The Block

Shel Silverstiens Invatation

If your a dreamer, come in,
If your a dreamer , a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er , a pray-er , a magic bean buyer...
If your a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!

To all the dreamers and schemers ... I encourage you to dream big. I also encourage you to have a plan for your dream. Don't just dream .... have a plan to make that dream come true . Dream yes , by all means but do what it takes to make that dream come into reality. Today - in the states we celebrate a day where a dreamer dreamt big. Against the common. He took the time and the effort to realize his dream. He stood tall, and was willing to take his dream ... to the next level.
He didn't just speak of a dream .. though that's what many of us remember.
He was arrested over 30 times while protesting and telling and sharing his dream. 34 some say exactly .

I remember seeing this photo in a school book. What courage does one need and what resolve does a person need to know that no matter the cost - their cause is worth it ?
Can we as Jedi learn from photos like this?! I hope so.
One.. I did . Think about it . Can we be as brave as some of the leaders in the past ? Can we learn from them? In life, sacrifice is evident . Some of our "dreams " may take some sacrifice_-some may some may not. Dream - but be ready : be prepared for the rest of what your dream brings it May not be to the extream.r Realize there's more to things that just dreamimg
to change things , it takes action.

Today I sit with coffe in hand and under my cherry tree by my thinking chair. There is a stillness that comes. As I meditate I enjoy the calm before the storm . My mind relaxes as I get ready for the possibilities of screaming children pots clattering and people shuffling in and out of my home.
The peace I receive has to be set at times. The tree needed to be bought and fertilized planted, potted , watered - sprayed and trimmed. The coffe needs to be made. The dishes had to be washed and the time had to be cut out and planned for me to get this - peace . Some days we have to make our peace and put bliss. Some days we have to plan for it and some days like today we have to make time for it.
Peace - if you need it and can't find it - some days you have to make it .
Think about that this week my temple .

Somthimg to ponder my Jedi :
What are you doing ? What is it you seek? And even better ---- what is it creating ?

It is to every human to have the ability to "pass and review " their own life's and intention.
As Jedi we have the ability to check our own selfs out as often as we see fit. What is your search creating ? What type of Jedi is the current path you are on creating? Is your search creating tools for your heart or weapons to create conflict.? Are the labels your finding creating conflict and harm or are they starting to grow and begining to heal?
I hope this small reminder of pass and review helps your personal paths . I do this so often I penned "pass and review" lol may the Force we share seek and serve find you exactly where your looking for it !!!

In the US we have kids meals and kid menus. Not sure how it is in the rest of the world. Today , my son said , dad , can I eat real food? He ordered French toast with a side of broccoli and eggs scrambled. He ate a bit of everything , didn't eat it all but in volume, he ate more. He even asked for some of my own fries (3) and had a blast as the buffet was on his plate. Took him a little longer too.
There will come a time in our learning when we no longer need milk and can chew and digest a bit more. Even further down the road our palate will change and grow. Take some time to realize this happens to us as we learn. Some day we may need a bit ... more or a bit ... difrent than what we have been used to. Grow my temple and notice the signs . Jedi are smart! May this week - when we study - may we study may we grow and may we even notice that weay no longer need what we used to yearn for ... that's ok. Open your palette and take a new try at new things. Take a deeper longer more larger portion... if your ready , you may be ...
may the Force we seek serve and see - be with y'all!


Ps .... you gunna eat that !!!? Smiley face !

ITS MONDAY!!!

Your compass, I've spent some time out at sea- Coast Guard Cutter Eagle; Coast Guard Cutter Amberjack...skiffs, 44'ft rescue boats, 48' rescue boats, 12'ft rescue boats, launchas, pontoons, yachts, oil tankers (Exxon/Valdez sized), battle ships...Kitty Hawk, carriers...George Washington, and the ever famous vessel the USS Myself.
Yes, I have floated in the middle of the ocean, all by myself, and in every instance, it was a necessity to have a compass. Survival was due to the compass. Direction. In some cases I had several. There comes a time when we need to figure out in our past our own compass. It's every humans right and every Jedi s gift to be able to choose their own direction.
Often times we have questions. Questions are never wrong - or right - questions come. Ask your self - where will this lead me - yea I said it " question your questions" check your compass before you leave . Make sure your direction is the heading you want. You can have several ! So this weeks encouragment is check your devises - question your questions . Are they helping and keeping you foward and in the direction you like or ... are they leaving you afloat lost ... with no direction to return?
May the force be with y'all This week!

Friday edition :
In the prosesss of learning we find and in finding we are compelled to teach others those great Things we have learned first hand.
There can come a time in this step when the focus shifts from learning and the upset begins and the learning stops. Don't find that spot and stay there Jedi.
Remind yourself of your focus. I read so many staments that sum up this very pause in learning. " Yoda- "Yes. Yes. A flaw more and more common among Jedi. Hmmm. Too sure of themselves they are. Even the older, more experienced ones." This happens too often in modern day Jedi ism. Friday edition: be mindful of the future but not the expense of the present.
The living force ...
The one present living now.

Your path has guided you for so long to this place of finding things and finnaly knowing certain ideas as helpful and non helpful.
Keep them ! If you wish - share them. Don't let anger or upset come in where there needs to be none.
Happy days Jedi !

https://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/Clergy/120861-carlos-book-of-change#315843

In his world we live in - there are many MANY difrent people . To be precise, The world population was estimated to have reached 7,500,000,000 at 16:21(UTC) on April 24, 2017.
Seven and a half billion. None of one is like the other. No two fingerprints are the same. No voice is duplicated. Think about that.
Think about this - all those people - and we choose to be Jedi. We believe in the inherit worth of 7.5 billion people. Do we act like it ? Better question ... do we live like that? Are we at awe at the mind blowing possibilities that are Standing or standing right next to us at the store or in public? What's the sight we have now? What do we see the world as ? "Sweeney Todd says "there's a hole in world , like a big black pit ... and it's filled with people who are filled with shit " that's the face we have ? Or is it difrent ? What's your face ? What's your face saying? There was a American president out with 2 of his secret service agents back in the day of horse and carriage and they met a man walking from one town to the other . The man quickly said sir ... may I have a ride to town- the president said of course and took him the way he was going any way. When they reached the destination he asked the man why didn't you ask them - the man replied "you had a yes face"
Jedi - what face you got ? Love ya Temple
Carlos

very inspiring brother!

With destruction comes it's shadow.
When we destroy- balance is effected. When we choose to destroy our effort centers around this idea and we are focused on a single sight. (Often) It can take our focus and keep it longer than expected. Anger is a feeling we were born with as joy and fear. Nothing wrong with being mad. We all get upset. It's a natural path. For some this path can keep us. It's so strong and so frequented it's overwhelming.During it's presence, anger tends to take our personal focus to a place we may tend to over see it in a way like we almost forget we have other feelings and can think. Then something happens ... then we begin to destroy. We forget- Our actions from the feeling begin to bloom anger - no longer in thought form but action. Destructiveness starts - we yell at our loved ones - ignore them - hurt them. We allow something else to take the wheel -and drive. If we use our thinker - often times we would say - why would I do that ? Why would I say that ? Was that me ?
As Jedi we like to think we can be- Jedi in things especially in anger or destructiveness in our own lives . When I say Jedi the idea of a Jedi type of control and demonstration is intended. It can be possible to begin on a path of destructiveness and even easyer to stay and be held. Take some time and notice where we are at in our paths. If we are un raveling more than we are creating maybe it's time to re focus . If our focus has shifted , Maybe we can re shift it - if something else drives the mind maybe it's time to change out drivers and help ourselfs out of that shadow that holds us far too often.
Force be with y'all my friends and my temple! Something to think about this week!

The cedar break

As a Newly ordained youth minister in a fundamental baptist church in Texas - I found myself in need of a job. You know , one that pays for bills like food and clothes and electricity, rent , gas , things like that. I came to these 2 conclusions -- the bigger the faith the more freedom you receive. The more freedom you receive the more it cost.
I met a man - we will call him Red - ol Rev. Red. This man compared to me was short. Built like a chunky man , he preached with fire from his heart I had never seen. He was red headed and freckled and wore a mustache like Wayett Earp. In the struggle to find a job he invited me out with him one day to help him cut cedar. I was born in the city. He called me city boy. He grew up in a place in Texas I had never seen or even heard of. While I grew up on the streets, he grew up in the break. The break- a term used by those who "log" woodland areas of private property . Cedar is so --- free growing in Texas it's almost considered wild. People in Texas who own land generally dislike cedar - to the point that they allow people and some times pay people to come on their land and cut it out. To them it gets in the way. This is where I found my self - ol reds assistant. Cedars bushy and Kinna sappy and very flammable. It grows nearly every where and it tends for the most part to grow big fast and thick and strait. As a wood , cedar smells nice and looks pretty. Beautiful red wood mixed with white sometimes dark red. Being a city boy I stood in a old pair of jeans and watched my pastor begin to shave a post out. After what seemed a few jerks with his Orange chainsaw - there was a solid cedar post rising high where a big green bush used to be. " let's stack what we don't use in a burn pile " he said ... so i did. It would be a few days later we would go through all the piles and with a smaller chain saw - "fish out" the smaller logs and "staves" as they are called ( small -walking stick type of 5 foot sticks- in betweeners--- from fence post to fence post these were the fillers - you tie these to the fence wire to keep animals from crossing the fence , cows horse so on and so forth. Here's the deal- these cedar logs has to be 8 ft or longer for a cedar yard to buy em and they had to be, depending on shape , thick enough to use as fence posts. The thicker the post the more they brought. Cedar , in the ground will out last any metal as a fence post. So here, we are loading a truck with difrent size logs made from solid Cedar. I'm not gunna lie - them thing were heavy and solid. The old saying is "if you cut it you pack it" in real talk if you cut a log , your gunna have to cart it to the truck and stack it . Red could pick up 2- yea 2 post 12 long and 2 foot round. Dude was solid! Them something happen on the break - I fell in love with the land and the tree and the way. A love I still hold to this day.
I can still cut n pack cedar just like the first time. You never loose it - it's as much a part of me as I am of it. I smile some mornings and look on my home and notice the small stack of cedar to the side or in the driveway and it takes me back to the break.

With much faith comes much freedom and freedom isn't cheap. Some times freedom takes a few trips to the break. There in the break you won't find anything easy and no one does anything for ya. Is it dangerious - yup. Depending on how you leave it and how well you cut - they may not ask you back or even better, they may.

May the force be with y'all!

Me and my family are a Nintendo generation type of family - I am and they follow suite. I blame the 80's lol . Now - we have a WII. We bowl and tennis - ping pong- shoot- rock out and very frequently : drive. Mario kart is a very real thing in my family. It binds us , allows us to defuse and brings us closer together. I've played Mario kart so much I am a self proclaimed Mario kart master. Jk
During play , I've found hidden truths in the game I never thought possible. I often fight the wife and brother in law and friends for first place. On the wii , there is a blue turtle . It's got horns and runs past every one else and guns for the person in first place. This is its purpose. It even has a whistle all on its own. During the course of play and over time I've found some times you can't out run it . You hear it at the last moment due to every other noise crash banana dodging and red turtle going on. It can get chaotic at times. To the experienced gamer, there are tricks of the trait . I've found at the last moment , if I'm gunning for first with others right on my tail .... hit the brake let some one take 1 st and slide away . Boom . You can hit the brake and take every one else out as well leaving you sliding into first place again. Some times it works , sometimes it don't , some times the wife does it and I'm left inches away from the finish line as she slide in for the win... then the infamous saying happens -" that's Mario kart"
Another trick I learned is sometimes it's gunna be close. Sometimes it comes to the inches of seconds and sometimes if you take the blue turtle the right way - it throws you foward ... tword the finish line. I've done it several times. Stolen first regardless of what color turtle or intent hits me !
That's Mario kart at its best. A very good "evener outer. " ( equalizer) When you get a gold mushroom at the end and just blaze thru the water sand and blocks that keep every one else back.
Its Kinna what I see in life. Life is no way a game to be played to me but I see so many others quit ... right before and they could easily win if they just ... learned a few tricks or stayed a bit longer or even learned to take a hit or two ... in a difrent way.
My encouragment to this wonderful place is play again - ( put another quarter in- as we arcade "Ian's " say - I got an extra quarter and I got you ) get more experience points ! Do it again till you get it right and do it till you get the hang of it - after all this is Mario kart - this is life . No telling what's next . In all the toil- trauma- drama - red turtles blue turtles that always seem to come at the wrong times... keep playing !!!!! Keep going , keep driving ! DONT quit ! Each time you try - you learn somthimg new ! Pass it on, some one else might not know the blue turtle can be used , rather than feared!
Peace to all y'all ! Play on temple , play on!

A good Monday thought !

An excerpt from “ The World according to Mister Rodger”
By Fred himself
You don’t have to do anything sensational for people to love you. When I say “ It’s you I like,” I’m talking about the part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can see or hear or touch ... that deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which mankind cannot survive: love that conquers hate , peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.
So in all that you do in all your life, I wish you the strength and the grace to make those choices which allow you and your neighbor to become the best of who ever you are.
...
2004 Family communications- Hallmark edition page 189


May the Force be with y’all my friends my neighbors and my Temple!
Maybthe force give you strength peace joy and what you need to make your path what it needs to be !

Have you thought about punlishing a book? These are quite wonderful

*blushing . . . Thanks pastor
Maybe ?

Taken from here


https://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/open-discussions/121089-what-does-authenticity-mean-to-you?limitstart=0#319215


I love this discussion honestly . The next few statements are tword the modern day Jedist and to those who believe and make the active and try to apply the common core beliefs to a real life practice.
The human potential... the ability to say we are individuals ... the inherit worth of all... this belief creates “authentic” individuals or as we find - equally difrent individuals. Personally - I don’t think The Jedi practice isn’t so much as finding these individuals And the definitions ... (not in my practice ///actually , it may be difrent for others- give it a few seconds and it will be obvious) but —- and this is the big but in our faith I find - can we be with the rest of the world. ? Can we be us ... our own authentic self as others be their own authentic self? Can we support / not us / but some other authentic sentient being? Or does it make our existence - the others or the acknowledgement of others “ not “ like us and even not willing to harmonize with us —- make others not receive the freedoms our faith and or practice or idea or philosophy or what ever we call our Jedist path is ? Not sure if that question was clear or not. I find the hardest part of my own faith as a Jedist is to allow - not me - or not my ideas the freedoms my own ideas and practice gets. Authenticity - can we actually let it be outside our own definition?

In my very own practice ...

There is no greater place than that of equal. To give every avalible freedome I posess is the toughest thing I think I have faced since becoming a modern day Jedist. In my path as a Jedist there are no longer “enemy’s” or this side or that ... for
Me, it’s just another link another way a difrent color a difrent idea another road along side my own. (Equal) To see the world like this can change our actions in a significant way. Very significantly . It can change our view of things as well.

This week, I encourage us as a Temple
And as Jedists to take a few minutes and breath deep - feel the connection- and feel that the Force is as possible - mine ,
as it is yours and as much as you have I also can have as well as you can have my equal share. When views this way - then inherit worth of all can show a brighter shade. There is no compotition when we see things like this. Only receiving - only gifts only giving and getting ...


Isn’t that a difrent way to look at th world today ?
Be well and maybte Force we seek share and serve be with y’all!

Ps feel
Free to leave a comment. I leave in peace!

Good bread or bad bread ?

Bread - wheat - I’m amazed at the information we have and the ability google or research things to as far as we can. The origin of wheat is still unknown. (Tid bit)
Bread is shared by every culture. Every culture seems to have some form of bread around the table and it’s easly shared or easly hoarded. Doesn’t last too long and even better is it is best served fresh.
This weeks questions is this - if you light a loaf of bread and throw it in a crowd and it explodes - is that good bread or bad bread?! Second question- if you light a stick of dynamite and throw it in a rock quary and after the dust settles it reveal s gems or precious things - is that good dynamite or bad dynamite?
Same stick you light and throw in a mall- same result -boom! Still bad dynamite ?

So many times in life we light our fuse or let our fuse light and the end result is devastation, even to our own inner circle. Some of us ( myself included) light the fuse and watch the dust settle in the aftermath yet - we expect everything to be - ok when we’ve thrown our stick into a group of people or even lit our “bread” and watched it explode.
-Intent - application- purpose - focus -
These are things we can have before - waaaaaaay before we even grab the matches. If it turmoil and ground zero we seek than by all means - there’s no need to sit and think about anything - in will come easly. But - BUT - if we would like to be a bit different... maybe a diffrent approach and a diffrent focus and view can help.

Are we lighting our bread ? We watching our bread explode ?what - is - your bread ? Are we sharing ? What’s the intention of our bread ?
Don’t let your bread explode - share it !
Something to think about
Force be to y’all !

There can be many, many .. MANY things that can keep a Jedi from their path. Money time effort to name a few. Yet, if these things can keep - these can also free. How - that’s the kicker! Some master them, others disregard and yet others still overcome. Some have entirely different ways of dealing with things that would take us years. To be Jedi is not to say which is right or wrong but which can I use to help me.

Kinda changes things I hope as far as how we see things.

This week change the way ya see things maybe and get a new center or a new way to tackle - overcome or even grow something new from some where else than us. Totally possible !

Bitch
The female dog became a word of insult in Western civilization because of her ancient association with Goddess religion. Often the Goddess herself was called the Great Bitch, or her priestesses described themselves as her hunting bitches: especially the priestesses of Artemis/Diana, whose original people were the Alani, “hunting dogs.” The nurse of King Cyrus the Great was a representative of the Goddess, as Kings nurses had to be at the time. Her name was Cyno, meaning “bitch” in Greek, or Spako, meaning “Bitch” in the Median language.
The word lupae, “wolf bitches” used to be applied to harlot-priestesses in Rome; and Herodotus described the wolf-like howlings in the temple performed by priestesses of Athene. The divine queen of Troy escaped death by transforming herself into “one of those fearful black bitches that follow Hecate”. Similar Goddess-following, promiscuous huntresses seem to have kept a foothold in British forest lands, as the Arthurian legends indicate. The word “bawd” which came to mean a loose woman, formerly meant nothing more than a hunting dog.
“Son of a Bitch” became an insult because it used to be the equivalent of son of a whore, or perhaps even worse, a son of the Goddess—-that is a devil by Christian definition.
This is an excerpt taken from: page364/5 of “The Woman’s Dictionary of symbols and sacred objects” by Barbara G. Walker.

Just a tidbit of different information, in case you didn’t know, now you know.