Spiritual Balance – Page 22 – Andrea Arthur Owan

Blister Basics Part 2

One of the first shocking things I learned as a beginning gymnast was that:

I was going to get a lot of blisters on my hands;
They were going to HURT; and
I needed to learn how to take care of them so they wouldn’t be a problem—for my health or my gymnastics participation.

At the beginning—

My eight-year-old hands were tender, unused to the friction and shear forces I was going to expect them to handle for the next fourteen years of my life. Like it or not, they would come with my sport.

So after the first two or three episodes of having areas on the palms of my hands heat up, get fiery red, hot and swollen, before having the skin peeled off, I had to learn to care for my hands.

Coach would laugh when we told him we “had a rip.” As an ex-military guy, it was all in line with toughening up, and he thought it was funny. “Just chalk up and get back up on those bars!” A palm-full of thick calluses was to be my fate, and the fate of every other gymnast I knew.

That was back in the days when female gymnasts didn’t wear the grips they do now. Guys did; girls suffered. They were cumbersome and difficult to use on our oval-shaped bars; and they were also difficult to use if you had stubby fingers like I do—not enough finger sticking out beyond the grips to grad hold. And they didn’t really make them in girls’ sizes. Surprise.

What is a blister, really?

And what causes it?

I learned more than I wanted to know about the physics of blisters. I learned a lot more when I studied and practiced athletic training. Here are some blister-forming facts:

Blisters can be caused by friction, when a tissue encounters friction when it’s rubbed over or against another surface. Like the up-down motion of your heel against the back of your shoe when you’re wearing thin socks, or no socks at all. Rub, rub, rub. Blister.
Deeper blisters are most often the result of shear forces, when the layers of skin are rubbing back and forth on one another.
When the epidermal layer of skin is irritated or damaged by these forces, fluid collects between the epidermis—top layer—and the deeper dermal layer. The fluid usually comes from plasma escaped from the surrounding damaged cells.
The fluid seeps into the pocket and puffs up the top layer of skin.
The fluid is there to bathe the damaged skin layers, protect it, and start the healing process.
Shear force blisters can cause tremendous pain because it causes damage or irritation to surrounding nerves.
Blisters can form under calluses. (These types of blisters can be hard to manage and require careful treatment.)
Having thickened calluses that aren’t managed (like carefully shaving down or kept soft or pliable) can increase your risk of deep blisters, and a lot of pain!
Sweat and warmth—as what happens when your sweaty feet are stuck in a shoe—increase blister formation likelihood.
Blisters can be filled with a variety of fluids, like serum, plasma, blood or pus (indicating a probable infection).
The crushing or pinching of tissue (like I experienced a lot of as a gymnast, when I was swinging around on the bars) can rupture a blood vessel in the dermal layer, which in turn allows blood to seep into the pocket between the layers. There were times we’d leave blood streaks (or skin sections) on the bars when we had a rip.
The body quickly springs into action when a blister forms.

At six hours post-blister formation, the blister fluid is usually re-absorbed, and the top layer flattens back down onto the underlying tissue and begins to die. But it serves as a protective cover for the wound beneath it.
At 24 hours, new skin layers are already beginning to form.
And at 48 hours, new “soft” baby skin can be seen developing over the wound. If the blister is not properly cared for, this new skin can crack and another wound (now exposed) can appear. Then you can have a blister forming underneath a blister, a very painful condition.

Blisters improperly cared for can lead to infections and slowed healing.
How hydrated you are affects blister formation, and how well it heals. Really.

*On the photo above, you can see the cracked, peeling skin of the blisters that ran along my middle toe. I didn’t do anything to treat those. The body took care of everything, and the old skin is now peeling away. While noticeable, these blisters (which occur in the same spot on both my feet), were not noticeable enough to slow me down, or warrant padding or bandaging. But if I were to go on longer hikes during the day, day-after-day, I would make sure I taped the toes to reduce friction and shear forces. Clearly I am prone to irritation in these areas, probably due to the biomechanics of how my foot hits the ground and pushes off.

NEXT WEEK: Learn how to provide immediate care for your blisters.

Until then, keep those feet dry and as cool as possible! (I know. Difficult on a long walk or hike.) And don’t peel the skin from those blisters!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Andrea A Owan

The Power of your Philosophy—Are you an Enlightened Rationalist, Hopeless Romantic or Doubting Naturalist?

On our last Meditation Monday we covered Theism, Christian Theism and Deism and learned the sometimes-subtle differences among these three worldviews or philosophies.

Today we’ll explore Rationalism, Romanticism, and Naturalism and the effect they’ve had on world history.

Be Enlightened!

Around the early 1600s a new breed of philosopher emerged who focused on being rational. (Although this thinking, evidently, can be found in antiquity.) These great thinkers envisioned themselves to be enlightened and believed truth to be derived via intellectand deductive reasoning.

They believed that certain undeniable principles naturally exist in mathematics, sciences, logic, metaphysics and ethics and were confident that reason was the method mankind could use to understand the world. To them, empirical or physical evidence are unnecessary to prove something. The French philosopher, Rene Descartes, championed this philosophy and is considered the father of modern Western Philosophy.

John Locke, an English philosopher, also championed this belief and is considered to be one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers. He is referred to as the “Father of Liberalism.” Locke considered life to be somewhat of a “chalkboard” or tabula rasa, (the Latin term meaning “blank slate”), on which a person’s life experiences and responses are “written,” thus creating a personality. One of his quotes sums up much of his worldview:

“No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”

The Enlightenment worldview gained a foothold in Europe as it spread across that continent. It was particularly prevalent in England, France and Germany and is believed to have run from 1650 – 1800. It holds particular significance for the United States because it was the primary philosophy leaned on to justify and plant the seeds that sprouted the American Democratic Republic and American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were considered to be great men of the American Enlightenment period.

The people who combined Rationalism and Deism thinking often spoke of “unalienable rights” (ever hear that term before?) and “common sense.”

Enlightened thinkers focused on:

Reason
Individualism
Skepticism

Does that not sound like the guts of the American spirit? That if we only reason things through, we can fix them; that we are stalwart individualists that abhor having our rights tread on; and that we have a tendency to view everything with a jaded eye, even while being optimistic? Pull out your Declaration of Independence and read through that document. Do any of the terms scream Enlightened to you?

Enter the Romantics—

The people who embraced Romanticism took issue with the Deists and Theists. They believed that Nature was God, and it was very good. In their belief, original sin was man’s separation from Nature. And man should try to return to Nature because doing so determines his goodness and effectiveness in life. The closer he gets to Nature’s perfection the better he is.

Romantics didn’t like Deism or Theism because they considered those philosophies, or beliefs, too dogmatic and close-minded. Too legalistic; not free enough. Better to commune with Nature to get back to your roots; be in a constant search to return to the Garden. They emphasize the subjective, while Deists emphasize the objective. Subjectivism gives a person way more latitude in their thinking and behavior. (What’s good for you may not be good for me. “Whatever floats your boat!”)

A popular American novel exemplifying Romanticism is James Fennimore Cooper’s Deerslayer, in which the protagonist is content and safe while on an island, separated from humans. In Walden, famous American author Henry David Thoreau writes about his experience living alone on Walden Pond in Massachusetts for a year, to find his God. It certainly wasn’t what he expected it to be. He came away a little jaded and disappointed through that experience. And maybe he wasn’t quite so Romantic in his views thereafter. (I couldn’t finish Deerslayer when I tried to read it. But Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans was fabulous!)

Naturalism is the way (And there’s proof!)

So along comes Naturalism, which is different from Romanticism’s Nature-is-good beliefs.

Naturalism does not look kindly on Nature, as it does not believe Nature is good or benevolent (gift giving). On the contrary, they consider it to be mischievousness, having a bent toward being and doing evil, and being quite unpredictable.

World War I had a tremendous impact on people’s beliefs, and Naturalism seemed a more logical and proven alternative to Theism and Deism.

After that bloodbath, how could anyone believe in a living God that loved people?

And if there really was a God, how could anyone believe He cared about His creation? The war was proof that He didn’t. And, if He did exist, He was just as unpredictable as His creation (nature) and prone to behaving in evil ways. So, maybe there is a God, or maybe there’s not. Either way, people lose because the end result is bad and impossible to make a judgment call on.

Although Naturalists may hold a soft spot for Romanticism, they believe that particular philosophy to be terribly naïve.

To the Naturalist, God is:

Absent,
A big wimp; or
Just plain mean and in possession of a bad temper.

Take-away—

Do any of these philosophies sound familiar to you? Can you see them filtered through our media, educational curricula, or modern (more liberal/progressive) religious teachings?

Meditation Points—

I invite you to spend some time this week really pondering what kind of influence these worldviews have had on your life and life outlook. Because, whether you’ve realized it before or not, they have.

How have any of these beliefs sneaked into your worldview and influenced you? Who taught them to you, by their words, instructions or actions?
Have they affected your belief in, understanding of, or relationship with God?
Do you ever ask yourself: “How could a loving God allow such-and-such to happen?” (Rape, murder, ethnic slaughter, natural disasters?) What answer do you give yourself?
When you analyze your worldview, do you have a hodge-podge of beliefs?
Do you have a difficult time seeing God has loving, good, benevolent, and just?
Are independence, freedom, and individualism a primary focus for you?
Do you pride yourself in being a rational, thoughtful and logical person? Do you analyze the world and your experiences through these filters?
Do you need to have evidence in order to believe? Are you prone to doubt?
Has combining these beliefs resulted in your frustration with life? Has any one of them led you to depression or a feeling of hopelessness?
I have a acquaintance, an older lady who is a brilliant and witty scientist. She told me once that she didn’t deny there being a God; she just couldn’t prove He existed. She proclaimed herself to be an agnostic. Which worldview(s) do you think she is inclined to follow?
What worldview do you think an pure environmentalist would hold? A Democrat? Republican? Libertarian or Green Party candidate?

NEXT WEEK I’ll offer my perspective on our American holiday, Labor Day.

Until then,

try to figure out what your favorite television personality or news anchor’s worldview is. Read and hear what they have to say, where their focus is.

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Tom Coe

Was the Resurrection More Spirit than Body?

What are you?

Are you spirit or body? Equally? Or more spirit than body? Or vice versa.

As I’ve said in previous body and spirit posts, I have a suspicion God thinks both are equally important. Today I’ll give you another reason why I believe that to be true.

What about the greatest event in human history?

Remember the Resurrection? After Jesus was resurrected from the grave, He appeared to the apostles and then to His other disciples in bodily form. In such bodily form that He tells His disciple Thomas to touch his nail-punctured hands and put his fingers into His lanced side to touch Him, really know that it is He—Jesus—returned from the dead and restored to life. Thomas is so overwhelmed by just seeing Jesus in the flesh that he doesn’t seem to need to do those things, even though he previously claimed he’d have to do them in order to fully believe Jesus had come back to life.

the facts—

Jesus’ spirit was rejoined with His body. He walked with the disciples; he ate with the disciples. He demonstrated a perfect, fulfilled melding of body and spirit by enjoying bodily activities and also performing a disappearing act when He suddenly departs from the disciples he joined while they walked on the road to Emmaus.

What others think—

Some religions that claim to follow Jesus believe His resurrection was purely spiritual, with no real body component. Whatever body we saw seemed to be a figment of our imagination, or maybe something the Lord willed His followers to see. I’ve never gotten them to explain that idea so it’s comprehensible.

I don’t see what the point of that kind of resurrection would be. It doesn’t make sense. Not with the promise of our own future, post physical death resurrections God talks about in Scripture. Jesus had a point to prove, a promise to fulfill.

And a future promise to foreshadow.

Jesus’ resurrection was a literal conquering of death. It was real, it was tangible, and it held a promise for our own futures. It is the hope we look forward to, the end reward for a well-run race. Being spiritually and physically reunited with Him to enjoy eternal life.

The Resurrection displayed the power of the spirit and its eternal existence. But I don’t think that fact negates the body’s importance.

While our spirit does return to the Lord upon our physical death, the story doesn’t end there. Scripture indicates there is much more to come.

NEXT WEEK we’ll explore that more-to-come truth.

Meditation points—

Until then, I invite you to take a moment to explore the following questions:

Why do you think it was so important for the disciples to see Jesus in the flesh rather than just “feel” or experience Him in the spirit?
What do you think went through the disciples’ minds when they actually laid eyes on a fully (in body) resurrected Jesus?
What difference would it make for you to see a loved one resurrected in the body rather than just in the spirit? Do you think Jesus knows the important of that to you and wants you to experience it, like He made sure the disciples did?

Enjoy pondering these questions until next week!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Andrea A Owan

The Basics of Theism and Deism—What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

A lot of people have had tremendous influence on how we think about things and approach life. Great thinkers have loudly voiced their thoughts and developed philosophies or worldviews . Some are optimistic, and some are so pessimistic you wonder how and why anyone would want to go on living!

Today we’re returning to our overview of some of the worldviews that have shaped men’s minds and hearts, and subsequently our children’s and the world’s. And even music. It doesn’t take much listening to some of the heavy metal lyrics to discover that many of these young men and women are devoid of hope and are profoundly depressed about and frustrated with life.

As we go through these views, think about whether your thinking and reasoning has been influenced in any way by them. We’ll cover two or three of them a week.

In the beginning—

It doesn’t take too much studying in history to realize that all ancient civilizations had some kind of worldview that involved worshiping a god or multitude of gods. Or nature. It’s only been fairly recent that people have dismissed the idea of a creator and universal ruler and gone out of their way to make sure god is removed from the public square, or education.

For our discussion, we’ll look at several God-focused worldviews: Theism and Deism.

Christian Theism—A Christian Theist believes that an omnipotent God exists and He has authored a Spirit-inspired and man written work called the Bible that is the final authority on life and living it. (Notice I didn’t say it is the final authority on how everything was and is created. It is not exhaustive in that regard.) This Bible contains precepts and laws upon which man should base society and living. Hence, God and the Bible have a real, significant and lasting impact on our lives.

Theism—A person who calls themselves a Theist might be referring to a Christian definition, or they might be a non-Christian theist who believes in a god or many gods. Because of this, it is extremely important to define your terms when you’re having a discussion with someone about “god.” The God you’re discussing and referring to might not at all be the god they worship or follow. They are not all the same.

A person who says they believe in and follow Jesus, but doesn’t believe in the immaculate conception of Him, or His resurrection, certainly doesn’t believe in the same Jesus as someone who believes those things.

There are some religions that identify as Christian, or Christ followers, but they believe that Jesus was really Satan’s brother, who was able to rise to the level He did because He was able to live a perfect life on Earth. They also don’t believe in the incarnation or that Jesus was the God Jehovah. They think all men can become gods, if they live a perfect enough life on Earth.

And there are others who believe that Jesus is the Archangel Michael, come down to Earth as God’s son to fight the battle. They also don’t believe in a true bodily resurrection, but see it (as the Gnostics did way before them) a spiritual one. They don’t believe Jesus is God incarnate, and they think only 180,000 select individuals will go to heaven. The rest of the followers will spend their eternity here on a redeemed Earth.

You can see that it’s critical to know who you’re talking about and define your terms.

Deism—Some of the founding fathers of the United States could be classified more as Deists than Theists. A Deist believes there is an authoritative creator, God, who has authored the Holy Bible, which is the source that should be used to guide men’s actions and governments.

A Deist knows that God was once omnipotent, before and during creation.

But they believe that once God finshed all of His creating, He decided to take a back seat in the affairs of men and, instead, distance Himself from the world and His creation. Hence, not be involved.

To them, the world can be looked at as a clock, once created by an intelligent being, but a clock that has been set on autopilot, more or less. Man is left to go it alone and figure out how the clock works and go on living.

They believe that you can know God only through reason and observation of nature, but not through a personal relationship, revelations, or miracles, which they would regard with skepticism.

Some do and some don’t believe in an afterlife. And among the believers of it, there is varying opinion.

If you’d like to do further reading on that subject, see this discussion posted on the Church of the Modern Deist website.

And you?

Which worldview would you ascribe to, or have you combined them in any way, leading you to have a melded or divided worldview?

NEXT WEEK: Romanticism and Naturalism (Can anyone say Tchaikovsky or the Disney movie, Pocahontas?)

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Dawid Zawila

On the Mountaintop—A Beautiful Marriage of Body and Spirit

I’m spending this weekend in the White Mountains of Arizona with my beloved, to celebrate 35 years of life together, and to refresh and invigorate my body, mind and spirit.

Being outside in the cool air and towering pine trees, (the largest grove of Ponderosa pine trees in the world), and inhaling that rich pine scent is like a hypodermic needle shot of anti-depressant and happiness booster for me.

And it’s truly a emotional, physical and spiritual experience. And science can back that up.

Spirit does affect the body, and vice versa—

When you experience something pleasant or enjoyable, brain chemicals are released and those chemicals cause a chain reaction throughout the body. Senses are heightened, happy hormones are released along with soothing brain chemicals. Happiness permeates your body systems. And all of that can heighten your joy.

When people say something is good for the spirit, like my mountain experience, they aren’t kidding. While scientists don’t completely understand why and how it happens, they can see the positive effects from it. The Greater Good Science Center located in Berkeley, California dedicates itself to uncovering why and how experiences enrich our lives and make us happier.

Joy-infusing experiences make us feel physically better, they improve health and can heal. They soothe us, refresh us, and give life meaning.

And we often feel a greater connection to God. The spirit that gives life meaning, that makes us so much more than just a living organism focused on maintenance, staying alive, and propagating ourselves, is stimulated by the experience, and the body reacts.

If that’s the case, how can we separate the two, when they’re so closely intertwined and interconnected? If a ravaged, pained body can affect the spirit so severely; and a ravaged, pained spirit can affect the body in a similar manner? If a healthy body and improve the spirit’s outlook; and an uplifted spirit can do the same for the physical component.

God has indeed made us very complex individuals. And is that any surprise?

The spirit of life we hold within us was breathed into us by Him. It is so much a part of Him that when it leaves our bodies at death it returns to Him. (Absent from the body but present with the Lord.) We are made in His image. Both the body and spirit give us life, in different and in complementary ways. And that’s one of life’s mysteries that makes human life so rich. One we should embrace.

The body and spirit interactions in which we can rejoice.

Are we more spirit than body?

When you’re standing on a mountaintop, inhaling the thinner, fresher air, feeling the cool breeze caress your face, smelling the exquisite scents peculiar only to juniper and pine-clad landscape, tell me which you feel more of at that moment. Body or spirit?

Or is it a beautiful, complex marriage of both?

What do you think?

NEXT WEEK: More reasons why I think the body is just as important as the spirit.

Until then, enjoy your surroundings and the marvelous effects they have on both your body and spirit!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Andrea A Owan