It’s
a Wonderful Life
8/18/7
One of my all-time favorite
movies is “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart. I’m sure you’ve all seen it (we used to watch
it as a family every year at Christmastime) and are familiar with the profound
message of how important the influence of just one man’s life is. But let’s talk for a moment about the word
“wonder-ful.” You got it—full of
wonder. But what exactly is wonder? (Do any of you wonder?) Webster defines wonder as: “the state of mind
produced by something new, unexpected or extraordinary; a strange thing;
exciting.” Being in a state of
wonderment is a wonder-ful thing, wouldn’t you say? Have we as “adults” lost the ability to
wonder like we used to when we were children.
Have we lost the magic of wonder?
Well “adult” forms the root word for such words as “adultery” and
“adulterated” which words basically mean to be corrupted or separated from
being whole like when we were a child who is innocent, pure and wholesome. Have we become “adulterated” from our
child-like state to take on this fractured, fragmented separate reality of an
adult? I wonder.
One of my all-time favorite
things to do is to play with my grandchildren.
They still are young enough to enjoy the magic of wonder. This past weekend I spent frolicking with my
oldest daughter, Aubrey’s, children—Sean, Carly and Jaxen. Carly, who is six, is my little shadow
whenever I’m around. She goes everywhere
with me and spends most of her time in my lap being stroked and massaged. At night she sleeps right next to me and one
of her favorite things is for me to tell her my “special” stories. This Saturday night’s story was about an
angel named Chelsea. (She’d just lost
her older sister, Chelsea, last December 20 from a tragic truck accident and so
it seemed appropriate to tell her a story about her “angel” sister
Chelsea.) As the story goes, Angel
Chelsea was playing in the clouds one day, hopping from cloud to cloud just for
fun and misjudged the distance between two clouds. Down she went to earth to land “kerplunk” in
a big city. She was a bit frightened by
all the noise and confusion of the big city but didn’t know how to get back to
her cloud-hopping adventure. Vaguely, in
the back of her mind, she remembered a wonderful family she once knew named the
Jessops. She especially remembered a sweet
little sister named Carly whom she loved to play with. So she found a phone book and looked up the
Jessop family who she remembered lived in St. George. Chelsea tucked her little wings under her
white robe and found a bus to take her to St. George. But when she got to the house she remembered
living in—lo and behold nobody was there!
No furniture, no people, no nothing!
Chelsea got scared being alone as it was getting dark. She prayed to Heavenly Father to take her
back home to heaven so she could look down from the clouds to find out where
her dear family had moved. (They had
just recently moved to Logan.) And in a
blink of an eye, there she was back up on her clouds again looking down over
Utah. She scanned the horizon until she
finally found Carly and Jaxen out playing tag in front of their new house in
Logan. She waved to Carly and Jaxen from
the clouds to let them know she was there—but unfortunately they didn’t look
up. She wondered if they ever
would.
Now here comes the “wonderful”
part. The next day I took my
grandchildren to Logan’s Aquatic Park.
Sporting a bikini (one of my goals at 50) Carly and I made at least a
dozen trips up the hundreds of steps (I may be exaggerating) to slide down the
long, twisty-turny waterslide together. As
we relaxed between sessions in the 3 inch pool side-by-side, we started to
cloud gaze. Almost immediately we both
spotted a cloud formation that looked exactly like an angel—complete with
wings—smiling down at us and waving.
“Grandma!” cried Carly. “How did you do that? It looks just like Chelsea waving down at
us. You must be magic, Grandma?” I laughed out loud until tears came to my eyes
and then said a little prayer of gratitude to Chelsea and all of our other
guardian angels up there watching over us.
Miracles like these show up in
our lives all the time—if only we believe
in them. I do.
Belief is a powerful thing. It is
one of the powers of creation and goes hand in hand with faith.
“Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
“And after that he came men
also were saved by faith in his name; and by faith, they become the sons of
God. And as surely as Christ liveth he
spake these words unto our fathers, saying: “Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the
Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive,
behold, it shall be done unto you.”
(Moroni 7:26)
Perhaps a few of you think I’m
a bit crazy after sharing with you my story about the “White Buffalo Calf
Woman.” You’re probably wondering if you
should believe anything this “crazy
lady” has to say. Well, it doesn’t
matter if you believe in me or not or anything else I have to
say. The heart of the matter is—I do.
In fact, I believe that any of us can have the power of God within our
own fingertips to change the world—but only if you believe you do. I
suppose that’s what made Jesus “the Christ.”
He sincerely believed he was
the Son of God. Do you?
I believe in heroes like Jesus and the White
Buffalo Calf Woman who came into earthly existence to change the course of
humanity. Remember when you were a kid
and believed in superheroes like Superman or Wonder Woman or Spider Man? Where are today’s heroes? Well, I have had several heroes in my
life. Ghandi and Mother Teresa rank high
on my hero list. But one hero many of
you may or may not know about is John Denver.
One of the reasons he is my hero is because he co-founded the Windstar
Foundation which was a foundation dedicated to teaching people sustainable
living through appropriate technology. I
spent many weeks at Windstar in the Colorado Rockies near Aspen learning
Bio-intensive raised-bed gardening, Aikido, and sustainable technology like the
Biodome. One of John Denver’s heroes
(who is also one of mine) was Buckminster Fuller. He coined the phrase “starship earth” and was
the creator of the biodome I plan to create as part of my healing center. He also did a lot of work regarding “phi
harmonics” which is cause for some interesting research. John Denver once wrote a song about “Bucky”
Fuller that I’d like to share. (You can
download it on free music downloads if you’d like to listen to the music.)
What One Man Can Do
I
suppose that there are those
Who’ll
say he had it easy
Had it
made in fact
Before
he’d even begun
But thy
don’t know the things I know
I was
always with him
It may
sound strange
We were
more than friends
It’s
hard to tell the truth
When no
one wants to listen
When no
one really cares
What’s
going on
And
it’s hard to stand alone
When
you need someone beside you
Your
spirit and your faith
They
must be strong
What
one man can do is dream
What
one man can do is love
What
one man can do is change the world
And
make it young again
Here
you see what one man can do
As
shaded as his eyes might be
That’s
how bright his mind is
That’s
how strong his love
For you
and me
A
friend to all the universe
Grandfather
of the future
And
everything I would like to be
What
one man can do is dream
What
one man can do is love
What
one man can do is change the world
And
make it new again
Here
you see what one man can do
What
one man can do is dream
What
one man can do is love
What
one man can do is change the world
And
make it work again
Here
you see what one man can do.
It is my belief that John
Denver was a prophet for our times. I
even believe he was prophesied by the ancient prophet Ezekiel when he said:
And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely
song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for
they hear thy words, but they do them not.
And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know
that a prophet hath been among them. (Ezekiel
33:32, 33)
This scripture was given to me
by my brother, Bruce, after I shared with him a song that John Denver had written
years earlier prophesying some very tragic current events:
Though
the cities start to crumble
And
the towers fall around us
The
sun is slowly fading
And
it’s colder than the sea
It
is written from the desert
To
the mountains they shall lead us
By
the hand and by the heart
They
will comfort you and me
In
their innocence and trusting
They
will teach us to be free…
For
the children and the flowers
Are
my sisters and my brothers
Their
laughter and their loveliness
Would
clear a cloudy day
And
the song that I am singing
Is
a prayer to nonbelievers
Come
and stand beside us
We
can find a better way…
(From
the song Rhymes and Reasons)
But one of my very
favorite prophetic songs written by John Denver is the following:
The
Gift You Are
Imagine
a month of Sundays
Each
one a cloudy day
Imagine
the moment the sun came shining through
Imagine
that ray of sunshine as you
Remember
your darkest hour
With
dawn still far away
Remember
the way that you longed for morning’s light
Think
of yourself as a candle in the night
Make
believe this is the first day
Everything
all brand new
Make
believe that the sun is your own lucky star
Then
understand the kind of gift you are
The
gift you are…
Like
the very first breath of spring
The
gift you are…
All the
joy that love can bring
The
gift you are…
All of
our dreams come true
The
gift you are…
The
gift of you.
You are
the promise of all the ages
You are
the prodigal son
You are
the vision of prophets and sages
You are
the only one
Dream
of a bright tomorrow
Know
that your dream will come true
Carry
the dream in a sparkling crystal jar
Then
you will know the kind of gift you are
The
gift you are…
Like
the very first breath of spring
The
gift you are…
All the
joy that love can bring
The
gift you are…
All of
our dreams come true
The
gift you are…
The
gift of you.
The
gift you are…
Like
the very first breath of springtime
The
gift you are…
All the
joy that love can bring
The
gift you are…
All of
our dreams come true…yes they do
The
gift you are…
The
gift of you.
The
gift you are…
The
gift of you.
In closing—here are a few
beliefs you may want to reconsider changing:
The only thing you can count on are death and taxes.
Nobody ever gets out of this life alive!
Everybody grows old and dies.
You have to die in order for you to get to heaven.
Perhaps
you might exchange these old beliefs for new ones like—now is the time to
create heaven on earth and live the vision of other “prophets and sages” who
prophesy about eternal life. Now is the
time to change the prophecies of the old prophets for new prophecies. (Gregg Braden’s book, The Isaiah Effect is a must read!)
Like the one in the song that I wrote years ago which I’d like to share
with you. (One of my dreams and goals is
to get all of my songs produced on an album. Wish me luck and if you have any advice on the
matter, please let me know!)
Crazy Lady
Some
called the lady crazy
Got
a dream caught in her eye
Some say she's full of fantasy
And
they never could figure out why
And
some who didn't know her
Say,
"she's got the devil under her skin"
But if they’d ever got close enough
Would
know the spirit that dwelt within
She dreamed about a place somewhere
That
she could call her home
She
imagined a people
That
she could call her own
She
talked about a process
Of
livin' in harmony
Where
hate and envy disappear
And love flows gentle and free
I see flowers bloomin' in sunlight
Rainbow dews from heaven above
Birds
and butterflies wingin' in midflight
And
the air is filled with love
I
see you and me together
Livin'
in perfect harmony
Let's
imagine it all together
It's
as simple as you and me
You
and me—one, two, three
Perhaps the lady's crazy
But
her dream is bound to come true
And
if it's just a fantasy
I
hope other folks have one too
And if she's full of the devil
Then
he must be a pretty good guy
'Cause
I know that lady's heart is true
I'm that lady 'til the day
I die
I see flowers bloomin' in sunlight
Rainbow dews from heaven above
Birds
and butterflies wingin' in midflight
And
the air is filled with love
I
see you and me together
Livin'
in perfect harmony
Let's
imagine it all together
It's
as simple as you and me
You
and me—one, two, three
Please
join me in manifesting a new heaven on earth.
If you’d like more information on how you can help create the Rainbow
Light Center, an eco-village or bio-dynamic intentional community, please
e-mail me. Aho and
Amen. Peace, love, and joy—Jesse
Christian aka Janae Thorne-Bird
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