Dave's Blog

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 9:47:02 PM

I found this little gem republished in Wedding Ceremonies 
Galore and Much, Much More, by Robert S. Joy.  

Then Almitra spoke again and said:
And what of marriage, master?
And he answered, saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore,
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God,
But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of heaven dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love;
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup,
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf,
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping,
For only the hand of Life can control your hearts;
And stand together yet not too near together,
For the pillars of the temple stand apart
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 6:50:11 AM 

This is a time of gaining clarity.  The Universe is growing more 
aware each day.  I'm doing my part, and I can see that other 
people are, too.  

Last Thursday I received an email from someone out of town.  He 
wanted to know whether I would conduct a wedding ceremony for 
him.  This came "out of the blue," as many of our opportunities 
do.  Here I was given the opportunity to decide whether I was 
sincere about my ministry in the Universal Life Church.  

The ULC is an interesting institution.  It has no declaration of 
principles, no central authority, no selected book of guidance 
like the Bible.  It has simply one doctrine, "Do only that which 
is right."  The rest is up to the individual.  

When I asked for ordination I was declaring my own divinity.  
When I applied for the Doctor of Divinity I was reaffirming that 
all I needed to know was provided by the Universe at the time that 
I needed to know it.  When I told a minister of Religious Science, 
she expressed delight that there would be another minister in her 
congregation who could tend to the sick in the community.  Whoa. 
That wasn't the picture I had of ministry.  Weddings, baptisms, 
household dedications and business blessings I could picture myself 
doing, but tending to the sick?  That put me in the back seat for 
a while.  

As I pondered the question of ministry, more information arrived 
to help me.  I learned, for example, that a minister does not 
have to have a congregation, does not have to prepare a speech 
every Sunday, does not have to ride a circuit.  Edwene Gaines is a 
Unity minister without a local congregation; she ministers to the 
prosperity consciousness of the entire planet directly, face-to-face.  
The United Church of Religious Science has an appointment called 
"portfolio minister," which does not attach to a particular 
congregation.  I recall that David Hiller once told me my 
purpose on this planet was to create ritual and ceremony for 
other people.  Alternatives and choices do exist.  

My web page had been in the ULC directory for two years.  Now a 
response was coming, the Universe was asking me, "Are you serious 
about being a minister?"  I recalled that God always says Yes.  A 
minister is a servant of the people, so I said yes.  In one of 
our conversations the man who had contacted me said he had read 
my web site, and he wanted me specifically to perform the wedding 
for him.  

I reviewed the laws of California and San Francisco, and the 
guidance from the ULC materials.  I sent for a certificate from 
ULC World Headquarters.  I interviewed the man who had made the 
request, and I prepared a wedding ceremony based on the example 
in the Doctor of Divinity course.  

It struck me as odd that I had not been contacted by the person 
this man was going to marry.  I resolved to interview her before 
the ceremony to make sure that it would be meaningful and 
supportive for her as well.  

Monday the man called me and said the wedding had been postponed.  
I wished the couple well and invited him to call me at any time.  
What happened, I wondered?  It seems that either he or she 
decided to get more clarity.  In time everyone involved will 
understand exactly what they want, and the Universe will say Yes 
to that.  One thing someone doesn't want is a wedding this week, 
and that is good, too.  

My first wedding was a civil ceremony with a Justice of the Peace 
in Virginia.  The JP turned out to be a Baptist minister, and the 
ceremony he led us through was pure Baptist, with all the dreaded 
promises that have given marriages a bad name to many.  When I 
decided to divorce, I had to cope with those promises, and 
resolving the moment of marriage with the moment of divorce in a 
Baptist context was like resolving a suicide in a Catholic 
context.  There was a lot of work to do.  

When I was going through my divorce, which turned out to be a 
long and arduous process, I swore I would never marry again.  
Even so, I found myself with Margaret, looking forward to the 
day we would marry.  I asked her to marry me several times, and 
she stated the conditions under which she would be comfortable 
saying yes.  When the conditions appeared to be met, I pressed my 
question, and we prepared for the actual ceremony.  Margaret took 
the opportunity to design and order a perfect wedding that had 
all the elements she had missed before.  We chose an auspicious 
date, a minister we enjoyed and trusted, and a guest list that 
constituted the spiritually highest witnesses we knew.  The 
ceremony was delicious, and is a memory that nurtures me today.  
It is a checkpoint reference that keeps me on an even keel in our 
relationship.  

I bless the man who contacted me, and I bless his love.  They are 
on a path of clarity, and as they learn and grow, they become 
more sincere, more honest, more loving in the process.  I thank 
him for contacting me and asking me to step forward, for I have 
stepped, and I find myself more advanced on the path of clarity.  

The Universe moves for the benefit of all, and I have witnessed 
the miracle of a win-win situation.  More will be revealed.  


Thursday, July 22, 2004 7:07:55 AM 

	Peace is the world smiling 
	Peace is a gentle dove 
	Peace is sharing, peace is caring 
	Peace is filling the world with love 

This song is popular in Montessori schools.  Who wrote it?  When?  


Tuesday, July 06, 2004 6:44:14 PM 

In the cafeteria line someone ahead of me asked for his  
cheeseburger without the bun, and I did the same.  Someone else 
in the line said, "Oh, you are on the new low-carb diet, right?" 
It's not new.  Atkins described it in 1972, and I first used it 
about four years ago.  In 1970 my grandmother told me all I 
had to do to lose weight was cut starches out of my diet.  Today  
the Atkins Diet is enjoying enough popularity, though, that 
Krispy Kreme says its sales are suffering.  Why?  Because Krispy 
Kreme can't imagine a way to treat the low-carb clients?  Carl's 
Junior can.  McDonald's can.  Happy Donut can!  Of course all the 
intermediate and first-class restaurants can.  Just serve meat, 
seafood, and extra veggies, with no potato or rice.  It's easy, 
and it's profitable!  

For decades I have known that processed foods are less than 
optimal for human consumption.  Maybe the big food producers 
don't think of food as nutrition for humans; maybe they think of 
it as a commodity to produce more cheaply and to alter for longer 
shelf life.  To make food cheaper they have promoted feeding 
cattle feed to humans and beef to cattle.  It doesn't make sense, 
naturally, but it does economically.  

Now we are seeing news articles from the drug industry, 
indicating new opportunities.  A new heart disease has been 
described, one in which the patient becomes insensitive to his 
or her own insulin.  Attention Deficit Disorder has become an 
adult disease, as children graduate from high school and are 
declared adults.  New designer drugs are in the works to handle 
these new problems.  Older drugs, like Ritalin, are being 
remarketed for the new patient base.  Atkins wrote about 
these problems thirty years ago.  

What is the cause of these "new" diseases?  Sugar, perhaps.  The 
food industry is putting sugar in everything.  High-fructose 
corn syrup.  Brown rice syrup.  Natural cane syrup.  Dextrose, 
maltose, galactose, sorbitol, manitol.  They put sugar in 
sausages!  What next?  

The average American is overweight, and doctors write articles 
asking why.  Jerry Brown was more health-conscious than Arnold 
Schwarzenegger.  For all his weightlifting hero image, I have 
never seen Arnold endorse health of any kind.  

Perhaps the American public is figuring out that the Food 
Triangle is ignorant, underresearched, political propaganda.  
Perhaps they are figuring out that they need to choose their 
own nutrition.  Perhaps they are beginning to choose and buy 
real food.  Meat.  Vegetables.  Perhaps they are returning to 
the gym and leaving their fat behind.  

Maybe it's time for the drug companies to work on more 
classic problems.  Eye disease.  Nerve regeneration.  Ulcers, 
herpes, kidney disorders, the common cold.  Perhaps these needs 
are more real than to drug the public with designer drugs and 
Ritalin so they don't have to -- can't even think about -- diet 
and exercise.  

I know that since I have resumed my diet, i.e. taken control of 
what I put in my mouth and of my own destiny, I have felt 100% 
healthier.  I don't get tired after lunch any more.  I don't 
think of "all you can eat" as "eat all you can."  I can leave the 
starches on the plate and let them go back to the kitchen.  I don't 
feel heavy.  I don't feel aches and pains.  I do feel good, really 
good, and I am happy.  

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