2001-06-27 - 8:40 a.m.
I've been hit with one huge theme since last night. It all started when I was making my packing plan and watching "Witchblade." Sarah's crucial lesson in this episode was that the witchblade directs events around her to point out what it wants her to see...
Just before, I had been watching the sci-fi channel's "Crossing Over with John Edward." Although I'm certain he's got to be a fraud, this guy fascinates me. I'm trying to debunk him. (Let me say that I do believe in psychic phenomena, I just believe that anyone who goes on television to entertain and get rich doing it takes a massive blow to his credibility. Same thing with televangelists.) Anyway, he claimed to talk to a lady's dead father, mostly just pulling up names of other family members he knew. (Everything John Edward pulls from "the other side" is about life here. None of the dead every send messages like vacation postcards - "Sunsets here are amazing! See you soon!") One of this lady's children claimed that he talked to his grandfather frequently in dreams or that hazy, half-waking state, and that our dearly departed are could talk to any of us, if we were only listening.
Zack was up very early this morning - more teething pain. And I suspect he was thirsty. He wanted to go back to sleep shortly afterward, so I grabbed a shower and surfed though beliefnet for a little while. One of their banner articles is "An Interview with God." Looks to me like something that gets forwarded though email. I'm amazed I hadn't received it yet. The gist of it is God's answers to an everyman reporter when asked �What surprises you most about humankind?� His answers are things like: "That they live as if they will never die, and die as if they had never lived.� Sort of profound, but then I start thinking of the Sphinx from "Mystery Men..."
Beliefnet most always runs a discussion alongside the articles and this one was entitled "What would you ask God?" Answers run the expected gamut. And someone had already posted what I thought - Asking God is easy. It's listening for the answer that's difficult.
Again with the listening. This seems an attempt to get my attention...
I'm not a good listener - and often not for lack of trying. Anyone who's talked to me face to face in any kind of environment with a lot of background noise (shopping mall, large feast hall) or distractions has certainly seen me nod my head and smile at inappropriate moments or repeatedly say "I'm sorry..?" and point to my ear. Either I can't understand what's being said or my mind has wandered off without my body again. I had my hearing tested a few years ago and passed with flying colors - but I was in a soundproof booth listening intently into a headset. I could hear dustmites molting in that situation.
I checked out a tape on western meditation from the library a few weeks ago to see that making a habit of meditating might help sharpen my attention. Haven't listened to more than ten minutes of it yet - just haven't had the time. And, as I type that, the little voice in the back of my head reminds me that my son is napping, the dishes are done, and I have nothing else to do at the moment so why don't I get off the computer and make time?
Guess I can't argue with that.
