Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Heaven is an Amusement Park

How could I have been so blind? All these years discussing, thinking and subconsciously waiting for heaven to pop up, little did I know that it is located just north of Toronto, Canada on highway 400. Here we all were, waiting for the joy to begin. Black, white, red, yellow and brown. Young and old, male and female. All faiths gathered together for one thing. FUN, pure unadulterated JOY. Sure there were moments of Nausea, but fortunately the man with the "Jesus will save you tattoo" had some pepto bismol. Also, I could see the fear in the eyes of the Muslim woman covered by her niqab just before we started down the Vortex. I calmly reassured her everthing would be fine and to just be brave for a moment. The next time our eyes met she had tears of joy in them. Her thankful glance warmed my heart. Cousins sat with their nieces and nephews who were afraid, while mom and dad relived their youth on the Behemoth. Even more unbelievable was when the white supremacist had to ride with the black man because his buddies filled the seats and left him odd man out. At the end of that ride they were both hollering and laughing about how great the ride was. Seems in the midst of Joy we forget how to hate. Drop your hat, someone picks it up for you. Lose your balance and there were many to lend you an arm. Laughter and joy were everywhere. And while some cried, there were words of support from others. Sometimes in the midst of our search we fail to see what is directly in front of us.
I guess the Magic Man Jesus nailed it when he said this.

Luke 17:21 (English Standard Version)

nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."

13 comments:

practicallyhealthy said...

Great post!!!

Anonymous said...

I like your scripture reference. I do believe that the spiritual and the physical are continually connecting in our lives. We just have to pay attention so we know when it's happening. A friend of mine while we were backpacking in Colorado last month called those places, thin spaces where heaven or the spiritual and the physical meet. I'm glad for your experience and hope to have many more myself. Sitting on the beach in that torrential storm at Punta Cana, watching the lightning strike ocean, walking along the warm water on my feet and the ice cold rain on my back, was a thin space for me. How do you see Tai Chi fitting into this?

Luke said...

AMEN!

Sabio Lantz said...

What do you know, yesterday I was also at an Amusement Park -- Cedar Point Amusement park on the other side of the lake from you. Coincidental, you may think but I say that it shows that Krishna really does control the world.
My thoughts on the park: Sure, people were happy, but I couldn't help but watch humans being managed like cattle in a slaughter house though we seem a little more gleeful.

Seriously, I had a fantastic time with my son! Glad you had a good day too.

Tit for Tat said...

Sabio

Thank you sir. It was a blast, though the last ride did make me a little green around the gills.

"Truth is one the sages speak of it by many names"

Redlefty said...

At Disney, heaven is having a fast pass. Hell is not having one!

Great post!

Redlefty said...

Oh, and I've always thought that when Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you", he was talking to someone who had just eaten a warm funnel cake.

Anonymous said...

Love the post! It's so true and I rarely think about - but joy is something when we all share it - erases all out ills for some reason. Maybe people have forgotten how to be truly happy you know?

mac said...

If only we could get them to keep that spirit with them as the leave and carry on with their lives :-)

Sweeney said...

Sounds like yall had a great day at the park.

Tit for Tat said...

Mac........aint that the truth. After the last ride I almost barfed and had to bail on my step son. He wanted for me to tackle the "behemoth" and I had to take a rain check lol.

Sweeney

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Audrey said...

Isn't that experience you wrote about, a moment when something has jerked us out of our 'normal' mode of thinking? Something that causes us to break from our judgemental/external way of seeing and instead allows our internal feeling to take over in a bliss-filled moment? We all have those moments but mostly we relate them to who we were with or the activity we were doing at the time. Mac suggests it would be great if we were like that all the time. I see evidence that this IS available all the time and in fact we carry it around with us. It flows between us when we access it in the moments we suspend our head-type thinking and instead follow that feeling within. The quote you used from JC was spot-on. And this new world is available to be lived from, for every moment, not just in an occasional happening.

Tit for Tat said...

Audrey

Im not so sure it is available for every moment, but Im sure its more available than we end up using. :)