The Parable Of The Sourdough Starter

My beloved gardener bought me a sourdough starter packet for Christmas that is said to be over 145 years old. I could have made my own sourdough starter, and I have on many occasions, but I wanted to have an authentically old one this time. Why? Because why reinvent the wheel? Do you know sometimes we will keep going at something because we're merely too stubborn to see a situation from another point of view than the one we've experienced? There was a time I often wondered why I am so absolutely different from the masses, even the ones in my close-knit circle. I see things entirely different. It's my experiences, and we all have them, which is the beautiful makeup of our lives and the choices we make. Many are led by fear. Fear of not being accepted, but mostly fear of being sent on a trip to hell, (It's not literal, it's merely a state of mind.)

Now I bring this subject up because we are at a time in this world when we are no longer gently being nudged to change, but instead, it's by brute force. Be that mentally, physically or social/emotionally. When too much resistance has been dragged back, eventually, the only way out is through, which brings me to my thoughts last evening of my sourdough starter metaphor.

I heard a wise mystic say once in a book I read, and it stuck with me. That if you can't tell someone what you are trying to teach by simplicity, then you don't know it yourself, which brings me to how mystics taught the Bible. I won't go into the true definition of what I believe the Bible is, (you can read it here) because folks can't handle being woken up with truth such as a splash of cold water. They will wake up fighting mad and defensive. So most (not all) but most must be gently taken there like a dear mum wakes a sleeping baby. That's what I'm doing here on ye olde blog.

As I spent the appropriate times feeding my sourdough yeast, all is well. Now if you've never had or created a starter what you should comprehend is you must feed a starter daily, if left out on the counter, or if it's scantly used you only need feed it weekly. Another point to give rise to is that if the starter is neglected, it will begin to starve, which means it takes on an odour of something I conjured up that smells like fingernail polish remover. It's starving and will die if you don't soon feed it. When and if this happens you can save the starter, but you must discard half to accomplish this. This is how you resurrect it. This is also what folks must do with their old starving mindset. To redeem a starving soul in need of a new way of thinking, one must get rid of nearly (if not over half) their old ways in which they've believed. All things die through indifference. They are kept alive through attention. If experience is the only thing that teaches, we are (as the people) "the sourdough starter."

Do you know what happens when you feed your soul with new books and new ideas, you begin to ferment and bubble up (such as my starter) with new life? I recall when In my late teens, I began using a starter which I had received from a dear older woman I knew when I was thick into theology. Upon receiving my new little starter, I was a bit nervous and fearful that I would kill the yeast, or worse not know how to care for it and it would die. But as time drew on, I learned to have more and more faith and trust in my capabilities of keeping it alive. Why? Because I had grown and learned in confidence, and experience. I knew and still know that even on the brink of my starter looking as if it's gone to ruin and rubbish, looks can be deceiving. You may have thrown off my ideas of what I bang on about when it pertains to thinking of the Bible in an entirely new light than what you've been taught your whole life long, and it could simply be, you've thrown out your starter that wasn't soured at all, you solely gave way to being frightened, and you're faith wained.

So often, folks find it challenging to change or change concepts of their self because their desires to change have not been aroused. If one fell in love with what they wanted to be, they would become it. It takes an intense hunger to bring about a transformation of self.

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O Lord."

No one can ever send you down the road to ruin. It's not possible. What the heart does is always lead you aright. When folks can come to the understanding of loving the aspect of their self so profoundly, that is when your life truly has "started."

Most affably yours til my next swim, Raquelxxx