Remembering My Spirit/Spirituality...

And He answered, saying: 'Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with THANKSGIVING! And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for Peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "aye". And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart. For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with JOY that is UNACCLAIMED!

When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the SPIRIT! For Love that seeks naught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love, but a net cast forth; and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your BEST be for your friend. If he must know the EBB of your tide, let him know its FLOOD also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with Hours To KILL?
Seek him always with Hours TO LIVE! For it is to fulfill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of FRIENDSHIP let there be laughter, and sharing of PLEASURES. FOR IN THE DEW OF LITTLE THINGS - THE HEART FINDS ITS MORNING AND IS REFRESHED!"

ARE YOU A REASON, A SEASON, OR A LIFETIME?

Pay attention to what you read. After you read this, you will know the
reason it was sent to you! People come into your life for a reason, a
season or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know
what to do for each person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON. . . It is usually to meet a
need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a
difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you
physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend,
and they are! They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then,
without any wrongdoing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this
person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and
force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been
met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has
been answered. And now it is time to move on.

Then people come into your life for a SEASON. Because your turn has come
to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an experience of peace, or make
you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They
usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real!
But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons: things you must build
upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept
the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all
other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is
blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Thank you for being a part of my life.

"You don't know how you met me, you don't know why
You can't turn around and say goodbye
All you know is when I'm with you, I make you free
And swim through your veins like a fish in the sea
I'm singin' Follow Me, everything is allright
I'll be the one to tuck you in at night
And if you want to leave, I can guarantee
You won't find nobody else like me...."
Uncle Kracker "Follow Me"

Mon Apr 26, 1999 Mon Apr 26, 1999
From: "Michael W. Connett"From: "Michael W. Connett"

Subject: "WHAT IF GOD WAS ONE OF US?"...Catholic Diocese to Support Gays, but Not Lifetyle

Greetings!
As I mentioned in an earlier communication, The Catholic Diocese of Cincinnati has Come A Courtin'. However, as you will read they are still doing the same old dance to the tune of "Love the Sinner, But hate the Sin". Having been raised Catholic and attending Catholic Schools, not to mention my time in The Christian Brothers (great wine-makers), I still feel alienated by many of their positions but love the rituals and music. Their stand on Birth Control does a great dis-service to the entire over-populated world - the Rhythm Method just doesn't get it!! Just ask my Mom!

Cincinnati--A new ministry for gay and lesbian Catholics and their families will support individuals, but not their "lifestyle," the Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced March 12. "Catholic Ministry with Gays and Lesbians" is a ministry organized under the archdiocese's Family Life Office, under the direction of Peg Black. It will support "inclusion" for gay and lesbian Catholics living in the 19-county archdiocese, spokesman Dan Andriacco said. "The church wants to support the homosexual person but not homosexual activity," Andriacco said. "There is a need for pastoral care of homosexual persons. The archdiocese wants to meet that need, and not cede territory to ministries that don't support the teaching of the church."

The March 12 release by the archdiocese said the ministry may take various forms, such as prayer groups, days of prayer and reflection, and providing resources. It also will work at eliminating bias and discrimination against gays and lesbians and support inclusion. "I am particularly happy to see that they intend to work at eliminating bias and discrimination," Stonewall Cincinnati executive director Lycette Nelson said. "It's the right time and the right place." Nelson said the new ministry seemed to be the "opposite of the conversion argument" that has been proposed by some fundamentalist Christian churches and organizations, who last summer took out a series of ads in major-market newspapers claiming that gays and lesbians could change their sexual orientation by undergoing "reparative therapy." "I think that coming in the midst of all this conversion stuff, at least they seem to be taking the stand that gay people are people," Nelson said. "They might not recognize [same-sex] relationships, but at least they're recognizing people, and not saying they should be something else. As individuals who identify themselves as gay, it seems like the Catholic church is saying, 'That's okay.' "

How the archdiocese will continue to support gay and lesbian Catholics while stopping short of honoring their relationships, will "unfold as the ministry unfolds," Andriacco said on March 16. "The first step is establishing the ministry, and as it unfolds, it will be clear as to what sort of dimensions it undertakes," he said. The proposed ministry is not an attempt at reparative therapy, Andriacco added; "The [Catholic] church does not get into that at all," he said. "We certainly do get into chastity in relationships, but we don't get into reparative therapy. No way. There's no document that I know of that talks about that." The announcement is an outgrowth of community meetings that Auxiliary Bishop Carl Moeddel led last October to discuss the U.S. bishops' document on homosexuality, "Always Our Children," which was aimed at helping Catholic parents accept their gay and lesbian children, but later watered down to more accurately reflect church teaching. "Always Our Children," Black said in the March 13 Cincinnati Enquirer, "encouraged parents to continue to love their children despite their homosexual orientation." The teaching of the Catholic church holds that same-sex genital activity is "contrary to the natural law" and "objectively disordered," but that those with a homosexual orientation should be "accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity." During those discussions, there was a "sense of urgency" among parents that the archdiocese provide a ministry for gay and lesbian Catholics and their families, Leshney said. The Rev. Michael Leshney, chaplain to a Cincinnati chapter of the lesbian-gay Catholic group Dignity in the 1980s, will serve as spiritual director for the new archdiocese ministry. Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk will inaugurate the ministry with three prayer services in April. These services and gatherings afterwards will provide an opportunity to learn more about the new ministry, to articulate needs, and to become involved in the ministry. Invitations have been sent to all parishes in the archdiocese inviting interested persons to attend. Leshney said gay and lesbian Catholics often feel isolated because their parents are caught between the church's teaching on homosexual relations as "objectively disordered" and their love for their children. "There's that whole element of gay and lesbian Catholics who feel alienated from the church and have felt marginalized," he said. The new ministry "brings all of this together."

Conservatives in the archdiocese reacted cautiously to the announcement. Michael Rose, editor of the conservative St. Catherine Review, is taking a wait-and-see approach, but said he was troubled by Leshney's past affiliation with Dignity. Andriacco acknowledged the hurt felt by some gay and lesbian Catholics, and expressed hope that this ministry will heal some of that. "Just because the church has a strong stand on some of these moral issues, that doesn't mean that the church thinks it's easy for everyone to accept," he said. "The fact that the church thinks that it's right doesn't mean the church thinks that it comes without pain. Because a lot of moral teachings of the church are difficult for people." Ultimately, Andriacco said, the church teaches Catholics to follow their conscience in all matters. "In one of his latest encyclicals, Veritas Splendor, Pope John Paul said that it's a requirement to follow your conscience, even if your conscience is wrong. It's what you're called to do."

As the saying goes; MUSIC is truly the soundtrack to our lives... And The Divine Miss M is one of my favorites and a "Best-Bette" when it comes to giving expression to the mile-markers on My Journey...

Should you find yourself stuck in traffic; don't despair. There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.
Should you have a bad day at work think of the man that has been out of work for the last three months.
Should you despair over a relationship gone bad; think of the person who has never known what it's like to love and be loved in return.
Should you grieve the passing of another weekend; think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for $15.00 to feed her family.
Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance; think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.
Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror; think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine. Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering; what is life all about, what is my purpose? Be thankful, there are those who didn't live long enough to get the opportunity.
Should you find yourself the victim of other people's bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities; Remember, things could be worse....You could be them!!!

~~ "Yesterday is Gone, Today is here, and there is no promise of tomorrow... live for the moment and make the most out of each and every second of your life." ALLEN, 1999. ~~

"Each time a gay person finds the closet morally acceptable for himself or others, he degrades himself as gay and sinks to the level of abjection dictated for gays by the dominant culture. No gay person with sufficient self-respect and dignity can be required to view himself or other gays in this way." Richard Mohr

Personally, I agree wholeheartedly with Richard Mohr and will respond to that later. But I just couldn't let this response go unanswered...

In 1994, three years after my HIV+ diagnosis and Issue 3 had thundered through Cincinnati, I moved across the river back to my roots on The SouthBank. What follows are journal entries and my thoughts on the situation at that time:

"People who have never had a problem with or been touched by discrimination, verbal or physical abuse or harassment are quite content to stay in their closets and continue to 'pass' through mainstream society. But there are things they can do from behind their closet doors - Quietly and without fanfare that can make a difference. But they're too apathetic and selfish to be bothered!?!

The Cincinnati Gay Community deserved Issue 3; precisely because they are neither Out, Honest nor a Community. They are merely an un-connected collection of self-serving, apathetic, ego-centric, ambiguos, ass-kissing, closeted, gutless wimps!

"In America, the proponents of Family Values and Christian Morality first came for the Drag Queens, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Drag Queen. Then they came for the LeatherMen, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a LeatherMan. Then they came for the radical Gay Rights Activists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't about to speak out from the closet and rock the boat. Then they came to quarantine the AIDS/HIV-Challenged, and I didn't speak out because I was disease-free. THEN they broke down my closet door and came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

All war is full of misery & degradation; in regard to Gay Rights & the Repeal of Issue 3, you can suffer that abjection from your closet (something akin to fleeing to Canada) or you can stand up for yourself and what's right by fighting on the Front lines.