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Spiritual: April 20, 2011 Issue [#4353]

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Spiritual


 This week: Walk the Talk
  Edited by: KimChi Author IconMail Icon
                             More Newsletters By This Editor  Open in new Window.

Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

Welcome to the Spiritual Newsletter. I'm KimChi Author IconMail Icon, your hostess this week. Thanks for taking the time to read our musings on all matters of the spirit and soul.

The Spiritual Newsletter team:

SophyBells Author IconMail Icon
kittiara
KimChi Author IconMail Icon


Word from our sponsor



Letter from the editor

I recently received one of those uplifting chain emails: you know- you're an amazing woman, best girlfriend evah, or the master defender of Taoist quotes and feline wisdom. Risking immense peril to my own luck as well as the stability of the intricate spiritual "web," I do not forward these glittering jewels of wisdom within nine minutes to nine of my fellow amazing zen cat lovers. I know, I know; playing with fire.

But when your supah sistah sends you a prayer, you read it. Because she's my (real) sister. She read this prayer and then sent it to me to let me know. That's something entirely different altogether. Whether I like the prayer or not is irrelevant; whether I like the method or not is irrelevant; she prayed for me.

But it wasn't really the prayer itself that moved me; it was the adage tacked on the end. Not merely inspiration for a newsletter, but inspiration for my life. Just what I needed to hear, just when I needed to hear it. As you might suspect I don't believe in coincidence, so I guess it's time to pay it forward.

Here's hoping a single newsletter can balance out my bad karma and improve my horrible luck. *Laugh*


Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps, if you are not willing to move your feet.


Wow. So much truth in a simple sentence; another one of those "cosmic 2 by 4's" just smacked me right between the eyes. This phrase holds so much more than one idea. As I see it:

Don't ask for advice or help you won't use.
Start walking your talk.
Get up off your buttocks and do something about your problem.

And my first reaction to such wisdom? Like any toddler, a shrill whine of denial. But, but, but...I'm so (unworthy/unprepared/insert excuse here.)

Then, like a sly little girl, the bargaining begins. You know, the precocious child who thinks she's being slick, throwing your own words in your face. I quote Mary Stevenson's "Footprints in the Sand":

The Lord replied, "The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you."


And before the words are formed in my brain, I realize my mistake. I'm not a little girl anymore. I;m a big girl; too big to be carried around all the time. Denial won't work. Begging won't work. The truth hurts, but that pain lets you know you're alive, and while you're alive, there's time. Time to make things right, time to make a plan and start reaching for those pie-in-the-sky-dreams. Mostly, time to start walking my talk.

It's hard. In fact, it's human nature to give advice freely to others while not internalizing your own wisdom. Another of God's little jokes.

God is willing to help, willing to send humans and angels to assist; willing to keep giving me the same advice over and over until I finally hear it. And then it's up to me to move my feet, because how can anyone learn to walk when they're carried everywhere?

So even though I toddled away from the email sulking, fingers in my ears mumbling, "Nyah, nyah, nyah, I can't hear you!" I have faith that one day soon, very soon, the message will sink in, and I'll have the willpower to walk, then run toward my dreams. I also believe in miracles, so perhaps I'll even learn to take my own advice. *Smile*


Editor's Picks

These selections deal with following your dreams, practicing what you preach, and the discernment to know truth from falsehood. Kindly leave a few words or some pretty stars for these authors.

 Follow Your Dreams Open in new Window. (E)
We owe it to the world and to ourselves to follow our dreams.
#473168 by Kenzie Author IconMail Icon

I often wish that God had revealed to me as a child what I was supposed to be when I grew up, what I was supposed to make of my life.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#572194 by Not Available.

Every Sunday they piled like sardines into that decrepit old VW bus. The ping of its motor had the sound of a dying man's breath. As it pulled out of the gravel driveway, the sardines all waved a cheerful goodbye.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1531872 by Not Available.

You preach about caring
but where is the love?


 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1679916 by Not Available.

Hypnotic eyes,
Pointed words.
A serpent's tongue,
The audience lured
Into a deadly trap he set.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1705202 by Not Available.

Practice what you preach
or don't bother to teach.
Makes sense to recall
these lines well at all.


PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH Open in new Window. (ASR)
Written for Sherri Gibson's Coloring The World Contest - another challenge!
#1705166 by COUNTRYMOM-JUST REMEMBER ME Author IconMail Icon

If I had been wiser where motherhood's concerned,
by now I could relax and enjoy every hug I earned.




Submitted Items


 
Image Protector
IMAGE
My Grandmother Open in new Window. (E)
A picture of a picture of my grandmother, just before she passed away. And a Poem for her
#1684833 by BIG BAD WOLF is Merry Author IconMail Icon


 
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Word from Writing.Com

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Ask & Answer

*RainbowL**RainbowR* Thanks to all who responded to last month's newsletter:: "Spiritual Newsletter (March 23, 2011)Open in new Window.*RainbowL**RainbowR*

*QuestionV*What topics would you like to see discussed in the newsletter?*QuestionV*

njames51 Author IconMail Icon replies: Thank you for the beautiful poem. It does truly lift my heart when I leave my home and just walk. Today the sun was restful, flowers began to yawn and stretch out up, up to God. How mysterious that one cannot renew pure FAITH, as God promises springtime every single year. HE has never dissapointed me. SPRING is a marvelous creation, and I so much enjoy the tiny wondrous sweet peas blooming and the morning bird intent on calling me to come play.

islam.msn.com says: Nice description! Spring is my favourite second season after Summer.

Helen McNicol Author IconMail Icon states: Loved that poem, it was very inspirational. As writers it's not hard to find inspiration in the world around us. It is everywhere...if we are just open to it, and as you say, right in our own back yards.

BIG BAD WOLF is Merry Author IconMail Icon responds: Sometimes its the pictures that are important.

embe Author IconMail Icon responds with a lovely poem:

My Garden Scene -
by embe

To dream of splendor is over-rated
and leaves us uncertain of the past,
when we try by inventing it our way
the images that we should retain,
a garden surrounded in nature
obliterated by sand to dust,
condemned to die
a paradise lost.

-----------------

Where to now
and bow our knee,
God the gardener weeping
his lessons of the apple tree,
seeing Adam and Eve hiding
so afraid to ask for pity please,
planting new life for sinners saved
the serpent cast into the fire of hell.

-----------------------------------------------

Breathe, O breathe my loving spirit
my children you are saved today,
let us kneel and pray a prayer
that you may have babies,
to laugh and play away
your fear of failure,
my garden green
heaven bound.

-------------------

Angelica Weatherby-Star on top Author IconMail Icon responds: Hmm I'll just say I have a great imagination. *Bigsmile* Wait that's not spiritual... Oh well~ Great newsletter!

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