Spiritual

We are Tangible Manifestations of Supernatural LOVE

By:JANA GREENE

My heart is heavy today. I wish I could fix so many things for so many people I love so deeply. Life is so hard at times. We got to lean into one another. The storm is coming. Can you feel it? How to best prepare?
When people are kind to you, they are literally expressing the God within them to you. The force of the entire universe is bending to reach you with every soft word or strong hug you’re given. We need so much tangible manifestations; otherwise it looks like roaring din of chaos is winning to a hurting and raw world.
We ARE the tangible manifestation.
I pray we can remember that through all the nasty pettiness in the world right now. To withhold kindness is to be stingy with the love of God. Your political opinion upending God’s message to love is just clanging symbols. A lot of noise that demands to know “ BUT WHAT ABOUT MEEEE? What about MY rights? MY piece of the pie?” Imagine the loaves and the dishes were pie, then. Would he have multiplied it so exponentially if he were deciding who actually DESERVED pie? Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure he would expect us to feed ALL, without regard to who we personally feel is worthy?
Listen, I was a conservative Christian nationalist for most of my life. I get it.
It took getting SHOOK for me to understand another point of view. We are taught to WAR against powers of darkness, but either “it is finished,” as Jesus said, or it is NOT finished. If it’s not, war your little heart away. As for me and my house? I don’t have fighting in me anymore (and Jesus was a promoter of peace himself, dang hippy!) It takes too much energy for my body to exist; I ain’t trying to expend it on national panic. Too much hate. Period.
PS: I am preaching to MYSELF too. Because I believe this with ALL my heart, but I’ll still probably yell “asshole!” In my car to people who cut me off in traffic or drive slow in the passing lane. I am pretty good at expounding LOVE, while still hollering, “Nice turn signal, %#@&$-face!”
It’s a process y’all, and we aren’t perfect at it. We will never be perfect at it. But now is not he time to give up trying.
ANYWHOO….just some thoughts this morning.

Poetry · Spiritual

Sit With This Moment (poetry)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

By: JANA GREENE

Settle in with the guest named “This Moment,”

and put your feet up for awhile.

Denying it’s message will do no good,

and giving up just just isn’t your style.

Tell the uninvited feeling of ick,

“I see you’ve come again,.

I can’t avoid you altogether,

but learn from you I CAN.”

Sit with This Moment now my friend,

(I promise you’ll survive!)

and This Moment

will hold the door open

for Peace when it arrives.

Poetry · Spiritual

Love is the Main Thing (poetry jam)

By: JANA GREENE

When I pass on,

I don’t want them to say,

“To know her was to love her.”

I’d rather they say,

“To know her was to be loved by her.”

I hope I make you feel seen,

I hope I make you feel heard.

I hope you can feel the love coming

for miles away.

God,

make me an instrument of your peace,

in a warring world.

Your will front and center,

above my ego and anxiety,

dogma and theology,

legalism and judgement.

Help me love others

so that they can feel accepted

right where they are.

Worthy in total,

wholly complete.

If I err on the side of love,

I can stand before the throne

unfettered by all else,

Because Love?

Yeah, that’s the main thing.

God,

when I pass on,

I don’t need to them to say

she was loved by all,

I just need to do the loving,

In order that they will feel loved

by you.

News · Spiritual

Fasting the News to Slow Down Anxiety

By: JANA GREENE

Gather ‘round, kiddies. I’ll spin you a yarn about a time when need reporters didn’t posit they’re own opinions in reporting the news.
Even 20 years ago, you were much more likely to get “just the facts.” They presented those facts, and nobody had any idea the reporter’s political affiliation is. Because we thought for OURSELVES. And we expected others to do their thinking for themselves, too.
It is year 4 of avoiding the news – almost entirely. If something big happens, it will come across the feed of a social network, and so can decide if I want to know more about it, and seek it out. I get the whole ‘MURICA phenomenon, it kept me glued to the tube too years ago. I watched/read/ate/ slept religiously watching the news was after 9/11. That’s where the obsession with current events became neurotic.
But the 24 hour news cycle is just a train wreck on its way to a Doom City, always. We just weren’t made to absorb so much negative information constantly. No positivity. And you are powerless against the vast (and I mean VAST) majority of situations in the news. There’s nothing you can do, except grow your own paranoia and anxiety over it. So no thanks.
Letting things flow (that you can’t change anyway) is the rawest form of trusting in God, I think. Plus, I don’t want to be continually grumpy for however much time I have left earth-side. and I assure you that if I became a news junkie, I would take the grouch cake.
There ARE things we can do to better our mental health, like not nibbling on the fruits of the media. Fruits of the Spirit are tastier!
The government ain’t telling us anything anyway, and the little bit they DO let out is probably May as well be happy, and protect your peace. P.S. Your quest for peace is always worth protecting.

Poetry · Spiritual

Speak Your Truth – a little poetry jam

Your own heart is trustworthy ❤️

By: JANA GREENE

Your truth is just as valid

as theirs,

Dear One.

Even when

you’ve come undone.

Even if you’ve been shushed,

(perhaps especially then!)

Even though you were rushed

to grow up and validate them.

Trust in yourself,

Dear One,

Because your voice is true.

So stop worrying about the haters,

those rude commentators,

and be authentically YOU,

Poetry · Spiritual

Speak Your Truth – a little poetry jam

Your own heart is trustworthy ❤️

By: JANA GREENE

Your truth is just as valid

as theirs,

Dear One.

Even when

you’ve come undone.

Even if you’ve been shushed,

(perhaps especially then!)

Even though you were rushed

to grow up and validate them.

Trust in yourself,

Dear One,

Because your voice is true.

So stop worrying about the haters,

those rude commentators,

and be authentically YOU,

Poetry · Spiritual

The Great Opening – a spiritual poem

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto on Pexels.com

Byh: JANA GREENE

They say I’ve changed,

and they don’’t like it.

Isn’t it a shame, they say.

She used to be a “good” Christian.

And I was, because I was

striving to DO, instead of BE.

“You’ve changed”

is said in negative observation,

as if circumstances don’t change,

as if life stands still.

As if pretending ten thousand things

didn’t happen to me

between the ages of 34 and 54

(or heck, even between 53 and 54!)

But they don’t know

that it is raw and permeating love

that tripped me up in the first place.

Acceptance for ALL?

Heretic! they say.

But either God is love

or He’s not,

and the truth is,

when I tripped over the concept

of unconditional love,

I fell into a vat of it,

rich, and thick, and endless.

I found my tribe in that vat,

and we synchronize- swim

together in that great,

copious pool of love,

free and unfettered.

We landed in the arms

of a loving God, you see,

faith in what matters intact.

In my heart of hearts now,

I know

that on the deepest level,

there is no such thing

as separation.

Not one from another,

and certainly not from

and the Father,

or the Son.

or the Holy Spirit.

So I try to see others

through the lens of that

unseparateness.

And sometimes I fail.

But at the end of the day,

I would rather be

a heretical lover of people

than a bitter

but self-righteous believer.

The confounding dualism

that most of Christendom lives by

kept me spiritually stagnant

for too long,

and prevented me from being

my most authentic self;

a version of me

I’ve never known.

Somehow by proxy

it made me unknowingly

inauthentic with God, too,

who was good with me

in the first place.

So…

When others read the sacred texts

from thousands of years ago

to support their narrative

of exclusion,

they do so from a lofty cherry-picker,

proud and righteous.

That used to be my narrative too.

But I’m not too good at

picking cherries.

I tried for years,

dizzy from the heights,

hands stained with the juice,

that I considered somehow

also the blood of Jesus.

I prefer the fruits of the Spirit, you see,

to forbidden apples and

unreachable cherries.

Yes… I’ve changed.

That’s the truth.

But perhaps we are meant to.

Maybe there is a Great Opening

in the realms we cannot see

that will be the catalyst

to understanding

the world we can see.

Love opens your whole soul up!

And I think I’d rather

have an open spirit –

a great and gaping

cavernous heart

that’s big enough for everyone –

than be a “good Christian”

by the standards of this world,

which – by the way – God so loves.

He so loves YOU, too.

Blessed be.

Spiritual

What if LOVE is Actually God? (And other alleged heresy)

“Bursting Forth” by Jana Greene

By: JANA GREENE

A dear friend recently said to me “I don’t know if I can believe in God anymore.”

She said there is just too much evidence that a supreme being has checked out, or never existed – or worse – is dead.

“The whole ‘God is love’ thing is a crock,” said she. To which I agreed. “There’s too much suffering,” she continued, selling past the close. Her heart was in distress.

God is love has been embedded in us, we are taught nothing less all our lives, and where does that leave our idea of love those times we feel thrown to the wolves?

So I asked her:

“If you cannot believe that God is Love,” I replied. “Can you believe that LOVE is actually GOD?”

There is no denying that Love itself exists.

It swirls around us, and flows through happenstance and doubt, overcoming both.

It is in every hug, good wish, faithful intention. It is being seen. It is being valued. It is in valuing others.

It is sitting with the hurting, grieving alongside them so they are not lonely.

It is miracles, yes; but it is also in pain. Love often piggybacks on pain.

If your cognitive dissonence disallows you your old belief system, can you worship love and live by the tenants of a loving life?

Not just your understanding of love, but the truth that it is the force behind the details in the microcosm and glory in the vastness of the cosmos. That love?

Love itself is God. When app other things pass away, it’s still standing, open-armed.

Because whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – go towards that. Be willing to get messy with it. Spread that stuff everywhere. Dole it out like there is a never-ending supply. (Because there is.)

When you find manifestations of love, you will find a God who won’t tell you he’s running out for cigarettes, only to never return. Or say he’ll give you something to cry about. Or any of the other hurtful things human fathers do.

Yes, we are raised being told that God is love, but we have been taught incompletely. We are the incarnation of God on earth. When living out love has a heretical flavor, it’s time to take another look at ourselves.

Maybe you’ve been hurt by the “church. Perhaps you have trauma. “God is love” not ringing true to you as a whole? Old Testament giving you wrathful vibes of a vengeful overlord?

I understand. But can you believe in LOVE my friend?

Love that will sit in that dark hole with you, because it’s not allergic to our shadow selves.

Love that comforts the broken.

Love as a force that rises to meet the victim.

Love as the catalyst for every simple contact we have for the hurting.

Where there is confusion, it’s the thing we can hang our hats on.

Where there is bigotry, it’s the force that overcomes.

Oh yes. I believe that all things loving and lovely, and pure of intention, are of God.

And that includes US!

I wish you peace, joy, and comfort today, dear reader. I wish you rest in a safe, warm Source of Love.

Blessed be.

Poetry · Spiritual

The Purpose and Pain – a Poem for the Struggling

By: JANA GREENE

I have heard it said

that existence is pain,

and that the act of waking up

can be heroic.

Both are true, you see,

on this big blue marble

that we call home,

Wearing these Earth Suits,

prone to disease, disaster, dysfunction,

ill-fitting and troublesome,

here on our training ground.

Mostly things don’t add up,

or seem to have order,

or any logic at all.

So we wander like orphans,

feeling alone,

pain clutched to our chests,

tears in our eyes,

asking one another if anything

makes sense.

Everyone has a little of the Truth,

but no one earthly has it all.

So I clutch those truth bits

with white knuckles,

wondering if I have

any truth of my own to give.

“I can’t stand the pain!”

I yell to no one in particular,

and then to God himself.

I don’t know why in

that specific order,

just learning, I guess.

But learn I must because

here I am,

waking up anyway.

The Intelligence who

thought we were a good idea

has not changed his mind.

Somehow,

pain or no pain,

worldly understanding

notwithstanding,

God is spinning the planets,

and making eternity out of stars.

He reminds me,

(when I bother to really listen,)

that I am just as infinite as both.

My orbit is just a bit wobbly,

but maybe it’s part of the dance.

Maybe the wobbles

are where we learn.

So into the mystic I go,

using the pain to propel me,

as the stars give evidence,

of the vast scale of his love;

his vast love for me.

So you see,

we CAN do “this” again.

Just for today, until tomorrow,

when we get to choose

to do it again.

This day is made

not for the pain

but for us;

for rising again, not as orphans,

made of skin, bones,

and aches and pains,

but as Beloveds.

The Universe above

to watch over us,

The Universe below

to catch us in our unsteadiness,

The Universe beside us,

to walk out the pain in real time,

and best of all,

The Universe inside us, unsquelched,

in the ultimate cosmic camaraderie.

chronic illness · Spiritual

The Lonesomeness of Chronic Pain

Hi, friends.

I attended an Indigo Girls concert with a dear friend Friday evening. We had a blast! I didn’t think I was going to able to go at all, so I was thrilled to be there. But by the time I drove back home, I was in severe pain.

Some of us chronic illness patients are in some degree of pain 24/7. I’ve had to learn to conduct life with it, love with it, laugh with it, function with it.

People have alluded that we couldn’t POSSIBLY be in THAT MUCH pain so often. A person with chronic pain couldn’t possibly get dressed every day, or enjoy a comedy, or maintain relationships in the misery of constant pain.

But we certainly cannot writhe around on the floor screaming in agony 24/7. We want to, but we can’t, because after the writhing and fit-throwing, guess what? There is STILL pain – infuriatingly, but there is also still life to be had.

I have had too many tantrums to count, over the years, and I reserve the right to have others when applicable. They can be cathartic. But it’s not a sustainable mindset.

At some point you have to stop writhing and crying. The world goes on, and so must you.

So we learn to mask, and we mask the pain constantly; because life requires us to in order to function in society. We have families to take care of, and friendships to give attention. We have chores and duties.

It’s unfair in EVERY level to all parties involved.

But I see no benefit to being Pollyanna about my health – if I’m not transparent with y’all, who does that help?

So I write about it a lot – it’s 4:30 in the morning and I have tears of frustration in my eyes, and it’s the loneliest feeling I’m the world to be in my own body right now. Writing about it releases some of the pressure in my mind.

Just in case any of my chronic pain friends are also up at 4:30 in the morning ina fetal position, fighting nausea, or just feeling alone… please know you’re not alone.

I see you, I hear you, and I love you.

Better days will come – I know because I had one Friday. Sometime I even have a few in a row!

It’s the assuredness that on another day, there will be one more day trip with My Beloved. One more awesome concert. One more beach day. One more delicious meal (when I can eat.)
In other words – much like working my recovery program – it’s done one single day at a time.

Invisible illnesses exist. People who don’t look sick can be very, very sick. Always be more kind than usual to folks, please. You never know what another human is going through. Love. ❤️

Spiritual

An Earth-Side Quest

Jacob’s Well, Wimberley TX

By: JANA GREENE

If we are eternal creatures having a physical experience for an allotment of years on Earth, it begs the question:

Why have a physical experience at all? Especially with all the heartbreak and tragedy raging all around us. What’s the value in being here?

No matter how crazy life gets, I truly believe there is purpose in our being Earth-side. And I recognize that having a human experience enables us to experience things others in the spiritual realm may not.

Take chocolate, for example. Do angels eat chocolate? We do. It’s delicious.

When they hear Led Zeppelin, so they feel the music in their physical bones? We can. (And it’s like climbing a stairway to Heaven!)

We have thunderstorms so rumbly, you feel the thunder in your chest.

Literal water falls from the sky, on the regular. That’s some legit Garden of Eden stuff there.

Water is one of my favorite parts of being human. How would we appreciate the Living Water that is our Creator, had we not known the concepts of thirst and satiation?

We can climb trees that have their own intelligence, and admire flowers that God didn’t need to make so pretty, but did.

We get to host the lives of other sentient beings – little furry forever friends. We get our faces kissed with slobber, and benefit from the vibrations of a purr, and although I know pets go to Heaven, I’m grateful for their pretense in this intense world.

We have telescopes to remind us how small we are, and microscopes to show us how intricately we are put together; for we are made of divine love, and stardust.

We have books – vast volumes of human history and human frivolity, ours for the ingesting.

And we have tacos, y’all. In all the universe, we get to enjoy tacos!

Best of all, we have one another. That’s really something – relationships. Just two Earthlings who took a shine to each other and become friends for life. What? That’s crazy! And I love it.

We have such grace and grief, both; double-edged swords that clear the rubbish of human drudgery to make room for the fruits of the Spirit.

If you are living under skin and over bone, you are on a quest. Get excited.

The world – even with its trials and tragedies – is one God so loves. It’s messy and painful and sometimes I’m not sure why he loves it. but I’m certain it’s loved because look around us.

May we find love, joy, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control in our human experience.

Better yet, while we are questing, may we BE love, joy, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

And May the angels and eternal beings on the other side cheer us on as we throw down the gauntlet, anxious with anticipation.

What are your favorite parts of being human?

Blessed be, friends.

Spiritual

The Sisterhood of Self-Actualization

By: JANA GREENE

Look at you, in the here and now!

Look how far you’ve come.

When you were a child, you weren’t allowed to exist as that very basic thing – a child. And so you didn’t know how to play without furrowed brows and anxiety for the longest time.

Look at you now, playful and free, laughing at the most juvenile humor imaginable. Look at you doing things just for the sake of FUN!

And sweet friend, I know you have suffered life-altering trauma and faced circumstances so devastating, you would have deemed it unsurvivable, had you known it was coming.

You thought, “well, I’d never be able to survive that – anything but THAT – God forbid it ever happened!”

But God didn’t forbid it.

And you’re still standing.

Remember when you let other people define you? A lifetime of stuffing your own feelings out of reverence for the OTHER person? As if you deserve no reverence for yourself?

Sisters, the Universe reveres you; surely you can do the same. Surely you can find that your worth is equal to the ones you make feel worthy.

Your own definition of you is the only opinion that matters in the least. Isn’t that ironic?

For a while, you were bitter; an undercurrent of constant anger running in the background of your ether, which is MOST “un-ladylike” of you.

Patriarchal pish-posh, I say.

Look at you now, with an open heart so cavernous as to swallow up the whole broken world into a wild love, and spit out the bitterness. You’re slaying it like a freaking LADY, and a badass one at that.

They tried to hijack your newfound happiness because misery loves company and you’ve SO over the weeping and gnashing of teeth bit. That’s hard for miserable people to accept – that you have the audacity to let things go.

Yes, now here you are. Has anyone bothered to read you the scoresheet?

You have made it through 100% of the heartbreaks, rejections, and tragedies you have EVER experienced.” That takes some doin’!

You are part of a mighty Sisterhood! Link arms with me and let’s meander through this crazy world together – a place of radical silliness, a penchant for overcoming, and self-acceptance.

Look at you in the here and now!

Look how far you’ve come!

And growth looks beautiful on you, my friend. ❤️

Spiritual

Please Pray for Me (the church-approved, traditional, official method, though; none of that new-age hippy-dippy juju stuff.)

By: JANA GREENE

A friend I admire very much recently posted a prayer request, shortly followed by this sentiment: “Don’t bother to pray for me if you’re sending good vibes, good intentions, positive energy, etc. only God can heal me.”

It made me sad for her.

Although I am actually inclined to agree with her ALL healing comes from Source. Powers of darkness ain’t gonna heal you because you asked “the wrong way,” because darkness doesn’t heal. Ever. It can’t.

You’re either getting your healing from God or not at all, no matter how woo-woo your friends pray for you.

But advising your friends who may believe differently than you who are wanting to transfer light, love, and healing to you to “please don’t, unless you’ll do it the right way,”

It’s like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Especially when you consider that prayer IS “focused attention” – another human being imploring goodness and healing and mercy over you from the one Power who can handle it.

I’m religious circles, we call that “speaking life” over someone. And it seems a pity to reject how ever one can best send love and light for a letter-of-the-law incantation approved by the church proper.

Eastern religions have a much better grasp on this concept. We, on the other hand, almost take a Christmas Nationalist stand about it. “By GOD there is ONE way to pray for me and the Bible CLEARLY says how to do it, so don’t come in here with your weirdo ideas, which are surely demonic, since I don’t understand it.”

When we eschew good intentions that loving people bestow on us because their way of loving us is considered sub-par to your own religion, it’s a loss.

If “good vibes” won’t heal you according to your theology, where do you assume such vibes originate? Where would good, loving intentions for you come from exactly?

When we throw away their manifestations of love for us because they use the word “energy” rather “than prayer.” … we are losing something very important. The humanity of ourselves, and by proxy, the humanity of Jesus.

You are petitioning the Highest Power that exists in the entire universe for MY healing and wellbeing. And if you do so while on your knees, or with a pretty rocks in hand (even the rocks cry out, remember?) I would be honored.

In conclusion, and with a nod to Dr. Dre (wait, I mean Dr. SEUSS:)

I do so like your prayers for me,

I do so love them, cuz you see,

I’m blessed no matter how you say

“God, please make my friend okay.”

You can implore the heavens for me,

You can send me good energy,

You can go straight to Jesus with stuff,

You’re well-wishes are more than enough.

I will take your “standard prayers,”

Your meditations show you care,

Whatever is good, and kind, and true –

I’ll take that hippy-dippy stuff too!

I would love your blessings

Here or there,

I’ll except your good vibes

EVERYWHERE.

God bless us, every one.

deconstruction · Inspirational · Spiritual

Delving into Religious Deconstruction (Part Four – Sh*t Happens, But God is Love)

Photo by Pouria Teymouri on Pexels.com

By: JANA GREENE

Can we address the subject of God’s will?

I was taught two very oppositional things:

If you are struggling, it’s because you are doing the will of God and the devil is coming after you because you are doing the Lord’s work. If your circumstance is difficult, God ordained it. He is “stretching” and growing you. You are obviously on the right track, carrying out his will.

AND /OR

If you are doing what God wills, things will be easier. There will be a “flow” to it. That’s his way of letting you know you are abiding in his will. You won’t have to fight it. There will be a naturalness and ease, if you are operating in the will of God.

Well, which is it?

And please don’t tell me “the Bible is clear..” because it’s not. It’s actually contradictory on a lot of levels.

It’s a subject I’ve asked pastors about, only to be told to just keep reading the “word,” and God would make it clear. The implication of course being “you’re not spending enough time in the Bible.”

To which I say, how did the early church follow the example of Christ for the first four centuries? They did not have the benefit or encumbrance of a book to tell them how to live. Yet they set the world on fire with radical love. It’s all about the spirit, in my estimation.

Here’s the thing; This is life. Messy, wonderful, excruciating LIFE. Live it.

It is full of natural flow, impossible challenges, unexpected events, bursts of assurance, and waves of doubt. There is no one marker that determines if you are going against the will of the Almighty. In the process of deconstruction, I have learned that sometimes, I will avoid doing the “thing” at all, because all those years I NEEDED constant reassurance from Heaven and Earth alike that I was in his will. The paralysis of analysis, if you will.

If things were going great, the underlying sentiment is that God loves me and is pleased with me. But wait – when traumatic events happen, remember that he “chastens whom he loves,” (or if he just really has a cruel streak.)

And I have decided that my whole theology boils down to this: “Shit happens, but God is Love.”

Perhaps we can stop micromanaging the will of God. Perhaps we can marvel at it, wonder at the mystery of a grace so scandalous, we don’t even need to understand the whole plan to know it’s good. We people-please Abba because that’s how we win the approval of people.

Maybe God’s not testing us.

Maybe he isn’t “allowing” difficult, tragic things to happen in order to build up our strength as Christians.

Maybe the fact that everything is going smoothly just means that everything is just going smoothly.

He walks alongside us on the road to Damascus, and down Main Street at Disney World.

Over the fire and ice, both.

He stays near us when we feel robbed in this life, and when we have been given abundance.

Sometimes we get it wrong. But we will either succeed at what we endeavor, or we will learn from it.

Succeed or learn, guaranteed.

SHIT HAPPENS.

But God is Love.

His will is to love us.

Amen.

Poetry · Spiritual

Keep Going (Anyway) – a little poetry jam

By: JANA GREENE

You are loved,

I promise it’s true,

Even though the world

Keeps doling out anew

Difficult things,

The losses of man,

Just keep going,

I know you can.

Keep holding on

And I will too.

Hand in hand

We shall get through,

Together

And with Love as our Guide,

We’ll get through this season,

Me and you.

Spiritual

Love and Parking Spaces

By: JANA GREENE

I used to pray for good parking spots, and HALLELUJAH in praise, as holy-rolled into my divine space at Target. Obviously, I’m super spiritual.

Why, just last week I won $5 on a scratch-off lotto ticket AND I caught that clearance sale at Kohls and the dress was just my size!

*Shaking my head.*

That was my theology… “I can do ALL things through Christ, who – before the foundation of the universe – willed me to receive shallow, trivial things to prove his majesty to me.

God is eithera benevolent dude who puts his pants on one leg at a time like all the rest of us and is moving heaven and earth to make sure you get that good parking space,

OR

God is a cosmic force who knows all like omnipotent Santa Clause, spinning celestial bodies in perfect orbit, and from his mighty throne, waits to call you out on your peasant misdeeds.

Or maybe,

God is like Jesus.

Passing out grace in scandalously copious fashion, all sweet and willy-nilly. Like honey, it sticks to everything and the sweetness cuts the bitterness of everything else in life.

Maybe God isn’t a “sky daddy,” reigning from a throne in there heavens. Perhaps he sits on the actual thrones that we know as our human hearts.

And if that’s true (and I know it is because my soul keeps elbowing me in the ribs to make sure I’m paying attention,) that changes EVERYTHING.

I’m not sure I believe God cares which parking spot I get anymore, and that can seem like a loss of faith when you’ve been begging God for things all your life – from parking spots to healing my illness which has no cure, to fixing my despair.

But it’s not a loss. I’ve learned God is just like Jesus. And Jesus is Love. By association, we are Love too.

And this is how 1 Corinthians 13 has revealed itself to me:

Love never gives up, not even when you can imagine no way out of the pain.

Love cares more for others than for self, and shows it.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. It in itself is plenty.

Love doesn’t have a swelled head, it is a pouring out, not a showing-off.

Love doesn’t strut; it’s prowess doesn’t say “look at me!” but reflects in a humbling contemplation.

Love doesn’t force itself on others, spreading the dry-bone, legalistic “gospel” for the sake of evangelizing.

It is rarely “me first,” but rather “how can I be of service?”

Love doesn’t fly off the handle, but keeps its calm.

Love doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, even when we are really sure someone deserves their comeuppance.

Love doesn’t revel when others grovel, it shall always be preeminent.

Love is pleasure in the flowering of truth.

It puts up with anything,

Love trusts its Source.

Love never looks back, it lives in h the now.

Love looks for the best, especially when nobody else can seem to find it.

Love keeps going to the end;

Way past the parking lot.

Long after our Earth Suits are finally healed.

Continuing until we are one with the celestial bodies in perfect orbit…

From the thrones that have been in us all along.,

Just like Jesus.

Poetry · Spiritual

Undone

By: JANA GREENE

She used to be such a “good” Christian,

Proverbs 31 to the core.

But then she listened to the voice

Who told her to want more.

“More of you, God!”

She would say.

“I’m striving hard, you see!”

“”Why are you striving

So hard, child,

Cannot you simply be?

The war she fought within herself

Had already been won.

And when she finally

Understood,

She became undone.

“But I must be holy” she said.

And pleasing to your sight!”

“Have I not told you, child,

You’re already salt and light?

And do you not remember,

I’ve already

Won the fight?”

And in the end of warring,

She was learning just to be.

Slowly,

And with great surrender,

She realized she was free.

Spiritual

The Evolution of a Rainbow

Thanks to my Source for this beautiful reminder that spectacular things often take time.

By: JANA GREENE

The evolution of a rainbow.

It developed before our eyes, but slowly, like a Polaroid.

So often, I want instant rainbow.

I want whatever haunts or hurts me to resolve in a brilliant display from broken pieces, right away.

Don’t tarry, God. Dazzle me!

But God tarries. He tarries what seems like a lot.

All the most beautiful things in my life have been via a slow burn. And I’ve been impatient with most of it.

The prism forms before I can see it, so I wallow in the grayness in a sullen pout. Everything is swallowed up in gray.

But the light is always there. Think about that miracle! Can you imagine?

The colors of the rainbow are really always surrounding us, we just can’t predict the refraction that bends light in a technicolor display.

The chemical makeup of the atmosphere doesn’t change, only our perception of it.

I believe all of Heaven is refracted light, comprised of love so pure, there are colors we cannot conceive of in this realm at all.

We cannot even imagine a color that doesn’t exist – go ahead and try! – but they will envelop us one day.

It gives me comfort that people I love are walking in that brilliance.

It reminds me to trust the process.

If I stop my worries long enough to appreciate the process, the process has merits all its own.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet – each have their turn.

We And when at it’s peak, and I’ll try to remember that lovely things – like this big, bold voluptuous rainbow – come out of a storm over the ocean, so vast.

What a thoughtful thing for God to do, give us a little glimpse.

And as we watched it fade into the aquamarine sky,

He dazzles us.

Recovery · Spiritual

Recovery – The Knot at the End of Your Rope (that Becomes a Ladder)

By: JANA GREENE

I am watching “Intervention,” which is a great series, but very heavy subject matter. I watch a lot of TV when I’m having a high-pain day. I used to feel guilty about watching TV in the middle of the day, because AYYYYYY! If I can feel guilty about something, I’m going to glom on to that shit. It’s familiar to me. But I’m learning to go easier on myself.

I watch Intervention because I admire interventionists, recovery is an incredible journey, and I’m a huge fan of observing “what makes people tick.” Psychology fascinates me.
And mostly, I love the show because some folks rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and that stuff is inspiring.

Intervention hits especially hard because I’m an alcoholic. It’s been 22 years since my last drink.

When I got sober, I didn’t think it would “stick” but I just kept NOT having a drink that day. And then the next day, always eternally promising myself I would not drink today.

I now have 8,066 days alcohol-free. That’s a miracle.

I wish everyone got their miracle. I truly believe it’s possible for everyone. Not on the other side of this life, but IN this one. And I don’t know why I made it out of active alcoholism while many do not. It’s easy to feel survivor’s guilt about it. But that’s a blog post for another day.

On January 2, 2001, I took my last drink. I was turning yellow. My body was demanding alcohol by every day’s end. But when I would drink, my body would also reject the alcohol, in a most unpleasant and projectile manner.

And nobody knew how much I was drinking. I mean, NO one. So the shame factor was tremendous.

I was trying to drown Trauma that knew how to swim like Michael Phelps, without even knowing that’s what I was doing.

When I first got sober, it was on this brand new technology – the INTERNET! The support group was “Alcoholism in Women” AOL. Yep. America Online, people.

I’d like to write about that experience (maybe later this week?) Recovery puts you in a vulnerable place. One of those ladies is still a dear friend to this day. But some of them didn’t make it out.

Some of those precious, strong, beautiful souls lost their lives to alcohol. It’s heartbreaking.

As far as I can tell, the purpose for making it through something hard is to help someone else get through something hard. That’s why I’m open about why I don’t drink.

At the end of each episode of Intervention, there is a segment that shows whether or not the addict chooses to get help, and usually includes a short follow up. Some refuse help outright. Some go but don’t take advantage fully of the help.

But some of them – many – get their new start. They grab onto it with both hands, with the same passion they had for their drug (which is what it takes,) and it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. Makes my heart soar!

That’s what I wish for every addict and alcoholic. It’s possible for all of us, but we have to be willing to do anything to keep healthy.

If you are drinking more than anyone knows,
If you feel hopeless and full of shame,
If you cannot imagine your life improving vastly,
If you think you’ve really blown it this time,
If your heart is raw from a lifetime of trauma,
If you wonder if you’re worth it…

You’re in the PERFECT place to claim a new life.

If you’re at the end of your rope, grab on to the knot – help and support – and it will become a ladder that leads you into a new life.

Recovery is so flippin’ Beautiful and REAL. And it’s perfect for YOU. It’s not for other people, it’s for you. So that you can have the life you deserve.

I think of my AOL sisters from time to time; the ones who didn’t make it out. I wonder where they would be now, if they just didn’t pick up a drink that day. I suspect at the heart of it, they didn’t believe they were worthy of a better, sober life.

So I’m just writing this today to tell you that you’re worth it.

Please out resources and help. There is no shame in asking for help. And do whatever it takes to live the recovery life. Glom onto it, obsess about recovery just as you have the drink.

We already know how to be obsessed; find out what switching obsessions can do for you (and the people who love you.)

Find out what truly makes YOU tick, because I guarantee you’re fascinating in ways you don’t even know yet. I’ll bet you’ve forgotten who you truly are, while in your addiction. Life is hard, but also so good. I promise. You can do this.

God bless us, every one.

health · Spiritual

Would you Want a Diagnosis if there were no Cure? (The answer is “yes”)

By: JANA GREENE

What good is getting an accurate diagnosis, if there’s no cure? A woman I follow on Social media posed this question and it got me thinking. She also has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

Knowledge is power, and it explained a whole lifetime of things.

Every day of second grade, I had to spend afternoons with a tutor after school because I held my pencil “wrong.” I physically cannot hold it that way. My fingers wouldn’t work, still don’t.

I’ve had bad migraines all my life.

I cut myself constantly with knives in the kitchen, even as a kid. I’ve managed to cut myself with safety scissors.

Buttons are the devil.

Physical Education class was a nightmare. I kept getting injured doing the simplest things, and “sat out” many times, resulting “F’s” in cthat class. Turned ankles. Sprains. PE teachers are MERCILESS. I was fussed at for “not trying.” Or worse – “faking.” Id love to look them up and let them know what’s up.

I thought everyone got dizzy tying their shoes, every time.

Having a super shitty immune function, was sick constantly. Wouldn’t find out until adulthood I have immune deficiency.

I was in some degree of pain at all times – every joint. As far back as I can remember. Of course as the laxity in my joints increases with age, the pain gets worse.

My ankles are so weak, I broke my right one in two places from standing getting up to pee in thre middle of the night. Just torqued it wrong. I was so accustomed to pain, I walked on it for 11 days anyway before going to the doctor.

I always required more anesthesia, which is a redhead thing and an EDS thing.

There was a reason my body cannot do autonomic functions adequately – tempature regulation, blood pressure – just can’t handle it. The fluctuations that were such a mystery all my life make sense.

The hyper-mobility made for some good “party tricks” – contortionist stuff with knees and elbows, etc., but I had no idea it was a medical issue ad a young adult.

Knowing what was wrong – even though there is no cure and no really effective treatment – was momentous.

It means the difference between managing symptoms with some chance of alleviating some of the severity. It means the enlightenment of your own body, after feeling like you were made defectively.

I’m not defective. Just sick. And that’s okay.

It’s gonna have to be.