The Divine in all things...

God is the connection of all things and all things are connected. That is the heart and soul of my spiritual belief. This means everything and everyone is part of the divine so we should see the divine in everything and everyone.

Seeing the divine (God) in everything and everyone can be very difficult. That mosquito that just bit you isn't likely to make you feel like you just had a divine visit. And the guy driving alongside flipping you the bird in some odd fit of road rage doesn't look divine. The conflicts in our lives don't feel divine.

I truly believe all things are spiritual. My soul seeks peace, love and joy. While I cannot stop the mosquito from biting, the road rage guy, the conflicts that may arise, I can change my reaction to them. If I want to act in love and to experience joy, I must first find peace within.

The one thing I constantly ask is; does this connect and bring peace or does this cause destruction and separation? One is of God and one is not. This is a tough one because sometimes to bring peace, you need to separate but you do not need to cause destruction. 

Inflicting pain out of fear is the opposite of love. It will not bring peace. It can't. The opposite of love is not hate it is fear. Those who bully and are demanding are fearful. They need control to feel safe. It's hard to guess if they will ever have enough control to feel safe so that poses a challenge for those around them. If you want peace, it won't happen with this person. They need control to ease their fears and will do whatever they need to do to feel safe.

So what do we do with that and remain true to our spirit and beliefs? As Jesus said, we shake the dust from our shoes. We distance but we don't destroy. We act as much as possible in peace and love. We fear not. That's not easy. But reacting out of our own fear is not peaceful or loving. So, stop and seek instruction from the divine.

I'm not sure what I am going to do about the mosquito that bites me. It's a big stretch to see the divine there and not swat it. Gotta think on that one. 

My Cuddle Bug

Through the years I've loved many fur paws and held them as they passed over that rainbow. There were rescued mutts, german shepherds, rottweiler mix, a tiny poodle mix, and now a sheltie and golden retriever. The cats were mostly grey ones except my Simba - a yellow boy with a golden heart. Today it's Tommy, another grey kitty.

As a youngster, I wanted a german shepherd in the worst kind of way. I think it was Rin Tin Tin from the famous TV show that captured me. Someone got me a big overstuffed german shepherd pillow that I cuddled with and dreamed of my first dog. Soon I was gifted a big german shepherd I called Laddy. But it was short lived. My dad said he got loose and ran away. Years later I learned he had killed all the neighbors chickens and could not stay.

There were so many sweet friends who deserve their own stories but I never had a bigger cuddle bug than this Golden Angel. She fills my days with humor and is a great companion. Sure glad she came into my life.

Truth - Ways of Knowing

Listening to and reading a wide variety of books and teachings has led me to the conclusion that truth is known in many ways. There are different ways of knowing but truth is truth. 

My spiritual journey is so very fun. Opening to the universe (God if you like) brings all kinds of teachings of enlightenment. Everything is spiritual. The way we work. The way we cook and eat. The way we interact. What we buy. How we think. How we act in every way. Everything is spiritual.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is full of teaching of the natural world and our relationship to it. She often talks about "different ways of knowing" as she is native American and also a professor of botany. Interacting with the scientific community, she found herself educating them about a different way of knowing.

I've listened to youtube speakers about a variety of ways: teachings of RA, the law of attraction, Buddhist teachings, The Power of Now. All have common truths.

My favorite is the Tao of Pooh! For fun, months ago I began listening to Winnie the Pooh books on YouTube and loved them. Laughed and laughed and believe adults get more from them than children. Then up popped the Tao of Pooh.

This book (on YouTube video as an audio book)  is a beginners introduction to the Tao through the eyes of Pooh and friends. Having just listened to the old books, and having an interest in the Tao, this was very fun. When in China, I visited a Taoist temple and found it fascinating.

While I have leaned heavily Buddhist (my sister say Buddhao-Christian), I'm finding the Tao may be closer to my core beliefs. 

Ultimately, truth is truth. There is just one source of truth. There are simply different teachers who have different ways of knowing. If we are truly seeking the light and it is connecting us to our source (the Creator), it is simply truth no matter where it is revealed. And we will know it. Truth connects and heals. False truth divides and destroys. The way is PEACE and LOVE.

So, may the light of truth be with you. Honor how you know it is.

Finding Truth

We cannot discover truth by looking "out there" and speculating.  We discover truth when we quiet the mind, body and spirit and LISTEN. Truth comes from the creator who is the source of truth.

We discover truth in peace and love. The creator is the source of peace and love. This is the source of all power. Once we discover this truth, from the creator, we become creators of peace and love AND the fruit is joy.

It isn't always easy because those around you will point in other directions and want you to follow down their rabbit hole. They may dodge and weave and kick up dust trying to take you off course while clouding your vision. 

Do not despair. Stop. Return to your source of truth. Quiet the mind, body and spirit. Listen. Allow the creator to cover you in grace and provide the shield of peace and love. Joy will follow. As you practice and distance from the ways of this world, you will grow stronger. 

The seekers of truth around you will then see too. Not out of speculation, but of revelation that can only come from the source of creation. The same source from which you create JOY.

Truth is an inside job.

An Altar of Love

 

Symbols

Symbols are important. This represents my spiritual symbols to help my body, mind and spirit focus and heal. On the mantel are personal reminders of connections to the past and present that will carry me into the future. 

An angel reminds me that someone is watching over me and the picture at the other end is one of those angels. The storm lantern reminds me that those angels have lit a path for me and do still. The little lamp is unlit, ready for service when needed. These storms will be smaller. 

The Aladdin's lamp represents the magic of life and granting of miracles. People of miraculous! Life is full of miracles. That is why that lantern burns too.

The candles are my prayers. They are carried through those above and remind me of the connection to all that was - all that is - and all that will be.

These are my altar. I light the candles with love for you and for me.

"We don't know what we don't know."

This has probably floated around in my subconscious many, many years. Maybe it floated to my conscious at other times but it has now zoomed forefront to become a NOW mantra. We have all heard that we need to listen more but there is something else I'm questioning. How do we open our hearts, minds and ears to move from not knowing to knowing because we don't know to know we should? Maybe we should just know. Know that we should, I mean.

It might be, as my sister Laurie says, "A Buddhao-Christian" thing. She didn't tell me how to spell it.

How do we listen and not know what we are listening for? Scripture says to be still. Buddha says to be still. And many other teachings have said the same.

These past few years have set us all off balance in varied ways - often imposing stillness on us when we have been unprepared. We are forced to discover a new normal - Ours and learning everyone elses while we are not necessarily aware of their similar challenges. In some cases we don't share the same amount of time - personally, professionally, socially, community, leisure time, fun stuff - that we could before.

Relationships are new - even ones we have had a long time. We cope differently and see different things in one another. We have fresh eyes. We did not know, what we did not know. And we still do not know what we do not know.

For me, it is very spiritual but everything in life is spiritual. It's all connected as I am to you and you to me. 

The Oddness of Time

 It's that time of year again when we change our clocks and get all discombobulated. Some of us will have a very difficult time adjusting and miss things for a few days not knowing what time it really may be. Some clocks in our house may be off and some not.

The odd part is, the time really has not changed. It is our reference to it that has changed. 

Our reference to time can be messed up in many ways. And the last few years have forced a lot of that on the entire world keeping us off balance. The 2020 shutdowns, remote working, kids remote learning and quarantines shook our time references. Days could easily run together without markers to help distinguish the passage of time. 2021 has been difficult as well as we tried to return to "normalcy" and rediscover our routines.

Changing jobs, changing shifts, retiring, going on vacation, and sickness can jar us in much the same way. Having visitors, people staying in our home, new neighbors and even just a rain or snow day rock routines a bit.

So as we change clock time again, be easy on one another about the adjustment. This year might be a little harder for some. Shine some light!

Where is Captain Kirk tonight?

 Like millions of other people around the world - and espectially in the US - I watched Captain Kirt go to outer space today! I was so excited. Young whipper snappers might not understand the excitement. So I should explain.

When TV was young - back in my childhood and younger days - we would make TV watching an event. We did not have a TV until I was in second grade. My Aunt and Uncle had one first. We went to their house to all watch Arther Godfrey together. Once we may have watched the Honeymooners but my parents did not approve of the fighting so it was Arther Godfrey. The adults never fought in front of the kids so we didn't see that kind of thing. Maybe they had arguments but the first 8 years of my life, I didn't experience adults saying any harsh words to each other. So, they were pretty picky about what we saw on this new gadget. But that is another story.

When Star Trek came out some years later, it was on the weekly watch list. We all gathered as a family to watch it together. There were other shows too, but today is memory lane for this one. We all loved it and didn't miss an episode. Kids on the floor, couch full - we loved every moment.

Captain Kirk was a particular favorite character for my Dad. We each had a favorite. I liked the women characters, of course but thought Spock was very cool. I too think the world is very illogical. 

So this is not the first time I saw Captain Kirk in space. How fun it was to watch! I know many of my friends and family share similar memories so this was a fun way to start and end this day. Now - Beam me up Scotty!

The Farm at Fertigs

There was a farm that was a large part of my childhood. To get there we would go to Fertigs PA, make a right on the dirt road, then when we came to the end of that, turn left onto the bumpy road that went between the two pastures,  passed the big evergreen trees and onto the farm house and buildings. 

It was a place with plenty of magic. There was a big bull in one of the pastures that we had to stay away from. On the other side of the evergreens, was the pond where grandpa kept goldfish that grew very large. The bee hives hereby provided that sweet nectar. We would often find a honey comb laying in middle of the table on a plate when we walked in the door. 

Upstairs in the two story garage was an incubator. In the spring grandma hatched peeps. It was exciting to begin to see the little peeps peck their way out of the eggs. I would want to help them. Grandma cautioned me that they needed to build strength in their necks so they could survive. Soon little fluffy yellow birds would be scampering about.

Beside the big red barn was a pigpen. I loved helping grandpa: hey soo eee sooo EEE. I was tempted to climb the fence so I could see over it. Grandpa would scold me. "if you fall in there they'll just eat you" They were big pigs and they got excited. I love it when they had little ones.

Rhubarb grew wild beside the barn. There was nothing better than grandmas rhubarb pie. It was a sweet tart and I suspect she used honey for sweetening. A piece of rhubarb pie might greet us in the kitchen. What we were most likely to smell was sassafras tea boiling on the stove. A cup of that with the honey was a treat.

Grandma would be wearing her apron with the pockets in the front. As we came in she would wipe her hands on it and take it off to give us a big hug. Her arms wrapped around us and gathered us in, surrounding us like a blanket. Her voice was full of joy and laughter. We knew she loved us big!

Then she might show us the latest pile of red rugs she made. Grandma ways a weaver and she had two beautiful looms. She took old fabric (rags) and cut them into strips tied together and put across to weave them on the Loom.  The looms had white thread only because grandpa restricted her to white and no colors. He had a lot of restrictions that we didn't know about.

Grandma did not cut her hair. She kept it in a braid wrapped tightly on her head. You would never guess that when she let it down, it reached her knees. When I stayed, we shared her nightly ritual of brushing 100 strokes.

I miss grandma so very much! These memories are precious and I do know she is watching. Maybe memories are the way she talks to me. Thank you Grandma!

Candles in the Darkness

March 2021 could be marked as a beginning, an end, a beginning of an end or the end of the previous beginning. This is not the first moment or season in my life that was life changing; even shattering. There was the one early in my life when I lost the one most dear through the untimely death of my mother. Most children have not lost a pet at that age. That single moment in 1966 caused my young mind to question everything and, these decades later, I still do. Now at this end of my life, this year's events measure similarly heavy.

This month is an awakening from that growing darkness that encapsulated my life. These 8 months have shaken me in much the same way that my 8 year old self experienced. It has been painful, but markedly different, in that loosing my mother was a quick blow that left an indescribable emptiness that has no end. This new experience has been progressive and by March 2021, I was trapped in a body that did not serve me. Surely because this is  year 2 of Covid, many will wonder if it is related - either to the disease or the vaccine. It is not. 

I could not find a name for it and neither could those who tried to help. We/I latched onto one, then another and then something else until finally late May landed me in the hospital barely able to move. It made no sense to me. A little rest and I would soon be better. Could it relate to the Shingles bout the previous year? It felt like a slow drawn out torture. Weeks, months, a year and no way to explain it to myself, let alone to others but some followed me down each odd rabbit hole. A little army of warriors surrounded me - many unexpected and new. A few found it too painful to travel with me. 

Warriors!! In those dark endless days, prayer warriors were doing what they do and I had no idea the depths of it. Across the country - around the region - differing faiths - different languages - I was never alone even when I thought I would be. It felt endless but actually I can now see I am so very blessed.

In the fall, we thought lyme disease. Multiple tests - marginal but NO. Then January - some fluish/covid virus? No. Tests and first specialist - auto immune but not definitive. April - weaker and weaker but tests not indicating a serious track of follow up was urgent. Meanwhile, just a bit of activity and I was done. I could cook a meal or take a shower. I crawled up the stairs to get to bed if I didn't sleep on the couch.

By the end of May, I had a full body rash and landed in the hospital. That began the rapid succession of miracles of the sort that this blog often allowed me to share. But this is the biggest or certainly one of them. I will list them quickly including where we are now - emerging from darkness.

My hospitalist at UPMC NW was my doctor for 20 years until I retired and have appreciated VA health care. She knew me well and had no doubt something big was happening, even if the tests were not conclusive. She dug deeper and reached farther for answers. Finally, connected with a Pittsburgh dermatologist who is called by many hospitals to help with "difficult cases", the answer came after a biopsy, detailed special tests, collecting it all and a small team putting heads together. A rare 10 in 1 million auto immune disease called Dermatomyositis. Often misdiagnosed AS lupus, it's challenging to correctly pinpoint and address. Not curable but treatable. Most people have to wait years or decades before they find the answer so I am a very lucky one!!! I should be able to do many of things I love as I work with my team and do all that I can.

Except for my specialist team, local seasoned medical people say they never heard of it or never saw it. The rheumatologist said the test results showed something but the test levels did not match the very real symptoms that could only be measured with examination. No wonder no alarm bells went off with those who don't know me.

It's August!! I missed the summer camping and outdoor times I love. My circle of friends (at least in person) has been tight. Survival mode trims things down. But I am celebrating. It takes more time but I can write again. I can think. I can do more in a day than I could do in weeks. I'm looking around with great gratitude!!!! Love is pouring out in all directions. I am on my way back and getting out and about has been amazing.

Be warned I could now talk your ears off in excitement. If there is something you want to say, raise your hand and get my focus. Watch out for my humor. I have found ME - a me lost and found over many decades. Forgotten treasures and truths are here again. I am collecting those wonderful things. Like someone raised from the dead, my patience is only thin for wasted time. I lost too much of that and won't be quick to let it happen yet another time. My Mommy has had many talks with me about that this year and she isn't ready to have me join her just yet. Happy she comes to me in my dreams. 

A long ago recording - A few missed notes and switched words but hope the story resonates. I have practiced it a few more times over the years. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAf9WjVbz_U

Hope is Here!

 The hope for recovery is here!

As a business owner, 2020 was rough. The 4th quarter was inspiring. Dozens of customers expressed the desire to shop local as a mission. It was huge! After enduring months of lack luster sales, we ended the year with a record setting month. But our first quarter is a reminder that we're not through the affects of the pandemic yet. Our economy is not yet roaring back.

Hope for recovery is here!

Before the pandemic, Porch Music Store was a place that drew hundreds of people every week. Musicians, students, parents, siblings and friends lingered. That all came to a halt. We were forced to slow traffic and discourage lingering. Our culture changed in an instant. It's felt like we were only half open. And our bottom line reflects that.

Our number one issue has been the impact of the pandemic. We've had staff and students/families forced to quarantine either due to contracting COVID or being directly exposed. One parent died. Safety of everyone walking through our doors became a top concern. Our mission for the music store took second place. It meant staggered starting and stopping. Our bottom line reflects that.

Hope for recovery is here!

We're excited about the rapid roll out of the vaccine. Several of us are already vaccinated. Now we know anyone who wants a vaccination can soon get one too. We can hope to gather with less risk very soon.

Porch Music Store is moving to a new, bigger space. It is a breath of fresh air. (pun intended) There will be room to spread out and comfortably, safely welcome friends - old and new. We need to get back to being fully open. We all need to feel safe in doing that. 

Hope for recovery is here!

Traditionally, the second quarter is better for us. As income tax refunds come, folks have a few extra dollars to spend and musicians dream of something new. Now, with stimulus payments, we can expect those to trickle down to us or rather UP to us. We don't get many millionaires in the store. Our customers are regular working class like us who have likely been reluctant to spend on luxury items. With income tax refunds AND a stimulus check, we can all think about buying something special right now.

We've longed for a sense of normalcy. We're ready to celebrate. This will be the summer of JOY. Hope is here!

Stop the Steal

 Watching this last election, especially in the last year, has been mind bending. Watching after the election was even more mind bending. As court after court threw out election challenges - 60 - SIXTY - at state level, state supreme court level and US Supreme court level, it seemed obvious to a reasonable person that there was insufficient evidence to conclude election fraud.

But Trump supporters couldn't let the idea go. "Stop the Steal" took root and it was dug in deep. Around town you could see it with Trump signs and some have not gone away. Trump supporters I know were posting on social media with expectation that something big was going to change it all. As the court cases fell, one by one, by dozens, the desperation grew. I saw romanticized Revolutionary War images and Mel Gibson as the Patriot. Threads assured commiserators that something big was going to set things right. "Time to fix bayonets" appeared on one page.

On January 6th at the start of the insurrection, I checked one persons page. "It's Happening!" she posted gleefully. Others chimed in with similar excitement.

That day I watched in horror but I was not surprised. There has grown a blood thirst with this right wing movement. We saw it in our own town when a peaceful group met to support Black Lives Matter and a dozen or so AR15 guys showed up, supposedly to protect our city monuments. My only surprise from January 6th is that I didn't know someone who was part of the insurrection. 

Anyone who tries to tell me that insurrection was Antifa not Trump supporters, needs to explain what all the Revolutionary War posts are all about. Why were so many QAnon, Proud Boy and Oath Keeper members identified and arrested?

And the biggest question of all - If the insurrection was successful, what would the country look like after that? Would there be elections? Would those elections automatically eliminate votes from certain parts of the country? If all the elected officials were killed that they wanted killed, then what? No repercussions? We just kill people we don't agree with?

We do need to "Stop the Steal". We need to stop the steal of reason and rational thinking. We need to stop the steal of our civility. We need to stop the steal of our morality. 

I've watched people I know say on one hand that something is a hoax and then say it was cooked up in a lab and intentionally spread. Others have irrationally grown focused on human trafficking. Another believes the Kent State massacre is proof that we need AR15's. It's simply mind bending. I've had a nurse argue that we should not wear masks because they do nothing to help.

We do need to "Stop the Steal". We need to stop the steal of reason and rational thinking.

I love DEEP but there is TOO DEEP for me.

Much is possible outside of "conventional wisdom". Just because we believe something IS doesn't mean it really is. I believe in the unknown. There really may be intelligent life out there. We may have been visited by aliens. There may be aliens living among us. It is possible. Maybe it is even probable. But until is is provable, it's just possible and probable. It's fun for me to think about and consider, but I won't stake my life on it. It's just possible and probable. I love imagining and will share those with you.

So, when you ask me to believe the election was stolen, I can visit the possible. Maybe. But if you want me to stake my life on it, it needs to be provable. Zero, out of 60 - SIXTY - cases were successful. NONE - NOT ONE - moved into court. Filing with the courts - state, federal and even the Supreme Court - took it to possible but NONE moving forward removed the probable for me. THERE WAS NO THERE, There. I'm not staking my life on it. And I'd be stupid to stake my reputation on it. I could play with maybe there is so huge deep, deep state. And it is a huge deep state.

That deep state includes regular people who are poll watchers and vote counters. It includes both democrats and republicans who are either ignorant or compliant. It includes republican and democrat election officials at county, state and federal levels. It includes democrat and republican judges at all levels. It's DEEP, Deep, deep. It even includes postal workers across the country. It's DEEP, Deep, deep.

So then, if I am to believe that this DEEP, Deep, deep thing happened, I am further to believe that insurrection is the answer. If I want to preserve democracy, I am supposed to believe that overturning an election is the way to do it. I need to take over the Congress and install "my guy" because I could not prove to the courts that he won. I could not convince his own vice president to lead an insurrection, so I need to do it.

That's DEEP. That's really Deep. That's deeper than I can go and I like to explore the possible - even the probable. This is not probable to me. I'm not diving with you.

War is ugly

 Many years ago, I got to know Charlie as he invited me to join him on the porch at his farm in Fulton County. He was a few years older than my dad and had served in the Navy in WWII. Charlie loved to tell stories and share his favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. It was not my favorite beer but I never turned him down because I knew he was in that story telling mood.

He talked a little about the war and once told me how his arm had been so badly injured in a truck accident. He drove a dump truck for a local sand and gravel and took great pride in his ability to perfectly spread a driveway controlling the dumping.

His favorite topic was civil war history of the area including the confederate march through McConellsburg toward Gettysburg. He gave great context to the history having known a woman who was 10 years old when they came through the area. Perhaps he sat on her porch just as I was, listening and asking questions, happily soaking it all in. 

So close to the Mason Dixon line, families divided. Charlie explained that they would often change the spelling of their last names to designate their allegiance - North or South. In his own family history, Cutchall's were north and Gutchall's were south. There were Smiths and Smyths. The war pitted brother against brother.

As the confederates marched through Fulton County, they burned and pillaged. The woman he knew said there was just one egg they didn't find on their farm. They took everything they could find. They burned McConnallsburg. In the south, Union troops did the same. War is ugly. 

Those stories follow me anytime I explore the site of a battle. Standing beside the creek at Antietam, my stomach churned to imagine it ran red from the blood of the wounded and dead. People knew one another. Opposing officers often went to West Point together - served together once. They became enemies. War is ugly.

Too often movies and history books romanticize war. The horrors and pain are softened. Those who live through it can barely speak of it. Charlie could talk about the civil war history but not so much his experiences in WWII. His ship was part of battles in the far east but that's about all he would say and he'd get quiet a while. War is ugly.

The south argued and some continue to say, the Civil War was about state's rights. That's a way to hide the ugly truth. It was about state's right to allow slavery. The current calls for insurrection are hiding behind something as well. History will reveal it. Hopefully, before it's too late truth will lead us to a greater way because War is ugly.

 

It's gut check time

 It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough, you have had times when something triggered a reaction that you later regretted. We all have those places that are so sacred to us that we will do most anything to protect that sacred space and even behave outside of who we believe ourselves to be. 

It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough to have had that experience - to have acted outside of your acceptable behavior, it's time to reach out to those who are acting outside of what would seem to be acceptable to them.

It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough, have long enough ties, be ready to take your loved ones and long time friends by the hand in empathy. It's time to reach out and act within the boundaries of acceptable behavior and walk each other to a better place.

It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough, you have seen the carnage of violence. You have experienced the pain of war. You know the pain of loss. You have seen the power of love. It's time to reach out and act within the boundaries of acceptable behavior and walk each other to a better place.

It's gut check time.

How powerful is your conviction? How deep is your commitment to love and peace? You have seen the power of love. It's time to reach out and act within the boundaries of acceptable behavior and walk each other to a better place.

It's gut check time.

It humbles me

Hildegard Von Bingen has come to my attention these days. She was a remarkable spiritual leader in the Middle Ages at a time when women were rarely held in high regard in any sense. As I begin to explore her teachings and impact, one word emerges: Connection.

This year, that is my word - my mantra - my focus of inspiration - Connection. It's long been my spiritual belief that we are intrinsically connected to all things in all ways. If we want to understand "God" we need to understand connection. Nothing is separate from us and that has always included "God". We are connected to all things in all ways. That includes all that ever was and all that ever will be.

It humbles me. In recent weeks I have been reminded of my connections in many ways. I can inspire others to be their better selves. I can influence others to set aside their better selves. There is an inner voice that guides me but I do not always find it most impactful. What I say and what I do matters in a very connected way. 

When I feel there is danger and fail to act to minimize it, there are connections I have to what then happens. When I am wrong in believing something and cause actions based on my erroneous beliefs, there are connections to what happens. When I see the best in someone and help them to see it, there are connections to what they do with their confidence. Connections matter. My connections matter.

It humbles me. I feel a great responsibility to seek truth, to speak truth and to act on the truths revealed to me. I always need to seek to be better and to remain focused on truth because it is what connects to "God". 

I place "God" in quotes because it (He) (She) is actually that ultimate connection to all things in all ways. "God" is everything that ever was and ever will be. If we are or ever were disconnected, we failed to see that truth. All people are part of God. All things are part of God. Our actions show our understanding of connections (God in all people and all things) or not.

It humbles me.