Month: November 2022

Loss of IQ in America Leads to Killings

Loss of IQ in America Leads to Killings

by Jane Tawel

Victims’ Families outside Colorado Springs LGBTQ Night Club

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My daughter told me the other day that there is a documentary detailing the extreme loss of IQ Americans had due to lead in our water and houses and gasoline etc. etc. That is the only thing I can think of that could possibly be the reason for how insane I find current America to be. We are waking up today with another mass shooting — another murder of five people, five families, countless friends and co-workers destroyed by the lack of IQ and complete loss of true ethics of an entire nation by default — and no it wasn’t senseless — it was the sense of hatred and the rational of “freedom” which has become simply a freedom to do evil because the rich and powerful like staying rich and powerful behind their bodyguards and protected security details while the rest of us are confused by the fact they say they want to save fetuses but we forget they don’t want to save our actual children. And this country will not look itself in the face and say, hey, this hasn’t been a democracy for a long time — it’s an oligarchy and it is time to look at what this country is really based on — greed at the top and fear at the bottom.

And all I can do is say, well, I have to do better myself. I have to stop the greed in myself. I have to stop the fear in myself. And I will not be silent but I will also not put my hope in anything but a different way of living. And I will try not to fear but I will stay angry and I will try to find some religious offering tables to turn over and I will paint sacrificial blood on the door of my heart that I will not return hatred in return for hatred and that fear will not visit the house of my mind and heart today but that I will see the American Pharaohs for what they are and always have been and always will be, and I will find that I must put my trust and hope elsewhere.

Let us find each other, and put our hope and trust in each other’s capacity and will to Love. Today I will pray for the mothers and fathers and siblings and friends of those most recent victims and martyrs to American Hatred and Greed and I will — Look to the helpers, as Mr. Rogers said. Look to the poor in spirit, as the Christ would say. Look to The Way, The Tao that all spiritually evolved saviors point to and then I will ask myself, “well, what can I do?” Well….. maybe just like Seuss’ Who’s in Whoville, if enough of us say “We are here. We are here. Here am I, Lord, send me.” — well, maybe…. maybe we can save this poor ole good idea for a kingdom/nation called America, and maybe we can save the world, and maybe we can save the planet. But…. today I will weep because we can’t save five more innocent people in Colorado Springs, America. When will we care enough about each other to say, “Enough!”?

© Jane Tawel, 2022

Forgivin’ is Livin’

by Jane Tawel

“Fake Bird, Real Sky” by Daveography.ca is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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Forgivin’ is Livin’

By Jane Tawel

November 19, 2022

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Forgive my assumptions

that lead me to doubt

that You have guided and gifted me.

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Forgive my forgetting

the times that pure Grace

was all that protected and lifted me.

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Forgive my instructions

that force You to choose

whether Your will or my will is done.

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Forgive me the most

for the things that I boast of

while neglecting it all came through grace.

And help me, today,

to walk in a New Way,

that one day, We may stand face to Face.

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Forgive that I choose

to be lazy or greedy

and to live in a life based on fear.

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May I do what is hardest,

and forgive me, Myself;

to stop looking outside me,

for there’s nothing to right me,

but the Love that’s inside me,

and has always been here.

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Forgiving is freeing

You, you, and you.

Forgiving is seeing

that all that is True,

is Faith, Hope, and Love—

all the rest will be past,

and all that will last,

is whatever I’ve given

to bring to earth, Heaven.

Oh! “for-givin’” is livin’

in Eternity now.

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“Go, now, your sins are forgiven. Which is harder to say? Your body is healed or your soul is healed? You have forgiven yourself in the same measure that you have forgiven others. Forgive yourself as We forgive you. Forgive, and Live.” (Paraphrased from The Wise One)

© Jane Tawel, 2022

Deciding on Miracles

“Last Dandelion in Turku” by Pensiero is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

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Deciding on Miracles

By Jane Tawel

November 6, 2022

The following are in part, at this time, some of my fledgling reflections on some of the seminal and profound ideas in that great chestnut by M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled.

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I shall decide that today is a miracle,

“Today is a miracle”.

I shall imbibe of the salty and sweet,

and watch the small miracle of my carefully placed feet.

And when I feel faint or uncertain in knowing,

I shall not retreat from the knowledge that’s growing,

that every small moment that I have of living,

is a strange unknown mercy, not earned, simply given.

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And we fear all the things that we don’t understand,

but, in truth, even as rational thought does expand,

we are ever more fearful, and anxious, and fetal.

While religions have certainly quite often been evil,

we might miss the deep truths of our innate and primeval,

amazing, inscrutable sense of the ineffable,

by ignoring the fact that true faith is accessible,

by simply and humbly accepting right now,

that we are still living — and we do not know how.

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Oh, I shall with skeptical prodding, intact,

be carefully aware, we don’t know all the facts.

But how else to explain my survival today,

when all history and science point quite different ways?

One must say, “It’s a mystery.” And then one must face,

that the answer is simple: It’s a matter of grace.

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Today I shall decide that I am a miracle.

This moment — a miracle.

My eyes — a miracle.

My breath — a miracle.

My fingers — a miracle.

My thought — a miracle.

My feeling — a miracle.

My health — a miracle.

My family — a miracle.

That bird — a miracle.

That pond — a miracle.

The sky — a miracle.

A dandelion is a stunning miracle.

You and Them — miracles…….

Oh, there are not enough pages or scientific journals or theological tomes in the whole of the world’s history! — to hold all the miracles of grace, in just this moment!

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Dear Nameless, Unknowable, Miraculous, Gracious Giver of All Life:

Help me to keep this holy but foolish vow:

This day, I will step into the miracle that I am alive.

And no matter what may befall me or my world or the planet today,

may I count not the things that have been lost,

but the pearl of great price I have found.

If I lose my eyes, may I be grateful for my heart still beating.

If my heart stops beating,

may the memories of my heart of love still live in others.

If I lose all that is dearest to me — my loved ones — my ability to think — my shelter — 

may I even in utter despair,

believe that Eternity exists because Love never dies,

and may I trust that when all facts seem to point to hell on earth,

there is a heaven, most real, to be found in the Mystery of Grace.

May I embrace an inexplicable joy in my journey today,

and tonight, lie down in perfect peace, knowing that

fear and even death, have no power

against the Eternal Power of Grace and Love.

Oh, I bless the time in which I was born,

and I stand in wonder that all the factors of my existence,

and that the science and religion and books and other people

have all given me just enough knowledge,

to burn my fingers and my wings,

but not enough fire to blind me, or kill me.

Oh yes, like the primordial, cosmic, foolish, and absolutely brilliant being that I am,

I shall keep rubbing together the two little sticks I have been given.

I shall keep making my small little fire of miraculous light and life.

And I shall keep burning within me,

the friction caused between knowledge and faith.

And with the miracle of the scientific fact that nothing is ever destroyed,

and with the scientific fact that my very existence and life today

is an unexplained miracle of grace,

I will rejoice that in this moment, I miraculously live forever.

Oh, grace has kept me safe thus far, and

Grace will bring me Home.

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© Jane Tawel, 2022