Nothing Left But a Blessing

 I like to shop in thrift stores. The thrill of the hunt is a fun hobby and it’s one of the reasons I enjoy using mismatched plates and bowls: I always have a reason to look for another pattern which brings me joy! Now I'm happy when I chip a plate or break a bowl, as I now need a replacement and have a reason to wander around and look at things in my favorite resale shop. Libraries and secondhand stores hold a fascination I can’t quite describe. Not only is there a certain delight associated with finding treasures, but there’s the energy of all the hands these items have passed through. I can imagine who touched the pages before me and wonder if he/she was as excited to be learning about another way of life as I am. In this throw-away society, there’s a certain happiness I feel in not buying things. Exchanging belongings with friends and neighbors adds to the tapestry of life. It’s the little things, don’t you think?

"All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal. You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. You go with my blessing and for my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it. We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet children are His blessed Sons. The Thoughts of God are with you.” A Course in Miracles T-5.IV.8:2-15

Anchor of Hope

Photo Credit: Richard Quick

Humans are extremely resilient, and our environment is awesome in its regenerative powers. I am currently reading/listening to The Book of Hope, the latest offering from Jane Goodall. I highly recommend it to everyone! She admits that it is difficult for us to maintain a hopeful attitude in the face of the destruction we are witnessing. She gives an example of hope with a tree which was destroyed during 9/11. While the clean-up was happening, about a month into the process, a remnant of a pear tree was discovered between two large pieces of concrete. It nearly went to the dump, but a woman asked that she be allowed to try to save it. It went to a nursery in the Bronx and survived. It is now planted at the memorial site and is a great inspiration to everyone, particularly those who feel hopeless. She gives another example of camphor trees is Nagasaki. We can all tell about demonstrations of the will to live, and, also, the ability to let go of this material existence gracefully. My friends inspire me with their adaptability and realization that Love is indeed the answer. The meaning of life is love — learning how to feel it, express it, and let it flow into its many forms. I am grateful…

“The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us, and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health P 40:32

Igor Gruppman Plays Tribute to Ukraine

https://youtu.be/i-jyP2vs30s

As the world watches the destruction of Kyiv, we feel great sadness. A native of this city, Igor Gruppman, is a violinist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic  Orchestra. Recently he performed this tribute to his country. It has been in my head all day and nothing has moved me quite so much as this video, which I share with you here. 

For some reason, this HG Wells quote also has stayed with me today: “We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams.” The Time Machine, 1895

What is Happening?

Do you believe in magic? It’s a good song, that’s for sure. We all want to believe that things can happen just because we think about them, but is that magic? Perhaps it’s simply the way things are. Thought is powerful. Tonight I watched a documentary called “You Can’t Kill Meme”. Frightening stuff, but I’m finally beginning to understand what has happened to us in the past few years. The mind control being exercised by large groups of people is scary, but what of the few people who utilize the internet to exponentially heighten their thought manifestation? To quote one man, “Introduce an element of chaos to break down social hierarchies.” Without citing specific instances, what I’ve ultimately taken away from this informative video is that we must be pure in our reflection of Love and its energy. There was one woman who came closest to my way of looking at the task before us as “lightworkers”, but unfortunately she wandered off into the ozone, talking about Obama being a time traveler and going to Mars. Let’s stay on point! I have friends who are working for Truth and Love by the food they ingest and the information they spread about a pure way of living. There are many paths and we all have a purpose. Let’s not be afraid to spread love and joy!

“One of the ways in which you can correct the magic-miracle confusion is to remember that you did not create yourself.²You are apt to forget this when you become egocentric, and this puts you in a position where a belief in magic is virtually inevitable. ³Your will to create was given you by your Creator, Who was expressing the same Will in His creation. ⁴Since creative ability rests in the mind, everything you create is necessarily a matter of will. ⁵It also follows that whatever you alone make is real in your own sight, though not in the Mind of God. ⁶This basic distinction leads directly into the real meaning of the Last Judgment.”

A Course in Miracles - T-2.VIII

All

 

All the Hemispheres

Leave the familiar for a while.

Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season

Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.

Make a new water-mark on your excitement

And love.

Like a blooming night flower,

Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness

And giving

Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence

Lie beside an equator

In your heart.

Greet Yourself

In your thousand other forms

As you mount the hidden tide and travel

Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven

Are sitting around a fire

Chatting

While stitching themselves together

Into the Great Circle inside of

You.

From: ‘The Subject Tonight is Love’

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Finding Solace in a Library

 

“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people - people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book."

[Letters of Note; Troy (MI, USA) Public Library, 1971]” 
― E.B. White

Love Out Loud!

 

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

The smoke still hangs in the warm spring air in Eureka Springs. An early morning fire in a house partitioned into apartments left five homeless, having to jump out of bed and leave with what they could grab while barely awake. One of my dear friends is among the refugees, and it has brought home to me the plight of anyone who must leave their homes quickly, and then have no place to return. Another long-time friend was taken by ambulance to the hospital this morning, with alarming symptoms and an uncertain prognosis. My heart is with them, and hence with the world in the individual and collective plights. I am reminded to love more inclusively, to reflect and absorb the infinite Love which is All. Love heals lives, because it is life. Everyone we come into contact with throughout our days has a story which involves joy and sadness. We never know what others are going through, but we do know the importance of being kind. So let’s do that, okay? “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Dalai Lama XIV

“Nothing around you but is part of you. Look on it lovingly, and see the light of Heaven in it. So will you come to understand all that is given you. In kind forgiveness will the world sparkle and shine, and everything you once thought sinful now will be reinterpreted as part of Heaven. How beautiful it is to walk, clean and redeemed and happy, through a world in bitter need of the redemption that your innocence bestows upon it! What can you value more than this? For here is your salvation and your freedom. And it must be complete if you would recognize it.” A Course in Miracles T-23.in.6:1-8