{"id":9,"date":"2011-01-14T13:14:03","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T13:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html"},"modified":"2011-01-14T13:14:03","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T13:14:03","slug":"chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html","title":{"rendered":"Chop Wood and Carry Water and Scoop Ice Cream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Bruce Adams<\/p>\n<p>I once read a story about a monk who became enlightened.<br \/>\nAccording to the story, there was a young man who was curious about how life<br \/>\nchanges once one becomes enlightened. In order to get some clarity the young<br \/>\nman asked the monk two questions. The first question the young man asked was,<br \/>\nbefore you became enlightened what did you do? The second question he asked was,<br \/>\nafter you became enlightened what did you do? Without hesitation the monk<br \/>\nreplied before I became enlightened I chopped wood and carried water. After I<br \/>\nbecame enlightened, I chopped wood and carried water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In an earlier blog I spoke of going through a sort of<br \/>\ntransformational experience in order to write the spiritual book that God asked<br \/>\nme to write, Prophet or Madman.&nbsp; For me, the changes and experiences went beyond anything I<br \/>\npreviously believed was possible. I can honestly say<span>&nbsp; <\/span>with complete certainty, my view and understanding of<br \/>\ncreation can never go back to what I once thought life was. That does not mean,<br \/>\nhowever, that I can not do the same tasks or jobs I once did. Today for<br \/>\nexample, I am going to be scooping Ice cream just as I have done for the last 6<br \/>\nyears. In some later blog I will share my thoughts about free will and how our<br \/>\nego and spiritual thoughts play into what we find ourselves doing in this world,<br \/>\nbut for now I am going to share something else with you. &#8211; something guaranteed to make life a little sweeter\/<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">For those of you who enjoy ice cream and coffee, I believe<br \/>\nyou will find the following recipe a delight. To start off with you take one<br \/>\nshot of espresso and add about one and half ounces of half and half. Next add 2<br \/>\nscoops of snickers ice cram along with 1 scoop of cookies and cream and blend<br \/>\nuntil completely smooth. The combination of the caramel and the chocolate in<br \/>\nthe snickers when combined with the creamy flavor of the cookies and cream come<br \/>\ntogether with the espresso in a way that just works.<span>&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">At Daddy Dee&#8217;s Ice Cream we call our shakes combined with<br \/>\nespresso Arctic Blasters. Although we are known primarily for ice cream and our<br \/>\nArctic Blasters are almost like a well kept secret, once someone tries them they<br \/>\nare hooked. I have one customer, for example, that could not come in to the shop<br \/>\nwith out ordering his Blaster. Being that many of our customers are snow birds,<br \/>\nthey spend their summers somewhere up north. The gentleman I am speaking of<br \/>\nhas family in Alaska and goes there most every year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Upon his arrival<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>back in town some years ago, he told me how much he missed his favorite coffee<br \/>\ndrink and then shared a story. He went on to tell me that he told everyone he<br \/>\nknew in Alaska. What he told them was, if they want a Real Arctic Blaster they<br \/>\nwould have to come to Daddy Dee&#8217;s Ice cream in North Ft Myers, Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">For any one out there that finds you don not have the right<br \/>\ningredients for this recipe or you would rather we make it for you, please<br \/>\nremember we are open seven days a week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">P.S.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>There is<br \/>\nnot a day that goes by that we are not talking about and sharing spiritual<br \/>\ninsights with anyone who is open and seeking. For those who have no interest in<br \/>\nspeaking about God or spirituality, our ice cream and coffee drinks are just as sweet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Love and Light <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Brother Bruce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Bruce Adams I once read a story about a monk who became enlightened. According to the story, there was a young man who was curious about how life changes once one becomes enlightened. In order to get some clarity the young man asked the monk two questions. The first question the young man asked&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,3],"tags":[38,33,36,37,35,34],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment","category-higher-consciousness","category-laughter","tag-coffee","tag-enlightenment-2","tag-ice-cream","tag-insight","tag-water","tag-wood"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chop Wood and Carry Water and Scoop Ice Cream - Prophet or Madman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chop Wood and Carry Water and Scoop Ice Cream - Prophet or Madman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Bruce Adams I once read a story about a monk who became enlightened. According to the story, there was a young man who was curious about how life changes once one becomes enlightened. In order to get some clarity the young man asked the monk two questions. The first question the young man asked&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prophet or Madman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-14T13:14:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chop Wood and Carry Water and Scoop Ice Cream - Prophet or Madman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chop Wood and Carry Water and Scoop Ice Cream - Prophet or Madman","og_description":"by Bruce Adams I once read a story about a monk who became enlightened. According to the story, there was a young man who was curious about how life changes once one becomes enlightened. In order to get some clarity the young man asked the monk two questions. The first question the young man asked&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html","og_site_name":"Prophet or Madman","article_published_time":"2011-01-14T13:14:03+00:00","author":"Chris Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html","name":"Chop Wood and Carry Water and Scoop Ice Cream - Prophet or Madman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-14T13:14:03+00:00","dateModified":"2011-01-14T13:14:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#\/schema\/person\/4e94f88eb1ed2f6bd6fcd5a2059a3d6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2011\/01\/chop-wood-and-carry-water-and-scoop-ice-cream.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chop Wood and Carry Water and Scoop Ice Cream"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/","name":"Prophet or Madman","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#\/schema\/person\/4e94f88eb1ed2f6bd6fcd5a2059a3d6e","name":"Chris Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe2f70f83a998bab664fad98361c017x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe2f70f83a998bab664fad98361c017x96.jpg","caption":"Chris Johnson"},"description":"Chris Johnson has been an ordained minister for forty four years. He says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So you'd think I'd know a thing or two about these spiritual matters. On the contrary, the deepest profundity I've been able to manage is to try to live my life in accordance with the Golden Rule. So that's what I do and have advised others to do through my social work as a founder of the National Optimists Party. Yet on a personal level, the fact of the matter is that while, over time, I've found myself with an increasing sense of awe and reverence for the magnificence of creation, I've experienced a receding sense of understanding and familiarity with the Creator. Imagine my good fortune to run into Bruce Adams, a fine soul whose ears are directly attuned to the Creator's frequency. I'm looking forward to learning a lot and enjoying myself immensely as I join Bruce and my good friend Steve on our lighthearted spiritual journey all across this great land looking for and ministering to the souls of America.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/author\/cjohnson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}