What Can We Do?

Grandbaby Torin 

What Can We Do? This is an editorial addressing school shootings from Mark Sappenfield, Editor of the Christian Science Monitor. June 13, 2022 edition. 

“In the days after 9/11, we published a story that Monitor readers still talk about to this day. The headlines was ‘Why do they hate us?’ And the article asked the question that a confused nation most needed. It interrupted the spiral of despair and instead reset readers on a new footing: Why did this happen, and how do we begin to address it? 

The same thought has been present in our conversations at the Monitor. The news of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was numbing. The national conversations about guns, mental health, and school safety repeat with no discernible change. The miasma seems thick enough to deaden the soul and dash any sense of hope. Uvalde’s question is: What can we do?

In the days following the shooting, The Monitor offered its answer to that question in a special issue of the Daily based on one conviction: This is unacceptable. This week’s news section likewise focuses on the Search for Solutions to this seemingly intractable problem.

The Monitor’s job is not to prescribe paths forward. It is to show they are possible. How the United States finds progress is for Americans to decide. For years, the Monitor has looked around every corner and under every stone for different options. In the wake of this latest tragedy, we explore several more coming to the surface. But continuing to live with the slaughter of children in schools is not an option. We can do better than the status quo, and defending our freedoms is not at odds with protesting lives. Uvalde, Parkland, and Sandy Hook are screaming signs of something that is broken and needs to be fixed.

Too often, values and freedoms are pitted against one another as a zero-sum either/or. Someone wins, someone loses. The Monitor rejects that thinking. Solutions are often imperfect, but they can light a way forward and reveal the unity that makes us stronger, not weaker. And finding a way to keep schoolchildren safe does not seem too unreasonable a demand.”

Give Me Away …

Best Friends Forever

Tina Cone and Lin Wellford

Lin - July 28, 1951 - April 13, 2022

Lin Wellford’s memorial service was today. Even though I could not be there with her friends and family, I thought of her often. And words from  this poem kept running through my head all day …

“Epitaph" by Merrit Malloy

“When I die

Give what’s left of me away

To children

And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,

Cry for your brother

Walking the street beside you.

And when you need me,

Put your arms

Around anyone

And give them

What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,

Something better

Than words

Or sounds.

Look for me

In the people I’ve known

Or loved,

And if you cannot give me away,

At least let me live on your eyes

And not on your mind.

Hands touch hands,

By letting

Bodies touch bodies,

And by letting go

Of children

That need to be free.

 

Love doesn’t die,

People do.

So, when all that’s left of me

Is love,

Give me away.”

Poem by Merrit Malloy

“Can you be separated from your life and your being? The journey to God is merely the reawakening of the knowledge of where you are always, and what you are forever. It is a journey without distance to a goal that has never changed. Truth can only be experienced. It cannot be described and it cannot be explained. I can make you aware of the conditions of truth, but the experience is of God. Together we can meet its conditions, but truth will dawn upon you of itself.” 

A Course in Miracles T-8.VI.9:5-11

“Question. — What is Life?

Answer. — Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit. Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of matter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Matter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 468:25

Super Brain

 

Richard and I at Andy Warhol Exhibit

A book titled “Super Brain” by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E. Tanzi is bringing me affirmation of many things I’ve witnessed in people, particularly during the pandemic isolation and beyond. The first chapter speaks to things people do which exercise their brain and the value of those activities. Something mentioned is how we may get up in the morning, do the same thing that we do every day, think the same things we think every day, without challenging or stretching ourselves in any way. This, they say, is a recipe for dementia and disease. Learning new things, reading about topics you do not understand and deeply thinking about that information, learning new languages — or contract bridge! — there are many activities we can do to keep our thinking fresh and our lives exciting and fun. I have a dear friend who takes me on adventures regularly. Although I would prefer to stay in my home and do things I love, he takes me outside of my little world and opens my mind to experiences I would not ordinarily have. I hope you have a friend like Richard!

“I ask to see a different world, and think a different kind of thought from those I made. The world I seek I did not make alone, the thoughts I want to think are not my own.” A Course in Miracles W-131.11:3-4

“We are all capable of more than we do. The influence or action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phenomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.” Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 89:21 

Educating Our Children

Fun new experiences

When I was a child, education seemed fairly straightforward. We all went to primary school, very few people we knew were functionally illiterate, and no one we knew thought the earth was flat. Today it’s a different scene. I hear tell that around 50% of the people in the United States cannot read on a 7th grade level, and that an alarming percentage believe the sun rotates around the earth. The recent pandemic changed the face of education, and time will tell if we have learned anything from those events. We see steps in the right direction. Tennessee has started a statewide tutoring program to get their students back to the “normal” level, and it will help around 150,000 students. Worldwide, we are also seeing baby steps. In Ethiopia, more than 2 million children are currently out of school, due to war, drought, flooding, and other circumstances. They have begun an accelerated learning program where in 10 months the first three years of school can be taught, allowing the children to enter school in 4th grade. This program is held in brightly decorated spaces with a focus on music and games in order to encourage a sense of joy. Perhaps this is the solution: bring the joy of learning back to school. If children are happy in school, feeling comfortable and safe, they will learn. We can do this …

“Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this. The Love of God, for a little while, must still be expressed through one body to another, because vision is still so dim. You can use your body best to help you enlarge your perception so you can achieve real vision, of which the physical eye is incapable. Learning to do this is the body’s only true usefulness.” A Course in Miracles T-1.VII.2:1-5

“Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought expands into expression. ‘Let there be light,’ is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page255:1 

Tribalism …?

 

I’ve never understood this thing we call tribalism. I have a friend who mentions the idea so often that I decided to delve into the topic. Starting with the definition of tribalism, I realize I know what it is, but I want to understand why we exhibit this tendency. As the Universe would have it, many writings have come my way concerning this phenomenon. Two recent issues of my favorite news magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, have looked at what we have done to indigenous people in our country and neighboring Canada. Then, for no reason other than the title, I chose the audiobook, “The Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger. This beautifully-written book takes us into the lives of young people who were forced into indigenous residential schools. While everything I learn is eye-opening, it doesn’t tell me why we the people exhibit this us-against-them behavior. I’m not sure anything can explain it to me because I’ve never had the desire to be with a certain group of people, and usually haven’t even noticed there are groups. But I have become more aware, in my later life, that many have suffered greatly because of these divisions. And so I will pay attention and put my energies into neutralizing these odd separations we have fostered. Namaste …

“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly. Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.” A Course in Miracles T-1.VI.2:1-5

“As the Psalmist saith, ‘Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.’ It is indeed a city of the Spirit, fair, royal, and square. Northward, its gates open to the North Star, the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward, to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who followed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies, — the Cross of Calvary, which binds human society into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of Harmony.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 572:11

Lending Ourselves to Each Other

 

“The Junes” with me in Eureka Thyme

Circa 2012

For several years, I shied away from one of my 90-year-old neighbors because it seemed there was no such thing as a short visit with her. She would tell me things I didn't want to know about her family and other people, so I began to avoid her. One morning she was sitting on her porch and asked for my help. Her phone was not working and it was connected to a Lifeline button which she could push if she needed help. She was very concerned about being alone without it, so I told her I'd come over every hour until her phone line was repaired. As we sat on her porch, she started talking about herself, from childhood through more recent times, and it was fascinating! She told me the happiest times of her life had been picking cotton with her sisters in the 1930s on a farm in Mississippi. Every visit brought me new stories from her life. When she wandered into condemnation of others, I would simply tell her I had to go, but would be back soon and wanted to hear more stories about her -- not others. It was like watching a documentary -- and I'm glad I was tuned in! She’s gone now and although I’ve forgotten all of her gossipy news, I remember some delightful looks into her life experience — and I am grateful. 

“The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father’s loving-kindness.” 

Mary Baker Eddy Science and Health Page 365:31-2

“As you share my unwillingness to accept error in yourself and others, you must join the great crusade to correct it; listen to my voice, learn to undo error and act to correct it. The power to work miracles belongs to you. I will provide the opportunities to do them, but you must be ready and willing. Doing them will bring conviction in the ability, because conviction comes through accomplishment.” 

A Course in Miracles T-1.III.1:6-10

Searching …

Photo by Dale Johnson

“Searching For the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" is a documentary on small-town life in the south of the United States. I watched in fascination, realizing for the first time what people find in so-called "holy-roller" churches. In their feverish love of God, they find the pleasure they crave. We see others in these small towns turn to mood-elevating drugs for the same reason. One person in the movie says that everyone is "lonely for God" in these desolate towns. Another line which struck me was this: "He was just a regular ol' Southern lunatic. In his quest for union, he ended up being more separate than ever." There is such truth to be found in their longing! I longed with them as they jumped up and down, speaking in tongues and dancing in odd jerky movements. There wasn't much difference in the drunken barroom scenes on Saturday night and the gyrations of the Sunday morning gatherings. They're all looking for the same thing: They want to fill the emptiness inside. They want excitement, fun, a way to pass time without feeling alone. I can't keep from thinking of how they would be set free with the knowledge of their true Being. I cannot change how anyone else understands this, only myself. Since I know that “what blesses one blesses all”, I want to really know this — not just believe, but understand; not intellectually, but with my heart. Namaste …

“As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God.”Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 283:1

“Father, our eyes are opening at last. Your holy world awaits us, as our sight is finally restored and we can see. We thought we suffered. But we had forgot the Son whom You created. Now we see that darkness is our own imagining, and light is there for us to look upon. Christ’s vision changes darkness into light, for fear must disappear when love has come. Let me forgive Your holy world today, that I may look upon its holiness and understand it but reflects my own.”

A Course in Miracles W-302.1:1-7

Slipping Into Peace

 

Salt Flats - photo by Aaron Springston

While listening to a friend recount details of a past painful event, my thought turned to a favorite book by Eckhart Tolle and a parable he often tells in his videos. In the book, A New Earth, he relates a story of two monks walking down the road. They see a young woman, dressed in white, attempting to cross the muddy roadway. One of the monks picks her up and carries her to the other side and they go on their way. A few hours later, the other monk says, You shouldn’t have carried that woman across the road; we don’t do that. The carrier responds: I put her down hours ago, but it looks like you’re still carrying her!  It’s easy to carry grudges and supposed hurts inflicted on us, taking events out and reliving them at the slightest provocation. I’m ready to put these things down and stop blaming someone else for the burden I’m carrying. What a wonderful freedom!

“In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never change in any way at all. You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. Let it be still and thankfully accept its healing. No more fearful dreams will come, now that you rest in God. Take time today to slip away from dreams and into peace.” A Course in Miracles W-109.5:1-8

“Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 296:3-16

Would I Do It Again?

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

Today has brought me reasons to examine the choices we make. My main question for myself is: If I know something will be detrimental to my emotional and mental well-being, is there a reason I would choose to do it anyway? This contemplation has led me to revisit some “bad” choices I’ve made in my past. These are not regrets or obsessions, but a simple questioning of myself about why I did these things and if I would do them again. While I’ve decided I would indeed repeat the questionable behavior, I don’t think I would handle the consequences in the same manner. We are learning that everything we do is either done from love or it is a call for love, and I see how this pertains to these past events. And if I’m not happy with my choices, I’m grateful for the ability and opportunity to choose again. 

“As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ Like the archpriests of yore, man is free ‘to enter into the holiest, — the realm of God.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 480:31

“The only judgment involved is the Holy Spirit’s one division into two categories; one of love, and the other the call for love. You cannot safely make this division, for you are much too confused either to recognize love, or to believe that everything else is nothing but a call for love. You are too bound to form, and not to content. What you consider content is not content at all. It is merely form, and nothing else. For you do not respond to what a brother really offers you, but only to the particular perception of his offering by which the ego judges it.” A Course in Miracles T-14.X.7:1-6

Growing Wiser and Wilder

Novel Women Book Club 

My forever-friend, Sandy Starbird, reminded us of these thoughts which were written by Donna Ashworth and posted on Tree Sisters: Women Seeding Change. We can all take this to heart, no matter our gender…

“There comes a day, somewhere in the middle of every woman’s life, when Mother Nature herself stands behind us and wraps her arms around our shoulders, whispering

‘It’s time.’

You have taken enough now. It’s time to stop growing up, stop growing older and start growing wiser and wilder.

There are adventures still waiting on you and this time, you will enjoy them with the vision of wisdom and the companionship of hindsight, and you will really let go.

It’s time to stop the madness of comparison and the ridicule of schedule and conformity and start experiencing the joys that a life, free of containment and guilt, can bring.’

She will shake your shoulders gently and remind you that you’ve done your bit. You’ve given too much, cared too much, you’ve suffered too much.

You’ve bought the book, as it were, and worn the t-shirt.

Worse, you’ve worn the chains and carried the weight of a burden far too heavy for your shoulders.

‘It’s time’ she will say.

Let it go, really let it go and feel the freedom of the fresh, clean spaces within you. Fill them with discovery, love and laughter. Fill yourself so full you will no longer fear what is ahead and instead you will greet each day with the excitement of a child.’

She will remind you that if you choose to stop caring what other people think of you and instead care what you think of you, you will experience a new era of your life you never dreamed possible.

‘It’s time’ she will say…

to write the ending, or new beginning, of your own story.” ~ Donna Ashworth

“Be confident that you have never lost your Identity and the extensions which maintain It in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an expression of this confidence. They are reflections of both your proper identification with your brothers, and of your awareness that your identification is maintained by extension. The miracle is a lesson in total perception. By including any part of totality in the lesson, you have included the whole.” 

A Course in Miracles T-7.IX.7:1-10

“Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 390:9-11

Living The Four Agreements

Numerous times in these writings I’ve recommended the practice of The Four Agreements, which is ancient Toltec wisdom as interpreted by Don Miguel Ruiz. The events we are watching unfold in our political scene could have been avoided if people would simply follow these agreements: “Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always do your best.” This last admonition can be augmented by something attributed to Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Simple advice, huh? As much as I’d love to feed these words into everyone’s belief system, I know I cannot. I can only change my mind, my beliefs, my way of life. And so I will…

“Today the holy Word of God is kept through your receiving it to give away, so you can teach the world what giving means by listening and learning it of Him. Do not forget today to reinforce your choice to hear and to receive the Word by this reminder, given to yourself as often as is possible today: Let me be still and listen to the truth. I am the messenger of God today, my voice is His, to give what I receive.” A Course in Miracles W-106.10:1-4

“A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 463:23-13

Enjoying the Moment

Someone asked me what I do for fun, and I replied that everything I do is fun. They didn’t believe me. But it’s true. There are things I get to do which are pure joy: play bridge, play the organ/piano, study spirituality in its various forms, grow things, write this blog — and so on. Then there are those things which could be classified as chores. For instance, when washing dishes, I love the feel of warm, soapy water on my hands. Cooking is always an interesting experiment, and I never know what’s going to happen so it’s an adventure. Now, the more mundane things like cleaning floors and such, I try to make it a form of exercise (because I don’t get enough and am always looking for ways to move more). Cooking, cleaning, and driving — these activities are an opportunity to listen to audiobooks. So they are enjoyed not only for the action, but I look forward to them as opportunities to “read”. Well, I could go on and on, but I think many of you know what I mean. It’s exciting to wake up in the morning, and it’s gratifying to go to sleep at night. Life is good. Every little bit of it. The Wayne Dyer graphic at the top of this post says it all, and I credit him with helping me realize that every moment is one to be savored. As he said: “If you drop a pen and don’t enjoy picking it up, drop it again!” Have a fun day everyone …

“Be still a moment, and in silence think how holy is your purpose, how secure you rest, untouchable within its light. God’s ministers have chosen that the truth be with them. Who is holier than they? Who could be surer that his happiness is fully guaranteed? And who could be more mightily protected? What defense could possibly be needed by the ones who are among the chosen ones of God, by His election and their own as well?” A Course in Miracles  W-153.10:1-6

“In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action. Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 407:22-28

Honest as a Cat

Catrin Welz Stein – Midnight Cat

 “A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.” 

Ernest Hemingway

Opening Minds With Music Education

 

Our little village has something wonderful: Opera in the Ozarks. This training ground for talented musicians has existed for more than 60 years. Every year, they perform three operas over a period of 3 weeks. Tonight I went to a performance of the talented musicians who accompany them in the orchestra pit. What a treat this was! Watching these young people having so much fun playing challenging musical selections was a delightful experience. When I got home, I saw the news that a fine, young choral director in a local high school will be moving away to another school. I started thinking about the benefits of music education, and I’m not sure there are any limits to the gain. The avenues in the mind opened by musical instruction cannot be measured, as the growth and development is exponential. Benjamin Winn has shaped lives, from grade school through high school. I attended this same school 50-plus years ago and a teacher such as this one would have been a life changer. Here’s to all the educators, all the musical programs, all the parents who realize the importance of music in our lives. Let’s all make a point of singing today!

“Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics, thought passes naturally from effect back to cause.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 195:16 

The Participant Observer

 

Beijing, China - photo credit: Aaron Springston

The Reverend Cinthia Jean Saul was the guest pastor at a church where I play organ. Her sermon was on hospitality — as in, providing food and shelter for those in need. I was delighted by her instructions to be a “participant observer”. Her advice was to put ourselves in a situation, at least once a week, in which we can meet someone we otherwise would not. In this way, we can become familiar with lifestyles of groups of people who are not in our regular circle of friends. When we put ourselves in certain situations time and again, we begin to understand others’ viewpoints. One thing I have done for almost three decades is make regular visits to public laundromats. I have met scores of people I wouldn’t have had the chance to sit down and visit with otherwise. In these times of extreme division and self-imposed tribalism, this would be a good exercise for all of us to practice in some form or another. May we look for and find our commonality in these coming days. We all need each other so very badly…

“To the world, generosity means ‘giving away’ in the sense of ‘giving up.’ To the teachers of God, it means giving away in order to keep. This has been emphasized throughout the text and the workbook, but it is perhaps more alien to the thinking of the world than many other ideas in our curriculum. Its greater strangeness lies merely in the obviousness of its reversal of the world’s thinking. In the clearest way possible, and at the simplest of levels, the word means the exact opposite to the teachers of God and to the world.” A Course in Miracles  M-4.VII.1:4-8

“In the spirit of Christ’s charity, — as one who ‘hopeth all things, endureth all things,’ and is joyful to bear consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, — she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page xii:23

We Are Powerful

Eureka Women - Unknown Photographer

“Don't make yourself small.

Not for anyone.

If someone tells you 

you're too much...

too loud, too sensitive, 

too fierce, too caring, 

too intellectual, too optimistic, 

too realistic, too logical, too emotional...

just smile and move on, my friend.

Clearly, they aren't enough for you.”

L.R. Knost

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

“It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of

God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.”

—Marianne Williamson

“The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality--much error--in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun.” 

MaryBakerEddy-Science & Health Page 295:14-24

Energy Wasted Denying Truth

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

I’ve always been happy to have friends and family who are smarter and/or more knowledgeable than me. When someone tells me I’m mistaken about a “fact”, or that I’m interpreting something incorrectly, or maybe that my memory is faulty, I’m grateful for the correction. Much in the same way I’m thankful when someone tells me my skirt is stuck in my waistband, I’m glad if knowledge keeps me from spreading information erroneously. Apparently not everyone feels this way! Not only are we witnessing public figures fearing to say “I was wrong and I’m sorry”, but I’ve been noticing a situation with a loved one whose family has maligned him for decades. When did knowledge and the accumulation of information become something to be ridiculed? Metaphysical practitioners recognize that energy follows thought, so I’m not spending a lot of time replaying memories of behavior which I don’t want to manifest. But it sure is hard not to do so! 

“We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are. If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen patiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are ‘not as other men’? During many years the author has been most grateful for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited censure, — in the falsehood which does no one any good.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 8:28

“You do not recognize the enormous waste of energy you expend in denying truth. What would you say of someone who persists in attempting the impossible, believing that to achieve it is to succeed? The belief that you must have the impossible in order to be happy is totally at variance with the principle of creation. God could not will that happiness depended on what you could never have. The fact that God is Love does not require belief, but it does require acceptance. It is indeed possible for you to deny facts, although it is impossible for you to change them. If you hold your hands over your eyes, you will not see because you are interfering with the laws of seeing. If you deny love, you will not know it because your cooperation is the law of its being. You cannot change laws you did not make, and the laws of happiness were created for you, not by you.” A Course in Miracles T-9.I.11:1-9

Reciprocal Interactions With Nature

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

“Nature becomes aware of itself through you, and you become aware of your stillness through nature.” Eckhart Tolle told me this today through one of his short and sweet youTube videos. It caused me to reminisce about my favorite nature documentaries."Wings of Life" is described as a love story from flowers to pollinators. Another reason this movie stayed with me is that its narrator is Meryl Streep. She tells us that the flowers multiply in beauty, with gratitude to the bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and bats. This gratitude turns my thoughts to things which fill my heart: people, music, nature -- movies like this one! In line with my quest to be with those who help my being, I will stay with entertainment which brings beauty and grace to life, turning away from inanities and programing designed to disturb the senses. Life is good, and I am grateful…

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Look with peace upon your brothers, and God will come rushing into your heart in gratitude for your gift to Him.” 
— A Course in Miracles T-10.V.7:7

"This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not 'for the loaves and fishes,' nor, like the Pharisee, with the arrogance of rank and display of scholarship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.” 
— Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 367:10-16

When Women Were Dragons

During a rare, sleepless night, I read a review of a new book: When Women Were Dragons, written by Kelly Barnhill. The book is dedicated to Christine Blasey Ford, as its inspiration came when listening to her testimony during the Brent Kavanaugh hearings for his Supreme Court appointment. The book, set in the mid-1950s, tells the story of  700,000 married women turning into dragons. This “dragoning” is triggered by too may years of women staying quiet, not asking questions one does not ask, not expressing emotions they are not supposed to feel. How many things would you never speak aloud? The review ends with this statement (which makes me want to start reading the book right now!). “The novel’s central questions and concerns link it to today. The suffocating silence concerning all things female exacts a high price, not simply on women, but on all of society. The welcome truth, as Barnhill sees it, is that the urge toward transformation can’t be contained — whether that change is physical and fire-breathing or mental and emotional. As one character admits, ‘I want to be bigger than myself.’” I’m ready, how about you?

“The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 96:15-20

“There can be no conflict between sanity and insanity. Only one is true, and therefore only one is real. The ego tries to persuade you that it is up to you to decide which voice is true, but the Holy Spirit teaches you that truth was created by God, and your decision cannot change it. As you begin to realize the quiet power of the Holy Spirit’s Voice, and Its perfect consistency, it must dawn on your mind that you are trying to undo a decision that was irrevocably made for you. That is why I suggested before that you remind yourself to allow the Holy Spirit to decide for God for you.” A Course in Miracles T-6.V-B.6:1-5

Mysteries Too Marvelous …

 Tijana Lukovic, "Wolf Moon"

 

Mysteries, Yes

by Mary Oliver

“Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous

 to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the

mouths of the lambs.

How rivers and stones are forever

in allegiance with gravity

while we ourselves dream of rising.

How two hands touch and the bonds will

never be broken.

How people come, from delight or the

scars of damage,

to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those

who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say

‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.”

“Listen,—perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.” A Course in Miracles T-21.1.6:1-3