CoolWaters

OK, so me and Bill are watching PBS here in KC the other night when they have some sort of tribute to the '60s. All the bands who have members still alive played live. Procul Harum did "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Here's where I need your magic... Why do I ALWAYS associate AWSoP with you, the 3 Bobby's, the other M, etc? And...oh...yes...the song IS STUCK IN MY HEAD now...so I'm ALWAYS thinking of 'back in the day'. Sigh.

Roy you are one brave dude!!!!! :) God is telling me His jokes all the time...and when I try to tell somebody else, I can never express it the way God expressed it to me. Usually these things are 'inside jokes' that nobody else gets...but make me LMAO.

{{{{Seth}}}} This is the best thread I've ever read here. Thank you for this discussion...for your honesty...for bringing out the truth of reality...for helping some of us 'come out of the closet'. I really needed to read this thread today. THANK YOU!!!!

Dear loved Roy... Your sense of humor ALWAYS tickles my funny bone...and this is one of your BEST! TYVM!!!!

Sorry to say that this is common. We fought off such code requirements in Topeka, but now that we're gone, the city council is back at it again. Remember the BTK killer? He was a Code Compliance person in Wichita, KS. Most of the Code Compliance people are your normal 'public servants'...but those who are just plain wicked often rule the day. I read in one of Corrie Ten Boom's books that the first actions against citizens that the Nazis took was to arrest them for Code Violations. I believe it. Read your city codes sometime. You may find out that curtains are the least of your worries.

OH MY GAWD!!!!! How in the world do you all survive such things????? :(

Thank you, thank you {{{{{everybody}}}}}! It was the best yet. Bill did not have to work. Woo hoo! He started the day with real flowers (until now, he's been the type of guy to stop at the convenience store and get one of those silk roses....that I HATE...lol). Next he did all the little Honey Do things I've been bugging him about since forever. We enjoyed puttering around the house together in amicable peace with one another. Then I had an allergic reaction to some medicine that I have taken for a long time, but hadn't taken in the last couple of months. He was very close to calling an ambulance, but he gently and kindly nursed me through for about 7 hours until the reaction subsided. When I began to get better I was hungry. He made me an awesome roast beef dinner that was tender and moist and well-flavored...and was just the right amount of everything for my diabetic diet. Once I was back on my feet, he did some major furniture moving for me and we finally began to get our kitchen set up proper like...after 7 months of figuring out where we wanted things to be permanently. At the end of the day he sang to me. I am a fool for a man who sings to me....especially him! My gifts to him were changes in how I've been treating him and my expectations of him, an hour or so of expressing in prose all that he has meant and does mean to me and the children and our granddaughter, and an awesome lighter that I can't explain but will hopefully be able to get a video clip of to post....'cause y'all have just GOT to see this lighter to even begin to understand the hilarious times we've had with it! LOL At the end of the day we knew we had turned the corner off of "Will We Make It? Alley" and finally onto "We Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way Avenue". It was a quiet turning...one that we didn't know if we'd ever make...but it was a turning...a good one...a permanent one...a hard-fought and well-earned one.

Today, 06-06-06, is our 26th wedding anniversary. Once in a lifetime for us...but the world gets the date once every hundred years. For us it is a new day. We're not afraid, but thankful. We're not reading bad omens, but signs that things will turn out OK. We celebrate. But in the end and after all... It's just another day in paradise. Enjoy!

{{{{{Mo}}}}!!!! Missing you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!

The way things worked out for me was that the vast majority (I'd say easily 95%) of people I knew in twi were such jerks that the ONLY interaction I had with them was at twig, branch meetings and limb meetings. My opinion of them was that I wouldn't give the time of day if I had just met them on the street, why the he11 would I do anything so stupid as to 'fellowship' with them? I went to twig because I thought that's what gawd wanted me to do. I did NOT think that gawd wanted me to like the people there. In fact, I thought gawd wanted me in twi to straighten it out. (Really...I thought that. Silly me. It was this thinking that overruled my better judgment time and time again...and I did things I am ashamed of doing...all in the name of gawd in hopes of 'saving' people.) I never went to ROA. I took piffle in '77 when the intermediate was added to the foundational...and never took another class again...not even a repeat of piffle. I was never officially a WOW. I never did any of the 'extracurricular' activities in twi. So I didn't have actual relationships with the vast majority of the people I knew in twi. Those with whom I did have relationships turned out to be lifelong friends regardless of twi. Except for one couple...and they are jerks to this day. So the only thing I have ever honestly missed about twi was the high I got from going to twig. Beyond that, twi was pure he11 for me and mine. (BTW...it took me all of these years to realize most of this stuff...and I am just now going cold turkey off of that high from attending religious functions.)

Something I have finally learned...or unlearned, really... Church is not supposed to be something we give our all and all to...it's supposed to be where we go to get a dose of whatever we need a dose of at the time...spiritually, that is...then we go to our own lives and LIVE what we know to live. I've likened church to a hospital before...and now I see that more and more clearly. I don't 'love' everybody in the hospital. I don't tell every patient and every nurse and every orderly and every aide everything about me. I'd sue the chit out of the hospital if they handled my case in any other manner than strictly private...so the professionals at the hospital don't go around talking about my case to other patients or even other professionals not specifically assigned to me. If I have had surgery, they don't put me on the maternity ward. If I have had a baby, they don't put me on the cancer floor. Not only would I not get the care I need, but I would feel totally alienated from all of the other patients. And OMG!!!!! I would NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS think about going around the hospital and figuring out which patient was 'living right' and deserved treatment and which patient was 'living off' and didn't deserve treatment but, instead, deserved my judgmental condemnation. Even when I was in twi and in the hospital, that thought never even crossed my mind. BUT... That's exactly how twi taught us to handle not being spiritually perfect. And it's just plain evil. BUT... What twi taught is very insidious...it sneaks up on us and bites us in the behind. I have no doubt that you are not the type of person to snub people in a hospital...and that you are not the type of person to snub people in spiritual need. So I'd have to say that what you described is certainly a twi leftover thought pattern. IMO. Just some thoughts that help me a whole lot....don't know if they'll help you...but do know that twi taught us to be spiritual snobs...which made us lower than low in the end.

A question... Did/does anybody seriously think this refers to crotch grabbing...?

If you mean 'before twi' when saying 'old man ways', then no, I did not return to those ways...I was 16yo fer crying out loud...WHY would I EVER go back to that stuff? If you mean 'rejecting twi doctrines and commandments and adopting non-twi thinking' when saying 'old man ways', then absofrickinlutely! Before twi indoctrination I never even conceived of some of the ideas of 'spirituality' promoted by twi representatives... You know, things like 3somes, getting high to get to gawd, screwing every possible piffle student, condemning my grandma to hell for voluntarily dieing of cancer instead of believing gawd, pointing fingers at those in need and telling them how terrible they were for not believing gawd, whacking my daughter from age 6 months on for every peep she made that disturbed leadershi+... These things are what twi representatives taught to me so that I could be 'spiritual enough'. Yes, a thousand times over YES I returned to thinking these things are sins.

Did this Yahoo! search and came up with quite a bit of information. This site is very interesting, imo. I'd never heard this in twi...but knew immediately from the title of the thread that twi would interpret the meaning to have sexual connotations. Duh me. Sigh.

During my journey into the Shamanic Path I learned the value of ritual and symbolism. These pictures move me in a way I cannot explain fully in words. Funny thing, too... Hubs and I were talking just this morning about looking into Catholicism. I've been wanting to do this for a few years now...hubs has just recently taken an interest. So what does it take to become a Catholic? What would that mean to our marriage (on 06-06-06 we will be celebrating 26 years)? Our children? My baptism by another church? TYVM for sharing these pics! Oh...and can you tell me if there is any particular reason many catholic churches are long and narrow?

WOO HOO!!!! Have fun!! I'm jealous.

Articles IV, V and X are born of stereotypes that I hope are founded upon ignorance and not out-and-out hate. Article XI is stupid. The rest are pretty good... IMO... To which I have the right...

That's what I thought... Until I heard about the last weenie roast and the tree screwing or screwing in a tree or something like that...

Last night was magic!!!!!!!!!!!! I still have goosebumps. The very most beautiful thing about American Idol is that even those who are 'nobodies' and have 'no talent' are winners in the end. This year was more special than all the years before...because the contestants bonded like never before...because this year was more about the opportunity to make a dream come true than about winning...it was a good, clean competition...and nobody lost. Taylor took the title...but he recognizes all of the other contestants as co-winners. Now that's class. In this world of bad news, sadness, loss, sorrow, shame and all sorts of horror, American Idol comes through with hope, laughter, kindness, honor, and absolutely no losers. It's a nice balance! The proof of that pudding is that over 63 million votes were cast Tuesday night...which is more votes than have ever been cast in any single US presidential election.

ex70s... Believe it or not, your local 'pagan' store will have some terrific Mother's Day cards. Think about it...where can you get a better Mother's Day card than at a place where the Goddess is celebrated? You'd be surprised!

Chris being gone shows that anything can happen. He was the favored one from the beginning...and yet he didn't make it to #2. I think Kat's gonna go next week. But I've been soooooooooo wrong about this season it's not even funny! Ummmm....what the heck does race or sexuality have to do with any of this...??????

.............................. (I have no words.)

A virus I'd PAY for.

You're only 1/2 right on this one dear Darlene Louise. When men hit 50, they cannot leave the line until they have gone through every pocket and have made the woman go through every inch of her purse...all for exact change. Trust me on this one....my hubs is over 50...and I've done enough cashiering to know!

This one always makes me guffaw. :D ***************** Raf...please forgive me because I mean no offense at all but will probably offend...but I've always thought Fez on "That 70s Show" looked like you. And I couldn't help but to 'hear' Fez's voice in my head when you posted, "But so what?" Truly it made me LOL.