Look Up!

art may be found at:
JudyClementWall.com

It’s easy to look down all the time. Maybe we’re checking our phones, or worried about falling down, or wondering what’s going to happen next and imagining terrible events — and on and on. One woman I know is in a state of panic because her air conditioner was leaking water in a way it should not. Another is hysterical about a sick relative. Anxiety is rampant, and I have caught a bit of it today with news of a bug infestation in our neighborhood. Thought can easily snowball from one disaster to another when we get into that state of mind. I’m glad this has happened to me today, because it gives me empathy when talking to someone who is feeling chronically anxious. Today my worried mind was calmed by the drawing you see here. This artist lives far away and I only know her through Facebook, but I’m sure glad I do! We can do this for each other, whether we’re friends, acquaintances, or complete strangers. Let’s remind each other to look up, as there’s a whole other world of wonder up there!

“The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, — that mortals should so improve material belief by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 545:7

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