Seeking Understanding

In our country, the division between tribes has become so virulent and excessive that people are almost constantly in a state of judgment and battle in one form or another. Many are resorting to violent behavior and speech when confronted by something they don’t understand or disagree vehemently about. I’m keeping my finger on the pulse of these divisions and searching for ways we can communicate. It is not easy. One woman, whom I met through metafizzies years ago, has decided to come out of the closet and admit she’s a Trump supporter. I’ve started a private conversation with her about this development, because I truly want to understand how this could happen to her. It’s simpler than I wanted to admit. She listens to and reads fringe news sources, feeds her fear of conspiracy theories, and thinks that our current administration will change its outlook on the environment and animal and human welfare (she's a vegan). It takes all my strength not to argue with her. And so I continue to calmly and privately send her refutations of things she posts as facts on social media. I don’t want to be one who screams at people to wake up, but it’s tempting. Namaste...

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress." Science & Health, Page 506:13

Standing By Truth

"Illusion of Danger"
photo credit: Aaron Springston

Today I received an excited message from an old friend who is a newcomer to social media. He was forwarding to me a message about a prominent Chinese scientist informing us about the "truth" concerning the ongoing viral situation. I immediately did a search on this and found numerous sources telling me this had been circulated since April, 2020, and it was not true. I wrote him back, telling him what I had found and how he, too, could discover these facts, mentioning that it was our responsibility to not pass on things designed to divide us and create fear-based responses. He wrote back telling me others had informed him that his urgent post was, indeed, misinformation. He was downhearted and said he should know better and he was going to ignore these posts from now on. "NO", I said to him. It is our responsibility as capable, intelligent people to seek truth and pass it on, while quashing lies and doing our best to correct them. I assured him he was one of these capable, intelligent folks and he could play an important role in this maze of misinformation. I urge you, each and every one, to be bearers of truth and goodness, not caving in to lies, but finding the truth and standing by it, today and every day. And to do so with kindness whenever possible -- and it's always possible!

"You do not deny the mathematician's right to distinguish the correct from the incorrect among the examples on the blackboard, nor disbelieve the musician when he distinguishes concord from discord  ... Right and wrong, truth and error, will be at strife in the minds of students, until victory rests on the side of invincible truth." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 452:32

Translating Things Into Thoughts

photo credit: Heather Peters

Many spiritual disciplines concentrate on getting things. As a student of divine metaphysics, I am learning to ”resolve things into thoughts”! Let's say we need a place to live. How do we think about this in order to manifest it in our existence? By understanding the substance of an idea! What are the spiritual qualities of this place to live, this house, this home? What does it represent? Some of the qualities of home could be warmth, comfort, peace, safety, beauty, love, and hospitality. Home is really a spiritual idea, and these qualities already exist in our individual consciousness, so we don't have to go out and find them because they're already a permanent part of our being. We can express all the qualities included in the concept of home no matter where we are, and by this expression we are cherishing our spiritual home. This translation of material things into spiritual ideas gets easier with practice, so don't be surprised if your needs are met before you even know you have them!

"Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 123:12-15

A Great Secret

I ran across this jewel today. I share it with you because I'm going to start my days with it for the immediate future! 

It is called: Demonstration

"I have learned a great secret.

I have learned how to demonstrate, I have learned how to make Science a thing of life, not of words.

I am going to tell you what the secret is, and it is wonderful.

It is this: Not to see or hear or repeat any kind of imperfection.

It is seeing and hearing and repeating good only, at all times and under all circumstances, and in spite of everything that appears to the contrary.

I make this resolve every morning, when I first open my eyes, and I renew it every hour of the day.

I see perfection in myself, in my friends, in my so-called enemy, in my affairs and in world affairs.

I take my radical stand for the perfection of God and everything and for everything and everybody [It] has created. I look upon the world with God's eyes and see it just as [Love] sees it, and I refuse to see it in any other way.

I stop a dozen times a day, and renew the resolve, and make sure that I am not repeating error or giving way to criticism. I watch my thoughts about people, the lame, the old, the unloved to sense that I pass in the street, stray animals; I except nothing. I have taken my radical stand for perfection and I will not, absolutely will not, relax this perfect standard.

The result has been simply marvelous. Try it and you will find that you forget your glasses; they will become unnecessary.

You will be seeing with God's eyes, [Mind's] perfect sight, and you will behold a perfect universe, the outward condition of your inward thinking. To change the picture you must change the sight that produced the picture." 

By Mary Baker Eddy

Set Yourself Free

"Loveland Pass"
photo credit: Aaron Springston

Sometimes material-based life seems overwhelming. It's easy to feel bound by illnesses and injuries, financial burdens, grief, and world conditions. Our lives appear to have a beginning and an end. Physicists tell us of a perspective called quantum entanglement, in which particles separate yet remain connected, reacting to stimuli in the same way even though they no longer occupy the same space. In a book by Dan Cowan, Mind Underlies Spacetime, he explains, "...this direct connectedness occurs because each real entity is already everywhere." How perfectly this explains Oneness! This omnipresence is our perfect identity, without boundaries. We are free!!

“The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 90:24-25

Hate -- Inside or Out?

unknown photographer

"Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you." This Mary Baker Eddy quote is one which I've always thought of as meaning that the human hatred others feel cannot reach me when I'm wearing the armor of divine Love. I now see that it also includes the hatred I may feel toward others. It's very easy for me to think that I don't hate anyone or anything. Actually, it's a word I have pruned from my vocabulary and simply do not use. BUT if I am irritated by another's actions or words, or if I replay a past situation in my mind which caused anger in the past, or if I allow criticism to gnaw at me and I think of retaliatory statements which could have been said -- isn't that human hatred? Wearing this cloak of Love calms these nagging feelings and thoughts. I know that if I'm wearing the protection of Love, hatred cannot enter from inside or out!

“As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being.”  Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 361:16-18

Be Kind Whenever Possible

I know a young woman who is trying to move forward with her life, but her parents and sister seem to want her to stay in place. They tell her she is not capable of holding a job, that she is mentally ill and should be on disability, and imply that she is not worthy of love. She is working toward moving away from behavior which no longer serves her, and perhaps never did. I am proud of her and tell her so every chance I get. Today she texted asking for my advice on how to get along with her parents, who are very conservative and have different life values than hers. She has mentioned numerous times that she feels mentally ill, because her family keeps telling her she is. It's sort of a "which came first, the chicken or the egg" kind of situation, it seems to me. She has been told something all her life, which she has come to believe -- at least enough of a belief that when something doesn't go right in her life, she feels something is wrong with her. Schools and workplaces are not generally set up for anyone who doesn't fit into whatever sized box they want to put them in. In this time of change, I see people relaxing their beliefs on what is correct behavior. This is more than a live-and-let-live attitude; it is an embracing compassion for all things living. I could no more fault my dog for being black rather than white than I would ask my sweet cat to be more like my smart cat. Let's be kind to one another, and gentle with ourselves. Namaste... 

"The great difference between voluntary and involuntary mesmerism is that voluntary mesmerism is induced consciously and should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self-mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is understood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect. The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In reality, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be healed only by the divine Mind." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 403:2

Neowise and the International Space Station

"Overexposed Milky Way"
photo credit: Richard Quick

We were outside looking for the comet, Neowise, this evening. There were conflicting accounts of where to see it, with Accuweather saying close to the archer and milky way in the east-ish sky, and astronomy.com telling us we could see it below the big dipper in the other direction. I have the app, Sky View Lite on my phone, and so we had a fun time discovering various night lights which were not the comet! My favorite one was the International Space Station! At one point, I thought I was seeing an airplane, so I pointed my phone toward it to see how the app would identify a plane. What a surprise to find it was the space station! All this conflicting data reminded me of the stories we hear through various media. We may hear one thing from one place, and a conflicting version from another. Some folks are upset that the "big" news organizations -- Associated Press and Reuters -- are not reporting the things they are hearing in the sensational news. They take this to mean it's a conspiracy for the mainstream news sources to hide stories from the masses. The instance which was brought to my attention was a police-blotter-type story which has no reason to be reported on by the AP, but some sources are treating it as a #BLM killing. This type of sensationalized headline leaves out vital details; details which turn it into just another horrid happening at 3 a.m. in somewhere USA. But I digress. The point is: Go look at the sky, watch bugs crawl through the grass, breathe the cool night air. Generate joy, and let your intuition lead you in paths of righteousness. 

"So we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart, but man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate star -- 'a weary searcher for a viewless home.'" Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 121:12

Peace Within

Mongolia - photo credit: Aaron Springston

Although I know peace is a choice within my own self, I would love to share it with everyone, everywhere. It has taken quite a while to grasp the concept that the only thought I can change is my own. After spending years trying to change thoughts and actions of husbands and friends, I think it was my children who finally taught me the meaning of Oneness. I could watch the mood of the household change with my emotions. Holding to peace within myself is all I can do. Jumping on the bandwagon of resentment and other negative emotions used to seem impossible to avoid, but I don’t find it as difficult now to simply witness these things without becoming a part of them. While I can't change what anyone else is thinking or feeling or experiencing, I can adjust my vision of reality. Every thought is important! We are all in this together, in every way, at every moment. Today I will make an effort to see everything through the eyes of Love.

“Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidence​ ​by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 264:24-27

Thank you, Marianne Williamson

Today Marianne Williamson says everything I want to say. And she does it so well... Happy Sunday!

photo credit: Aaron Springston

“The mindset that dominates this world is simply an inadequate container for the energies that need to come through now if humanity is to survive. Putting our separate needs before the well-being of the earth and its inhabitants, we’ve created political and economic systems that subconsciously plan the obsolescence of the human race. American politics, which one would have hoped would be an incubator for understanding and solutions, is dominated by a perspective that at its worst perpetuates the problem and at it’s best simply enables the ever-quickening race towards planetary destruction. The good news - and there is good news - is that more and more people are awakening to the intersectionality of the problem and to the personal as well as political dimensions of the needed transformation. We’re like at the stage where you’ve woken up, made your first cup of coffee and are just starting to feel the brain fog of sleep receding. Clarity and spirituality first, then illumination and guidance. A new state of being calls forth a new kind of doing. It’s a stretch, but who’s not being forced to stretch right now. There’s no way we’ll pull off the salvation of the world unless we’re willing to change, to become different, to drop our preoccupations with smaller, ultimately meaningless things. No littleness allowed. Only magnitude, and love. The world won’t be what we want it to be until we’re no longer who we used to be. It’s hard to be alive at times; we’re all learning lessons, shedding old skin and growing into who we need to be. But the effort is worth it. The world is on fire. And those of us who have walked through the fire are the ones who will put it out.” Marianne Williamson

"The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous today show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of the age, struggling against the advancing spiritual era." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 65:13

Reflections

An interesting question was posed to me today: If you met yourself, would you like you? I love this question! Let's all think about that -- and ask our social media "friends" to do the same...

Happy Weekend, Lovely Ones!

"Love it reflected in Love." Mary Baker Eddy 

Happiness is the Secret

Photo Credit: Tina Cone - Belize

Recently someone asked me: What next? Locusts? I couldn't keep from laughing as I told her, yes, this was the year the locusts cycled out of hibernation in our area. And therein is the secret we all need to remember: Laughter. I've been noticing who is happy and adjusting to the changes we are experiencing on a day-to-day basis. I'm pretty sure it's the people who were happy all along, don't you think? It seems this is what will bring us through to the other side, whatever that will be. Nobody can predict what's going to happen tomorrow, but we can predict how we will react to it. Laughing in the face of tragedy is NOT what I mean by this; please, don't think it is. There are many dire circumstances which need our attention, and we shall give it wherever we are led to participate. But let's tap into that innate joy which is programmed into us from before we were conceived, the Love which is our true being, and the peace that cannot be touched by outside influence. Kevin saved a cat and two kittens today. That is cause for celebration! There was a gentle rain which nurtured the plants and animals in our woods. Therein is joy. Pollyanna is on the Disney Channel! That makes me very happy...

"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: 26

Change is the Bottom Line Here

"No Looking Back"
Creation of Sandy Starbird

I hear a lot of news. My Kevin is a news guy and has read and/or listened to every bit of news put out since the mid-70s, so I get lots of information by osmosis. I purposely follow some people on Facebook in order to find out what Fox is baiting folks with nowadays. I follow Steve Grant's (KY3) page so I can gauge the way everyone is leaning on multiple issues. I read the Christian Science Monitor for moments of clarity and sanity. It's exhausting and it would be easy to shut down, but we shouldn't pretend all is well, or that we needn't act as it will work itself out. When people send me their particular views on matters via a video on youTube, or a particularly biased meme, or anything other than their own words expressing how they feel/think about something, I have begun to tell them exactly how I feel. The bottom line here is that things need to change. Our actions which have been destructive to the Earth, which harm people, which put money ahead of everything else -- well, we need to examine that and do things differently. We have a great opportunity at this time of forced change, so let's embrace it and find better ways to do things! I'm weary of political parties and strong opinions which keep us stuck in our ways, believing "I'm right and you're wrong". Let's give up these beliefs and look at what is actually happening here. It might be simpler than we think!

"Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth." Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health Page 454:19

The Panoply of Love

Altai Mountains - PC: Aaron Springston

Every day we hear more truth. Every day we see that money has become the most important thing in many people's lives, and we witness where it has taken them. Every day another person is shown to be a wolf in lamb's clothing. Preachers and politicians are the expected charlatans, as they are so publicly blatant in their use of words to manipulate their flocks. But occasionally we see a seemingly sweet woman, or someone who should be the finest of our community, showing their true colors. Today I heard about a white supremacist group, a statewide organization, which features a local deputy as one of its prominent members and organizers. In the same organization was a woman from the big city who is a nurse. She has since retracted her affiliation with this militant, bigoted group of people. These are the sort of uncoverings which assure me everything is going to be alright. No matter what horrors people are perpetrating on others, they will become known, and while we must witness the nasty workings of these vicious minds, we can also see those who rise up to meet the hate with love. We are finding out how adamantly we must love in order to overturn the ingrained attitudes of centuries. And we know we can do it, because we've been practicing a long time. I have a vision of Sean Connery as King Arthur rising up shouting, Never surrender! Let us go forward with joy and wisdom, facing whatever challenges are in our path. Namaste...

"Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity."  Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 571:18

A New Way of Living

photo by Aaron Springston

This is a time of rapid change in thought. Most everyone I know senses something important in the air. I notice myself doing things differently without planning a change. Think about it! Aren't you evolving into more You? We're doing things we never considered possible in the past. A good friend, who is a veterinarian, is allowing herself to communicate with animals on an entirely different level than when she started her career.  I know a woman who gardens and is experimenting with talking to the deer and other animals who want to eat her vegetables. We are all waking up to new ways of living -- or is it old ways of Being? When I allow my beliefs to take a rest, the world I see and experience is one of common ground amongst everyone and everything. We are not different, you and I. We may have convinced ourselves that the material differences we see in each other make us separate, but look past all of that to your heritage as a child of Love. Let go of preconceived notions about how things are or should be. Let's allow ourselves this freedom of thought -- and see where it takes us!

“When will the ages understand the Ego [note capitalization], and realize only one God, one Mind or intelligence?” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 204:19-20

I Worried

John Gibson, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church where we record services for their website, built today's inspirational talk around this Mary Oliver poem. It has found a place in my head and heart...

I Worried

"I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.”

Of Hamilton and Mickey Mouse ...

I hope everyone had a fine 4th of July, whatever you did. Our special event for the day was subscribing to the Disney Channel to watch Hamilton. Wow, wow, wow! We only watched half of it, as it's close to 3 hours long (yay!), and will finish tomorrow. But what a production, what a presentation, what a concept to educate the masses and pique the curiosity of the people of these United States! This is the type of thing which, I trust, will bring us together, enabling us to get past the petty differences and great divides. And if that doesn't work, I would suggest we all sit down and watch some old Mickey Mouse cartoons! Following our amazement over the Broadway production, we were knocked out by the 1936 animation and fabulous story lines in these old cartoons. If laughing with these characters can't bring "we the people" together, nothing can. So I'm going to advocate mandatory watching of great cartoons as a cure-all for what ails us! Take some time to enjoy life, laugh, and love each other. We're all in this together -- really, truly!

"Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 66:13

Truth is Knocking at the Door!

Fireworks in the Snow
PC: Aaron Springston

Fireworks. Decades ago when I was a child, we would look forward to 10 or 20 firecrackers (which we would light with fear and excitement), a sparkler or two apiece (my personal favorite), and then an adult would set off a Roman candle for the big finale. We celebrated the freedom we believed our country was founded upon, and went to bed full of expectations of good. Now, in 2020, I am hearing fireworks crackling (illegally) all over town the night before Independence Day, and I am pondering what became of the simpler celebrations from decades ago. Everything has gone the way of fireworks: too much, too soon, too long. Our values have shifted into the high gear of hyper-materialism, and I see our excessive consumption of fireworks as a perfect example of what we have done with everything. We thought there was an endless supply of gasoline, so we began owning and driving multiple vehicles more and more miles every passing year, until we had superhighways built all across our land, constantly filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Our grocery stores ballooned into obscene orgies of processed foods and plastics, highlighted by sugar and caffeine drinks in a poisonous-looking array of colors. I think we all long for a simpler, more honest way of living. And we can have it! On this day of Independence, let’s celebrate the re-inventing of our country. America has always led the world with its innovative thinking, and now is the time for us to do it again! 

"The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page VII:13

New-Old Idea

Piney Creek Garden
Berryville, Arkansas

“When we traded nature for concrete, we destroyed our soul.” I heard this in a documentary series called “Broken Bread”. This show highlights people who are working to change the way we think about food. In many parts of our country, the only nearby places to buy food are convenience stores or liquor stores. The question was asked: Why are we normalizing the fact that fresh food is not available nearby? One man in Los Angeles says, “You don’t have to be a critical thinker to figure this out. Plant vegetables!” And so he has done this in vacant lots and areas which would usually be given to grass. He even has banana trees! By doing this and allowing others to pick what they need, they are being empowered to grow food in their own small spaces. This, dear friends, is exactly what the “new world” looks like: seeing ways to bring us closer to the earth and each other and acting on them! Building community through food is a great way to begin. 

"As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to 'where the young child was,' -- even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes. Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 191:8

A New Earth