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  6. <title type="text">The Water&#039;s Edge (formerly TheWay Side)</title>
  7. <subtitle type="text"></subtitle>
  8.  
  9. <updated>2024-03-25T16:38:09Z</updated>
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  16. <entry>
  17. <author>
  18. <name>Shohn</name>
  19. <uri>http://www.scribesoflight/theway-side</uri>
  20. </author>
  21.  
  22. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Applying Country Music to TheWay &#8211; part 3]]></title>
  23. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/07/01/applying-country-music-to-theway-part-3/" />
  24.  
  25. <id>https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/?p=22</id>
  26. <updated>2024-03-25T16:38:09Z</updated>
  27. <published>2011-07-01T21:22:47Z</published>
  28. <category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Insights" /><category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Music" />
  29. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[&#160; This post is continuing an earlier discussion of learning to like what I don&#8217;t like, and as part of that applying Country Music to TheWay (link), all as part of a greater plan to bolster family togetherness through song, learning to apply concepts such as self-observation, triangulation, etc. Also, though this is not really [&#8230;]]]></summary>
  30.  
  31. <content type="html" xml:base="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/07/01/applying-country-music-to-theway-part-3/"><![CDATA[<p>&nbsp;</p>
  32. <p>This post is continuing an earlier discussion of learning to like what I don&#8217;t like, and as part of that applying <a href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/06/01/self-noticing-applying-country-music-to-theway-part-2/">Country Music to TheWay</a> (link), all as part of a greater plan to bolster family togetherness through song, learning to apply concepts such as self-observation, triangulation, etc. Also, though this is not really self-observation, in continuing with the earlier theme, this post will be introspective as it relates to some things I&#8217;ve &#8220;observed&#8221; about my self as well. Just to be clear, it can be pretty easy to get lost in introspection and into intellectual things that can&#8217;t be applied, so please be careful if you attempt to duplicate some of my steps as you or  I can quickly find ourselves in  a bad place , <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Never_Gonna_Give_You_Up">rhetor-rick</a> (link).</p>
  33. <p>In attempting to become more &#8220;conscious&#8221; one of the things I realize is the tendency to take a message and apply it in the same way that I&#8217;ve always applied it. For example, someone says Good Morning, I say Good morning without even thinking about it. Use your imagination. In some respects, this could be being the proverbial mechanical man (or tin man as mentioned in the Wizard of Oz). That is, doing things without any thought or consideration as to why they are being done.</p>
  34. <p>Since we are talking about country music as part of a larger theme started in earlier posts of learning to like what we don&#8217;t like, we will need a Country song. Since we are talking about messages, I thought I would pick on a song that adorns the bumper on my car. Sometimes to get down a path you need a transition. Willie Nelson is my transition:</p>
  35. <p><a href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/willy.png"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-23" title="willy" src="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/willy.png" alt="" width="488" height="156" srcset="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/willy.png 488w, https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/willy-300x95.png 300w, https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/willy-150x47.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px" /></a></p>
  36. <p>Willie Nelson sang part of the song referenced on the bumper sticker, the song has a chorus: &#8220;<strong>Mamma don&#8217;t let your babies grow up to be cowboys. They&#8217;ll never stay home and they&#8217;re always alone even with someone they love.</strong>&#8221; Wow. What powerful lyrics. Who can&#8217;t like that, Right? It contains some sort of deep moving truth it seems, right? Yet, maybe this is because my mom played Willie Nelson while I was in the womb or something.  In a similar capacity, I&#8217;ve heard that many black people don&#8217;t like country music.  Perhaps there are some associations with the South, slavery, and so forth? Maybe the beat doesn&#8217;t work? Maybe some other cultural phenomenon at work. Who knows.  Since this is Willie Nelson, this is an easy song for me to like and therefore it sort of defeats the exercise of learning to like what I don&#8217;t like, but it is sort of like starting me out on milk. Perhaps I should try harder.  So I had to find some songs I really don&#8217;t like. The latest incarnation of rap mixed with country definitely rubs me the wrong way. Cowboy Troy is an example I think. Do I have some latent racist fragments of my personality that I wasn&#8217;t aware of? Oh dear Lord! Maybe not &#8211; maybe Cowboy Troy&#8217;s songs are just that bad.</p>
  37. <p>Cowboy Troy aside, in exploring this, I had found that I have some relatively arbitrary rule baked into my consciousness that says that the closer one approaches technology or modern life, the more likely that that one is not country and therefore any value derived from such songs is negated i.e., Country Music mixed with Electronic forms of music, i.e., Rap, i.e., Cowboy Troy. Stated another way, maybe hypocrisy is what I&#8217;m seeing in many country songs (and probably my self) and this is what I really don&#8217;t like. That is, those singing it weren&#8217;t really applying it, they were instead good at singing songs about being a cowboy, or singing songs about country music, or songs about being &#8220;country before country was cool&#8221; and so forth, but when it came down to actually being country and so forth, well, they had become all Nashvilled out (all show and nothing real), or using my arbitrary rule of using modern technology and going on tours and such, they were in effect, not country! Possibly, there are certain things that it doesn&#8217;t make sense to learn to like. Is Cowboy Troy&#8217;s music one of them? I&#8217;m going in circles here, I know, but there is another point. This very same phenomenon could be similar to being intellectual about self-observation this and triangulation that, or Law of Octaves this or that, and not actually knowing what it is!</p>
  38. <p>In trying to break down some of these &#8211; in the struggle, I have found it helpful find an opposing view within and trying reconcile it against whatever negative voices I may have within. So I have this rule that is baked into my mind that has a general aversion to country music. Yet, this rule allows for some country music and we really don&#8217;t know completely why. I examined different examples and exceptions to this general rule.  We also have that this general rule opposes Cowboy Troy like the plague, which may not necessarily be a bad thing.</p>
  39. <p>Let&#8217;s dive in a bit (and avoid Cowboy Troy a bit longer), since I have to do the obligatory posting of lyrics of the song under examination anyway:</p>
  40. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  41. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  42. <p><strong>Mamma don&#8217;t let your babies grow up to be cowboys &#8211; Waylon Jennings<br />
  43. </strong></p>
  44. <p><em>Cowboys ain&#8217;t easy to love and they&#8217;re harder to hold.</em></p>
  45. <p><em> They&#8217;d rather give you a song than diamonds or gold.</em><br />
  46. <em> Lonestar belt buckles and old faded levis, </em><br />
  47. <em> And each night begins a new day.</em><br />
  48. <em> If you don&#8217;t understand him, an&#8217; he don&#8217;t die young,</em><br />
  49. <em> He&#8217;ll prob&#8217;ly just ride away.</em></p>
  50. <p><em> Mamas, don&#8217;t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.</em><br />
  51. <em> Don&#8217;t let &#8217;em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.</em><br />
  52. <em> Let &#8217;em be doctors and lawyers and such.</em><br />
  53. <em> Mamas don&#8217;t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.</em><br />
  54. <em> &#8216;Cos they&#8217;ll never stay home and they&#8217;re always alone.</em><br />
  55. <em> Even with someone they love.</em></p>
  56. <p><em> Cowboys like smokey old pool rooms and clear mountain mornings,</em><br />
  57. <em> Little warm puppies and children and girls of the night.</em><br />
  58. <em> Them that don&#8217;t know him won&#8217;t like him and them that do,</em><br />
  59. <em> Sometimes won&#8217;t know how to take him.</em><br />
  60. <em> He ain&#8217;t wrong, he&#8217;s just different but his pride won&#8217;t let him,</em><br />
  61. <em> Do things to make you think he&#8217;s right.</em></p>
  62. <p><em> Mamas, don&#8217;t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.</em><br />
  63. <em> Don&#8217;t let &#8217;em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.</em><br />
  64. <em> Let &#8217;em be doctors and lawyers and such.</em><br />
  65. <em> Mamas don&#8217;t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.</em><br />
  66. <em> &#8216;Cos they&#8217;ll never stay home and they&#8217;re always alone.</em><br />
  67. <em> Even with someone they love.</em></p>
  68. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  69. <p>Isn&#8217;t this a wonderful song? It seems to bring to the forefront of  my mind images from child-hood, perhaps the great Mr. Jennings and Willie Nelson, and all sorts of acknowledgment of the reality about various ignorant red-necks that may make many black people not like country music. It is difficult for me to not like this song. You are probably wondering about the wisdom of writing about something you like when supposedly the point is to learn to like that which you don&#8217;t like. Okay, I admit it &#8211; I still don&#8217;t want to face Cowboy Troy, so I&#8217;d rather talk about a good country song first.  This is sort of like jumping into a cold pool I think. Maybe there is jumping into a cold pool which is one thing, and then there is jumping into a frozen lake and catching pneumonia just for the sake of it, which would be stupid, perhaps by analogy, Cowboy Troy is just too much?</p>
  70. <p>Well, since we started this message speaking about messages and how our minds tend to automatically bring up whatever past associations we may have, we might as well at least finish that subject while we stave off the influence of Cowboy Troy. How about taking the earlier bumper sticker message, and change the message by association.  How about placing it next to a pro-vegetarian lifestyle bumper sticker? Would that alter the meaning slightly?</p>
  71. <p><a href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/full.png"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-24" title="full" src="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/full.png" alt="" width="538" height="413" srcset="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/full.png 538w, https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/full-300x230.png 300w, https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2011/07/full-150x115.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 538px) 100vw, 538px" /></a></p>
  72. <p>Oh dear Lord look what I&#8217;ve done! I&#8217;ve taken an old Waylon Jennings / Willie Nelson song and used it to promote not killing cows, LOL! I bet Willie didn&#8217;t anticipate that when he sang this song. Maybe this helps bring home the idea about automatically seeing things a certain way &#8211; a way that has been in some respects programmed by culture, skin color, gender, and so on &#8211; and in other respects these are the things one must strive to overcome. Just like this arbitrary rule that I have baked into my consciousness about not liking Country Music, and in particular, the music of Cowboy Troy.</p>
  73. <p>This may be applied to time frame even. As of this writing, we are in 2011 and see things a certain way as a function of this time frame.  If compared against 100 years ago, we&#8217;d probably seem like magicians if we were to take a time trip. It is difficult to see beyond our culture when immersed in it. In a similar way, it is difficult to see beyond one&#8217;s self, when one is immersed in one&#8217;s self. As another insight, this implies that to perform self-observation, there needs to be some level of separation within &#8211; the observer from the observed. But how? I don&#8217;t know yet, but will let you know when I figure it out.</p>
  74. <p>I see that Shohn does not want to face Cowboy Troy just yet. Maybe there is another way. Perhaps I can be of service to others instead and  get another bumper sticker that says: &#8220;Mammas don&#8217;t let your babies grow up to be Cowboy Troy&#8221;.</p>
  75. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  76. ]]></content>
  77. </entry>
  78. <entry>
  79. <author>
  80. <name>Shohn</name>
  81. <uri>http://www.scribesoflight/theway-side</uri>
  82. </author>
  83.  
  84. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Applying Country Music to TheWay part 2]]></title>
  85. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/06/01/self-noticing-applying-country-music-to-theway-part-2/" />
  86.  
  87. <id>https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/?p=19</id>
  88. <updated>2024-03-25T16:38:09Z</updated>
  89. <published>2011-06-01T21:33:27Z</published>
  90. <category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Insights" />
  91. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[In a previous article I mentioned applying Country Music to TheWay. This article is a continuance of the concepts began in that article, that is, it falls under the umbrella of learning to like what I don&#8217;t like while exploring other concepts. I&#8217;m using the Texgesis of Country Music as a Way to use my [&#8230;]]]></summary>
  92.  
  93. <content type="html" xml:base="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/06/01/self-noticing-applying-country-music-to-theway-part-2/"><![CDATA[<p>In a previous article I mentioned <a href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/05/31/applying-country-music-to-theway/">applying Country Music to TheWay</a>. This article is a continuance of the concepts began in that article, that is, it falls under the umbrella of learning to like what I don&#8217;t like while exploring other concepts. I&#8217;m using the Texgesis of Country Music as a Way to use my desires to achieve certain goals, one of them being learning to like Country Music, with a greater goal of learning to sing songs on guitar with my family, in an effort to bolster family togetherness. Quite a plan, no?</p>
  94. <p>As part of this plan, I&#8217;ve been trying to learn and apply a concept called self-observation to hopefully better live out TheWay &#8211; be a better father, man, and so on.</p>
  95. <p>I&#8217;ve read through Allan Cronshaw&#8217;s works on this. I&#8217;ve read a few fourth way materials, and listened to some fourth way type Pod-casts to try to find more technical details on self-observation that appeal to my mindset.  It seems to be quite a big topic and there is lots of projection and mental filtering occurring when describing this topic. Some folks say they are self-observing, when other folks say they aren&#8217;t, and some say they are and aren&#8217;t and so on. It sounds like a religious war in many ways. Will the real self-observation please stand up. I&#8217;m sure there are levels of understanding as well, so where else to begin, but my own.</p>
  96. <p>In my own efforts, one of the things in at least attempting to self-observe was noticing that I notice things that I haven&#8217;t noticed before. For example, with self-observation, I observed that I don&#8217;t &#8220;self-observe&#8221; and then begin to wonder why.  I notice that &#8220;self-observing&#8221; is subjected to my own filters &#8211; for example, I like to see my self in a positive light a lot! I also noticed that self-observation is hard to do and I quickly run out of energy during mundane times especially. There are other thing I began to notice that I hope can be used as a larger analogy for the process of self-observation at my current level of understanding.</p>
  97. <p>For example, being from Texas, I&#8217;ve heard the below song (All My Exes Live in Texas) almost all my life, over and over and over again. Yet not until someone asked me if I was into transcendental meditation one day, did I notice  that country music could sing about meditation!  Not even a few hours after being asked this question about transcendental meditation did I hear that song come on the radio and start singing about meditation of all things. A synchronicity I suppose.</p>
  98. <p>I relayed the fact that George Strait sang about transcendental meditation to my friend who had asked the question, then my Dad, my friend Etal, and they had never noticed either! Gee whiz, have we been in Tennessee (I&#8217;ll explain shortly)  all our lives or what?</p>
  99. <p>Here is the song (<a href="http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/strait-george/all-my-exs-live-in-texas-8840.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/strait-george/all-my-exs-live-in-texas-8840.html</a>) and my ex&#8217;s-gesis follows:</p>
  100. <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">All my ex&#8217;s live in Texas by George Strait</span></em></p>
  101. <p>All my ex&#8217;s live in Texas<br />
  102. And Texas is the place I&#8217;d dearly love to be<br />
  103. But all my ex&#8217;s live in Texas<br />
  104. And that&#8217;s why I hang my hat in Tennessee</p>
  105. <p>Rosanna&#8217;s down in Texarkana<br />
  106. Wanted me to push her broom<br />
  107. Sweet Eileen&#8217;s in Abilene<br />
  108. She forgot I hung the moon<br />
  109. And Allison&#8217;s in Galveston<br />
  110. Somehow lost her sanity<br />
  111. And Dimple&#8217;s who now lives in Temple&#8217;s<br />
  112. Got the law looking for me</p>
  113. <p>I remember that old Frio River<br />
  114. Where I learned to swim<br />
  115. But it brings to mind another time<br />
  116. Where I wore my welcome thin<br />
  117. <strong>By transcendental meditation</strong><br />
  118. <strong> I go there each night</strong><br />
  119. <strong> But I always come back to myself</strong><br />
  120. <strong> Long before daylight<br />
  121. </strong><br />
  122. All my ex&#8217;s live in Texas<br />
  123. And Texas is the place I&#8217;d dearly love to be<br />
  124. But all my ex&#8217;s live in Texas<br />
  125. Therefore I reside in Tennessee</p>
  126. <p>Some folks think I&#8217;m hidin&#8217;<br />
  127. It&#8217;s been rumored that I died<br />
  128. But I&#8217;m alive and well in Tennessee</p>
  129. <p>That was the song, but there was more that I noticed after starting to dive in to it a bit. Just like Damascus or Jerusalem in the Bible, could Texas be a code word in all those country songs &#8211; alluding to something deeper? After all, it is the Lone Star State! If I apply some exgesis, could the Lone Star be symbolic for our struggle to become one again, whole, to go towards the Light, after all &#8211; this is where George desires to be, and don&#8217;t we all desire to be in the Light as exemplified by our current culture&#8217;s fascination with sex, drugs, and so on &#8211; if only to taste Light for just a second? Yet, ironically, what is keeping him from being whole and complete is the state of division and separation from his ex&#8217;s &#8211; perhaps not learning some lessons here and there. Sounds familiar.</p>
  130. <p>Let&#8217;s try to divide the song up a bit and see if we can read in some additional meanings (Texgesis) just for the fun of it (lyrics in<strong> bold</strong>):</p>
  131. <p><strong><em>Rosanna&#8217;s down in Texarkana</em></strong><strong><em> Wanted me to push her broom</em></strong></p>
  132. <p>By not meeting Rosanna&#8217;s desires to clean house, he hadn&#8217;t yet learned to serve his wife, and we have that it is difficult for a woman to change a man, if not impossible. The mind is a sort of function of the body and Spirit &#8211; move the body, you move the mind. I guess he didn&#8217;t want to.</p>
  133. <p><strong><em>Sweet Eileen&#8217;s in Abilene</em></strong><strong><em> She forgot I hung the moon</em></strong></p>
  134. <p>A hinting at the Law of Octaves affecting his relationships again and perhaps by not treating his wife as a goddess, she in turn forgets that he hung the moon.</p>
  135. <p><strong><em>And Allison&#8217;s in Galveston </em></strong><strong><em> Somehow lost her sanity</em></strong></p>
  136. <p>Possibly, this may happen when a woman has somehow found herself without  a &#8220;stable&#8221; male influence in her life, i.e., the man who is hopping from ex to ex in this song.  Given that Galveston is on the south end of Texas is it may be alluding to the lower controlling the upper with the result being a loss of focus.  I don&#8217;t know it was a guess.</p>
  137. <p><strong><em>And Dimple&#8217;s who now lives in Temple&#8217;s</em></strong><strong><em> Got the law looking for me</em></strong></p>
  138. <p>Temple, right back at the heart of Texas and the matter, we find that  the universal spiritual Laws will eventually use our emotions as a method for us to see our selves for who we really are.</p>
  139. <p><strong><em>I remember that old Frio River</em></strong><strong><em> Where I learned to swim</em></strong><br />
  140. <em> </em></p>
  141. <p>We see that he remembers learning by struggling against a winding body of water (emotion).</p>
  142. <p><strong><em>But it brings to mind another time</em></strong><strong><em> Where I wore my welcome thin</em></strong></p>
  143. <p>This old memory triggers an association to something of a fall, somewhat akin to the various Biblical accounts (e.g., Genesis) and a recalling of something greater, the Light as symbolized by Texas.</p>
  144. <p><strong><em> By transcendental meditation</em></strong><em><strong> I go there each nigh</strong>t</em><br />
  145. <em> </em></p>
  146. <p>He views from a higher perspective during the negative phases (night) of life &#8211; the hard times force us to seek.</p>
  147. <p><strong><em>But I always come back to myself</em></strong><em><strong> Long before daylight</strong><br />
  148. </em></p>
  149. <p>But using meditation he is unable to maintain this state of mind, this higher perspective &#8211; and comes back to the reality that he is still in the dark. And we may have more allusions to divisions within our self &#8211; note the: &#8220;I always come back to myself&#8221;. Which I is returning and which was myself? How can I return to myself?</p>
  150. <p>He then goes on to comment about residing in Texas vs. Tennessee. We&#8217;ve already covered Texas representing the Light being the Lone Star state, but division is what is keeping us out as embodied in the four (4) ex&#8217;s and the last one being the Law. But what about Tennessee? According to the Wikipedia: &#8220;<strong>The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain. Some accounts suggest it is a <a title="Cherokee" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee">Cherokee</a> modification of an earlier <a title="Yuchi" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuchi">Yuchi</a> word. It has been said to mean &#8220;meeting place&#8221;, &#8220;winding river&#8221;, or &#8220;river of the great bend&#8221;.<sup id="cite_ref-54"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee#cite_note-54">[55]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-55"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee#cite_note-55">[56]</a></sup> According to <a title="James Mooney" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mooney">James Mooney</a>, the name &#8220;can not be analyzed&#8221; and its meaning is lost.</strong><sup>&#8220;</sup></p>
  151. <p>Thus George, as the character he plays in the song, lives in a state of unknowing &#8211; uncertainty &#8211; where the meaning  is lost and indeed so are we (or at least I am) trying to find my way back home to proverbial Texas. Given that he now resides in Tennessee, the volunteer state, it is up to him to begin the journey. Some folks would say that he&#8217;s hidin (from the Light), and some would say that he&#8217;s dead (Jesus said: let the dead bury the dead), yet he thinks that he&#8217;s Alive and well in Tennessee, the proverbial state of being lost. And don&#8217;t almost all of us think we know, except you, of course, you wouldn&#8217;t think that, would you?</p>
  152. <p>It&#8217;s an old tale. They did the same thing in the Wizard of  Oz, the Bible, Star-Gate, Star Trek, Plato&#8217;s Cave, and so forth and no one would ever believe what was being said until EXperience brought her lessons.</p>
  153. <p>If in a similar way we can apply some of the concepts of self-observation, triangulation, etc. we may then be able apply a similar exegetical process in that song to our very lives. Looking for the repeating patterns, the things about our self that we never noticed, but have continued on in the same pattern over and over without any real thought as to why or what we we are doing. I never noticed those words being in that song. This points to many things I have not known about myself. I thought that I knew this song &#8211; I really did. I was convinced, yet there it was staring me and many that I know right in the face, we did not know. What this may say is that even within my self, there are certain changes I can try to make, that if I don&#8217;t know my self, it is like having someone you don&#8217;t know change your self! Is this a self-observation? There could be things about ourselves that have been there our entire life, that we have never known! Scary and exciting.</p>
  154. <p>Maybe there are some changes one can attempt to make that may be tried and true, just like Texas. I suspect that a start begins with whatever has been placed into your life &#8211; trying to become more family centered as much as is possible for your current conditions and this is what I&#8217;m trying to do. Divorced and  my ex lives in Texas, but I do have children and have been trying to be the best father I can be for them.</p>
  155. <p>I wonder if George Strait knew all this was in this song as he was singing it. He&#8217;s #3 or #4 on all time record sales, so I&#8217;d guess that he&#8217;s an advanced soul of some kind &#8211; he may very well have had an inkling.  Maybe he just had really good writers.</p>
  156. <p>Returning back to myself (remember we started this path with learning to like what we don&#8217;t like), I think I&#8217;m learning to like Country Music.</p>
  157. <p>How about you?</p>
  158. ]]></content>
  159. </entry>
  160. <entry>
  161. <author>
  162. <name>Shohn</name>
  163. <uri>http://www.scribesoflight/theway-side</uri>
  164. </author>
  165.  
  166. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Applying Country Music to TheWay?]]></title>
  167. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/05/31/applying-country-music-to-theway/" />
  168.  
  169. <id>https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/?p=17</id>
  170. <updated>2024-03-25T16:38:09Z</updated>
  171. <published>2011-05-31T22:29:29Z</published>
  172. <category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Insights" /><category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Music" />
  173. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is an introspective post about some &#8220;ahah&#8221; moments I&#8217;ve had recently, and some tools one may be able to employ as part of seeking knowledge of the self, with the ultimate goal of finding God. The self that calls it self, Shohn &#8211; the author of this post, has things that it likes, and [&#8230;]]]></summary>
  174.  
  175. <content type="html" xml:base="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/05/31/applying-country-music-to-theway/"><![CDATA[<p>This is an introspective post about some &#8220;ahah&#8221; moments I&#8217;ve had recently, and some tools one may be able to employ as part of seeking knowledge of the self, with the ultimate goal of finding God.</p>
  176. <p>The self that calls it self, Shohn &#8211; the author of this post, has things that it likes, and things that it doesn&#8217;t like.  Duality. Rock Music  good. Country Music bad. Why ? I have no clue. How about you?</p>
  177. <p>It has been suggested in some esoteric works, that one thing that can help is in coming to know the &#8220;<a href="http://www.beingoflight.com">true self</a>&#8221; is struggling against being mechanical (doing things on auto-pilot) in order to become more aware of one&#8217;s self. Dislikes i.e., associations can be used as fodder to struggle against. And in this struggling one can perhaps begin to see who one really is, and so forth, as opposed to the image of one&#8217;s self that one has constructed.  From a practical level, learn to like what you don&#8217;t like, and then you&#8217;ll like it!  Makes sense on some levels, but I wouldn&#8217;t suggest rolling around in a tub of grasshoppers or eating coal just because you don&#8217;t like it.</p>
  178. <p>Being from Texas, I&#8217;ve been exposed to Country Music all my life and could probably sing (am I being honest with myself by calling it singing) somewhat  the words to every country song, yet for whatever reason, most country music just rubs me the wrong way.  I don&#8217;t mind old country and perhaps Willie Nelson, but Country Music just bugs me.  I sat out to explore this.</p>
  179. <p>What I found was an insight or two, while possibly drifting a bit from the original goal. Just as people can use the Bible to validate whatever they are saying &#8211; in other words, use the Bible as a smoke-screen to conceal some message like &#8220;you are going to hell if you don&#8217;t like what I have to say&#8221;, many of these country songs contain all sorts of wonderful word plays and concepts that also contain &#8220;hidden&#8221; meanings or say one thing, without actually saying it.</p>
  180. <p>For example, as we read (or listen to) the below song, it is quite obvious to me, that the male singing the below song, Me Neither, is trying to get to know the female that he has set his heart (eyes) on, yet the literal words of the song convey otherwise to those listening to the song. Stated another way, within the song, is a hidden meaning, that is not revealed by the literal text. I thought this might relate on some levels, how the written text of the Bible and other sacred texts, <a href="http://www.thethreeLies.com">provides a literal text, but contains a hidden allegorical meaning</a>. In a similar way, our very lives can perhaps contain a &#8220;hidden&#8221; meaning, that we are as yet unable to see &#8211; a literal meaning on the surface, our job, house, dog, etc., but another meaning contained within.</p>
  181. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  182. <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbeaLb4KvEE&amp;feature">Have a look</a> at the word&#8221;s to this song to see what I mean:</p>
  183. <p><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Me Neither by Brad Paisley</span></em></p>
  184. <p><em>Darlin&#8217; I&#8217;ve been standin&#8217; here just watchin&#8217; you all night</em><br />
  185. <em> And I think I&#8217;ve even caught you watchin&#8217; me a couple times</em><br />
  186. <em> If I don&#8217;t ask I&#8217;ll never know</em><br />
  187. <em> This may sound dumb, but here we go</em><br />
  188. <em> Do you believe in love at first sight</em></p>
  189. <p><em>Me neither</em><br />
  190. <em> I&#8217;m glad that we agree</em><br />
  191. <em> Believe me</em><br />
  192. <em> That&#8217;s a big relief</em><br />
  193. <em> Well, this place is awful crowded</em><br />
  194. <em> And this music is so loud</em><br />
  195. <em> Would you like to go and grab a bite to eat</em><br />
  196. <em> Me neither</em></p>
  197. <p><em>It&#8217;s nice to finally meet a girl who doesn&#8217;t move too fast</em><br />
  198. <em> I was only checkin&#8217;, that&#8217;s the reason that I asked</em><br />
  199. <em> Relationships need time to grow</em><br />
  200. <em> You and I should take this slow</em><br />
  201. <em> And darlin&#8217; tell me, would you like to dance</em></p>
  202. <p><em>Me neither</em><br />
  203. <em> I was just bein&#8217; polite</em><br />
  204. <em> Thank goodness</em><br />
  205. <em> My feet are much too tired</em><br />
  206. <em> I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;re tired too</em><br />
  207. <em> I can see an empty booth</em><br />
  208. <em> Would you like to maybe sit and talk a while</em><br />
  209. <em> Me neither</em><br />
  210. <em> We&#8217;d never get along</em><br />
  211. <em> I&#8217;m thinkin&#8217; there&#8217;s no chemistry at all</em><br />
  212. <em> This has been a waste of time</em><br />
  213. <em> And I&#8217;m runnin&#8217; outta lines</em><br />
  214. <em> Don&#8217;t you think it&#8217;s time for me to end this song</em><br />
  215. <em> Me neither</em></p>
  216. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  217. <p>Do you think I found the reason why I don&#8217;t like country music? Me Neither.</p>
  218. <p>Did I learn to like it some. Yes, I did.</p>
  219. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  220. ]]></content>
  221. </entry>
  222. <entry>
  223. <author>
  224. <name>Shohn</name>
  225. <uri>http://www.scribesoflight/theway-side</uri>
  226. </author>
  227.  
  228. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Working with the Body&#8217;s Energy System &#8211; First Time Experiences]]></title>
  229. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/05/21/energy-ball-experiences/" />
  230.  
  231. <id>https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/?p=15</id>
  232. <updated>2024-03-25T16:38:09Z</updated>
  233. <published>2011-05-21T07:04:33Z</published>
  234. <category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Procedures" />
  235. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[The body has an &#8220;energy system&#8221; which can be worked with.  Working with  the body&#8217;s energy system is important because the more one works with this energy system, the greater one&#8217;s abilities are in certain areas. The following topics walks through my first exposures to working with the body&#8217;s energy system in a group and [&#8230;]]]></summary>
  236.  
  237. <content type="html" xml:base="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/05/21/energy-ball-experiences/"><![CDATA[<p>The body has an &#8220;energy system&#8221; which can be worked with.  Working with  the body&#8217;s energy system is important because the more one works with this energy system, the greater one&#8217;s abilities are in certain areas.</p>
  238. <p>The following topics walks through my first exposures to working with the body&#8217;s energy system in a group and are therefore from a &#8220;newbie&#8221; perspective. We began with the energy ball,  followed by forming an energy circle, followed by an exercise designed to move the energy inside the body, and lastly my experiences &#8220;feeling the energy&#8221; after having other parties help raise the energy levels of my body.</p>
  239. <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>The Energy Ball</strong></span></p>
  240. <p>I&#8217;ll spare you the details, and zoom right in on the scene at hand. I was asked to rub my hands together as described in another article about <a title="feeling energy" href="https://scribesoflight.com/living-theway/2010/09/19/learning-to-feel-energy/">feeling energy</a>. This was an exercise I had done countless times in the past, but apparently there is a difference between being shown and reading a set of instructions. In the past, I could feel a slight tingling in my hands, but nothing like an energy ball or similar as described in some new age circles. The persons I was working with demonstrated and showed me what I was looking for &#8211; and finally I found it. It was a distinct feeling of &#8220;resistance&#8221; that I was pressing against and could mold and shape to some degree &#8211; like a big invisible balloon made out of the same material as a thin soap bubble. I would press my hands together and I found an area that was &#8220;resistant&#8221; to the movement. I was then shown that I could make the ball bigger or smaller &#8211; slowly working it like working pizza dough and extending it, or compressing it whenever I &#8220;lost the signal&#8221;. I felt very clumsy and awkward trying to handle the thing at first, but started to get the knack for it. I then asked if we could play soccer with the energy ball. Lesson over.</p>
  241. <p>The next part was making an energy circle.</p>
  242. <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Energy Circle</span></strong></p>
  243. <p>Using the same/similar techniques used to construct the energy ball, I sat in a circle with the group and we charged our hands again by rubbing them. Then we all sat in a circle and the hands were arranged such that my peer would place his/her hands over mine (not touching) and then the energy would move. The energy moves naturally as part of being in the circle. There is another way to help the energy along.</p>
  244. <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Butt Squeeze Exercise</strong></span></p>
  245. <p>The butt squeeze exercise is quite simple. Breathe in and try to squeeze in your nether regions/butt muscles tight as you breathe in. Release the breath and the muscles at the same time.  Try to breathe deeply and squeeze hard at the same time. There is sort of a rhythm you&#8217;ll need to find. As you do this, you may find that your back starts getting hot a little and you may (depending on the status of your body) find the energy start to move up your body (up the front).<br />
  246. My  body must still be dirty from years of smoking, so I had people helping me move the energy up &#8211; raising my energy. This is where it gets interesting &#8211; feeling the energy.</p>
  247. <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong> Feeling the Energy</strong></span></p>
  248. <p>I mentioned feeling a &#8220;resistance&#8221; earlier as I was playing with the energy balls, but there was something else really interesting. Some persons were trying to help me track down where the blockages may be in my body. Blockages prevent the energy from rising &#8211; negating the whole point of all this energy work. As I was experiencing this, I was<br />
  249. keeping my eyes closed, because I didn&#8217;t want to be imagining things. At one point I asked: Did you touch me? to the practitioner. No was the response. I kept feeling like someone was touching me. Then I kept my eyes open and felt the same thing &#8211; the energy was strong enough to trigger a response in my hands that felt like someone touched me. As<br />
  250. the work continued the same happened for my chest area, my head, etc. I kept feeling like someone had touched me and it was not the case. Later as they began to track down my various bodily problems from being a moron and smoking all those years, one woman passed her hand over my shoulders (without touching). My entire body felt energized and as though something had passed through it &#8211; like being shot by a static energy bullet. The woman was able to feel where I had pain in my body and isolated it down to where I felt it internally. She also identified a spot I didn&#8217;t know was hurting in my intestinal tract. A man that was working with me had gotten a visual of a small object in<br />
  251. my intestines. I suspect it may be that dime I swallowed when I was 3 years old and never found. We have come full circle.</p>
  252. <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span></p>
  253. <p>One difficulty I found was in not knowing what I was looking for at first. I found that some of the things could be related, but I didn&#8217;t know what I was missing until I experienced it. The same will probably be the case for you.</p>
  254. <p>Learning by doing, by experiencing, is worth more than book knowledge.</p>
  255. <p>You can&#8217;t play soccer with energy balls.</p>
  256. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  257. ]]></content>
  258. </entry>
  259. <entry>
  260. <author>
  261. <name>Shohn</name>
  262. <uri>http://www.scribesoflight/theway-side</uri>
  263. </author>
  264.  
  265. <title type="html"><![CDATA[Letter to the Doomsday Prophets]]></title>
  266. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/05/16/letter-to-the-doomsday-prophets/" />
  267.  
  268. <id>https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/?p=13</id>
  269. <updated>2024-03-25T16:38:09Z</updated>
  270. <published>2011-05-16T23:15:58Z</published>
  271. <category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Letters" />
  272. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I recently wrote a letter to the doomsday prophets over at Family Radio in response to the following article: (http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-01-01/bay-area/17466332_1_east-bay-bay-area-first-time-camping) regarding their proposed date of May 21, 2011 marking the end of the world. The below is the contents of the message I sent: &#160; Greetings and Shalom Family Radio and Harold Camping where ever [&#8230;]]]></summary>
  273.  
  274. <content type="html" xml:base="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2011/05/16/letter-to-the-doomsday-prophets/"><![CDATA[<p>I recently wrote a letter to the doomsday prophets over at <a title="Family Radio" href="http://www.familyradio.com/index2.html">Family Radio</a> in response to the following article: (<a title="east-bay-bay-area-first-time-camping" href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-01-01/bay-area/17466332_1_east-bay-bay-area-first-time-camping">http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-01-01/bay-area/17466332_1_east-bay-bay-area-first-time-camping</a>) regarding their proposed date of May 21, 2011 marking the end of the world.</p>
  275. <p>The below is the contents of the message I sent:</p>
  276. <p>&nbsp;</p>
  277. <p>Greetings and Shalom Family Radio and Harold Camping where ever he may be:</p>
  278. <p>I pray that the &#8220;Truth&#8221; speak for itself.</p>
  279. <p>Let  me first congratulate you on the sheer amount of courage to air it all  out there for the world to see! Rest assured, that they will know the  truth come May 21st! It seems apparent that times are &#8220;a changin&#8221; (as  they always do) and that various doomsday prophet predictions of death  and mayhem may very well be a part of those changes, yet all may not be  as you have previously held. It is possible that the end of the world is  coming, but not in the way you may have imagined. Your calculations may  be right on the spot, but as you know, God tends to answer prayers in  strange ways.</p>
  280. <p>I have come to you with a beneficial message!</p>
  281. <p>You are no  doubt familiar with the expression of being held accountable for every  &#8220;idle word&#8221; and so forth as written in the same text you are using to  support your doomsday prognostications. Though you may have erroneously  forecasted before, it seems that God has given you another shot at  making a fool of your self like ol&#8217; Jonah, or investigating the real  cause behind why you were wrong last time. Here&#8217;s a hint, it wasn&#8217;t the  calculations. Yes, I know even Jonah was wrong. With smiles, Jonah was  said to have heard the voice of the Lord &#8211; he wasn&#8217;t said to have  &#8220;calculated&#8221;.</p>
  282. <p>Regarding the &#8220;end of the world&#8221;, I&#8217;m left wondering how you have  reconciled that notion, with the words supposedly uttered by Jesus  saying that: &#8220;the kingdom comes not with observation, but is within  you&#8221;; and his admonitions regarding the Key of Knowledge, against the  Pharisees who apparently prevented people from entering the kingdom  before Jesus had even gone to the cross. Of course, we also have the  issue that our old friend Enoch was supposedly taken up prior to Jesus  arriving to save the world by destroying it?</p>
  283. <p>By now, if you are even somewhat honest, you know that there are  things that do not make sense in the Bible, some of which I have just  pointed out. Often the solution seems to be throw one&#8217;s hands in the  air, and say those faith and mystery words and move on. I offer an  alternative solution. Perhaps when Jesus said to &#8220;seek&#8221; he really  meant  it, and just possibly there is a solution to this pickle, beyond  mystery and faith? What if Jesus was actually telling the truth when  saying there was a kingdom inside you that could be found if you sought  it? What if the real error in your calculations was in making the same  mistake Judas made &#8211; attempting to usher the kingdom in on the earth,  when Jesus told Pilate it was not of this earth! Do you think Judas got  his calculations off, or was there a deeper cause of the error?</p>
  284. <p>I know that you are a student of the Bible and could probably whip  me hands down in terms of the passages you may speak from memory, but  let me suggest that there is a deeper meaning to the text, that is kept  from your eyes &#8211; i.e., the book is sealed, until such time as you begin  to have the proper eyes and ears to see, and at that time in your very  life &#8211; the kingdom will come! What do you think of that possibility?  What do you think the Pharisees thought of their odds against Jesus? Do  you think you would have done any better than them?</p>
  285. <p>I know what you are thinking:  why should I trust this stranger  writing me any more than I would trust anyone else or what I already  know to be true, after all I&#8217;ve seen the signs, and miracles and so  forth that confirm that the end of the world is near! What gives him the  confidence that his paradigm of truth is superior to my own?</p>
  286. <p>First, let me assure you that to this day, I continue to see &#8220;signs&#8221;  and things and they have only increased since learning of what I&#8217;m  about to tell you. My prayers are still answered and so on. I&#8217;m still  waiting on that candy-apple Ferrari though. So there is something beyond  the proverbial veil once it has been ripped in two.</p>
  287. <p>Let me also tell you that what I&#8217;m about to tell you will present  your greatest personal challenge because if any of what I say is true,  you will have spent over 70 years or so seeking out things that simply  don&#8217;t matter and will have a huge amount of face to save. As you are  undoubtedly aware, people become personally invested in things they have  created and are often unwilling to let go of them. Nobody likes being  told their baby is ugly! So, this will require quite an &#8220;unvestment&#8221; on  your part to investigate these possibilities. I empathize and have been  there and it is not easy.</p>
  288. <p>Being a student of the scriptures, you may note that Paul mentioned  being &#8220;taken up&#8221; (while he was still here on this earth) and also  happened to mention to the baptized and fully gifted Christians, that he  could not tell them the mysteries of the kingdom. Do you think this  gives new meaning to the expression: &#8220;cast not pearls before swine&#8221;?   Perhaps they might turn on him and rend him when presented such things?   Why would he hold out on them?</p>
  289. <p>Perhaps, in part, this is how we get the &#8220;religion of Jesus&#8221; resulting in millions being killed &#8220;in his name&#8221;?</p>
  290. <p>As  a fan of Jesus, I&#8217;m sure you are familiar with what happens as you try  to preach. Imagine that there was something similar being conveyed to  you &#8211; a truth. Imagine that it would be like you trying to preach Jesus  to non-believers. So, in a similar way, the things I may attempt to  convey to you would be rejected by you as much as your would be converts  may reject your message of Jesus or the ending of this world.</p>
  291. <p>What if the kingdom inside you and the end of the world is when you learn to access it?</p>
  292. <p>What  if the end of the world is when everything you thought you knew, was  not the final truth and that you had been deceived? Would that not be  truly the end of the world?  Perhaps you are familiar with the testimony  of &#8220;near death experiencers&#8221; and the testimony of various persons who  have written of their various journeys &#8220;into the light&#8221; over the years.  Yet, when people describe such things, they are often rejected from  society -ostracized. Sort of reminds me of what they say happened to  Jesus. It seems that people&#8217;s normal response is like that of the  Pharisees, to stone to death or crucify the such things.</p>
  293. <p>Do you think brother Paul was being careful not to alienate his  congregation when telling them there were certain things he couldn&#8217;t  talk about after going to heaven (though he was unsure if out of his  body). If you can&#8217;t relate to his plight, let me make it more  personal.  As a leader of men, no doubt you have been confronted with the reality  of what it is like to announce something that will stir up a bit of  controversy &#8211; that fear of &#8220;will I look stupid&#8221; before men and trying to  balance that with &#8220;but I need to tell them the truth&#8221;. I&#8217;m sure you  recall that feeling the first time you announced the end of the world?  I&#8217;m sure you had a different feeling when you were wrong. Do you recall  what it was like trying to recover? To confront that error?  Well,  multiply that by 50. That&#8217;s what you are confronted with today.</p>
  294. <p>You are being confronted with a whole new paradigm, and and ending  of your world. I recall the first time I was presented with such a  choice. I had to decide whether or not to let go of everything I though I  knew and it was quite scary, so I empathize with what you could be  feeling. I had prayed a little prayer asking for the &#8220;truth&#8221; and the  next thing I know I find myself reading about the 16 crucified saviors  with their stories being eerily similar to that of the new testament  account! As a student of the Bible, I assume you are familiar with these  crucified saviors? If not, let me know.</p>
  295. <p>Basically, the story of Osiris and other &#8220;pagan&#8221; gods had details  which matched that of the New Testament account. Go check for you self.  It is true! Don&#8217;t forget to research both sides of this issue and let  the truth speak for itself.</p>
  296. <p>How could such a thing be possible? When confronted with such  irrefutable details, I asked: &#8220;Had the devil fooled them throughout  time?&#8221;. The devil fabricated in my mind: &#8220;The devil merely tricked them  to keep them from Jesus Christ&#8221;. The devil found other ways to  rationalize and rail against the answer to my prayer. Then I took a  breath, relaxed, and let go &#8211; I decided to let the truth speak for  itself.</p>
  297. <p>I told God, that he&#8217;d be okay with me seeking the truth, since that  was one of his admonitions when he showed up as Jesus. It seems that God  agreed I rationalized.</p>
  298. <p>Though you may not be able to accept it  at this time and will find your self rationalizing in one direction or  another, I found out that Biblical text provides a series of symbols  designed to conceal an inner meaning, an allegory &#8211; a road map! And what  a profound and wonderful inner meaning there is indeed! The God that I  had created in my mind (in defiance of the 10 commandments) was much  bigger than I could  have ever possibly imagined! The ending of the  world had come, in a sense. The Jesus I read about was even better! It  all made sense after years of searching! That there was a kingdom inside  us and the kingdom had come, yet there was and is more work to do  apparently. That&#8217;s the part people don&#8217;t like to hear. They say the love  Jesus, but doing his words, well that&#8217;s a whole different story. So  again, the Bible contains a cover story, with the truth concealed under  the surface to keep that beast that is *inside* you from destroying it,  until such time as that beast has been transformed from a lion to a  lamb. When you are ready, you can begin to seek the kingdom inside you,  exactly where Jesus said it was!</p>
  299. <p>What if, the Revelation is about you and your own personal journey  to find the The Way, the truth, and the Life as personified by our Lord  and Savior Jesus Christ, and indeed when found, the truth shall set you  free! You are the one who must become as a virgin! You are the one who  must journey through the desert for 40 years! You are the one who must  go and face the Jews, inside you! The whole Bible is about you (and  those around you that you impact) and seeking the kingdom that lies  within you, not some external coming of the kingdom. The neat thing is,  you don&#8217;t have to believe me. You can find out for your self!</p>
  300. <p>Coming back to the choice set before you, you can choose to  investigate what is being said and find out what Paul, Enoch, and even  Jesus said was there waiting on you. You may find that you inner &#8220;devil&#8221;  is now saying something like: &#8220;This person is doing a careful  recharacterization of what Jesus said&#8221; &#8211; a private interpretation of my  own making. Fair enough, that is good of you to be a skeptic and I don&#8217;t  blame you, but will you at least go look for your self!</p>
  301. <p>Will you go look into the concepts of the &#8220;journey of the soul&#8221;,  entering into the kingdom of light inside you, that we are not our body,  but rather simply inhabit it like a temple, that a Roman emperor  confiscated Christianity and turned into something it was not &#8211;  depriving it of its spiritual essence, and many other shocking things.</p>
  302. <p>Lastly, and not to scare you with my own doomsday prognostications,  but if the biblical mention of &#8220;a man reaps what he sows for God is not  mocked&#8221; has at all any merit to it, then then there is probably a  certain reality to being presented information and dismissing it, and  then going on to present other information that could now have error in  it i.e., your prognostications about the end of the world and  meanderings about things that have limited value and in may respects may  very well be keeping people out of the kingdom that Jesus said to seek.  Now I wonder, what might be the reaping for that sort of sowing?</p>
  303. <p>So brother, I&#8217;d suggest that the only question that matters at this  time, is not whether someone is going to come in and usher in a kingdom  with lots of  lightning, but whether you your self will make the  adjustments and &#8220;open your mind&#8221; (metanoya) to this new reality that the  Bible contains within it symbols for your own journey to the light &#8211;  and that you have been in a proverbial desert for the last 70 years, and  now it is your time to go into the promised land.</p>
  304. <p>Not after you die, not May 21st, but now!</p>
  305. <p>So when May 22nd  comes around, and presuming you ignored this message like &#8220;they&#8221; always  do, you will then have the opportunity to save face by announcing to the  world, that the world had indeed come to an end, but you missed the  message, though the end had indeed come! You can then announce the  reality that we have been conned by a Roman emperor with a passion for  killing, and this con has lasted for almost 1700 years! The end of the  world is here &#8211; Praise the Lord! Will the real Jesus please stand up!</p>
  306. <p>Although people will first hate you for such a message, you are &#8220;out  there&#8221; enough to forecast the end of the world on a specific date, so  this should be child&#8217;s play.</p>
  307. <p>I probably made a number of  spelling and grammatical errors in this message, things that I can&#8217;t see  until after they are already done. Sound familiar?</p>
  308. <p>You may find the following web site quite helpful in searching out many of these things: <a href="http://www.thethreelies.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.thethreelies.com</a></p>
  309. <p>God Bless, and God Speed in your Journey,<br />
  310. <span style="color: #888888;"><br />
  311. Shohn</span></p>
  312. ]]></content>
  313. </entry>
  314. <entry>
  315. <author>
  316. <name>Shohn</name>
  317. <uri>http://www.scribesoflight/theway-side</uri>
  318. </author>
  319.  
  320. <title type="html"><![CDATA[A Name, Me?]]></title>
  321. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2010/09/18/hello-world/" />
  322.  
  323. <id>https://scribesoflight.comscribesoflight_comtheway-side/?p=1</id>
  324. <updated>2024-03-25T16:38:09Z</updated>
  325. <published>2010-09-18T13:07:34Z</published>
  326. <category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Announcement" /><category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="Memories" /><category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="memory" /><category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="metaphysical" /><category scheme="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side" term="name" />
  327. <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Since this first post shall form the basis for the rest of this blog, I thought I would begin by returning to my own beginnings, that I can remember, and also walk through the beginnings of this blog, that I can remember. My name is Shohn. Pleased to meet you, dear reader. If this is [&#8230;]]]></summary>
  328.  
  329. <content type="html" xml:base="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/2010/09/18/hello-world/"><![CDATA[<p>Since this first post shall form the basis for the rest of this blog, I thought I would begin by returning to my own beginnings, that I can remember, and also walk through the beginnings of this blog, that I can remember.</p>
  330. <p>My name is Shohn. Pleased to meet you, dear reader. If this is the first time you have seen that name spelled that way, your mind is probably wrestling with it by now. You may be thinking: &#8220;How is that pronounced?&#8221;, or &#8220;Is he of Eastern European decent?&#8221;, or &#8220;Is that Shown?&#8221;, or  &#8220;That is unique, but I&#8217;m hesistant to ask him because I don&#8217;t want to give him a complex&#8221;, or &#8220;that looks like John spelled with Sh on the front&#8221;, or even &#8220;is that Irish?&#8221;.</p>
  331. <p>It is my personal belief that by virtue of having my name spelled in a unique manner it has provided what I would call, a &#8220;shock&#8221;, throughout much of my life as I am introduced to new people. Almost 95% of the time, people can not spell my name correctly the first time. This has given me a bit of a complex, and some fun, in that, I have learned to observe people as they wrestle with the correct spelling of my name. I watch as their eyebrows move upwards and tighten up, the unavoidable confusion being manifested in the movement of their contorted facial expressions. Shock. It is all together rather humourous most the time. Thank goodness, I wasn&#8217;t named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bolton">Michael Bolton</a>.</p>
  332. <p>What is in a name?  Did the name define who I am, or did I pick that name? Perhaps it was a little of both? If you are still with me dear reader, perhaps you&#8217;d like to know that this name business involves you as well. Does that arouse your interest? Your name has in many ways defined how people have reacted to you over the years. As our psychologists tell us, your name has contributed towards the formation of that initial 1 second impression that people of you. Did your mind automatically correct the missing word in the previous sentence that should read instead: &#8220;that people have of you&#8221;? That initial 1 second impression that the &#8220;they&#8221; say results in how they view you for the remainder of your time together. What was your initial 1 second impression? Do you remember?</p>
  333. <p>Impressions.</p>
  334. <p><a href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/truth_sojourner.jpg"><img decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-5" title="black_woman" src="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/truth_sojourner-269x300.jpg" alt="" width="186" height="207" srcset="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/truth_sojourner-269x300.jpg 269w, https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/truth_sojourner-134x150.jpg 134w, https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/truth_sojourner.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 186px) 100vw, 186px" /></a></p>
  335. <p>Do you think I am a black woman based upon the way I write?</p>
  336. <p>As an aside, it is interesting how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity">synchronicity</a> works. I was trying to make a point about impressions and so I googled for a picture of a &#8220;black woman&#8221; and found the above. As I was reviewing this article, my daughter comes up to me and informs me that she recognizes the woman above as, Samantha  Truth.  I click back over to my <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1851-sojourner-truth-arnt-i-woman">original source of the above picture</a>. Her name is actually Sojourner Truth, which name and face was previously unknown to me.  What an interesting name. Apparently, something beyond me wanted that picture to be here perhaps. Soul Journey Truth?</p>
  337. <p>My impression of the above woman was at first just some elderly black woman from an era long since forgotten. Do we remember her contributions even unto today?</p>
  338. <p>Speaking of remembering, today is Yom Kippur for me and appropriate day for this discussion. I affectionately refer to it as Yom Skipper. On this day of letting go of the old, perhaps we should go on a little journey to find some things that we have forgotten and perhaps never knew.</p>
  339. <p>I once sought some answers in the attic of my childhood home. I wanted to understand, of all things, Is Santa Claus real? Some friends at my school and I were debating this topic and I had set out to find evidence &#8211; to find the truth of this matter. I planned to investigate the toy boxes I had seen in our attic. Instead, I found a notebook with scribbles of various permutations of my name on it.</p>
  340. <p>Shohn</p>
  341. <p>Shaun</p>
  342. <p>Shon</p>
  343. <p>Sean</p>
  344. <p>Shazon &#8211; Lord of the Northern Mountains</p>
  345. <p>Nichelle</p>
  346. <p>Shohinqua</p>
  347. <p>Most curious. It was my mother&#8217;s handwriting. What a find. It must have been where my mother was wrestling with what to call me. Thank goodness she decided against Shazon. According to these scribbles, had I been born a girl, my name would have been Nichelle, which is probably nearly as unusual as Shohn. My mother&#8217;s scribbles more than 30 years ago are now affecting you today?</p>
  348. <p>Do you have an interesting name? Is it unique? Is it normal? Have you ever thought of changing it?</p>
  349. <p>Let&#8217;s go ahead and shock some of our readers a bit more, but I will dampen this shock by letting you know I am about to shock you. Perhaps as a consequence of this name, Shohn, which is a consequence of previous existences that my soul has lived as (note that I did not say that I lived as though that may be confusing at this time), has brought me to the point where I am at now. Soul what? Have your eyebrows closed in on each other in an expression of confusion? Has your heart rate increased? Is this old news for you and you don&#8217;t even bat an eye? What was your reaction to that phrase &#8220;previous existences&#8221;,  and why?</p>
  350. <p>Who am I? Really, Who am I?  Who are you? That&#8217;s a question my mother has wanted to know of me recently as well.</p>
  351. <p>I found myself discussing some things of a spiritual nature with mom.  Words like soul and journey and even the phrasology, previous existences, came up. Mom was not sure of what to make of these things and had manifested facial expressions resembling confusion and a slight amount of concern. Being a protective mother, I guess she also wanted to make sure I wasn&#8217;t going down the wrong path. She was doing me a favor in her mind, and I a favor for her in my mind. Aren&#8217;t we nice to each other?  One of those strange concepts for her was the &#8220;Journey of the Soul&#8221; evolving through multiple lifetimes.  She says to me: &#8220;You have become a completely different person in the last 2 years&#8221; &#8211; &#8220;Who are you?&#8221;</p>
  352. <p>What a perfect question, and one to which we should all be seeking to know the answer, whether we realize this or not. I take her back to a special day in our journey together, and by proxy in our journey together (you the reader and I).</p>
  353. <p>&#8220;Mom, do you recall when I was about 3 and asked you, why are we here?&#8221;.</p>
  354. <p>Perspective.</p>
  355. <p>Just as I have attempted to do with you by isolating the word perspective, suddenly, by asking my mother that question, another part of her comes to the surface. The part of her that wants to go on the attack against me, has gone into submission.  This now emerged part of her last lived in a time frame when I was a boy. It doesn&#8217;t seem to come out very often.  A softness comes into her tone. I retell the story in my mind and now in your mind.</p>
  356. <p>If you can imagine&#8230;..here we were, &#8220;Mamma&#8221; and me, sitting on the backside of a 1930s era wood frame house with concrete steps that were slightly off balance due to the house being more than 50 years old and the resulting settling of earth into a rigid pattern. The house itself sat on the stumps of trees that had been brought down from their former glory.</p>
  357. <p>My mother and I are sitting next to each other looking out upon the back pasture. I am observing the clouds and the many colors. I&#8217;m barely able to know my own age. I do know that I am 3 years of age, but the concept of a year has not yet solidified for me. I look over at my mother and I ask her:</p>
  358. <p>&#8220;Mamma, why are we here?&#8221;.</p>
  359. <p>As this flash of a memory moves through my mind, my mother begins to vocalize a similar story. When she gets to the part about &#8220;Mamma, why are we here?&#8221;, she says she remembers being shocked and raised an eyebrow or three. It seems this has helped her connect a dot just now. I observe her facial expressions and see her make a connection. I used this story to take her back to a time before I had been programmed with various things as a function of my birth family and I relate this concept to her by proxy she is able to go back to a similar time in her own life. Perhaps I have done the same for you now, dear reader. I tell her, that before I was taught, this was probably in part, the answer to her question of: &#8220;Who are you?&#8221;.</p>
  360. <p>My mother has often claimed to have some abilities otherwise touted as paranormal. She claims that she knew that I was going to be a boy and it seems that my name came from inspiration to her. Where oh where did that inspiration come from I ask my mother as we discuss how much I have changed over the last few years. I ask her: &#8220;Do you think it is possible that I was in Spirit, and perhaps whispered that name into your ear?&#8221;. In a sense of irony, I have now whispered such a notion into her mind and back off to give her time to think about it. Her immediate response is shock, and probably the same for you if you are new to such things.</p>
  361. <p>She asks, where is this notion in the Bible, and I tell her of several places, and all over the place if your eyes begin to open. Like me, she was raised Catholic and, in my experience, most Catholics have never read their Bibles. Such things are therefore new to her. Like myself reaching for the unknown of whether Santa Claus is real or not, instead I found something else, and in the process of attempting to know God, I found something else. New things, that is, things that have been previously unencountered, perhaps like the name Shohn, for you?</p>
  362. <p>So here we are with new things. A new blog and coming up on the ending of the New Year celebration. Today is called Yom Kippur which calls for some soul searching. I have found that I can do such searching by writing or praying so this morning I found myself wondering what to write. I had placed a goal for my new year to attempt to tap into that source of inspiration and connect with it. Yet, like my mother wrestling with names, I was having trouble selecting the write topic. At last&#8230;. it comes to me.</p>
  363. <p>What better article to write than an article on introducing myself, the blog, and somehow tieing together the names of the blog and myself?</p>
  364. <p>I will need a name for the blog, but nothing has yet come to me. I should seek then.</p>
  365. <p>As I looked for inspiration, suddenly it came: &#8220;TheWay Side&#8221;. I was trying to find something that meant &#8220;a bit off the beaten path&#8221; so to speak. As I read the meaning of wayside, I discovered that it seemed to have with it the idea of being on the edge, but is usually used in a negative connotation. Therefore, for a brief moment &#8211; this blog was entitled &#8220;TheWay Side&#8221; due to its cool sounding name being appropriately thematic, yet not so common as to be boring. As I selected this name, more inspiration came &#8211; I realized that the negative connotation could be a problem for some, and thus it had to go. And so, in a matter of about 10 seconds, this blog was once &#8220;TheWay Side&#8221; and then became &#8220;The Water&#8217;s Edge (formerly TheWay Side). This name will likely set the tone from here on out. Like water, I think the name is reflective of certain things that once were, yet still are &#8211; just in as much as I am partly that boy sitting there asking mom for the secrets of existence, and yet I am also partly a product of things that have happened since that time and so are you.</p>
  366. <p><a href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/steps.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-8" title="steps" src="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/steps-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a></p>
  367. <p>So, here we have, &#8220;The Water&#8217;s Edge (formerly TheWay Side), written by Shohn.</p>
  368. <p><a href="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/S5001243.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-6" title="&lt;Digimax S500 / Kenox S500 / Digimax Cyber 530&gt;" src="https://scribesoflight.com/theway-side/files/2010/09/S5001243-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="79" height="79" /></a></p>
  369. <p>This blog is, my baby, and I hope I picked a good name for it, and as a consequence many other things. I wonder if my mother or my other babies will ever read it. I wonder if 1000 years from now some cyber-archaelogist will be digging through old hard drives from the turn of this century and find the contents of this blog. Perhaps it will be missing some 1s and 0s here and there and only part of the name and article will come through and he will horribly miss the points and start some new religion? Has this ever happened before? Do you think it happened to you just now upon reading this article? Time will tell.</p>
  370. ]]></content>
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