Recognizing Our Innocece

Photo courtesy of Datura Böes

Righteous indignation: There's a lot of it going around, don't you think? Perhaps I notice it because I'm expressing it, too. Maybe I'm too quick to jump on my high horse and adopt a holier-than-thou attitude. Some people think of forgiveness as looking the other way and doing nothing, but we are learning that forgiveness is seeing past the illusion of separation to the reality of our unity. With this view, I can set aside my stories of right and wrong, opening thought to the reality of Love. Some people wonder what good this could possibly do in a world rife with confusion. If everyone lived Love, opening themselves to listen for guidance on how to understand and practice this type of forgiveness — well, just imagine the utopia! There exists a voice audible to anyone willing to listen. Forgiveness, the releasing of illusions, allows this voice to be found. In our unity, one release is everyone's gift. There is no you, me, and God. There is only One. What a joy to be finding our voice!

"In the Apocalypse it is written: 'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.' In St. John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spiritual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 536:1-9

“The blameless cannot blame, and those who have accepted their innocence see nothing to forgive. Yet forgiveness is the means by which I will recognize my innocence. It is the reflection of God’s Love on earth. It will bring me near enough to Heaven that the Love of God can reach down to me and raise me up to Him.”
—A Course in Miracles W-60.1:3-6

The Beauty of All Art

The Church at Auvers

Vincent van Gogh

For those of you who are in a book club, I highly recommend “Mona’s Eyes” by Thomas Schlesser.  (You’ll enjoy it whether you discuss it with others or not!) This entertaining and informative book takes us through 52 works of art, as seen through the new eyes of a 10-year-old girl and her extremely educated and knowledgeable grandfather. We could have talked about these painters and their subjects for days! I had the privilege of hosting this group of Novel Women in my home, and that, in and of itself, is a most wonderful thing. The great food and camaraderie of old friends is cause for celebration! Throw in a good book discussion and my gratitude overflows …

“Portraits, landscape-paintings, facsimiles of penmanship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences, can all be taken from pictorial thought and memory as readily as from objects cognizable by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed before the artist can convey them to canvas.”

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 86:25-32

“Let us join in celebrating peace by demanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so you offer me the love I offer you. What can be more joyous than to perceive we are deprived of nothing” 

—A Course in Miracles T-15.XI.8:2-3

Rising From the Ashes

Photo courtesy of Mark Hughes 

Here in Eureka Springs, about two-and-a-half years after St. James Episcopal Church went up in flames, it was reborn on Christmas Eve of this last year. Its small congregation never considered closing their doors, and through hard work and perseverance, it has risen from the ashes in the most beautiful reincarnation. Watching their resurrection has turned my thoughts to our own individual rising from the ashes. I often joke that I wake up in a new world every day, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Starting over holds fearful connotations for many of us, but perhaps it need not be so. Looking at the world in a new light, seeing the purity in everyone, can bring the new beginning we are all craving. It seems necessary to metaphorically burn the house down in order to build back without the material mistakes we have come to believe are insurmountable. May we all examine our beliefs and do our best to release them into the ethers, making room for divine Love to rule our every thought. Namasté…

“The resurrection demonstrated that nothing can destroy truth. Good can withstand any form of evil, as light abolishes forms of darkness. The Atonement is therefore the perfect lesson. It is the final demonstration that all the other lessons I taught are true. If you can accept this one generalization now, there will be no need to learn from many smaller lessons. You are released from all errors if you believe this.”
—A Course in Miracles T-3.I.7:6-11

“In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of solemn import, but we heed them not. It is only when the so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass away in our lives, that we find unquestionable signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to spiritual life.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 232:26-31

Free Listening

What would you do if you saw a person sitting on the steps of a building with a sign that said, “Free Listening”? I read an article about a man, Kip Clark, who did this on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his words, "Listening is at the root of anything good that exists between people. It can have a powerful impact when done with sincerity and presence." I’ve been noticing how often people only hear a portion of what is being said — or written. This leads to misunderstandings and hurt feelings. The man featured in this article says he offers no advice, but pays attention without judgment, speaking if it seems appropriate, but mainly listening. Feelings of loneliness and isolation are at an all-time high, and we are searching for ways to help others feel included. Perhaps this is the way. We can all listen with attention and respond when it feels right, allowing true communication to create unity. This could pertain to someone who lives in our home, or a friend far away, or the clerk in the food market. I feel excited at the prospect of being a sounding board during these times of immediate response and rebuttal via social media! 

“Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given them, along with you.” 

—A Course in Miracles W-106.9:1-3

“Ears. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding. Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, ‘Having ears, hear ye not?’ (Mark viii. 18.) 

—Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 585:1-4

Solidly Here

A Gathering of Friends 

“Lean on us, we are solidly here. Strong. With love in our hearts.” These are the words written from a friend to another friend whose husband had just begun hospice care. I’ve said before how important it is to have a strong network of friends, and this seems to be more important as we age. Perhaps it’s not more important; maybe it’s that we find ourselves in need of the comfort more often. For instance, I have friends with dementia, others with serious illnesses, a couple are having a tough time retiring from their life work; although some of us are enjoying said retirement very much, because there is more time to bask in the lifelong connections we have nurtured over the years. I also know some people who feel alone and without deep connections. That’s when it becomes important to realize that we are never alone, by virtue of our constant kinship with Mother Earth, and with each other through divine Mind. Allowing ourselves to sink into the arms of all-encompassing Love brings a security few other relationships afford us. And I am grateful …

“When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His, — no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 205:32-3

“Love is freedom. To look for it by placing yourself in bondage is to separate yourself from it. For the Love of God, no longer seek for union in separation, nor for freedom in bondage! As you release, so will you be released. Forget this not, or Love will be unable to find you and comfort you.”
—A Course in Miracles T-16.VI.2:1-5

You Can’t Push the River

Alaska - photo from Aaron Springston

A dear friend is trying to make a decision about her future: whether to sell her business, how to sell a house she loves, where to go — if anywhere. Hearing her worries reminded me of 30 years ago when I wanted to move to my present village. My boys were going to Clear Spring School and I decided to move from Berryville to Eureka Springs. There were obstacles which seemed insurmountable and no matter how much I planned and worried, nothing was working out. At some point I read an article purported to be written by Mary Baker Eddy entitled “Place”, and it was her words which allowed me to stop all the mental chatter and surrender to divine Mind. Shortly afterwards, I was recycling newspapers and a house rental ad jumped off the page at me. It’s the same house where I’ve happily raised my children, the home where inspiration was sparked for a business which introduced me to hundreds of great friends, the place I love to be more than anywhere. Through the years, I've watched in wonder as answers come when I no longer worry over possibilities. Unfortunately, trying to explain this concept is not easy. Yielding of personal will is not a popular idea. We are learning we can't push the river...

“The place you seek is seeking you, the place you need is needing you.”
—Mary Baker Eddy [There is some controversy as to whether she wrote the article entitled “Place”.

“Child of Light, you know not that the light is in you. Yet you will find it through its witnesses, for having given light to them they will return it. Each one you see in light brings your light closer to your awareness. Love always leads to love. The sick, who ask for love, are grateful for it, and in their joy they shine with holy thanks. And this they offer you who gave them joy. They are your guides to joy, for having received it of you they would keep it. You have established them as guides to peace, for you have made it manifest in them. And seeing it, its beauty calls you home.”
—A Course in Miracles T-13.VI.10:1-9

On Beauty …

Solar Eclipse in Antarctica 

Kahlil Gibran has always been my go-to inspirational guru. After watching numerous skating events, I was drawn to see what he had to say about beauty. Even if you do not want to read the whole poem, please go to the last stanza. It knocks me out!

On Beauty

BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

And a poet said, Speak to us of Beauty.

     And he answered:

     Where shall you seek beauty, and how

shall you find her unless she herself be your

way and your guide?

     And how shall you speak of her except

she be the weaver of your speech?

 

     The aggrieved and the injured say,

“Beauty is kind and gentle.

     Like a young mother half-shy of her

own glory she walks among us.”

     And the passionate say, “Nay, beauty is

a thing of might and dread.

     Like the tempest she shakes the earth

beneath us and the sky above us.”

 

     The tired and the weary say, “Beauty is

of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.

     Her voice yields to our silences like a faint

light that quivers in fear of the shadow.”

     But the restless say, “We have heard her

shouting among the mountains,

     And with her cries came the sound of

hoofs, and the beating of wings and

the roaring of lions.”

 

     At night the watchmen of the city say,

“Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the

east.”

     And at noontide the toilers and the way-

farers say, “We have seen her leaning over

the earth from the windows of the sunset.”

 

     In winter say the snow-bound, “She shall

come with the spring leaping upon the hills.”

     And in the summer heat the reapers say,

“We have seen her dancing with the autumn

leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her

hair.”

     All these things have you said of beauty,

     Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of

needs unsatisfied,

     And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

     It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty

hand stretched forth,

     But rather a heart enflamed and a soul en-

chanted.

     It is not the image you would see nor the

song you would hear,

     But rather an image you see though you

close your eyes and a song you hear though

you shut your ears.

     It is not the sap within the furrowed bark,

nor a wing attached to a claw,

     But rather a garden for ever in bloom and

a flock of angels for ever in flight.

 

     People of Orphalese, beauty is life when

life unveils her holy face.

     But you are life and you are the veil.

     Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mir-

ror.

     But you are eternity and you are the mir-

ror.

— On Beauty, by Kahlil Gibran