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"...Star differs from star in glory..."
(Vincent Van Gogh, "Starry Night over the Rhone," 1888)
I Corinthians 15:40-44:
"There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body."
I had a magnificent set of evenings over Memorial Day weekend sitting out among the moon and the stars--even sleeping out all night in my yard one night, it was so glorious--and seeing the lightning bugs begin their summer debut for the season. It was simply a magnificent weekend to be a speck in God's Universe. The sheer size and awesome timelessness of the "big" things in nature--the sky, the stars, the ocean, just to name a few--have always been the major spiritual grounding rods for me, my entire life. People just don't do it for me the way nature does.
I looked at the stars these last few nights and pondered the paradoxical dance that "people" seem to occupy in my existence, thinking how each star, in its own way, is its own "person." How like the stars in the sky, we are called to community, and how each of us in our own way feels called to individuals in that community. Yet for me, the paradox has always been nothing gets my goat like people sometimes. I can only handle people for so long, and then that secular monastic in me takes over and I retreat to my safe hermitage of my country life. There is my daily retreat from work, as well as "add on" forms like my occasional "silent Saturday morning," and my "stay-cation retreats where I never leave home." Yet I never feel "un-called" to be a part of a community. When I am home alone, after a certain amount of time enjoying my alone-ness, I think of what it is I am supposed to "do next" when I enter back into community. When I am in that community, after a while I start daydreaming of what I want to do next in my "alone time." Each needs the other, and truthfully, each feeds the other.
On one of those nights, I sat out and thought about different people with each star--what they were experiencing in their lives, and how it is that I am supposed to combine with them to light up the sky, yet maintain my own individual "star-ness." Each one of us with the incarnational light of God within us, but manifested in so many unique ways.
There seem to be at least three kinds of stars in my life experience. Most valued are the "stars I can always see"--for instance, in the winter, I can always find the constellation Orion, and in the summer I can always fix my gaze on Scorpio. They are like the people in my life who have now been my friends for three decades or more. How we relate to each other has changed drastically over the years--sometimes not even close to the roles in which our relationships started out--but we somehow can always adjust. Sometimes their light is very intense and intimate in my life, and vice versa; other times, the light is dimmer. But they are constants. They are appreciated for both their longevity and their versatility.
Then there are the stars that once were a major focus, but I now no longer pay much attention to. I really don't pay much attention to the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, or the North Star itself, per se. But there was a time I always looked for them. They are like the people who were once very involved and intimate in my life--old lovers, intense best friends, etc.--and somehow no longer figure much into the tapestry other than to be a thread once cherished, but no longer. Some of these fizzled out in a supernova of conflict, whereas others just sort of atrophied and slowly burned to extinction. Sometimes their light returns--but it is almost never of the same intensity that it once was, nor does my need to tend to that light return with the same intensity. I appreciate those stars for the history they have given me, even if it includes hard lessons.
Finally, there are the stars I just got around to noticing, like the time I first recognized all of Ursa Major, rather than just its "dipper." The first time I realized the dipper could be converted to a bear, it was an exciting time. It made the sky seem a little bigger than it used to be. I think about the gifts and talents in people I just now got around to appreciating in people who have been around me all along, or about the new people that come into my life over the years, and something about them challenge me to tend their light and let them tend mine. I appreciate those stars because they represent hope and promise.
Even the stars are perishable--which enhances my knowledge that people are perishable. It makes me understand the urgency of the Gospel of Mark, and in Paul's letters. If even stars are perishable, then people definitely are. Yet timelessness and infinity rides within all of them. What a beautiful, but messy, dance it all is!
Balinese Tattoo by Abenk
Beberapa waktu yang lalu yang sudah posting tentang Kent Tattoo. Kali ini saya menemukan lagi artis tattoo Bali Shadow Tattoo yaitu seorang artist tattoo dari bali namanya "ABENK".
Menurut informasi di situs resminya Bali Shadow Tattoo mengatakan bahwa Mr. Abenk merupakan artist tattoo nomor satu untuk Balinese Tattoo dan sudah berpengalaman 12 tahun.
Prestasi yang pernah dicapai adalah perlombaan 1st Place of Tattoo Festival in 2008 at Java. Dan katanya tattoo yang dibuat oleh Abenk dijamin bukan proses replikasi karena tattoo yang dibuat Abenk selalu merupakan inspirasi. Wow kalau begitu dijamin tattoo Abenk pasti tidak ada kembarannya.
Ah rasanya nggak perlu berpanjang lebar disini, Anda bisa lihat beberapa karya Abenk yang saya boyong kesini untuk sharing dengan Anda. Kalau mau langsung berangkat ke TKP silahkan klik disini.
Chest Tattoos
Much like back tattoos, its relatively common to see tattoos on the chest as well, some of which are small tattoo designs but more commonly you will see a large piece of tattoo artwork or numerous collaborated tattoo designs on a chest.
Checkout these celebrities with tattoos on their chest, Robbie Williams has the phrase "chacun à son goût", Ozzy Osbourne has a dragon and a skull on his chest, Lenny Kravitz also has a rather large dragon and Dennis Rodman has two bulls and some tribal tattoos on his chest.
See these pictures of chest tattoos below.
Some other famous people with chest tattoos include, Pete Doherty with "Baby ---" on his chest, Marc Anthony has small cowboy design, Eve has two well placed paw prints, and Tommy Lee has two large tribal lion tattoos on his chest.
Both NBA superstars Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James have several tattoos on their chest, Joan Jett has a unique Y shaped tattoo on her chest and Billie Joe Armstrong has a car, skull and other tattoos on his chest.
I hope you enjoy these great pictures of famous people who have chest tattoos.
Checkout these celebrities with tattoos on their chest, Robbie Williams has the phrase "chacun à son goût", Ozzy Osbourne has a dragon and a skull on his chest, Lenny Kravitz also has a rather large dragon and Dennis Rodman has two bulls and some tribal tattoos on his chest.
See these pictures of chest tattoos below.
Some other famous people with chest tattoos include, Pete Doherty with "Baby ---" on his chest, Marc Anthony has small cowboy design, Eve has two well placed paw prints, and Tommy Lee has two large tribal lion tattoos on his chest.
Both NBA superstars Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James have several tattoos on their chest, Joan Jett has a unique Y shaped tattoo on her chest and Billie Joe Armstrong has a car, skull and other tattoos on his chest.
I hope you enjoy these great pictures of famous people who have chest tattoos.
That Mysterious Critter called the Trinity
In that odd way that only people who have worked around a hospital can appreciate, I have found the fact that Trinity Sunday coinciding with Memorial Day Weekend (Or, as I like to call it, "Opening day of major trauma season,")--rather amusing.
I've got a confession. I find thinking about the Trinity too long, rather traumatic. My clergy Facebook friends find preaching about the Trinity on Trinity Sunday rather traumatic. Most of them refer in some way that it is a week where they feel compelled to teach those in the pews about the Trinity, and have to admit they really don't understand much about the Trinity.
Now, I can handle the diagram above. It's pretty straightforward and simple. I recognize God is in all three entities, and each of the three entities are not in each other--well...sorta. One person told me in a recent discussion, "I know I'm not my brother and I know I'm not my sister, but the family DNA is in all of us." That is kind of what the diagram parallels. I agree with all of that. But that's where it ends.
Here's my heresy...
I have this nagging feeling that the Trinity is a representational being--like the wave or particle theory of light. Although I would be the first to tell you that the Trinity and the statements in the Nicene Creed (well, except for that add-on about proceeding from the Father AND the Son--the Son half of the filioque was tacked on later to the Creed) are "true," I would tell you I think the reality lies behind the Trinity, and the Trinity is what we use to explain what is actually a single entity made of infinite parts.
For instance...
Light, in some ways, behaves like a wave. In other ways, it behaves like a particle. Odds on, it's something that is neither or both a wave or a particle. But we can function in our world, make great discoveries and inventions involving the spectrum of light, by acting like it is a wave when it's useful and convenient, and acting like it's a particle when it's useful and convenient. The fact that it probably is NOT exactly what we theorize it to be isn't relevant. We don't sit and bemoan that it's not "true." Truth is perception, more than anything.
But the fact that the Hebrew Bible has between 40 and 70 words (depending on which rabbi you consult) that describe one aspect of what Christians attribute to a function of the Holy Spirit, or God the Father, or the Messiah, makes me suspicious that the Trinity is to Christian thought what the wave or particle theory is to light--a representation we can wrap our brains around, at least to a basic degree, that allow us to be connected relationally to God, and not just function in that world, but imagine, invent, and share with others in community.
Did you ever notice humans, by and large, no matter what their culture, like "threes?" We like to think bad news comes in threes. We tend to use threes in literature, in our phraseology. Many things in science, if you repeat them three times, creates a greater than two standard deviations level of confidence, statistically. We tend to only start to "get" things after the third time we've experienced something. We say, "three's a charm." I used to think that was a function of Judeo-Christian culture, until I learned that many other religions--Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism, ancient Celtic religion, ancient Norse religion, etc.--also have many examples of the significance of the number three.
My theory--and that's all it is--is that for some reason, humans brains are hard-wired to be ok with three. Maybe it is because it's simply one more than what we can grasp in our own two hands. It's manageable. So when the Trinity was being "figured out," people like the folks who came up with the Nicene Creed sat there pondering this God with infinite faces and forms, and gravitated to explaining it in an iconic representation that is the default human level of understanding--three.
So for me, the Trinity is simply a three-pronged representation of an infinite concept--and here is where some people are going to shove me into the Express Lane to Hell for saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway--the Trinity seems to me to be more of a functional theory than an actual fact. There is truth in it, but the truth actually lies BEHIND it, not IN it, and I am willing to accept the "model" because it allows me to function in my world of "understanding my relationship with God." To accept the Trinity as "truth" also means I must accept the mystery that it is a representation of a bigger reality that I cannot possibly understand.
It's why I don't trust anyone who claims he/she can "explain" the Trinity to me. I think part of accepting the truth of the Trinity is to also accept that my brain, in my living human form, cannot possibly understand it, but I can understand enough of it to function as one of God's children within the confines of what it represents. To say "I believe in the Trinity"--to say the Nicene Creed and mean what I say--means I believe the reality it represents is only fully fathomable in the next world.
I'll be honest--this is a hard realization for me. I like to think I'm smart enough to "figure most everything out." But to accept that I cannot possibly figure this one out, is to accept another part of my life as a child of God--faith. Faith that this representation can take me everywhere I need to go, to live in service to God--and in that, I believe.
Tattoo Kupu-Kupu di Pundak
Tattoo kupu-kupu biasanya lebih disukai kaum wanita. Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari pun kupu-kupu melambangkan keindahan seorang wanita karena warna-warni sayapnya.
Back Tattoos
The back is an excellent location to get a tattoo, and seeing how it's the largest piece of real estate on the human body, many people choose to get very extensive tattoos on the back.
Many celebrities have tattoo designs on their back, checkout LeBron James who has the phrase "Chosen 1" on his back, rock star Tommy Lee has a tremendous amount of tribal artwork on his back, Jesse James has a 100 dollar bill with flames and David Beckham has several tattoos on his back including a crucifixion scene with the names of his 3 sons.
Checkout some pictures of back tattoos.
Nicole Richie has a cute pair of angel wings tattooed on her back, Megan Fox has a short poem that reads "We will all laugh at the gilded butterflies" on her back, Victoria Beckham has a quote from the Song of Solomon 6:3 "I am my love’s and my love is mine, who browses among the lilies." and rapper 50 Cent has "South Side" and a giant number 50 tattooed on his back.
Other famous people with back tattoos include, Ja Rule with crosses and angel wings, Davey Havok has large angel wings which covers his entire back, Josh Hartnett has a Celtic knot, Brandon Boyd has a pyramid with eye and wings tattooed on his back, basketball player Tim Duncan has a jester tattoo design, NBA player Carlos Boozer has a large archangel on his back, Chester Bennington has two dragons and the name of his band, and David Blaine has the "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" artwork tattooed on his back.
Many celebrities have tattoo designs on their back, checkout LeBron James who has the phrase "Chosen 1" on his back, rock star Tommy Lee has a tremendous amount of tribal artwork on his back, Jesse James has a 100 dollar bill with flames and David Beckham has several tattoos on his back including a crucifixion scene with the names of his 3 sons.
Checkout some pictures of back tattoos.
Nicole Richie has a cute pair of angel wings tattooed on her back, Megan Fox has a short poem that reads "We will all laugh at the gilded butterflies" on her back, Victoria Beckham has a quote from the Song of Solomon 6:3 "I am my love’s and my love is mine, who browses among the lilies." and rapper 50 Cent has "South Side" and a giant number 50 tattooed on his back.
Other famous people with back tattoos include, Ja Rule with crosses and angel wings, Davey Havok has large angel wings which covers his entire back, Josh Hartnett has a Celtic knot, Brandon Boyd has a pyramid with eye and wings tattooed on his back, basketball player Tim Duncan has a jester tattoo design, NBA player Carlos Boozer has a large archangel on his back, Chester Bennington has two dragons and the name of his band, and David Blaine has the "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" artwork tattooed on his back.
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