Joy is Spiritual

photo credit: Aaron Springston

We have had torrential rainfall for almost 24 hours now. It’s tempting to think of floods and plagues, wondering if toads will fall from the sky. I suppose it’s conditioning which makes us feel punished when we're ill or things seem to be out of whack. “What did I do wrong? Why me?” While there is no one to blame for our predicament today, there are contributing factors being cited by the media. Most of those scenarios make sense, given our irresponsible actions as humans during the past centuries. We have much work ahead of us, but for right now I’m hoping we can keep our energy high with good food from local farmers, good thoughts shared with each other, and happy, positive visual and audio entertainment. I’ve been a practicing Pollyanna for so long that this comes easy to me — and most everyone I know! You’re all smart, cool people and I trust you are sharing your joy with others. Much Love sent to everyone! 

"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

Heal the World

I just read that swans and dolphins have reappeared in the canals of Venice. The water is clear enough that fish can be seen from the banks. This is but one of the beautiful things happening around the world, resulting from our lack of busy-ness and constant polluting. We are acting differently because of fear of contagion, but hopefully we will see the wonder of changing our behaviors in a multitude of different ways, and will reset our values as a result. We will finally grok that we don't need to buy everything in sight simply because we can. I have a great bumper sticker from Penzey Spices which says, "Heal the World. Cook Dinner Tonight." Isn't that the truth? Take the time to love your family and friends, cook them food, eat it with appreciation for the farmer who grew it and the animal who made it possible. I feel so fortunate that the last book I checked out from the library, before they closed to protect us, was about Instant Pot Vegan cooking. What fun! I'm ready to pick dandelions and purslane and wild onions and have a feast! (I joke to some extent here) My point is: We are ready for this change which is being forced upon us. Let's do everything we can to help each other through it to the other side!

"This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 96:12

Social Distancing

Gnosticism: Embracing God’s World 

For those of us used to hugging any and everybody, this idea of physically distancing ourselves from each other is a difficult one to get used to! But we know the reason for it is valid and we are trying our best to keep from doing so. In my recent experience, I'm finding that heartfelt eye contact expresses the same care as the spontaneous hug has done in the past. Our physical proximity is not the important thing when we are showing empathy for those who are frightened or worried or sick. It is our honest, loving response that lifts us all above the fear of this unknown situation. We're in uncharted territory here, and I keep thinking about the prophecies concerning the year 2012. It was the end of an era, and we were told it would be difficult. And it has been, don't you think? It feels like we had a chance to make the shift on our own, but refused to do so and so we're being forced to go beyond our learned behaviors and take charge of our lives. Our current viral situation feels similar to the election in 2016. We were willing to go along complacently, thinking things weren't too bad. But then pow! We got to see how awful they really were, and have been forced to face what we have been doing to ourselves with our materialistic, selfish ways. And so we continue to be forced to look at ourselves, while learning more about loving and forgiving...

"Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 513:6

New Earth Army

photo credit: Aaron Springston

I watched the movie, Men Who Stare at Goats. It has inspired me to think of all the people I know who have been honing their metaphysical skills for the past few decades, or all their lives. Everyone who has been awake and noticed there is more going on around us than meets the physical eye, each and every one of you, have been doing this. We have been awakening the ability to view remotely, to see past disease and realize the true state of what appears to be a material body, to work with reiki and life force energy, to utilize psychic abilities, to communicate with all things living, to recognize the healing power of plants -- there are more energies flowing around and through us than can be delineated in a writing this short. In the movie I mentioned, there is a group of people who call themselves the New Earth Army. That's what we are! Having spent hundreds of hours interacting with higher thinkers during our metaphysical meetings between 2005 and 2011, I have seen a large sampling of the unseen abilities at work in our very midst. It's time to wear them proudly and be willing to help the world in any way we can. I've seen what you can do, and once the floodgates are opened, those talents will multiply. Let's shine those lights!!

"In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know. We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated. If 'faithful over a few things,' we shall be made rulers over many, but the one unused talent decays and is lost." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 323:13

And the people began to think...

photo credit: Aaron Springston

There is too much to say, so am sending you the best thing I've read today! Love to all...

“And the people stayed home and read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still and listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed and in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed."

~Kitty O'Meara

Not an Easy Revolution

photo credit: Aaron Springston

Perhaps humanity has been listening to the wrong voice all along. Maybe this is not how we truly are, but we simply have become accustomed to the behaviors we are taught and witness in others, never stopping to question if this is the way it must be. I've never been a fan of ritual and dogma, and in my advancing years I find little use for these things. Honesty and integrity dictate that we follow our heart, speak truth, act with compassion, and never fear the consequences! Many of us are stuck in our ways, doing the same things every day, thinking the same thoughts (with a few exceptions), and blindly believing what keeps us comfortably non-curious. Yes, we may have an inkling that something is wrong, thinking perhaps we could be happier, more fulfilled, more peaceful. We may go to therapists to advise us on what to do. Maybe we ask friends for advice. Or simply tell ourselves to be content that things aren't worse than they are. The time for this madness to cease is now! We are waking up, and it's not an easy revolution!

"Shepherd, show me how to go
O’er the hillside steep,
How to gather, how to sow,
How to feed Thy sheep.
I will listen for Thy voice,
Lest my footsteps stray;
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way." 

- Poem by Mary Baker Eddy

Realizing Our Purpose

Those who take the Christian bible literally may feel these are the end times, or the rapture, or something of that sort. The magnitude of fires, earthquakes, plagues, and other disruptive happenings seem to be increasing every day. I feel these events are helping us to see we're doing things wrong, and giving us an outline on how to right them. We've been trying to wake up to the Truth of our being forever, and the time is upon us. Many are afraid of change and do not want to give up the comfort of their long-held beliefs, so this is a push to help us take the next step in our realizations. We are not material; we are spiritual. It can be difficult to see this when we are so certain in our illusions. Those railroad tracks really do look like they come together, just as it seems we can fall off the end of the flat earth when we're out for a sail. But we know better, because we've been educated to know the fallacy of those thoughts. Because of a desire to control the masses, religion has taught us to fear, has told us we're weak, has kept us shackled for reasons too ridiculous to speculate upon. It's time to just say no and claim our heritage as the magnificent Beings we truly are!

"The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his God-given dominion over the material senses. Mortals will someday assert their freedom in the name of Almighty God. Then they will control their own bodies through the understanding of divine Science. Dropping their present beliefs, they will recognize harmony as the spiritual reality and discord as the material unreality." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures - Page 228: 11