When do you smile?

     Anyone can smile during a good day.  What I want to know is can you still smile at the end of a bad day?  It has taken me twenty five years of working on myself but I can say yes.  I can still smile at the end of a bad day.  At the end of a bad year.  At the end of a bad decade.  I can still smile.
     Did Joseph hate his brothers who sold him into slavery? Or his cousins who bought him and then resold him? Or did he choose to love God and then to smile?  Naomi lost everything in a strange land.  Yet at the end of her life she still smiled.   There is a non-canonical story about Jesus.  According to the story he danced on the way to his death.  Happy to die.  What did he know?
     Maybe he knew that sundown doesn't mean sunover.  Sundown doesn't mean sunout.  Maybe it  means sunrest.  Maybe it means sunpreparation.
    Yes it had taken me more than a quarter century to learn that I can still smile.  And I am still learning.  Learning to test the theories and theologies that are presented to me.  Learning to find my own way.  Learning to smile when everything around me says no.


In Love, Light, and Liberty,
Enoch

Pentad Shuffle

Sometime in the  last century.

Michael: Sorry, I'm late.  What's going on? Who called this meeting?
Metatron:  The old man did.
Michael: Really, why?
Metatron:  There's has been a reorganization.  I am the President now.
Michael:  That's not possible unless everyone or the old man-
Metatron:  Both.  I have the memo right here if you want to read it.
Michael:  I thought the old man was too far to communicate.
Metatron: Not anymore. He is in the fifth quadrant.
Michael: That doesn't even make sense.
Metatron:  "Fifth Quadrant" is the working name.
Michael: What does it all mean?
Metatron:  It means I am President and Raphael is Vice-President.
Michael: And me?
Metatron:  When we meet as a security council you will be the chair.
Michael: No more War Councils?
Metatron: For now, no.
Michael: Can I go now?  I've got work to do. Asia is starting to get hot.
Metatron:  Cut  back on the war Michael, peace is our priority now.
Michael: Very well, for now.

The Pentad:
Metatron-President (Executive Session Chair)
Raphael- Vice-President and Peace Commission Chair
Michael-  Security Chair
Gabriel-  Chief Justice (Judicial Chair)
Uriel- Chair when committee of the whole.

Staff:
Ariel - Assistant to the President
Samael- Secretary to the Pentad

The Pentad- The Supreme Council of Regency

In Case of my Death or Severe Injury

This will have to do for a living will/will.

If I am in an accident or otherwise wind up on life support, then I would expect my two sisters to consult with at least two doctors.  If the two doctors both agree that there is no hope for my recovery, then I would ask my two sisters to pull my plug.  Let me go in peace.  And know that I firmly believe in an afterlife.  If there is no afterlife, then I would still be at peace.  Don't hang on to me, hang on to my memory.

Ok, now that I am dead.  My sisters can divide my property as they see fit.  The stuff they don't want they can sell and give the proceeds to a charity or help someone finish school.  I want to be cremated and my sisters can do whatever they want to do with my ashes.  I would like to have a service of rememberance about three or four weeks after my death. So that everyone who wants to can attend. I would like to have a Unitarian-Universalist minister preside over my service.  Under no circumstance is a New Thought minister or a Christian minister to be allowed to be apart of the service.  I want to have psalm 121 read at my service.  I also want the Soul II Soul song "Keep on Moving" played at  the end.  I would also like to have family and friends share memories of me, if they want to.  Beyond that, my sisters can set up the service as they see fit.  Then everyone go out and "Keep on Moving".


The above is not legal.  But I hope my wishes will be honored as far as  possible.   This will do until I take  the proper legal steps.

Marvin Scott Edmonds
AKA Enoch327

My Ideal Day as a Minister

12 to 5 am sleep.
5 to 6:30  coffee, exercise, shower, dress, news
6:30 to 7 meditation
7 to 7:55 coffee, breakfast, planning
7:55 to 8 walk down the hall to my office.
8 to 12 noon  Closed office hours.  Study,  research, prepare sermons, etc.
12 noon to 1 pm.  light lunch, 15 minute nap, news update, etc.
1 to 5 Open office hours.  Meetings, counseling, being a chaplain, etc.
5 to 5:05  walk down the hall to my living quarters.
5:05 to 6 pm chores, prepare supper.
6 to 9  eat, TV, computer time, etc.
9 to 10 read.
10pm to 12  midnight. meditate and sleep.

I also want to block out time for one or two Toastmasters meetings a week.  Want to be a part of one energy healing circle a week. And of course being in Wed. night and Sun. morning services at church.  Would love to eat out twice a week.  Pretty boring, but that is how I want to order my life.

Holons are us.

     I am still not achieving my goals.  How many holons do I have to go thru?  I wanted to move to California.   I did the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical work and I still don't live there.  And I don't live there yet.  Why?
   There is the holon of myself.   Conciously I can affirm something and my deep mind can sabotage it.  There are parts of me that want to   move to California, parts of me are upset because I failed in Texas.  Texas beat me and I am a horrible loser.  So I need to align all the parts, all the selves.
     There is the holon of my family.  What are our obliagations to each other?  There is alot of tangled energy there that we need to sort out.   The success there has been marginal at best.  Again, I have more work to do.  
     There is the holon of Texas.  I was not welcomed here.  Not by employers and not by churches.  Not by the economy.  Not by the weather and climate.  And yet I was told it was my fault.  Either by sin or by negative thinking.  So when I agreed that Texas was my fault, no one wanted to help me move back to Georgia.  It was as if Texas needed me to repair the damage I had so called created.  I don't understand why the holon of Texas needs people here against their will. Again more work for me.
     The holon of Georgia.  The place I never wanted to leave.  Until the ministers started guilt tripping me.  You know you can't be a decent minister if your family is divided.  Make peace with your family and your ministry willl come together.  I did and it didn't.  Instead I have lost 2 family members and my ministry is no where to be found.
      There is the holon of California.  No place to stay there and no job.  You need 15 grand to make that move.  Puzzling. 
     There is the holon of religiion.  I have been told so many contradictory things that I don't even know what to believe anymmore.  Jesus told me to move to Texas, no he didn't.  Then Jesus wants me to leave Texas, no he doesn't.  So Jesus wants me to leave and stay.  Maybe I should pitch a tent stratling the border.  Religious Science told me I could have anything I wanted.  I want to leave Texas, oh you can't have that.  Do a science of mind treatment one time and it will come to pass.  No it didn't.  Very strange.
    I don't understand the holon of Earth.  How it all works.  What to expect and what expectations are unrealistic.  What my place is.  What my role is.  How much I should contribute and how much I should rely on the Universe.  
     All of this leads me back to the holon of psychology.   The serenity prayer and a question from the Course in Miracles.  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  From the Course in Miracles "What is my part in it?"   Hopefully, I can figure it all out before the final buzzer sounds.

Enoch

  

Music for the MLK Memorial Dedication

Here's the music I would select for the ceremony. 
1.  "America" performed by Marian Anderson
2.  "Precious Lord" performed by Elvis Presley.
3.  "We Shall Overcome" performed by the Morehouse Glee Club
4.  "Imagine" by John Lennon
5. "Dreaming" by Selena
6. "Reach" by Gloria Estefan
7.  "Impossible Dream" by Luther Vandross
8.  "Ain't No Stopping Us Now " Mcfadden and Whitehead
9  "Keep on Moving" by Soul II Soul
10. "Pride in the Name of Love"  by U2.

Four Acres and no Mule; Mlk Memorial Dedication

We are here today to dedicate four acres and no mule to the memory, message, and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Four acres doesn't seem like enough.  Four acres doesn't equal the impact this man had. Seems like he deserves more real estate.
    And I said "No Mule".  The freed slaves were promised a mule once they got their freedom.  That promise was broken too.  But Dr. King got his mule or to be more precise two mules.  The mules that pulled the wagon that bore his coffin during the funeral procession.  I was thinking why two?  Why not one or four?  Then I remembered two is the most common configuration for plowing or pulling a wagon.  It is also the most common configuration for training mules.  A young mule is paired with an old mule.  The young mule gets wisdom and calmness from the old mule.  The old mule gets enthusiasm and energy from the young mule.
    Now, looking around here I see alot of old people.  None I would call mules.  Well, except for one.  I will call Andrew Young an old mule.  You see he was hit in the head and he got back up and kept going.  Just like an old mule.  Is that not stubborn?  Is that not tenacious?  Is that not determined?  Yes, some have gotten hit in the head and gotten knocked down.  But they got back up and they kept going.  They did what we have to do.  We have to turn our tears into tenacity.  We have to turn our disappointments into determination.  We have to turn our heartache into hardwork.   Sometimes we have to harness ourselves, just like a working mule. 
     And we have to mentor the young people, just like a training team of mules.  I'm afraid that the young people are not appreciating the commitment and sacrifices made during the civil rights movement.  Which is ongoing, by the way.  There is so much left to do.  So much Dr. King would be doing if he were here. 
      I said four acres is not enough.  It is not enough that streets, and parks, and buildings are are named for Dr. King.  NO SIR.  I say it is not enough.  There is more real esate I want dedicated to Dr. King. I want the real estate between our ears and between our shoulder blades dedicated to Dr. King.  I want our hands dedicated to Dr. King.  For there is much left to do.
      Dr. King ministered in two churches.  Dexter Street Baptist  Church in Montgomery  and Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Dexter means "right"and Ebenezer means "stone of help".  We have before us a stone of hope hewn from a mountain of despair.  And I say it is not enough.  The "right" thing to do is to turn that stone of hope into a stone of help.  It can't be done for us here.  We have to do it out there.  In the streets and fields and buildings all across our land. And all around the world.
     Let me conclude. We need to form a mule train.  For we have work to do.  Just like the Poor People's Campaign.  We need to become Drum Majors for peace, justice, and righteousness.  We need to become ministers of hope and help.  What would Dr. King expect?  He would want us to move.  For his sake and memory, let us build that world that he could only dream about. Let's do it now. Thankyou.