Thoughts On A Grey, Snowy Day

SAT., JAN. 29, 2000, 2:05 PM
FARM, STUDY

The view you see from the windows ahead and to your left is “classic winter.” The ground is covered and the bare branches are coated, on top, with the “white.” This room is now comfortable, a bit different from the barely 40° when you first lit the stove this morning.

It is a day for some chores, some reading, some TV… and keeping a fire going in the fireplace… and a Teaching. You know that you are not “bound for hell” (or sheol) if you only have two Teachings, but you also know that it is a positive addiction, one that I induced and do “feed.” Do you really “need” more Teachings? Of course not… and Of Course! This is your best use of pen and paper, and there are some who read Our Ruminations whose spiritual lives are enriched by what We do Together.

This was a rather slow, gentle snow fall, a mild reminder of winter, which is a good season. Oh, it is not an easy, always comfortable season, but some of the chores are satisfying – like chopping holes in the ice for your cows. It is a potentially fine season for your spirit, in accomplishing what chores need to be done and in just enjoying the uniqueness of these winter scenes.

You are quite aware that you are now in the winter of your life as Bob Russell. As I would expect, from our years of comradeship, you are not afraid of “moving on”… and even have some positive feelings of anticipation in relation to continuing life. If you could live on for some years in good, functioning health you would opt for more length. But as you count and evaluate your present and potential loses your desire for more years of deterioration is rather minimal.

In your perception this Farm is quite an ideal place to spend the winter of your life. You realize you can simplify your life, if you should wish to, but you still get sufficient pleasure from the various chores that the time for simplification is “not yet.” You are lucky to have enjoyed all of the places that have been your “homes,” from your early life, in your pre-marriage “sites” (with the Montpelier time being interesting, but not as enjoyable as most of the others), and in the homes you’ve shared with your love, Lenore. A question that you consider, occasionally, is… will there be any other “home” or will your life, as Bob, be finished here? You’ll just have to “live it out” and… see.

Probably the dominant perception in the younger generations of your countrymen is that the future is full of exciting expectations. Computers are so marvelous. The new… and faster… “machines” are better. You feel that most of this “movement” is leaving you behind… and you’re only minimally bothered by this. On the one hand it seems unlikely that there will be any voluntary “retreat” from this “brave, new world.” On the other, many civilizations before yours have perished. Continue to read the Worldwatch book, which seems to suggest that all that is present… and “planned for”… cannot be sustained, on this small planet, Earth.

So, as you look ahead to the future, in which you probably will not be, you can envision ways of living quite “beyond you” AND collapses that will require adaptations beyond the technological. It could be exciting, but it is not an excitement you share, at your age. (Yes, bandage your finger.)

( 2:50 / 2:55 )

As you read the article on hell you realized, again, that you don’t share the dominant conservative Christian view that those who reject Me… or do not serve Me well… in specific ways… will spend eternity in some hot, burning realm of being, a just punishment for not responding positively to Me. As I have told you, the need for punishment is not Our dominant priority. Some souls just come to Me easily and quickly. Others take longer to take My hand (and I do offer it in countless ways). I am more patient than I am eager to punish. But… remember… I do love diversity, so I have offered many “messages” about life, even to you who call yourselves Christian. I am NOT inept as a Creator and Sustainer… and I AM, finally, In Charge.