Alive and Kicking

 The swing dance called The Lindy Hop is happy, energetic, and a bit silly. While there are steps, it’s a free-form interpretation of music which is impossible to watch without smiling! There is a documentary called "Alive and Kicking", which celebrates this form of swing in particular. It’s a dance crossing all boundaries we have set for ourselves, freeing the dancer to live in the present, absolutely, while letting spirit move them into magical movement.  One of the statements a dancer made was, “It’s impossible to hate someone you’ve danced with.” Wouldn’t it be great if problems and disagreements could be neutralized by swing dancing? What a wonderful world it would be...

"Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 57:18-21

Keeping Quiet and Uncovering Error

 

It's sometimes difficult to know when to speak, when to act, or when to be quiet. It’s not always easy to remain silent about something we have passionate feelings toward. Sharing what we’re learning is a good thing, but pushing our attitudes on others, particularly if they’re not ready to hear them, serves no purpose. I recently had a lovely day with old friends who have very strong opinions about a number of things in this life. It was an opportunity to step back and ask myself if I wanted to express my opinions and engage in sport-arguing by joining in the contentious conversation, or if I would choose to enjoy listening while maintaining inner peace. I didn’t feel the need to make my views known or to correct what I feel is wrong, choosing rather to be led by Love. And I am grateful!

“Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality." Mary  Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 298:13-15

Many of One

 

Photo Credit: Aaron Springston

“Conscious human individuality is not individual as one of many but infinite as many of One.” [Margaret Laird] The enormity of Oneness may seem more than we can fathom, but knowing we are an individual reflection of goodness, and united therein, seems much more manageable! Realizing our spiritual nature as the experience of divine Love opens a new world in which I am not a victim of mortal mind and its manifestations. I am unafraid to take a stand for harmony and peace, knowing that it is our birthright as reflections of Mind.

“As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible.” Mary Baker Eddy- Science and Health page 264:13-16

Safety

 

photo credit: Christine Panas

People often talk about childhood experiences of playing freely in their yards, streets, and parks, with no fear of dangerous people or circumstances. It is thought by many that those days are gone, never to be revisited. I am reminded of an international news reporter who stated that in many war-torn countries life goes on peacefully outside of particular areas where violence is occurring. We all have the desire to be safe, to be happy, to be secure and loved. We cannot change others, but we can change ourselves. By replacing fear with the armor of Love, we can live without defense. By living Love, we are acting as the ministers of God, spreading truth with our actions. It all comes back to Love.  Namaste ---

“People go into ecstasies over the sense of a corporeal Jehovah, though with scarcely a spark of love in their hearts; yet God is Love, and without Love, God, immortality cannot appear.” Mary Baker Eddy- Science & Health Page 453:14-15

Forget About Enlightenment

 

Forget about enlightenment

Sit down wherever you are

And listen to the wind singing in your veins. 

Feel the love, the longing, the fear in your bones. 

Open your heart to who you are, right now, 

Not who you would like to be, 

Not the saint you are striving to become, 

But the being right here before you, inside you, around you. 

All of you is holy. 

You are already more and less 

Than whatever you can know. 

Breathe out, 

Touch in, 

Let go.

By: John Welwood

Zen Masters

 

There are many disciplines which teach us how to deal with material circumstances. They are lovely reminders of how to improve what we call the human condition. Many tell us that we're humans having a spiritual experience, but very few tell us that we're actually spiritual. In divine metaphysics we learn that everything is an idea of God. I am a spiritual idea right here and now! And you are, too! And so are all those who don't realize their inherent goodness. I'm going to pick a person who seems to fall into this category and concentrate on their true Being as an expression of divine Love. This feels like a Science project, don't you think? I shall record the results!

"It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind …one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood…will be established." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:9-13

A New-Old Earth

 

photo credit: Blake Lasater

"A new species is arising on the planet. It is arising now, and you are it!" These lines end the Eckhart Tolle book, A New Earth. I wish it could be required reading for every person on this old earth! The beautifully clear way he explains how we cling to old belief​​, allowing ourselves to be influenced by fear, by the past, by illusion, is both inspiring and illuminating. Mr. Tolle's book gives numerous examples of seeing differently. I wish to dedicate every moment to seeing this new world, allowing the disappearance of old beliefs and hypnotic thoughts to provide a transparency for the arising of our new way of Living. What an exciting time for humanity!

“The Revelator tells us of “a new heaven and a new earth.” Have you ever pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom?” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 91:1-4