Happy Thanksgiving!

I am just writing because I am greatly annoyed about all of the absurd laws in religion. Like one is that you are not obligated to go to church if the priest is practising an immoral lifestyle. First of all, no one is practicing a perfectly moral lifestyle, and second, who the fuck has the right to dictate how and when you should go to church. That should be a personal choice only, and if it is dictated, or there are rules for it then people are going because they feel they are obligated too, and not because they want to, and that surely means they will get a lot less out of it. It is hard enough to be truly present in church when you want to be there, so how can you be present if you don't want to be there, and are just going there because you feel you should. There may be a church full of bodies, but there are most likely only a few minds present. ARRRGHHHHHH what the Hell??? I guess this is reason number 200 why I am atheist.

Second pet peeve is the close-minded assumption that atheist can't be thankful or feel blessed. Well you know what? I AM AN ATHEIST AND I AM THANKFUL and feel blessed. I am thankful for the generosity, kindness and love of my friends, the people I live with, my family, and for this beautiful earth that provides me with what I need. I am thankful for people that are selfless and giving, and for the Lovers of humanity!! I am thankful for the thinkers and the honest, and for people who accidently begin the most incredible movements simply because of an inkling of love. I'm talking about Jean Vanier who began the wonder that is L'Arche, I am also thankful for all the other Lovers and Thinkers of this world that put there foot down, and went the opposite way of the world, which is the way of Peace and the Path to justice and liberty for all!!!!!!! Not just for you, Christians, for Atheists, Agnostics, Apatheists, Christians, Deists, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Wiccans and all of the other people of the world, for Humans everwhere to have inner peace, aka freedom, liberty. . . and all that jazz.

Also, to quote a movie that was silly but suprisingly true and lovely called 100 girls, is that there are too many -ists in the world (also isms) and if we want to be -ists, we should be humanists because we are all humans and that is highlighting our sameness and not our differentness that is so damn divisive.

Love,

Abby

What was I going to say????

The unexamined life is not worth living says this one dude. I forget who though, crap. hold on. It was Socrates!! Also Herman Hesse wrote a book regarding this, and I am about to read it after I finish reading the Jungle by Mr. Sinclair. I'll be right back. . . . duties are calling. . I'm back. before i continue, quote of the day:
Me: I keep farting and i have no idea why (to no one in particular)
Ralph: I know what it was, it was probably that cheese.

Anyway the unexamined life is not worth living. We talked about this at a retreat for L'Arche assistants last week. My examination of my life, and my feelings lead me to be very confused about certain events in life. I was afraid of love, and of relationship, and now I see why. . . it is so hard, and annoying and it hurts badly sometimes. If i didn't have this relationship I would not have this pain, yet I would also be without the joy and learning. . what am i going to do. . . shoot

The Lovers in my Life

The fantastic place I live in. The folks I live with are (names changed to protect the fantastic) Hank, Ralph, Rudy, Lisa, and John. My home is L'Arche, an intentional community for people with and without developmental disabilities. The folks with DD are our core members. They are the core of our community, and from them we learn love, welcome, celebration, forgiveness, compassion and directness. The folks without a developmental disabilities (but not without disabilities) are called Assistants. So that is who John and I are. L'Arche is unlike a group home in that it's purpose is to intentionally build home and family to ensure that ALL involved have the chance to reach their highest potential, self whatever. Mr. Tolstoy said that to love God is to love the highest possible potential in all things. That means we have to see the person's highest potential hiding in their deepest self. We have to have faith that each person can reach their highest potential, and we have faith that the way to that is confidence, which is only reached through the ability to love and be Loved. That means we can't look at each person through their disability. We can't group people together and view them as a group, we have to look at and LOVE each, INDIVIDUAL person. We have to get to know them, be with them, BE with them, and talk with them. We have to know them, and love them, and teach them, and learn from them. We have to share with them, do with them, be a part of their life, and share a part of our lives with them. The core members are there for us, and we are there for them, and the core members are there for eachother and us assistatns are there for eachother. We all have our weaknesses and our strengths, and we must love and respect those strengths and weakness. when we realise we have both, and realise which particular strengths and weaknesses we uniquely have, and others uniquealy have we realise we are ONE body and we need eachother to live and grow, and love. we can exist on our own maybe for a tiny bit but we need others to really LIVe.