recently we had a death in the family.
my little baby, my granddaughter died before she reached the age of 2.. i really loved that little girl.
this saddens me to no end.
Andy, I'm so sorry for the loss of your precious Granddaughter. My sincere sympathy to you and your family. Nothing is more heartbreaking then to lose a little one in death. I'm in tears as I read your post, I have a 2 year old Grandson, they are so precious.
Hapgood
i remember growing up and thinking that there was no way i would have kids ......... why ???
....... because i did not want to raise them the way i was raised, in the borg.
i went through hell, why put a defenceless child through that.
The Watchtower defiantly influenced our decision to have children. I came into the lie "truth" during the 1975 debacle when the end was "oh so soon! " At first it was the fear of Armageddon and putting children through the horrors that were soon going to come upon us all. Plus we reasoned, it would be better to wait until the new system and raise them on a paradise earth. Yes, I truly believed all this. But, we had a daughter in 1980, I was told "she will never start school."
After we had our daughter, I would liked to have had more children, but about this time I was having trouble "spiritually". I think I was suffering mild depression and as a result I had a hard time making meetings, service, participating, so I was labeled "spiritually weak." My husband didn't think it was wise to have any more children with a wife that was "spiritually challenged". That still hurts
Hapgood
i've been thinking about the part at the dc on "beware the voice of strangers".
they mention three areas to watch: any dissenting talk against the organization, the internet and the media(as in newspapers, news-shows on tv, etc.).
there's been quite a bit of talk already on this board about the internet part of the talk.
I get to have the privilege of going next weekend to hear all this garbage wonderful spiritual food. While they are mentioning those that talk against the organization, I'm sure that I'll be getting lots of sideways glances from my hubby to see my reaction to what is being said. I just hope that I can keep a straight face.
Thanks to all of you that have given your assembly report, at least I know what to expect.
Hapgood
are right fess up people.
how many of us went in field service and placed literature without even opening the covers ?, let alone reading the articles.. how about following up on a return visit for a magazine you never read ?.
i have to admit, i did it many many times.. maybe we should of went into the used car business.
If anything I would skim through the mags on the way to the Kingdom Hall (if I wasn't driving ). I would usually feature the Awake basing my presentation on whatever was on the cover. I was too embarrassed to admit this when I was a JW (have to keep up appearances), I thought everyone else was always so prepared for field service, but in reality I guess not.
Welcome smurfette!
Hapgood
cat that is.
picture of my cat.
please show me yours.
Avengers, very cute cat, thanks for sharing his picture. Do you only have one? Cats seem to be like chocolate, it seems that you have to have more then one. I have 3 cats, soon to be two. My calico girl has cancer, but still doing ok for now, took her to the vet two weeks ago to be checked, the vet said she has a couple of months left, maybe. I just lost my sweet old guy in April to kidney disease. It hasn't been a good cat year for me.
Hapgood
i find all the different aliases people use on here to be pretty entertaining.. what does your name mean to you?
why did you choose it?.
i assume teenyuck, for example = tina spoke by a young child.
Hapgood is a character from the Broadway play "Anyone Can Whistle." My favorite actor played Hapgood in an AIDS charity remake of the play in 1995. I looked up some information about the play on the Internet and found that the meaning that they gave to the name Hapgood is "questions traditional assumptions and beliefs." I figured that really fit me, that's exactly what I've been doing. I have the CD of this play (the 1995 version) and the music is fantastic. One song in particular I can really relate to is entitled "Everybody Says Don't", like in don't look up Apostate stuff on the Internet.
Hapgood
for those of you who remained christians after leaving the wts... do you attend a church or bible study group?
what kind, and why?.
(i apologize if this subject has been done before... i couldn't find it in the archives.
I consider myself a Christian, I've been reading the Bible without the JW interpretation, keeping an open mind, I'm really enjoy that. I haven't yet gone to a Chruch. But I'm considering going to the Episcopal Church with my Mom, I've heard some good things about that religion. The only problem with going to another Church is I'm not DA or DF, and my husband is still an attive JW, that would cause some problems.
Hapgood
one of many ways to experience a slice of island culture, the lu'au (loo-ow) is a hawaiian tradition: a feast to celebrate accomplishments, honor important people and commemorate great events.
in old hawai'i it was a time to pay homage to ancestral gods with song, dance and offerings of food, a grand celebration that sometimes lasted for days.. .
lu'au description taken from hawaii.com.
I showed this article to my jw husband when I informed him that I was attending my Mom's birthday party.
Hapgood
i was thinking back to the time when i was in my "spiritual paradise" oh about 7 months ago and i can really remember just how unhappy most people really were.
most seemed so loaded down with "privledges" and "responsiblilities" that it just sucked the life out of them.
any spirit they may previously had had faded to mere a shell of their former selves.
I was always just a marginal publisher, never pioneered, I hated field service. I would sometimes get panic attacks out in service, service was very hard for me, I'm a shy person by nature. Before leaving for good I suffered from mild depression that was caused from being a jw, leaving cleared that up. My self confidence at that time was at such a low point that I had trouble doing simple things. I felt like I was never good enough, I figured I would just die at Armageddon (along with my wordly family). So, when I found out the truth about the "truth" it was a relief.
Hapgood
coming at this as a householder rather than an ex-jw, i'd love to hear from any of you about comments from householders that made an impression on you, back when you were active in the door-to-door work.
since the jw's first knocked at my door 13 years ago, i've done my best to give them something to think about every time they knock at my door.
i always introduce myself by name and try to get their names.
On a beautiful sunny warm summer day, at the next house I was assigned to, was a man working in his flower garden. It was a beautiful garden, and you could tell he really enjoyed working in it. So, I started on some spiel about the wonderful promise of living forever on a paradise earth blah blah blah, proud of myself how I used a topic that fit this person. He just listened politely, he let me finish. Then he said "I feel sorry for you." I don't know, but those few words had an impact on me, he could probably sense that my heart wasn't in it, and I didn't know it at the time, but my heart wasn't. So simple really, but those few words made me think.
Hapgood
