Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

21 April

Dreamy Exploration: Abstract Flower Art, Monday, April 28: “So I’d turn’d to the Garden of Love, That So many sweet flowers should be…”

by Jon Katz

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door; So I turn’d to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

–  Mystic And Poet William Blake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 April

The Spiritual Life, Another Chapter, Notes From My Mystical World, , Another Hero Journey. Here We Go Again.

by Jon Katz

It would be fascinating, wrote Evelyn Underhill, in “The Spiritual Life,” to know what meaning any person at the present moment is giving these three words – A Spiritual Life.

Countless people use them, she writes. But very few know what they mean. That is true of me as well, at least most of the time.

Many, I am afraid,” she wrote, “would be found to mean something very holy, difficult, and secular,” a sort of honors course in personal religion, to which most didn’t intend to have.

I understand that I am one of the people she is writing about. She often talks right to me, so I know I’m in the right place.

For some years, I have been on my journey for faith to see spiritually, as some first needed to be about exploring my soul, using meditation, silence, study, reading, thinking, and authenticity. In recent months, I realized it’s time to move past my identity and into something bigger, as Underhill prophesied.

She wrote that both these kinds of individualists—the people who think of the spiritual life as something that is before and about themselves—need a larger horizon within which these interesting personal facts about their identity can be placed, understood, and seen in a more actual proportion. That’s me, too. I think I have always imagined my life; perhaps that’s what made it happen.

I’m reading other books by mystics – my choice of something bigger.

 

 

The mystics almost all write that any spiritual idea that puts the human creature with its small ideas and adventures in the center foreground is dangerous until we recognize its absurdity. Something that rings so true —if you watch the news for one hour—can fill my head with junk, an almost violent kind of social shit (apologies, Evelyn).

My friends are all keen to go to war against what they see as the cruelty and danger happening in our country.  They are angry and frightened and righteous.

But I am not strong enough or eager enough to go there. I spent some years with my mental illness and terror before finally being shrinked for decades, and then was diagnosed as living on the Spectrum. I’ve learned to live with it and grow with it, but whenever I hear my friends rage and tremble, I feel I’m being been sucked right back into it.  It’s not what I wish to do with my life in the remaining years.

Mysticism is my way out of all this hatred and coldness. It is a faith in reality and individuality; like the universe, it is grand and endless. For me, it’s a spiritual gold rush.

I used to get bogged down in fantasy and imagination to escape my life, but now I can go there openly as a new kind of religion, one I can fit into naturally. I see myself in the mirror when I read about the odd and longer mystics. Only oddballs who always seem alone, unable, and unwilling to get inside can get in.

All of the mystics I know were strange; probably all would have made it onto the Spectrum in a blink. I’ve been forced by fear and unhappiness into creativity and writing, the place I wanted to be in, but never could get out of my head. How curious the world works.

That’s my place, my country, a space big enough for anyone’s imagination without being choked by politicians, bigots, and religious dogma. That’s my next step.

 

 

I am called to at least try to escape the petty notions of people whose imaginations and ambitions are mostly about surviving our harsh and greedy world without money to get to dying. I can’t look at the news without feeling sad, and I couldn’t go there if I wanted to. There has to be something better than that. I’m going to look for it. I may already have found it.

I thought of myself when Underhill wrote that “so many Christians are like deaf people at a concert. They study the program carefully, believe every statement made in it, speak respectfully of the quality of the music, but only hear a phrase now and then.” She could have been speaking of most organized religions.

It was time, I thought, to stop being deaf to what Underill calls “the mighty symphony which fills the universe” and is destined to make their tiny contribution, which is the self-expression of the Eternal God, the one that lives inside of each of us.

I’m looking through a new lens in my head, just as I am doing in my photography, putting aside (trying) the blather, chaos, and cruelty and looking through an actual wide-angle lens of disinterested worship. I want to bring into sharper focus my qualities, desires, fantasies, talents,  and compassion, as much as I can, blur everything else.

I’m excited about it. I feel as if I’ve walked through another door and started another journey without limits that will push me to the wonderful, even Divine world.

Thanks once again for coming along on the ride.

21 April

Back To Business, Thanks For The Bakery Goods: For the Cambridge Food Pantry, Carol Requests Spaghetti And Meatballs, Refried Beans And The Much Loved Chicken Noodle Soup

by Jon Katz

Thanks again for getting baked goods back on the shelves. You have perhaps done even more good than you know. We live in a society full of anger and mistrust, but our world is filling up with kindness and empathy.

(above, unpacking boxes from the Central Food Pantry.

Today, we are getting back to normal after the baked goods crisis.  The Regional Food Pantry had none to send for the first time. Sarah is seeking Spaghetti, meatballs, and Refried Beans. The urgent item is the much-loved Chicken Noodle Soup, one of the most essential items on the Cambridge Pantry Wish List.

Most families live in poverty, living in motel rooms, apartments, or houses. Their children and adults almost always have colds.

Foods that strengthen the immune system are valued. Sarah works hard to keep this soup on the pantry shelves.

My AI research: The benefits of chicken noodle soup. The ingredients in chicken noodle soup are a dream for those looking to strengthen their immune system. Chicken provides protein, noodles provide carbohydrates, vegetables provide vitamins, and broth provides fats and minerals.

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Sarah’s Items for today, Monday, the 21st.

SpathettiOs and Meatballs, 14.5 Oz Cans, Pack of 4, $4.48.

Old El Paso Traditional Canned Refried Beans, 1 Can, 16 Oz, (Pack of 12), $15.48.

The supply of Chicken Noodle Soup is just about out. See below.

 

Thanks for your messages to the pantry volunteers.

Campbell’s Condensed Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup, 10.5 Ounce Can (Pack of 12), $14.35.

 

 

The good pantry is just about out of chicken noodle soup, a healthy favorite

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The  Amazon Cambridge Pantry Urgent Wish List is accessible anytime, day or night. Click on the links here or use the green button at the bottom of every blog post.

Every item on the wish list is urgent and updated several times daily.  Some people are adopting favored items and sending them when they can. Thanks for the messages; the pantry volunteers greatly appreciate them. Baking items will be added to the blog in the morning; I’ll post them here.

It’s beautiful to help people who have nowhere else to go. Your support means the world to them.  This generosity has never been more needed; thanks for helping protect love.  Helping the pantry gives significant meaning to me and, clearly, to you.

21 April

My Monday Morning Bedlam Farm Report In Photos. Ruminating On Mysticism What A Beautiful Day. Birds, Cats, Donkeys, Sheep…

by Jon Katz

The distinction between mystic and non-mystic is not merely that between the rationalist and the dreamer, between intellect and intuition. The question which divides them is this: What, out of the mass of material offered to it, shall consciousness seize upon — with what aspects of the universe shall it “unite”?

–  Evelyn Underhill, Essential Writings.

According to him, the Poet William Blake’s childhood included mystical religious experiences such as “beholding God’s face pressed against his window, seeing angels among the haystacks, and being visited by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel.”

My mystical experiences are not nearly as vivid. They mainly happened when I was alone, preferably in a forest or mountain, visiting the dying as a hospice volunteer, now listening to birds,  or walking with my dogs. For me, it’s clearing the junk humans put into my head and searching for the bigger picture, the reality, not the posturing or dogma.

 

 

 

The King scans his kingdom, hoping, no doubt, for something to eat.

Eating with enthuiasm

 

 

 

The new Spring birds are arriving.

 

 

I appreciate his showing me his color.

 

21 April

Maria’s Good Monday Morning Video. Starting The Weekend In Peace. Protecting Love And Empathy

by Jon Katz

 

“The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.”    – Rumi

 

 

Every morning, I have a choice. I can listen to the junk, anger, conflict, and violence of the institution now called the media, online and off. Or I can give thanks for the opportunity to live my life. No politician I know of will clutter my head. There are so many good and beautiful things in the world, I want to do them, see them, and think about them. Hatred, rage, and contempt are not allowed.

Maria’s Monday Morning video reflects her perspective and empathy. I search for the same thing on my blog, a safe place where the only nasty messages come from me, and very few of those. Have a great week. Life is good, and Grandma Moses was right—it is what we make of it. I want to make a lot of it before I die.

Maria’s Monday videos have been posted on her blog for over ten years. A few months ago, she permitted me to post them on my blog on Mondays, too. As the week begins, I hope they will set the tone for my writing.

 

 

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