Random Weekend Thoughts

Been a lot going through my mind this weekend - or not, depending on how you look at it. Demon has been in BC attending a funeral and I've been alone with my thoughts - well as alone as it gets with a 5 yr old, two dogs and a room mate - especially since I woke to pouring rain this morning which killed our original plans for today. Of course, the sun was shining brightly by 4pm but that was too late for any of our plans. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Anyway, firstly I was reading a lot of web pages last night and discovered that there is a name for places such as where I live - 'a cluster of houses/apartments clustered around some sort of shared open space'. Apparently I live in a "pocket neighbourhood". Nice - can ya tell I kinda like that name? lol And I found two new books to add to my MAJOR wish list - Pocket Neighbourhood, and The Great Neighbourhood Book. I think they make my top ten wants, might have to add them as a separate post.

Secondly, found this from @EarthActivists on Twitter - As #EarthGuardian you can help document your city... where are the dangerous places for children?... your mayor should intervene.
The sentiment is certainly one the provides food for thought and only adds to the ongoing thoughts stirring in my brain about talking to neighbours about our neighbourhood, about what they like, don't like and would want to see changed, removed, improved or included.

Also found this, or at least we re-reminded of it.
"The commons is everything that we inherit or create together and must pass on, undiminished, to future generations." the Commons

Thirdly, was reading about the decline in organized religion - and that therefore Canada is becoming a nation of atheists. "Canadians are increasingly identifying as religiously non-affiliated, suggesting that organized religion may be on the decline."

Guess I'm missing something - including the original question as it was phrased - because I don't see that just because increasing numbers of people are no longer affiliated to (I presume) mainstream organized religions, necessarily means that they are all atheists. Or am I missing something? Usually an question of religion considers the mainstream faiths, and the obligatory "other" category. Or I guess in this case "none". Yet I'd have to check "none "if given the choice between mainstream religions and none and yet I most certainly don't consider myself an atheist. Colour me a little confused by the logic applied and the extrapolation that a decline in adherence to mainstream religion equals Canada becoming a nation of atheists. Just seems to me that it's a little too much of a stretch of the data :/

I don't doubt that mainstream and even organized religions may very well be on the decline, we all know minority religions, non mainstream religions and personal spirituality - not sure you can call it "religion" per se when it's a person's personal path - are on the increase. Even here, "census data suggests that organized religion is heading for extinction in nine western democracies." But is that just mainstream religion, organized religion, or religious beliefs of any kind? Damn I hate sweeping statements that bother my warped sense of logic!

Oh and of course now Adobe wants to update my flash player, I swear it did that once already this weekend lol

Now where was I? Thirdly, was just checking some of the blogs on Circle of Moms faith based poll and the centre of their own controversy as to whether or not Pagan blogs count as 'faith' blogs - duh!

According to Dictionary.com
faith
–noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact.
3. belief in god or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.

And before you ask, Dictionary.com defines god thus
God
–noun
1. the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe.
2. the Supreme Being considered with reference to a particular attribute: the God of Islam.
3. ( lowercase ) one of several deities, especially a male deity, presiding over some portion of worldly affairs.

Notably, in the definition of Faith it is "god" lowercase. Anyway, semantics aside, Faith Blog does not mean Christian Blog people, no matter what you might think of those of us other faiths, be they Judaism, Islam, paganism, Hinduism, worship of the great flying spaghetti monster or whatever. Too late on a saturday night to go off on THAT particular tangent.

Ok I got sidetracked - while reading a pagan blog I ran into this

"he stopped my hand and said "Mom, I want to learn to spell my favourite word... Namaste!"

For those who are unfamiliar, 'Namaste' translates to mean that there is a light in you, there is a light in me and we bow in honour of one another's light.

I asked my child why 'Namaste' is his favourite word and he replied "because if everyone has a special light inside, then we are all shiny together." Yes friends, a humble reminder from a preschooler!"

Out of the mouths of babes.....

Ok there's more but let's end that on a happy note :)