Apiarians

God is One.  God is Love

Were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call it Apiarians - and after the example of the bee, advise them to extract the honey of every sect. My fundamental principle would be that we are to be saved by our good works which are within our power, and not by our faith which is not within our power."

"The religion of Jesus is founded on the Unity of God, and this principle chiefly gave it triumph over the rabble of heathen gods then acknowledged. Thinking men of all nations rallied readily to the doctrine of one only God [sic] and embrased it with the pure-morals which Jesus inculcated. 

Thomas Jefferson

From Revealation  22:2 -  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

So today we begin something new.  Something inspired by the Apiarian statement of Thomas Jefferson.  As I thought about it I thought of the honey of every sect.  The sweet, sweet honey that is distilled by the residents of the Apiary.  Changed from the ordinary into the extraordinary.  The things we see during the week which make life more beautiful, worth living and I plan to share them here.  This will replace the Sunday Funnies which I previously posted as I wish to have something uplifting and they were not.  Please join me on this journey. 
The first offering is a beautiful little TED talk about our world and how to see it.  It is truly honey and it is sweet and beautiful

A friend posted this on Facebook:

Parker J. Palmer

In times of deep darkness, we not only need light—we need to BE light for one another. That's a message we must take to heart as we find ourselves lost once again in the all-too-familiar darkness of America's culture of violence.

Who better to deliver that message than Mary Oliver, in a powerful poem that re-tells the story of the Buddha's last words. Before he died, she tells us, "He looked into

 the faces of that frightened crowd" and said, "Make of yourself a light."

We are the frightened crowd the Buddha looked into as he drew his last breath. We are the people who need to be light for one another.

There are many kinds of light. There's the light that allows people lost in the dark to find their way home. There's the light of compassion that comforts everything it touches. There's the light of truth-telling about ourselves that allows us to see what we are doing—or allowing—that has helped bring this darkness upon us. There's the light that shows us the way forward toward a better world. There's the light of courage to walk that path no matter who says "Stop!"

No one of us can provide all of the light we need. But every one of us can shed some kind of light. Every day we can ask ourselves, "What kind of light can I provide today?"

When things got to much for me I used to go down to the woods and sit by the stream and let nature heal me. Here is a video of that experience that someone else obviously had also.