They Most We Can Do

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

The substance of the following quote often runs through my mind: “We do ourselves a great disservice when we let the bitter opinions of others mingle and subvert our own thoughts.” (Dodinsky) It’s easy to feel hurt by what others say, or to become angry, or to react in various non-productive ways. One of my favorite gurus is Don Miguel Ruiz, and his Four Agreements are something I try to incorporate in my daily life. So when someone tells me they’re upset with the actions of another, I often relate his advice: “Don’t take anything personally.” Ultimately, the bottom line is given us by Gandhi’s wisdom: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change toward him.” Our thoughts and actions are important. The least we can do is also the most.

“Consider all the distortions you have made of nothing; all the strange forms and feelings and actions and reactions that you have woven out of it. Nothing is so alien to you as the simple truth, and nothing are you less inclined to listen to. The contrast between what is true and what is not is perfectly apparent, yet you do not see it. The simple and the obvious are not apparent to those who would make palaces and royal robes of nothing, believing they are kings with golden crowns because of them.”
—A Course in Miracles T-14.II.2:3-7

“Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts."

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 261:4-7

  

A Fish in a Tree?

Photo courtesy of Don Matt

I listen to audio books while cooking, cleaning, and exercising. Today I finished a book written for middle school students called Fish in a Tree, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. The title caught my attention while browsing through the possibilities for my next listen. (I use a library app called Libby, so if I don’t care for the book, I simply return it) The book’s title refers to this: “Everybody is smart in different ways. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing it is stupid.” As I finished this book, I was thinking about my friends who think they can’t understand my metaphysical studies and writing. One man tells me he doesn’t have enough time left in his life to learn about A Course in Miracles or Christian Science. While I feel fortunate that my parents were students of Mary Baker Eddy and I grew up with a basic understanding of these teachings, there is always more to learn. I don’t even think of it as learning any longer, but as an unfolding. Is it ever too late to accept new ideas? We needn’t compare ourselves with anyone else when it comes to any form of learning or understanding. What fun we all have waiting for us!

“Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can 'run, and not be weary; . . . walk, and not faint,' who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement. … Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 254:1-15
 
“The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years. It does so by the underlying recognition of perfect equality of giver and receiver on which the miracle rests. The miracle shortens time by collapsing it, thus eliminating certain intervals within it. It does this, however, within the larger temporal sequence.”
—A Course in Miracles T-1.II.6:7-10

War — Huh!

War is incomprehensible to most of us. Personally, I can’t think of anything horrific enough to cause me to file a lawsuit against another person, much less to want to kill them. I hear that countries and groups of people will do things collectively which individuals would find abhorrent. Wars often begin for religious- and/or power-driven causes. I’m sure everyone involved thinks they have a noble cause and they are standing up for righteous reasons, I’m not sure there is such a thing as a “righteous reason” — unless it is love-based. We learn in A Course in Miracles that everything either comes from love or is a call for love. As we watch wars swell intensely, our hearts go out to the people. May this love we send out to the innocents be for all the people, not just the ones we deem to be in the right. God sees no difference in Hitler or Mother Teresa. And we are the image and likeness of that divine Love. Namaste to All …

“Help Me to wake My children from the dream of retribution and a little life beset with fear, that ends so soon it might as well have never been. Let Me instead remind you of eternity, in which your joy grows greater as your love extends along with Mine beyond infinity, where time and distance have no meaning. While you wait in sorrow Heaven’s melody is incomplete, because your song is part of the eternal harmony of love. Without you is creation unfulfilled. Return to Me Who never left My Son. Listen, My child, your Father calls to you. Do not refuse to hear the Call for Love. Do not deny to Christ what is His Own. Heaven is here and Heaven is your home.” 

A Course in Miracles S-3.IV.8:1-9

“It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:9-13

Extraordinary Children

 Wiwi Schrøder - Väktaren, (a guardian)

Thinking and writing about childhood trauma can bring a feeling of hopelessness. Don’t we all have trauma as children? Is it inevitable that we remain bruised, if not broken? I know a child can be healed through love, but what if no one realizes the damage has occurred until it has become a part of that person? That is where people with training and understanding come into the equation, and I trust you will seek them out to help you, if need be. I was given away when I was two months old. My young mother wanted to keep me, but her family didn’t want that to happen. She was so distressed that she planned to kill me and then kill herself. She had a pillow over my face when her sister came in and stopped her. I was given to an aunt who had no children, but wanted to be a mother, and was in a position to give everything to a baby. Any trauma I may have suffered in utero and as an infant was neutralized by years of nurturing. Today I read this beautiful statement from L.R. Knost: “Instead of raising children who turn out okay despite their childhood, let's raise children who turn out extraordinary because of their childhood.” I know many young people who are raising extraordinary children, my son included. I love watching the young parents I know as they raise their babies. It is truly extraordinary!

“Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. You should thank God for what you really are. The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their holiness, which can be hidden but never lost.”

—A Course in Miracles T-1.I.31:1-3

“Children: The spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth, and Love.”

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 582:28-29

Translating and Releasing Fears

Photo courtesy of Don Matt

Dr. Gabor Maté is an expert in childhood trauma and its effects on people’s lives. I’ve wondered why some folks survive and thrive, while others seem to shrink and retreat into fearful ways of living. Dr. Maté has caused me to ask what behaviors children are exhibiting in reaction to the trauma inflicted upon them by our society — i.e., shootings in school, the fear they are taught to exhibit toward anything outside their homes — worse yet, the fear precipitated inside their homes. And what of our adults? Trauma from childhood has affected far too many of us. We don’t know how to handle the abuses from family, friends, teachers and others in positions of authority. What if we recognized the source of mass shootings and other horrendous crimes? It’s too easy to say the cause is video games, mass media, violent cartoons, and the like. While many things are contributing factors, what if we admitted that early childhood trauma can and does manifest itself in ways we don’t understand. These feelings need to be assimilated, translated, and released. Perhaps the teachings of Gabor Maté (and others who understand what is happening to us) can facilitate the transitions we need to make. If I am able to recognize my reactions to trauma in all its forms, perhaps I can release my own and allow others to have the courage to face theirs. Let’s not be afraid to see where those realizations take us!

“So much of what we call abnormality in this culture is actually normal responses to an abnormal culture. The abnormality does not reside in the pathology of individuals, but in the very culture that drives people into suffering and dysfunction.” — Dr. Gabor Maté

“The great peace of the Kingdom shines in your mind forever, but it must shine outward to make you aware of it.”
—A Course in Miracles T-6.II.12:8

“O wake and hear the angel-song That bids all discord cease, From pain and sorrow, doubt and fear, It brings us sweet release; And so our hearts find peace.”
—Christian Science Hymnal page 9

Invest in What is True

Starting over. Making changes. Reinventing ourselves. Most of us have done this more than once, haven't we? A sea change in our lives may come about because of illness, loss of a job, losing a loved one, or just needing to let go of behaviors which no longer serve us. Whatever the case, many of us resist these changes. Presently, it seems we are all in the midst of major shifts in our perceptions and our daily activities, and it can be frightening. We may wish someone would throw us a life preserver and tow us to safety! Perhaps we know someone grasping at illusions of hope, not seeing through the mist to the pitfalls on the other side. In our desire to show others the danger, we can drive them further away from seeing what's actually going on. And so we must remember that we cannot save anyone, we cannot change anyone; only ourselves. Our values can be expressed through our votes during elections, by the foods we purchase, by the entertainment we choose, and many other daily choices. We’re all in this together. The longer I live, the more I realize what that means. Let's be here for each other. It's the most we can do!

"This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:10-15

“The way to correct distortions is to withdraw your faith in them and invest it only in what is true. You cannot make untruth true. If you are willing to accept what is true in everything you perceive, you let it be true for you. Truth overcomes all error, and those who live in error and emptiness can never find lasting solace. If you perceive truly you are cancelling out misperceptions in yourself and in others simultaneously. Because you see them as they are, you offer them your acceptance of their truth so they can accept it for themselves. This is the healing that the miracle induces.”
—A Course in Miracles T-3.II.6:1-7

Complete Simplicity

Photo credit: Don Matt

 Little Gidding

By T S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot

We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for 

But heard, half heard, in the stillness

Between the two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always--

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of things shall be well

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.

        Little Gidding V,

        Four Quartets.

        -- T.S. Eliot (1943)

“Truth is, and ever has been, simple; and because of its utter simplicity, we in our pride and selfishness have been looking right over it.

—Mary Baker Eddy - Miscellaneous Writings - Page 469:5-9

“The Holy Spirit, seeing where you are but knowing you are elsewhere, begins His lesson in simplicity with the fundamental teaching that truth is true. This is the hardest lesson you will ever learn, and in the end the only one. Simplicity is very difficult for twisted minds.” 

—A Course in Miracles T-14.II.2:1-3