Green Month

"One single can is of great importance, because 99 is not 100." Valter (wastelandmovie.com)

Because of the fact that Earth Day falls in April, I decided to make it Earth Month, (or Green Month, depending on what mood I'm in). I like trying to see how my actions affect the world around me. I listened to Green Living For Dummies to get some ideas.

By the way, Audible.com has a really great deal on audiobooks if you are interested in them. You pay a low fee monthly for credits which can be used to purchase the books, and you can cancel at any time. There are always great deals on them if you exceed your credits and want more, plus there are often sales that will put them as low as $5, even for a popular title.

Green Living for Dummies was interesting, but not terribly in-depth. What did I expect? It was however, short and sweet, which I appreciated. This month won't be bleeding into the next, because I managed to listen to it in about a week, hooray!

Spirituality Month Wrapped Up

It's certainly not spirituality month any longer,  but I'd like to go ahead and reflect on it.

First of all, my foray into church-going looks promising. My betrothed and I both enjoyed the church our friends attend and it seems to be a very non-judgmental atmosphere, so different from the one I knew growing up (which ultimately turned me off to it.) The first sermon was on the Sermon on the Mount - certainly not one I was unfamiliar with, but it impacted me in a positive way just the same. The next week we got to see some friends of ours share a very impactful testimony. Add to that, another one of our friends has a mom who likes to cook for everyone after church, and it will be hard to keep me from coming back again.

The Four Agreements ended up being really interesting and helpful. I still most like "Don't Take Anything Personally." You never know what other people are going through or what in the world may be motivating them to act the way they do toward you or anyone else. In the end, I was impressed with the level of awareness the book promoted, but felt it may be a tad on the detached side. I think there is still a very big place for kindness and generosity toward others that the book did not seem to promote. It was more of how to be at peace with yourself - but simply being at peace with yourself will not give you total peace.

April is Green Month, because of course April 22 is Earth Day. I will get into that more later!

Spirituality Month - Almost Over

Wow, these past couple of weeks have flown by! Everything has been peachy, but busy, and obviously I haven't been focusing enough on writing.
Good thing this month's theme is no longer "diligence", because I would have gotten an "F". Although I have faithfully listened to The God Delusion, now halfway through, I have completely lost interest. It made some very good logical points, and I appreciated the information, but it is much too heavy for my taste and I had a hard time following it in some parts. Although it hasn't changed my opinion on anything (in fact, it reinforces it in some instances), it did as I said before make some good points. The first being, believing in God is not logical. I always thought that it was. As a kid, I had a book that was called "It Couldn't Just Happen", and until recently I subscribed to that line of reasoning.

One of the main reasons I believed in God and a creator is that I saw the creation and didn't believe that it could have happened by chance. However, I now think that is a faulty line of logic. Think of the amazing features and workings of all the plants and animals, most times much more complicated than we as non-scientists could imagine. I used to think that since it couldn't have "just happened", that there must certainly be an intelligent creator. However, who among us could have designed all that? Isn't it just as unfathomable that there is someone out there who could dream it up and create it? Because you see, if the creation is unlikely, so much moreso must be the creator. In short, I realized that none of my reasons for believing in God are logical, and that is not why I do. Mr. Dawkins is an atheist, and gave reasons not to stay an agnostic forever - after all, there is convincing logical evidence that there is not a God. He ended up pushing me the other direction. I am completely, completely against religious and lifestlye intolerance, but I feel more confident now than I did a few weeks ago in God's existence. It's a faith thing, and nothing more - there is no sense in trying to logic it into something reasonable, because it isn't.

That's all I'm going to say on the subject, because I'm certainly not looking to get into a debate with anyone. But, that is what I got out of (half of) the book.

I have begun The Four Agreements, and let me tell you..... book is kooky. It's got some different ideas, for sure, but I'm very interesteed to read it.

I have not been wearing my "no complaining" bracelet, but, I have been mindful of my complaining, and I realized something: I don't really complain that much. I would much rather make an effort to be happy than make an effort to complain. I don't have a reference, but I know I have heard and even through personal experienced have realized that complaining only makes you feel worse.

I also plan to attend church this Sunday! And, I have continued to keep Facebook and Words With Friends off of my phone.

It's been a long week. I think allergies have been a problem for many, and believe it or not, I think I may still be feeling the effect of the time change!

Cheers!