Every now and then my day gets thrown a curveball, not too often but it happens on occasion. Last night had a truly amazing serious of epiphanies all starting with a day off from work for no other reason than to get some personal business done. Starting with getting to the gym and having an incredible workout, then stopping at Bath and body works to pick up some gift candles for a coworker. After that all transpired I was on my way to Smart and Final to pick up food for the house and some food for the BBQ at work tomorrow for our Christmas luncheon that we decided to have, along with the gift exchange it's an exciting thing for us to do here at work. surprisingly enough I planned the gift exchange and the BBQ for the first time ever, usually one of the office girls handles the honors but not this year , don't know why this year is so much different than others but it is. So the food shopping gets done and the day is starting to move along. I text Terria and give her 6 options at least for dinner, she decides on Enchilada Casserole,spanish rice and beans. So that's what i made for dinner! Did 3 loads of laundry in between and will never take another day off from work again!!! too much work!
Dinner is done we eat and get the place cleaned up a bit, then we start talking about Brandons new found interest in Christianity and the new church he has been attending, citing reasons of Something missing in his life he found some purpose and some meaning to things through this new found spirituality. We asked him many questions about what he has learned and what is the single biggest lesson learned, learning about himself and understanding things that he did not realize existed. So we continued on sharing my interest with him and how Frank Schaeffer helped me understand the meaning of life and how we should approach it and try not to over interpret the bible. Too many people take the bible way too literally and the simple message of the Golden Rule and treating people like you want to be treated resonates in my mind daily. Brandon has realized that through his studies that both he and I do not fall into a certain sect or religion because we are so liberal in our ways of thinking and living our live, going out of our way to try and accept people for their differences and not exclude somebody because they don't agree with our thought processes entirely, there truly is not one church that flies along the same flight pattern that we do, so we read the bible and keep our lives and our treatment of people and loved ones very simple and very fundamentally sound with a emphasis on being Good!
So as we are thumbing through the bible passages of interest and discussing the meanings or lack of understanding of said meaning we all come up with the same conclusion that the Bible is not at all to be taken literally, written by uneducated and sometimes out of touch people there has to be missteps along it's intended path. The night of reflection contained relationships,spirituality and an overall closeness that we all enjoyed !The nights conclusion floored me as I discussed feeling sad that I had lost my bible from High school, my sister Linda gave it to me as a high school graduation gift. i read that bible many times over and cherished it for it's intended purposes of helping my new and exciting meaning in my life, took it with me everywhere and enjoyed the feeling of spirituality , well this Bible was lost somewhere in one of my moves and it contained the Rose from the casket of my deceased father inside as my bookmark. i was upset at looking at it and we talked about this last night. So i go into my bedroom and look in a secondary bible in my room opened it up and found a birthday card from 1976, my 13th birthday card from my father signed by him for my mom too and it hit me, how ironic and powerful was this, a lost piece of my fathers past still held in check in this Bible that i have picked up maybe less than 3 time sin my life, very very strong sense of spirtituality that made the memory of my father that much more special and clear to me. Thanks to terria and Brandon for an incredible evening of thought provoking banter and to the memory of my father who has been sorely missed by his kids, daughter in laws, son in laws and Grandchildren..... And his baby son, ME!
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