  Spiritual
This week: All in the Family Edited by: SophyBells  
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Hi, I'm SophyBells ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter.
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book Finding Your Religion, compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountaain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred.  |
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All in the Family
The songs of all my great-grandmothers and the dreams of all my great-grandfathers – the dance of Heaven and Earth.
All live in me, all live in me! (Ricki Byars Beckwith)
Robert Pike was born on March 17, 1616 in the village of Landford in Wiltshire County, England. He set sail for the Americas with his family from Southampton on April 5, 1635 aboard the Ship “James” – and arrived in Ipswich, MA on June 3, 1635. His family settled first in Newbury, and then moved east of the Merrimack River, where he became one of the founders of the settlement that became Salisbury, MA. He married Sarah Ann Sanders in 1641 when he was 25 years old. They had eight children, and he died on the 12th of December 1706 in Salisbury, Massachusetts at the ripe old age of 90.
Pike became one of the leading men of Salisbury, taking on numerous civic and military duties and holding several offices. He is most well known for his bitter opposition to the Salem witchcraft proceedings in 1692. Pike rose in defense of Mary Perkins Bradbury, who was accused of being a witch. She was the wife of his colleague and friend Thomas Bradbury, and mother-in-law to his daughter Sarah. On her behalf, Pike wrote a letter to the trial judges in which he composed a tightly reasoned attack upon the use of spectral evidence and the testimony of the “afflicted girls” in general. While Pike, like all Puritans, believed witches and witchcraft existed and were the work of Satan, he questioned the methods of the court in determining the credibility and guilt of those accused.
A historian of the Salem witchcraft cases wrote that “not a voice comes down to us of deliberate and effective hostility to the movement, except that of Robert Pike in his cool, close and powerful argumentative appeals to the judges who were trying the witchcraft cases. It stands out against the deep blackness of those proceedings like a pillar of light upon a star in the midnight sky.” Confronting the judges stood this sturdy old man, his head whitened with the frost of 76 winters and protested that there was no legal way of convicting a witch, even according to the laws and beliefs of those times. It required no small amount of courage for him to take the stand he did against the opinions of the highest judicial tribunal in the province when no one was safe from the charge of having dealings with the evil one, and he himself might be the very next one accused of being a witch! But having the courage of his convictions he rose to the demands of the situation and proclaimed his opposition by formal and thorough exposition: the great merit of this position so far as it has come down to us belongs entirely to him, no man of his time is entitled to greater honor. It is a marvel how he breasted the storm when any resistance to the popular demand was deemed evidence of complicity with the witches, imps and all the powers of darkness, to overthrow the true church on earth. He defended and plead the cause of several of the accused, among whom were Mrs. Mary Bradbury and Susanna Martin. (From The Hendrick Geneology, 1923)
While Mary Bradbury was convicted of being a witch, she managed to avoid execution and was eventually exonerated. Her descendants include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ray Bradbury. Among the descendants of Major Robert Pike – well - I am one of them! Thanks to Ancestry.Com, I discovered Robert Pike is my 8th great grandfather from my mother’s maternal branch of our family tree. So far I have been able to trace his line back to 14th Century England and my 17th Great Grandfather, Richard Pike. No stone marks Robert Pike’s grave on the Old Beach Road in Salisbury. However, in the center of the City of Salisbury a memorial plaque was erected to honor him. The plaque reads:
“IN MEMORY OF MAJOR ROBERT PIKE (1616-1706)
One of the first settlers of Salisbury, a leader in civil and military affairs.
He stood far in advance of his time and having the wisdom and courage
to proclaim witchcraft a delusion and to advocate religious freedom.”
I have such admiration for this man, not only for what he stood for but even more so because of all he accomplished without the modern conveniences with which I am blessed. The letter he wrote on behalf of Mary Bradbury was penned with quill and ink on parchment, by candlelight – using his intellect and passion for the cause as his resources. I wrote these words about him on my MacBook, after learning about his life on the Internet. Yet despite these differences we share a commitment to standing up to injustice; and though I never risked my life to do so, I can only hope my contributions in my own time and place in this world are worthy of his legacy.
I have found so many interesting things on Ancestry.com. In addition to 8 times Great Grandfather Pike, my research has gone all the way back to 11th century Normandy, France, and my 26th Great Grandfather on my mother’s paternal side of our family tree. His name was Grimbaldus … de Bacon. Yes, I am descended from Bacon. On my father’s side, my favorite discovery is that I am NOT related by blood to Carrie Nation, as early family lore suggested. While there is a Nation on my father’s maternal side of our family tree, the notorious prohibitionist Carrie Amelia Moore married my 3rd cousin, 4 times removed, David Nation. I’ve also discovered relatives who served in the court of King Henry VIII, and thankfully kept their heads long enough to procreate, as well as those who fought on both sides in the American Revolution and the Civil War. Most of you have similar stories in your family own trees, and more than a few of us have some branches in common if we go back far enough.
While all of this has been great fun, it has also been a meaningful journey as well. I’ve had the spiritual realization that we are all related if you go back far enough affirmed. Every person in the world is a cousin of ours, and the only question is how distant a cousin they are. The degree of cousin is just a way of referring to how far you have to go back before you find a common ancestor. For first cousins, you only have to go back two generations to hit your common grandparents. For second cousins, you go back three generations to your common great-grandparents, as for fourth and fifth cousins, you go back five and six generations. And so on. When you create a family tree, your relatives multiply pretty quickly when you start moving back through generations. I have 4 grandparents, 8 great grands, 16 great-great grands, and 32 great-great-great grands, 64 great-great-great-great grands, and 128 5th great grandparents – or in other words, 128 people are my grandparents’ grandparents’ great-grandparents. And one of them may be related to you as well. These 5th great grandparents were born about 250 years ago, around the time of the Revolutionary War, which means the last quarter of the 18th century contained 128 random strangers going about their lives, coming together, and eventually contributing to the genes which make up 1/128th of who I am today. If even one of them had taken a different path, or died young, or never had children, I would not exist.
My endeavors have also brought it home to me more than ever before that we are all connected by threads of genetics on the one hand, and responsibilities to the world communities of which we are a part, both locally and globally, on the other. Which means the Syrian boy in the news with blood on his face after a bombing – he is my cousin. Sandra Bland, the woman who died in her jail cell after a traffic stop – she is my cousin. Ryan Lochte is my cousin, as are the women and men running for political office. We are all one family. What a different world this might be if we all could realize this and see ourselves this way.
Every act of faithfulness and compassion reflects credit on both our ancestors and the generations of family who come after us. Every act of willful neglect or betrayal causes harm to those who are our family, regardless of how well we may or may not know them. What legacy do you hope to leave for your ancestors and descendants? How do you hope to honor both your ancestors and your descendants? While I do not have children of my own, I do have nieces and nephews, children of dear friends – how do I hope to be remembered by then? What discoveries about my life do I hope one of my descendants makes a few hundred years in the future?
My cousin, Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured.”
Ancestors
Author Unknown
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row
Would you be proud of them or not,
Or don’t you really know?
Some strange discoveries are made
In climbing family trees,
And some of them, you know, do not
Particularly please.
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row,
There might be some of them, perhaps,
You wouldn’t care to know.
But here’s another question, which
Requires a different view.
If you could meet your ancestors,
Would they be proud of you?
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Below you'll find some spiritual offerings from other WDC members. Please let the folks know if you read their piece by leaving a thoughtful comment or review. I realize I post mostly poems, but that is because it is tough to find other types of spiritual writing on the site. If you have something you would like me to highlight, please do share it with me, thanks!
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Here is a response to my last newsletter "Spiritual Newsletter (September 21, 2016)" about "The Spirituality of Work:"
From shaara
What an interesting newsletter. Thanks for the stories.
Glad you enjoyed it!
    
From Quick-Quill 
Over the last 40+ years of my marriage my husband has been a go-to in our nationwide church for building projects. His feeling is, "God gave me the talent and to give back in some small way is my privilege." I have been able to visit some of the projects and found the people are blessed by his work as much as he is blessed in doing it. 15 years ago he remodeled an older church for our branch in Chicago. using his connections he got a number of items donated and because of his own work was able to purchase extra items. That church has been sold and a newer church purchased for the expanded group. Yet when he visits he is greeted with hugs and and hand shakes along with "Brother PAUL its so good to see you." Those greetings make it worth all the work.
How wonderful - thank you so much for sharing this! 
From Elfin Dragon-finally published 
Your story about perspective reminds me about the last month's "Stormy's Poetry contest". I was so happy because the words inspired in me the first happy poem in a very long time. And as I read the poems others had written, I was dumbfounded. Talk about perspective. All but myself had written poems of which were sad and longing. Isn't it amazing how we can see different things.
It really is - and it definitely helps to see things from other's points of view.
From Vaughan Jones - ONE Scribe 
Interesting thoughts aplenty. To me the bottom line is that working earns a living but it primarily supports the social system in which we live; capitalism. This system supports us crushing each other, competing, and doing whatever it takes to support our lifestyle. Even the use of electricity is a luxury. So are the Internet, the telephone system, the roads, etc, etc,.....
Where do we draw the line? Work our fingers/brains to the bone?
But, in actual fact, God gave each one of us life and Earth to enjoy freely and fairly.
Thank you for sharing.
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming! Until next time! SophyBells |
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Spiritual: October 19, 2016 Issue [#7920]
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