Greetings All –
BEGIN YOUR TWO-WEEK REVIEW by reviewing the first
lesson in this two-week period, rereading the lesson and recalling your
practice for that day. Follow this subsequently for each following day. Review
your practice. Realize what your practice is for and recognize what your
practice is reinforcing within you. Recognize how much you want this
reinforcement to occur and realize the tremendous value that you are receiving
and are attempting to receive as you prepare as a student of Knowledge. Let
your review today be a confirmation of the importance of your preparation.
Recognize how much you need to strengthen your participation and how much you need
to set aside ideas that are debilitating or that deny the existence of
Knowledge within your life. Remember that Knowledge is with you and that your
Teachers are with you, to be experienced and received every moment. As you
learn to receive this, you will naturally express this.
IN YOUR ONE LONG PRACTICE PERIOD TODAY, review the
past two weeks of practice and realize what is being offered to you. Realize how
much you need to receive. Realize how much you want to receive.
PRACTICE 336: One long practice period.
“This
lesson/practice I like…” That’s
what I wrote in the journal.
7:40
a.m. Friday, June 16, 2000 – Time to work on the exit strategy → Retire October 16, 2002 – Age 55 →
"The
fire of Knowledge is with me every day." Flame of the Holy Spirit –
---
10:42
p.m. On the back porch. A muggy – almost summer solstice day – Preparing for
Practice #2 – #1 short at noon. Step 335 – "The fire of Knowledge is with
me every day." This lesson/practice I like…
Holy
Spirit (Knowledge) is often portrayed as a flame – the Methodist Church symbol – a
flame with the cross.
This
a.m. Thinking about Cash Flow the book – and realizing my investment indolences
– and knowing I could pursue $ to have freedom – but did a different type of
learning.
Asking
myself what I would do, the answer was, "I will follow the flame of
Knowledge where it leads me."
–
1:15 a.m. June 17, 2000 – The fire of Knowledge – to do or not/to follow or not
– a question? Is this direction the flame? The fire?
Fire is easy to visualize. Knowledge as “this fire will comfort you and release you. It will
not burn you but will only warm your soul. It will give you comfort and
reassurance. It will give you confirmation of the meaning and the purpose of
your life and of the greatness that you carry within you.” These are great promises; ones I seek to be
fulfilled.
I was raised Lutheran in Wisconsin. My first wife
was Catholic. When we got married I said I could never become a Catholic,
though I often went to services with her. Arriving in Front Royal, Virginia, my
first project as a Human Resources Planner was to get a Nutrition Program for
the Elderly started. This was a Federal grant program that required a host
agency. The Planning District Commission could not be that agency, so the job
was to find one. The five county – single city region, had no coterminous
regional agencies at the time.
As I met with groups around the region and looked
for meal locations, I ended up speaking to church leaders at the behest of
parishioners who were interested in getting the program started. Of the many
churches, I was most impressed by the Methodist Churches and it was, eventually,
the minister of the Front Royal Methodist Church who got his congregation to be
the grant recipient to run this regional program.
I was very impressed by the social awareness, willingness
and desire of Christian church people to provide meals to the elderly,
expanding to meet a great local need. Eventually my wife and I joined the
church, a compromise between Lutheran and Catholic. The Methodists have been
progressive. In the early 1970’s when the ordination of women in the Episcopal
Church was opposed, I found it interesting that the Methodist Church began to
ordain women in 1956.
Most have some sort of religious training in their
early years, even if parents are not particularly active. Mixed religion
couples, if argumentative, can make for a stressful situation, though it may
propel young people on their own journey. That journey may have led you here. Let
us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 336, we are 29 Steps from the end –
Step 365. This is not the place to begin this Practice. If you’ve some interest
due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge
and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. January
1 is a good day to do so. Daily blog entries and Tweets begin again with Step 1
on January 1, 2015. I will be blogging year two, and referencing this
collection of year 1 – day by day. Regardless, any day you choose to begin, you
can use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps.
Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps
once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference
how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide
a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One
may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps
students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as
a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well
through the Free School of the New Message.
