Courage in Silence

Watched a movie recently that I really enjoyed, that I seem to think of quite often since...  "The Music of Silence"- a biography about Andrea Bocelli. 

Mr. Bocelli's story apparently began with a great deal of crying.  His parents felt the crying was not "normal" and so at 5 months of age they sought doctor guidance.  It turned out Andrea's eyes did not function as most do.  As happens in many such situations, the family then experienced many challenges together, but ultimately there is also blessing as they grow together.  Anyone raising a child with a disability can perhaps feel some parallels in this.

I suppose I love this story most because it is centered around a childhood filled with music that leads to triumph over challenge.  It was interesting to me to learn that Andrea Bocelli had a wonderful singing teacher who, when starting out, advised him to not sing or even talk for a full week before they began their lessons, and often periodically beyond that.  This served to strengthen his wonderful voice.  The message was that the most beautiful music can be born from silence.  Oh, I sure hope so, I think, as one of sons is oh so silent most of the time - so much so that he cannot even enjoy the sound of music, as he says it hurts his ears.  One day, he will "make the most beautiful music", I am certain.

As I embark on a last week of vacation for this summer, I reflect on that idea of silence building strength.  After all, that is part of what vacation is meant for - to recharge - to build strength to go back to our work.  I have had a few weeks of vacation already this summer, and I am grateful to find that happening.  My mental state feels much better now than it did even a month ago. I find myself today humming "The Bare Necessities"... this always makes me smile and reflects my focus.

I've also been reading a book about philosophy recently, entitled "The Courage To Be", by Paul Tillich.  I've not really made it very far into the book yet - finding it a rather difficult read which I may or may not continue.  However, it seems to be describing how various philosophers have defined courage over time, which is a topic I find myself interested in, as courage is a virtue.

While reading this book earlier this week, I found myself reflecting that people like Andrea Bocelli demonstrate a great deal of courage.  Interesting then was when into my inbox popped a message from a Virtues Project Facilitator, providing a link to a video about Aristotle's views about what it means to be a virtuous person - the kind of person all of us should aspire to be and that other people want to be around:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrvtOWEXDIQ&feature=youtu.be  Among other things, the short video includes explanation about the distinction between courage (what a virtuous person should strive for) and cowardice or recklessness (extremes we should avoid).

Now, as I've mentioned a number times in other posts, I've been focusing quite a lot recently on simplifying things in my world.  I am trying to spend more time doing things I used to enjoy, and less time worrying about the challenges people I love are facing since doing that really is not useful.  As I think anyone desires, I want to behave more like the many virtuous people I have the pleasure of knowing, so I'm trying to put my energy into that instead.  For me, I suppose part of this means sometimes having just "the courage to be"- to sit quietly just listening to the silence, which I find inevitably brings music to mind.  I have been blessed to know so many people who have brought music into my world and I am so very grateful for each and every one of those people!

I reflect also though, sadly, that all too often the music stops, and then I think.... we must have not only music in silence, but also courage in silence as well.  This past week was such a week.  After battling cancer for the past few years, many in our community are very sad as we reflect that our church organist has passed away.  I had prayed she would get better and that maybe even someday she would teach me to play my fiddle, as she played so beautifully.  She will be dearly missed, and now I pray all who knew her will find both courage and music in the silence.

Enjoy this "Beautiful Sunday" folks.

She's a Maniac

I woke at 3 am today.  Now it's 6 am and (sigh) I have not slept since and the song in my head is "Maniac" by Michael Sembello: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVnqHciXB7Y

We all must laugh at ourselves sometimes, though this is not a laughing matter for some experiencing this!

The team I lead is rather aware, as they've received some work-related responses to their email in the last few hours, and they have replied to me with some expression of concern to say "Hey, you should be sleeping!"  You see, they have seen this before.  It's a sign I'm in a "manic" state (though they may not have that label in their mind).  It's a sign I am thankful I am able to be aware I'm in and able to take a step back from.  I recognize in this moment that I need to pause my work and make myself relax.. and writing this helps with that.

Being in a manic state is something that can be part of having a mental disorder.  In my case, as mentioned before, some have labelled my condition as part of some form of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (maybe Asperger's Syndrome).  This state for me seems to be triggered when I have been working on a problem and suddenly I recognize a solution, but that solution will take time to implement and my mind is "full" of ideas to implement the solution.  I get in a state where I have paper at my bedside and I suddenly find myself jotting notes, and I cannot sleep until the thoughts are written down.  This means that in some ways it's a "good" state, but on the flip side you would also recognize I've stopped sleeping and so it's "bad".  To try to get out of the state, I try to distract myself by doing other things, like responding to unrelated email at work.

I take comfort in knowing there are many famous people in this world who have experienced episodes.  Google "famous people with manic episodes" to see what I mean...  I've lost the reference now, but I recall reading once that Einstein kept paper at his bedside for this reason.  My "ideas" are nowhere near as bright as his, but they will help solve some issues at work.  Maybe you've seen the episode of "Big Bang Theory" where Sheldon stands at a white board for days, writing ideas and trying to solve a problem?  Much like that...

Some people manage this state of mind through use of medication.  I've considered this, but in my case I find the "episodes" are harmless and generally short-lived, as long as I or someone else notices me in the state.  Some people "self-medicate" (drink, smoke pot, or take illegal drugs) to deal with all this - a path I'm grateful I did not choose as I watch other people deal with that choice.

Time for some rest for me it would seem.  Grateful I am already coming out of this state and already scheduled some leave starting at end of this work day for a week!

Happy Canada Day and July 4th in the U.S. to those who will celebrate this week!

This is the Day

Wanted to take a few minutes to "check in" with my readers!

Ever notice how things seem to get worse before better?!

It's been VERY busy lately, and at points in recent weeks I really wondered if they would ever turn around, but at least they did!

A few weeks ago, spent a week of vacation sorting through virtually every toy we ever purchased or received as gifts for our kids, who are all teenagers now and have little need for any of it.  The organization of our house was quite literally destroyed, as I scattered things to sort on our dining room table, kitchen floor and office floor...  I have some advice for parents!  Do NOT purchase beads or hair elastics!  You will find them in EVERY bin or box or other organization container you keep in your home.  So glad to be through that sorting, and managed to sell about 2/3 of the stuff and make a little cash, and there is a bit more space in our home now as well, though more to be done "someday" soon!

After that, coming back to work was usual..  317 email messages in what was a 0 inbox when I'd left the week before.  Gah.  Managed to catch that up now, just as I intend to go on vacation about a week from now again for a week.  That cycle will be rather vicious all summer I think, as I have booked quite a few weeks here and there to try to get my brain some seemingly much needed rest.

Next, there was a day trip to the children's hospital with our daughter, to consult about latest advice regarding best practices to encourage teenagers to eat healthy food.  A few weeks ago, after consulting a dietician because our daughter still refuses to eat meat (except bacon) and veggies (except fries) and she has low iron and thyroid issues now, I was led to start reading a book which is quite intriguing, recommending practically the opposite of all advice we've received in the past...  "Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family", by Ellyn Satter.  At the hospital, the doctor encouraged us to continue on that path, getting "back to basics" with eating (cutting out all the processed crap we seem to eat) while trying to get at least a tiny morsel of meat or veggies into her with every meal.  I'm about half through reading that book and hope to get through it soon.  Let's just say I'm still reading and struggling with all this, but getting ideas and working on increasing how often we eat together as a family.  My daughter is at least going to school more now, and I have just 2 more lunch packing days for school this year, so there is that bit of good news!

Of course, other "life" events were in the mix recently.  Our boys wrote exams this week and are waiting to hear their results.  People keep lamenting about how much death and illness seems to be around anymore as well :(  Glad to hear today that another family victim of stroke is heading home at least!

This week has been heavily focused on making plans at work to adjust our approach.  It's been quite stressful and frustrating at times...  On Wednesday night, I decided to aim for some distraction by going to bridge and then watching "Babies" on Netflix.  This is quite cute and it's very interesting to see in this documentary how very differently women around the world handle their babies...  Thought especially cute to see one baby sitting in the dirt, getting completely filthy, and then reaching out to another to make his lips vibrate...  This baby was SO happy.  Another simple reminder that maybe we all could benefit from getting back to basics!

After that, woke up yesterday with a song in my mind... "This is the Day"  LOL - church music on a Thursday!  Indeed, we all need to try to "be glad" and "rejoice" in what we have though!  Still, thought it a funny song to be thinking about, given how intense our discussions at work have been this week.  I pushed on through the day yesterday, though very tired and quite grateful for the progress we made.

That brought me to today, when I woke up with another song.  This one truly made me laugh out loud about how crazy things seem to be at times.  I think God has a sense of humour, because this day I woke with a different song on my mind...  the "Pinky and the Brain" theme song! 

Pretty sure I'm Pinky (insane), and the folks around me are more like Brain (trying to take over the world at work)!  We sure have a lot to do!

Grateful for fantastic colleagues and friends to help me through when things get challenging as they have been lately!

Continued discussions today, and we are getting through some of our challenges, plus the sun is shining, so life is good!

Time to do the typical 5 loads of laundry for the week, which can be strangely relaxing!  May also continue watching "Father Brown", which is a pretty good mystery series if you are into that.

Enjoy your weekend!

That's the Spirit!

About a month ago, I was still finding myself very tired and my "up" and "down" moods seemed to continue to be pretty intense.  I was finding it very hard to get out of bed each day.  We have a serious shortage of doctors here in Nova Scotia.  Our family physician left months ago and, while there is no replacement yet, if we want to see a doctor then we need to go to an after hours clinic where typically we need to wait 2-3 hours to talk to a stranger.  After weeks of thinking about doing so, I decided I would do this, as then I could get routine blood tests done and then take that info to a local Naturopathic Doctor.

On the evening of Friday, April 27th, when suddenly I found myself with some "free" time because my son no longer needed me to take him to school like I anticipated, I decided to go to that walk-in clinic.  Not sure about you, but I'm not good with new people, and so I found it hard to explain my situation to the stranger in front of me, but I managed to walk away with a form to get blood tests done on Monday morning.

The next Friday, I went back to that clinic to hear the results and was relieved to have the same doctor there.  You cannot always count on that at the walk-in clinic - usually it's someone different every time.  The doctor told me...  "You have elevated liver enzymes.  Do you drink?"  Of course, I don't drink at all, so that explanation was ludicrous.  He wrote up another lab request form, and told me I need to go again for a repeat test of my GGT levels in a month to see if this changes.  I asked him what causes that and he seemed to brush me off.  I asked him if it could simply be temporary from stress and he said, yeah, that could be it.  He said my cortisol results were not in yet, so I should check back in a week about the result of that test.  He didn't take the time to explain further.  Instead, I felt very rushed out the door.  Sure felt the doctor shortage on that evening!

Well, what does a computer geek do when she goes to a doctor and is left with questions about a blood test?  She goes to our friend "Google", right?  You're all cringing now, aren't you?

I looked up "elevated liver enzymes" and here's what I got:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/elevated-liver-enzymes/basics/causes/sym-20050830
I didn't sleep very well in the past few weeks.  I was a bit unnecessarily freaked out ;-)

Now, after a few weeks of waiting, that last test result finally came in, and so this Saturday I found myself in that clinic again, with another 2 hour wait to see another doctor I had never met before.  This turned out to be a blessing.  This doctor took his time.  He explained that my cortisol levels are in the normal range, which honestly surprised me because I feel extremely stressed out most of the time now it seems.  I pressed him further on all this...

Turns out my liver enzyme levels are only "mildly" elevated.  I was a bit surprised to learn that some employers could actually look at a test like mine and reject me as an employee for fear that I'm an alcoholic.  That seems rather harsh and unfair, especially to a non-drinker!  Will have to keep that in mind if I choose to apply somewhere else someday...

He went on to explain further though, thank goodness!  It's likely I'm in menopause.  The "on edge" moods could all be explained by that simple "change" that we women must deal with.  I should get used to this, as it is not likely to get better for a while.  Far better than what "Google" was telling me - LOL!  I'll still go see the ND because I have observed her helping others in this time.

Now, Sunday was interesting.  As I said, I've been REALLY tired lately.  Still, I find that going to church is good for me, and so I ensured I made it there.  During children's time, our minister talked about "ruach"...  Did you know that in Hebrew there is a single word that means "breath", "wind" and "spirit"?  Google corroborates this, too ;-)  https://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-ruach.html  He had us do some deep breathing, and there was extra singing, and I walked away from the service reminded of the days when I used to meditate and that did a world of good for me.  I was totally energized!

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny Sunday.  After a few years of living with a kitchen ceiling with a hole that I tried to patch, sand and prime a few times and gave up on, I finally found the energy to try again.  Last night, I was SO happy crawling into bed realizing that FINALLY I had patched and primed that ceiling.  Today, it was beautiful again.  I hauled our deck furniture out and then spent a good part of the holiday sitting on our deck reading a book.  Thinking about that word "ruach", I can't help but reflect now..  maybe "That's the Spirit!"

I will have to ensure I do that deep breathing and meditate more often!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend, too.  If you are in Canada, Happy Victoria Day!

How do you Define Office?

Imagine you have noticed...  Many of our non-profit organizations are struggling now, a lot.  Every day, there seems to be another story of a group fighting to keep its members, pay its bills, and just plain keep it together.  This is a huge challenge for our communities, as we have become very dependent on such non-profit organizations in our lives.  So much of our world is dependent on volunteers, and yet it seems that more and more people are "too busy" or there is "not enough money" to keep the organizations afloat.

Facing declining membership and significant elimination of funding from government, one Nova Scotia group currently based with an office in Truro has even given me a direct question to answer.  "We are interested in redefining office," their leaders have stated.  "How would you redefine our office?"

As someone who works full-time, yet doesn't have an office, and hasn't had one now for over a decade, I find this question quite interesting!  My first reaction is, "Why do you think you need an office?" You see, I don't have an "office" in the traditional sense, but I do work full-time for a corporation out of my home.

Perhaps we could start with a list of tasks that typically happen inside the office, all of which I assert can be done from home instead?

• Respond to questions from members, using phone or email
• Pay bills, write receipts, accounting records
• Ordering stuff, receiving stuff, arranging accommodations
• Advertising or otherwise telling people about our organization
• Running computer hardware and software to do business over the internet
• Making sure people are there and have what they need to do the organization's work (mostly volunteers)
• Administrative stuff like photocopying, printing

Maybe ask yourself, is there anything you do in your current office that you could not do from a home instead?

In my own work, the only time this seems to happen is when a face-to-face conference is deemed necessary.  For me, this has happened less than once a year, in the last decade!  Normally, I do my work using a computer with internet service and Skype.  I don't even use a traditional phone for my work anymore, though I know there are "virtual office" services available so you can still have a physical address and phone number if you need it separate from your home.

As for conference space, I think that even if you need to do face-to-face meetings more often, there are alternatives to have a full-time space.  As an example, maybe you could arrange to host meetings in a community room in a library or community hall, or perhaps your community has a hub space where different businesses will split costs to have access to a meeting room for occasional use?

Personally, I like the small tax break that I get by working from home.  Say you have 10 rooms in your home, and you use a room for business purposes...  In Canada, you can claim 10% of your power bill to reduce the income tax you pay.  You can also claim what you pay for your home-based in internet service, because you're using that for business purposes.  There are other claims that can be made as well, depending on your circumstances.  Also, I love that I don't pay for gas in my car every day, here is less wear and tear on my vehicle, and I don't waste an hour or more driving to/from work every day either - more "me" time when work hours are done!

There are a few challenges to working from home as well, of course.  It was a bit tough at first, not seeing people all the time "in an office".  What I learned to do though was to use tools like Facebook (sparingly) to replace the social trips to the "water cooler".  Also, I found I needed to have someone else watching my kids, so I could close myself in a room to work quietly.  Those are really small challenges though, when I consider the benefit I've had where I've been there for the brief moments when my kids really seemed to need their Mom.

Does anyone else out there have ideas about how to "redefine office"?  I bet I'm forgetting some good points...  Please "comment" to add to this, as I'm sure the group asking me for input would like to know!

Agile - To be or not to be?

Want to work with our team?  Check out http://jobs.dxc.technology! 

This has been my focus for a weeks now, so thought I'd share a bit about what our team is doing, because it's exciting!  In India, I'm looking for three automation engineers, a data scientist, and a machine learning specialist, and there are many other leaders looking to fill other roles as well, with focus on artificial intelligence, catalog services, and more!

Who are we?

Prior to 2016, "Waterfall" was the method for managing projects.  We would develop and release many artifacts by going through a series of phases that typically took months to go through.  We would identify requirements for all the components, then prepare a component design document for each component we wanted to develop, then develop each component, then conduct designer testing for each component, then conduct integration and acceptance testing for all components as a single set, then finally release.  A release took us many months!

In about 2015 though, we started to explore a new way of working...  "Agile" methodologies.  Some of us (including myself) studied Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) 4.0 in 2016, and became certified as Scaled Agilists.  Our team evolved our approach.  Our team is now a Scrum team, within a few Scrum of Scrums teams, where I am "Product Owner" (a.k.a. internally as "Engineering Dev Lead") for some "element" solutions intended to support delivery of DXC offerings of services, including but not limited to:

• Workplace Devices Services (WDS)
• Virtual Desktop and Applications (VDA)
• Mobile Enterprise Services (MES) 

Now, instead of taking many months to release updates to our "elements", we have evolved to release about once each quarter, and we're still working to become even more agile!

Our Current Approach

Now, about once per quarter, the team I lead decides the key scope of focus for our element, typically based on need to support a new version of key vendor products, and then we log a backlog of stories to take care of the various phases necessary to evergreen and add components in our solution, with concentration on supporting installation, configuration and operation of these products integrated with other products.  We also continuously add stories in our backlog to describe changes we feel we should make to improve our existing collateral.

Our team includes experts who focus on "capabilities", such as ensuring a COTS product can be installed and configured with best practices in mind or ensuring a new service can be delivered through integration of various components together, and we also have experts who focus on developing components to differentiate DXC from our competitors.

Once every two weeks, we choose a set of stories from our backlog, plan the changes needed in our components by documenting "sub-tasks" in each story and estimating time we'll require to get each task done, aiming to provide each engineer with a set of sub-tasks that can be completed in the next two week period, and then we set to work and review at end of the two weeks.  We repeat this procedure 8-10 times, and that ultimately leads us to deliver a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) release of documents and other artifacts to produce an element release.

Now, instead of taking many, many months, we typically take about about a quarter to produce an updated release of our solution related to our key vendor products of focus.

Our Challenge

With each commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product from a vendor, our small team of engineers now needs to maintain about 60 DXC-developed automation components (about 50,000 lines of code) to install, configure and integrate about 40 components from our vendor partners.  We also maintain over 100 documents capturing details of design, test records, and best practice recommendations.

In some cases, our documents and components are clearly valued for delivery of offerings, while in other cases we have started to identify we should retire them (some have been around for 15 years).  We want to focus on developing content with highest value.  We want to bring in the future, as we are learning about data science, machine learning, and more!  Sometimes, it can even be a bit scary to think about - watch "Black Mirror" on Netflix to get some ideas about why I say that ;-)

Our key challenge now is that this is a LOT of artifacts for such a small team to manage, so right now we are working on DOUBLING our team size!  Exciting!

What's Next?

Recently, our company (DXC Technology) released a white paper called "Creating the Agile Organization":
http://assets1.dxc.technology/innovation/downloads/DXC_Creating_the_Agile_Organization.pdf

The paper highlights that Agile is typically great for managing development of custom components, but weaker as a methodology for managing collateral related to COTS components.  This describes well what I feel is the latest "aha" moment for our team... the next phase in our history of loyalty?! 

We are now working on a shift, where we will focus more on the DXC-developed components in our solution that are intended to differentiate DXC from our competitors.  We are considering breaking up our solution to manage a bit differently.  We need to continue to use Agile to manage changes in the DXC-developed components that are considered of high value - we want to shift to release changes to those components separately much faster - maybe even every two weeks!  We are exploring changing our way of working..  maybe we could use Kanban to manage evergreen of our support for the COTS components?  We have lots of options - the challenge is finding time to figure it out while we keep it all going and interview people, too!

Time will tell where we go next.

Are you the right person to help us?  If you want to be a part of this and have the right skills, please consider applying!  Check out http://jobs.dxc.technology!

My Coming Out Story

Did you ever notice how sometimes, when you learn something new, suddenly you observe that something more often?

Since a few weeks ago, when I wrote about a butterfly I received in church (you can click here and see bottom of this older post if you don't know what I mean), I've been thinking a lot about butterflies and the amazing process of metamorphosis.  Really, it's quite miraculous and yet still mysterious, I think!  Maybe Jesus went through a process like that?  I wasn't there, so who am I to say if he did or didn't?!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/

I have my butterflies posted on my fridge now as a daily reminder to myself and perhaps my children - to be grateful and remember there are many mysterious and wonderful things in this crazy world.

I've also been thinking a fair bit about how there are many things in this world that I don't understand.. many wonderful things still to learn!

As I've continued to reflect on faith, I think it's an interesting coincidence that, all week long, I've had the song "From a Distance" by Bette Midler stuck in my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN4AcFzxtdE
I really love this song.  It seems to speak to how I feel deep inside...  Today, I decided that since I seem to love this song so much I should check out more of her music, so I went to iTunes and purchased her "greatest hits" album.  What showed up?  To my surprise and joy, there is a butterfly on the cover of her album!

Earlier this week, I was feeling quite exhausted during an evening.  I was stressed about work, and decided I needed a distraction.  Lately, when I get this way, I find myself letting Netflix suggest movies to me, based on some I've watched and enjoyed in past.  No, I haven't been watching movies about butterflies..  just a lot of Christian movies!  This time, the movie that showed up was called "Miracles from Heaven"...  If you're looking for a "feel good" movie that will likely cause you to break out a box of tissues, this is a must see...  This movie is such a wonderful true story about faith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracles_from_Heaven_(film).  I think equally interesting to me though was, guess what?...  Butterflies appear in this movie as well!

Now, this got me thinking about other symbols related to faith...  I have this beautiful picture that a minister friend gave to our family when our daughter Morgan was born, depicting Noah's ark (previously included in post, but tried to remove with thoughts I might be violating some copyright law).  In last weekend's reflection in church, we were reminded about the story of Noah from the Bible, and this led me to remember this picture that still hangs on our daughter's wall.  As I said, I still have much to learn, or probably more accurately re-learn - my memory seems to be terrible these days!...  I was reminded about Genesis 9, where God speaks after presenting a rainbow to Noah.  The story says that God presented Noah with a covenant agreement - that He would never again flood the Earth to destroy all living things, and as a symbol of this agreement He presented a rainbow in the sky.  Many have reflected that the bow is a symbol of old-time warfare, and so when you see a rainbow in the sky you should think of it as a symbol of people hanging up their bows on a wall.  I think it's a beautiful thought, much like butterflies!

I also love frogs!  They also go through some pretty cool changes, eh?  Recall this post from last year?  https://www.facebook.com/christine.mackenzie.902/videos/pcb.10154339978040763/10154339976900763/?type=3&theater  Soon, this sound of peepers will be here again, too, and I love that!

Now, I mentioned in my last post that recently my daughter sang "Ring of Keys" in the local music festival.  What I didn't share was her reason for doing this, as I wasn't sure how she'd feel about that.  She has told me she's okay with me talking about it though, so here it is...  

Recently, I find my daughter seeing rainbows often, and exclaiming... "Look, Mom!  My people are here!"  I have learned so much from my daughter!  You see, my daughter has decided that she doesn't care what a person's sexual orientation is.  In fact, she embraces the idea that we're all different, all "original", all unique in our own way.  She now uses a label to describe herself and others that I think is really quite beautiful...  and I didn't even know it existed until she informed me.  She describes herself as "pansexual".  I confess I had no clue what this word meant when she told me, but now I reflect that I think it's a beautiful way for a person to describe herself!  In case you're like I was, and have no idea what it means...  try a simple Google search, and perhaps you will also have your eyes opened to a new way of thinking...  a new "rainbow" symbol, too :-)

I titled this "My Coming Out Story" though...  not my daughter's.  I'm saying she chooses not to identify herself as sexually oriented one way or the other, as "people are people".. period.  I've learned that "Ring of Keys" is often a song used by people to "come out", as you can see in this video that I've found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_UORDF_gQk. I really enjoyed watching this, and so I'm sharing.

So what am I "coming out" about here?

If you made it this far, you likely know that I love to read, and also I am a bit obsessed about learning about why people have faith, seeking to strengthen my own feelings of faith, which generally I think is a transformation I've been going through... I do think there is a "higher power" at work in this world..  There is something quite mysterious and wonderful still about this world that I cannot explain, and so I choose to have faith... it's "possible" that a man could have resurrected...  I think it could have happened once, as a "miracle" if you wish to think of it that way, much like sometimes people "miraculously" are cured of a terrible disease and people around them simply cannot explain it.  I prefer to believe that!  I'm not feeling ready to say with 100% faith that it happened, but I am at least willing to say there is possibility there.

With this in mind, I recently read a book called...  "One World, Many Religions", by Mary Pope Osborne.  I have often wondered to myself, what do people who practice other than Christian faith think?  So, I read this book, cover to cover within about an hour!  I thoroughly enjoyed this read, as it drove home some thoughts I've had for quite a while now... I truly don't understand why it is that people feel that other people must subscribe to one and only one religion.  In reading this book, I learned of the natural progression that many religions of this world seem to have gone through and common roots many seem to have been born from.  There are so many different faiths, but at the heart of many is a common beginning.  Interesting to me was to read that Muslims trace their ancestry back to Abraham, just as Jews and Christians do.  About 600 years after Jesus, a man named Muhammad came along and spoke of one God who spoke to him as well, and his followers wrote down his messages in the Koran, which includes many stories that appear in Christian and Jewish scriptures as well.  So, I still don't understand really, why must some feel the need to fight over it all?  Can't we be followers of multiple positive leaders from our past?  Choose to follow BOTH Jesus and  Muhammad, as examples?

This Sunday, I will be "coming out" as a Christian..  re-affirming my faith in a more public way in our church by becoming an official member.  By doing this, I'm saying that I'm proud to be a follower of Jesus - a great man who taught people we should ALL love EVERYONE.  Maybe, in his own way, he was saying we should all be "pansexual"...  There is no need for us to subscribe to just one sexual orientation, or even just one faith!  This Sunday, I feel I could just as easily "come out" as a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, or perhaps label myself in many other ways I've not even learned about yet!

I think it might be simpler though...  We could all quite simply just label each other as "people" and choose to love each other and learn from the good, kind people in our common history.  Isn't that the simple answer to world peace?  

The more important reason that I want to become a member of our church is that I am proud to be associated with this group of loving people in my community.  It brings me great joy to see them each Sunday, and share the experience of hearing stories of good things from history and do good with them now, so I want to officially say so to them - and a way to do that is to become an official member of the church family.

As you know I love lyrics, I'll close with this...  I am reminded of a song I've heard quite a number of times in our church:  http://www.circle-m.ca/crcn/newsletter_pdfs/family_hymn.pdf. The father of a member of our church wrote this song.  Isn't that wonderful?