Jung at Heart, by Querci

Right now you are doing one of two things: Gathering Information or Making Decisions.


When you read this sentence you are Gathering Information. When you stop reading and decide whether:

• you agree, or disagree; 
• you are interested, or bored; 
• you will continue, or stop, etc;

you have switched to your Making Decisions mode.

But wait, there’s more!


There are two kinds of Gathering Information:
1. Gathering Experiences
2. Gathering Ideas


And two kinds of Making Decisions:
1. Deciding By Values
2. Deciding By Logic


For example:


Gathering Experiences

• Petting a puppy.
• Eating Brussels sprouts.
• Riding a roller coaster.

Gathering Ideas

• Reading about how to care for puppies.
• Learning about nutrition,
• Studying about how roller coasters work.

Deciding By Values

• My puppy is the cutest puppy ever!
• Brussels sprouts taste terrible.
• I like roller coasters better than Farris wheels.

Deciding By Logic

• Puppies need attention.
• Brussels sprouts are nutritious.
• The roller coaster is faster than the Farris wheel.

At least that’s how Jung described it. OK, not exactly like that. 
What I called:

• Deciding by Values, Jung called Feeling;
• Deciding by Logic, Jung called Thinking;
• Gathering Ideas, Jung called Intuition;
• Gathering Experiences, Jung called Sensing.

But the reason I bring it up at all...


...Values, Logic, Ideas, Experiences...
...Feeling, Thinking, Intuition, Sensing...


Do you know what that reminds me of? Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength!


And do you know why that excites me? While, of course, they aren't the "be all and end all" of Heart, Mind, Soul, & Strength, those four categories of Jung are abilities that we can MEASURE! Now that something I can work with!

Where Two or Three Are Gathered, by Querci

I have here for your consideration a full container of Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength. 


From the side it looks like this:

From above it looks like this:

Here are two more containers of Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength, viewed from above.

From this perspective they are identical to the first. But look at a side view of them and you can see differences. Neither is full. They contain different amounts of Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength.

Both are simultaneously the image of the first, but not equal to the first, or even the same as the other.


Now look what happens when we add them together:

We get a perfect image of the first.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  (1Cor 12:27)

I’m sure by now you’ve figured out that Container 1 stands for Christ, the other two for all of us, and the pictures for the gifts and talents that God has given us.


I wonder what the "Querci Container" looks like? Has it changed over the years? Have I done a good job investing my talents, learning from others, and building up my likeness, or name, into a more complete image of Christ in Heart, Mind, Soul, AND Strength? Or have I built up some areas and neglected others? 

Am I connected? Are you connected? by Halcyon8

"Connected to what?" you ask me...
I'd like us all to examine how connected we are to the basic elements of our survival. We all, here on this blog, seem to consider our connection to the spiritual basics (God, Love, Eachother), but what about our physical selves, our physical contribution of brightness and beauty in this 3-D world, our health and well-being as humans???  It's important after all, since this is our current project as beings, yes?

Am I connected to my physical vibrance?


Here's some questions to answer:
Where is my water coming from? What am I drinking? It's more than 50% of my physical body. Is the energy of my water deadish and/or clouded with off-gassing plastics chemicals?
Where is my food grown? Is it from a beautiful weather farm in Mexico, but trucked to my grocery store and radiated at the border? Is it mass produced from a monoculture crop? Are my consumer choices supporting the industry that degrades habitat and is responsible for colony collapse disorder in bee populations? Is the energy of my food deadish and/or clouded with off-gassing plastics chemicals?
Where does my electricty come from? am I generating or only consuming...(don't even get me started about monocultures of solar arrays that shade out the seed bed of native plants on BLM lands, or the monocultures of wind turbines that kill buckets of birds during migration, not to mention the obvious energy production hazards like nuclear or coal plants) Do I take electricity for granted???

Moreover, am I contributing to ANY of the necessary and beautiful elements of my world and in my small life? If not, how do I even begin to live an awake, aware, conscious, and beautiful life?
I've been asking myself these questions for some years now. The answers I have for myself are disappointing to put it mildly.  I'm trying, somewhat pathetically it turns out, to shift this harsh reality into something more hopeful for my own future.

For each of us the progress to our highest self is a different and unique journey.  It goes by in small steps and is richest when appreciated and fully experienced in the slow speed of the present moment. We do what we can with each day. We strive with whatever inspiration we can muster.

Here is one of my favorite sources of inspiration:

The Garbage Warrior --Michael Reynolds
http://youtu.be/YrMJwIedrWU

The Apple Grower and the Tomato Farmer

Once there was an extremely talented apple grower who knew just about everything there was to know about growing apples. She was very happy running her large and prosperous orchard. Then, one day, a great apple-tree blight came across the land which destroyed all of her trees. 

The apple grower was forced to look for work on a neighboring farm until she could earn enough money to replace her trees. Based on her reputation as a talented apple grower, she got a high level job as a Tomato Plant Supervisor at a neighboring tomato farm. There she worked very hard, enthusiastically applying her considerable apple growing skills to the tomato plants, but the tomatoes did not thrive.

She was demoted from her high-level job and accepted a low-level job as Assistant Tomato Plant Weeder. Being an Assistant Tomato Plant Weeder wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as running her apple orchard. 

Although tomato farming skills didn’t come as naturally to her as apple growing skills, she was determined to learn. She worked hard and learned fast about the unique qualities and requirements of growing tomato plants. As time passed she became a better and better tomato farmer and was even promoted back to the level of Tomato Plant Supervisor!

When she finally earned enough money to re-open her apple orchard, she returned with a new found respect for tomatoes in general, and the tomato farming skills of her neighbor in particular. She even planted a small tomato patch near her orchard to put her newly acquired skills to use.

Years later when a tomato blight spread across the land, she welcomed the tomato farmer onto her orchard with an entry level job, and taught her friend apple growing skills with patience.

You Say Tomato, by Querci

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when I say the word “fruit?”

The first thing that pops into my head is an apple because it’s the fruit I eat most often. I wonder if you thought about an apple too, or some other tree fruit like an orange? Or did you think about a tropical fruit like a banana? Or perhaps a vine fruit like grapes? Or even a “fruit vegetable” like a tomato?

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when I say the word “love?”

The first thing that pops into my head is a general mush-gushy concept. I wonder if you thought about that too? Or did you think about a loving relationship? Or a loving action? Or about God’s love for us? Or something else?

We know that love is bigger than the first thing that pops into our heads. The Bible talks about four different ways to love God: with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. For a long time when I heard this, or read this, I glossed over the words “heart, soul, mind, & strength” and sort of lumped them together. I interpreted them in a general sort of way, more like “Love God with every fiber of your being,” or “Be totally devoted to God,” rather than as individual ways, words, or aspects of love. 


But now I think that heart, soul, mind, and strength are important distinctions. Loving with a patient heart is different from loving with a patient soul, patient mind, or patient strength. Knowing about one and practicing it a lot doesn’t give you automatic knowledge of the rest, and they’re ALL really important.


Not only that, let’s not forget that God IS love. So these are also four different ways to know ABOUT God. Four different kinds of things to LEARN about God. And as I was saying in my last post, Four of a Kind, four ways to SERVE OTHERS.

We can specialize in one, but we need to know a little about the others as well if we want to know God better. And I don’t know about you, but that is MY goal. If you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of obsessed with it.


So if in answer to my first question I say, “apple,” and you say, “tomato.” I think I want to get to know you better.

'Tis a Small Thing? by Ember

Querci, I was thinking about your posts about service to others and I had this simple, but somewhat complicated to explain, idea.  I'm sure it would be a lot better if it had some of your pictures in it.  Anyway. . .

Sometimes when we do a favor for somebody else, what we do may seem like a small thing to us, however, to the person we do it for it may seem like a BIG favor.  And sometimes when somebody asks us a favor it may seem like a small thing to them, but because of our own unique circumstances, qualities and talents it may seem like a BIG favor to us.  If the matter is important, and we are nice, we may do it anyway, but it was a BIG favor in our eyes. 

Wouldn't it be nice if we could always use our talents to easily do BIG favors for others?  That would be so rewarding.  It's a win win situation.  I do something that I don't mind doing, and it is really helpful to you; maybe even something that you are not able to do because of your own circumstances, qualities, or talents.  Serve others with your talents and you'll really cut down on the amount of "work" service you are doing.

It would also be good to be mindful of the talents and sometimes unknown circumstances of others and not judge someone when they tell you that they do not want to , or can't do, the small favor that you are asking them.  We could say, "How rude!  I'm asking such a small thing and she won't do it for me.  I thought we were friends.  She is so lazy!"  But maybe that is not right.  Your small favor might be a BIG favor to your friend.  .  .  or maybe your friend really is just a jerk.

Four of a Kind, by Querci

In my last post, To Serve God, I was talking about how one really important way we can show God we love him, and serve him, is by serving others.

I’ve been thinking a lot about that idea and how we might apply it in other places.
For instance, what if we applied it to the concept of God-Is-My-Everything Love (i.e., patient, kind, humble, mature, forgiving, etc., etc.) that I talked about two posts ago, in Where Is the Love? We can put those two ideas together and get a new, but related, concept: 

God-Is-My-Everything SERVICE TO OTHERS

which is patient, kind, humble, mature, forgiving, etc., etc.

Or what if we applied it to the passage in the Gospel of Mark where the Scribe asks Jesus about which commandment is the greatest commandment? Jesus answers:

The first is, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Mark 12:29-31)

But if we show God we love him, and serve him, by serving others, couldn’t we also think of the greatest commandment in these terms:

Serve Others With All My Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength

So, here’s what I’m thinking now. If we put together these last two concepts:

1. God-Is-My-Everything Service to Others, and
2. Serving others with my Heart, Soul, mind, and strength,

all of the sudden I’ve got a lot more information to work with!

• Serve others with a patient heart, a patient soul, a patient mind, and patient strength.
• Serve others with a kind heart, a kind soul, a kind mind, and kind strength;
• Serve others with a humble heart, a humble soul, and humble mind, and humble strength;
• Serve others with a peaceful heart, a peaceful soul, a peaceful mind, and peaceful strength;
• Serve others with an easygoing heart, an easygoing soul, an easygoing mind, and easygoing strength;
• Serve others with a friendly heart, a friendly soul, a friendly mind, and friendly strength;
• Serve others with a gentle heart, a gentle soul, a gentle mind, and gentle strength;
• Serve others with a heart that encourages, a soul that encourages, a mind that encourages, and strength that encourages;
• Serve others with a heart that builds up, a soul that builds up, a mind that builds up, and strength that builds up;
• Serve others with a mature heart, a mature soul, a mature mind, and mature strength;
• Serve others with a heart that is genuine, a soul that is genuine, a mind that is genuine, and strength that is genuine;
• Serve others with a forgiving heart, a forgiving soul, a forgiving mind, and forgiving strength;
• Serve others with a faithful heart, a faithful soul, a faithful mind, and faithful strength;
• Serve others with a God-focused heart, a God-focused soul, a God-focused mind, and God-focused strength;
• Serve others with a heart that rejoices in truth, a soul that rejoices in truth, a mind that rejoices in truth, and strength that rejoices truth.
• and so on.

And notice it doesn’t say heart, soul, mind, OR strength, but heart, soul, mind, AND strength. So even if I’m no good at some of these things I’m not off the hook. Fortunately I think I’m already pretty good at a lot of things, but I know myself well enough to know that I’ve got some practicing to do on the rest.

Evolution, by Leaven

Lately I've been reflecting on what it means for me to evolve - not in the Darwinian sense of apes to homo sapiens, but in the sense of growth in personhood.

In my experience, the pattern of this growth seems to be a circular spiral, rather than linear. Some of the layers of this spiral seem to be clear, transparent, light-filled. When I am in one of these layers, I am aware of new insights, new snatches of wisdom. Then I journey onward to a new layer in the spiral, perhaps a new depth of consciousness, a layer that is dark and opaque. The things I thought I knew and understood before are now no longer clear. But the seeds of growth continue to gestate in this darkness. When I emerge to the next transparent layer, I see again from a deeper and wiser perspective than before. And so the journey continues . . .

This evolution reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from T. S. Eliot's poem, "Little Gidding":

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling, we shall not cease from exploration.

And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.

To Serve God, by Querci

It was Querci, Jr.’s birthday last week. That really got me thinking about all the nice things Ember, Leaven, Halcyon8, and many others, have done for her and how much it means to me.


Ember - Remember a few years ago when Mr. Querci and I went on vacation and you welcomed Querci, Jr. into your home for a whole week, treating her like your own daughter: taking her to school, making sure she did her homework, tucking her in at night? 

You were so patient with her!


Leaven - Even though you hardly know her because we haven’t had much face time since she was born, remember last year you sent her some new books she’d been wanting?

Halcyon8 - You’re always doing stuff to make all the little Querci’s feel special, such as the shopping trip with Querci, Jr. that you fit into your busy schedule.

Even though the person on the direct receiving end of these good deeds was Querci, Jr., each one of them felt like a personal favor to me. 


I know you all love Querci, Jr., in her own right, but the reason you made the effort to get to know her was because you loved me first, and she’s a part of me. 


Even if she was a little twit, (which she’s not), you would still treat her well because you love me. Do you guys even know how much that means to me?

Being a mother really helps me understand what it means that we can show God, our Father, we love Him and serve Him, by loving and serving one another.

Justice or Mercy? by Ember

Well, I've been spending a little time staying up late into the night exploring the darkness the last few days. It is the time of year to see a lot of interesting things at night. It's always a relief when morning comes on each new day... but we do learn so much at night. I really love the Day that God has made for us. It is not made up of day only, rather it is made up of, day, night, day; one day, and it was good!

You find out amazing things about God at night. I've been thinking it's like an eclipse. An eclipse isn't bad, right? But it would be if the sun never came back, as was the fear of the proverbial native. We like lots of day, but when we get an eclipse every once in a while it is really cool!

Did you know that during an eclipse we learn something about the sun that we would never know if not for the eclipse; if not for the fact that the moon is in the exact position that it is, that it is the exact size that it is, that it is the exact distance from the sun that it is? During a complete solar eclipse is the only time we are able to view the sun's corona. Scientists get really excited about this and they could tell you a lot about all the amazing stuff they learn from this phenomenon.  Well, this reminds me about how I learn special things about God in the darkness.  .  . maybe even about God's crown, hum.

Anyway, this is what I was thinking about today as a result -- Choice. We have choice because we have free will. However, the choice is not really between good and evil. Even though there is, in a sense, good and evil, to us good and evil appear to be a certain way because of our limited perspective. To God everything appears differently because he is all knowing and outside of time and space.

The choice for us is between justice and mercy. Because, in the end, we do not instruct God about what is good and evil. He instructs us. Regardless of what you think or deem to be good or evil.  It does not matter in the end, right? You will be forced by the consequences to accept the will of God, if there is a God, right? So if God says, "White is black, black is white." You say, "Yes, boss!"  Right?

It doesn't matter if you say, "I know God is good and I choose the good." What is THE good? If you are standing there at the end and God says, "This thing that you thought was good, you know that? Well, that was, in fact, not good. This thing that you call evil, you know what I am talking about? Well, I call it good." 

What will your choice be then? Justice or mercy?