Home Is …

 

There’s nothing like a new circumstance in life to bring about self-examination of motives and acts. In my decision to move to Colorado later this year, I am coming face to face with why I am reluctant to do so. Of course, I love it here in Eureka Springs. No place has ever felt more like home, and I am happy here. Life is easy in its routines and I wish for nothing more than I have. It is scary to think of living in an apartment, yet it’s exhilarating to imagine new scenery and the possibilities of duplicate bridge and organist opportunities. The only reluctance I have in leaving this safe space is the fact that I really, truly do not like to socialize. But yet, I recognize that too much alone time allows me to lose empathy for others. It’s easy to slip into a complacent judgmental attitude when I’m not directly witnessing the difficulties of fellow humans. This is a rambling post as I’m thinking my way through this change which is both anticipated and dreaded. I just want to Be, not to do. And that can happen anywhere!

“We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself: Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? Am I demonstrating the healing power of Truth and Love? If so, then the way will grow brighter ‘unto the perfect day.’ Your fruits will prove what the understanding of God brings to man. Hold perpetually this thought, — that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 496:9-19

“Yet where He is, there must be holiness as well as life. No attribute of His remains unshared by everything that lives. What lives is holy as Himself, because what shares His life is part of Holiness, and could no more be sinful than the sun could choose to be of ice; the sea elect to be apart from water, or the grass to grow with roots suspended in the air.” 

A Course in Miracles W-156.3:1-3

A Violet in the Garden of Truth

 

Torii - Gateway to the Sacred

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

Kahlil Gibran has an essay titled The New Frontier, in which he asks groups of people who they are. This paragraph is of particular importance, I think …

“Are you a religious leader, weaving for your body a gown out of the ignorance of the people, fashioning a crown out of the simplicity of their hearts and pretending to hate the devil merely to live upon his income? Or are you a devout and a pious man who sees in the piety of the individual the foundation for a progressive nation, and who can see through a profound search in the depth of his own soul a ladder to the eternal soul that directs the world? If you are the first, then you are a heretic, a disbeliever in God even if you fast by day and pray by night. If you are the second, then you are a violet in the garden of truth even though its fragrance is lost upon the nostrils of humanity or whether its aroma rises into that rare air where the fragrance of flowers is preserved.”

“Shepherd show me how to go,

O’re the hillside steep;

How to gather, how to sow,

How to feed thy sheep.

I will listen for They voice,

Lest my footsteps stray.

I will follow and rejoice,

All the rugged way.”

Mary Baker Eddy - from the poem, Feed My Sheep

“Let us together follow in the way that truth points out to us. And let us be the leaders of our many brothers who are seeking for the way, but find it not. And to this purpose let us dedicate our minds, directing all our thoughts to serve the function of salvation. Unto us the aim is given to forgive the world. It is the goal that God has given us. It is His ending to the dream we seek, and not our own.”

A Course in Miracles W-fl.in.2:5–3:4

Passing Through Illusions

“Whatever suffers is not part of me" [ACIM ​W​orkbook ​L​esson #248]​ These words​ could possibly be taken as an unfeeling, heartless statement. I see it as an expression of pure Love which allows us to pass through illusions into the reality of good, God. The death of a loved one is difficult in many ways, but I think the myths we have concocted surrounding this passage may do more harm than good. We say things like, God took her to be with ​Him because she was so good. Although these words are spoken in the name of kindness, I’m not sure they help anyone ​who is grieving. As we begin to understand divine reality, we are released from the stories we tell ourselves in favor of the Truth which sets us free. I'll always remember reading the book, "Beloved Prophet", which is the story of Kahlil Gibran and the woman who loved him. She sat at his funeral with a peaceful smile on her face, and when asked why she wasn't upset, she responded that she had never felt closer to him. What a lovely realization of Oneness and eternity!

"It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sensation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity of all material things; and that immortal cravings, ‘the price of learning love,’ establish the truism that the only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot suffer." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 108:5-11


​"​A Course in Miracles - LESSON 248​ - ​Whatever Suffers Is Not Part Of Me.

I have disowned the truth. Now let me be as faithful in disowning falsity. Whatever suffers is not part of me. What grieves is not myself. What is in pain is but illusion in my mind. What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself. Now I disown self-concepts and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God. Now am I ready to accept him back as God created him, and as he is.

Father, my ancient love for You returns, and lets me love Your Son again as well. Father, I am as You created me. Now is Your Love remembered, and my own. Now do I understand that they are one.​"​

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

 

Kurt Vonnegut - pre-iguana days

Kurt Vonnegut was one of my favorite authors in the 70s. I am revisiting his fine novels and have just finished “Cat’s Cradle”. It did not disappoint, nor do these words of his which I saw today:

“In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write a famous author and ask for advice. Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to respond - and his response is magnificent:

 “Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don’t make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.

Here’s an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don’t do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Don’t show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacals. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside you, and you have made your soul grow.

God bless you all!"

Kurt Vonnegut

Meeting Needs

When I first moved to Eureka Springs, a woman on my street was starting a business she called Good Works. Her main goal was to help women. Her impetus was knowing a young single mother who needed a place to live, and an older woman who owned a home and needed help. The idea seemed so logical and perfect, but never got off the ground because women were afraid to take a “stranger” into their home. The past few days, I’ve been telling you about my dear friend, Jean, who is in her 90s and recently lost her only son. He was much-needed around the house as Jean has broken her hip twice and is quite frail. Her husband is suffering from dementia and is unpredictable. They are now alone and desperately want to stay in their lovely lake home. My fondest hope is to get them together with someone who needs a place to live — hopefully with a cat! Help me put that intention out for them. Time is short, as another snow storm is on the way. 

“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality — infinite Life, Truth, and Love.”   Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 518:15-23 

‘The Holy Spirit’s function is to take the broken picture of the Son of God and put the pieces into place again. This holy picture, healed entirely, does He hold out to every separate piece that thinks it is a picture in itself. To each He offers his Identity, which the whole picture represents, instead of just a little, broken bit that he insisted was himself. And when he sees this picture he will recognize himself. If you share not your brother’s evil dream, this is the picture that the miracle will place within the little gap, left clean of all the seeds of sickness and of sin. And here the Father will receive His Son, because His Son was gracious to himself.” 

A Course in Miracles T-28.IV.8:1-6)

Alone or Lonely

 

Photo credit: Richard Quick

I’ve been talking to someone about loneliness and the many forms in which it appears. The years I spent in bars wasn’t for the alcohol, but for the people, the easy connection found in those bottles. I’ve known folks who belong to enough clubs and groups to keep themselves busy all their waking hours. Many people can’t abide silence and constantly have a radio or other device playing, often simply for the company they feel it brings to them. Then there are those who marry to keep from being alone, many times not realizing the most lonely of individuals are often not alone. To sit quietly by yourself, happy, realizing there is a deeper connection than the busy-ness often used as a substitution for it — this is the open secret to happiness, the key to contentment, the welcoming element of eternal Love. “I am in you, and you in me, mutual in divine Love.” William Blake

“God goes with me wherever I go.

Today’s idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.” A Course in Miracles W-41.1:1-3

Caring Communities

 

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

Snow fell all night. This morning, there were numerous electrical outages in our area, due to the heavy, wet snow breaking supply lines and trees falling over and causing disruptions. Many people are without heat and water, but thanks to a caring community most needs are being met. In this day and age, when churches are getting a bad name for reasons we shan’t delve into, most small-town churches are lovingly serving their communities as they have for centuries. I have friends who are in their 90s and have recently suffered the loss of their only son. During the night, their electricity went out. They both fell down and neither one could help the other one. This morning, a fellow Presbyterian broke into their house and rescued them. These dear people are grieving and afraid about their future. This is what community is all about: being there for each other. Whether this caring is facilitated by a church or a bridge club makes no difference. We are all in this together; we all need help at some point in our lives. Most people won’t ask for it, whether from a false sense of independence or embarrassment. Let’s reach out to our neighbors, today and every day. Namaste …

“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

“Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with another in the history of religion. They are earth’s luminaries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals. Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; but not amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated by lookers-on.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 37:9-15

Friendship

Scout and Maggie, chillin’

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Determine now to see all these people as friends. Say to them all, thinking of each one in turn as you do so: I would see you as my friend, that I may remember you are part of me and come to know myself.” 

A Course in Miracles W-68.6:1-3

“Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 266:5-12

The Joy Within Sorrow

 

Costa Rica - photo credit: Aaron Springston

A dear friend’s son died today. He was in his 60s and his mom is 94. I don’t know if it’s any easier for a parent to lose a child at any stage of their life, but I do know sometimes it’s tougher to live with them than lose them. After two decades of mental illness and alcoholism, she is tired. Her husband has been slipping into dementia the past few years. I think of him so fondly as he was the first excellent duplicate bridge player who was willing to partner with me when I returned to the game a few years back. He was a wizard with cards. My sweet friend has been holding her family together against all odds, and I hope she can relax more now, enjoying her husband of almost 70 years. It brings me joy to think of the happy, positive attitude she has sustained as long as I’ve known her. She knows the art of living: enjoy every moment, all the time, no matter what the appearance may be. Keep on singing, sweet friends …

“So-called mortal mind — being non-existent and consequently not within the range of immortal existence — could not by simulating deific power invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate persons or things upon its own plane, since nothing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive infinity, in which and of which God is the sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the realm of Mind. Mind’s infinite ideas run and disport themselves. In humility they climb the heights of holiness.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 513:27-9

“You have the right to all the universe; to perfect peace, complete deliverance from all effects of sin, and to the life eternal, joyous and complete in every way, as God appointed for His holy Son.” 

A Course in Miracles T-25.VIII.14:1

Life

 

Salt Flats - photo credit: Aaron Springston

Many meanings, both literal and metaphoric, come to mind when thinking of the word "death".  There is the death we experience when we are born into this existence. Suddenly, our spiritual sense is deadened by the deluge of materialistic stimuli which constantly bombard us. In this forgetting of Truth, life becomes very uncertain. We are victims of inharmonious circumstances, until we recognize ourselves as expressions of divine Mind, then we see glimpses of eternity. We may begin to imagine the unreality of time and space, and perhaps we've always suspected this.  These misunderstandings may fuel dissatisfaction which drives us to "feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace." (Browning)  We know there's something more, and we keep grasping at what it might be. We search for freedom from the belief that we are victims of circumstance. We have the choice of waking up! We will see through the veil we have hung to hide Truth. With this sight will come the understanding of Life as timeless!

“If the belief in death were obliterated, and the understanding obtained that there is no death, this would be a ‘tree of life,’ known by its fruits. Man should renew his energies and endeavors, and see the folly of hypocrisy, while also learning the necessity of working out his own salvation.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 426:12-16 

“When your body and your ego and your dreams are gone, you will know that you will last forever. Perhaps you think this is accomplished through death, but nothing is accomplished through death, because death is nothing. Everything is accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and in the mind. The body neither lives nor dies, because it cannot contain you who are life.” 

A Course in Miracles T-6.V-A.1:1-4

Friendship With Nature

Ruth Evans Art

When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying  rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over.  Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent.  When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth.    

This invitation to friendship with nature does of course entail a willingness to be alone out there. Yet this aloneness is anything but lonely.  Solitude gradually clarifies the heart until a true tranquility is reached. The irony is that at the heart of that aloneness you feel intimately connected with the world. Indeed, the beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.  

~ John O'Donohue: excerpt from Beauty

“Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, — all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 240:2-9

“The core of the separation illusion lies simply in the fantasy of destruction of love’s meaning. And unless love’s meaning is restored to you, you cannot know yourself who share its meaning. Separation is only the decision not to know yourself. This whole thought system is a carefully contrived learning experience, designed to lead away from truth and into fantasy. Yet for every learning that would hurt you, God offers you correction and complete escape from all its consequences.” 

A Course in Miracles  T-16.V.15:1-5

Herd

The documentary, Herd, is a film about the healing power of horses, our connection with all things, and compassion. Liz Mitten Ryan is an artist, an author, and a compassionate human. She has developed a retreat in British Columbia where she and ten or so horses, a big old steer, and a few dogs and cats hold healing retreats for people who are ready to face themselves and release pain. As one woman said, “This is not so much a place to escape as it is a place to leave things behind that you don’t want any more.” All the people sharing their stories in this hour-long film had emotional baggage holding them hostage: loss of a young child, abuse of various types, or one man simply wanted to become a better physician and parent. The founder of this beautiful retreat discovered that two of her horses would touch her chakras when she was laying in their midst, and she would feel unified with them. She began to write about this phenomenon and states that she didn’t know if she was telling the animals’ stories or her own. (She says the dogs and cats were in on it, too.) She realized that horses see the invisible all around us, and that's what makes them amazing healers. We have much to learn, and the animals are ready to teach us. When we are in our truth, they come to us, and that is all they ask. 

"As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 264:13

“Think you the world could fail to gain thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed perception? Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security. He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his, and offers peace to both.” 

A Course in Miracles  W-194.8:3-5

Of Dogs and Other Loved Ones

 

Daffy and Jeter - circa 2016

In honor of Jeter the Dog, December 2011 - January 2023 — I repeat this writing from 2020. 

I’ve been observing our dogs facilitate change and I’m sure there’s a lesson there for us all. Daffy the Doberman generally sleeps/lays wherever she wants. Jeter has his favorite places, but acquiesces to the Alpha dog. Recently we rearranged the furniture in the living room and, in the process, decided that Jeter would have to give up his couch, so we removed the cover and told him “no”. He seemed okay with this, but was at a loss as to what to do with himself when the love of his life, Kevin, was at work. In the bedroom, Daffy had her special bed which was closest to the door and she would growl if Jeter tried to walk by her to get to his nighttime bed against the far wall. So Jeter would lay in the hallway, occasionally trying to sneak past her if she was snoring. Then suddenly we noticed they had switched beds! Jeter is sleeping closest to the door and Daphne  has taken the far wall position. The lessons we can all take from this are varied, but what I’m seeing is that change can happen with patience and, eventually, cooperation. Actually, we think that Scout the Cat was instrumental in this shift, so perhaps it simply takes a strong leader to help us move forward. Whatever the case, I trust we can all work together as well as our dogs!

"Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality -- infinite Life, Truth, and Love." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 518:19

“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.” 

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

Listen

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Listening can be difficult, even under the most conducive of circumstances. I have a dear friend who often  would interrupt me (and others) in mid-sentence to say something totally unrelated to the topic; then ramble on in an odd rant about whatever popped into her head. One day I decided she needed to know how difficult it was to have a conversation with her, so I told her what I had observed. The results have been marvelous! Not only has she begun to listen to what's going on around her, she has noticed that many people are wrapped up in their own thoughts and don’t know what’s being said to them. She is happy to have turned into a listener. Yippee!! So I shall follow my own lead and tell myself that I'm often interrupting divine Mind with my busy brain. Let's hope I'm as good of a student as my sweet friend!

“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.I.6:1-3

“We must silence this lie of material sense with the truth of spiritual sense.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 318:12-13

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are

 

Colorado Kin

For the past two months, I have been pondering a major change. Before this year’s end, I will be moving to Colorado. My son and his wife and baby are there, along with her family. And there’s no hope they’ll move to my part of the country because they have close family ties there — and a love of skiing. For the past almost-seven decades, I have lived in a 50-mile radius of where I presently am. And so this is not a decision I’m taking lightly. But the things I most enjoy in life can be done no matter where I am living. Friends here will always be with me, not only in my heart, but on the internet! I will miss many things, like visits with my book club, and spades games with friends, and Course in Miracles gatherings, and good neighbors — well, I could go on and on about the ties which have brought such joy. I will continue to write to you every day!

“God is with me. He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me. He is my home, wherein I live and move; the Spirit which directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, and guarantees my safety from all pain. He covers me with kindness and with care, and holds in love the Son He shines upon, who also shines on Him. How still is he who knows the truth of what He speaks today!” 

A Course in Miracles W-222.1:1-5)

“Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 454: 18-23

A Sense of Somebody-ness

 

Thinking of the words and works of Martin Luther King brought to mind a book which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The Nickel Boys by Colton Whitehead. This book is described as "a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity, and redemption." The main character is working in a tobacco shop, where children often steal candy and comic books. The proprietor allows this because he says if he called them on it, their parents would be too embarrassed to shop in his establishment. He has told Elwood to allow them to take things, as he thinks of it as a promotion. This doesn’t sit right with Elwood, and at first he can’t understand why. But a quote of Dr. King’s brings it into focus for him: “We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.” Elwood comes to the realization that to do nothing about the kids stealing was to undermine his own dignity. I think that’s the position we the People are in today. To do nothing is to undermine our own dignity. I urge you to listen to your own inner guidance, your soul (if you will), and do whatever it takes to maintain your dignity. 

“Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we get clearer views of Principle. Break up cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views of humanity.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 239:5-10

“Of your ego you can do nothing to save yourself or others, but of your spirit you can do everything for the salvation of both. Humility is a lesson for the ego, not for the spirit. Spirit is beyond humility, because it recognizes its radiance and gladly sheds its light everywhere. The meek shall inherit the earth because their egos are humble, and this gives them truer perception. The Kingdom of Heaven is the spirit’s right, whose beauty and dignity are far beyond doubt, beyond perception, and stand forever as the mark of the Love of God for His creations, who are wholly worthy of Him and only of Him. Nothing else is sufficiently worthy to be a gift for a creation of God Himself.” 

A Course in Miracles T-4.I.12:1-6

Thank you, Martin Luther King

 

Quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Pilgrimage to Nonviolence - “The phrase ‘passive resistance’ often gives the false impression that this is a sort of ‘do-nothing method’ in which the resister quietly and passively accepts evil. But nothing is further from the truth. For while the nonviolent resister is passive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade his opponent that he is wrong. The method is passive physically, but strongly active spiritually.” Martin Luther King Jr.

“Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning, because cause and effect are never separated. The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is ‘in them but not of them’. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world.” 

A Course in Miracles M-4.I.1:2-7

“‘Thy kingdom come;’ let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Manual Page 41:19-25

Love as an Action Verb

 

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Many people are dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression. It is more necessary than ever to “be in this world, but not of it”. I fully understand how difficult it can be to look beyond the illusion. When we see a person being cruel, it would be cruel of us to look the other way. But we can begin by seeing that person as they were created from Love; not making comparisons, but seeing the purity of Spirit. It breaks my heart to think of the pain people in war-torn countries are experiencing. But no matter how bad I feel, it won’t help them. Love is an action verb and feeling it deeply exposes what we need to know in our quest to help situations. Every thought is important!

“God goes with me wherever I go.

1. Today’s idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.

2. The separated ones have invented many ‘cures’ for what they believe to be ‘the ills of the world.’ But the one thing they do not do is to question the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the problem is not real. The idea for today has the power to end all this foolishness forever. And foolishness it is, despite the serious and tragic forms it may take.” 

A Course in Miracles W-41.1:1–2:5)

“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. The mythical human theories of creation, anciently classified as the higher criticism, sprang from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by the divine Mind.” 

Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 255:1-10

Sometimes - by Mary Oliver

 

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Sometimes

by Mary Oliver

1.

Something came up
out of the dark.
It wasn’t anything I had ever seen before.
It wasn’t an animal
or a flower,
unless it was both.

Something came up out of the water,
a head the size of a cat
but muddy and without ears.
I don’t know what God is.
I don’t know what death is.

But I believe they have between them
some fervent and necessary arrangement.

2.

Sometime
melancholy leaves me breathless…

3.

Water from the heavens! Electricity from the source!
Both of them mad to create something!

The lighting brighter than any flower.
The thunder without a drowsy bone in its body.

4.

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

5.
Two or three times in my life I discovered love.
Each time it seemed to solve everything.
Each time it solved a great many things
but not everything.
Yet left me as grateful as if it had indeed, and
thoroughly, solved everything.

6.

God, rest in my heart
and fortify me,
take away my hunger for answers,
let the hours play upon my body

like the hands of my beloved.
Let the cathead appear again—
the smallest of your mysteries,
some wild cousin of my own blood probably—
some cousin of my own wild blood probably,
in the black dinner-bowl of the pond.

7.

Death waits for me, I know it, around
one corner or another.
This doesn’t amuse me.
Neither does it frighten me.

After the rain, I went back into the field of sunflowers.
It was cool, and I was anything but drowsy.
I walked slowly, and listened

to the crazy roots, in the drenched earth, laughing and growing.

Shifting Human Consciousness

Costa Rica - photo credit: Aaron Springston

Words of Paul Levy: “Quantum physics is a flag bearer of an epochal paradigm shift currently taking place within human consciousness, deep within the collective unconscious, concerning the nature of reality itself. The discoveries of quantum physics are directly pointing to the hitherto unsuspected powers of the mind to cast reality in its image rather than the other way around. Quantum theory provides insight into how conscious entities, such as ourselves, can alter the course of the physically described aspects of reality through the decisions they make. The new physics is the beginning of the realization that the human psyche can intervene creatively in the physical and chemical processes of nature.” ~ Paul Levy

“Metaphysics is above physics, and matter does not enter into metaphysical premises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 469:11-16

“Let us come daily to this holy place, and spend a while together. Here we share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint of all the glory given us by God. The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have come to live within their branches. Earth is being born again in new perspective. Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.” 

A Course in Miracles W-pII.2.4:1-6

Right to Die?

 

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

Having just read an article about “right to die” laws around the world, my thoughts are swirling with the ramifications of this choice. I think most of us would agree that if someone was well on in years and terminally ill, it should be their choice to die with dignity. But some countries are stretching the possibilities to those who are chronically depressed, or disabled and unable to take care of themselves. There is a fine line legally where we might fall into the pit of exterminating the poor or disabled for reasons other than their desire to do so. So that’s a thing. One doctor says that “assisted dying is less about death than it is about how we want to live”. My daughter-in-law’s grandfather chose this option around this time last year when he was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer. I know not all of his family agreed with his choice. There are many questions and no easy answers. I hope we can examine these issues with Love leading our voices.

“Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him belongs eternal Life. Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his high estate.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 258:25-30

“There is a light in you which cannot die; whose presence is so holy that the world is sanctified because of you. All things that live bring gifts to you, and offer them in gratitude and gladness at your feet. The scent of flowers is their gift to you. The waves bow down before you, and the trees extend their arms to shield you from the heat, and lay their leaves before you on the ground that you may walk in softness, while the wind sinks to a whisper round your holy head.” 

A Course in Miracles W-156.4:1-4

Sweet, Peaceful Music

Scott Thompson and Don Matt

Today I attended an hour of music at Heart of Many Ways here in Eureka Springs. It was exceptionally beautiful, leaving me feeling joyously peaceful. Don and Scott are two men who play and write music for their own enjoyment, and we are fortunate when they share it with us. Today was one of those magical moments. Playing a guitar and an amahi, they sang original songs of peace, happiness, friendship, love — life in all its beauty. I feel inspired and ready to experience all tomorrow has to offer. Namaste…

“Love, too, would set a feast before you, on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden where no sound but singing and a softly joyous whispering is ever heard. This is a feast that honors your holy relationship, and at which everyone is welcomed as an honored guest. And in a holy instant grace is said by everyone together, as they join in gentleness before the table of communion. And I will join you there, as long ago I promised and promise still. For in your new relationship am I made welcome. And where I am made welcome, there I am.” 

A Course in Miracles T-19.IV-A.16:1-6

“Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love — be it song, sermon, or Science — blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 234:4-8