Life's Lessons

Every moment can be a learning experience of some sort if we’re paying attention. Two things happened today which I took as profound life lessons. A decades-old friend was telling me she was thinking about going to the food bank because of a change in her income. As we talked about this, I mentioned it was fortunate we had such a great distribution center. I also remembered that I had a bag of non-perishable food in the back of my vehicle which I’d been carrying around for a couple of weeks without dropping it off at Flint Street. It struck us simultaneously that I could pass it on directly to her and save us both a trip! The lesson in this is that what may seem like procrastination could be for someone’s benefit. Also, never be ashamed to tell your friends your needs; perhaps they are a source of supply. The second lesson is much simpler. I broke my favorite salad plate due to lack of attention being paid to the details of life. It reminded me that every moment is important. I want to be ever-more aware of my actions and how they may affect someone else. I don’t care about my plate, but I do care about people I may hurt through my thoughtlessness.  

“The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is infinite individuality, which supplies all form and comeliness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 281: 14-17

Thank You, Georgia O'Keeffe!

Three friends and I went to Crystal Bridges to experience the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit. What a joyous time we had together! Ms. O’Keefe had a glorious life in many ways, but experienced deep sorrow related to interpersonal relationships. Having studied up on her life before going, I knew when some of her darkest periods were, and expected to see them reflected in her art. I was pleasantly surprised to see that surrounding some of her deepest depression is some of her most vibrant painting! Following a complete breakdown, she didn’t paint for a year and a half. She then became somewhat of a recluse and began a whole new phase of her life. She is a study in confidence! One of her comments which struck me is this: “Someone else’s vision will never be as good as your own vision of yourself. Live and die with it, because in the end, that’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself, and everything else.” Thank you, Georgia, for the joy you brought to four women today!

“…we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 248:25-29

Reflecting Pure Light

photo credit: Aaron Springston

I watch  friends and acquaintances in the multitude of roles they play. I see shopkeepers living on Eureka-time in a laid-back tourist town. Then there are professions which could be taken as stressful, and it's interesting to note which are so and which aren't. You've probably already thought of the myriad of "types" of people you know. In reflecting on this, it seems it doesn't matter whether they are in a profession which handles what we think of as life-or-death situations, or whether they check groceries, make music, create art, live a philanthropic life, or do anything they please on a regular basis. No matter how they spend their time, some are uptight and some are calm and cool. It's simply a matter of how they choose to respond to events around them. Some of these people are pure light, reflecting Love in their every action. Some of them really want to be happy, and often pretend they are so, but deep in their eyes (and obvious in their actions) fear, guilt, lack are seen. Then there are those who dash about from one activity to another, rushed and hurried, running from something that perhaps isn't recognized even by them. I translate these actions as varying degrees of remembrance. Some don't know there's anything to remember, and when they get hints, it frightens them and they retreat into well-known beliefs and actions. Almost everyone I know has caught a glimpse of Truth and are eager to remember more. Once we touch this Oneness, we want to feel it all the time. There's nothing else quite like it! 

“Man is the family name for all ideas,--the sons and daughters of God. All that God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting goodness and power.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 515:16:24

Revelation and Progress

photo credit: Aaron Springston

A friend and I were recently talking about our children and how wonderful they are and how glad we are to know them. She said she didn't know how her boys had turned out so great, as she had moved them around frequently when they were young, and many of her ways wouldn't have been advocated by the so-called experts in childrearing. Yet because she was honest with her children, and she always loved them fully without judgment, they are wonderful human beings and super parents in their own right. My boys also are wonderful, but the physical circumstances of their childhood was entirely different. They attended a beautiful independent school in a small town, had a full-time mom and every-other-weekend dad, and made lifelong friends while learning about the world from their small neighborhood. There are some things my friend and I had in common raising these boys. We didn't place limitations and judgments on them. We encouraged their light to shine and made sure they knew what that meant. We weren't afraid to teach them about God, but we didn't threaten them with this knowledge. Now that they're adults, we have the pleasure of watching their light shine, fearless and loving, giving forth what they have received.

"Light: Symbol of Truth; revelation and progress." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 591:23-24

I Want to Be Happy

photo credit: Aaron Springston

I want to feel good. I want to be happy. Don't we all want these things? While feeling good and being happy may sometimes seem illusive, they are the product of the realization of our true being as Love and the expression of it. When I'm feeling unhappy, I’ve found  the way out is to do something for someone else. As more of the world is waking up to this, there are more writings concerning how we can continue to accept our enlightened state by realizing true consciousness. To share with others in this awakening is exciting! We are all doing it to some extent, aren't we? Look at the groups we are involved with in conversation: book clubs, spiritual meetings of various sorts, salons, chat rooms, virtual discussions, blogs -- the possibilities are endless! Every encounter I have with another, ever thought I have, each and every one is shared with the universe. I vow to choose wisely, even when I think I’m talking to myself!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to understand the infinite." Science & Health Page 285:32-4

Our Essence as Love

photo credit: Richard Quick

What is love? As a personal value, love changes and shifts. Friendships end over disagreements, marriages fall apart, societies struggle with how to remain cohesive while accepting those who think differently. In reality, Love is unchanging. This Love changes our material expectations and perceived shortcomings, when we allow it. There was a time when two people I care for did not get along with each other. Seeing them both as expressions of Love helped them to see themselves this way, too. Seeing myself as complete allows a shift to occur in the way I treat others — and myself. All problems, large and small, are symptoms of a basic misconception that we are fallen humans separated from Love. The understanding that we are Love, wholly and purely, starts a domino-effect process which inevitably includes everyone in this shift of thought, away from the unreal belief in what we think we are to the pure comprehension of  our essence as Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote: “From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come.”

Science & Health Page 280:4-7

Go Where the Music Takes You

photo credit: Richard Quick

Music is an aid which opens our thought to things we may have forgotten or, perhaps, never have known. I love to sit with an all-encompassing symphony orchestra, opening my mind to only the music, until at some point I feel there is nothing else in the world. I recall Wayne Dyer talking about muscle testing using different items. An organic banana allowed full strength in his son, whereas holding a CD of raucous music left him much weakened. Each of us enjoys different kinds of music, and there are many levels of this enjoyment. Something we would enjoy with friends at a party may not compare to the quiet strains of Bach, which take us deeper within ourselves prior to meditation or writing. Find the music which opens you to hearing the messages Life, Truth, and Love are offering you. Surround yourself with this river of salvation and see where it takes you!

“Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The rapture of his grandest symphonies was never heard. He was a musician beyond what the world knew.This was even more strikingly true of Beethoven, who was so long hopelessly deaf. Mental melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede conscious sound. Music is the rhythm of head and heart. Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursing either discord or harmony according as the hand, which sweeps over it, is human or divine.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 213:19-29