CAT EYES

Tonight my cat is freaking me out more than a little bit.

She is staring, wide-eyed, over my shoulder at the empty air.

She jumps at the random creaking of the house as the air cools outside.

She starts and begins slinking into the next room as if in hot pursuit of something... or someone.

She comes back, jumps in my lap, and keeps watching over my shoulders.

What is she seeing that I am not?!

AZ SENATE BILL 1062

Arizona doesn't get into the news that much. Except when it's minus 5 degrees in the rest of the country and it's 75 here.

And when certain bills get introduced. Such as Arizona State Senate Bill 1062.

The "Pro" people say it's to allow religious people to exercise their beliefs. The "Con" people say it's to allow discrimination.

I see it another way, which I don't think the pro people have even considered.

It's one way to allow religious people to be legally discriminated against.

The Con people cry that it will allow wedding cake bakers to deny services to gay couples who want a wedding cake

The Pro people insist that it allows the bakers to express their displeasure about a gay wedding based on their religious beliefs.

I say it's going cause a WHOLE lot of employment problems for the baker.

Would you hire some nice Christian who could just mess up the large order you got for a rainbow cake?

If you're a Starbucks manager, would you hire a Mormon who might suddenly decide in the midst of the morning rush to stop selling cappuccinos because of her religious views? 

How about the Muslim that could possibly view all customers as infidels?

So then we'd have to have another law that you couldn't refuse to hire someone because of their legal right to refuse service to someone based on their religious beliefs.

Does this seem as silly to you are it does to me?

Sure, if you don't want to bake gay wedding cakes, keep the rainbow off your ads.

If you are LDS and don't want to serve coffee, find another job outside of food service.

If you can't deal with infidels, don't do business with infidels.

But if you are a normal, reasonable human being, realize that you can deal in business with people of different moral, religious and social values without sacrificing your own.

It's called politeness.

IN THE SERVICE OF MY GOD

From www.facebook.com/MormonMeditations

"If you’re involved with relationship with parents or children, instead of saying I can’t do spiritual practices because I have children,


 
you say my children are my spiritual practice. If you’re traveling a lot, your traveling becomes your yoga.



You start to use your life as your curriculum for coming to God. 



You use the things that are on your plate, that are presented to you. 

So that relationships, economics, psychodynamics—all of these become grist for the mill of awakening. 


They all are part of your curriculum." - Ram Dass



I've been mentally (and verbally) griping all week about my brother.

Griping about the amount of service I have been giving him, and feeling unappreciated.



I keep forgetting something essential.

I am not just in the service of my brother, I am in the service of my God.

CATCHING DEPRESSION

It's sort of like being around someone with a bad cold.

You are sympathetic, but you're also trying real hard not to get close to them.

You pick up their used tissues with a clean tissue.

You stay out of their direct sneeze or cough path.

You are careful to wash your hands a lot.

But even with all of that, sometimes you simply catch their cold.

And then you don't have anyone around to feel sorry for you, or pick up your tissues, because that first person is still sick.

THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORSE OF TIMES

I moved my older brother from the nursing home he has been at the past year into his own apartment yesterday.

And although it was a long, exhausting day, it went much better than I anticipated.

He hadn't really packed anything, besides knowing about the move for weeks in advance.

But he was dressed and ready and even in his wheelchair.

The staff hadn't even begun his discharge paperwork, despite being told the date the week before.

My brother couldn't find his insurance card - and I had five prescriptions to fill for him.

But the pharmacy, albeit over a six hour period, did help me get the scripts to him.

So it wasn't perfect.

But it could have been SOOOOOOO much more difficult.

And he's very happy to be in his own quiet room.

However, I am now anticipating a whole new set of problems to show up.... very soon.