Ronda Snow's Blog, page 10
December 24, 2015
December 11, 2015
Conversion: Compassion or Chauvanism?
I am a fan of Amy Putkonin’s version of the Tao Te Ching. I enjoy her blog “Tao Te Ching Daily” very much. This post of hers was eerily well timed to the somebody-get-Ronda-back-to-church avalanche of religion that comes from my family from time to time, especially around holidays.
From Tao Te Ching Daily:
“We had an interesting family dinner discussion the other night. We were talking about people trying to convert us to Christianity. My belief is that people are not generally trying to convert us, but Eric and Tatia pretty much agreed that people are. We all had quite a few experiences where people tried to convince us to accept Jesus, or whatever the correct wording is.
I said that I could not understand why people would try and convert people when one of the commandments is to treat others as you would like to be treated. I suggested that people would not want to be converted to a different religion, therefore they should not try to convert others to theirs. But Eric countered. He said that they don’t think of it like that. They think of it like if they were not Christian and someone had tried to convince them to be Christian, they would want them to. But that is thinking like a Christian! That makes no sense! It’s failed logic.
So I told Tatia to just listen under the surface of what they are saying when they are trying to convert you: they love you. They want you to be safe and to be in a good place. And leave it at that.
I think that many Christians are OK with people being other than Christian. What do you think? Have people tried to convert you or do they leave you alone? If you are Christian, what do people say about this at your church? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.”
My reply:
I’ve been mulling this over for a while. Knowing my biases, at first I thought it better to say nothing. Since your post, other people have brought up the same topic. There are some observations that need to be made.
I was raised in the American south in a strongly evangelical, fundamentalist family. My Father was a Deacon, my mother and all of her sisters were Sunday school teachers, my uncle a minister. I grew up utterly saturated in the proselytizing evangelical fundamentalist christian culture you describe.
Based on my experience: NO Christians are definitely NOT OK with other beliefs. Even if they don’t evangelize directly to you, the thought is implicit and universal. The religion is by definition exclusive. Technically, to be Christian you have to renounce all other religions first. Other beliefs are believed to be invalid, whether they are tolerated or not.
You can’t paint Christianity with a broad brush, any more than any other group of humans. There are those who truly are tolerant and accepting, but those are never the ones who proselytize or try to convert others. The ones who evangelize are the most virulently intolerant. The tolerant, non-converting ones tend to be Catholic, Lutheran, or others on the liturgical end of the spectrum. But keep in mind, every Easter even Catholics pray for the conversion of the Jewish nation. I’ve been there with my husband. I’ve heard it.
I treasure those in my life who are true to their faith while respecting my world view. Sadly, I’m not genetically related to most of them. My birth family, the evangelicals, are quite another story.
Yes, they try to convert me (or re-convert, or whatever the term may be) on a regular basis. It isn’t only my family, either. I’ve had complete strangers who don’t know me at all on my front porch trying to promote their church and random people in front of a store asking me if I’d gone to church on Sunday. A woman in the local park approached me to ask if I went to church, because she only allowed her little girl play with Christians and her daughter wanted to play on the swings with my daughter. Yes, really, that actually happened.
For some, it is just exactly as bigoted as it sounds. The essential message of evangelicals is “agree with me or to hell with you.” Literally. Many will try to convert you out of a sincere desire to save you from the hell-bound fate of non-believers. Most are well meaning, but their thinking is so saturated with fundamentalist views that they don’t understand they are the ones condemning you in the first place! Penn Jillette very kindly compares religious proselytizing to someone warning you of a train coming when they see you standing on railroad tracks. That doesn’t change the fact that THEY are the ones driving the train! Sure they stick their head out of the window and tell you of the coming danger – but they do nothing to stop the train. Their warning consists of get on board or get squashed.
Failed logic? Logic has no place in their thinking, failed or otherwise.
“Do unto others” – they are. They volunteer to go get harangued about their religion every Sunday. It is always, always, always repent & hellfire type stuff. Every single week they have “alter call” trying to “save” anyone who may have wandered into their midst. They are doing to you exactly as they already have done unto them.
They are absolutely, positively trying to convert you! They are told to convert others. It is part of their belief system. It is what they are taught and encouraged to do from a young age (or from the beginning of their own conversion). They think they are a bad person and some sort of failure if they don’t try to convert people.
Being born into it, my patience with them was exhausted long ago. Organized religion is psychologically toxic to me, and I not only need to avoid it but have every legitimate right to live life without it. I find it morally offensive that they would inject their bigotry into my life unbidden. They have every right to their religion but I also have every right to live without it. Christian proselytizing is at best arrogance, at worst bigotry and discrimination.
Christians will undoubtedly see this as an outright attack on them and their beliefs. So be it. I’ve walked on those eggshells around Christians my whole life. Hopefully, this will give those who have lived outside of evangelical culture some reasoned insight when the evangelicals try to convert them away from what they have every right to believe.
November 26, 2015
Tomorrow Doesn’t Have to be Black
“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”
~ Joss Whedon
I’m still geeking over the Joss Whedon quote. You can see why I have Browncoat tendencies. Anybody who has this kind of creative-maker-spirit and makes a space western has a fan in me.
I love it. Making stuff makes me happy. And as the ‘write it’ part of the quote shows…that includes blogging and Tarot readings. Throw in knitting and cooking, and I’m a pretty happy camper.
If you haven’t seen it, and like making ANYTHING I highly recommend Adam Savage’s 2012 Maker Faire Talk. MUST SEE stuff for anyone who has ever been made happy by making something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_otrgJ8Lmx4
Which leads me to my annual rant about “Black Friday”. It gets more detestable every year. I’ll be outside tomorrow with REI who got a loud round of mental applause when they announced they are closing for Black Friday and encouraging all of their employees and customers to get outside instead. More than a mental standing ovation, it got an out-loud “yeah” from my husband and I. This kind of stuff is why we shop there when the budget allows.
I don’t know if I’ll be outside any longer than it takes to check the mail, but I will be making more than dinner. The Elfcon levels are creeping up, and it isn’t even card signing (my least favorite holiday tradition) or cookie baking (one of my more-favorite) time yet. Making is perfect for the holidays. For one thing it makes me happy. For another, it is in keeping with the whole point of the holidays…whichever one you choose…to be small and thoughtful. Mass consumerism makes me want to cuddle my Linus blanket and pretend the whole American pop culture Black Friday thing doesn’t exist.
And you betcha this post is just as self-serving as it is sincere.
I get it…I know not everyone has the time or interest in making stuff for the holidays…but there is a solution for that. Hurray for the whole “Shop Small Saturday” (and to some extent Cyber Monday) thing. If you can’t / don’t want to make stuff, then why not patronize a local (or online) artist who thrives on this kind of thing? I did. I don’t do art prints…but of the few gifts I’ve actually purchased, I chose to buy from fellow artists.
I’m happy to help in that respect. Because yes, I charge for the stuff I make and sell online at Quirk & Flotsam. Yes, it makes me happy when I make it. Yes, it makes me really really happy when I earn a little money from it – but equally YES I believe that there is positive energy exchanged right along with it. I make meditation beads and write books because it is part of who I am and my spirituality & raison d’etre…I charge for it because I am currently a human being who needs food, clothing, shelter and utilities just like the rest of the species. I like to think you are getting a value added product at Q&F…The good vibes, Reiki energy, and best wishes are free.
That being said…let’s walk our rant. Don’t like the concept or terrible-traffic realities of Black Friday? Paint it another color. Or colors. Go outside. DO something that makes you happy…your happy is a gift to the world and those around you. SPEND…but spend time, not cash. If you shop small and thoughtful in the first place, you don’t need “Black Friday Sales” in the first place.
Now if you’ll ‘scuse me, I have a green bean casserole to MAKE.
Happy Holidays!
Want one of those artist made hand-crafted meditation mala beads?
Want a unique gift for the Tarot Lover on your list? Why not a hand-bound, author-signed copy of #PeaceTarot that includes a customized, made to order, daily meditation TAROT READING for only $8?
New hand-made, good-energy items coming all holiday season
November 21, 2015
Just Make – thoughts on the holiday season
“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”
~ Joss Whedon
My new favorite quote…found it on “Cauldrons and Cupcakes” blog by Nicole Cody – good stuff, that.
It suits this time of year. Motivated by my love for my family, and their love of the holidays it’s once again that “elfcon” time of year. Spent the summer knitting a blanket for my sister, and picked easy projects for the rest of the family so am pleasantly on schedule this year. Screw Black Friday – I’ll have my feet up finishing the cross stitch on these pillow cases.
The holidays are so much less stressful when you don’t heap a load of empty expectations on top of them. That’s the whole point of my favorite holiday movie, the classic “Christmas Vacation”. That’s the whole point of making our gifts. Making is a valuable thing. Both for the maker and the person that gets the stuff we make. There really is love in every stitch. I tend to forget the good that comes of making, be it crocheted or sauteed, or what have you. It’s an energy thing. Energy makes it valuable. It’s energy exchange. It’s thoughtfulness and mindfulness all rolled into one. Other than a few inexpensive mass market supplies for my own making projects, the few things I did buy came from artists on Etsy which came with obviously hand-signed certificates of authenticity. I suddenly feel a little connected to because of the transaction. I appreciate her time, effort and energy in making something really cool for my nieces. Sure, some of the energy was exchanged in the form of the money I paid, but her prices were fair, and connections flow both ways after all. I like to think I bring the same kind of energy, care and connection to Quirk & Flotsam – all the stuff make, hopefully. When there is a gifting or other spiritual energy around making something, it’s the ultimate bogo…the maker gets a happy, meditative, stress reducing experience. The receiver gets a gift dripping in good vibes along with its inherent beauty and/or usefulness.
Making a gift gives twice.
October 8, 2015
Meditation and Spongebob’s Grandma
Mindfulness can make a meditation of anything.
Mindfulness is at once the simplest and one of the most challenging things in the world to do.
Pay attention to where you are and what you are doing right now. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Were you aware, just for a moment, of were you are, aware of yourself reading a screen instead of focusing what is on the screen? The easy part is slipping into that here & now mindset for a moment. The more challenging thing is sustaining that presence for more than a moment.
Stress or any activity that takes skill and concentration makes that kind of sustained mindfulness even more difficult. The classic way to counteract that is by using the exact opposite. Instead of thinking and doing, meditation teaches us to sit and do nothing – even thoughts are released in favor of experience the moment. We counteract thinking with being.
Or not.
In our typical first-world lifestyle, it is very difficult to shift gears quite that far. It is a challenge to go from full mental throttle to full-throttle off. Sitting in traditional meditation is still an effort because it takes a certain vigilance. Our mind wanders very far very easily when it suddenly has nothing else to do.
There is a middle way. Another strategy is gentle, repetitive activity that takes a little bit of mental engagement. Something that keeps your mind focused on what you are doing, but isn’t over taxed either. Some activity keeps you here just enough that you still have “processor capacity” to put it in computer terms. A meditative activity keeps you engaged enough that your mind doesn’t wander quickly, yet is automatic enough to let you focus on something else. If you make that “something else” that feeling of mindfulness, or at least make the “something else” some positive emotion such as compassion or contentment…then that low grade activity becomes meditation, just as certainly as traditional seated meditation.
My favorite example is a recent episode of the tv show “Mythbusters” where Adam Savage describes the process of making a prop bull whip, and remarks that the repeated braiding is in a way “meditative” (I’ve heard rumors that he practices meditation and would know that quality in its fullest sense, but of course can’t know that for sure). In “Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain” author Betty Edwards describes a phenomenon where artist experience silence as they work. As the non-verbal parts of the brain are engaged in creative, spatial-relationship kinds of activity, the verbal parts profoundly quiet.
Whether you think of it in terms of spirituality and enlightenment, or in terms of neuroscience, meditation quiets the mind and lets us focus on here and now. It lets you connect with a simple, repetitive task on a different level.
When my daughter was young, “Spongebob Squarepants” was one of her favorite tv shows. There was one episode where Spongebob visits his grandmother and somewhere in the episode she knits a sweater “with love in every stitch”.
As a knitter, I get that. After watching that episode together, I’ve told her that everything I’ve made for her has ‘love in every stitch’ just like Spongebob’s grandma. Now an eye-rolling teenager, she thinks its a rediculous reference to an old tv show
Actually it’s true.
It doesn’t have to be knitting. Any easy repetitive activity. It might be easy to ‘zone out’ doing it..but what if we don’t? If we keep our mind and heart on what we are doing, it will benefit more than one person.
This might be a little woo-woo for you, but just for argument’s sake let’s assume that material things can carry a subtle energy signature. That’s why grandma’s cookies taste better than store-bought. Maybe there really is love in every stitch of the old gal’s sweaters.
Making with mindfulness IS meditation. Making with mindfulness benefits the person doing it (gracing them with all the benefits that meditation can offer) AND it benefits the person who uses the thing they made through it’s elevated energy and the good feeling that is transferred. Try it experiment. Bring a bit of homespun science to the notion. If you pray or meditate, try wearing the same jacket every time you do (Ted Andrews suggested this in one of his books). Then put on the jacket some other time. Do you notice any difference in how you feel? Do you notice any shift in your mindset just by associating the jacket with the good feelings of your prayer or meditation experiences? Think of the long tradition of wearing rosary beads or wrist mala. Positive energy is believed to inhabit the beads and comfort the wearer at other times too.
Knit a sweater holding thoughts and feelings of love and compassion for the person who will wear it. Hold thoughts and feelings of health and love for those who will eat the food as you prepare it. Do you notice a difference? What do you observe in others? Observation is a legitimate scientific technique. Try it with and without the intention and mindfulness. What differences do you see? What differences do you FEEL? If it helps YOU to feel better, than the practice is worth while just for that aspect alone.
They say creation is a sacred act. In the case of simple day to day tasks, it can be a meditative and loving one too. You can live life with love in every stitch.
October 6, 2015
New in Quirk & Flotsam
“Love” mala
Clear crackle glass beads symbolize amplifying energies (similar to clear quartz)
NATURAL rose quartz guru bead supports the heart chakra and attracts love for self and others
Aurora Borealis coated glass spacer beads adds hints of the rainbow, beaming love to all chakras and all parts of life
Hand strung, Reiki embued
Click HERE to order
September 23, 2015
Introducing Quirk & Flotsam
Quirk & Flotsam
Is my new Etsy shop where you can order mala, downloadable copies of “Serene Beads” or “PeaceTarot” for your private tutorial or workshop
Please visit and browse often. In addition to these lesson supplies you might find a quirky and random variety of handmade accessories and miscellany crafted from project leftovers, assorted castoffs, and clearance bin finds.
September 18, 2015
Cyber Wise
Ancient meets technology in a fresh paradigm.
Digital Meditation Tutorial
Old ideas presented in a contemporary way with ease, affordability and convenience
Learn bead meditation HERE. Each digital tutorial includes:
Customized recommendations for mantra, mala, color, gemstone energies and more
Digital copy of “Serene Beads: Meditation Made Easy” a clear, easy to follow introduction and guide to a stress reducing technique designed to fit busy modern lifestyles.
1 Follow up coaching email to answer your questions
September 12, 2015
NEW: Online Bead Meditation CUSTOM consult
“Serene Beads: Meditation Made Easy”
Fill out the online form HERE – no appointment needed. Available 24/7
CUSTOMIZED to your needs
Includes digital copy of “Serene Beads: Meditation Made Easy”
only $5.50
1 Follow-up email for questions included
entertainment and personal enrichment only
September 8, 2015
New Episode of Menage A Tarot: Tarot Beyond Tarot
This time we think and deal our cards outside of the box when we talk about unconventional ways of using Tarot cards. Tarot beyond the readings.
Listen at:
www.MenageATarot.com
iTunes podcasts
Stitcher
TuneIn
