Monday, May 22, 2006







This Story Sparked a Memory Actually…….many memories. Funny how Myth is……..isn’t it?

Carl and I went to see the Da Vinci Code on Sunday afternoon.
The Witch and the Master Mason enter the establishment. Waiting to hear a great mystery……..


Carl has read all of the books that are at the forefront of this story.
I have read none.

Yet within my mind I remember stories I was told as a very small child.



My Gramps was a very thin, yet very strong man.
His nature was to be a bit slow, yet his mind was quick.
He was never in a hurry.
He was best when he was one with nature.

When I was a little little girl I remember stories my grandfather would tell me as we worked in his garden.

His garden.
To the layman this place was just a mess of probably weeds.
But to the Heritage it was a maze. A pathway that lead to a story.
Every flower and fruit grown there had a reason and a presence.

Each flower had a use and he taught me about the ladder of the flowers.
I realise he had waited to share this information with me…..

I am not sure how he was to know I would be the one to pronounce my faith, or perhaps I was just the easiest one of the grandchildren he could relate to.

I remember sitting on the gravel mound at the end of the East driveway listening to my grandfather explain Christianity.
Why was Christianity so important? Well, each day we gazed over the East driveway we stared onto the steps of Saint Theresa, Shrine of the Little Flower.
It was always good to know the history of those you break bread with.

Before my mother was born my Gramps taught Sunday school.
He made our gravel mound a sacred teaching site so I could learn about the Bible.
He told me the story of Adam and Eve, of the great Floods, of the formation of the multiple tongues, the Exodus of the Jews, the birth and crucifixion of Jesus.

But in telling me these stories he told me something that I thought everyone knew.
He told me of the woman who would become Jesus’ wife, and why God had created this relationship.
How Jesus would learn humility through her experiences in life. And how he learned more of compassion through her faith in him as a man. Trust was solidified in Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene.

He told me that this relationship was Jesus’ only opportunity to understand the relationships his followers had, and that Jesus learned of commitment and routine from this relationship. I was told that it was a myth alone, that Jesus only taught people. He also was bound to learn as well.
It was in this information that my Grandfather taught me that through marriage we learn commitment, compromise, and routine.

Honestly I thought everyone learned this. I had no idea that Christians weren’t taught this in Sunday school.
So all the hoopla of the DaVinci code was a bit confusing to me.
It is only now that I realise that what I was close to alone among my peers, in my belief that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. Oh those talks with me were over 36 years ago.

That same summer, a stray cat had kittens in my grandfather’s Tiger Lilies. He made me come over to see the kittens. And on this day he told me about parenting. He told me,

“Look at this cat. She searched for a place that would be safe to have her kittens. Against the house and sheltered from the rain. In tall shoots to hide herself and her babies. When the kittens are bigger and can move she will go to a place where, if the kittens roam, she won’t lose track of them. This is no different than when humans have kids. It is important to always consider what the kids will do next, and the Mom always has to think only of keeping those kids safe. So if Mommy wants you to do something it is because she has already considered the consequences. So you always have to listen to your parents.”

It is funny how this stuff stuck with me.
I was probably told that story because I was being a brat that day.

It really did influence me when I became a parent.
I always lived by two rules. Your baby will tell you what it needs, you just have to listen. And your parents are always right, even though at that moment you may not see the justice in it.



CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR THE OFFICAL SONY SITE OF THE DA VINCI CODE:


http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicode/

End

FEED CYA A TREAT! SHE'LL JUMP FOR IT.


my pet!

Friday, May 19, 2006

Wedding Cakes Are Us



I bet you have all wondered why a week has gone by and I haven’t written a word.

I am sure some of you thought, ”Oh Finally! The Chick has shut up!”

Well I was a bit busy.

My Mother-in-Law, Lillian has come up for a visit.
She arrived just as Amber, Alex’s Girlfriend, left.

Lillian has gotten me into a great adventure!

Chris and Hilionor are getting married, and Lillian decided she would bake their wedding cake as a gift for them.
Lillian turned 93 in January. Baking a traditional three tiered wedding cake is an amazing feet for a woman her age.

Lillian does not decorate wedding cakes though. Years ago (over 10) I would decorated a cake if she needed it done.
Chris and Hilionor were quoted between $300.00-$800.00 for a baker to decorate the wedding cake.

Lillian asked me if I would do it for them at a better price. I said I’d try.
I haven’t decorated a special cake like that for so long, and I did not want the Bride and Groom to be disappointed.
I went to see them just around Easter.
We talked about what they wanted and they told me their ideas for the cake.

I decided to make them a demo cake from a Styrofoam form so they had an idea of the kind of the colours they could choose from, and to see if I came close to being able to create what they had in their mind for the cake.

Hils said she wanted pale coloured flowers and an off-white cake.
I showed her some cascades of flowers and she said she liked that.
So I have now created the demo cake.
It is champagne/or ivory coloured with a pearl coloured accent trim with pale champagne/or ivory, pink, white, and blue flowers.
I used two colours of pale green leaves, in three varieties of leaf style to accent the cascades.

I am hoping to create a pure icing 3 dimensional filigree heart centre piece as the cake topper.
If I was successful there will be a picture in the slideshow at the end of the piece.

After two weeks of candy flower making, my dining room is now officially re-named Wedding Cakes Are Us.
My friends who visit get to sit with me and have tea and watch me build flowers now.
Honestly, I am afraid I am gonna go blind from all the sugar around me! Hee Hee
( I am a diabetic, so my family understands when I tell them don’t let me lick my fingers!)

I am very satisfied with the demo cake.

But I found out something.
One should never build a wedding cake in front of their sons’ girlfriends.
It really gives those girls crazy notions.
I spent all Week going out with Amber and she was showing me all the stuff she wants on HER cake!
It is fun to dream, but I think she and I got a bit carried away.

Poor Alex.

He sat there so sweetly as she showed him every page, of the wedding cake book, that she liked.

I am sure he was just thinking to himself, “Sure, yeah. I will look at any Wedding cake you want as long as you shut up about wanting a kitten!”

So Saturday is the day Chris and Hils will come up and look at the demo, and decide exactly what parts of the demo they want for their cake.

And I can take a bit of a break from icing flowers and get out in my garden with the real ones.

Ahhhh
Tranquility!



CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE A SLIDESHOW OF THE DEMO WEDDING CAKE


http://www.flickr.com/photos/19221745@N00/sets/72057594139035185/show/

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Hey Mom!





Hey Mom………….
Do you remember when you were expecting me?
Remember when I bopped and wiggled inside?





Do you remember when you first held me
When I giggled and when I cried?



Do you remember the first time I wore shoes,
And the times that I skinned my knees?


Do you remember when I had my tonsils out
And when I used manners…”Thank You……Please”



I remember growing up.
Barbie Dolls and tea sets.
Our Budgie
that pooped in the living room lamps
And when we got the dog.

Long drives and long holidays
Trav
elling, travelling
Listening to wolves as the great moon rises
Dipping our toes in the water.




Nighttime round the campfire circles
Filled with friends and laughter.





Do you remember when I started school?
Or when I Graduated…….
Then……

I grew up and went to Science School

And learn, and learned again.









One day I told you I would Marry
And another I told I would have a child.









One boy……
Two boys…….
Now they’re Men.











Has time flown by that quickly?
From my birth to my children as men…….?





My life as and adult, a mother and wife.
The years have been packed full, yet fleeting


Now I sit at the Dining Table surrounded by Men Telling me stories of their day.










Towering over me
Deep voices laughing

Give Mom a pat on the head as they leave me…..

One to his office upstairs…..
One to the recording studio out there……



Planning, dreaming Ever dynamic
Chip chip chip away at time.









Hey Mom

Do you remember when you were expecting me…………?




Happy Mother’s Day!

Love Lynn

Tuesday, May 09, 2006



RESPECT, PEACE,
WAR, LOVE- A LESSON IN UNDERSTANDING



Four years ago, if someone was to state that Lynn would be writing a pro war piece, I would have tore their ears off and planted them up their nose.
You see I think of myself as the lioness protecting her Pride when I am on the defensive.
A little too Type A personality for most to handle.

“ I’s gots my principles and I will fight for them!”

I have learned in my older age that principles are dynamic.
(Oh dynamic is one of my buzzwords if you haven’t figured that out yet. I love it and hate the word paradigm) Principles must change for we must learn.

It seems that I learn more at this age than I did when I was younger. Or, maybe I just ignore less as I get older.

This past Sunday was Carl’s graduation from Basic Military Training.
Oh so what? People will ask. Many others have done that!

I look them directly in the eye and say, “Yeah, but almost none does it in his 49th year.”

It became apparent to me that Carl was interested in the Canadian Military Reserves when my Son finished his own BMQ.
I have been excited for both of them since they each decided that the Reserves are for them.

I, myself don’t like war, and I really had to look at idea of them being in the military with very clear eyes. I was worried that I would not be able to get past the fog of my own beliefs to see what attraction the Reserves meant to my Husband and Son.

I watched them both…..My nerdy, superfluous intellectual, introverted, digitized thinkers. And I needed to understand what part of them wanted this so bad.
I know now that it is the phrase personal challenge that best describes the honey that attracts the bee to the uniform.

These two men have always been able to go into their mind and accomplish their day to day routine. A life of statistics and numbers and pattern and code.
Why oh why would going out on weekends and being brutalised and demoralised and dirty and smelly and hurting in pain and worried and frustrated be something they longed for?

The simple answer, because they can.
It is the greatest accomplishment ever for the intellectual introvert to go deep into the Man and draw out the Beast.
You only make it through Basic Training if you are successful drawing out the Beast when it is necessary.

And with the Beast come the dreams once more.
A revitalisation of the Man.

Here is a salute to The Beasts.

I finally know where their minds are at.
It is easy for me to raise up my beast. It is hard for them.

But know this:
Put me in the place where my beast is taken away and then I have to find it again…. And I would never make it.

It is through them I began to understand the phrase that becomes key to every family when they lose a loved one fighting a war. “They died doing what they believed in and what they loved to do.”
It is not just about finding the Beast.
It is about using the Beast to make a difference.
A measured display of how much they believe in BEING, and being Canadian.


Strong, Proud
There and Helping
Moving into the crevasses hidden within the front lines
Waiting to aid.
Aiding to help.

Helping because that is what Canadians do.

I know that not all of our friends and family are happy about the green Alex and Carl wear.
Everyone has their own reasons for the choices they make.

I have learned that Canada’s presence in war is necessary.
Many regular people would never survive without the Canadians.
Just because others choose the first steps into war, it doesn’t mean Canada can choose to turn their head away from the humans in need.
Remember the word HUMANITY?
A Country that works so hard for balance and equality for its people; Canada has to allow that equality to touch all nations in need.

I empathise with those who have first hand experiences and repercussions of a nation at war.
I do know the word CONFLICT too.

I can tell you I am very proud of my Men.
They showed me a path around conflict that I never knew.
I realise that each of those men in uniform represent us.
In Canada they make an informed choice, and are drawn from a very tiny pool of volunteers.
The Reservists join first to protect Canadians at home, and second to protect the weak abroad.
A completely unselfish act.

Not so for some countries for which conscription, of each teen, is dangling the Education carrot on a stick over them for control. An idea of eligible means just an age number and not a qualification of understanding. And mothers are stripped of their children, and passives are forced into an engagement with a gun so the Army can show numbers because losses are too great.

To my friends in Germany I will send you this hug of understanding:

When you see the uniform worn with pride
It creates your hurt that aches inside
I know that collective with emotion, not pride
You bend your heads low in disgust

I understand that you need your life without guns.

And I respect that you vow that to repeat the past just won’t do.
I know you want us to learn a lesson from yesterday’s past and not create today’s pain

I hear your message clear and loud
I know of fascism you are not proud.

I hope that now in my contemporary mind
I can do you justice too.

I beg your understanding to hear what I have learned

I know that war is not just

And I don’t want suffering when it seems such a must

I see troops fight and I see children run
I am not blind to these acts

…..But I have come to understand that the world is not well run

And someone has to make peace.

Once the peace keeper and now a peace maker
The line is so blurred at times

Canada comes in to aid and to protect
…..Still with weapons upon their shoulder
Soldiers One, Two, Three…

They see ills and travesty that no human should experience
They give their lives to aid

And the question still
Who dares create war, who dares!?

As the dead are recited at role call
No man wants to listen, but listen they must

The world’s rules are not equal
And as long as they are not


The PeaceKeeper will become The PeaceMaker.

Thursday, May 04, 2006



MY DISCLAIMER, AND THE ADAM DREAM




If you have not read the two previous posts, I suggest you do. This is a continuation of the post THE PREAMBLE: TO JEW OR NOT TO JEW, followed by the post THE LORE: TO JEW OR NOT TO JEW.

The information is meant to flow so start with the preamble and make your way through the second post, then to this post.

Before I start The Adam Dream I want to make it clear where my head is at.
As, many before me, I am quite amazed at the huge number of books written on Wicca, and Witchcraft and Druidism, and Celtic Mysteries, and Spells and Kabala, and (big deep breath) The Knights Templar and Tarot, and…….and…….and…….

I do have an opinion about this to share before I begin the story.
I will tell you now I have never read The Da Vinci Code ( I am waiting for the movie). I haven’t read any books by the authors of The Messianic Legacy. Nor have I read too many of the plethora of self help witch books.

I have Harper’s Encyclopaedia on the Paranormal. I have the Book Witches Pagans and Magic. I have a tiny book identifying the Chakras. I have a book on Botany, a book on herbology and a book that outlines Sabbats the Equinoxes the phases of the Rites represented a such. I have a study on Occultism and a study on Superstition. I have one book each on Hinduism, Christianity, Jews God and History, Islam, Buddha, Tibetan Buddhism, and Fundamentalism. I have one book on Pharmacology, three books on Anatomy, and an Encyclopaedia of Medicine. Plus I have 6 Versions of the New Testament, 1 version of the Old Testament. I have 7 Hymnals, 1 Musical structure book of the Psalms (as I was a Cantor for many years). As well as one study in Prestidigitation, 3 studies on Spirituality which were written for the Baptist Ministries. I have one Ouija Board from the turn of the last century, I have three copies of FATE magazine from the 1940’s, and 5 studies written By Dr. James Alcott a Toronto sceptic. I have a stone salt vessel, an iron char burning vessel, I have 1 dagger, one feather, three Hand Fasters (which are used in the Unification of a couple). I have three Tarot Decks, one set of Ruins, I have a Gavel, I have a Séance Table, and five stone and one silver Cups. Plus one Crystal glass and one Crystal basin.
This is my arsenal.
I don’t have a huge number of New Age Books in my collection.
I have more interest in world religion and how it melds with Spirituality. I have a great deal of interest in Christianity as well. For as a Spritualist I am called upon to do healings and readings for Christians in the Temple and for other faiths outside the Temple. I have to understand all beliefs that may come to me for spiritual readings and guidance. It would be rude of me to try to help someone and know nothing of their belief system.

And my next comment may seem rude itself.
I appreciate the fact that there are so many people sparked into beliefs because they and their friends read a book on Witchcraft , etc. I have compassion for those who are searching for something and are trying to find it within Spriritualist beliefs. But there are many people that I come across that associate their new-found enlightenment to be associated with everything from Aliens to Fairies( my Husband is from Newfoundland so we find the myth of Fairies very interesting), from Cabbages to The Devil. But when the span of someone’s beliefs is changed every day by the newest Occult book that hit the shelves in the Big Box Store…..I do have a name for them. I call them New Age Flunkies.

Why? Because this belief in Spirituality the Ritual and Rite and the relationship with a power greater than one’s self does not have to be that complicated. You don’t have to have the latest Ring, or the oldest book written by Crowley to be a believer. A believer is not to be bound by the Stuff, but the Substance.

Lore is Lore. It is a lesson. A lesson shared by imperfect humans one generation to another embellished and interpreted along the way. It is passed along and you can use it to strengthen your belief system or use it to explain your belief system.
The books one buys on the New Release shelf are not a Dogma.
If one Spritualist or Witch or Druid does their preparations or rituals different that is ok.
If one associates very Catholic ideals to their Witchcraft that is ok too.
The Lore I shared last proves that the rites and rituals have been dynamic since the Levites came to the Wilderness.

I have one more thing to say about the modern world. While it is true that the Levites were most likely practitioners of Kabala and it is very possible the rites and rituals of the Druids are mirrors of Kabala the New Age Flunkies need to know one thing.

Under the Dogma of Jews, and the teaching of their scholars for now thousands of generations, it is absolutely forbidden that anyone but a Scholarly Rabbi who has great knowledge of his world and the world around him ever begin to interpret the ways of Kabala.

I cannot even pretend to know the slightest thing of Kabala. I may know of one reference to it that many other beliefs mirror.

It is with no respect to the faith that the New Age Flunkies decide some 1990’s publication of the idea of Kabala can enrich man of today. It is an embarrassment to me to hear women say they are practitioners of Kabala. That is a farce in itself. True Kabalic text is only to be interpreted by the male elders of the Jews. If there are female elders preaching equality and reform for this within the Temple on Fridays, so be it. They are are in the right place to create such a forum to argue their point. But it is sacrilegious for a Female, Rock Star, post Catholic to state they are Kabala. I would love to see what drawer she pulls her Schemata from! (and a wink must be added to the end of that line for all my Hasidic friends)

What do I believe other than what I have already shared? I believe in one strong thing.

If God is God because we are believers, and the Spirit of God lives within us. Then if we stop believing the Spirit of God will no longer be with us and God will cease to exist. If Satan is a demigod then Satan can only exist if we believe it, as per the rite for God. If you do not believe that The Devil exists then it cannot exist. Therefore I do not believe in the Devil, or in Spirits who are evil. I believe what personifies that which may be considered Evil Spirit is not Spirit at all, but Entity. Entity is a negative energy that is created by imperfect Carnal Man, it is not of The Spirit which is perfect.

What the heck does that mean? The Adam Dream will explain what OF THE SPIRIT means. Carnal refers to man in the flesh. The being whose only existence is to fulfil earthly need, such as Food, Water, Shelter, and Pleasure. The imperfect human that is bound to die on this plain because of imperfection.



THE ADAM DREAM:

About 20 years ago one of my brothers from the Temple sat before us on the Sabot and recited to us the most wonderful essay explaining the first book of Genesis. It is a great interpretation of what it is to be a Spriritualist. I am embarrassed that I cannot remember his name so I could give him the recognition for this great piece. I have told this story over and over to other groups around the world. I take no credit for this Lore. I can only share my oral interpretation of this wonderful essay. Each time I share this essay I feel the Spirit fill me. I feel God opened the door of this man’s soul and gave him the way to interpret the belief for the modern faithbuilder.

Here it goes:

Close your eyes. Take a long gentle deep breath, then allow yourself to breathe so relaxed and quiet. Hear my story.

Picture Paradise. The garden of Eden. We all have an idea of how it is. If you don’t believe in the place of Eden, then think of what you think Heaven or Shangri-La may be like. Imagine a place of perfection. The land of plenty. Imagine the God of your understanding in this place. Think about Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were not the only souls in the Garden of Eden with God. We were all there. Imagine everyone that has existed, is existing and will exist being in the garden with God, Adam and Eve. None….not God or Adam or Eve or we were of form. We were just souls. Energy existing.

At this time there was no original thought or action. The idea would be that if God was able to take a breath, then all would take a breath at the exact moment in unison. When God had a thought we would have that exact same thought. There was no time or space in Eden. Nothing could be measured by geometric boundaries of the time of this plain.
The Souls were appendages of God, full and complete with his essence Then two souls, for lack of a better word, mutated. Upon this change the two were scarred by one act. An original thought.

Upon this strange occurrence all the rest of the souls were scarred the same way.
Suddenly all the Souls were no longer linked to their God. This could have been an evolution of the souls and inevitable, or it could have been an intervention and not expected. Whatever the situation the Souls were all there and no longer linked to God, but were bound to original thought. The souls were no longer perfect and Eden could not hold them in this imperfect state that long.

Suddenly the Souls began to feel emotion, and with emotion came acts of questioning and fear. All of the Souls were released from Eden, and they came to exist on the Earthly plain.
Remember there is no space or time in Paradise. So eventhough all the Souls released at the same time, they did not exist on the Earthly plain at one time.

Each Soul has no memory of the amount of time that has passed in Carnal existence. It is like the separation from God happened only a moment ago.
Each Soul has one purpose and one purpose only. To get back to Eden to be One with God once more.

Man’s only reason for existence is so the Souls will finally reach Eden to be One with God and never have to come back to the Earthly Plain.

Souls need to learn before they can ever hope to be reunited One with God. They learn on the Earthly plain using emotion, experience and memory. They Learn on the Spirit plain by understanding and teaching and guiding. So the Souls are bound to live and die and reincarnate until they have reached a level of Spirituality that will allow the Soul to meld with God again.

This is why the Spirit can learn over and over again on the Carnal Plain and in the Spiritual Plain. Once the Spirit of the departed gets to the Other Side they will know if they must do more Spriritual work to be able to be one with God. Our existence in Soul is not bound by life and death. It grows on both sides of existence. And only the ones that have reached Glory and are one with God again do not recycle through the plains. The higher a Soul is in the plain after Death determines what they will do to rise to a higher plain. Thus Spirit Guides and Angels come to exist in a realm neither Carnal nor Eden.

Man’s Quest for life is to raise their Spirit to be One with God upon Carnal Death. To get back where we came from.


So Mote it Be.
(OOO NOW I HAVE GOOSEBUMPS)