Happy Mother’s Day

Normally, I write posts in advance and schedule them for posting at a later date. During this time, they are carefully edited, right down to placement of commas sometimes–many drafts will be saved over the time that a post waits for its schedule day in the sun. Perfectionism is a battle I fight constantly, but that’s a different story. This post is a completely off-the-cuff thought-spill. We’ll see where it goes, and if it makes any sense at all when I get done. I will try not to care, and just let it flow and go where it decides to go. That is not an easy thing for me to do.

You don’t have to be perfect (SPOILER ALERT: you can’t)

If there is one thing that Christian Science theology drills into its adherents and those unfortunate enough to be raised by its adherents, it is the relentless pursuit of “spiritual perfection” as a so-called “reflection of God”. It is impossible to be fully and completely perfect, completely lacking any measurable flaws. However, Christian Science teaches that in some sort of “spiritual reality” we are all perfect, as so-called “reflections of God”; we just need to somehow “see” or “realize” this. None of what I have just said here should be new to anyone who has been a regular reader here, or who knows anything about Christian Science.

Happy everything!

I am scheduling this post to go up on December 25^th. Christmas is a holiday that I have a complicated relationship with. December 25^th is the day my Dad died, in 2009. So, it is a combination of a very joyous day, and the anniversary of one of the worst days in my life. This year will mark 14 years since he died from a heart condition that was left untreated due to his faith in Christian Science. Like I said, it’s complicated.

Decluttering

As I write this post, I am in the middle of relocating from a community I’ve lived and worked in for over thirteen years to a new community in a completely different part of the province I call home. It’s a bit funny to realize that, as I write this, I’m in the midst of decluttering and packing for our move, but once this post goes up in about three months, we’ll be settled into our new home, and I will hopefully be in a new job. I’m moving for a few main reasons: one, my partner transferred to a new job; we are moving to a smaller more laid-back community we have wanted to live in for several years now; and we have family in the area that we want to be closer to. My partner has been there for over two months, now I will be following her there. My last day at my previous job, that I had for nearly twelve years, was yesterday. Big changes are afoot.

Introspection and Retrospection

Retrospection and Introspection is a small autobiographical sketch that Mary Baker Eddy wrote. It’s short, around 66 pages. The title of it, with a small variation, seems apropos for this post.

Complimentary

This post will go up a little bit over a month after the events I write about have happened. For some reason, it seems to be important to me to tell you that. Maybe it is so that the rest of this post, which I have written in present-tense, makes some sense (mainly to me).

Acceptance of limits

I live in what is considered a hiking/outdoors mecca. People come from all over the world to undertake multi-day backpacking trips on world-class trails through temperate rainforests in and around this general area. In addition to the big trails, just in the small community I live in, there are lots of short day-hikes of varying degrees of difficulty that are mostly used by us locals. There are also many other outdoor recreational opportunities year-round here like paddling, boating, and fishing. This is a big part of what drew my partner and I to relocate here. In the past, I have been an avid outdoor enthusiast, however I’ve lapsed over the last several years, and my partner wants to explore outdoor activities more.

A decade ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

I’ve scheduled this post to go up on the ten-year anniversary of the date I made my first post on this blog. As I’m writing this, it’s just over two months until this auspicious anniversary. I get reflective at times like this, and now I feel like I want to wax a bit nostalgic. So, dear readers, please indulge me.

I’m Baaaack!!

Looking at my posts, the last thing I posted here was a link to an article written by John Pavlovitz, a writer, activist, blogger, and yes–pastor from Wake Forest, North Carolina, USA. That post dates back to October 2018. Normally, I’m not a fan of anyone who is a pastor or anything remotely connected to religion, but he is worth following, if you want something good and thought-provoking to read. He is the kind of Christian who walks the walk, rather than just talking it, and he doesn’t like Trump–something I consider to be a good thing. Find him here. He’s also on social media. The last substantive post I made was also in October 2018. So, it’s been awhile. I honestly didn’t think I’d come back here, then when I started trying, I didn’t think WordPress would let me back in.

Taking a break…

I’ve been at this here since 2013. I’ve written almost 300 posts on many topics relating to Christian Science, and leaving it (which has been the best thing I’ve ever done). I’ve often said that the ‘textbook’ of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is 600 pages of different ways to say “matter is not real, God is the only thing that’s real.” I don’t want this blog to become the anti-Christian Science version of this, where I write hundreds of posts that basically just boil down to “Christian Science is bullshit, and it doesn’t work”. I mean, Christian Science is bullshit, but there is more to life than that.