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Monday, March 6, 2023

Hardness of Heart

 By Anna Von Reitz

When I was young and reading The Holy Bible and other ancient scriptures for the first time, I kept running across this topic of "hardness of heart".  

Being a child, I at first wondered if this was a literal disease like hardening of the arteries?  

Not bad as a theory, but no, as my much-older Sister explained --- it was more like people put a shell, like a nut shell, around their hearts, so they couldn't feel things anymore.   

Oh.  Why would anyone do that? 

To stop hurting and avoid caring.  To avoid entanglements with others.  To defend oneself from other people's opinions--- and needs. To find some little scrap of peace and certainty, even if it's a painfully limiting and costly certainty. 

As I got older and I caught myself going through recurring waves of this "hardening of the heart" process, it was all too clear how and why we suffer from almost universal hardening of the heart.  

Disappointments in love, ruined opportunities, betrayals by friends and co-workers, caustic embittered employers, whining critical people in general, bad karma, hairy moles, poverty or empty riches, sacred relationships turned into commercial accommodations, grinding necessities and obligations of various kinds ---it all adds up.  

After a while you feel like you are treading water in a garbage pit, and get desperate to isolate yourself, so, you harden your heart. 

I got so fed up with self-pitying "victims" at one point that I decided that they pitied themselves enough to make up for everyone else.   

And a big "Bah, Humbug!" on that.  

Life hadn't exactly been kind to me, either.  So, I lost patience and hardened my heart some more.   

I discovered that I could harden my heart right along with the best of the hard-hearted.  It was easy.  Just flip the bird and don't care.

I remembered my younger caring self, like an increasingly distant stranger, back when my heart wasn't hard.   

For a period of about ten years, I didn't laugh, except for the inane tittering that hard-hearted people pass off as laughter. 

When your heart is hard, you can't really feel laughter.  

I made the obligatory donations to good causes and patted myself on the back for my generosity.  

When your heart is hard, you can't really give anything, but you can go through the motions.  

And because I was hard-hearted I attracted all kinds of other hard-hearted people into my life, and we would stand around at snobby dinner parties belly-bumping our hard shells together. 

The truth is that it is a lot easier to be hard-hearted than it is to tear the wrapper off and put up with all the slings and arrows and rotten tomatoes. 

Believe me. Been there. Done that. 

At the end of the day, you can't live in the shelter of a hard heart. You can only freeze in place and wait for your own death. 

So, one day, one of my co-workers made me laugh.  I was helpless. Rolling on the floor. Breathless. And it felt so good....

I took a deep breath and felt my hardness of heart dissolving, like a dam giving way before the torrent of life in all its glory and sadness, and a voice in my ear said, "Darling, you have to accept all of it. Straight up. Can you do that?" 

I thought about it for a moment.  

Yes, I could.  I was tough enough.  I finally knew that. 

So I let my full metal flak jacket slip away and I don't regret it.  I am grateful to my co-worker to this day.  

When you are reading about "hard heartedness" in the Bible, this is what God is talking about, this willful, self-protecting, self-absolving, self-centered existence without connection with or compassion for the rest of suffering Creation.  

If you are going to live in this world -- as it is now -- you are going to suffer along with it.  You are going to suffer fear and injustice.  You are going to feel outrage and struggle with contempt.  You will be pierced to the heart. You will wonder about your purpose and your sanity.  You will know loneliness and every kind of want. 

Yet, this is true also ---you will live life in each moment and experience it fully, and sooner or later, you will find courage and strength and abilities you never dreamed of, you'll find friends and mentors and cohorts, you will be aware of your breath and the fact that you are alive, and in time, you, too, will know the reasons. 

Keep your heart open as a flower, in sunshine or rain, and life will begin to make sense to you.  The ebb and flow of it, too, will come into view. 

Keeping your heart open as a child's is the ultimate act of faith, a test that we all must pass through again and again, until sheer love overcomes and we are burned clean, left pure and at peace. 

If you struggle with being hard-hearted, it can be reversed. It's just a choice, and you can choose other choices for yourself and your world.  
So, choose to feel and suffer and rise and be, live and laugh and lose along with the rest of us.  

You will be in good company. 

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29 comments:

  1. Amen Anna thank you for that

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    1. Just more nonsense and heresy from the heretic Anna.

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    2. anony 8:20pm,
      did you catch the end there?:
      '... we are *burned* clean...'
      '...So, choose to... suffer... and lose...'

      sounds like what i've read they do for Sacrifices.

      i say: no.
      woman:janmarie.

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  2. Hard or just sick of being a slave there has to be a difference in these two especially when so much about slavery has been hidden

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    1. it looks like the hidden issue of WHITE SLAVERY is finally making its way to the surface.
      look at the British Feudal White Slavery System.
      look at all the displacements of man by the Britvatkaba'al... proof: "the ScotsIrish";
      and roughly half of all Americans have some Irish blood... how does anyone think all our Irish ancestors got over here? they sure as hell didnt swim. they were forced from their ancestral lands AS POLITICAL PRISONERS by the Brit/vat/kaba'al just like the Scotsmen were displaced from Scotland and put onto Irish land just like the southeastern American indigenous nations/ other were displaced from their ancestral lands and moved to Oklahoma/other, and much more.

      can they say they didnt do it?
      i say: no.
      do we need to feel "hard-hearted" guilty or wrong for peace-fully requiring restor-ation from the harms done to us by other mans in accord with the laws of nature and natures create-r?
      i say: no.
      woman:janmarie.

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  3. I will assume someone from the Living Law Firm reads these comments. Would it be possible for "Anna" to write an article just reminding all Assemblies what their priorities should be? In Massachusetts and probably other States MOCEE seems to be the all absorbing topic. What happened to building our Four Pillars? What about outreach to bring people into the Assemblies? I realize there are a thousand different directions but with the resources at hand would it be prudent to triage? With a mission statement of "reconstructing our lawful government in a peaceful and prudent manner" what should be focused on to bring more awareness to our local communities? MOCEE?

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    1. Thank you Baldwin! Well said! Yes! I too wonder if anyone is listening and working on building our four pillars? Seems to me this entertainment is not going to get us where many of us want/need to be/go. Too much wasted time spent on listening and reading and no action taking place on what the priorities should/need/want to be! At some point this whole effort is going to collapse for lack of leadership in getting things done! Focus needs to be realigned! In my opinion.

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    2. We are (or not) the leaders. (fyi - I am in no manner connected to any at the "living law firm" nor to anna nor to paul, etc.)

      I, for now and for one, focus on all I can do to "rebut false presumptions." Which come to me regularly in the mail. And bigger ones down the pike (my legacy to my children.)

      My next heavy lifting is to strive to gain a family member to also "rebut"

      As in the "Devil vs Daniel Webster" that contest is in play daily.

      "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) is a short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét. He tells of a New Hampshire farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is later defended by Daniel Webster, a fictional version of the noted 19th-century American statesman, lawyer and orator. The narrative refers to factual events in the lives of Webster and his family.

      The story appeared in The Saturday Evening Post (October 24, 1936) and was published in book form by Farrar & Rinehart the following year. The story won the O. Henry Award. The author also adapted it in 1938 as a folk opera, with music by Douglas Stuart Moore, a fellow Yale University alumnus.

      Sun Tzu (the ancient one) makes clear your strategies in his "The Art of War."

      Good luck.





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    3. Oh, one more thing. When you poke your head out of the fox hole, hold a mirror up first - maybe you will last?

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    4. Hey Baldwin, read it again.

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  4. I do not speak as to any other state, I stand in Georgia. I have been a member for the last year. Georgia has lost the path, in my opinion. I have spoken to many others who feel the same. Infighting, bullying, blaming, shaming have become all too common. I have been told that not everyone who joins is "assembly worthy." As if this person acts as gate keeper? Me and many others have chosen to use our energy and abilities elsewhere. Sad, really. Whether purposefully or not; ego and the need for control has stagnated our assembly. Again, my opinion. Good, honest people who just wanted to contribute and make a difference are now bewildered and confused. Anyone who tries to speak up are accused of being infiltrators or worse. Why would I perform outreach? Why would I work to bring new members into the fold when such chaos and lack of respect has ensued. Purposeful? Not sure! I would not wish my experiences in the current GA assembly on anyone. Sad! Georgia is such a strong, pivotal state. My hope is that things may change. I am not one to give up easily.

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    1. Thank you for sharing that detail. There has to be some heirarchy, there can't just be "I'm the fiduciary" and everyone just defers, sorta like how Anna magically became such for the unincorporated jurisdiction.

      Its a little bizarre to watch. That things are as you describe infers no real progress has been made other than they who recorded their paperwork now have their details on the public record. A sort of inverse list building of Patriots, they who are angry enough to take action in some fashion, and if they'll act to record on a public ledger they will likely be the first to act when it comes to Other Actions. I almost recorded my paperwork. I was in process of getting the state department sealed documents back when the Texas assembly sorta became questionable due the claim of the MOCE Mutual offset credit exchange where Anna and crew claimed they could pay off ones mortgage using some unknown process, but only if you recorded your paperwork up front. I've not heard a single person whose recorded their paperwork claim that they are no longer in the debts they took on themselves. When the only actions being taken by the ones claiming to oversee the unincorporated jurisdictions are words urging others to take actions themselves, it becomes questionable to me.

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  5. You naysayers are plainly but very broadly "naysayers." Shall we shorten that to "nayers?"

    A one (1) with a courage and gaining knowledge sees a pair of unfilled boots of responsibility hangin' about. - An' ain't body fillin' dem boots, cuz nobody dare step into em, with their own delicate feet, at their own personal risk, cuz them boots may walk you into unknowable, maybe hideous challenges.

    - then all a' sudden when the boots (of responsibility) are stepped into, and the lay (Law) of the Land (and other jurisdictions) thereby comes in better focus and reveal (and maybe they are safe boots?) - That courageous one broadens scope to try to save a world of buttocks (what the hell - why not think big, save everyone! Yeah)

    - then all a sudden the "nayers" whinny up "Hey this aint fair, why her get to where dem boots - yeah, why? - lets initiate a juggernaut and throw ourselves under the wheels stupidity.

    Hey you who be Nayers, stop pretending you are horses, you are a cult of "johnny come late-ly" go back to being gophers (I love my gophers) but don't try to trip a horse, you might get stepped on - purely by accident.

    I wager not a one you, nor your cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, phantoms, or dill pickles could do anything in those boots other than trip into mud ass or appetite.

    I don't know Anna, or her team, or even much of assemblies, but I do know complainers and naysayers, when they be about.

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  6. . . . yeah don' get oak splinters into your genitals being indecisive about which side of that fence to dismount - to you of the reply "stop complaining."

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    1. Says who? I corrected several years ago. Wasn't necessary. I Know that now....Penis breath! :)

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  7. That some powerful influence he got, to ship "penis breath" up your nose across the spectrum, wow the spectrum is broadening. Why not you send some back! this would be more fun than watching tennis!

    Anti-creative minds always drop their mental trousers, as their first (and only) refuge in stupidity.

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    1. Takes one to know one. Maybe some of you are taking yourselves a little too seriously. And doing a fair bit of projecting and assuming? Lighten up a little. Laugh. There's a message you might be missing: Get over yourself. Maybe it's you who is uncreative and a bit insecure.

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    2. Ha! And you presuppose you know each. Typical hypocrite you, missus "takes one to know one."

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    3. Nah. I think you're just uptight and boring. Lol

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    4. ...since when does "boredom" begat laughter to you of - "Lol."
      You expose your true character as fraud and liar.

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  8. Well , I for me will keep will stay vigilant , as a man and protector to guard my “ heart” and all it loves.
    Anna’s advise is noted .

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  9. The '12' LIVERY COMPANIES
    https://www.citymatters.london/city-of-londons-great-12-livery-companies/

    ReplyDelete

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