A New World

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

Science fiction, the speculation of how life could be, has always fascinated me. The serene surroundings of those who neither want nor need anything is very appealing. A place where there is no room for anger or warlike behavior, because all actions are filled with Love. A place where the rare disagreement is settled through the decision of a "fair witness". It feels as though these dreams of future perfection are here with us now. They are being realized in a myriad of ways. Do an internet search on good deeds, or Age of Aquarius, or peaceful living, if you feel the need for affirmation that this reality is with us here and now. I recently saw a movie in which a 102-year-old woman said these words: "We ain't what we should be, we ain't what we gonna be, but at least we ain't what we were." These major shifts in thought are making many people uncomfortable. It is tempting for many to cover these feelings of distress with alcohol and drugs, perhaps even with extreme physical activity. Let’s not be afraid, but rather hold thought steadily to the good and true. Follow your intuition to find ways to assuage this discontent. I see now that nothing can keep the miracle away, no matter how hard we try.

"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 Page 255:1

Forgive, and you will see this differently. These are the words the Holy Spirit speaks in all your tribulations, all your pain, all suffering regardless of its form. These are the words with which temptation ends, and guilt, abandoned, is revered no more. These are the words which end the dream of sin, and rid the mind of fear. These are the words by which salvation comes to all the world.”

A Course in Miracles W-193.5:1-5a

Freed From the Past and Future

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

I’ve had a shift in thought toward my parents. They were beautiful, kind, generous people; this I've always acknowledged and appreciated. But those memories seemed to be dimmed by the stronger remembrances of their latter days. I had feelings of anger and betrayal, plus guilt concerning my part in it all. I've realized that many things they did came from their love, although their actions were influenced by strong opinions about the way things should be. Regrets come from my actions which were based in selfishness and fear. In acknowledging these memories, (which may not be the way things actually occurred, but merely the way my ego remembers!) I feel as though they are falling out of me and I’m sweeping them away into the ethers. With every release of well-rehearsed past events, peace becomes reality for me. It doesn't matter if anyone was right or wrong, it doesn't make any difference what motives were involved, part of me has been emptied to be filled with the only reality: Love.

“We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 201:13-15

“The past is gone; the future is not yet. Now am I freed from both. For what God gives can only be for good. And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me.”

A Course in Miracles W-214.1:2-5

Intuition, Recognized and Lived

When I think of instances where friends have followed intuition, my thoughts go to a time when a dear friend followed her heart, left the life she had carved for herself, and embarked on an adventure. Susan was visiting friends in Santa Fe and had been to the market to pick up supplies. On her way home, she had the radio on and suddenly a man’s voice caught her interest. The station was fading in and out, and the man seemed to be using two or three different languages. She couldn’t understand him, but she told me it sounded like “flowers coming out of the radio”. When she got home, she called the station and found out who it was she had heard. His name was Martin Prechtel and he lived in Ojo Caliente, a small village between Taos and Santa Fe. She discovered he was a teacher of knowledge which he had accumulated from his childhood on a Pueblo reservation in New Mexico and his adult life in Guatemala. Susan knew, intuitively, that she must study with this man. She left everything she knew well, packed her bags and moved into a tiny room in a house in his village. She was living her life in the way she was called to do. I admire anyone who follows their dream, but especially those who don’t stop one step before fulfilling it!

“Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 298:13-15

“I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I accept as mine.”

A Course in Miracles W-212.1:2-5

Created As My Self

 

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

 On Laws - BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

“Then a lawyer said, But what of our Laws, master?

    And he answered:

    You delight in laying down laws,

    Yet you delight more in breaking them.

    Like children playing by the ocean who

build sand-towers with constancy and then

destroy them with laughter.

    But while you build your sand-towers the

ocean brings more sand to the shore,

    And when you destroy them the ocean

laughs with you.

    Verily the ocean laughs always with the

innocent.

 

    But what of those to whom life is not an

ocean, and man-made laws 

are not sand-towers,

    But to whom life is a rock, and the law

a chisel with which they would carve it in

their own likeness?

    What of the cripple who hates dancers?

    What of the ox who loves his yoke and

deems the elk and deer of the forest

stray and vagrant things?

    What of the old serpent who cannot

shed his skin, and calls all others naked

and shameless?

    And of him who comes early to the

wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired

goes his way saying that all feasts are

violation and all feasters lawbreakers?

 

    What shall I say of these save that they

too stand in the sunlight, but with their

backs to the sun?

    They see only their shadows, and their

shadows are their laws.

    And what is the sun to them but a caster

of shadows?

    And what is it to acknowledge the laws

but to stoop down and trace their shadows

upon the earth?

    But you who walk facing the sun, what

images drawn on the earth can hold you?

    You who travel with the wind, what

weather-vane shall direct your course?

    What man’s law shall bind you if you

break your yoke but upon 

no man's prison door?

    What laws shall you fear if you dance

but stumble against no man’s iron chains?

    And who is he that shall bring you to

judgment if you tear off your garment yet

leave it in no man’s path?

 

    People of Orphalese, you can muffle the

drum, and you can loosen the strings of the

lyre, but who shall command the skylark

not to sing?”

Kahlil Gibran

“In silence and in true humility I seek God’s glory, to behold it in the Son whom He created as my Self.

I am not a body. I am free. 

For I am still as God created me.”

A Course in Miracles W-211.1:2-5

“God creates neither erring thought, mortal life, 

mutable truth, nor variable love.”

Mary baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 503:24-25

Don’t Carry That Weight

Photo by Aaron Springston

There are many great stories about choosing joy rather than pain. The one I’m thinking of today concerns a glass of water. We are asked how much a glass of water weighs. Then we are told it doesn't matter what its weight is, it matters how long we hold it. If we hold it a minute, it's light. If we hold it an hour, our arm and/or hand may become uncomfortable with the weight. If we hold it all day, our arm will feel paralyzed. This scenario is a metaphor for holding on to worries and fears. If we keep them with us, we become convinced that they are impossible to overcome. We are paralyzed from the carrying of this weight. All we have to do is put the glass down to be released from our burden. Then we are free to feel the joy which is innately ours as a child of Love!

“Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is spiritual.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:23-30

“It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness.”

A Course in Miracles W-190.5:1-8

Love is the Liberator

Thailand- photo by Aaron Springston

During my lifetime, I've seen various types of oppression evaporating. I admit that there are more walls waiting to fall  — but just look how far we've come! Despite these strides, a man told me that he was afraid to come to Eureka Springs. Of course, I asked him why. He said if we were having one of our "diversity" weekends he didn't want to be here. He assured me he had nothing against gay people, but he didn't want it “rubbed in his face”. This is a learned behavior of prejudice on his part; It has nothing to do with the way he felt when he came out of the womb into this life. As we release what we have come to believe, all of those things which we’ve been taught to think, we open the way for divine Love to guide us. Love truly is the liberator!

“The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator.” 

Mary Baker Eddy- Science and Health Page 225:14-22

“This is the world the Love of God reveals. It is so different from the world you see through darkened eyes of malice and of fear, that one belies the other. Only one can be perceived at all. The other one is wholly meaningless. A world in which forgiveness shines on everything, and peace offers its gentle light to everyone, is inconceivable to those who see a world of hatred rising from attack, poised to avenge, to murder and destroy.”

A Course in Miracles W-189.3:1-5

When You Lift Up Women, You Lift Up Humanity

Some Novel Women

Melinda French Gates is doing good work. In June, she left the foundation which she and her husband, Bill, started numerous years ago. It has done good work, but she wants to do more. So she has taken off on her own, pledged a billion dollars to accelerate the pace of social progress by removing barriers that hold women back. She says, “Because when you lift up women, you lift up humanity." She has done a series of youtube videos interviewing women who facilitate change. This morning I watched her interview Oprah and her lifelong friend, Gail. They talked about the importance of friendships and the need to have good women friends. This evening was my monthly book club meeting. We are a group of women who have met for two decades, and through the years we have become best friends. Tonight there were only five of us present, because of numerous reasons. It doesn’t matter if there are five or 12, we are lifted up every time we get together. Whether it’s a billionaire helping thousands of people, or a few women gathered together in friendship, we lift each other up — and the world is a better place!

“The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the memory to you as well. From you salvation radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. To you, the giver of the gift, does God Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to offer to the world.”

A Course in Miracles W-188.4:1-4

"Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven,—the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 208:20-24

Leaving The Old For The New

Torin and the Rainbow

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.” Kahlil Gibran

These words seem especially powerful to me today. I’ve thought of the public figures who have openly wept from compassion or joy. Most of my life, people were taught that crying was a weakness to be avoided. Every time I see a strong person brought to tears, I am grateful for a society which encourages people to express their true feelings. And honest laughter is a thing of beauty, don’t you think? A fake smile is easily seen through, because the eyes are not smiling. A true belly laugh expresses joy which goes deeper than a giggle brought forth from a joke, or one caused by embarrassment or another uncomfortable situation.  And a “great” person who does not bow before children — wow, this one takes my breath away! When a person panders to young children in an attempt to seem loving, the ugliness stays as a mental image in thought. On the other hand, the awe shown by people when they truly enjoy and love children — These people, I am grateful for. And I am grateful for everyone who shows honest emotion, no matter what some may think of their actions. My heart is full of gratitude today. 

“Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, — this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 323:32-4

“Ideas must first belong to you, before you give them. If you are to save the world, you first accept salvation for yourself. But you will not believe that this is done until you see the miracles it brings to everyone you look upon. Herein is the idea of giving clarified and given meaning. Now you can perceive that by your giving is your store increased.” 

A Course in Miracles W-187.3:1-5

Good Things Are Happening

I’ve noticed myself (and others) mindlessly repeating things we have heard, whether it be truth or rumor, good news or a horrid happening, or simply inanities. In the volatile atmosphere of our emotionally-charged country, it is particularly important to scatter joy and express kindness. Kindness goes hand-in-hand with compassion, but that doesn’t mean we must exacerbate others' pain by adding our own to it. I’ve heard it said that worry is much like praying for something bad to happen. With this in mind, I will try to only see, hear, and repeat good. This does not mean I will ignore injustice in all its many faces, nor does it mean that I'll turn my back on someone in need. It does mean when I hear of yet another travesty against mankind and the environment, I will see it through different eyes, translating it into what can occur to move us into our true selves as images of the divine. Planning to refrain from rehashing horror stories, or engaging in inane conversations, or telling my own stories which top the bad things others have experienced, these are things I can and will do at every opportunity. Every thought matters, and ours may be the one which turns it all around!

“And so we find our peace. We will accept the function God has given us, for all illusions rest upon the weird belief that we can make another for ourselves. Our self-made roles are shifting, and they seem to change from mourner to ecstatic bliss of love and loving. We can laugh or weep, and greet the day with welcome or with tears. Our very being seems to change as we experience a thousand shifts in mood, and our emotions raise us high indeed, or dash us to the ground in hopelessness.”

A Course in Miracles W-186.8:1-5

“The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 206:2-7

Peace of Mind

Does everyone want peace of mind? I truly think we do, but some of us have forgotten. Perhaps you know someone who thinks they want money more than peace, or maybe they want the excitement which brings an adrenaline rush, rather than the beauty of a quiet mind. I know people who seem stuck in a mental loop, repeating scenarios which cause them to be upset and angry. Many books have been written about change and the things we must do to shift our way of thinking about life. What if it’s easier than that? What if it only takes a desire to be peaceful, and then listening in the silence for the guidance which leads to that contentment? As with many changes in behavior, it may take practice and repetition. But I’ve found that the desire to attain peace has facilitated its attainment. Seeking peace outside of ourselves is as futile as seeking it through exciting physical activities. When we’re looking for something, we must know where to look. Namaste…

“The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he can not mistake it, if his asking is sincere. But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned.”

A Course in Miracles W-185.6:1-4

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 506:11-12

Seeing Past Tribes and Nations

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

We, as humans, make up thousands of designations in order to separate ourselves. We may be proud of our heritage, putting plaques on our walls telling that our ancestors came over on the Mayflower. We teach our children “where they came from" and tell them reasons they should be proud of this. We proclaim what state we hail from, what school we attended, which football teams we cheer for — the list goes on and on. As A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #184 tells us: “Learning that stops with what the world would teach stops short of meaning.” I want to see past tribes and nations. I don’t want to think of myself as a Razorback or a woman. I don’t want to think of myself at all, but would rather rest in the knowledge that I am an Idea of God, individually expressing that in whatever way is my function! 

“The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man's real existence as a child of God comes to light.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health Page 288:31–1

“God’s Name reminds me that I am His Son, not slave to time, unbound by laws which rule the world of sick illusions, free in God, forever and forever one with Him.”

A Course in Miracles W-204.1:2

Our Perceptions of Words

Mrs. Ropers

Photo Credit: Richard Quick

Words matter. I’ve always believed this oft-repeated maxim, and still do, although I’ve expanded my thoughts on the topic. How we perceive words is what matters. In pondering this, a childhood memory popped up. My parents had friends who visited us often and we spent hours in conversation with them. Mr. Santa Cruz used profanity quite often. Damn, hell, goddam, flowed through his conversation naturally. We also had a relative in Arizona who visited yearly, and we traveled there almost as often. He was the same: talking happily with curses interwoven throughout his wonderful stories. My parents’ home was a profanity-free zone, except where these two men were concerned. It came so naturally to them that it did not seem bad. Looking back, it was charming in its own way. Thinking about their words now, I see it was simply an expression of their joyful spirit. It didn’t seem bad, because it wasn’t. I’m comparing this tale to our society’s interpretation of situations which are foreign to us — such as, same-sex marriage, religious rituals different from what is our norm, the releasing of long-held ideologies, and other changes. I hope we can give ourselves a chance to look behind our prejudices and see the intent of those we are so quick to condemn. My hope for today is that we all see the truth behind actions. Is it love-based — whatever IT is? As an aside, both of these men were Catholic, so I grew up with the misapprehension that all Catholics cursed profusely. See how easy it is to make judgments? Namaste, Friends ...

“By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates with increased harmony all the minutiae of human affairs.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Miscellaneous Writings Page 204:23-25

“Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gift of grace. You can escape all bondage of the world, and give the world the same release you found. You can remember what the world forgot, and offer it your own remembering. You can accept today the part you play in its salvation, and your own as well. And both can be accomplished perfectly.”

A Course in Miracles W-183.9:1-5