RECASTING THIS JOURNAL

I think I'm going to recast, even retitle this journal, use it to record my
searchings and take it private, for now. I'd probably let Lisa know about
it. And some entries may end up in the public journal. I guess this will be
my "Book of Shadows" It needs a different name I think, because for now I'm
trying to work within the tradition I grew up with. After I've become more
familiar with some of the mystics and the works of Fox, Merton and the
others I'm reading now, we'll see. I'm either moving into the mystical
stream of the Christian tributary of the river of faith or I've always been
there and just didn't realize it.

There are things that I need to write down to get them straight in my mind
but I may not want to share that process until it makes sense, even to me.
It may be a place where I can take a topic, chew on it perhaps recast it so
I understand and then go on.

What I think I understand from the little I've read in Hedge Witch is this.
An honorable practitioner of the Craft may ask for a healing or that
enlightenment be bestowed but shouldn't phrase the request in such a way
that infringes on the autonomy of others. It may very well work this way in
Christianity or Judaism too. I may know of someone very ill and pray for
them. Perhaps the best outcome for that person is a physical healing. But,
it may be that the best result is not physical, but spiritual healing so
that they are ready to move on. If the sick person does not receive physical
healing it doesn't mean that our prayers weren't answered. Just that what we
asked for wasn't the best answer.

I may believe that certain people need a "divine" boot in the ass. But, I
can't specify how, where, when, or in what way the Creator "enlightens" him,
her or them. My vision of how someone needs to be healed or enlightened may
not be the best answer for that person. It may be that I need the
enlightenment or the healing more than they do. I can ask in all humility
that whoever needs it gets it and add whatever strength I have to the task.
As here, everywhere. Or, as Tevya says "from your mouth to God's ear."

Each of us is like a tiny rivulet, the rivulet runs into a small stream,
then a larger stream. The streams get larger and larger until they join the
great river. Aquinas described faith as an ocean, So imagine a great,
boundless ocean with many rivers running into it.