Watered Garden

I sent the clip about the animal moms to Sprout who is adopted. WG

Oh - were they Kirby vacuum cleaners? My son and DIL sold those for a while, or tried to anyway, I don't think they actually sold any at all. I think they are disgusting. When I was a WOW, my roommate/BL was 4th WC and made me do all the cleaning to her specifications. I had to go to the office in the apartment complex and check out these damn Kirbys and then of course she made me clean them out BEFORE I vacuumed and afterward as well. There wasn't any bag!!!! I had to reach in with my bare hands and dig everyone else's dirt out of it, then vacuum, then clean our dirt out of it. Not the most fun year of my life. I was always getting scratched, stuck, jabbed by stuff. At least no used syringes, thank God. And you wonder why I always wanted to put a tarantula in her bed. Never did though. WG

Clean the bag out!!!??? My new vacuum has Hepa filter bags made of cloth, and they are NOT reusable. Haven't bought another one yet, but they do say not to reuse. Crikey! This guy must be doing his own cleaning now, and I wonder how picky he is if he does it himself. WG

Waysider, I know exactly who and what you mean, and I just wish I'd had the nerve to stick a few mousetraps in the undies drawer! That was just sick, I tell you, sick, sick, sick! WG For the rest of you, when we were in FLO, the individual who was the BL our first year announced he would be inspecting our dresser drawers. I had a fit; no one needs to check my drawers! WG

Honestly, I cannot imagine that he wouldn't have negotiated or been offered some kind of a severance package - I mean the guy had no experience doing anything other than preaching and yelling; I believe he had a psychology degree? And wouldn't he have to pay child support if he's divorced now? Believe me, I live in Ohio and my son is divorced from his first wife, and all it takes is one phone call if the support payment isn't deposited on time, and the payer's butt is slammer-bound. Of course that's none of my business, I guess, but it would certainly be a reason to need more money than an entry level job would pay, unless the kids are all three independent by now. WG

With all the friggin' in the riggin' at International HQ almost since its inception, I cannot imagine that a little more would bother him all that much, and for only one week at that. WG

RumRunner you would probably like "The Fairy" a nice rose with little clusters of tiny pink blossoms. Fairly hardy, too. We have a lot of wind here and while even some Knockouts bit the dust, "The Fairy" is the rose that refuses to die. We planted about 8-10 beautiful roses when we first landscaped. Barbara Bush and Princess Diana were the first to go. Even Double Delight and Mr. Lincoln eventually succumbed. An added problem is the incredible number of Japanese beetles that swarm here the end of June, first of July. And the lousy soil, but that is getting amended rapidly. In fact, the former rose garden has been vigorously amended and that's where we are planting tomatoes this year! WG

There was a woman, WC grad, on the left coast who was very like her. She was the most disciplined person I ever met. up at 4 am to SIT, pray with understanding, study Word, in 30-minute increments. She had a list of everything she had to do that day made out the day before, in 30-minute increments of time, until she reposed herself for peaceful slumber at midnight. Her children were all perfect, or beaten until they were. She was brimming with self-confidence. She knew that she knew that she knew that she knew that she was always, without exception completely perfect in every way. Her home always smelled of Pine-Sol, Clorox, and ammonia. She vacuumed twice a day. She scrubbed everything that could be scrubbed at least once on a daily basis. She scrubbed the walls of her house once a month - one time she invited me over as a guest and then allowed me the privilege of assisting her. There were certain things she did once a week, the same day of the week, the same time of the week. She grocery shopped on Monday morning. Between 11:00 and 11:30 PM Sunday she made out a grocery list and menu, and clipped coupons. At 8 am Monday she and her two youngest children were at the grocery store, list and coupons in hand. There was one day a week when she arrived at the car wash at 10 am every week. And I guess what bugs me is I don't know if she did all that for the glory of God or the glory of TWI or for the glory of herself. People admired her extravagantly and thought she was the walking talking Prov 31:10-31; and I think she thought so too. But why? Her husband wasn't all that happy (don't ask me how I know, okay?) I mean, I need to finish my work, get off this computer, make a meal, clean up afterward and run the vacuum before 24 comes on. But holy cow! WG Oh yeah and when we were kicked out of WFC, she told me that the moment I left WC's office I should have renewed my mind to the extent that I completely forgot everything that had happened for the last four months - wiped it out of my memory by the renewing of my mind until it was as if none of it had ever happened. Immediately. Booms-quick. I wish I could do the same for her.

"So, unfortunately, do her kids." Oh, yeah. I wonder if some of these folks will arrive at the Judgment Seat and peer underneath, looking for dust bunnies, until the Lord says, "That's not what it was all about, dummy!" WG ;-)

Rugosas are the best! For a while we owned a rental property and when we attempted to rid ourselves of an unwanted rose, it sent up shoots from its roots that were very prolific but never flowered. Again, this happened where we live now, more recently, but this one produced small, very very dark red single blooms with yellow centers. Very pretty. Occasionally around here we still see wild roses; I think there are some back in my neighbor's woods. Baby beans in the garden, too, now with baby corn! WG

We built this house and moved in in September, 2003. A couple weeks after moving and arranging and rearranging, a few things were still in boxes. It was a Sunday afternoon; we went to a church in the town we had moved from, and had gotten home and here comes this family who have moved into the newly built house down the street from us, same builder. She announces she is here to see my house. She has her 3 year old son and two preteen girls in tow. It was kind of messy, I said, just moving in and all, but I would be glad to give her the tour. Well, lo and behold, I hadn't made my bed before scuttling off to church that morning. She had a screaming dang fit at me. She actually told me that SHE NEVER ALLOWS HER CHILDREN TO LEAVE THEIR ROOMS IN THE MORNING UNTIL THEIR BEDS ARE MADE. THEY DO IT THE MINUTE THEY WAKE UP. "Don't look at Mrs. Garden's room, girls, you know I don't allow that in my home!" The emotions from TWI just came flooding up. I was instantly shamed, inferior, worthless and useless. I hadn't made my bed the instant I got up. Feet hit the floor, do a 180 turn, make that bed up like at the Hilton! And this woman judged me and categorized me by the fact that that one time I had not made my bed, rushing to get up and drive 20 miles to church on a Sunday morning. She didn't need to know anything else about me to weigh me in the balance and find me wanting. I disliked and distrusted her instantly and I still do to this day! This same darn woman went to church with us for a while. Unfortunately, nothing suited her there either, and she quit coming in a big huff. Her husband is a very nice, if somewhat browbeaten individual. But after that, I could not stomach her. She sees me every so often in the grocery and talks about coming over for coffee, since we both work out of our homes, but the next time she brings it up, I am just going to very sweetly say, "Oh, *****, I could never possibly get my house clean enough for you to feel comfortable in it. Sorry." I don't keep my house flawlessly immaculate or immaculately flawless. I realize that probably offends many of you. Well if it bugs you that much, PM me and you can come right over and bring a mop! :P WG

I haven't been able to find anything in the scriptures about being made righteous by frugal use of toilet paper, no holes in the walls, or no dust bunnies under the beds; or for that matter, the number of spiders that set up happy housekeeping in the basement. Guess I just don't have that old in-depth spiritual awareness and perception. WG

I was listening to a teaching on marriage and wives today and the guy was pretty accurate - and said that wives do not always have to agree with their husbands - which shocked me. I was taught that I was to line up my thinking with that of my husband so that I was always without exception, completely likeminded with him. I was told that was the reason our son didn't always obey; he saw me not being sufficiently likeminded with my spouse and consequently thought being rebellious and defiant was okay. I was never rebellious and defiant, nor did we have any discussions or disagreements within his earshot. What BS. WG

I would say LCM's hissy about cottonwood snow is a great example of straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. WG

Baby peas, beets, lettuce and radishes coming up!!!!!

Rascal, Waysider, good stuff there. Reading my own post about the young lady brings to mind a lot of stuff. If you expected someone to work and pay their way instead of sponging off you, you were unloving, materialistic and worldly minded. If you loaned someone money or goods and expected it paid or given back promptly and in good condition, you were worldly and selfish. "Don't you WANT to bless God's people?" I got ripped off time after time. Finally I just got to the point that if anyone wanted something of mine I knew better than to withhold; after all, didn't Acts 4:32 say they had all things common? Don't you want to get blessed? Don't you want to live like the first century church? It was a one-way street. The people who were supposedly teaching you to live like the first centur church, to walk like Jesus walked, were more than happy to encourage you to loan, give whatever you had. But somehow or other if YOU had a need, "Well! And where is YOUR believing?" WG

Well,my individual rights and feelings were important to me in the beginning. TWI was and probably still is really good at using Scripture to convince the inexperienced, uninformed, and uneducated (Biblically at least) that they are "off the Word" if they exhibit too much independence. Acts 4:32-37 was a good place to start. Then we can go on to Acts 5; look what happens to those who withhold! I was socially inept and had no friends, really, and so all this attention and concern for my life was overwhelmingly wonderful. But you know what? The individuals I first "twigged" with weren't deliberate deceivers - they had been mis-taught also. It's kind of like a snowball that rolls down a mountain, gathering more snow until it's an avalanche. And it starts at the top. I had a lot of confrontations; my roommate and I allowed a third girl to move into our rather nice apartment. She didn't have a job so we encouraged her to get one so she could pay her share of the rent and utilities. She did but still didn't/couldn't/wouldn't pay her share of the rent. Finally I came home one day and she was lolling around the apartment. "I thought you had to work today." I said. "Oh," she replied. I didn't like working there, so I just called in and told them I quit." I of course, having been raised right, went ballistic. She informed me she had, after all, cleaned the apartment to make up for not being able to pay the rent. She had polished the kitchen floor with furniture polish and I nearly broke my neck, sliding from one end to the other in my stocking feet. I was still ballistic. I complained to the branch leader, my boss, everyone I could think of, and then my roommate and I just told her, "No pay, No stay!" Guess who got reproved for being unloving, mean, selfish, worldly minded? Guess who countered with Thessalonians: If a man will not work, neither should he eat." Guess who still thinks it was wrong? If she had wanted to work, but could not find a job, that would have been an entirely different matter. But this young lady, who had the habit of wrapping any male around her little finger, didn't WANT to work and seemed to think it was just fine to sponge off my hard working roomie and me. I'll write later about how I got broken. WG

All of the above, plus Fear of losing my family, marriage, etc. And I will say this: If you start down that fear road, Satan is only too happy to send others along to encourage you. But I'm getting myself back, and I like myself a lot better the way I really am. I strongly suspect that many individuals who sucked it up, kept their mouths shut and did as they were told suffer untold physical and emotional consequences. Tzaia if you did not have the same experience as many of us, congratulations, I'm glad for you. My take on your posts is that you really want to understand why so many people had this reaction. I hope so; I would feel badly if you were being critical and negative. It took a long time in my case to get me not just fearful and passive, but apathetic. It didn't really entrench itself until we went in FWC and I wonder if that isn't a big part of the introduction and orientation to the program; to get the hapless soul so broken down and convinced of his/her inadequacy they can't fight any more. A 19th FWC said to Mr. Garden in my presence, "The reason this program is so hard is that your first year you don't know anything; then your second year, another first year bunch of people comes along and THEY don't know anything." This of course was in reference to us; we were the newbies and ignorant. One time in the brushy woodsy area out back of the buildings some land was being cleared and I was sent off with a guy on staff for some purpose, pick up sticks or some such nonsense. I was following him and he kept letting branches go that whipped around and hit me in the face. I mentioned it to him and he said I was following too closely. I answered him that my father grew up in woods and taught me to hold the branch for the person behind me, which was much polite than letting it whip back or telling the follower to back off. That same morning I found what I thought was a fox den; foxes had been eating the chickens. I mentioned it to some staff member, maybe the same guy maybe not. The next day I got reamed! First of all, HOW DARE YOU tell a staff member who is a WC grad you think you know ANYTHING AT ALL BETTER THAN HE DOES! And SECOND, you were sent out there to do such-and-such, NOT TO LOOK FOR FOX DENS! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!!! YOU STUPID, DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE NOBODY! Or words to that effect. And THEN I had TO THANK THE SOB FOR REPROVING ME AND INSTRUCTING ME IN THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, ABUNDANCE AND POWER!!!! And apologize too of course. And promise to listen-remember-obey. I still have not been able to forgive that tall, skinny arrogant, north end of a south bound donkey. He didn't know beans from barium about being out there. And I didn't go looking for the damn den, I just noticed it. My dad taught to notice my surroundings in the woods - oh but he was, I was informed, an ignorant fool compared to the great MJ, man of God, menber of the staff and graduate of the Way Corps. My dad had died less than a year before; no one could know how those words cut me to the bone. That's how they break you Tzaia. They catch you off guard and scream their lungs out about something so innocuous you are taken completely by surprise. And it's straight from the pit of hell. I haven't done any research into the brainwashing techniques used by the communists during the Korean war but I expect these sorts of incidents are a watered-down version of same. WG

Very nice, Chockfull.

I thought that was AFTER you die, unless of course Christ comes back while you are still inhaling oxygen on this planet. WG

Garth, honey, First of all I was referring originally to the dang Jello. I certainly don't agree with that particular doctrine any more than I enjoyed the lemon and lime Jello I ate the day before my colonoscopy, which was in total strikingly similar to my WOW year, come to think of it. But that is the kind of organic fertilizer we were taught about submission. That was the point. I really didn't intend anything remotely resembling a Freudian slip and now I feel bad. WG

That's okay, Jeff, you can owe me!

Perhaps that's what we all seek post-TWI - the real me. I used to be quite honest, but I learned to keep my mouth shut and do as I am told. That's starting to loosen up a little bit. I still fear any kind of personal entanglement with a church-type organization - our community group leader keeps talking about really getting to know each other within the group, and I think that's scary, for me anyway. WG

During WOW training I was sitting eating lunch at a picnic table outside with a whole bunch of people and VPW came and sat with us. We had little Jello cups and the girl next to me said she wished she had another. VPW stated a minute or two later he didn't want his and offered to give it away. I nudged the girl next to me who was shy, and was afraid to speak up. So, unwittingly and probably really out of turn but without a thought, I said she would take it. VP handed it to me and said, "Here, you opened your mouth! YOU eat it!" I freakin' hate Jello. But someone else at the table gave me a stern look and said "DO WHAT THE MAN OF GOD SAYS!" Of course VP loved that, and I almost threw up the Jello after I submissively ate the damn slimy stuff. That was a huge lesson that year. Submission to leadership, no matter what. I admit, I was a stupid kid at that point and should have kept my mouth shut. But it certainly was a great spiritual lesson learned. If the Man of God says to eat ...., you eat it. Period. WG

Was he ever in North Carolina? WG