Today is the First day of the Rest of my Life

You know I have recently started studing the Bible. Am not sure where it will take me, but I know it's a path that I should be walking down. I always thought the Bible was some dry and uninteresting stuff. But lately, the Bible seems to talk to me, seems to have a lot of meaning for me. God, I never thought I would be doing this. It's like a 360 degree turn around, but I think it's happening.

I don't want to walk around being one of those weird Jesus Freaks, but I know my life is changing and a new direction is opening up for me. I am not sure what form it will take, but I think I am ready or soon will be ready to serve.

My Thoughts

I would like to say some things about myself.

I was born and raised a Catholic till I was about 20. I was never able to feel a connection with the teaching of the Catholic Church. The next 5 years, were devoid of religion and were some of my heaviest drinking years.

After I got married, I basically had no religion which encompassed the next 20 years. My drinking continued off and on, depending on my situation and at times involved smoking pot when I was able to obtain it.

After my divorce, I got interested in earth based religions, but this was intermingled with heavy pot smoking and my excessive drinking habits. I had become part of a pagan community, which condones excess in alcohol and drugs. This has been my life for the past 20 years.

Last year I ran into My Friend* through work and soon we become friends. As friends we have become drinking partners expanding our online experiences. Our drinking has reached a point where it has become a huge problem, especially for My Friend*, so I am here with My Friend* at these sessions.

We, My Friend* and myself have frequently discussed her and my beliefs, although she has been skeptical of some of my pagan ways. I had expressed an interest in her church, but never did more than that until our most recent drinking endeavors. This is how I came to visit her church this past Sunday and participating in the Higher Ground Ministry.

My beliefs are that all things are sacred, since they are of the Creator’s creation and should be treated as such. That all things are living entities, including some things that appear not to be living entities, such as the mineral kingdom, Mother Earth, etc. That all these things should be treated with love, respect and honor. My beliefs follow along a more native spiritual path.

Now along comes the Grace Capital Church and their teachings of Christ and the study of the Bible. I desire to learn more about the church and the bible as I wish to incorporate these teachings and philosophies into what I believe is the proper spiritual path for me.

I do not wish to abandon those things that are highly spiritual to me, but to incorporate into my belief system the teaching of Christ and the study of the bible.

I do believe that I lead my life in a spiritual way giving honor and respect to all things. As such I will quote from the Bible.

“ My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made know to you. You did not chose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you need in my name. This is my command: Love each other.” John 15:12-17

If everyone in the world could follow what Jesus is commanding, there would be no fighting in the world and war would be a thing of the past. This is what I try to do in the way I lead my life. It matters not whether I have been saved or not, what matters is that I am one with Christ. So Be It, It Is So.

* My Friend is a close friend, her name is not being revealed in this dialog, but those close to me will know who she is.

Brew Master

Welcome to the world of Home Brewing. Today would be a great day for brewing, in fact it will take all day to do this.

Back when I first got into making my own beer, I did it from scratch, I mean I used the grain and created a mash, a special grain and water mixture designed to extract the sugars from the grain. That was back in the early 90's. Have I been doing Home Brew all these years , hell no. When I was hanging out with Denise, she would only drink Light Michalob, so I stopped making beer and then I bought my house, so I stopped doing it for the next 5 years, I didn't want to wreck the appliances which I had bought new. Then I went and sold all the equipment.

So, why am I doing it again. Isn't it easier to just buy the beer down the road. Yes it is easier and probably cheaper, but it's something to do that is creating something from raw ingredients, etc. So, it is a hobby and the best part is the drinking the result of my efforts. So let us get going and brew some beer, but first pour yourself one. This is going to take all day, so pace yourself so that you can make it through the day.

First and foremost is the brewing station. The heart of making beer the stove to cook the wort, the liquid with all the sugar and other stuff extracted from the grain. So today we are not doing the mash, we are going to use the extracted malt already prepared for us. I have given in to the easier way of making beer. Only because I can't possibley boil five gallons of wort on this stove. So today we use about 3 gallons of water and the various malts, etc. Not as hard core as I would like to be, but it is still better than Mich Lite and better for you.

Now a look at the Sanitation Station. In order to make this stuff to taste like beer, everything has to be super clean and sanitized. Now the wort that we are creating is the perfect food for any wandering yeast organism and let me tell you they are all over the place.

Back when I was in college taking biology, the teacher gave each of us, petri dishes and we were to take it home and expose it in any way we chose. Well you know what happen, what body part would be exposed to the petri dish. Those were the most unique petri dishes, they had some really exotic stuff growing in those dishes.

So I don't take chances, I sanitise everything. I use some special stuff which I get at the beer store. But I used to use Clorox Bleach, which works real well too.

With everything sanitized and the wort cooked and ready to ferment. All that is left is to put the wort in the carboy and add the yeast.

Then, all you need to do is watch the yeast loving your wort and making you lots of alcohol. So thats all I need to do for the next 10 to 14 days. When the fermentation process is completed, we can bottle your beer and maybe taste a little. So the complete process will take about a month to complete. Not bad for 5 gallons of beer.

Just one more little thing, that is to clean up after your done. Actually what happened is that I had a boil over so the stove was a mess and had to do a major cleaning, but the end result looked pretty good to me.

So that is a day at making beer, but wait your not done yet. Do you need another beer, just grab one for the fun of it. There are definate benefits to homebrew.

Homebrew is not pasturized or filtered and definately is not chemically made. It is made the old fashioned way, with loving care and the skill of a Master Brewer.

So now everything is done including the cleanup, so now go realax with one of those awesome homebrew beers.

One New Day

How about joining me for a little Stoli. Well I haven't written here for a long time and there was a reason, I wasn't sure of a lot of things and I just didn't want to say things that I would need to retract later.

Now I am still unsure of things I would like to see happen, but how long should someone wait. Maybe as long as it takes to sort things out.

Something started unfolding last fall, a gift from the Universe as one reader called her. Nuthing is finished and everything has begun, everything is at stake. I guess I would have to say these things take time.

I went and saw one of my reader friends the other day and yes the cards looked positive. So things move at there chosen pace. A lot more has to be done. But one thing is for sure, I have decided, that I will no longer doubt, that which cannot be doubted.

I have taken a big step. I have closed all my russian contacts. I will no longer scan the russian woman's lists looking for what I cannot find there. Because I have already found what I am looking for and this will now be a closed subject.