Human Family by Maya Angelou
This blog began by presenting the daily workbook lesson from A Course in Miracles with a correlative passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, with my writing in between telling tales of how I use these ideas in daily life. In 2019, my format became more free form. What you find here are short dissertations on what I notice each day. Feel free to comment!
Sunday, February 21, 2021
More Alike Than Unalike
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Sunshine and a Promise of Spring
What a difference a day makes! Sunshine and temperatures well above freezing have put a smile on everyone's face here in the Ozarks. I can't remember how many gray days we've had, but I think it's around ten or so. But today -- oh, my, how wonderful! To see people walking dogs and happily calling out to each other; watching driveways and paths being shoveled; cars driving to open markets and restaurants -- wow! I've always been grateful for times of need, because times of plenty are so appreciated when they reappear. I look around my home, and seeing Kevin's handiwork brings great big smiles and a heart expanding with gratitude for the joy and wonder he brought to my life. The great, huge dogs he left with me are something I didn't plan on ever having again, but I'm happy they're here. The sorrow I felt at his passing is being embraced as a complement to the joy I feel today. Making music at my two churches was joyful, and I was surprised at how pleased I was to do it today. Contentment, peace, happiness -- Life is Good and I Am grateful...
Friday, February 19, 2021
Countering Sorrow With Joy
What do we do about all the horrible situations we hear about? Whether it's a weather-related event, racial injustice, starving/mistreated children -- it's tempting to look at these things and wonder to ourselves how we can possibly feel good when so many are suffering. Wayne Dyer told us that we can't feel bad enough to make anyone feel better; we can't be confused enough to unconfuse one person; we can't get sad enough to bring joy to a single being on this planet. These statements were made in a talk having to do with wanting to feel good, and they can be found in his book The Secrets of the Power of Intention. Our intentions multiply, so when we hear about an injustice and become depressed or overwhelmed by the situation, we are doing nothing to assist those in need, but we are doing something to bring sadness into our own lives. I know one dear woman who cares so much for the earth and its inhabitants that she cries every day, more than once, when she hears tragic stories about us. This is what Wayne Dyer means when he says, "You can't feel bad enough to make anyone's life better." Lowering our own vibrational energy lowers everyone's, and raising our level of joy affects the world in kind. There are many things we can do physically to help those in need, and we will find our individual ways to do so. But as many well-known seers have said in different ways: When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Learn Something
I could not find the Wayne Dyer quote which has been floating around the edge of my memory all day. It's something like this: no matter how bad you feel for the hungry children, that won't feed them. It will probably jump out at me soon, and I'll write what I've been thinking about. But in the meantime, I found this that I like a lot!
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn—pure science, the only purity there is. You can learn astronomy in a lifetime, natural history in three, literature in six. And then, after you have exhausted a million lifetimes in biology and medicine and theocriticism and geography and history and economics, why, you can start to make a cartwheel out of the appropriate wood, or spend fifty years learning to begin to learn to beat your adversary at fencing. After that you can start again on mathematics until it is time to learn to plough.”
― Wayne W. Dyer, Your Erroneous Zones
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Channeled Writing
Channeled writings: What do you think? The first time this term was explained to me, I thought: well, of course! The concept was something I understood, having always known the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. Of course, she called her ideas “divinely inspired”. She also said she had to study her book because she did not write it. Talk like this caused Mark Twain to devote an entire tome to the cause of trying to prove she did not write Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures. When God is defined as she saw It — Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love — it is obvious that all ideas are from this Source. When we talk about someone being “in the zone”, or “getting out of their own way”, we mean that materiality is taken away from the equation, allowing Spirit to shine through. So when I hear that someone is channeling a particular person to birth an idea, it makes me squirm in a non-specific way. I suppose it goes back to this passage we call death. I don’t think there is a place with our husbands and dogs waiting for us to join them. So how could it be that a particular person is sending messages to the material plane? Perhaps it’s a matter of terminology, as ethereal concepts so often are. Maybe people are thinking of Jesus and The Christ as being one and the same, and I do not. I have said numerous times that we must not allow semantics to get in the way of Truth. Truth is found in many places, in many forms. My prayer for today is for me to not judge the letter, but imbibe the Spirit. Namaste...
“Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 506:18
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Enriched Perceptions
I read an interview where a number of people tell of changes in their lives during this past year. It was a fascinating read because everyone had reasons their experiences were enriched by the different things they are doing since they are not so busy going places. One woman talked about light, and how she now noticed the shifting shadows around their house at different times of the day and during the four seasons. To quote her: “I walk the same route almost every day, and I can appreciate the nuances of the sunlight hitting the bark on the trees, the filtering of morning light through the leaves, the subtle changes of the seasons. I expect this awareness to last beyond the months of quarantine. The other things I have realized: My windows desperately need cleaning!” The photo I’ve included is something I noticed in my living room on Christmas Day. This shadow on the wall is exceptional because there was no sunshine coming through, but was coming in from the back of the house and being reflected back by a mirror. It shows my Christmas stick, with decorations, and the objects around it, including the lace curtains covering the window facing the street. If I had not been so quietly present, I most likely would not have seen this fleeting shadow. Wish I could relate to you more ways people have shifted perceptions; ways they hope to keep in their experience in the future!
Monday, February 15, 2021
All iIn The Way You Carry It
I am thankful for my friends. You who are the kindest, wisest, wittiest, most compassionate, most thoughtful -- you know who you are, and I am eternally grateful. Much love...
Heavy
by Mary Oliver
"That time
I thought I could not
go any closer to grief
without dying
I went closer,
and I did not die.
Surely God
had His hand in this,
as well as friends.
Still I was bent,
and my laughter,
as the poet said,
was nowhere to be found.
Then said my friend Daniel
(brave even among lions),
“It is not the weight you carry
but how you carry it—
books, bricks, grief—
it’s all in the way
you embrace it, balance it, carry it
when you cannot, and would not,
put it down.”
So I went practicing.
Have you noticed?
Have you heard
the laughter
that comes, now and again,
out of my startled mouth?
How I linger
to admire, admire, admire
the things of this world
that are kind, and maybe
also troubled—
roses in the wind,
The sea geese on the steep waves,
a love
to which there is no reply?"
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Observing a Quiet Christmas
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