Someday I'm Gonna Learn

Someday I will learn how to sit on my behind and do nothing.  

Really.  

Some people already have it down to a science.

This Land Is MY Land, This Land Is YOUR Land

Having just found and read a series of vignettes I wrote quite some time ago, together with the news I'm getting about people re-opening closed memorials in Washington and National Parks in Utah, made me remember something about one of the incidents of those vignettes that I did not include.  

It has to do with the hunting one.  

We wanted to hunt on public land but the only access was via someone's property.  Everyone told us to forget it, that they would never give us permission to go through.  

Well we went to them and told them that we were going hunting.  

Great!  Where are you going?  

Well, we have some property so we're going to go there.  

Where's it at?  

We explained that it's ours because we're American Citizens and that it's the land blocked by their access, so could they please let us through their land so we could go hunt on OUR OWN land?  

They said let us know how you do, okay?  

The point is that they recognized our right to have access to OUR OWN PROPERTY and didn't quibble about it or try to keep us out.  

Life Without Religion?

I just read a little something on Facebook about people being perfectly happy living without religion in their lives.

The first thought that popped into my head was "Well now, I guess it all depends on how you define 'religion', doesn't it?"

The second thought was "Just because they don't practice YOUR religion doesn't mean they aren't spiritual in the way they choose to live their lives."

It's my opinion that nobody can truly live their lives without God being a part of the whole.

God is the Creator.  God imbues the entire world with a Holy Presence, not?

Yes.

And so, those who don't actively follow any given 'religion' are still living their lives in the presence of God; if they say otherwise, their words are hollow and without meaning - if any say OF them that they are living outside of the presence of God, their words are just as hollow and a betrayal of the very Faith they claim to adhere to.

NONE of us live without God.

Life without organized religion, that's a different story.

A person can easily enough reject organized religion without rejecting God in the least little bit.  Even those who do 'reject' God cannot deny that there IS a God.

An atheist can say, 'There is no God.'
And I would ask that person, 'There is no WHAT?'
 'No God.'
 'Ah, I see.  You realize, don't you, that the very act of denying something is an acknowledgement of its existence?'
'No, it's not.'
'It is.  I could say to those around us, this person standing before me does not exist.
'They would look at me in astonishment because to them you are obviously an existing being.
'Someone would be certain to say to me, "How can you deny what you acknowledge by your own words - this person standing before me - to be real?"
'No matter how many times I say that you do not exist, still you DO exist.'
'That's different.'
'It is the same.  Were an entire nation unaware of your existence, and I were to flood that nation with notices that you do NOT exist, suddenly to them you WOULD exist because they would be aware of you and wonder why I am making such a fuss about denying your existence.  Would you have to go to that nation to prove your existence?  No.  They already believe that you exist, by the very act of my denial.'

Now there's some logic for you.

Faith is not a negotiable concept.

It lives in the souls of mankind.

It cannot be extirpated.

Writing Fiction Can Get to A Person

Actually, the writing part went pretty well for me.  

It's the sketches that are getting to me.  

A couple of them I put off doing until I couldn't put it off any longer - so tonight I HAD to do them.  

Sketching weapons into the hands of the character Sass in my story was one of the hardest things I've had to do and it was AWFUL!  

See, she's a healer in the story, dedicated to - well, to HEALING - all living things.  It's what she does, it's who she IS.  

But her people are attacked and so she must arm herself and go to battle, where she has to use spear and sword.  

Of all the characters in my story, Sass is the one most wounded by the battle, but of course she can't just leave the people who need her afterwards to go off and heal her inside self.

She has to do what she has to do, and she does it well.  

But putting those weapons into her hands, even though it was NECESSARY, still was very hard for me to do.  

I KNOW it's just a character in a work of fiction.  I know that.  And the rough sketches are done now so I can move on to others that still need to be done.  

Here's a helpful hint:

If you are INFJ and doing a writing/sketching project, do the ones you know will be hard for you to do FIRST.  

It doesn't get any easier, putting them off, and you may as well get them out of the way ASAP.  

Just sayin'.

One More Edit On The Written Part Of My Project

YAY!  

I'm not going to do the edit until next week so I'll have a few days to let it all settle and give myself a little space from it.  

Meanwhile ... I get to go back to the artwork with a clear conscience!  

This whole project has been fun and I'm already looking forward to using everything I've learned on the NEXT one!  

Nerve-wracking, I Tell You! Nerve-wracking! Fear Of Success ...

Never seriously drew people before in my life. 

Never. 

Ever. 

Now I'm doing the sketches for the project I'm working on, using the faces of my FAMILY for heaven's sake, and it's driving me crazy! 

I can kind of cope with the whole concept up to a point, and then I freak out. 

The weird thing is that they're beginning to actually look like the models; that scares me some. 

See, if I couldn't get ANY of them right I could just say oh well what the hell I guess I really CAN'T do this - and call it quits. 

The one I'm working on right now is Sass again - different pose, different medium - and I had to stop for a while because she's coming along just FINE! 

I know. 

That sounds bass-ackwards. 

Even so, that's the way it is. 

Fear of success is debilitating.

PRAY FOR PEACE

What with one thing and another, my prayer is that this day will pass in peace and that calm dignity will prevail. 

God bless us every one. 

Please PLEASE guide our leaders, whether they want You to or not, in the choices that must be made. 

Please God, can we not have just ONE day of peace? 

I am but one tiny molecule in the body of the world, but please hear this prayer and fill the spirits of ALL with peace, just for this one day.