I was raised in a very religious and loving Hindu family in India. Prayer has always been a part of my life, but I thought prayer mostly involved doing things such as fasting, chanting, worshipping idols, and making pilgrimages to certain religious sites. As for God, I used to think that He was not fair to everyone and that He blessed some people while punishing others. (more…)
Awhile back, the primary online message from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) about the Swine Flu was that people should “Stay informed and learn what you can do to stay healthy.” I scanned their website and plan to follow any public mandates that may come out. But, that’s not the only part of my plan. The most important thing I’m going to do is stay informed about spiritual creation and obey the laws of health that govern it, including everyone. (more…)
Read this blog in English
Als ich letzten wieder mal am Flughafen war, sah ich all die Schilder, die vor der Schweinegrippe warnen. Und was man Alles tun muss um sich zu schützen.
Soviel Angst und Furcht steckt dahinter. Ich dachte kurz darüber nach wie stark diese Furcht und Angst die Gedanken der Menschen beeinflussen wollen. Gleichzeitig dachte ich darüber nach, wie man sich vor dieser angsterfüllten Beeinflussung frei halten kann. Ein Wortspiel half mir dabei. Schweinegrippe ( swine flu) = Schweineinfluenza ( swine influenza)= Influence =der Einfluss, Beeinflussen (Influence). (more…)
Recently I was at the airport and I saw signs all over the place warning about swine flu. And about everything you have to do to protect yourself.
There is so much fear and anxiety behind these directives. I considered for a moment how strong the influence of that fear is. At the same time, I thought about what we can do to keep ourselves free from that fearful influence. A play on words helped me there: swine flu = swine influenza = influence. (more…)
Sometimes the word faith gets a bad rap. That’s because there are different kinds of faith. There’s blind faith, for example, which hopes and wishes something were true, without any logic to support it. There’s also faith based on intelligent reasoning—a deduction of scientific facts, which expects consistent results.
Actually we rely on faith (the scientific kind) in all sorts of ways every day. One really easy example is that we have faith that the earth is round, even though it looks flat to the naked eye. We also have faith that if we take a cruise across the Atlantic, we will never be in danger of falling off the edge of the earth. We hardly even think of this kind of basic reasoning as faith because we are so certain about the shape of our planet.
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Hearing about H1N1 or the swine flu? People are confused and afraid. And when we’re afraid, we tend to change our behavior to try to protect ourselves.
People who would normally hug each other keep their distance. A simple handshake becomes a source of distrust and fear. But I won’t do it! I won’t let fear turn me into someone I’m not! (more…)
Are you nervous about crowds because it could mean catching something, like the flu? Here’s how I’ve been thinking about this.
When I walk to work in the morning, I’m always amazed by the numbers of people gathered at the intersections waiting for the lights to turn.
Sometimes there can be as many as 20 people on each side of the street. The light turns, and then those 40 people converge on each other, passing within inches of each other yet rarely touching. The same is true when it’s raining and we’re all maneuvering past with umbrellas. Sure, sometimes there’s a bump but I’ve never seen anyone hurt. Certainly there’s no intent to injure someone.
How are an instantaneous healing of a cold and being blamed for a mistake at work connected? Here’s the story.
I was accused of leaking confidential information about a work project. I hadn’t done it—and my supervisor knew it—so it didn’t bother me when someone in upper management pointed the finger at me. I wasn’t mad, though I was a bit puzzled. Why would someone who I’d never spoken to assume that I’d done something wrong without even checking out the facts? I remember thinking how her assumption didn’t say anything about me or my work ethic, but it did say something about her.
With fears circulating rampantly about swine flu, this is a good time to know your immunity from contagion.
“What?” You might ask. “You mean I have to hurry up and get a shot?”
If you’re worried about that, you can relax. That’s not the kind of immunity I’m talking about.
I’m talking about your spiritual immunity.
What could be more reassuring than: “you have nothing to fear. All the power in the universe is on your side, and that power is good”? That’s what God has been saying to us year after year and in every moment of need.
Do we always listen?
No. Usually, we let the noise around us drown out that ’still small voice of calm’ as the poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, called it. We can get distracted by news reports on pandemics and campus updates on confirmed cases of a virus and maybe even friends or roommates telling us they’re not feeling well. The noise builds, and with it the worry.
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