Spirituality * Culture * Self-Expression

Tag: widgets

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A few weeks ago, I mentioned that the “blog subscription” widget on my site suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. It hasn’t come back and I still don’t know where it went. I have, however, found a replacement for it. The new widget/plugin seems to work OK, but there are some concerns. First, none of my old subscribers were migrated to the new program so, if you had subscribed before, you will have to re-subscribe with the new system. Second, the notifications are going straight to the spam folders – even the notifications to me. I can’t seem to correct that on my end – I’m not great at even simple tech. If you have tried to subscribe, please check your spam folder – also, try to make your own adjustments to allow my notifications to get directly to your in-box. At this time, and for the foreseeable future, the only notices you’ll get from me are announcements of new posts. At some point, I might make other announcements – but nothing too ponderous to read. Third, I have no idea how long this widget will keep working.

If you prefer not to subscribe, perhaps you’ll consider bookmarking my page and checking in now and then. Since the start of the year, I have been consistently posting every week and I hope to continue that practice.

What comes to mind, for me, regarding this situation, is a comment frequently made by spiritual teachers. They often use phrases such as “when one door closes, another door opens” or “losing something makes room to find something better” or “everything that happens to you, happens for a good reason.”

I won’t say these are false teachings; they are, however, naïve and misleading.

Certainly, good things happen to good people: but so, also, do bad things. And good things even happen to bad people.

Really, for the most part, things just happen. God notices every sparrow that falls, but God doesn’t stop every sparrow from falling. Things are going to happen to us in the world – how we react to things happening is the important part for each of us, individually.

Sometimes when a door closes, we find ourselves locked in a room with no way out. There’s nothing wrong with hoping for something good to happen and actively looking for ways to make good things happen. There’s nothing wrong with having faith that whatever happens, we will be able to make the best of it. The problem revolves around the EXPECTATION that somehow a new door will magically appear without any effort on our part. We must each take action to create our own good.

Another popular saying comes to mind: “God helps those who help themselves.” We must open ourselves up to possibility and be ready to seize opportunities as they appear – or appear to appear. And if another door opens, step through it quickly before it shuts again. The real doors we should be seeking are the ones the open up within us.

So, will losing my old widget lead to something better? I don’t know. I’m just going to keep trudging along with these posts and hope people enjoy reading them. Sometime in the future I might invest in some service that handles widgets and upgrades and all that for me.

Maybe.

For now, I’ll continue doing what I do.

I might not be anyone’s open door, but maybe I can be a small crack in the wall that lets a few people peep out at the mystic world.

Gone

I have a lot of skills, knowledge and talent in different areas, but computer coding is just not my forte. I like programs that work for me without the need for understanding the process. I appreciate the work of other people who know what they are doing in the technical sphere that allows me to focus on generating my own silly rants.

There’s a widget thingy that lets people subscribe to my blog. By clicking on the widget, a person can set up a system that notifies them by email whenever I post something new. I’ve had this on my website since I first started it. Recently, however, I noticed that it is GONE. Apparently, it disappeared around the beginning of May. Why wasn’t I aware of its disappearance sooner? I never paid attention to it; I just took it for granted that it would always be there.

And, not only is it gone from my website, it also seems to be gone from the place where widgets live.

I did some checking on the support system and on the Internet in general and there’s no info about it. You’d think that if a popular widget like that disappeared or was discontinued it would be big news. Well, it doesn’t seem to be. So, maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m the only one who lost this app. I don’t know, I suppose I will figure it out some day – it may take a while – but for now I’m just accepting the fact that it is gone.

This got me thinking.

What other important things can disappear from our lives suddenly and without our knowledge?

How about faith? Has that gone away? When did it happen? What about hope? Love?

We take these things for granted; we don’t think about them. Then one day they are gone.

Did we have to do anything, such as write a program, to activate these things in our lives? Or do we just assume they were spontaneously generated conditions?

Faith, hope and love really are programs that are hardwired in our nervous system as part of our spiritual nature. They are always present, but they have to be activated. They never go away – they just sometimes fade into the background – perhaps, deactivated by the pressures of material life. The thoughts and struggles of day to day living often seem more important than our spiritual lives and can override more beneficial programming. To get them back up and running if they’ve been shut down, we need only to concentrate on recalling times we’ve experienced them. Pull the memories of these experiences up to the forefront of our consciousness and will ourselves to know they exist, have a useful, vital purpose in life, and are wanted.

With faith, hope and love we can stand up to whatever the dark forces in the world throw our way. We can preserve our individuality, maintain our spiritual dignity and hold onto the commitments we have for living a purposeful, abundant life. The illusions and fake reality of the material world, with its emphasis on the “great reset” and the “new normal,” can be overcome.

To be sure, there is a New World coming – not a world of “wokeness” – but a world of “Awakening” to the glory of Divine Spirit.

I don’t know if I’ll ever recover the subscription widget that can signal loyal readers when something new is posted. I can promise you, though, that if you bookmark this site and come back often you will continue to find, what I hope are, useful guideposts on the path to Enlightenment provided by your favorite mystic.

Love and Blessings and all good wishes for Peace Profound!

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