Sunday, October 22, 2017
A Note About SPIRITUAL NUDITY
10/22/2017
Hello, Everyone,
I have been saying that I am "almost done" with my ongoing work I'm calling IT'S A NEW DAY for some time now. Haven't I? And I have promised to share articles with you on my email list as I add them. That means you. That is only about 200 in number, but I am glad I could share it with you.
Yesterday, I joined a few of our Unexpected Company thespian group of seniors here in Laramie to install the set for our upcoming play - SOMETIMES A RAINBOW - which I mentioned in my last email will be performed this coming weekend and the next weekend after that at the Alice Hardie Stevens Center here in Laramie. We have been practicing for that play since July and until yesterday, I had no idea about the set. But yesterday, I found out about it because I was asked to help install it.
To say the least, I was impressed. I am impressed. When viewing the set as we installed it, my ongoing expression was: Wow! It is such an artistic accomplishment by those who worked on it to construct it and paint various natural scenes that will enhance our performance of the play.
And seeing that art, my own idea about seeing each of us as "works of art" came to mind. It just so happens to coincide with the next essay I am sharing today. See it below - if you wish. OK?
But with today's offering, there is only one more to go. I plan to share it with you on friend and companion, Nancy's, 85th birthday on Nov 22nd. Yeah, I know. You can't wait. Huh? LOL! I think I have mentioned the name, however. So I will tell it again - STATE OF GRACE - which I wrote in 2006. As this one ends in song, so will STATE OF GRACE.
Enuf for now! As usual, be in touch - and come and see us in our play, SOMETIMES A RAINBOW, if you can.
Bye for now!
Gently,
Francis William Bessler
("Twitch" in SOMETIMES A RAINBOW)
www.una-bella-vita.com
& Companion & Partner in Life, Nancy Shaw
SPIRITUAL NUDITY
By
Francis William Bessler
May, 2003
Note:
I am going back into my writings archives, as it were, to retrieve this one and add it to this book - IT'S A NEW DAY - because it offers a new way at looking at an old idea. That idea is "nudity." The very idea causes many to blush - and many others to instantly rise up and cry "obscene." For those who believe nudity to be an expression of obscenity, life itself has been seen in that light. I do believe that is so. If life itself is obscene, then of course any of us within it are obscene as well; but if life itself is far from obscene, then each of us within it should be outside of that spectrum as well. Right?
Onward with a new look at an old idea and perhaps coming to see it in a different way.
Thanks!
FWB (10/22/2017)
I love nudity mostly for spiritual reasons. As try as I might, I can’t imagine a better way to express gratitude. For me, my life is like being a product of an artist. As such, since I am not that artist and am not making myself, I should live my life grateful for what the artist of life is doing for me. There is not a whole lot more to it than that for me. Nudity for me is a way for me to tell the artist of life that is making me that I am grateful for what it is doing.
On the other hand, to insist on covering myself seems to me to be a bit of a slap in the face of the artist that is making me. It is like I am telling Life – as the artist behind my creation – that it is not doing what I think is proper and therefore, I am going to cover up myself to spite my maker.
I love going without clothes because it puts me immediately in touch with the miracle of life that just happens to be me. I love seeing others without clothes too because the miracle that is me is also the miracle that is them. We are all into the miracle of life together. So to see anyone naked, me or another, from a baby to an ancient, is to look upon a terrific miracle – a grand expression of the Holiness that is Life. To cover that Holiness is not only a useless thing to do, but it is also a very disrespectful thing to do.
It is difficult for me to see how anyone can claim to respect life if all they do is cover it. Nudity is the ultimate respect – or can be if that is my intention for going nude. Now, if I am not going nude to respect Creation, then I can’t claim nudity as an expression of respect; but if I am going nude as an expression of respect for my Creator, then I think it is true that nudity is the ultimate expression of respect.
When I go nude, I feel like I am one with my Creator. It almost feels to me like I am a partner in my own creation, even though I did not create myself; but in feeling so comfortable with my creation and my created being, it is almost like I was there when I was started. It is absolutely wonderful to be at home with life and to know that life is Holy because it comes from the Grand Creator – be that creator a process or a being.
I believe in Heaven, but my Heaven is only being aware that Life is Good. Should I be alive in the body I currently have and be aware of the Presence of Good within me, then I am in Heaven in this experience; and should I die and continue on elsewhere, as long as I continue to be aware of the Goodness of All about me, then I will continue to be in Heaven. Nudity, for me, is a way that I can accent awareness of the Goodness of Life; and accordingly, nudity is perhaps the ideal prayer in life.
If prayer amounts to awareness of the Goodness of Life, then nudity is prayer because it facilitates awareness for me that I am Good. For me, there can be no more ideal prayer than nudity. To accept myself entirely as I am because I am the product of Goodness, I should go nude. There is no better way for me to express gratitude for life than to embrace life as it is and to constantly say thank you to Creation, which in some mysterious way has included me in its process.
I don’t think it useful to take anything in Creation for granted – whether that created being is myself or another. It is not for me to take that great miracle of life for granted as if it is an unworthy expression of something Bad. It is only for me to be grateful for the great miracle of life and to be grateful that I am privileged to be a part of it. Nothing says gratitude for life better than going nude because it is an expression of acceptance. At least, that is the way I live my life.
And it should make no difference if I am alone or with others. I feel that since I am completely Good because something completely Good is making me, I am Good completely unto myself. I do not need another nude being to make me complete. I am complete unto myself as a Good Being, as all are.
No one should need another to feel complete. Nudity, for me, is being aware of that and knowing that if I were the only person in this world, I should be just as happy as I am knowing I am not the only person in the world. It matters not really – that I am or am not the only person in the world. As long as I have my nudity, I am blessed with the only real companion that I need. I can extend that companionship and share that companionship with others, but nudity, I think, should start with a sense of individual wholesomeness – being whole unto oneself – and then, if desired, extend to others. And if all felt that way, imagine just how wonderful it would be.
But it is very important, I Believe, that a solitary sense of completion always precedes any social sense of completion. I say that I should be just as happy being alone as I might be with others; and that is crucial in my opinion. I am not primarily a "social nudist" as I am a "solitary nudist." In a way, I am an Adam without an Eve - or without another Adam. I do not need another to be complete in a spiritual sense simply because each of us is totally sacred in and of a self - or a sense of self. It is indeed when others think they must have another around for a sense of completion that so much injury and abuse in this world happens.
Or so, I Believe!
It's Such A Simple Thing
By
Francis William Bessler
Laramie, Wyoming
2/22/2015
It's such a simple thing
to do what is right.
All I have to do
is to love God with all my might.
Who really needs a Lord
to follow such a simple rule?
Perhaps if I do,
I really am a fool.
It's such a simple thing
to follow my own heart.
All I have to do
is to pay attention from the start.
Let me look at my life
and know that it is good
because God is in it,
we're all one great brotherhood.
It's such a simple thing
to know my own mind.
All I have to do
is to look until I find.
Let me search for the truth
in this Grand Paradise
knowing because we all are one,
we are all Divine.
It's such a simple thing
to love you without help.
All I have to do
is to first love myself.
Because we're all alike
I am just like you
and to love the one that's me
is to love you in truth.
It's such a simple thing
to do what is right.
All you have to do
is to love God with all your might.
Who really needs a Lord
to follow such a simple rule?
Perhaps if you do,
you really are a fool.
It's such a simple thing.
So let's begin today.
All we have to do
is to stand up tall and pray.
Let us pray to the God of All
knowing that we are all the same.
To know that is to know
we should be living without blame.
It's such a simple thing
and not at all hard to see.
All I have to do
is to commit to unity.
The future is all so clear
if we simply forget the past
and start anew today
with a new vision that will last.
Indeed,
It's such a simple thing
to do what is right.
All I have to do
is to
Love God & Life
with all my might!
I thank you for listening.
Francis William Bessler
Laramie, Wyoming