CowPi Journal

See Ya

· Friday, 1 December 2006, 9 am

No one’s home here.

See you over at You, a prayerful conversation by an iHermit.

To Enter the Desert as an iHermit

· Sunday, 19 November 2006, 12 am

The old CowPi Journal is just shy of 800 entries, and I don’t have that much more to say in this format at this time and place. My energy has been elsewhere. The Quote of the Day will continue through the beginning of December and then it will be done at 1007 quotes (with only one repeat). The blogging system is getting overloaded, and I’m tired of adding to it. I do not know if I will return to this journal in the future. Both weblogs will remain online.

Silence and solitude is what I seek, to enter the desert to be with God, to learn deeply how to live awake in the Presence of God in the present moment. I cannot physically go to the desert. My vocation is to be a husband, father, friend, teacher, and I gladly continue to follow that call. No regrets, no burdens, no disappointments, for that is the path God called me to follow, whether I knew it or not at the time. It is a path that has made all the difference.

Besides cultivating silence inside and out, like turning off the car radio and limiting the amount of television, I have found that I often surf the internet out of boredom, or more honestly, for avoiding something somewhere else in my life. Worse, the internet has become full of noise, distractions from the one important thing. So I have chosen to isolate myself on the internet. I am going to become an iHermit, an internet hermit.

I have given up visiting, reading and commenting on weblogs, blogs, online journals, forums, list servers, etc. I still need to use the internet for resources and references for my job, yellow pages, maps, etc., and emails with job, family and friends. But not for anything else, except to write a new journal. I am going to seriously miss the few weblogs that I consistently read, but this call is too strong. It needs to be all or nothing for me at this point in time.

I am still called to write, but from a much deeper level. So I have created a space for solitude on the internet, a new journal called You. This is my place for prayerful reflection and writing. You are welcome to read along if it feeds you.

Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

And so, I prayerfully turn inward in order that I may turn outward as a more perfect reflection of You.

« πλ | Weblogging »

Love Walks In

· Friday, 17 November 2006, 3 pm

Contact is all it takes
To change your life to lose your place in time
Contact, asleep or awake
Coming around you may wake up to find
Questions deep within your eyes,
Now more than ever, you’ve realized

And then you sense a change, nothing feels the same
All your dreams are strange, Love comes walkin’ in
Some kind of alien, waits for the opening
Simply pulls a string

Another world, some other time
You lay your sanity on the line
Familiar faces, familiar sights
Reach back remember with all your might
Ooo there she stands in a silken gown
Silver lights shining down

And then you sense a change, nothing feels the same
All your dreams are strange, Love comes walkin’ in
Some kind of alien, waits for the opening
Simply pulls a string, Love comes walkin’ in

Oh, sleep and dream, that’s all I crave
I travel far across the Milky Way
To my master, I become a slave
Til we meet again some other day
Where silence speaks as loud as war
Earth returns to what it was before

And then you sense a change, nothing feels the same
All your dreams are strange, Love comes walkin’ in
Some kind of alien, waits for the opening
Simply pulls a string and Love comes walkin’ in

Love comes walkin’ in…

— Van Halen

« πλ | Song »

Recognize

· Friday, 17 November 2006, 5 am

Lately, when anger comes up I try to ask myself “What am I working so hard to protect or avoid?” Every time I ask this question and breathe instead of trying to run from or shut down the conflict, my anger eventually turns into compassion for myself and for my so-called “attacker” who most likely is defending one of his or her own hurt places. The words “I feel afraid or sad” come out more easily… our eyes go soft. We get to help each other heal.

— Annie O’Shaughnessy [via]

To recognize when the little me is upset and tries to control the real me is one step needed to wake up to the presence of God in the present moment.

« πλ | Quote »