Sage Advice From Emerson

Eureka Springs, AR 

Unknown photographer

“Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day

who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Collected Poems and Translations.

Looking at America Through the Lens of Values

 

Art by Judy Clement Wall

JudyClementWall.com

For the last seven years, Lucy Harper has been trying to get Americans to think about their country differently. She has been teaching classes and workshops to instill the idea that America is not a political prize to be fought over, but an idea to be fought FOR. What started her on this journey was becoming part of the Idea of America Network. This organization’s goal is to create a network of Americans who can help their communities look at the country through the lens of values. Ms. Harper says, “When you talk about values and America, everyone knows life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but the values that really drive the United States are all about balance: freedom and equality, law and ethics, common wealth and private wealth, unity and diversity. How citizens find the balance between these essential but conflicting values determines the nation’s character and direction.” She has now written a play which has many historical characters debating these points.  To quote her: “It’s about seeing this as a country of good people. There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary, but we jolly well better see [the good in] people, ... giving people the room to grow – including ourselves.”

[I got this information from an editorial in The Christian Science Monitor, May 30, 2022]

“Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable … Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfish love, receives directly the divine power.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 192

“Values are relative, but they are powerful because they are mental judgments.” A Course in Miracles - T-7.VII.4:3

A Heart Centered in Gratitude

 

This morning I attended our local American Legion tribute to veterans, where I was the accompanist for the Star-Spangled Ensemble, a local choir. Earlier, in honor of my World War I veteran dad, I made a post about him on Facebook. In it I mentioned something he often said: “I killed good Germans for a dollar a day so you can enjoy this good life.” A friend made this comment about his words: “It’s such a statement of accountability, regret, rationale, and call to action all rolled into one. To unflinchingly accept his own actions, to be neither victim or perpetrator of injustice, and to assure that it had value by keeping his heart centered in gratitude.” Wow! Thinking about the difference in his attitude and that of today’s military fighters is quite a contrast. At the event this morning, the main speaker spent most of his time talking about suicides within the ranks of the military. I could go on and on about the reasons I see for this pain and suffering of soldiers and their families, but I won’t. My thoughts turn to Thich Nhat Hanh and his work with soldiers in forgiving themselves. I think about A Course in Miracles and how its precepts could help so many through forgiveness. Once again, we get back to Jesus’s request: Put down the sword. Namaste …

“Lay down your arms, and come without defense into the quiet place where Heaven’s peace holds all things still at last. Lay down all thoughts of danger and of fear. Let no attack enter with you. Lay down the cruel sword of judgment that you hold against your throat, and put aside the withering assaults with which you seek to hide your holiness.” A Course in Miracles W-190.9:1-4

Hold On — An Ancient Prayer

Art: Emily Kell

Hold On to what is good,

Even if it's a handful of earth.

Hold on to what you believe,

Even if it's a tree that stands by itself.

Hold on to what you must do,

Even if it's a long way from here.

Hold on to your life,

Even if it's easier to let go.

Hold on to my hand,

Even if I've gone away from you.

~ Pueblo Indian Prayer

Live Out Loud!

Am I alone in this, or is everyone feeling a sense of urgency? The sounds reaching my ears, motorcycles zooming around our small tourist town, feel alive to me. The sunset this evening was so intense in its colors and brilliance, I paused to wonder if I’m dying. That’s silly. Of course, our first death is being born into this world and we’re all working our way toward that second one. But every interaction with other people, with my pets, with the flowers — they all seem incredibly important. I’ve always tried to live by the axiom that everything is important; nothing is important. But right here and now, every breath feels wonderfully full of Life. Part of my spiritual study geared toward understanding the seven synonyms for God: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. Perhaps their meaning is finally opening up something in consciousness. I’m tempted to say “my consciousness”, but I’m not sure there is such a thing. Consciousness. Period. I’m wondering if this is how the tiny creatures in our world feel all the time. I’ve always been fond of a dear friend’s tee-shirt which proclaims “Love Out Loud!” Perhaps the time has come to Live Out Loud! 

“Salvation is nothing more than ‘right-mindedness,’ which is not the One-mindedness of the Holy Spirit, but which must be achieved before One-mindedness is restored. Right-mindedness leads to the next step automatically, because right perception is uniformly without attack, and therefore wrong-mindedness is obliterated.” A Course in Miracles - T-4.II.10:1-2

“Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian Mind healing stands a revealed and practical Science. It is imperious throughout all ages as Christ’s revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which remains inviolate for every man to understand and to practice.” Mary Baker Eddy - 

Science & Health Page 98:15

Bound Together For Eternity

Joel Goldsmith wrote in The Infinite Way that groups of people who share spiritual love are bound together for eternity. I’ve felt this connection often with friends. The Love we have for each other causes us all to feel joy and pain when one of us has a happy or tragic event in our lives. We share the giddiness of our children marrying and having babies; we're sad when one of us loses a loved one or suffers through an illness with a family member. I'm grateful for every one of us who care enough to hold each other close through life's trials. We may be present physically, or sending love from afar, but we are connected — bound together for eternity. I pray this omnipresent Love be felt by everyone, everywhere, who is feeling lost and alone, frightened, or sick. Let us remember that loving energy is palpable, and when we send it, it is felt. 

“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”

― Anne Lamott

A New Earth

 

Photo credit: Richard Quick

It seems everyone is tired. In my opinion, this is because there seem to be so many problems without solutions. We can’t seem to do anything about mass shootings, although the solution seems relatively absolute to many of us. Self-serving politicians appear to be an unsolvable problem, but that also has an obvious fix. One of my earliest experiences with A Course in Miracles was Wayne Dyer’s book, There’s A Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. People have always told me that this way of thinking is too difficult, and they can’t even try to change their beliefs. I often tell people that is, indeed, simple, but it is not easy. It’s not easy because it is a constant, conscious monitoring and translating of learned behaviors. In the past few years, we have all been tested. When we are bombarded daily by ugliness from leaders and media reporting, it can be tempting to throw up our metaphysical hands and surrender to the sorrow. But let’s not do that, okay? 

"In the Apocalypse it is written: 'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.' In St. John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spiritual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 536:1-9

“From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the past. The future now is recognized as but extension of the present. Past mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost its idols and its images, and being formless, it has no effects. Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal, and all the needed means are happily provided. Who can grieve or suffer when the present has been freed, extending its security and peace into a quiet future filled with joy?” 

A Course in Miracles - W-314.1:1