Jesus

I wouldn't say Jesus and I have been on the outs. I mean, we have a history and I have been avoiding his teaching for a long time, even though I agree with a lot of it.
It's not his fault, I suppose, that other people make him look bad with their interpretation of his words, or the acts they commit in his name.
I had an epiphany not too long ago. Since making yoga a regular part of my life, my thoughts have turned to faith and the importance of spirituality to us as human beings. My upbringing as a born again Christian and my realization that Christianity was not for me was a tough place to come to and it left me without a moral foundation.
When I decided to start from scratch, this was what I came to:

1. Be honest with yourself and others.
2. Don't hurt yourself or others.

These are not exactly easy to carry out at the same time, which you will understand if you think about it for a minute. But it works for me. Shawn and I have agreed, kind of jokingly, but not really, that we follow the teachings of Yoda or as I call it, Star Wars religion.
Over the years, since my departure from Christianity, I found it fairly easy to slip into the habit of using Jesus as an expletive, and most especially Jesus Christ. I didn't feel bad about this, since I had decided that Jesus was no more God than I am.
Shawn has been reading books about Zen and Buddhism lately, which I have found interesting to discuss with him. A few weeks ago, we were discussing the speculation that in the unaccounted for years of Jesus's life, he spent time in India. Some of his teachings are similar to the things Shawn was reading in these books.

That was when I realized, Jesus really wasn't a bad guy, and I should probably stop using his name as a swear word.

My god is still something I find inside myself and others and all things around me, but I think Jesus would be glad to know that I am not using his name offensively any more. Even if he doesn't know, I feel better about it.

And so will my mother.