dressing well in church and hypocritic behaviors

I wasn't raised in a family that went to church or took part in any real religious activities.  But one thing I noticed through my more recent years past is that people have stopped dressing up for church on Sundays.  What has happened and what has changed in people that has led them to take away from the traditions that were set forth so many years ago?  In retrospect, I never wore jeans to church, but I remember seeing others do this.

The other thing I noticed is that people, in general, attend church on Sundays, but then the second they step out of those tall wooden doors the opinionated, judgmental, narrow minded, self righteous, self absorbed mind-set fills the same walls of their heads as the will to sing praise to their Lord with a promise to live and walk the path He has set forth.

Faith and belief begin with ourselves.  If people are executing hypocrisy so well, then they are cheating no one but themselves. 

if we had buttons to control and change our lives

Have you ever wanted to delete or hit the backspace key in life?  Or hit the "easy button" like in that commercial.  If only it were that simple. 

 If only the dishes washed themselves, the dog could walk himself, the cat could clean his own litter--or better yet, use the toilet and flush!

Just call me a dreamer of the most unrealistic.

Support comes in the most unusual and unexpected packages

Little did I know what I was getting into simply by answering the phone at work.  "My thesis is overdue and I can't fix the formatting, and I need help... oh, my name is Sharon, and I'll be there in 10 minutes."  All I say is, it'll be okay Sharon, just email it to the store and everything will be okay.  Forty-three pages and forty minutes of a thesis later, and everything was fixed... formatting--spacing, margins, tabs, spelling, bolding, underlining, everything that I could do... and then... "thank you, you don't know what you just did for me".

But I knew... I knew what I did because I know how important these ideas, thoughts, and work is to a writer.  It's my job to be there for my customers, but it's my passion to be there for fellow writers.

The tip of the iceberg though was bumping into her again yesterday.  She looked at me and said "I got my thesis in, and they loved it.  And I get to graduate now!"  It's instances like that, that make me feel that I'm going in the right direction.

She told me that I'm wasted working in retail, but I told her that I don't feel that way.  I am surrounding myself with people and I still have my time to write and create.  I get the best of both worlds!  Everything in life is a progression.  Slowly moving into retail management, and slowly writing my fiction.  It's exciting and fulfilling and amazing and anticipating the day that I can yell "I'm finished!".

putting everything else first

More often than I'd like, I procrastinate and preoccupy myself with everything else but writing.  I wonder why I constantly put it on the back burner.  Maybe it's because I'm so used to putting my passion last instead of first--where it actually should be.

Warning labels and cautionary tales

I never really thought about the warning labels and cautions printed and tagged on various products and items we come across in our day to day living.  And then I heard someone talk about these warnings, and comparison to stories in the bible.  To think that these warnings exist because someone actually did or experienced these things.

Warning on a cup of coffee: Caution contents hot.
Warning on an iron: Do not iron your clothes while you are wearing them.
Warning on a blanket: Not to be used as protection from a tornado.
Warning on a superman cape: Cape does not enable user to fly.
Warning on a microwave oven: Do not use for drying your pets.
Warning on a sun-shield for your windshield: Do not drive with sun-shield in place.

Of course, it's easy to think that they were crazy to have made those choices or mistakes... but it is their mistakes and their choices that stop the rest of us from doing the same thing(s).

faith and religion

Growing up in a household that was half Greek Orthodox and half Jewish Traditional and Modern was so difficult, although my parents thought they made it easy.  I was baptized in a Greek church, and was given a cross by my godparents, however, was never allowed to wear it.  My parents told me that they made the decision not to push me one way or another for my religion.

Just as my parents divorced, when I was eight years old, I was invited to a church day camp where we learned about books of the bible.  I even went through accepting jesus christ into my heart... but then never told anyone in my family what I had done.

We had always celebrated Christmas by putting up the tree, decorating it, hanging wreaths and stockings, and cooking tasty food all season.  We would drive around different neighborhoods and look at all the Christmas lights twinkling and tell each other which ones were our favorites.

In middle school I decided that I wanted to sing with the choir and I went to my individual tryout, just me, the choir mistress Mrs. Walker, and a little keyboard in a soundproof room singing Star Spangled Banner.  My favorite part was singing Christmas carols because we went to all of the nursing homes in the area and sang for everyone.  There was something about singing religious christmas carols that was uplifting.

Then during junior high and high school, I didn't really have a religious or spiritual outlet.  Then in college, I got really active with fellowship and attending church.  I really enjoyed belonging to a non-denominational church.  I even went to church on Wednesday nights when I studied abroad because I didn't want to lose my spiritual tie while I was so far away from home.

The uncertainty with my beliefs is that I don't simply follow one of the many many Christian religions out there.  I believe in karma and fate, freewill and having faith in myself and others close to me.  I believe that the Bible is a really amazing compilation of stories that was put together to give each of us morals and values and examples of good and poor decisions and mistakes and of course, how to learn from them.

Growing up as I did without explanation of religion and spiritual faith, and set out to discover everything for myself, I could never pinpoint which way my faith would flow.  I've felt closest to God when there was no barrier in between... rain and clouds, whether in my head or in the sky.

Above all else, it's close to my heart that my belief and faith in myself is the drive from faith in God and destiny.  I'm still on my spiritual journey... still on my walk with God.  It's just taking a longer walk filled with smaller steps.

You're not cut out for this kind of work; and you don't have what it takes.  Have something to fall back on in case you don't get what you want.  Don't even bother thinking that the person who says that to you is right because they don't see the drive, the will, and the passion behind what you are doing.  It's a mindset that sets apart from everyone else out there.  Believing what negative verbiage someone has to say is a voyage to self destruction. 

Writing is my passion, and will always be...