Category: Minimalism

Environment, Frugality, Holistic Health, Minimalism, Yoga & Fitness

20 by November 20th

Lisa Burbank

That’s my goal…20 pounds, that is.

Though I am rapidly reaching the point of no return as “middle-aged”, I refuse to give in to the legendary middle-aged spread. I have about 30 pounds of unwanted spare tire around my middle right now, but I’m shooting for 20; it’s a little less daunting. No, I’m not going to start some fad diet. Making healthier eating choices and incorporating some much-needed cardio into my daily routine will help me take it off slowly and, hopefully, help me keep it off. I’ve chosen my 50th birthday in November as my deadline to keep me from putting off taking it off.

With all this in mind, I elected to walk to work yesterday instead of driving. It’s better for me and it’s better for the environment. It also saves wear and tear on the vehicle, and saves some money on gasoline. It’s a win-win situation all around.

Driving I can leave my home 5 minutes before my shift starts and still arrive on time. Walking? It takes about 30 minutes depending on my pace. So I left the house at 8:32 a.m. and reached the dealership at 8:59 a.m. I confess to being a little winded. I’m woefully out of shape–despite the daily yoga routine–but I also enjoyed the walk. Yes, traffic was heavy on Route 6 and I probably traded some of the physical benefits of the walk with a not-so-healthy dose of carbon inhalation, but it felt good to be moving. As I normally work late afternoons, early evenings, and also Saturdays, this will likely be a Saturday only routine due to my aversion of walking a busy interstate after dark; I’m taking advantage of the track at the local ballpark for the rest of the week (I switched with a co-worker to get a much-needed 3 day weekend; I worked her Friday shift in exchange).

You walked??!?

Well, I do work at a dealership where they sell cars so maybe my fitness walk doesn’t exactly jive with the image of luxury they’re trying to promote.

You walked??

Sad that this is such an earth-shattering occupation…

And then the expected call from my Nervous Nellie, Mom. Yes, expected. I did mention the evening before that I was planning on walking to work but I could also tell during the mentioning that she wasn’t really paying attention. I had planned to leave a note to remind her but, in the mad dash to get out the door on time, I nixed the note. The call came in around 11 a.m.

“Welcome to (insert dealership name here). This is Lisa speaking. How may I direct your call?”

“Lisa, it’s Mom. Why didn’t you take the car?”

Of course, the owner was in the building so I couldn’t talk–especially on the business phone–so I had to keep it brief. She and Max the Blue Heeler were waiting for me at the foot of the driveway. Poor Mom! She thought something was wrong with the car. Now what? As Yours Truly just paid to have some major work done on it at the beginning of August, I totally understand her concern but, of course, I had to give her some gentle ribbing for being the Nervous Nellie.

“Selective Hearing? Or Selective Memory?”

She admitted to the latter. After she called me, she then remembered my telling her the evening before about the walk.

“You should have called me,” she scolded, “I could’ve picked you up from work.” (??!!?)

I think 20 pounds instead of 30 by November 20th is going to be enough of a challenge. Don’t you?

May God bless you & keep you!

Biodynamic, Environment, Frugality, Gratitude, Herbs, Homesteading, Minimalism, Nature, Organic

Goodbye Humidity…Praise God!

Lisa Burbank

My dream home is in Alaska. But I’ll settle for northern Maine. I know I’ve said it before but I am the most unproductive person when the humidity moves in. While friends of mine extol the virtues of a winter vacation in Florida, I’m glorying in seeing 3 feet of snow outside my window. Well, maybe not exactly ‘glorying’; digging endless pathways to the barn and chicken coop after each snowfall gets old after the first time. But I can praise God that I’m still fit enough to do the shoveling…even as I listen to Nervous Nellie nagging at me (Mom) that I’m going to stroke out if I keep this up (even while she reaches for the shovel herself–I don’t think so!). But snow is, hopefully, a few months’ away; I still have a lot of prep work before winter sets in.

Not snow, but this morning thunderstorms rolled in, giving a brief shower or two to nourish the land. Looking like Tobacco Road, as usual, I both welcome the rain and lament it. We need the moisture, as everything has been so dry, but the wet grass means another delay in finishing my landscaping as I wait for everything to dry out again. I am hoping the upcoming long weekend will be humidity-free so I can make a good dent in everything.

I want a good, productive garden next year. The last two summers have been minimal, by choice, and I cringe every time I have to buy produce at the supermarket. Not only the prices cause this tightwad to cringe; the not-knowing where it comes from, or more specifically, how many pesticides/fertilizers were used in its growth, cause me to shudder a bit, too. It’s the main reason I decided to homestead in the first place. However, because my garden area is towards the front of the house and visible to Interstate 6, I want to make it attractive. Yes, I know, Tobacco Road is definitely NOT attractive (though letting it overgrow has given me some great wild herbs and delicious wild blackberries, the latter now in the freezer to enjoy through the long winter), but my goal is to do this all without using any sort of power equipment–or, at the very least, only as a last resort. And I’m a stubborn woman. My dream is to combine some antiquated methods learned as a volunteer at Old Sturbridge Village with some modern, alternative farming methods like lasagna (or no-till) gardening plots and the Square Foot Gardening method (Mel Bartholomew wrote the book by this name that started the movement). I’ve been researching something called Biodynamic Farming, too; more on that later, but it’s definitely attracting me. And I am hoping to eventually add Aquaponics to the homestead. But, for now, I’ll settle for the completed landscape this year and the jars of homemade pickles, jams, jellies, salsas and relishes lining my kitchen shelves next year; I miss canning…even if it does increase the humidity in the house. Now there’s an oxymoron for you!

May God bless you & keep you!

Alcoholism, Environment, Faith, Frugality, Gratitude, Homesteading, Minimalism, Nature, Zero Waste

Tightwad Tuesday

Lisa Burbank

I think I created a post a couple of years back about frugality but it bears repeating. We live in a culture where everything bigger, or more of something, is better. It is natural to want more in life. But when so many people are in debt up to their ears because they have far too many credit cards; they allowed that real estate agent to up-sale them into a house they couldn’t afford or, I cringe as I type this as I work for a car dealership, but up-sales are a part of that world, too. As their photographer, I spend a good part of the afternoon driving around the parking lot in brand new cars–I don’t even own a car right now! So put me in the seat of that Silverado High Country–and, believe me, “my” dealership has some sweet trucks in their lot right now–and I’m practically salivating…and this summer’s 90+ temperatures have nothing to do with it. However, I’m already eating a lot of pasta and beans, and PB&J for lunch; I refuse to take the Crazy Cat Lady a step further and start dining with the felines as, sadly, many do. And no, that real estate agent or salesperson isn’t inherently evil in trying to up-sale you a higher-priced item. A bigger sale means a bigger commission and they have to eat, too. Without those commissions, they’re barely scraping minimum wage. But keeping your head instead of letting emotion drive your decisions is a discipline worth learning. The salesperson will still earn a commission on the item you can afford but you won’t be re-mortgaging or filing bankruptcy later on. Take it from one who knows: debt hurts.

Years ago, a gentleman that I was dating made a good point about something. He was incredibly frugal about his necessary living expenses: housing, food, utilities and yet he indulged in extravagances. But, as he pointed out, because he conserved so well on the essentials–and he didn’t starve or freeze during the winter months; quite the contrary, he had updated his home to be super energy efficient and so it stayed toasty warm all season–he could afford a few luxuries. He could indulge in many of his interests. And so, he actually lived a bit better than most because he was careful with his expenses and, when he made an investment, he did so with the future in mind. He also tithed regularly, had a healthy retirement fund and a savings. These last three are key. Without some sort of savings, you automatically have to go into debt when something breaks or needs replacing. Without a retirement or 401K, what will you do when you grow too old and infirm to work 40+ hours a week? And He only asks for a tithe = 10%; you get to keep 90%.

Of course, Super Tightwad here–and, no, that doesn’t equal “cheap”; your birthday gift may have been purchased on sale but it didn’t come out of the gumball machine–weighs everything. Whether it is a necessity or an indulgence, I carefully weigh it. I’ve been known to take field trips to the supermarket to price all of the fixings for a veggie burger at Burger King (i.e. condiments, lettuce, tomato, etc) vs. one made at home with all of the trim; the cost was nearly doubled. When you realize what you’re really spending, how convenient is it? I know I’ve posted before that Amy Dacyczyn’s “Tightwad Gazette” is one of my secular bibles. When I first started reading it, the first thing that happened was she changed my mind about how I viewed frugality. I grew up in a home with a very modest income. Of course, my stepfather’s penchant for the bottle had a lot to do with our financial status and there was as much shame attached to his behavior as there was to the hand-me-downs and goodwill visits. In the “Tightwad Gazette”, however, Ms. Dacyczyn points out how, for example, we buy brand new clothes and, within a few months to a year, we either relegate them to the back of the closet where they never see the light of day again or we discard them. In fact, discarded clothing makes up a large bulk of our landfills so overcoming even this one fetish for the latest fashions would solve another problem in our society. She relates a story about buying a pair of boots second-hand for her daughter. They were the right brand but the color was “wrong”. Well, her daughter wore them to school, despite the “wrong” color, and came home raving about how everyone loved the boots in this unique color. I am not at all ashamed to admit that when I decide I “need” a new skirt or blouse, I shop at the thrift store FIRST (intimate apparel and shoes are the exceptions). It’s all about perception. If you can look at frugality as a skill, an art, maybe even as something fun–a game to be played in the marketplace, it takes away the stigma our society has attached to thrift. And who doesn’t love a few extra dollars in their pocket?

Maybe it is natural to want more. I’m thinking that’s just another myth we’ve been brainwashed by our media to believe. I know I quote HGTV a lot but they are a good example of the societal mindset. In my not-so-humble opinion, nobody needs 5000 square feet of living space unless your last name is Duggar and you’ve got 19+ kids in tow. Even then, I would question it. You see a lot of waste on HGTV, a lot of spoiled, superficial people (or seemingly so) who have to rip out the “dated” kitchen and replace everything. Okay. Maybe the refrigerator is old and inefficient. That would make sense. But a coat of paint on the cabinets would give the room a fresh, new look without sending a lot of composites and laminates to the landfills…or without emptying your wallet. I also quote tiny houses a lot. No, not everyone could live in a space 400 square feet or less, but they do provide some great examples of how to maximize living space so that maybe 1000 square feet instead of the 3000 square-foot McMansion will suffice–without one feeling deprived. The tiny house movement forces us to look at life from the perspective of “what do we need” vs. “how fast can I keep up with the jones'”? And, as they quote a few tiny house builders and/or buyers in their advertisements, the mindset is to save more on the cost of living so you can afford to live life–to spend more quality time with family and friends rather than in the office working overtime to pay for the 3000 square feet; to get outdoors and spend more time in nature; to spend more time playing sports, attending concerts or going to the theatre–whatever your passion. When you look at how much you sacrifice in memories, in good health and happy, relaxing experiences, the cost goes even higher.

May God bless you & keep you!

Works Cited

Dacyczyn, A. The Tightwad Gazette. Villard Books, New York: 1993.

Animal Rights, Environment, Faith, Frugality, Herbs, Holistic Health, Homesteading, Minimalism, Nature, Organic, Yoga & Fitness, Zero Waste

Motivation

Lisa Burbank

The antithesis of motivation is avoidance. I have been sitting here for over 1/2 hour going through unimportant emails–the Linked In connection prompts; advertisements from certain companies/organizations I’ve been in touch with in the past; coupons that I probably won’t use, etc. One of my new textbooks touches on this, that as writers, we often tend to avoid writing. I suppose it’s not so very different from any other passion or skill. How many students of piano lessons avoid practicing? Or runners/joggers become “lazy” and stay in on that chilly winter morning? The textbook says to write anyway and that writer’s block doesn’t really exist, that it’s “a fabrication, an excuse that allows you to ignore the problem you’re having with your story” (Dufresne 22). My problem this morning is the blank slate that is my mind for the moment. But, amazingly, as I finally discipline myself enough to log into Word Press and start writing, the creative juices start flowing again.

Writers also love to read. This morning, while still in avoidance mode, I pulled a favored book off of the shelf. Favored but only read once; I’m not even sure why “only once”. So I’ve decided it’s time to read it again. If for no other reason, inspiration. The book is “One Woman Farm” by Jenna Woginrich. And it was the title that caught my eye in the first place. I happened across it in a catalog from a book club I used to belong to. Ms. Woginrich could be my long-lost sister. The pages of this book echo my dream life with very few exceptions. Ms. Woginrich raises sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, geese (I have ducks but geese are on the radar…as are the sheep), honeybees, and, when this book was written, she had just started training her first Border Collie to herd. I have avowed not to get another dog until I am ready to get sheep (which will require a bigger farm with more acreage than I currently possess…) because I want to train and work with Border Collies. “Babe” is my favorite movie and every event that I attend, be it a fair or a festival, if there are sheepdog trials or demos, I am there. My fascination with this never abates. Ms. Woginrich also grows all of her own vegetables and fruits; I’m not quite there yet but every year sees a little further expansion. This year it was the perennials: blueberries, rhubarb and asparagus. And she cans/preserves what she grows. I love doing both. No mention of herbs or making tinctures, etc. nor do I recall anything about spinning and weaving, but she’s also a musician; albeit, her instrument of choice is the fiddle; mine, the guitar and Appalachian dulcimer. Suddenly, I don’t feel quite as alone in the world.

As a homesteader, there are times when I feel like the very odd duck because most people do not seem to understand why I do what I do. I’ve heard comments about why do I want life to be so hard? Sorry. I don’t consider any of this hard; it makes me happy, actually. I hear plenty of comments about my animals. Because I am a pescetarian (vegetarian + fish), none of these animals is raised for slaughter. And I would never allow that to happen to any of them. Nor could I live on a farm where animals are being slaughtered. I know that’s where meat comes from, and I respect another’s right to eat as they choose, but it won’t be happening here. And there’s no such thing as Freezer School. My chickens and ducks give me eggs; reduce the tick and slug populations, respectively; provide sweet song and gentle chatter, laughter and love; and plenty of free fertilizer for the gardens. That is enough. They do not need to give me their lives, too. The goats are dairy goats but Felicity has not been bred. It is in the future plans, but I’m still learning basic goat care skills like hoof trimming and such; milking and midwifery will come later. The milk, cheese, soap and cosmetics that the goat’s milk will eventually provide, as well as their comical antics, affection, and, yes, more fertilizer is also enough. My rabbits, well, I’ve had 3 Angoras in the past who have provided me with lots of Angora wool. I have a spinning wheel but I haven’t mastered spinning yet; that is a work in process. The 6 rabbits that currently share this homestead with me are Lionheads. And, at present, cuddly and funny little pets who also provide plenty of fertilizer–I’m getting this composting thing down pat. (chuckle) I have considered cross-breeding them with some Angoras next spring, which I think would produce a finer wool but we shall see; one step at a time. Homesteading is a work in process. Always. You are always improving, always thinking of new ways to increase your yields, to reduce your waste and your carbon footprint, to become more self-sufficient. But the one thing I hear most–especially from Mom–is “I do too much”. Interestingly, Jenna Woginrich has a section entitled just that. Her words echo my thoughts and feelings entirely:

“I have too many hobbies, too many obligations, and too many animals holding me down on this farm. Sometimes I believe this. Sometimes. If I just kept a few chickens and some raised beds with a couple or three sheep, life would be easier.

And I would be miserable.

I do what I do because it fills my mind, body and spirit. I live in this frenzy of activity not as a victim but as a celebrant…some days are overwhelming and scary, and those words “too much” haunt me like ghosts. They keep me up at night. But every morning I know what I am capable of, and what this farm stands for. What feels like fear today is inspiration tomorrow and nostalgia around the fireside in a season.

I’ll figure out the mortgage, the freelance, the bills, the manuscripts, and the workshops…It’s not what I have taken on that scares me, it’s that I’m not doing enough. Not doing enough to make this farm work, to make myself healthy, to make mistakes disappear.

You know what I think? I think wasted potential is a lot scarier than feeling overwhelmed. There is no monster greater than regret. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Yes, I do too much. It’s what I do.” (Woginrich 100-101)

I couldn’t have said it better myself. This one passage really says it all for me. It is also comforting that there is at least one other person out there with many of the same passions as I possess. And they’re making it work for them. I just have to keep putting on those big girl pants each morning, sit down, and just write. The creative genius is just another muscle that needs to constantly be strengthened and stretched. Sort of like this morning’s tackling of one of my new yoga DVD’s. I may not be getting all the way into those bends and twists yet but, in time, look out. I am unstoppable.

May God bless you & keep you!

Works Cited

Dufresne, John. The Lie That Tells a Truth. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York: 2003.

Woginrich, Jenna. One Woman Farm. Storey Publishing, Massachusetts: 2013.

Alcoholism, Environment, Frugality, Homesteading, Minimalism, Zero Waste

Tiny Houses

Lisa Burbank

I am going to have to nix the Monday night Tiny House fest. There is no way I can rise and shine at 3:30 in the morning after staying up past 10 o’clock. Sleep depravity does not a good blog post make.

I love tiny houses. I love their creativity. I love the significantly lower carbon footprint tiny living makes. I love how everything has a place and everything is in its place because such a tiny area would become quite cluttered in a very short time without such organization. I love how everything has multiple purposes and can transform almost like magic. And, I guess, if I really think about it, there’s still a little girl inside of me looking at them as a sort of high-end playhouse. I love the mobility of them, too. It speaks to the free spirit within me that wants to roam at will but not lose the creature comforts and sanctity of home. If I had a tiny house, my menagerie of pets could travel with me and, thus, I would lose the anxiety that inevitably pops up whenever I am away from them. This last part I questioned when I first learned about tiny houses but, over the last couple of years, I have seen some great designs–some that have included chicken coops, rabbit dens, and even a goat pen (for a very small amount of goats). I lean more towards the re-purposed school bus though. There have been some great conversions on HGTV and some of the buses are 40 feet long–much longer than the traditional tiny house. Either way, there is something infinitely appealing about them. I’m a minimalist at heart. And tiny houses definitely promote minimalism.

Watching all of the Tiny House programs on HGTV has been a weekly routine ever since Mom had cable TV installed. For the most part, I abhor television. I consider it a waste of time and there’s very little by way of real entertainment on it today. Insipid sitcoms and reality shows just don’t appeal. Too much violence, too much promiscuity, too much greed and materialism. I’m old school. I want a compelling story line with characters I’d be proud to welcome into the living room each week. Today, such a program might just create a new trend. It would certainly be a novelty.

But I am digressing as always…

As stated in other postings, Mom watches HGTV religiously so, when she saw the advertisement a while back that there were programs dedicated to Tiny Houses, she brought it my attention. She doesn’t quite understand my aversion to television and keeps trying to capture my interest. Because I do tend to favor the articles in Treehugger about tiny houses, I started watching them with her on HGTV. Again, I enjoy the creativity, the thought, the planning that goes into the building of each one. Like most of the other shows on HGTV, eventually, when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. But the tiny scale still amazes me. Besides the animal accommodations I mentioned earlier, I’ve seen some clever hydroponic systems for growing vegetables and herbs; love the rooftop decks; and one woman made an archway out of hanging planters filled with plants that have been proven to improve air quality–not that all plants don’t filter carbon monoxide and purify air, but these were plants that she had studied that do the job best. It was really an attractive feature.

While I do enjoy watching all of these clever designs on how to bring big living into a tiny footprint, when Mom is away from home, the boob tube typically stays off. And I don’t miss it at all. So I am confident that nixing Tiny Houses will be easy enough. Perhaps I’ll take some of the ideas I’ve learned there and build a story around someone who lives in one…

….or maybe I’ll build a tiny house of my own “someday”. Of course, Mom and I always joke that we would each need one because our relationship is strained enough trying to live together in a house that’s, roughly, 1500 square feet; under 400 square feet might be the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Maybe we’ll start our own tiny house community instead. How cool would that be?

May God bless you & keep you!

Abuse, Alcoholism, Animal Rights, Environment, Faith, Frugality, Homesteading, Minimalism, Nature, Religion, Zero Waste

Sunday Laments

Lisa Burbank

28 people attended the 11 o’clock Mass this Sunday–and that was counting members of the choir, the Lector and Eucharistic Minister.
28?
And Father Elson (who would make 29 people in church on Sunday) made an announcement that every 5 years the Diocese of Norwich does an evaluation of churches to determine if there is enough attendance to warrant keeping them open. This year is the 5 year mark again for Our Lady of LaSalette. If we fail the evaluation, our doors may close forever.
What is wrong with this picture?
I remember as a little girl that St. Rita’s Catholic Church in Oakland Beach, Rhode Island would be full every Sunday morning. We’re only talking the mid-1970’s so what has happened in the last 40 years to take people away from church? Away from God? I am speaking, primarily, to Christians, because I do not know if attendance has fallen in the synagogues, mosques, or any other houses of worship. And, though I spoke of Catholicism, it does not matter the denomination. I have visited Baptist, Methodist and Episcopalian churches in recent years and their attendance is down, too. I think that it is truly sad that our modern-day society neglects Him so greatly–especially with all of the violence and degradation that seems so prevalent in this society.
Okay. Maybe it is not that folks are neglecting Him. Maybe the kids’ soccer/softball/badminton practice isn’t taking precedence over keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Maybe we’re not worshiping St. Mattress either. Maybe we’re not being influenced by all the anti-God media that laces our society. It could be that it is just the whole “organized religion” thing that has turned folks away. And I understand the myriad reasons that might happen.
Though this would fall under the category of “hearsay”, I have friends with parents who used God–or their religion–to punish their children when they did something wrong. I know of two such individuals who talk about having to kneel on popcorn kernels and pray the rosary for whatever offense they committed. Personally, I think this would be one of those individuals that Jesus said “woe unto them” for keeping the little children from coming to Him, not to mention a form of abuse. If a child associates the divine meditation of the rosary (or any other religious practice) with punishment, it is little wonder that their relationship with Him would be tainted from the very beginning. I know of one individual who was denied food for her children because she was not a regular member of the parish that she visited for help. Okay. I have visited the local food pantry in recent times and I know they have specific towns that they serve; their pantry is stocked only so full. So, on the one hand, I can understand this position, but children were starving. At the very least, a point in the direction of someone who could help might have been appreciated. Another refuses to attend because a beloved relative was denied a eulogy due to their civil union with a member of the same sex. Yes, I can pull Scripture that supports this stand. But I believe we are born with our orientation. I am hetero. If I were to date again, it would be as natural as breathing for me to date a man. It is not something I consciously think about and choose. And I have to believe it is the same for someone in a same sex relationship. If I am wrong, somehow I do not think continuing this modern-day witch hunt against the LGBT community is going to help the situation. The Bible also teaches us not to lie and to deny one’s orientation would be the same as lying. We do not know His plan for anyone else but we do know He also commands us to “love our neighbors as ourselves” and to “judge not lest ye be judged”. Sadly, in taking this stand, the loved ones who came to say their last goodbye were denied the healing closure of bereavement and worship. And, truly, a funeral or memorial service is for the loved ones left behind as much as for the soul of the departed.
Yes, someone (parents? grandparents?) rammed religion down your throat as a child. Perhaps they used a religious practice to punish you. But it was not God who used religion to punish you. Yes, you and your child were denied food but it was not God who denied you. It was a person. And it doesn’t matter if it was someone of the cloth. They may be a representative here on earth of our heavenly Father but they are still human, with all of the fallacies and short-comings of the human race. Yes, a loved one was denied a Sacrament. Again, it was a human being who denied it.
Something else I hear a lot of, too, is questioning. And the questions all boil down to the same thing: why does He let bad things happen? He gave us the Bible as a road map for living a good life here on earth. He also gave us the right to choose whether or not we will use that road map to continuously seek Him and to obey his commandments. He had to give us the right to choose or our faith would be meaningless if we did not seek Him for ourselves. I know it sounds like a platitude to say that others choose NOT to follow Him and so they commit these atrocities against the earth, it’s creatures and, most especially, our fellow Man. That doesn’t give much solace for the loved ones of victims from our fallen world, or even when illness takes those loved ones away. The truth is, I don’t have a better answer and I would to God I did. As a survivor of child molestation, there have been many times in my life that I have asked “Why?” myself, times when my anger has gripped me and left me railing at Him for forsaking me in my time of need, as I remember all the times as a little girl that I knelt beside my bed and prayed that the abuse–and the alcoholism that helped fuel it–would end. But it didn’t. However, I do believe that He has a plan even for that. And I do know that whenever I choose to follow Him, despite the loss, the horror, the pain of bad things happening–even to good and godly-people–that somewhere along the line, His grace does lead me through it and there is always that little nudge to take that pain and make something happy and positive from it. Maybe it’s a specific action to alleviate future sufferings. Maybe it’s simply a command to listen more to others, or to pray. Maybe it’s a command to listen more closely to Him…and to obey those instincts that alert us when something is wrong. Or perhaps it is simply a command to understand that in order to love my neighbor as myself, I have to learn to love myself enough to make that a valid command.
God commanded us to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy”. A bad experience in one church or with an individual from a particular church or denomination–a bad experience, period–should not prevent us from coming to Him each week in worship and prayer. It should not deny us the fellowship and support of a worshiping community either. God simply is. God is enough. And that should be reason enough to keep that Sabbath Day holy.
May God bless you & keep you!