The Panoply of Love

 

A long time ago, I was leaving my art gallery at the end of the day, walking down the sidewalk to my vehicle, when I heard the old Louis Armstrong song, What a Wonderful World. There was a young man in Basin Park, sitting with his guitar and singing this song. I stopped to listen and was completely enthralled; lifted out of myself and the worries of the day. I stood across the street from him, loving what was happening on this cool summer evening. Out of the corner of my ear (so to speak) I heard some ruckus, but it wasn’t really registering with me. As the song ended, I heard some voices shouting obscenities. When I looked toward the noise, they were looking right at me! But my mind had risen to a place of pure Love while listening to the song and feeling the words, and so I just stood there, smiling, with no thought of anything other than what a wonderful world it is. There were three young people sitting on a wall in the park and as I happily looked back at them, it was as though they deflated. Where before they had been angry and loud, their anger disappeared right before my eyes. I waved happily at them and went on my way. This was proof that Love conquers hate. I saw it happen. So don’t lose hope, dear friends. Allow yourselves to be overtaken by Love and watch it spread!

“Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 571:18-21

“Today the lights of Heaven bend to you, to shine upon your eyelids as you rest beyond the world of darkness. Here is light your eyes can not behold. And yet your mind can see it plainly, and can understand. A day of grace is given you today, and we give thanks. This day we realize that what you feared to lose was only loss.” 

A Course in Miracles W-129.8:1-5

Morning Poem - by Mary Oliver

 

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

Morning Poem by Mary Oliver

from Dream Work (1986) 

Every morning

the world

is created.

Under the orange

sticks of the sun

the heaped

ashes of the night

turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---

and the ponds appear

like black cloth

on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.

If it is your nature

to be happy

you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination

alighting everywhere.

And if your spirit

carries within it

the thorn

that is heavier than lead ---

if it's all you can do

to keep on trudging ---

there is still

somewhere deep within you

a beast shouting that the earth

is exactly what it wanted ---

each pond with its blazing lilies

is a prayer heard and answered

lavishly,

every morning,

whether or not

you have ever dared to be happy,

whether or not

you have ever dared to pray.

Mary Oliver

What Is Yet To Learn

Photo by Ashe Aria

I know a woman who compliments others so much they become embarrassed. She does it to such an extent it seems as though it may be a form of ridicule. I’ve been paying attention when she does this to me and a couple of other people. At first, I thought perhaps she wanted friends, then I thought she may want compliments herself, then I thought she might be compensating for being a rather hateful person — well, I’m not sure why this behavior is occurring, but I’ve begun to converse with her the same way I would anyone with an outlandish view of any kind: I ask her questions. It seems she has been ostracized by her children, she has never had a job, and she has a strong sense of being better than everyone, hence she thinks everyone is jealous of her. Wow! How interesting it is to listen to folks rather than avoiding them because they make you uncomfortable! Every time I think of her, I shall send her Ho’oponopono. 

"Make fast your learning now, and understand you but waste time unless you go beyond what you have learned to what is yet to learn. For from this lowest point will learning lead to heights of happiness, in which you see the purpose of the lesson shining clear, and perfectly within your learning grasp." A Course in Miracles

Glorious Gatherings

 

The Salon

Have you ever thought something was true, and then you said it out loud and discovered you didn’t really feel that way? I was grocery shopping and ran into one of our local Course in Miracles meeting attendees. As we chatted, I mentioned that I did’t like meetings. As soon as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. I don’t like random meetings! I love our ACIM group, and my book club, and maybe one other thing — which I can’t think of right now. But, for example, I was asked to be on the board of directors for an organization which I wholeheartedly support, but I declined. I’m too happy to be on a board! But I always feel good following one of the gatherings which bring together a group of like-minded people to have a love-based discussion. At the same time this revelation dawned, I accepted the fact that I like solitary study more than group study. And so even though I don’t attend weekly meeting of our ACIM group, I love you all dearly and thoroughly enjoy every time we are together. 

“It is impossible to remember God in secret and alone. For remembering Him means you are not alone, and are willing to remember it. Take no thought for yourself, for no thought you hold is for yourself. If you would remember your Father, let the Holy Spirit order your thoughts and give only the answer with which He answers you. Everyone seeks for love as you do, but knows it not unless he joins with you in seeking it. If you undertake the search together, you bring with you a light so powerful that what you see is given meaning. The lonely journey fails because it has excluded what it would find.” 

A Course in Miracles T-14.X.10:1-7

“Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 266:6-12

Supply is Giving

 

Unknown photographer

I love the teachings of Joel Goldsmith, and many mornings I will open up one of his books at random. This morning, I picked up “A New Concept of Supply” and immediately saw this sentence: “Supply is not getting; supply is giving.” He goes on to tell us that giving is not necessarily monetary, but it could be giving UP something, such as jealousy, hatred, or anger. Concerning money, he says sending out a dime into the world with the attitude of giving freely, with no thought for recognition or someone’s gratitude, is the key to starting the flow of supply. This is a tough concept for many of us, because we’ve been taught that the more we give, the less we have. We have a feeling that there is not enough to go around and we must hold on to everything we can get. In developing the consciousness of supply, we first must realize that supply is invisible and infinite; it is Spirit. It can be difficult to grasp the concept that giving is getting (and it’s actually more a releasing of thought than a grasping of it), but once the flow begins circulating, it’s easier to “take no thought...”, as Jesus recommended time and again. 

“The belief that money and property constitute supply has been accepted for so many years that most people rely on them for their security; and then when, through the devaluation of the currency or through a world-wide depression or for some other reason beyond their control, billions disappear, they feel that their world has collapsed. Students of spiritual wisdom must come to the realization that they have no supply outside their own being, that supply lies in something that cannot be known through the physical senses: Supply is the Infinite Invisible.” 

Joel Goldsmith

“Today we practice with the special case of giving and receiving. We will use this simple lesson in the obvious because it has results we cannot miss. To give is to receive. Today we will attempt to offer peace to everyone, and see how quickly peace returns to us. Light is tranquility, and in that peace is vision given us, and we can see.” 

A Course in Miracles W-108.6:3–7:5

“In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes, — Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health Page 206 : 15-18

This and That

Photo credit: Arthur Bruno

What are your feelings when you hear someone justify their actions by stating that someone else did the same or “worse”? Do you cringe when you hear mention of women being made from a man’s rib? Does the extreme duality of the majority of religion cause you to wonder if they know the meaning of One? When someone is feeling hurt by another’s actions, why is it so difficult to say admit it — right out loud! These are a few of the questions which came to my attention today. I, of course, could expound on my opinions concerning these dilemmas, but I’m trying to listen for the deeper question here. But, please, feel free to tell me what your questions are today — and if you want, I’d love to hear your answers, too!

"Comparison must be an ego device, for love makes none. Specialness always makes comparisons. It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight, all lacks it can perceive." 

A Course in Miracles Text, Chapter 24, The Treachery of Specialness

“Human thoughts have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual understanding, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 297:24-31

Reporting Facts

 

"I'm Chet Huntley, and I'm David Brinkley." We never doubted they were reporting facts. It was, after all, the news. In the 1980s, the Christian Science Monitor started a cable television news network. They were the first, and no one wanted to watch news all day long. I wonder how different news reporting would be had we experienced what it meant to report with their motto: "to injure no man but to bless all mankind". The political polarization in the 21st century is obscene. News channels say they are telling the truth, but their lies are blatantly transparent, only requiring a modicum of research to prove they are playing us, feeding our fears and insecurities. Some news stations report facts, but only ones they want us to hear. A few try to find truthful middle ground, but other stations malign them so much that many people have no idea what to believe. When I hear an outlandish headline, I do a quick search on that exact headline; it is either true or it's not. I occasionally go to Snopes.com just to see what sort of craziness is making the rounds. My point is, anyone can find out if something is true or if it's a story with the purpose of scaring us or turning us against someone or a group of people. It is imperative to do the work in order to be informed in this age of misinformation. And it’s fun!

"When error strives to be heard above Truth, let the 'still small voice' produce God's phenomena. Meet dispassionately the raging element of individual hate and counteract its most gigantic falsities." Mary Baker Eddy - Miscellany Page 249

“Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given them, along with you.” A Course in Miracles W-106.9:1-3