I just finished a service on making your wishes come true in the upcoming year, by being prepared to make random chance roll your way. We watched a video of Justin Bieber, while I explained how he was discovered on YouTube back in 2008, and I explained the random chance involved and the preparedness involved in making The Beebe a household name. The random bit was the guy clicked on Justin’s video out of thousands of other talented kids making videos and posting them to YouTube. The prepared bit is that there were hundreds of thousands more that didn’t post to YouTube and never had the chance to be “discovered”. As I pointed out during the message in order to win the lottery you must first buy a ticket, almost never in life does something get handed to you out of the blue except your life. You got that free everything else you have to do something for it.
Then we listened to a story about the Buddha and anger, followed by a meditation on hyper-awareness, where everyone got to live in my world for a few minutes. I have PTSD but I can’t drop the hyper-awareness while I’m on the roads because there are too many idiots out there driving like I’m as well-armored as they are, only I’m not. This is one of the reasons why I don’t suggest road riding to help people with PTSD. The physical activity is good for them, the constant need to be aware of everything around you out to about a quarter of a mile not so much.
Also we did a three part sharing ceremony, using stones, coins, and black-eyed peas. The stone was placed in a bowl of water and your gratitude for the year was expressed, and the congregation wished success to the speaker, then the coin was placed in the bowl while expressing a wish for the new year, and again the congregation wishing success, followed by stirring the pot of black-eyed peas and expressing a wish for the congregation for the upcoming year, with the congregation wishing success a third time.
After that we adjourned to the kitchen for more peas (with seasoned ham hock) and 3 different kinds of pie. [Billy voice]”I like pie!” [/Billy voice] (Billy voice courtesy of “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” ).
And my wishes for you for the New Year? Live! Dead people read no blogs.
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 