I work and contribute to Food Banks and Animal Shelters and visit Nursing Homes around holidays. I try to be a good and kind neighbor and I do some online teaching.
Ravyn
Posts by Ravyn
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18How do we make a difference now?
by Mr Lebowski inthose of us raised as jw's were taught that "it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step".
we were repeatedly told that without god, humans were incompetent and doomed to fail at any endeavour.. i personally believe that this teaching, that we as individuals do not make a difference, is possibly the largest doctrinal harm done to jw's, and one of the toughest to overcome.. so, for those of you who were raised in the wts and left, what do you choose to do now to make a difference in the world?
why did you pick that avenue - or why do you think you've waited up till now?.
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13
boy have I changed......
by Ravyn ini don't know if i am happy about it or sad..... .
i had a wonderful week end---no in-laws, and we went to a pagan pride festival on sunday.
first day i could get out of the house all summer.
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8
This truly baffles me
by robhic inhow can an organization... .
... that supposedly holds so dearly and so steadfastly to the teachings of a certain book (the bible) subvert and change that book?
isn't that not only hypocritical but heretical?
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Ravyn
Rob,
it was the Kingdom Interlinear's translation of Rev.9 and 10 that took me out of the Borg. What did they think no one would ever actually READ it, in their own publication?
see my deconversion story for more detail:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/9/49422/1.ashx
but after I left the Borg, I came to realize that the Bible is just a story book anyway, and it is not the crime I thought it was to tamper with it.....it is still a crime, but it is a historical crime, not a religious one to me.
Ravyn
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13
boy have I changed......
by Ravyn ini don't know if i am happy about it or sad..... .
i had a wonderful week end---no in-laws, and we went to a pagan pride festival on sunday.
first day i could get out of the house all summer.
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Ravyn
I don't know if I am happy about it or sad....
I had a wonderful week end---no in-laws, and we went to a Pagan Pride Festival on Sunday. First day I could get out of the house all Summer. It was nice, even tho we went after it was more than half over because of my limited stamina. Took my wheel chair, packed a gourmet picnic(cornish game hens in a curry apple sauce and cheeses and croissants with orange spice tea...), enjoyed the goreous 2 hour trip into the Shenandoah Valley, even brought tons of canned goods for the local Food Bank which was the admission price and some cat food too for the homeless familliars....
The festival was small time, but very pleasant, the band was OK, the drumming circle was better--the ritual was laughable but they get an "A" for effort....the vendors were all local--which was nice to know so many are in the area. The park it was in was absolutely beautiful, the lake sparkling, the bathrooms spotless and the atmosphere was safer than any DC I ever attended! People had their money boxes and purses right out in the open and left strollers with all their gear parked outside the pavillion where we all ate and listened to the band....but what do you expect from a bunch of third generation hippies and witches? Everyone knew everyone basically and if anything untoward happened I have a feeling the criminal would rather deal with the local cops than their peers...(hint--don't steal from a witch unless you know for sure that you are a better witch...)
Yesterday was a pleasant afterglow of the festival...listened to Lorena McKennitt, Chieftains, Waterboys, Irish Rovers, Enya CDs all day, read a little went online for while and talked to my sister, did a complete rosary(and even listened to my CD of the Pope doing it--he had a great voice when he was younger and healthier!) Lee worked very late yesterday--some road construction crew cut a main cable line...but he still stayed up and we talked spirituality for a couple of hours before we finally fell asleep.
This morning I had a series of short weird dreams...the only thing that I could idnetify as being reality based was the setting---each one was set in the background of something from my childhood...one with my sister, one with my long-gone Aunt Tillie and my mother, another one with my old bedroom in my old house ...and I woke up feeling ---I don't know---kinda sad. Definitely disturbed. So after I got Lee's breakfast and lunch and made sure he did not go to work in his PJs(and he would!) I went back to bed to try and erase some of the disturbance. But it only got worse. This time I dreamed of my old backyard and all my deceased pets and I dreamed Lee had another accident at work....I woke up disoriented only about an hour later. So I decided to get up and stay up.
The cats start bugging me about going out...they are inside cats but they have a cage, and since we moved here last February it has not been put together because the weather has not been nice enough. So I decided to do them a favor and put up the cage. I am trying to figure out how to fit it on the step where I can watch them, we don't have porch at this house and the cage is large. So I am out there, sweating in the warmth of direct sunlight--which is probably NOT a good idea for me--and I decide the only way I can fit it on the step is to put it in one corner where the hose is. So I move the hose. It is a big heavy stiff hose coiled in the corner. I scrap it across the rough concrete. And as I look down I see a horrible sight! A dear little lizard, who always sits on the window sill and teases the cats was under the hose and I crushed him! OMG! I am crying just typing this! I can't believe I was so careless and killed that sweet little lizard! he was so tiny and so fragile and so pretty and very friendly and I just squashed the life right out of his poor little body! I picked him up and tried to will life back into him, but I knew he was dead. His tail was ripped off and it was close to his body, so I know he couldn't recover. I feel so bad! How could I DO that? I was just talking to some iguanas at the festival and they were so alert and friendly to me...the boy who owned them said they liked me and that they do not try to 'taste'(lick) everyone--so I must be the Goddess to them...yeah well some Goddess! I was the Goddess of Death to that poor poor creature who was so natural and innocent! I took his little broken body down the steps and found a nice shady spot near the tomato plants and left him on the step, still hoping that maybe he was just in shock and would somehow recover....and as I sat him on the edge of the bottom step in the shade, I saw something sticking out of the ground in the tangles of the tomatoes...
I picked it up and it was a Venus Rising From The Waves piece that looked like it came from a birdbath or something...she was broken at the knees and lying face down and dirty. I brought her in to clean her up. I am not sure if the Goddess is telling me something or not. I left the slug (that was crawling on her) out by the lizard. I sprayed the step down with water to cool the concrete. But I know when I look again the lizard will still be there, lifeless.
I can't believe I am crying my eyes out about this! When I was a JW I would not have given a second thought to stepping on it in service if it happened to be on the step I was standing on! I even try to give spiders the benefit of the doubt now--even thought I really really do not like spiders. I left a huge one on the front door until it webbed us in and Lee got it with a broom.
Awakening SUCKS! (either that or it is menopause--in which case Cronage SUCKS!)
well looks like I am going to have a lizard funeral sometime today. The plaster Venus I found will have some part in the ritual I am sure, just dont know what yet.
Ravyn
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19
WATCHTOWER IS DUMBING DOWN
by integ infrom what i've noticed lately, the wts seems to be explaining everything away with a new approach; that of dumbing everything down to just a couple of key points in their everchanging, contradictory, edicts and doctrine.
they seem to be avoiding 'deeper' scriptural interpretations that invariably get them into trouble with people who actually don't take everything the fds say as absolute truth, and instead are feeding the rank and file and the "doubters" that dare question the changing doctrine, with a couple of what they feel are key "truths".. 1) who else is using god's name today?
2) who else are doing "god's work" of preaching the good news of the kingdom?.
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Ravyn
It was never recorded that Jesus ever used the name Jehovah.
so what is the big deal if JWs use the name of tribal Jewish God who's name has not been officially uttered by anyone for over 2000 years? Big deal. My God's name is Belatucadnos and my Goddess is Cathubodva. In my own private usage I have given them the nicknames: Tuck and Cath...why should I use Yahweh and Shekinah just because some old fool(Russell) didn't feel his own heritage was good enough and needed to be adopted by the Jewish Deity? (I think denying your own heritage is an offense to it and to the new one you adopt--why should the Jewish God accept a traitor?)
Ravyn
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10
Fundie vs New Age Test
by metatron inhow to tell a fundamentalist from a new age type.
pronounce the name "pilate".
(if as pil - la -tee = new age type).
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4
A new explanation for 'hauntings'?
by ignored_one inhttp://asia.reuters.com/newsarticle.jhtml?type=sciencenews&storyid=3401200
soundless music shown to produce weird sensations .
sun september 7, 2003 07:09 pm et .
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Ravyn
which came first the chicken or the egg?....
LOL--yes very scientific explanation for the human reaction to infrasound...but no explanation for where, what, how or who is making these sounds at 'hauntings'!......... not every haunting happens to be on windy stormy nights or during earthquakes(or among a bunch of elephants).
hmmmmmmm..............So there must be a source for this at the 'haunting'. People who study hauntings and ghosts already know they operate on frequencies outside of normal human ranges. So basically this is proof in the ghost-busters favor.
Ravyn
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119
Is Mankind Born Evil....or Good?
by Farkel inmany ancients including confucious and lao tzu took opposing views about this subject and their arguments are fascinating to read.
their arguments are nearly 2,500 years old.
the greeks also lively debated this question.. of course, as dubs (and in fact, in most christian faiths) we were taught that man was born inherently evil, and the quest is to overcome that and work towards the good.
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Ravyn
I believe in reincarnation and karma, altho not strictly in the eastern sense. I believe that the question of being born good or evil is one of karma now, but originally the first humans were neither, but had the potential for both. I do not believe in Original Sin. however I do believe that humans, as we are, were not intended to be created on this planet, but were a response to the material entrapment of spirits, and our humanness furnished a vehicle for salvation from this self-imposed condition. Sin being ignorance and Redemption being enlightenment. Enlightenment being the only thing that can free us from the matter so we can return to the spirit where we truly belong.
In which case Good and Evil would be the process. Verbs not Nouns.
Ravyn
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10
How do you feel when.....
by Dimples in....you read in the paper that one of the jw's you knew died and you are either disfellowshipped or disassociated?.
do you mourn all alone for them, do you send a card to the family anonymously, or do you just leave things alone?
i feel bad and wish i could do something but then i have to realize that i didn't shun them, they chose to shun me.
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Ravyn
a friend of mine went thru this and asked me the same question.
I asked her why she was still playing by JW rules....
she said she only wanted to be respectful of someone elses' beliefs...
I asked her IF she DID respect the beliefs of JWs...
she said NO!.... their beliefs were wrong and dangerous and an affront to God!
so then I asked her why she doesn't just send a sympathy card like anyone else on this planet would in the case of a death of someone who had once been a friend?
you have every right to send a card as they do to throw it away or read it. You don't have to send the card withthe motive of trying to comfort them so much as you can send it with the motive of honoring the memory of the beloved deceased. You have as much right to do that as anyone by virtue of the fact that you knew and loved them too.
at some point in all our lives we stop being an XJW and start being just a human who has had the experience of once being a JW....
Ravyn
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33
What do you miss the most not being a witness anymore?
by JH inis there anything that you miss, since you don't belong to the jw's anymore?
friendship, family, or maybe just the feeling of belonging to some groupe that had you dreaming of a better world?
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