First blog, yippee! Who knows where this will take me, but this looks fun. I feel I have a lot to offer from the extensive education I've had at the school of hard knocks. I'd like to think I could be a resource to others, a fount of knowlege (hmm - my ego's showing!) but I know this blog will probably mostly be a comfort and help for me.
Who am I? I'm a thinker. I've had more jobs than most people have had in one life. I've been through Bible college, and yet also studied the very spiritual martial art of Aikido, and the spiritual lessons from Alcoholics Anonymous. I've been conservative and liberal, voted Republican at times and Democrat others. This may lead you to think that I'm wishy-washy, but I'm not. My first, and instinctual response to things and people is always to try to see all sides of an argument. I empathize with both sides, and try to see where there is common ground. I am always looking for the hidden motivations of people, the underlying agendas to both sides. Many times, the basic desires of both sides are similar or the same.
The one thing with me that has never changed is that I 'know' without a doubt that God exists. No matter what I do, how long I go spinning around on my own, God is available if I just can relax my death-grip on the steering wheel. Prior to 15 years ago I thought God was judgemental, constantly critiquing and rejecting me, subjecting me to trial after trial in an effort to purify me. I thought that if I really liked something, God would take it away in order to teach me obedience and faith. These ideas have changed for me. I now realize that God is our loving parent, and as a parent wants us to grow up, but always wants the best for us. That just about says it all, doesn't it?
I chose the name Itinerant Soul because that is what I am -- just moving through from 'here' to 'there'. Recently a family pet died, and my grade-school kids were upset. I was sad, too. But I told them that one of the reasons I firmly believe that we do move on to another existence after our body dies, is this -- that energy really doesn't go away, it just changes state to another form of energy. So the energy that is 'us' that was given to us by God (even if you believe that energy came from the universe or Mother Earth you still have to admit that you were given that spark from somewhere) that spark will not just blink out of existence when your body fails, it has substance and must go somewhere, albeit changed, transformed. Meditate on that, and be encouraged. This is also why we must not try to hold on to possessions, people, and even our built up identity, if that identity is defined by things of this world. We must be ready to change, and we must accept the change, not fear the change. We are all itinerant souls.