Weaving Webs of Illusion

Photo credit: Robert Gonsalves

I’ve been thinking today about the illusions we create for ourselves and others. Perhaps we don’t want our children to know things about our past, or maybe there is a deep, dark secret we think would bring shame on our family, or perhaps it’s something as simple as not examining ourselves in the mirror because we can’t accept the physical changes we see. I remember years ago when I was helping a neighbor who was in denial about many things. I would take her with me to an empty church and play the organ for her, while other neighbors sneaked into her house to clean. She probably hadn’t cleaned her house or herself for years. She had two huge dogs which she fed chicken and rice, but she, herself, would only eat green beans and ice cream. Part of the illusion she had created involved taking down the mirrors in her house. Once someone took a photo of us in the front yard with her dogs. When I showed her the photo, she asked if one of the women was her. She had decided how things were in her life, and nothing was going to change her illusions. Sometimes we weave such a web that everything would fall apart without their false security. There is much to be considered here …

“We must look deep into realism instead of accepting only the outward sense of things. Can we gather peaches from a pine-tree, or learn from discord the concord of being? Yet quite as rational are some of the leading illusions along the path which Science must tread in its reformatory mission among mortals. The very name, illusion, points to nothingness.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 129:22-29

“Miracles honor you because you are lovable. They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the light in you. They thus atone for your errors by freeing you from your nightmares. By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity.” 

A Course in Miracles T-1.I.33:1-4

Rectify the Past and Change the Future

 

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Tonight I attended a meeting of our local metaphysical society. Although I haven’t done so in years, the man presenting this evening’s program is a friend, and he asked me to be there. I enjoyed hearing him tell of the stumbling trail which led him to this point in his life. Some of the experiences he related led to others asking questions about “past life regressions” and related subjects. It’s always surprising to me that anyone cares about these things, but I managed to keep this opinion to myself. Do we need to know if we’re carrying “bad karmic energy” around in order to rectify it? I have a feeling we’re here to learn to express the Love which created us, and this expression is manifested in our every thought and action. Living every moment as lovingly and with as much compassion as we possibly can, this is what feels important to me. This statement has stayed with me, although its author’s name has not: “We cannot change the past, but what we do in the present rectifies the past and changes the future.” That’s enough for me!

“The ego has a strange notion of time, and it is with this notion that your questioning might well begin. The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful. Remember that its emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the future like the past, and thus avoiding the present. By the notion of paying for the past in the future, the past becomes the determiner of the future, making them continuous without an intervening present. For the ego regards the present only as a brief transition to the future, in which it brings the past to the future by interpreting the present in past terms.” 

A Course in Miracles  T-13.IV.4:1-5

“Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit,--the law of divine Love.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 18:6-11

Prayerful Listening

 

St. Elizabeth Catholic Church

Eureka Springs, AR - 2023

The past two weeks have been a blur to me. Snow, ice, prayer and meditation while waiting for an answer to the puzzle of what is to become of my sweet nonagenarian friends. That seems an odd way to think of them, as I’ve known them for around 30 years and they are just “friends”, but the clarification seems necessary when I’m explaining their extreme need. Many friends have been forthcoming with suggestions and possibilities for someone to live with them. Today, I think they have found the perfect person to help them through this. An incredibly loving and kind woman, with grown children, a part-time job, and a desire to find purpose for her life, has appeared. When Clarence, my friend with Alzheimer’s, asked where I found her, I happily told him the Universe had brought her to us. A series of synchronized events bring us to this parenthesis in eternity. The gratitude I feel is immense! 

“And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health 497:24-27

“The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. To ask for the specific is much the same as to look on sin and then forgive it. Also in the same way, in prayer you overlook your specific needs as you see them, and let them go into God’s Hands. There they become your gifts to Him, for they tell Him that you would have no gods before Him; no love but His. What could His answer be but your remembrance of Him? Can this be traded for a bit of trifling advice about a problem of an instant’s duration? God answers only for eternity. But still all little answers are contained in this.” A Course in Miracles S-1.I.4:1-8

Ch-ch-ch-changes…

Four “Novel Women”

 Ramona posted this on social media today, and I send it on to you:

“I asked a friend who has crossed 70 and is heading towards 80 what sort of changes she is feeling in herself? She sent me the following:

1. After loving my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children and my friends, I have now started loving myself.
2. I have realized that I am not ‘Atlas’. The world does not rest on my shoulders.
3. I have stopped bargaining with vegetable and fruit vendors. A few pennies more is not going to break me, but it might help the poor fellow save for his daughter’s school fees.
4. I leave my waitress a big tip. The extra money might bring a smile to her face. She is toiling much harder for a living than I am.
5. I stopped telling the elderly that they've already narrated that story many times. The story makes them walk down memory lane & relive their past.
6. I have learned not to correct people even when I know they are wrong. The onus of making everyone perfect is not on me. Peace is more precious than perfection.
7. I give compliments freely & generously. Compliments are a mood enhancer not only for the recipient, but also for me. And a small tip for the recipient of a compliment, never, NEVER turn it down, just say ‘Thank You.’
8. I have learned not to bother about a crease or a spot on my shirt. Personality speaks louder than appearances.
9. I walk away from people who don't value me. They might not know my worth, but I do.
10. I remain cool when someone plays dirty to outrun me in the rat race. I am not a rat & neither am I in any race.
11. I am learning not to be embarrassed by my emotions. It’s my emotions that make me human.
12. I have learned that it's better to drop the ego than to break a relationship. My ego will keep me aloof, whereas with relationships, I will never be alone.
13. I have learned to live each day as if it's the last. After all, it might be the last.
14. I am doing what makes me happy. I am responsible for my happiness, and I owe it to myself. Happiness is a choice. You can be happy at any time, just choose to be!”

Smile on Your Neighbor

New/Old Friends

Events surrounding my nonagenarian friends, who have been having a rough time, have caused me to think about neighbors. During a recent ice event in our town, my friends were alone in their home (their son having passed away the previous week). The ice came quickly, and they had a problem with their phones so no one knew if they were in need. Friends called the police who did a welfare check, discovering they were safe. They then contacted a close-by neighbor to see if they would be available in case of emergency. When the neighbors visited in my friends’ home, it was the first time they had ever spoken, even though they had been next door to each other for years. I find this concept to be foreign because my neighbors have always been close friends, too. I hope this is true for most people! Even though sitting on the front porch visiting with neighbors is not as prevalent as before the invention of the television and computer, I hope people still gather together just for the fun of it! That common ground we all need to find is there, waiting for us to open the door, no matter what our philosophical differences may be. As a person who enjoys solitude, I know this isn’t always easy to do. But let’s remember, we don’t have to spend lots of time with people to acknowledge that we’re all in this together …

“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.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 518:15-19

“You are being blessed by every beneficent thought of any of your brothers anywhere. You should want to bless them in return, out of gratitude. You need not know them individually, or they you. The light is so strong that it radiates throughout the Sonship and returns thanks to the Father for radiating His joy upon it. Only God’s holy children are worthy channels of His beautiful joy, because only they are beautiful enough to hold it by sharing it. It is impossible for a child of God to love his neighbor except as himself. That is why the healer’s prayer is: Let me know this brother as I know myself.” 

A Course in Miracles T-5.in.3:1-8

In Togetherness, There is Responsibility

Citizens’ Advice To Congress is the title of an article in which three people express their ideas on how leaders can govern our democracy. One of the people interviewed was Antoinette Tuff. She was a substitute teacher in Decatur, Georgia when a young man with an AK-47 and a backpack of ammunition came into the school and announced, “We’re all going to die today”. She said her motherly instincts kicked in, not just for the children, but also the mentally ill young man. She started out by telling him, no, we’re not going to do this. In the nine minutes it took to talk him down, she repeatedly told him no one would be mad at him if he stood down, and that she loved him. Sully Sullenberger, the pilot who landed a plane in the Hudson River, saving all the people on board, said that he chose the least bad option — and he was glad to have it. Of our democracy crisis he states: “We’ve all gotten a real wake-up call. We’ve had the biggest civics lesson of our lives.” Everyday citizens have to keep on solving problems. A plumber in the D.C. area, Pete Kristiansen, says: “I understand laws enacted by Congress are big, important things. But we do big, important things, too. So if we can get things done, they should, too.” To our Congress he says, “In togetherness, there is responsibility.” Namaste…

“A feasible as well as rational means of improvement at present is the elevation of society in general and the achievement of a nobler race for legislation, — a race having higher aims and motives.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 63:23-27

“Our function is to work together, because apart from each other we cannot function at all. The whole power of God’s Son lies in all of us, but not in any of us alone. God would not have us be alone because He does not will to be alone. That is why He created His Son, and gave him the power to create with Him. Our creations are as holy as we are, and we are the Sons of God Himself, as holy as He is. Through our creations we extend our love, and thus increase the joy of the Holy Trinity. You do not understand this, because you who are God’s Own treasure do not regard yourself as valuable. Given this belief, you cannot understand anything.” 

A Course in Miracles T-8.VI.8:4-11

Let It Out

One Billion Rising

Photo credit: Richard Quick

Women’s circles are powerful vehicles for creation and, also, release. While watching an episode of Better Things (a fabulous, irreverent television program), I thought of times when I’ve been part of a group of women who supported each other in a common cause. Lest I be thought of as sexist, I’m sure this could happen with any gathering of people, but it seems not as many men are open to the type of emotional honesty which is requisite for powerful purpose. The show which caused me to think on these things involved five women who gathered on Father’s Day to release pent-up resentment towards their ex-husbands. After writing and reading their pain, they burned the papers in a fire pit, held hands, and howled at the moon. I felt empowered just watching them! During the summer of 2020, while we were all in some form of quarantine, the people of Eureka Springs went outside and howled at 7 p.m. each evening. It felt really good. I hope some men were doing this, but the voices I could hear were women’s. I know the man in my house wouldn’t howl, insisting he couldn’t make his voice do that. Cheers to everyone who has the courage to express their true feelings, whatever those may be!

“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.

Is this the Son of God? Could He create such instability and call it Son? He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect on what he is. They blow across his mind like wind-swept leaves that form a patterning an instant, break apart to group again, and scamper off. Or like mirages seen above a desert, rising from the dust.” 

A Course in Miracles W-186.8:3–9:6

“The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like all other languages, English is inadequate to the expression of spiritual conceptions and propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Christian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy concerning the Christian apostles, ‘They shall speak with new tongues.’”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 349: 13-22 

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