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It was truly a lovely wedding.

Aletta looked radiant, Matt was clearly nervous but very happy.

Everything went smoothly, everyone had a great time.

It brought tears to my eyes to look around the room and to see so many people that I love.

I am a bit sentimental, I’ll admit. Seeing the pride and joy on my Uncle Ronnie’s face as he escorted Aletta down the aisle filled me with so much gratitude and love I almost couldn’t stand it.

I felt the same way when I saw my Aunt Ute (in a flowing black suit) running down the meadow to make sure that all the children were included in photos…

Micaela, my other cousin, was really on top of her game. Married life, children, and a fulfilling job agree with her, and have transformed her – she is beautiful, confident, a goddess. Really.

My favorite part of the ceremony was when the married women had a chance to come up and whisper a piece of advice or some other comment into Aletta’s ear. Yes, you know I wasn’t sitting there saying nothing, right? So I whispered, “Remember how much you respect him today. Civility goes a long way. Please and thank you.”

What was even better, in a way, is when the officiant (a very nice woman) said, “We don’t want be discriminatory, so the married men are now welcome to step up to offer a word to Matt.” I somehow think that wasn’t planned. One guy said something very urgently, then stepped back and did that thing where he points to his own eyes and then points to Matt’s eyes. There was good-natured laughter. The room was full of love. The energy of the whole ceremony was terrific.

We were out there on a covered deck, looking out on a meadow worthy of a 19th-century pastoral poet. It was a beautiful day, shining, with a refreshing breeze. Aletta and Matt were beaming, and there were moments of reflection and humor that drew us all in as a community. We really felt that we were there to witness to their bond and to be there to safeguard and help them always.

The reception was fun. I really hit it off with Matt’s aunt Pam, who turns out to be just a couple of years older than me (yikes), a nurse in Durham. We ended up dancing together a bit (how do women in their forties get to dance otherwise, when husbands are not in attendance?). I really like her a lot and we have much in common. Besides, she has those Susan Sarandon eyes that I always love, and a sense of humor that matches mine… Wish I’d gotten a pic of her! We initiated a circle-dance of women around Matt – very tribal and fun.

My brother Roy and Patty danced at almost a professional level, as always, although I couldn’t get the DJ to play the Kinks’ “Come Dancing” – which was always his fave.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and had lots of great conversation, reacquainting myself with several people and also meeting several new people, including a couple of people that I had heard much about but had never had the pleasure to have met before. Everyone was friendly and open. Their company was a balm to my soul.

The only thing I regret was that I didn’t think to try to get a photograph of my extended family there. Roy and I didn’t make it into the group photos, but in my experience those aren’t the ones you look at anyway. I had a camera, and I just didn’t think of trying to get Roy and Patty and me and Aletta and Matt and Micaela and Michael and Katy and Alex and Ron and Ute all into a photo.

Both Aletta’s wedding and Micaela’s wedding were wonderful, but I have to admit that I enjoyed this one more. I was more relaxed (and it probably didn’t hurt that I wasn’t pregnant!).

I am so proud of my dear cousins. I am so proud of you, dear women of my heart.

Thank you, thank you to the whole clan. You rock, and I love you.

(More photos)

In case you don’t have enough money to buy me a Lego Star Wars Darth Vader for Christmas, Daddy can get it for you.
– This one today, July 10

Thank you Mommy! I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And so I love you too.

On Tuesday, you said on Friday we’d go to the store. It’s Friday. When are we leaving?

I think I have a few pebbles on my chin, but I don’t want you to squeeze them.

I’ve decided what I’m going to be when I grow up. A king.

When me and my wife have some children, would you like to visit us?

Not eleven seconds, Mommy. I can hold my breath under the water for a whole twelve seconds.

I wish Superman was real, not pretend.
– After seeing the movie Superman Returns. (Me too, Ben, me too.)

(Ben is six.)

My dear friend (and fellow exJW) Richard Shining Thunder Francis has a radio show called “High Spirits” and I’m sending out a call for people to call in with questions, since questions and calls are the center and theme of the show.

Our goal is to present a happy, positive view of spirituality, and to encourage its practical applications. To do this, each week, we will discuss metaphysics, psychology, philosophy, cults and odd beliefs, dogma, history, kabbalism (generic), gnosticism (generic), sufism (generic), and other fascinating forms of the Way of compassion. Love, or compassion will, of course, be a theme, and we shall look together into the bright mysteries of agapology (the psychology of Love). Take a break from your frenzied week. Have a warm cup of coffee or cold drink, sit back, and listen to the most important, and most captivating, subjects in the universe!

Listen to “High Spirits” Online
at 1530AM WCKY
Cincinnati
Sat 8 PM
Call in from 8-9 PM EST
Local: 749-1530
Out of area: 877-345-3779

You do not have to receive the station over radio to call. You can listen online, and you will be able to hear the show on the telephone as well. You can also help other people by making this call. Don’t worry; you will be on the air for only a few seconds to ask your question. Just have it ready to go and call 877-345-3779, after 8 pm (it’s free). You can ask about the “new age,” fundamentalism, religion, metaphysics, spirituality, philosophy, psychology, parapsychology, God, nature, cults, or anything related to any of these.

Teacher, author, psychospiritual advisor, life-design consultant, and practicing mystic, Richard’s point of view is centered on love mysticism. He is the founder of agapology, the science of love-psychology, spokesperson for the Universal Love Movement (not a religion, but a Way) which challenges society to live by the principles of compassion, acceptance, and tolerance. He is not a “guru.”

I called in about two weeks ago, and the discussion really helped me to refocus in a more positive direction.

His sites:

Love Ministries
Blog

Richard is one of the most lucid, giving, and compassionate people I’ve ever known.

He has written several books, many of which are available for download.

My favorite is Journey to the Center of the Soul: Mysticism Made Simple, but I first stumbled across his work while searching for good books on Jehovah’s Witnesses. The JW books are very helpful for understanding how and why the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses can be so psychologically and spiritually destructive. When I read these two books, everything that I had sensed and felt really clicked into place. His style is quite different from my own, and his way of framing things gave me a new kind of conceptual and emotional “niche” in a heart/mind space that had been empty. I’ve been recommending the JW books on my site for some time:

Jehovah Lives in Brooklyn – Richard S. T. Francis
An extremely helpful book for ex-JWs (and for those who love them) that succeeds in capturing the thought patterns, assumptions, mindset, destructive consequences, spiritual distortions, and psychosocial dynamics of the “organization.” A very readable narrative of such issues as personality dismantling, satanic projection, sense of uniqueness, persecution, conformity and masks, and censorship. “Thus, in cases I have witnessed personally, parents have totally rejected and turned their backs on wayward children, brothers have become the fiercest of enemies, and lovers are separated with a ferocity and mutual hatred. Every form of sentimentality is despised as a weakness when it comes to the question of loyalty to Jehovah’s organization. Every human being is disposable. …This is an underlying flaw in much of fundamentalism, including JWs: ideas and concepts are more sacred even than human life. It is due to this distortion that JWs refuse blood transfusions even to save the lives of their children–a teaching for which they have become monsterously notorious.” (p.73).

Jehovah Good-Bye: The New Theism of Love – Richard S. T. Francis
Ex-JW Francis moves from criticism to a constructive analysis of what he calls the “New Theist,” who is reconnecting to the agapic god of love and forgiveness. “The New Theist has arisen in specific response to the intellectual and spiritual starvation so often promoted by traditional religion. Far too often, religion, whose job it is to feed the masses, wrenches from their hands the tiniest morsels of substantial spiritual food, and tries to replace them with the non-nutritive ’straw’ of organizationalism and dogma, doctrine and administration. Worse, some groups are monomaniacally obsessed with only money, and religion is only a front” (p.11). ” “The God of revealed by Jesus was no primitive anthropomorphism, no historical product of evolution from the proto-Jehovac images of the old god. This God did not dribble out forgiveness in parsimonious, unwilling, reticent microparticles; this God deluged and immersed his children in purest Love, and was eager and delighted to forgive. And according to grace, he did not forgive becuase of his children’s attitudes or behaviors; he forgave because of the quality of his love” (p. xix).

The actions I post are those I support, at least for the present. Sometimes I change my mind when new information, evidence, or compelling argument convinces me to do so (but – note to trolls – rarely do I change my mind because of comments intended to provoke me, harass me, and drain my energy and time).

There are so many things going on right now that I feel I need some sort of realignment with my larger priorities. I will try to do my part to support actions to bring compassion and ethics and accountability to our government and public sphere, to reawaken the American people to a realization of their own interests and to the need for a functioning democracy here. But I have to refocus on some other priorities as well, and this is not my top calling.

Among other things, I have decided to change the format of the activism suggestions I post – they need to be more minimalist. There is always a lot of information on the topic at the site, and adults can use their favorite search engines and so on to find out more about any of these topics.

Click on the links to read more and to decide whether you support the views presented. Go right ahead and read up on the issue elsewhere too!

Develop discernment – among other things, it’s a survival skill.

Today’s Actions:

Demand that our government stop dragging its feet and take decisive action to stop Darfur genocide (Color of Change)

Support Real Effort to Address US Oil Dependence – Fuel Choices for American Security Act (S.2025/H.R. 4409) bipartisian legislation would save as much as 10 million barrels of oil per day by 2030 by creating incentives and standards that would increase vehicle efficiency and alternative fuel use. (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Sign petition to repeal tax breaks for oil and gas companies (they admitted they don’t need the money). (Biden, Unite Our States)

Tell your Senators to protect our coasts and stop more offshore drilling. We can’t drill our way to energy independence. (League of Conservation Voters)

Support the troops, but not the unending war. Listen to the new Neil Young album “Living with War”, then take action to bring our troops home in 2006. (True Majority)

Stop 700-ton “bunker buster simultation” bomb detonation on the Western Shoshone Native American reservation June 2nd in Nevada (Winograd)

Take a wide range of actions at: Consumer’s Union (publisher of Consumer Reports)

Happy Easter and Mystical Bunny with Eggs Day!

Catchin’ up with a few friend-blogs for a semi-random roundup…

Richard Shining Thunder has a new radio show in Cincinnati called High Spirits. Listen in at 1530AM WCKY, Cincinnati or online Sat 8-9 PM. I’ll personally vouch for him. He’s one of the good guys. Call in from 8-9 PM EST with spiritual questions and concerns – 877-345-3779.

Grateful Bear posts on a Pentacostal scholar who argues for the idea of the Holy Spirit moving like a wind through all the world’s religions. Great post! Call me to catch up when you’ve got a chance.

Etherealfire has a wonderful blessing for the day.

Just-Rambling thinks a surrender box is good idea. For an astonishing variety of reasons, I think so too.

No no no! It can’t be!!! Virtual Pus is gone! “2002-2006 – Killed by hackers”!?!? Come back!!!

Mr. H.K. skipped church today and instead went to the Museum of Modern Art’s opening of “Without boundaries: seventeen ways of looking,” featuring work by artists who come from the Islamic world. I’d better not link to his naughty naughty Easter graphic (heh -heh).

The philosofairy at Mermaid Tavern tells us why Arizona is the smartest state.

Rosei is planning her wedding as the rain pelts down in Brazil. I have fallen behind on the Photomeme posts, but not to worry, Rosei! John and Ben got me a digital camera for my birthday and it should arrive this week. I’ll catch up.

Raven, embroiled in activities with the boys, wishes everyone a Happy Easter/Ostara.

Lovebevvy is getting ready for a big move and new beginnings. Good luck Bev!

Mystical Grrl really has her hands full, as usual! Deep breaths Sara! Sending thoughts of warmth and calmness, and wishing you the very best of all news on the pregnancy. And I agree with you about the dog-sitting.

Dolphin and Leena have great feline Easter pics.

And keep your eyes out for the latest Progressive Faith Carnival Roundup!