Cafe DaBar July 30th 8:00 p.m.

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Originally uploaded by radiancecreative.

So Doug Prosteby is going to come play his "traption" this Saturday. Traption is a percussion rig set up like a drum kit (or "trap" in old school lingo. Very cool. He used it several Sundays ago at co-ho. to everyone's sheer delight.

We just got back from Lethbridge, (had another great trip down there) I brought my new instruments purchased from ten thousand villages. and read more of "the joy of drumming". Mesmerized am I. So I've got "the frog" my little drum, a sweet gentle rain stick and tonight at K-days I picked up some Peruvian rattles and African shakers (2 balls with a string) The guy selling them showed me how to play them and it's a very challenging new skill.

so yeah, the two books floating around in my suit case are "The Different Drum" scott peck and "The joy of Druming"

So we're going to do a set of "Paul stuff" and then open the circle for some more community participation. Any apostles present can share what the Father is doing in their gardens. Stew? Chuck? Matt? Tim? Joe? Others?

anyways, "an evening not to be missed" and all that rot. In the heart of the summer, blah blah blah.

peace

Winnipeg Triangle

satelite_triangle
Originally uploaded by radiancecreative.

If you go to maps.google.ca and go full zoom it will take you to the center. The very heart of Canada, Winnipeg Manitoba. If you zoom back a bit you see a Triangle, pointing to "The Forks". In the middle of that Triangle is a street formation that looks suspiciously like a tuning fork. Mark's place.

I met some folks from Winnipeg recently and I felt so strongly that I knew this girl named "Amber". After spending some time together I found no concrete evidence that we would have ever met so I was made conjecture toward the idea that it was possibly the "Winnipeg Vibe" that I saw around her that gave me a sense of familiarity. Al Racketti's came up and caused quite a flood of emotions in me, more on that some other time.

I love "The Forks" though I have not been there enough during the summer months for many years, the last time prehaps being Joy and Kent's Wedding in what... 92?. When I was a youth in St. Boniface (East side) the area across the river where the Assiniboine and Red meet was still CN land, not developed at all for the general public, a place we used to "hunk around" fishing, throwing stones and generally being boys. We'd also venture into the now well known "exchange district" (which was largely vacant) to climb fire escapes. So I am looking forward to sometime in the next year, being able to head on down to "The Forks" on a hot sunny Saturday afternoon.

As my understanding and awareness of reality grows, changes, matures (hopefully that's what's happening) I find that music and spirituality are merging and connecting in sooo many ways. The significance and presence of vibration in the existence of the Universe is something that can tie things together, things that when viewed with a mechanistic, "hard particle" paradigm seem to fall apart, actually harmonize beautifully when viewed and "felt" with an awareness of vibration.

I was holding on og my X-88 templates (made form solid pine) the other day and I held it up to my ear and tapped it in different places. Wow, the harmonic overtone series is right there. It's EVERYWHERE. Yes I've been neglecting the X-88 guitar DNA paradigm, so hopefully I will create more time for that in the next while.

satelite_triangle

satelite_triangle
Originally uploaded by radiancecreative.

see Brother Mark's blog for forthcoming details

cockburn_stealingfire

cockburn_stealingfire
Originally uploaded by radiancecreative.

In a recent trip down to the states. Debbie and Luke and I listened to a double CD of Bruce Cockburn's "waiting for a miracle". Spans about 20 years of Bruce's music. First side starts with "Going to the Country" and ends with "the trouble with normal". Great experience to have my wife and son enter more fully into the heart of Bruce.

My first exposure to Cockburn was in 1980 and it was the 1973 album Night Vision. shuttle ahead to Further Adentures Of / Dancing on the Dragon's Jaws / Humans / Inner City Front/ The Trouble with Normal / Stealing Fire /

I just had a memory about the specific time Stealing Fire came out. This album came out while I was living in Flin Flon Manitoba. I was at the "co-op" (a department store) with Big Al (a local "character") and troubled individual I had befriended. Al was a big, loud mouthed, slovenly (and incredibly smelly) yet I found loveable Flin Flon resident. We were leafing through records (yes it was still Vinyl in 81-82) probably seeing lots of absurd and evil "metal" and who know's what else. I, being the pastor's kid and the one who had been"in the lord" for so much longer began pointing out to my friend how wrong and evil some of the people were behind this wicked music and how displeased god was and how "they're going to pay". At least that must have been a phrase I was using cause what happened next I will never forget.

In our browsing Big Al came across the image you see in this post. A fired breathing demon of some sort. He held it up and pronounced judgement "Ya They're going to pay alright!". I responded, "no no that's a cockburn Record, he's OK". Of course Stealing Fire contained songs like "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" / "If I had a Rocket Launcher". Music that has resonated and moved my heart. Who cares if Bruce was into "liberation theology"(which I rejected back then, not even knowing what the hell it meant) I believe his music and poetry are both prophetic and profound.

It's just funny how at one time I was so quick to judge and remain locked into fear. Of course my walk with God was also marked by shame and self abasement. I regret actually giving away my cockburn albums a few years later cause I thought he was into moon worship or something, an influence of the charasmatic / fundy church circle I was a part of at the time.

anyways I know this post was part album review, part self realization, blah blah blogy-doo

paul

Paul & the Apostles

inside
Originally uploaded by radiancecreative.

Where? Cafe DeBar
When? July 30, 8:00 ish
Why? (Why not?)
Who? Paul Seburn and all available apostles.

Say tuned for details.

Anyone care to identify this photo?

ufo

ufo
Originally uploaded by radiancecreative.

If you were to visit "the bolier room" you will see this object. I'm enjoying working with photos again.

This mystical light is part of "Paul's Transport". Pathways to other realms of consciousness. Lifting the eye of the spirit to behold the wonder and majesty of the Christ. Drumming our way to the heart.

Who is going to join with me in these journeys of wonder and common union? Surely I'm not the only one who longs for greater intimacy and deeper reality? Surely this hasn't all been a cruel joke?

I can't do this on my own. I need the creative spirit of others to really launch into a new thing. A sort of critical mass. Perhaps I haven't been clear in making that point. Perhaps I'm afraid. When will "radiance creative" become "radiance creative group"? I've still got plenty to de-compress as I continue to engage in this blogging experiment.

For now I guess I'm kind of like a UFO.

peace out

O'Byrne's and loop holes

beer_menu
Originally uploaded by radiancecreative.

O'Byrne's Irish Pub.

Thanks goes out to Michael Warf, who turned me on to flickr today. (psst Perhaps your card will work when we visit this fine establishment.)

Really longing this week for authentic gathering, not tied to the sunday morning rig-a-ma-role. Thanks Matt for reminding me of the incarnational reality of life in Christ. I remember a year or so ago becoming aware of some of the Eastern Othodox views on the incarnation.

It all dovetails very well with the Parousia. Christ's coming being not so much a flash in the pan as a sunrise. We are in the day of the Spirit, the new creation order. The idea that all things are being filled by He who is all in all. That we need not wait for some further revelation, but that Christ (and therefore the Father) has made his abode with men.

"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace toward men with whom he is well pleased"

Now this "in whom he is well pleased" at least when i was growing up was used as a sort of loop hole in the comprehensive grace of god, suggesting that peace and good will would only come to those who somehow try hard enough and are into good christian living. I've come to think of it this way. God is pleased with mankind and he extends peace and goodwill to all. (period). In as far as God is concerned every tongue tribe and nation are acceptable to the Father because of Jesus Christ's faithfulness.

Come to think of it I was exposed to all kinds of loop holes supposedly in the word of god as a young person. Like god's promise to Noah (and therefore all of mankind) to never again wipe out every living thing. The loop hole? "Ahh he promised never by flood but what about by fire? " What a crock! and what a twisted view of the Almighty.

Fact is loop holes and the like are required when we misplace the full presence of God and quaranteen in to either past or future. But hey I've gone from the thought of gathering some brothers down at an Irish Pub to somewhat of a rant. Forgive me. I just am eager to get on with being the spiritual community that I know is preferable in whatever context, including O'Byrne's.

peace

Subtle Hints Toward Community

COMMUNITY MUSIC INITIATIVES (CMI)

COMMUNITY OF HOPE (co-ho)

THE HOUSE COMMUNITY (THC)


"Nudge Nudge Wink Wink, say no more say no more."

My 11 year old son Luke thinks NT Wright sounds like John Clease. Listen to god's holy land and you be the judge.

These capitolized phrases could be interpreted many ways. To me they are subtle hints and affirmations toward the direction my life is taking. These are all organizations with which I am either employed or volunteering.

I work as a music educator for CMI. I volunteer my music performance skills and act as creative consultant at co-ho. And I love the folks from THC. Well really i love everyone in these organizations but the House Community is..well.."close to home" I guess

All this SHOUTS not so subtly..."You Paul are a community catalyst. All those realms you've seen with the eye of the spirit are awaiting actualization."

It also has me grappling with the nature of community. If you follow my links listing there is a strong community focus. I like to re-present community as "common unity". No matter what group I'm working with there is access to the full presence of God in humanity which offers fertile soil for spiritual growth. As one who appears to have been asked to span several "communities" it's important for me to recognize both the fluidity and solidity of community.

"Serving" and functioning is so simplified in the closed community. (you know the church system that is inwardly focused on such a small sliver of our world that is called "church") sub cultures, a parrelel universe where the rules of engagement are all laid out for you.

I find myself searching for ways to be culturally creative, but then asking "Who asked me?" Do I have some "mandate"? Who gives me the "permission"? Underlying much of my interaction with these "communities"...right there I've pluralized the word. Are these "independant communities". It would be much more helpful for me to consider them ONE. Not that the people in any of these communities will ever share communion but I must be able to be fully engaged during my service with them. You see many would suggest and even demand that I choose one or the other. Or maybe that's a "hand me down" that I need to challenge.

I am by nature, by training and experience a "rearranger". I just know that there is SO MUCH MORE. We have the power to shape our world. For me it's gone way beyond christology and into the lap of the Father. sectarianism a thing of the past I want to get on with growing spiritual community in the great human family. This sort of talk may raise questions or even lead to outrage in some. "Ah Paul has fallen prey to the wishy washy world of liberal theology and new age philosophy" I mean "dare I" send anyone here

Getting down to the core of my transformation however leads directly to the person of Jesus Christ. So though it may appear I am open to a miriad of perspectives, I am following Jesus the best way I know, I just keep bumping into him in the strangest places, but please NOT the christian construct of "Jesus". If "being human" is good enough for him it's good enough for me.

humanity and divinity are so closely intertwined, to quote NT Wright (and material for my next track)

"Heaven and Earth are not a long way away from each other in biblical thought.
God and the world are not seperated by a great gulf"

peace