This Wild and Precious Life

The gratitude I've felt today has been overwhelming. Every flower, cloud, and bird is exquisite. And then I opened up a magazine and saw this poem, which I share with you...

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

I don't know exactly what a

     prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention,

     how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down

     in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to

     stroll through

the fields,

which is what I've been doing all

     day.

Tell me, what else should I have

     done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and

     too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious

     life?

Social Distancing?

"Answering the Call"
group of Eureka folk supplying food

Today, we may tend to think of self-isolation as a new invention for these trying times. The word quarantine comes from the Latin word for 40, quadraginta. There are many references to 40-day periods in the Bible and other sacred texts, Jesus and Moses being the examples we are most familiar with. These times of isolation may be to protect ourselves and others, such as quarantining ships in harbors, but they can also be times in which moral and spiritual growth are experienced. In reading an article about these things, I discovered something I'd never heard about. There were people called anchorites who would be bricked up in a tiny room, with small windows to receive food and view the altar of the church. They would never go outside again, but they were not lonely because they were the spiritual centers of their communities. People would seek them out for advice and prayer. Our current phrase "social distancing" has an echo of those medieval times, with the term implying that even though we are distant, we are social. Even though we keep a distance from each other, it suggests that we are socially working together for the good of our communities and family. I'm glad to see more people helping those in need from their self-isolated position, acting like anchorites, rather than being on a quarantined plague ship. Thank you each and every one for bringing goodness to so many!

"It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth than to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty conscience. The abiding consciousness of wrongdoing tends to destroy the ability to do right." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 405:22

Embracing Anger

Bryce Canyon
photo credit: Aaron Springston

Recognizing anger in my heart, irritation in my mind, often brings shame. I have been listening to many of my favorite seers in my passage through these feelings. Thich Nhat Hanh tells me to embrace that anger. He relates a story of a woman in the kitchen, busily cooking dinner, when she hears her baby crying. She rushes to the infant, embraces it, and discovers why it is crying, transforming its anguish by finding out what is wrong, changing its diapers, calming its fears, meeting its needs. So, he tells us, by embracing our anger, we are able to look deeply at it, get insights into its cause, by which we are able to liberate our feelings and transform them into freedom. Once I am free, I no longer see myself as a victim and I am in a position to be a catalyst for positive change. What gratitude I feel towards this gentle man, leading me into paths of peace, reminding me to breathe consciously, integrating what I before thought of as separate. Namaste...

"The 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

Molly Ivins

I'm so pumped about a documentary we watched this evening, that it's all I can think of at the moment! Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins. I have always known her name, but never given her much thought. I wish I had paid attention all my life and maybe I'd be more like her. What a great thinker and truth-teller she was! The reviewer describes her as having "an anti-authoritarian sensibility trapped in an industry that usually strives to avoid offending or challenging anyone." A self-proclaimed liberal, she would go to the bars and drink with the conservatives, gaining insight for herself and respect from them when she could drink them under the table. Politicians were often flattered to be mentioned in a column of hers, even though she may be saying something similar to this: "Next time I tell you somebody from Texas should not be president of the United States, please listen." Part of her obituary read: "Ivins cultivated the voice of a folksy populist who derided those who she thought acted too big for their britches. She was rowdy and profane, but she could filet her opponents with droll precision." We need more people like her, straight talkers who are not afraid to speak truth. Recently I wished for another Mr. Rogers. Today I want Molly back!

"The question, 'What is Truth,' convulses the world. Many are ready to meet this inquiry with the assurance which comes of understanding, but more are blinded by their old illusions..." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 223:14

Calm and Exciting...

photo credit: Aaron Springston

Today has been achingly beautiful. The flowers, the rain, the earthy smells from the freshly-turned dirt, the birds singing, the cats playing hide and seek, the dogs smiling after walks, Kevin devising ways to keep the snow pea shoots reaching for the sun -- it's all just exquisite. Everything seems both calm and exciting, vibrating with the expectation of change, calm with gratitude. There is much to embrace during this time: some of it we're telling goodbye, other things are being integrated as a new part of us we seem to have forgotten. What's next? Let's stay calm and aware and see what happens!

"Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, -- wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 323:9

Good People Trapped By Bad Ideas

photo credit: Richard Quick

Most of us have probably heard of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. It made headlines with its over-the-top condemnation of many groups of people. I won’t go into all that now, as you can do a search and find instances of their vitriol. I read an interview with one of its former members, Megan Phelps-Roper. She ran the church’s Twitter account until she broke from the church in 2012. One of the questions in the interview was: “How do you reconcile your love for family members still in the church while you no longer accept their beliefs?” She responded: “I believe that they are good people who have been trapped by bad ideas.” Wow. This is simply stated with the least condemnation possible, don’t you think? She goes on to say that it’s important to see these people as capable of change, because then there is hope. “We should be willing to reach out. Imagine what could happen if we kept reaching out to people like Westboro members? There’s so much power in seeing the possibility of change.” I said to someone today that we need to find ways to allow others to change their mind. It’s been thought of by many as a bad thing to change your way of thinking. But as this dear woman tells us: “If you look at who you were a year ago and aren’t somewhat embarrassed, you’re not growing as a person.” Happy expansion everyone!

"Here let a word be noticed which will be better understood hereafter -- chemicalization. By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 168:30

Time Slows Down

photo credit: Aaron Springston

I’ve been sending a card or two every day to people I think would enjoy receiving them. This is not only to help the post office (which numerous folks tell me can’t be done), but to reach out to someone who may be in need of a smile. Today, I was getting ready to play bridge online with a group of people when I realized I had not written my daily card. I almost rushed to do so before the mail person came, but then I realized the error of my ways. If I’m going to mindlessly do it, just to be doing it, then I shouldn’t be doing it! With that perspective, I plan on writing a few tomorrow, mindfully. Following along in that vein, I read an article this evening about a mom who was concerned because her daughter was always checking to see what time it was. She seemed worried that she wouldn’t get enough sleep, that she didn’t have time to do everything she needed to do, and she was becoming more and more anxious. The mother suggested (during this time of isolation) that they give up clocks and sleep when they were sleepy, eat when they were hungry, and enjoy every moment of it. To their delight, they found that their days seem longer and they are enjoying everything more! Yet another grand truth discovered while slowing down...

“The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 584:4