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Location: Long Island, New York, United States

Friday, February 09, 2007

The "Now" is Calling


How is it that our pets seem to know exactly when to be in the wrong place at the right time? The cat wants attention but you are busily trying to get ready for work. You put your morning tea into the microwave and the phone rings unexpectedly. It’s your sister and she wants to talk about the upcoming surprise anniversary party being planned for your parents. You’re annoyed at this -- she should know that it’s the wrong time. You constrain yourself from scolding her, knowing this will only prolong the conversation. You hear your beloved pet whimper a “meow” from the floor and see her out of the corner of your eye. But you’re running out of time. You promise to call your sister from work later, and get her off the phone. Now where are the car keys? You remember that you put them in your coat pocket when you got home from the store last evening so you could bring the recycle can back in from the street where the trash man tossed it on his morning scoot through town. You go to the coat rack, reach in the right hand pocket and there they are. Just then the microwave rings out. You put your coat on, and fix your tea to take with you. You realize that this is not your usual morning routine, but you’re rushed for time. And then you remember that you forgot to check your e-mail, and your boss has been harping about personal use of work computers. You quickly run in the bedroom and there’s the cat, on your comfortable computer chair. You pick her up and snuggle her for a moment, amazed at how, no matter what kind of chaos is happening in your day, she always knows how to get what she wants from you. And you wish you knew her secret so you could try it on your sister, your boss and the other people in your life.

I finally saw a segment from “The Dog Whisperer,” a series on the National Geographic Channel about the amazingly successful canine behavior specialist Cesar Milan. On this particular episode he was able to, with the help of his own two young sons, get an Australian shepherd over its long ago imprinted fear of children in an incredibly short amount of time. He claims the key to connecting with our pets is to “live in the now.” And in the above hypothetical, that’s Kitty’s secret.

Anything that keeps time consists of two basic components: a modulator -- something that makes a repeated motion at a regular interval -- and a counter. The basic interval the work-a-day world relies on is the second, but atomic clocks now divide this interval into millions of parts called nano seconds, useful in quantum science. Your boss may not be counting time in nano seconds yet, but minutes on the clock do count, to say nothing of hours and days. But to Kitty, it’s just a useless plastic disc you hung over the sink and some folded paper on the wall you make marks on and flip over once in a while.

Nothing exists in the past or the future -- there is only the now. This we know. If this is true it should be eminently easy to live in the now. But it is actually the most difficult thing there is for us. In fact, it is the “now” that we are working so hard every day to keep away from us. Homeless people live in the “now“. The tornadoes that hit central Florida last week were deliverers of the “now” to those unfortunate people. Thousands in Indonesia are still caught in the “now” that the tsunami swept over them the day after Christmas two years ago.

We give up this daily “now” in hopes of a more fulfilling, safe and healthy one this weekend, next month or next summer. But, in my experience at least, it doesn’t really work that way. The best “now’ moments can no more be planned than can the tragic ones. They just “happen,” too. We live here in the Western World, working so hard all week long avoiding what we perceive as what’s bad about the “now”. Maybe the Now in this scenario has to be like Kitty, following us and watching us intently and waiting for the right moment in the emotional patterns we repeat every day to surprise us with something good.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Message Sent This Morning to a Friend


I had checked my e-mail a few minutes ago and laid down to rest and meditate prayerfully. I was contemplating the nature of the Being who is the heart of the Universe, that that heart is broken, and it was the moment of the shattering of the Eternal Unity of Relationship that is the Godhead that was the "Big Bang" bringing all of this into existence. I was beginning to understand that we all encounter the Eternal Relationship whenever we witness one of children being born, when we fall in love, or share a special moment with a best friend or grandparent, etc. And all of us are bound to have our hearts shattered when we lose a loved one to suffering and death. And it occurred to me that it is then that we are closest to God and most like the Eternal Relationship that is at the heart of the Universe. And I remembered verses from the Psalms that say this exactly, came to the computer to search them out to send them to you, and found your message. Here are the verses:


Psalm 34:18
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalm 34:17-19
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Psalm 51:16-18

From Webster's

Main Entry: con·trite
Pronunciation: 'kän-"trIt, k&n-'
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English contrit, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin contritus, from Latin, past participle of conterere to grind, bruise, from com- + terere to rub -- more at THROW

The definition given relates the grinding of our hearts as reflecting sorrow for our own sinfulness, as in the Catholic Act of Contrition prayer, but this clouds the issue. It is not that we are in this state of holy contrition necessarily because our actions and attitudes have made us less like God and we are "crushed" for the threatened loss of heaven and for fear of eternity in hell. To the contrary, it is that when the inevitable crushing losses of this life occur, we become most like Him and Them. And it occurs to me that this is what Jesus said repeatedly in stating that it is the hungry and naked, the lonely and abandoned that are His representatives on earth. They truly are .....

Monday, February 05, 2007

Godless Mornings


I can't do godless mornings anymore. I know because I tried. I found myself at 53 years old, sweeping the cobwebs out of my head and wondering where I stood with God. For a moment I was reliving a godless morning in Levittown, a kid who knew no God from an upbringing by atheist parents surrounded by homes with families who centered their lives around their God and their churches and synogogues. Here I was after several decades and a family of four grown children of my own who were brought up in an atmosphere of spirituality and faith, making the movements of that boy, getting my own breakfast with nobody else up in the house, planning my morning alone, carrying my toasted english muffin and my glass of milk to the easy chair in front of the television set.

But I said, "Let me try this in the present."

I quickly realized that it was now impossible. I could doubt my place with God. I could doubt His love for me. But there is no way that there could be another Godless morning, day, evening or night, not after the life I have lived and the things I have been witness to.

Monday, September 04, 2006


They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Psalms, 107:23-30, KJV

Saturday, September 02, 2006

This Blog - This Blogger


I've created this blog site as a primer for the blog I will be building with my son at the domain <www.surfnetter.com> I am a lifelong commercial fisherman, and I will be dedicating a page to this topic. But I am also an ex-atheist, born and bred, coming to a faith in a Higher Power as a young man in Levittown, Long Island, New York, and I will also be posting on this subject .

I have published a book, The Hidden Kingdom, which offers a solution to the Biblical/historical mystery of the Lost Tribes of Israel. While I am a practicing Roman Catholic Christian, I have found that my thesis on this topic has meaning for the Jewish community, allowing some of those who have had contact with it an intellectual means to see Gentile Christians truly as long lost brethren and the history of this relationship through the centuries in the Current Era as a continuation of the roller coaster ride that has been the brotherhood of Biblical Judah and Joseph and their decendants.

I will also be posting photos that I take on my days on the water of landscapes, seascapes, and sunscapes along with some of the wonderful, strange and exotic creatures that come up in my nets.