Marilyn

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Posts by Marilyn

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  12

  The wedding

  by animal in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some of you know i was asked by friends to perform (officiate) thier wedding.

  since it is a lawful but not legal wedding, i said sure.

  we did this "pagan" wedding on june 21st in california.. i took my harley and my son drove our van, while the girls took turns riding with me.

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  Marilyn

  Animal, I enjoyed this post.

  Marilyn
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  42

  What do you do for work and play?

  by roybatty in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  im just wondering what kind of work people who post here do.

  i believe amazing is a mechanical engineer (like me), xena is an office manager and you know washes windows.

  and when youre not working, what does everyone do with their free time now that they dont have to knock on doors when the weekend rolls around.

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  Marilyn

  I don't work. I became a dub around the time I should have been educated and when I became a dub I went pioneering. Lucky for me I married a clever cloggs whose income has been sufficient to keep me in the manner to which I've become accustomed. I live part time in Australia and part time in Hong Kong were clever cloggs works. I divide my time between the two places because my adult kids are still at home and I feel they need emotional support still. (this is the Chinese way - but I'm not Chinese, I just admire their habits). Am trying to down size our house so I can spend more time in Hong Kong.

  I fill my days with house & garden stuff and I swim 1.5 kilometres every other day and walk for 45 minutes on the days I don't swim. In Hong Kong we socialise a lot - but in Australia I don't tend to as much. I'm quite content with my lot in life. If I were a Christian I'd say I've been blessed.

  Marilyn
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  20

  Being Spiritual, What Is It?

  by larc in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  being spiritual, what is it?

  that title looks like a watchtower article, doesn't it?

  i raise this question after reading a recent thread, regarding what people believe now that they are no longer a witness.

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  Marilyn

  I've come to the fairly uneducated conclusion that Americans have a different understanding of spirituality to Australians. I base this on a research study of one. Me and the flight attendant I got talking to on a flight back from the US one time. She told me I was a spiritual person and although I was flattered by this comment, for some strange reason, I didn't really think it was true. I like to talk about spiritual things but I never progress to any form of belief.

  In fact my whole family were never spiritual people. We had shown no interest in religion or church until the JWs came knocking. My mother thought my brother and I were little heathens so she arranged a *Bible study* with them - if you call giggling for an hour over the Paradise book a Bible study. Eventually my whole family got ropped into dubdom. But IMO my dub family are still not spiritual people. They do all the dub stuff, but somehow they lack the real spirit you see in certain people.

  I have met some people who exude spirituality. I don't know what it is or where it comes from. It's weird.

  Marilyn
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  10

  Today is My Daughers Birthday

  by Undecided in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my youngest daughter is 25 years old today.

  my wife fixed dinner, made a cake and we fixed ice cream.

  we got her a present or two and just enjoyed her company.

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  Marilyn

  KEN, KEN, KEN, KEN, KEN! Guess what? it's my daughters 25th today too. Only we are in Australia and it's the 24th of June. But still, how close is that? When did you leave the troof? I left when our daugher was 3 yrs old. Sooooooooooo glad.

  Marilyn
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  11

  the truth, the whole truth &nothing but the...

  by Marilyn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm sure we all believed that we were members of the only true religion.

  we knew that other people believed they had the true religion, but we knew they were wrong because we had the true religion.

  all other religions doctrines were mind shatteringly wrong and ours were brilliantly clear and overwhelmingly right.

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  Marilyn

  :::::::::::::By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

  Shame on me for not knowing that one. Actually it was a key scripture in my leaving. I didn't know it was John. I took this scripture very literally. Our congregation members were constantly at each other throats, and my dub family was no exception. One day I decided that dubs didn't fit the fulfilment of "all men will know you are my disciples". Not even close.

  Ken: sorry to hear you were so bored last nite. I feel a bit the same way today - Sunday arvo.

  Marilyn
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  11

  the truth, the whole truth &nothing but the...

  by Marilyn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm sure we all believed that we were members of the only true religion.

  we knew that other people believed they had the true religion, but we knew they were wrong because we had the true religion.

  all other religions doctrines were mind shatteringly wrong and ours were brilliantly clear and overwhelmingly right.

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  Marilyn

  Dakota I wouldn't presume to councel a brother! But you should have read out the scripture from John 13 34 35 coz I dunno what it says. (been out over 20 yrs). I am unable to believe in God - even though I've tried, I just can't. BUT if I were to believe then the most logical belief to me would be as you describe. Good people, living peacefully, and harming noone.

  Joeshmoe, I remember when a worldling said to me that it was very unhealthy having every JW sitting in a KH agreeing with everything that was said. I refused to take it on board at the time, but later when I started thinking for myself I remembered his comments very clearly. It is most unhealthy to have no opposing viewpoints open for debate.

  Btw I know a Mormon who is very much of the beliefthat she has the truth and no one else has it. It seems as strong a belief as dubs have.

  Marilyn
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  11

  the truth, the whole truth &nothing but the...

  by Marilyn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm sure we all believed that we were members of the only true religion.

  we knew that other people believed they had the true religion, but we knew they were wrong because we had the true religion.

  all other religions doctrines were mind shatteringly wrong and ours were brilliantly clear and overwhelmingly right.

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  Marilyn

  I'm sure we all believed that we were members of the ONLY true religion. We knew that other people believed they had the true religion, but we knew they were wrong because we had the true religion. All other religions doctrines were mind shatteringly wrong and ours were brilliantly clear and overwhelmingly right. I know you must have felt as I did, so superior to all the others, that there was no comparison. We had the truth. Sometimes I used to think how lucky I was, that I, just one person amongst millions, had found the truth. I tend to think this belief is exceptionally powerful amongst JW - even though it exists in other religions, it seems to be exceptionally prominent in the Witnesses. Isn't it this that keeps them going when some of the gloss wears off? No matter what argument is thrown at them, their starting point is: they have truth, so any adverse arguement, no matter how rational, HAS to be wrong.

  Do you think JWs are unique in this or are Mormons, Moonies et al just as bad?

  Marilyn
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  21

  Grateful we got out in time for our kids.....

  by LyinEyes in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i am so grateful that we got out of the borg for so many reasons.

  one of the main reasons are my kids.

  today they are having a bunch of friends over to have wrestling tournaments on our trampoline.

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  Marilyn

  When our first child was born we thought she might need blood and we decided we'd let her have it. Just me and hubby knew about it. We kinda knew it was all over at that point but we muddled on for 2.5 yrs more until our second child was born. He was a shit of a baby and cried all the time - so it seemed sssssooooooooooo easy to stop the meetings fiasco at that point. We knew we didn't believe it and we knew we had to let go of the very bad habit of being JDubs coz we didn't want to mess up the lives of another generation. That was over 20 yrs ago. It has been so much easier raising a family with our own initiatives rather than complying with a bunch of nitwits.

  Marilyn
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  11

  I kinda feel out of tune with the board

  by Kingpawn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've read lots of the threads over the past months, and think i understand the board's "makeup" of people (and please correct me if i'm wrong).

  if i'm right, i might have a hard time relating to what the rest of you have gone through.. i became a jw in 1979 or so, and spent more time studying to be one than being one.

  i was df'ed a short time later, briefly went through an effort to rejoin, and called it off when my first child was born.

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  Marilyn

  One of the things that causes the most grief about leaving is the WT is them preventing your JW family from associating with you. Other wise I don't think I would have given a rats ass about them. It's not compulsary to feel bitter and twisted. I do - but then all my family are in and the Tower ruined my relationship with them. My mother has cancer now and I think of all the wasted years she lost to a scam.

  Marilyn
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  17

  Do Your Emotions Come Back When You Leave a Cult?

  by D wiltshire in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do your emotions come back when you leave a cult?.

  i believe they do perhaps as gradually as they left.. i remember when i was 18 yrs old and first started becoming a jw that was 30 yrs ago and the one thing i remember is that i loved my worldly relatives and wanted so much for them to get saved and the emotional torture i went though thinking they were all going to die soon at armageddon.

  it was really hard to cope with the thought of them all being destroyed.. i work really hard not to think about it, and over time i started to view all my nonjw relatives as worthy of destruction at gods hands in order to have my thinking line up with gods.

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  Marilyn

  dantheman, my husband and I left together which probably helped somewhat. Plus

  our neighbours quickly invited us into their lives. We had 2 small children - another avenue

  for meeting people and my husbands work colleagues were a sociable lot. Having a

  social stucture to turn to helps very much.

  I have also changed countries a couple of times (since leaving the Org) and I know that

  all change takes about 2 yrs - especially if the change is very radical - maybe even

  longer. We had been loosing faith for a good three years before we 'down tools' and

  walked off the job. When we left we were VERY ready for change.

  So there weren't a lot of recriminations about whether we'd done the right thing. We were

  very sure we'd done the right thing.

  What aspect are you finding the most difficult? We didn't have the internet in 1981 nor

  had we met anyone apostates - so we had to sort out the spiritual stuff ourselves. Actually

  it was our commonsense that prevailed in the end - a kind of gut feeling that the whole

  thing was terribly flawed.

  I guess you are learning very fast from what you are reading here. So glad your family

  weren't in. I've had 20 yrs the shunning thing. :-(

  Marilyn. email me any time [email protected]