{"id":223,"date":"2013-07-08T19:49:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T19:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/?p=223"},"modified":"2013-07-08T19:49:34","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T19:49:34","slug":"june-busted-out-all-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/june-busted-out-all-over\/","title":{"rendered":"June Busted Out All Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our country\u2019s 237<\/span>th<\/sup> birthday party has come and gone and I\u2019m still celebrating June. It was a rather large month in my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hillary and I were ordained as an Interfaith Ministers on June 9th<\/sup>, the highlight of a wonderful weeklong trip to New York. I hadn\u2019t been to the City, where I was born and raised, in over 25 years, and everything exceeded my expectations. Perhaps most amazing to me is that every single thing I craved to eat\u2014a hot dog from an umbrella stand guy, a slice of pizza, a bagel, Italian food and a knish (you might have to google that last one)\u2014was just as good as I remembered.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the ordination I got a strong inner message to shave my beard, which had adorned my face for 30 years. We came home and I promptly did. When I showed up at Unity without the beard, nearly everyone (including my mom) asked, \u201cDid you grow a moustache?\u201d So I decided to get rid of the moustache, too, which had been hiding my upper lip for upwards of 42 years. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was one of the bravest things I\u2019ve ever done. I felt so vulnerable and naked even while I was doing it. And I was worrying the whole time about what I would look like. I wasn\u2019t completely displeased, though my lip has this interesting curve to it\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Then when Hillary, who I met a mere 38 years ago, shed some tears upon seeing me totally clean shaven for the first time ever, doing her best to reassure me that she didn\u2019t think it was ugly, just a huge change, I felt even more vulnerable showing my face in public. I got mixed reviews, and with Hillary obviously reluctant to kiss me because of my ever present stubble, the moustache has quickly made its return.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the 23rd<\/sup>, at that point still sans moustache, we had a local celebration of our ordination at Unity. I have never felt so loved, so validated, so seen and heard, and so honored. It was quite the community love fest, and undoubtedly one of the highlights of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now that you\u2019re up to date on my big June, including the current status of my facial hair, I suppose I can get to the point.<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t expect to feel different after the ordination, but I did (I experienced that same thing when I got married). Something somehow feels different: more, bigger, better. I\u2019m still processing all this, and I have no idea how the ordination will play out in my life as far as what I will do <\/i>differently, but I suddenly have a more expansive vision of who I am. I feel a strong urge to be<\/i> more, bigger and better. I suppose that\u2019s why I got the message to shave my beard.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also suppose I didn\u2019t need two years of seminary and an ordination for this expanded vision to emerge, but as long as I did it, I\u2019m grateful I haven\u2019t gotten too wrapped up in worrying about \u201cwhat do I do now?\u201d. In fact, I think the biggest thing that has changed for is that I\u2019m more convinced than ever that I never have to worry about what to do as long as I\u2019m clear on who I am and what\u2019s important to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> I no longer hold a shred of belief that I have to first do something or acquire something I don\u2019t already have in order to express and experience my deepest intentions and desires. In fact, I can clearly see how all my past striving to do and have more is precisely what got in the way of me living my dream right in that moment. When I look back at all the things I\u2019ve wanted to do and have, I can also clearly see that I thought I needed those things in order to express and experience love, peace, joy, meaning, fulfillment and connection. But I don\u2019t need to do or have anything to experience all those things; I simply have to stop believing I do and start expressing and experiencing them!<\/span><\/p>\n

As one of our deans at our NYC ordination said, \u201cWhen we\u2019re grounded in enough love, the doing takes care of itself.\u201d Amen!<\/span><\/p>\n

And if that\u2019s all I remember, that\u2019s more than enough for now.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our country\u2019s 237th birthday party has come and gone and I\u2019m still celebrating June. It was a rather large month in my life. Hillary and I were ordained as an Interfaith Ministers on June 9th, the highlight of a wonderful … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look-for-the-good"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225,"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bittmanbliss.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}