Lost my job in January. My original drafting job was outsourced. Turns out it was highly specialized and I didn't realize it. I thought I could easily get new drafting work. The bar keeps getting raised on how much you need to know, and what drafting Cad package. Very hard to find work. My son will be going to Iraq in April as infantry. My wife doesn't want me back. It is hard for me to sleep at night soundly. I only get relief when I think "I love you God". He is sending His love to me. I am just a mess, but you would never know it looking at me. I pray for you, and you pray for me. Ok.
Posts: 69 | Location: Davenport, Ia | Registered: 11 February 2006
Yes, Chrisonguard. God's given you some mighty crosses to pick up each day. He's there to help you carry them. He really does trust that you will not fail in your love for Him, and that you desire to be strenthened and grow more in the knowledge and the love of Him as you pass through these storms. I pray that your heart will soar like an eagle with the mighty plan that will be unfolded for you. You are ALWAYS on HIS mind. Keep your eyes upon Him, as I know you do. Remember His promise through these difficulties, that He will never forsake you or leave you. He's doing a new thing in your life, and it's hard to see it while you are in the midst of it. I'll pray for you and I'll pray that you have friends to come along side of you. Please stay in contact with what is going on.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
You are in my prayers. Feel free to vent here anytime. I'll listen.
I hope you have some meat-space people from which to draw comfort. If not, seek it out! You have a lot happening at once, and it's important to surround yourself with other people.
My company hires every good draftsman we find. Florida ain't such a bad place. Post an email address.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
Posts: 8264 | Location: Fl | Registered: 05 July 2001
So,in the last 5 years, you have had a job for about 4 months?, that is horrible, I would not hire you either. I will pray for you, you really need it.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Winston Churchill
Posts: 623 | Location: lefortovo | Registered: 09 February 2006
The up side is difficult to find sometimes. I've often thought of the Book of Job in the bad news upon bad news scenario. Lately, I've also thought of this: Trial by Existence.
--------------------------------------------------------------- "if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got." ---------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 6804 | Location: usa | Registered: 09 February 2006
“Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends. Speak to Him often of your business, your plans, your troubles, your fears— of everything that concerns you. Converse with Him confidently and frankly; for God is not wont to speak to a soul that does not speak to Him.” —St. Alphonsus de Liguori
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
quote: Damn Chris, you did not hold that job for long. Looks like about 4 months? Maybe if you worked harder.......?
Heartless.
matriarchal authoritarianism...
Tough Love
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Winston Churchill
Posts: 623 | Location: lefortovo | Registered: 09 February 2006
I once saw a brochure from one of our great national parks that said "If you should find your self in the jaws of a Grizzly Bear, remain calm. It can make the difference between being badly mauled and losing your life"
Harriet Lerner,Ph.D. -Fear and Other Uninvited Guests-p.221 Sometimes not so easy. You have a great opportunity to practice right now.
Not so long ago someone said to me "I will pray that evil demons come to visit you..."
The demons came. The person who prayed for this did not understand that my spiritual practice is not about accomplishing anything, its not about winning or losing but about ceasing to struggle and relaxing with things as they are. Change the things that I can, accept the things I can't change, develop the wisdom to know the difference. As taught in the practice that I follow, I treated the demons with compassion. I told them it was wonderful that they came tonight and asked that they return, perhaps tomorrow, and we could have a conversation. The demons turned out to be the monsters in my mind. The threats and the fears of my daily life. I communicated sanely with these fears and threats, with wisdom and compassion. Instead of reacting with fear and habit from a lifetime of behavior, new paths were revealed.
I found that nothing really ever attacks me other than my own confusion. So often I found myself not liking the way reality and my life was now and I often wished it would just go away fast. Chrisog, what I found through practice is that nothing ever just goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. Thats why it arrived, to teach a lesson. Oh I tried running away but no matter where I went there was the problem waiting for me. Different name,form or manifestation, always there to teach me about how I was seperating myself from reality.
You are lucky. You have stumbled on a unique place in the universe here. Many here have,wisdom compassion and the capacity to offer help.
As has already been said. Talk, talk, talk. Anxiety escalates and fantasies flourish in the absence of information. Dont be ashamed if there are certian risks you choose to avoid. Steer clear of activities that just rev you up, dont watch TV. Engage in activities that calm you down, walks, meditation, yoga, any physical activities, streches. Keep perspective, terrible things happen to everyone of us humans here and it is always possible to move forward with love and compassion. Most important as mentioned above, connect,connect,connect with people.
A verse for you,
"When spring passes, a hundred flowers fall. When spring arrives, a hundred flowers wave. The world glides past our eyes. Time scatters its dust over our heads. Don't say when spring passes, all flowers fade. Only last night, in the courtyard, an apricot bloomed."
Zen Master Ly Truong
Our prayers,thoughts and chants are with you.
"The moon that I love clears a path through the pines And guides a stream right to the bamboo gate."Poems by Zen Master Hsu Yun: Series I
Posts: 795 | Location: western slope, northern sierra | Registered: 18 April 2003
Originally posted by Chrisonguard: Lost my job in January. My original drafting job was outsourced. Turns out it was highly specialized and I didn't realize it. I thought I could easily get new drafting work. The bar keeps getting raised on how much you need to know, and what drafting Cad package. Very hard to find work. My son will be going to Iraq in April as infantry. My wife doesn't want me back. It is hard for me to sleep at night soundly. I only get relief when I think "I love you God". He is sending His love to me. I am just a mess, but you would never know it looking at me. I pray for you, and you pray for me. Ok.
Dear Chrisonguard,
By reading your heartfelt story, I was brought to this:
You've listed a lot of things that you say you don't want, if I'm reading you correctly. You're stating what you are afraid of, it's reading through your words when you said that your son is going to Iraq and when your wife says she doesn't want you back. When you state that the only relief for you is to think "I love you God" then that is what your only relief will be. When you state it's hard to sleep soundly at night, then it will be. By these thoughts, you are getting yourself into a spiral of negative thinking, and things will just get worse and worse. When I look at you (and, one can look at another without seeing his/her in a physical presence, then yes, I can definitely see that you are a mess. Only because you told me you are and that's what you're emitting.
You are focusing upon what you do not want. Scroll up to you first post and read it again. Carefully, slowly and thoroughly. Look at all the things that you do not want that you're telling us about. You seem to be very passionate about this, and this seems to affect you to your deepest core. When you focus on something with a lot of passion, it makes it happen even faster. You are your own magnet for the things that are happening in your life right now!
My prayer for you, dear Chrisonguard, is the following:
I pray that you don't feel you have to be 'On Guard' anymore but that can can breathe freely, openly and safely.
I pray that you'll find a way to change everything you've said in your message and simply rephrase it. Rename it to its opposite. I pray that you will start to see gratitude for the situation you're currently in. I pray that you will start to see the good in it.
I pray that you, by being grateful, attract more of what you DO want, instead of what you say you don't want. Because, when you do that, your job will come to you.
I pray that you will know that the right job for you is coming your way.
I pray that you will believe in yourself and God that this is in store for you, be it job-wise, relationship-wise, and/or you-wise. That God really does love you, because you love yourself first and you are open to not only knowing that God loves you, but also feeling it and experiencing it every day, because God (and you, by telling God this is what you want) made all the things you wish for yourself have come true.
I pray that you will find yourself through this experience, and I pray that you will realize that you've known how to do this all along. That all you have to do is trust that you know how.
I pray that you will be able to turn your life around because you changed from focusing on what you do not want, what you are afraid of, what you want to avoid, to focusing on what you do want. All the rest, including your wife's position regarding you, will fall back in place, and you will be 100% content with it.
I pray that you will allow your life to change because you'll change your thoughts and by doing so, emit a different frequency out into the universe, and to God.
I pray that you will realize that your life is in your hands. No matter where you are now, no matter what happened in your life, you can begin to consciously choose your thoughts and you can change your life.
I pray that you will soon realise that there's no such thing as a hopeless situation, and that you can change every single circumstance of your life into what you want it to be.
I pray that your son will be safe, and that your wife may find peace within herself. I pray that you will be able to do and be the same.
That is my prayer for you today.
Blessed be,
a
Posts: 140 | Location: Universe | Registered: 07 January 2007
I am amazed at the outpouring of concern, and prayers. Wow! I am getting pretty good at fighting the dark and desolate feelings with prayers, thinking of God's love, and thinking how much I love God, and remembering the one thing that would make the devil really happy is for me to lose my sense of humor and be joyless. I will keep working on the humor.
I know Unigraphics well enough to draw anything on it. I am teaching myself CatiaV5 and have successfuly modeled in it and identified the commonality with Unigraphics. I knew Autocad 16 for 2D work and I could make the jump to 2002,2004, or 2007. I would have to get a faster computer to learn Inventor 11.
I studied Architecture and can model up any home or building to the nth degree. I know how to detail steel. I am familiar with GD & T but never had to use it much. I have modeled up and detailed all sorts of fixtures, automation, conveyors, and the like. What hurts me is I spent 20 some years designing automatic welding equipment for the big three. I did a big gorilla arm Bronco overhead indexer to move the Bronco 50 feet in the assembly plant. If you gave me a pile of parts to be spotwelded together, I could plan all the welding out, layout the patterns, pick the weld guns, size the transformers... but most of this work has been outsourced overseas. I know some people in Florida.
I had the last job for 16 months which was the length of the contract. I was a full fledged handyman between jobs.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chrisonguard,
Posts: 69 | Location: Davenport, Ia | Registered: 11 February 2006
You said you pray I don't have to be "on gaurd" anymore. We are the guardians of our freedom. There is a belief that if we share in the suffering of the Cross we will be more perfect, and share in His power. The suffering we have on earth is all our own doing. I think Adam and Eve had spiritual bodies and thus were in the garden, and their sin was entering a material state through some passage.
I bring this up because many good hearted Christians would say the suffering from economic loss, war... would make you more Christlike. The early Christians pooled their resources so not one went without. Paul describes the system they had. Jesus said, "Love one another as I have loved you", and to not judge one anothers worth in the eyes of God. Love demands trust, because without it you have to be "on gaurd". I no longer trust the economic war machine to be just for our defense. It has taken on pre-emptive qualites morphing into a new state. People will now die for perceived threats and evils. As far as the corporations always remember the quote of I believe Adam Smith "Corporations have no souls and no butts to kick" and I would add especially corporations with no ties to the culture of the United States. I have very little money but need three times what I have, to learn enough to keep a job that would pay me enough to provide a little extra in my retirement.
I pray to God to allow me to suffer with less, and be happy still, but I like to make more to do more for the ones I love. I am my brothers keeper.
THE ONLY ONE I TRUST IS JESUS CHRIST WHO IS GOD. All others in my family I give trust unless they give me a reason not to trust them. Our government now presumes you are into something and can and will monitor you if it wants to protect the state of the country.
Many a millionare has become homeless. How about Father Caropi on www.relevantradio.com. He was a multimillionare, and became homeless for three years, before he went home, went to church, and was called by God to become a priest. I have fallen into the trap of the more money you make then you have to keep making the same or more, and can not re-wire your thinking to have a life where making less is ok. If you make less you can't help your loved ones in a way you have grown accustomed. I have put my faith in money instead of God, and I have to change this thinking if I am going to be happy. I have to learn to trust God to help my loved ones when I can't do it. The problem is I read all sorts of passages in the Bible that says we are to love and take care of one another with the emphasis on we.
Posts: 69 | Location: Davenport, Ia | Registered: 11 February 2006
chrisonguard, Please be encouraged by the fact that God gives us what we need and we can only understand that with faith, and the 'reason' becomes apparent sometime only later. All we have he has given; and all that He takes away is for His purposes and plans. His ways are not our ways. He's a refining fire desiring each person to be a brilliant jewel, a gem.
Remember Shadrac, Michac and Abednego thrown into the firey furnace who did not even smell of smoke when they were removed by the King after he noticed four men in the blazing furnace. Then the King bowed down to the living God? That's you, me and the rest of human civilization. Our lives are as if in a blazing refining furnace of life experiences. Do we smell of smoke or are we being molded into a glittering star, a polished jewel. He's the potter, we are the clay.
I've still got a few tough edges but as I listen to good holy priests like Fr. Corapi, my life is changed. What an amazing testimony that man has. What a great speaker and teacher he is. Did you know he had to be begged to go to Boston last year to speak at a men's conference. Boston is a swarmp as you know, a real hornest's nest. He did come, and I don't remember what the clincher was to get him there, but he showed up in priestly habit, of course with combat boots.
We all need to be wearing 'combat boots' today, figureatively, for we are in a battle for our souls, the soul of the United States and the soul of civilization. Fr. Corapi talks about regaining the high ground and picking off the generals in charge of the death culture. The major weapon he said is the Rosary. Pray it daily and even if you don't feel like it, pray it anyway!
I am truly blessed to know men who have a devotion to our Blessed Mother. Real men are not afraid to bow their hearts and bend their knees Our Blessed Mother teaches them how to be the best they can be in defending women and children.
Stay close to Fr. Corapi's teachings, and God bless your day, chrisonguard.
* * * * * * * * Without traditional regular moral principles that may be consulted confidently, justice cannot long endure anywhere.
Posts: 6275 | Location: Maine | Registered: 31 December 2005
Chris, I wish for you all the things that you say you need and want in your life. And I pray that you are wishing them for yourself as well, and that you will find a way to shift your focus from what it is that you don't want, to what you say you do want. I pray that you will come to realize (if you're not already starting to) that you deserve everything you wish for.
That's all.
Posts: 140 | Location: Universe | Registered: 07 January 2007
If you prefer smoke over fire then get up now and leave. For I do not intend to perfume your mind's clothing with more sooty knowledge.
No, I have something else in mind. Today I hold a flame in my left hand and a sword in my right. There will be no damage control today.
For God is in a mood to plunder your riches and fling you nakedly into such breathtaking poverty that all that will be left of you will be a tendency to shine.
So don't just sit around this flame choking on your mind. For this is no campfire song to mindlessly mantra yourself to sleep with.
Jump now into the space between thoughts and exit this dream before I burn the damn place down.
"When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say "inner world" or "outer world" but actually, There is just one whole world." ~Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
quote:
-Rest and Be Taken- Themes Death Freedom Perfume Silence Sky
My Secret is Silence: Poetry and Sayings of Adyashanti, by Adyashanti
When there is deep abundance there is nowhere to abide. There is nowhere to rest or grasp onto and yet there is rest
The sky abides yet it never rests. Neither can we say that the sky is not always at rest. We talk about the sky as if it were something as if it actually exists - and yet we cannot say that the sky does not exist. The sky is nothing but coming and going.
Everything is perfectly spontaneous. The coming and going arise mutually instantaneously. If the true I is asleep you will miss the point entirely and you will continue to dwell in the world of opposites.
So see the two as one and the one as empty and be liberated within the world of duality.
At first it seems as if begoing follows becoming. But look even closer and you will see that there are only flashes of lightning illuminating the empty sky.
Life and death becoming and begoing are only words. In order to save your life you must see that you die instantaneously moment to moment instant to instant.
Now where are you going to abide? And where are you not abiding already?
Indeed there is nowhere to rest your head and there is nothing but rest. So let go of all ideas about permanence and impermanence about cause and effect and about no cause and no effect. All such notions are dualistic concepts.
The Truth of what you are is completely beyond all duality and all notions of non-duality, and yet it includes duality and non-duality alike. Like an ocean that is both waves and stillness and yet un-definable as waves or stillness.
The truth of being cannot be grasped by ideas or experiences. Both waves and stillness are the manifest activity or your own self. But self cannot be defined by its activity nor by its non-activity. The truth is all-transcendent ungraspable, all-inclusive and closer than your own skin.
A single thought about it obscures its essence. The perfume of true life is right in your nose. There is nothing you can do to perceive it and yet you must do something. I say: Rest and be taken. Rest and be taken.
Adam and Eve began to exist as soon as God in His mind decided they should exist. In other words a thought in God's mind can have a consciousness of its own. In other words "God thinks therefore you are". We know we exist because, "I think therefore I am". Adam and Eve left God's consciousness because of their own conscious will. What could be a greater Garden of Eden then to be a consiously aware thought of God that doesn't die. Our weak consciousness left us open to temptation, which we accepted, and had to be tossed out, probably an autoresponse since God does not allow evil to enter into His mind. Physicists today would tell you everything you look at is really energy in different states. What is reality? Reality is true to the degree you are conscious. How is this all possible. God is infinite with an infinite mind.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chrisonguard,
Posts: 69 | Location: Davenport, Ia | Registered: 11 February 2006
Thursday I was going to go back to Detroit to live with my sister. I packed like crazy Wednesday and got a call at 5:30 pm to have a job interview on Friday in Peoria. Thursday, today, I am sitting on a ton of stuffed boxes.
What I would want out of life is to make money studying, of become part of a study commune. People devoted to just learning all sorts of subjects for the sake of survival in our society. No formal school but survival together. It is too hard and too expensive to learn everything we need to know today all on our own.
Posts: 69 | Location: Davenport, Ia | Registered: 11 February 2006
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