Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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Pastafarian . . I love that! And now I have another site to enjoy Lisa's pictures. Does anyone else want to join me at Lisa's yard poolside?
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I took these a week ago in Balboa Park here in San Diego...pool still too cool for swimming
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Thanks for all the cheery hellos!! SoCalLisa...you still post the most wonderful photos.
Sunflowers...yes change is a challenge and can lead you to the most wonderful places. Really, I think it was the big C that led to the big D. Gosh...I wonder what huge challenging "E" is out there to face next??? Maybe that stands for evacuation. As in selling and evacuating this overly large house of ours... That comes next summer, I think. Well, the sun is shining and the birds are singing... Off to do a short run, I think.
. Cheers!0 -
One step at a time....
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Lisa - thanks for the great photos - some of those stunning roses seem to be blazing from within.
CLC - thanks for remembering me - I still read this site but rarely post. I'm glad for you for your gift from the universe.
And a bit envious - I wondered what it's like to feel madly in love? It's been so long....LOL All the best. I miss this thread. Take care, all of you, and enjoy the spring.
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oh Flannelette, of course I remember you. You were one of the first people to respond to my first thread asking about being a uniboober.
and then I found you on this thread. And I knew you were wonderful. . Oh and by the way, being madly in love is like eating chocolate ice cream, with really good company. And a lot of laughs and smiles and warmth. And a feeling of whole ness. His name is Ed and he is the kindest person I've ever known. 0 -
Good for you
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YEAH, CLC! Once when asked about his religion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama answered: " My religion is kindness." My FAVORITE word. SO, so happy for you to have created this in your life. I honestly think when we're younger, we so underrate KINDNESS in our partners and our friends. Something about getting a wee bit older, shall we call it WISDOM, teaches us how basic, crucial, life enhancing Kindness is.
Also, asked about COMPASSION, HHthe Dalai Lama, said, "Compassion is hard work." We HAVE to work to create it, and I think might apply to kindness sometimes too. Both so important..starting with learning to be that way to ourselves, even if it does lead to D, it's gotta happen.
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Over the years I have come to the phrase " isn't it nice we all like different ideas" and things...otherwise the world would be a pretty dull place.
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Just thought I would hop in and say Hello to everyone! Hope you are all doing well!
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Woo - "I wondered if anyone ever came here. It use to be such an active board. Maybe we are become a majority and everyone has gone mainstream.
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I'm an atheist/nonbeliever who was diagnosed on May 6th and had a lumpectomy/sentinel node dissection on May 15th. Everyone has been sending me good vibes and wishes, not one person has said they'd pray for me, and I'm so grateful for that! <edit: some people have told me they are praying for me and that jesus has a plan for me and my cancer, and I just thanked them. They mean well.> Cancer is just another thing that more firmly cements my lack of belief in a god. Nice to meet you all!
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Cancer is indiscriminate. Whatever gets them through the night is alright but, for me it is science I put my faith in. Welcome Solacetea.
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Among the many things I learned from cancer, it was that whatever gets people through is what gets people through. For me it was following an inner journey of self-actualization. For others it is prayers. I saw so many women here at BCO struggle so hard with this disease and their belief in god got them through. I could only be glad something did. But I was also so grateful for this thread and several others that allowed me to connect with women (and men) that I understood and could relate to. Welcome to you Solacetea. As many often say, not a club you ever wanted to join, but welcome. I hope your surgery recovery is going smoothly. Claire
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Greetings to all, too. It's trying hard to be spring here, but yesterday morning was in the low 30s F with howling wind, today warmer but it just started to rain. and this is a major long holiday weekend. I watch CBS each morning and follow the horrible weather extremes across that tornado path and the fires in California & hope you're far from the fires, Lisa. and Sunflowers, I expect it's freezing there in the northeast except for the occasional extreme heatwave? with frost? I often think of ( and listen to) Neil Young -"look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970's.." 40 years ago folks! makes me sad.
Now with less concerns about the big C (though mammo's coming up yuk) I think more about the B's. Bees, that is. and Butterflies. My summer project is to establish a butterfly garden where I finally managed to KILL - yeah! a huge nasty patch of pampASS grass that is invasive and never should have been planted here in the first place. Used plain white vinegar (I'm not happy about Monsanto & Roundup either). and hope to go to the dump where milkweed flourishes and try to transplant that, though I hear it's not easy.
And though most of us here have different takes on What is Atheism - I'm still feeling decidedly spiritual, more so as i grow older, and just read Stephen Levine's One Year to live - and liked it very much. buoyed me up, as I figure for me, what I still would like to learn about (besides living) is dying. I tried to read Thich Nhat Han's No Death no Fear, but he's way too zen/taoist for me to grasp intuitively unless i had a good deal more practice.
so, that's enough blabbing but sorta making up for that fact that I almost never post on any thread any more, and miss what used to be an every day drop-in...kinda family but since we mostly seem agreeable to the idea of agreeing not to disagree, we all then carry on - most of us well past the scarier early times.....
oh yes, not one person said they'd pray for me, either, but they did give hugs & good heart-vibes - we don't seem to be overrun with Bible belts here - they're all packed into the USA. well ..some day I'll tell the story of my car trip to Colorado Springs to the home of the super duper evangelical Pathfinders. The land around there is gorgeous!
Now the sun's out again - yea spring!
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Okay, so I just said to each his own and have said in the past that I don't mind if someone says they will pray for me as I think they feel it is the only thing they can do to support me. BUT today while on the phone with my religious sister she told me that the church she was attending were praying for me at every Sunday service.
I don't know why but it pis--d me off. I think she knew it did and so I changed the subject. I know she is hurting and needs this to make her feel like she has some control but It just seems so corporately invasive, especially since she knows my beliefs.
Rant over.
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Flannelette, your post about spirituality made me think of something I just saw recently. It is a wonderful Thai commercial (for insurance...but that is irrelevant)... I hope the link works... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZGghmwUcbQ
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CLC - the journey to self-actualization, a life long journey, and so many have inspired me on my own journey. There is a quote from WH Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Journey:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one
elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would
never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the
decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and
meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would
have come his way. "(and he ends with a quote from Goethe, which many have mistakenly attributed to Murray, but in the original, he say he has a great respect for the following quote from Goethe)
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”----------------------
My journey has always been toward wholeness, and healing, emotional, psychological and now much more physical too.
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Hi All,
I found this thread a couple weeks ago, but didn't post. I just finished 9 months of treatment. I became an atheist about a year before getting bc and have pretty much been in the closet about my beliefs with my friends and family because most of them believe so differently. As a result, I get a lot of "I'm praying for you." I just smile and say "thank you." I do go the a couple atheists meetings in my area that I found through MeetUp. It's nice to find a group here that I don't have to feel in the closet about my beliefs. I do think that having bc has really pushed me on a path of self-actualization. That's the kind of thing I'm interested in exploring.
Wishing everyone a wonderful day.
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Thanks, CLC the link worked and I loved it. I particularly loved it when the guy gives the homeless dog TWO drumsticks! I'll go back to this lovely ad to give myself a hit of happiness when I feel down, I think.
Kindness is my religion, answered the Dalai Lama. About self-actualization - the bee is here to be a bee, the tree is here to be a tree - sorry for the silly rhyming - and we are here to be - we. When I think about self-actualization, and religion, it occurs to me that religion would give you a prescribed path, which might inhibit self-actualization. Probably most religions derive from the real thing from those who were highly self-actualized, reaching the peak as it were - thinking Jesus, the Buddha, saints and mystics, shamans....the trouble came when the cover versions took over in an attempt to replicate or provide a system for getting there, and we forgot that self actualization is SELF actualization....very good to have a model, but in the end you have to do it yourself, and be yourself. Being Jesus or Buddha or a zen master or even yourself is very hard work, it seems to me. But so worth it. thanks for reminding us, CLC and Sunflowers. And greeting to new people on the thread.
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Oh my. You women are so wonderful. It is great to have come back.
Sunflowers, wonderful quote. Makes me so glad you are in your hills, in the time for poetry and art. And that you are here to share it with us. I find myself at the threshold of Goethe's quote and it is inspiring to read it as I step across that threshold.
Flannelette, I love your metaphor of religious path as a cover. Cover tunes can be enjoyable, but certainly are not from the self. Thank you for that. I am glad you enjoyed the ad. I cried through it, I loved it so much.
Welcome, simplelife4real. You've found a wonderful group of folks here.
Have a splendid day, all!
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Sunflowers,
Actually, it doesn't appear that Goethe is the source of the quote, although Murray apparently thought he was (see http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth12.htm
A more reliable Goethe quote that's appropriate for this forum is:
Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis;
Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
All that is perishable is but an allegory;
The Eternal Feminine draws us on.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Act 5, “Heaven.” Final lines of the play.)0 -
carpe diem: fascinating! I was given the excerpt from WH Murray in 1981. It was "circulated" ( remember this was w-a-a-a-y b4 home computers) by what I used to call the "Xerox underground" - it was used by the est network in London, but may have originated with est in the States. Fast forward, and what we now call the "human potential movement" picked it up, and it became part of the zeitgeist.
I am fascinated by how technology has kept so much of all this alive, and still moving.
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Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis;
Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
All that is perishable is but an allegory;
The Eternal Feminine draws us on.0 -
All that is perishable is but an allegory;
The Eternal Feminine draws us on.So, what is the eternal feminine? how we might see it in modern times? the intuitive/creative/non-linear aspect of our psyches? or some outer force around us that is the Eternal Feminine? an aspect of the universe? What about the first line? Isn't everything perishable?
In the meantime, back to easier stuff: I've been reading Stephen Levine's (he's worked for decades with dying people) A Year to Live and cam upon this lovely bit about atheists: "I have seen even those who have long since abjured god die in grace. In fact, there is nothing more beautiful than an atheist with an open heart. Atheists don't use their dying to bargain for a better seat at the table; indeed they may not even believe supper is being served. They are not storing up "merit". They just smile because their heart is ripe. They are kind for no particular reason; they just love."
I thought that was just so sweet. going for mammo today, ick. gotta shore myself up.
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flannelette, I hope your mammo is non-eventful, totally boring.
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I don't post often but have been reading this for some time. I love the quote flannelette posted, especially the last line--"They are kind for no particular reason; they just love." I wish everyone was kind for no particular reason.
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Lovely, flannel, thank you. Happy BORING mammo.
Eternal Feminine. Good reading: Helen Luke, Barbara Hannah, and am now reading Helen Luke's Old Age. Yes, they were all women who studied with Carl Jung, so might as well add Maria Von Franz, and June Singer to my list ;-)
Helen Luke started Three Apple Farm ( think was the name, in MN) and my favorite of her works is: Such Stuff as Dreams are Made on.
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Flannelette- I hope your mammo was uneventful and boring. I loved the quote, too.
Today, I showed my students the film I linked before. They loved it.
May kindness reign for us all. 0 -
flannelette,Wishes for a boring mammogram.
Here's a little something about living:
"The non-doing of any evil,
the performance of what's skillful,
the cleansing of one's own mind:
this is the teaching
of the Awakened."and this about life and dying:
"See it as a bubble,
see it as a mirage:
one who regards the world this way
the King of Death doesn't see."0
