presence of your natural state.

You ARE peace.

You have lost memory of it

beneath the daily yearning

churning which goes on all day

in that weary mind.

Be peace.

You are a human

being, not a human

doing.

Thought for the Day....

Laziness is often mistaken for patience.


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Today's Quickie
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Reporter interviewing a 104 year-old woman: "What is the best
thing about being 104?"

The reply: "No peer pressure."

Revised....

Without your wounds where would you be?
The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children of earth as can one human being broken in the wheels of living. In love’s service, only the wounded soldiers can serve.

Thornton Wilder

Soul Water

In the wood of the wounded
A pond glitters its golden salve
A beckoning to all the wild men
And hairy men who've learned to cry
To come and be healed.
I dipped my wounded finger
In the liquid crystal
And it turned to gold.
My wound is my gift.
The fathers who were not
Are guilty of the mothers
Who were not, of the sons
Who were and finally broke the chain
In the healing waters.

Who will let thee out hairy one?
You have been entombed many years.
You are seen under the rippled surface
Frozen in its time waiting
For the dawn of your release.
The wound drips its liquid gold
Bearing the gift of its pain.
For the way of healing is found
On the sorrowful path of the fathers.
The mothers found the way
But the fathers are still living
In the deep wood by the water
Of the wounded.

copyright 2003
Ron Russo

With apologies and gratitude to Robert Bly (Iron John)

More on separation....

Why is it said, that whatever I do to another I do to myself?

The reason why you should never see another’s best interest as separate from your own is that in reality you are one. The seeming separateness that you see with your body’s eyes is an illusion.

Scientists are now discovering that when you put any physical object under the largest microscope, beyond the smallest particle you will see a flow of energy. This indicates that at the core of our physical being we are one and the same energy.

The moral of the story is, that whatever you do to another, you will feel the same pain at a deeper level. Your thoughts of separation are the root of all evil.

In Christian circles we say that sin separates us from God. The concept of sin is, at its root, the forgetting of who you really are. When you remember that you are indeed, one with God and of necessity everyone else, then you do not do those things that we love to categorize with terms such as ‘sin’. Our forgetfulness separates us. One of our many illusions.
“Nothing can separate us from the love of God…”

Refuge....

Refuge

Thank you for my walls.
They hide me and
Give me my name.

Sometimes, when I peek
From behind, I am afraid, so….
It’s good to know

That my wall is with me,
My refuge and strength.
Nothing it seems can breach

Its height, or breadth, or width.
Its door is locked in fear
Waiting for perfect love

To cast it out.

RonRusso 2004

A word from Jim....

This is an exerpt of a longer message from the minister of Presbyterian Church of the Covenant

We have to imagine our lives into being.

We have to live toward the image that we have in mind for ourselves, our lives. What do we intend? What are the qualities that we want to exhibit? Who, and how, do we want to be? Who are our models?

Living with nothing particular in mind, with nothing in mind beyond "success," or "money," or "marriage," or "happiness," leads to a drifting aimlessness, or to settling for "whatever" comes along "the path of least resistance."

Thinking through what we mean with the lives we are living, and working to adjust the image, sharpen it, clarify it, bring it into focus, and give it form in the moment of our living, brings soul to bear upon the design of our lives, and enables a degree of wholeness that we would not, otherwise, achieve.

Jim Dollar

Separation, again....

The egos main goal is to keep you in a state of separation. It doesn’t care how it achieves this goal, as long as it achieves it. Without separation the ego cannot exist.

The ego is simply the idea that you are a separate self that exists apart from God.
You may be rich, you may be poor or you may be sick or even healthy. The ego doesn’t care. It uses everything it can to make you see differences between you and others.

Have you ever noticed how some people never stop complaining about how much of a tragedy their life is, or how much life is mistreating them?
That is the ego at work. It is saying that I am a victim and I am being mistreated by the victimizers of the world.

Once you stop listening to the egos lies and start to see Oneness all around you, all the opposites that exist in this world will no longer be part of your reality. You will only experience the constant Love, Peace and Abundance of God, which has no opposite.

An old poem of mine....

Grand Chasm


I hate

This distance between us,

A chasm.

Ten foot gorge

Deeper than Grand.

I could cross in one leap

With my voice

If I dared.