Is money the root of all evil?
Is there more than one route to God?
Maybe I’ll come back to the God question.
Thrift and consignment stores are popping up all over. My husband manages one for the Rescue Mission. They get more clothes and books donated than they can keep up with. More than they have room for. He’s found a way to re-donate the extras. They get a lot of food donated too. In the job he had before, he saw grocery stores throwing away so much food. It was astounding and sad. Fortunately some of the food gets donated to non-profit agencies…… I’m getting to the money and evil part, eventually, maybe.
So how can there be so many clothes donated? The books I understand, because people now use computers and phones more to read. But people keep buying clothes. More and more clothes. I get most of my clothes from second hand stores. I get most of my furniture second hand, too. It’s mostly a recycling thing. And a little a frugal thing.
Are we buying more stuff than we need? And what else can we do with our money? I don’t want to buy new wood furniture, because someone had to cut down a tree for that.
Yes, lets get back to the forest!
My roots are in nature.
I see God in nature. I connect with God in nature.
I also see God in Jesus. I connect with God through Jesus.
Some people connect with God through prayer and songs. These work for me too.
Some find God through service work, through various books, or religious leaders.
Some don’t find God at all. Part of me says I’m supposed to write how sad that is.
But you know what? I don’t feel all that sad about it. We all have a choice. We all have value. Regardless of whether we have found God, or Jesus, or Muhammad. Whether we are rich or poor or smart with numbers, or computers or money or whether we know how to make sassafras tea out of tree roots. We all have value.
I used to say, I didn’t care about money. But I do sort of like having enough for my mortgage and vet bills and food and my second hand clothes and gasoline….. and I’d like to travel more…… I like the things money can buy. Some of the things. But money can’t buy the sky. Money can’t buy true love.
And as my husband says his grandfather used to say, ” You can’t eat it.”
The desire for things and money is part of the problem, part of what is putting our world at risk. But there is something more. A lack of peace. A lack of love. We need more tolerance and cooperation.
That’s all for now. Except that I wish I’d written more about roots.
Here’s a poem, containing roots, I memorized many years ago from the Lord of the Rings….or maybe it was The Hobbit. This is how I remember it:
All that is gold does not glitter.
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not whither.
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken.
A light from the Shadows shall Spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken.
The crownless again shall be king.
JRR Tolkein
Today’s Stream of Consciousness post prompt was “route/root.”
If you’d like to jump into the stream, start here:
http://lindaghill.com/2015/09/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-1915/
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
8. Have fun!
September 19, 2015 at 2:21 pm
A great effort JoAnna; it was like having you addressing me over a cup of coffee. I have never risen to one of these challenges, though I can see how tricky they are. Well done! 🙂
September 20, 2015 at 10:38 am
[Test comment: this is a nested, indented comment JoAnna]
September 20, 2015 at 9:55 pm
Thank you!
September 19, 2015 at 2:24 pm
Thank you, Hariod. 🙂 The tricky part for me is not editing while realizing that people are going to read my thoughts. But I do enjoy it and look forward to it every week.
September 19, 2015 at 4:12 pm
Yes, a bit like inviting people into our minds, which is scary indeed! Just a thought, but I only ever see your responses if I go to ‘comments I made’ in my dashboard – they never come up in the notifications area. Any ideas JoAnna?
September 19, 2015 at 4:13 pm
Ah, I see now, it seems that you do not respond within a nest, which explains it.
September 20, 2015 at 1:39 am
Sorry. I don’t know what responding with a nest means. I’m guessing this has to do with my dashboard or admin page…. I just click on reply from the post. I hope that works well enough. I’m historically “low tech,” though I have learned a lot in the past few years.
September 20, 2015 at 1:36 am
Hmmm. I see them on the post…..
September 20, 2015 at 10:37 am
Dear JoAnna,
To explain:
You will see that your initial response to me on the 19th. at 2:24p.m. is not itself within a nest; it is an original [i.e. normally unrelated] comment.
Nests are a series of indented, linked and related comments appearing beneath an original comment.
That first response of yours, which is at the top of this nest, is left-justified, and is not a sub-comment i.e. a nested, indented comment.
I will now respond to my initial comment creating a nest there to show how that displays in an indentation.
Best wishes,
Hariod.
September 20, 2015 at 9:53 pm
Thanks for explaining that nests are indented comments. That makes sense. I see that some of my comments are nested and some are not. I have made sure to click the reply right under your comment, so we’ll see if that works for this one. If not, I’ll continue to experiment or got to help/support. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention.
September 20, 2015 at 9:53 pm
Seems to have worked. 🙂
September 21, 2015 at 10:14 am
🙂
September 19, 2015 at 2:31 pm
wonderful help
that others
find their way 🙂
September 19, 2015 at 3:16 pm
Thank you, David. You do this too. 🙂
September 19, 2015 at 4:28 pm
I love that poem. And I go along with your sentiments about money. It doesn’t buy happiness. But it can make a good downpayment. 😉
September 20, 2015 at 1:43 am
I memorized it many years ago. Not only because I loved it, but it is a nice length to memorize. Downpayment. 🙂 You always make me chuckle. Or at least smile.
September 19, 2015 at 5:00 pm
A light from the shadow shall spring. I liked seeing the video from the Lord of the Rings. I am glad there are programs now to salvage food from the grocery stores and restaurants. My daughter worked with an organization called Food Share that would deliver food to needy people.
September 20, 2015 at 1:46 am
I liked watching it, too. Some of the best scenes. But missing depth of the one you posted last week. I really enjoyed that one. It seems there is enough of food, we just need ways to get it to the people who need it.
September 20, 2015 at 2:05 am
I think it is hard to find video because it is probably copyrighted. Yes I think you are right about the food.
September 20, 2015 at 1:41 am
I believe there are many routes to the Divine/Love/Universe or whatever name one finds meaningful.
September 20, 2015 at 1:49 am
I appreciate you sharing that belief, Joanne.
September 20, 2015 at 3:12 am
It’s something that I have believed for a very long time, but lately have been reading and hearing more about it, such as my recent encounters with interspirituality.
September 26, 2015 at 11:43 pm
It’s comforting to find another Christian (correct me if I’m wrong) who believes that.
September 27, 2015 at 5:43 am
Yes, I’m Christian, big-C Catholic specifically but little-c catholic, meaning universal, too.
September 20, 2015 at 7:27 am
Reblogged this on oshriradhekrishnabole.
September 20, 2015 at 9:25 pm
Thank you!