Serious thinking going on...where the luster went

This morning the sun streamed into my bedroom, golden and bright. It seemed to carry with it a promise for a good day. Birds are singing, and the wind that had been creating such havoc around these parts had stilled. I love morning, although I am by no means "a lark". It's hard for me to get out of bed early, I would much rather sleep late and be a bit of a night owl.
As I lingered under the warmth of the covers for just a bit longer, I was thinking, serious thinking. Not long ago on my blog, I mentioned that I had learned a lot from Buddhist teachings. It's the truth. One book in particular by the Dalai Lama, "Healing Anger" has been immensely helpful to me. Not that I have ever had a problem with that fiery, screaming kind of anger, the loose your temper kind, but more that slow burning, go to bed thinking about how angry this or that made me. If you have ever seen acres of peat burning , its more like that, smoldering. Yes, yes, I know the Bible tells us to put away anger....but how ? No real practical instructions. Some will tell you "give it all to Jesus". Nice, but again, no instructions and that in itself reminds me of this past Thursday...I am departing here for a minute so bear with me, its to make a point that helps get me where I am going with this post.
I stopped at McDonalds for a cup of coffee while doing my food shopping. In front of me was this 60 something lady. It was evident right away that there was a staff shortage and the poor manager was working hard to keep everyone happy. I felt extreme sympathy and compassion for him. While in the line, the coffee pot was overflowing and spilling out everywhere. The woman in front of me was tapping the counter, breathing that deep sort of breath that everyone could hear and knew it meant, "well, what is wrong with you, I need to be waited on NOW !" Finally she opened up her hand, and flat palmed, banged on the counter, leaned over and yelled at the manager. It had been all of 3 minutes since she arrived at the counter. She was getting red in the face she was so angry. She openly and loudly scolded the young manager as if he was a 10 year old. He kept his calm and waited on her. As she was waiting for her food and I was standing next to her waiting for my coffee, a friend of hers came in the door. Here is a bit of their dialog, starting with her side of the conversation..."Oh sister Betty how good to see you, what a wonderful day, isn't God good"
her friend replied, "well Donna, its been a hard week, Harold was taken into the hospital and we are still waiting for test results to find out what the problem is" to this she replied, and to be honest I almost laughed when it came out of her mouth...."Betty, be patient, God wants us to trust in Him and wait with joy in our hearts". What meaningless chatter from this woman, words that sound so sweet but so far from her own actions. The young manager looked like he was going to throw up hearing her tell this other woman to wait with JOY in our hearts. I hoped he wasn't searching for God, this certainly would have set him back a few miles on the journey if he had been.
I know all the little phrases do not change us, it's a work we must do. I can give all my sins to God but unless I PRACTICE being kinder, less angry, it don't work ! We have to have a change in our hearts and actions. In looking for the "how to's" of dealing with my anger, I read the things to practice from the book by the Dalai Lama, wise words, nothing to do with worshipping Buddha, just practical advice on putting myself into the other persons shoes, in my mind changing places with them, imagining if they had lived my life and I had lived theirs, then I would react just like they did, well in doing that compassion springs up and anger doesn't live in a place filled with compassion. So through this books instructions I have been able to douse those smoldering fires. My in-laws are a constant thorn in my flesh ! So I have lots of opportunities to practice this. Now, in mentioning the word Buddhist on my blog, the very next day, more than a couple of bloggers removed my blog link from their blogs. Believe me that part doesn't bother me one bit, but it seems to totally off the wall that these same folks might be stitching up cute Easter Bunny crafts or have previously shared for a month all their Christmas decorations. You see, Christmas was rightfully designed to keep the pagan people happy, they could have their usual holiday but with a bit of a different application. Sort of like if you always had a huge 4th of July party every year for 100 years, people came from far and wide to your party. You could count on a huge attendance each year. Then you had a child that had a birthday in September, but no one remembered it, so you decided to celebrate their birthday on July 4th too, so that people would come to your Childs birthday party. Jesus was not born on December 25th. Its easy to figure that out, you just look at his uncles time in the temple, use old testament texts for that, then the time of Johns birth, knowing how far along Mary was when John was to be born etc etc. and its not December. So nothing could be more pagan than December 25th no matter how many times you say, "Jesus is the reason for the season". It ain't his birthday. Easter Bunny decorations and eggs are straight out of the pagan book. To me a bit worse than reading a book of wisdom from a Buddhist monk on the practical ways to calm anger. This post isn't really about "look who is calling the kettle black" well, it is a bit, but it's more about peoples fear, people that judge so lopsided. It's me just explaining why blogging has lost some of its luster. People saying one thing and then behaving badly. I don't expect people to be perfect, I sure am not. But at least be a bit more open. So many are living life with so much garlic around their necks to ward off the evil that they chase off people by the tangible smell of their fear and the garlic : )
It's just difficult for me, a born people pleaser, to write what's on my heart and then have some, even though its only a few, have them just react so fearfully to me as if I was a leaper.
There I have said my piece, and it has made me feel better !