Our Hearts Ablaze

[momking]

During these times of times, I have adopted certain core routines &

rituals to maintain my serenity while watching from a distance the

apocalyptic events unfolding across our nation & world.

As hurricane Katrina approached, broke, & retreated I sat on my camp

chair in Vermont, watching the news develop primarily through my

computer where I can limit the kind & amount of news I watch.

I use my computer as a kind of glass filter; to seek the truth in all

things, to edit out the zillions of needless products that come & go in

a heart beat or two, to focus on the mission Spirit has given me,

written in fire on my heart.

As I watched, my mind & heart echoed this beautiful prayer;

Dear God, May all the tears I cry, and all the tears I have not cried

but hold within, pour forth into Your hands. Please take each painful

thought and unhealed wound, and send angels here to me. I long for peace.

Amen.

- Marianne Williamson,

"Illuminated Prayers"

But the prayer is not for me alone.

To be more accurate, my prayer reads as follows;

Dear God, Creator of all LIGHT:

May all the tears WE cry, and all the tears WE have not cried but hold

within, pour forth into Your hands. Please take each painful thought and

unhealed wound, and send angels here to US. WE long for peace. Amen.

I saw, as I watched the laborious beginning of this month of September

unfold, a tale of two cities being recreated in front of our collective

eyes.

Charles Dickens wrote this classic tale about the revolutionary times in

his native continental Europe a couple of centuries ago.

He wrote that it was the best of times & the worst of times.

Those were his words that rang through & through in my head as I watched;

the worst of times, the best of times, over & over like a running

ticker tape the modern news loves to overload our brain circuitry with

as we watch ALL that is happening on our global village theaters; our

home entertainment systems, televisions, laptops, computer screens, cell

phones.

The worst, the best, the best, the worst.

What do I categorize as the worst?

The ineptitude of governmental figures at all levels in responding in

the immediate urgency of the unfolding emergency. I need not say more,

because thousands of journalists, bloggers & home-makers have already

done so, eloquently.

I would rather focus my attention on the BEST:

here it is....

Written by an author known simply as James, on the rense.com website.

Stirring Portait Of Heroic, Selfless Rescuers

In New Orleans

From James

9-11-5

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from New Orleans on a hurricane relief mission in the C-130.

Let me just start by saying I was awed. Not in what I saw in destruction

and devastation because I had/have already seen enough of that on TV.

What really hit me hard was the absolute determination and willingness

of all those involved in the relief effort. I just want to quickly tell

you what I was a part of and what I witnessed as it just really filled

me with pride and reminded me again why we are such an amazing and

successful country.

The full article is posted at:

http://www.rense.com/

The direct link is;

http://www.rense.com/general67/hero.htm

For all the critical reporting you could find anywhere, rense.com will

serve you well. The articles published there unmask all sorts of plots,

spins & deceptions being perpetrated by those in power these days.

They are contributed by an eclectic group of journalists around the

world, with some heavy & impressive credentials.

Having been trained in scientific inquiry, I certainly assert that

healthy doses of skepticism fuel many of our ongoing quests in pursuit

of truth & knowledge. So here is a place to bring to light the

questions which remain troubling to the intelligent reader, with an open

mind to question authority which is exerted through the main channels

of communication these days.

For those reading this article however, it may be equally clear that a

massive, a collosal shift in paradigm is underway on our precious mother

planet earth.

What was once considered a monopoly, a pyramidal, heirarchy of highly

controlled media outlets we, in our midlife considered the backbone of

TV land growing up, the big three; CBS, NBC,ABC as major networks can

hardly affirm they maintain this pinnacle of power any longer.

Instead a spider plant model of communications in the internet

revolution has taken root, & is sprouting everywhere, as prolifically as

any spider plant will do. It is the living, breathing spider plant

which is the more accurate metaphor for how media works, moves & has its

being these days.

Witness the account of James, above. Such a scene, or set of them,

could never have occurred in the fifties or even later decades of the

closing chapters of the twentieth century.

No, the account James provides us with, is a living, passionate,

breathing account of what happens at the community level, at the

national & international level when hearts are set ablaze with

passionate concern for our fellow human creatures & their associated

pets & animals.

It is our hearts ablaze that enlivened for us in this day in this time,

the parable of the fishes & the loaves.

It was her heart ablaze that made the cries & tears of Celine Dionne

move her fans & others to get on with the business of living, not simply

moving monetary funds from one account to another.

Give them the WATER they need! She cried, the FOOD, the TRANSPORT, the

SHELTER, the tools to COMMUNICATE with lost members of families &

friends.

Thousand upon thousands of people gave & received, according to the

highest & best possible prayers for outcomes in this disaster of

disasters our mother midwifed for us.

As our continental boundaries were changed with a simple temper tantrum

mother nature gave vent to, it is hopefully exceedingly clear that this

monumental shift of paradigm is forcing us, compelling us to reexamine

our most deeply cherished values.

What do we cherish about our life on earth?

What is most important to us?

I would say from all I have seen as I survey the current scene;

A sense of HOME

A welcoming of strangers into our midst

HOSPITALITY.

Willingness to take a leap of faith over succumbing to overwhelming fear.

These values have unified a world wide community of faith-filled folk,

from every walk of life, who profess a belief or God or do not.

With hearts ablaze, a divinely appointed kingdom of God, a church of God,

knit together by hearts ablaze, emerges from the receding flood waters,

the death & destruction of that "other city".

The church of God, the community of the faithful are everywhere, a cloud

of witnesses with or without an espoused religion, are those who served

& continue to serve as they make this living kingdom the one to end all

others, the one to supplant all other governments.

Dear hearts, my gratitude for your faith, your incredible courage, your

heroic responses will forever remain in my heart.

There are new homes on the horizon, new communities, new life, in a

couple, a family, a neighborhood, a community for all of us.

Many phoenixes are rising from the ashes of that old city. Babylon,

Babylon indeed has fallen.

The city of God, the church of God, the family of God lives in our

collective hearts ablaze.

May Peace Prevail Upon the Earth.

I AM, momking