An Informed Citizenry

 

Extra, extra, read all about it! Spread the good news! These sayings bring certain things to mind; things we may not think of nowadays when we pick up our phones and see the Apple News headlines. I used to get morning news from the radio. When my boys were small, I'd listen to the radio while we ate breakfast, but then I realized how horridly sensational most of it was, so I stopped listening. The Today Show was my mother's favorite, but most television news has gone the way of gossip magazines and such. More and more, we depend upon each other for news. I know I can trust certain sources, and I count on them to inform me. In the past few years, I've realized how important it is for each of us to educate ourselves and, also, to pass it on. So let's read, listen, learn, and then write! Write letters to the editor, or post your take on things to social media -- heck, pass out leaflets if you must!  From my favorite news magazine: "Good government flourishes in the sunshine, and our nation's founders knew that. 'A press that is free to investigate and criticize the government is absolutely essential in a nation that practices self-government and is therefore dependent on an educated and enlightened citizenry.' Thomas Jefferson" 

“As we give thanks, the world unites with us and happily accepts our holy thoughts, which Heaven has corrected and made pure. Now has our ministry begun at last, to carry round the world the joyous news that truth has no illusions, and the peace of God, through us, belongs to everyone.” A Course in Miracles W-151.17:2-3

“Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelligence of matter, — a belief which Science overthrows. In those days there will be ‘great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world;’ and earth will echo the cry, ‘Art thou [Truth] come hither to torment us before the time?’ Animal magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnosticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some other systems.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 127:11-20

Helping Others, Helping Yourself

Photo credit: Arthur Bruno

I know someone who is being asked to move from her current apartment. She has been quite upset over this major life change and every day I hear a different problem and the improbability of its resolution. She is stuck in a helpless, hopeless mode and it’s become quite the drama for her. Today’s worry was how much work it would be to move and she didn’t know if she could face it. Now, this woman is extremely involved in helping at her church and projects with other friends and acquaintances. She has the energy and drive which marks a true go-getter. It suddenly came to me that she should treat herself as well as she does everyone else. If she was helping someone else move, she’d have the joy and energy which could transform a chore into a happening! I made her promise to imagine a friend in need, and see herself helping. When she crosses my mind, I’ll see her as happily expectant!

“A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service you can render to another. It is a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. You recognize your own and your neighbor's worth simultaneously.” A Course in Miracles

“It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established. Having no other gods turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science and Health page 467: 6-8

The Power of Quiet

 

Art by Ruth Evans

Written by Malidoma Patrice Some

“The power of quiet is great. It generates the same feelings in everything one encounters. It vibrates with the cosmic rhythm of oneness. 

It is everywhere, available to anyone at any time. It is us, the force within that makes us stable, trusting, and loving. It is contemplation contemplating. 

Peace is letting go – returning to the silence that cannot enter the realm of words because it is too pure to be contained in words.

This is why the tree, the stone, the river, and the mountain are quiet.” 

~ Malidoma Patrice Some

“The Voice for God is always quiet, because It speaks of peace. Peace is stronger than war because it heals. War is division, not increase. No one gains from strife. What profiteth it a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? If you listen to the wrong voice you have lost sight of your soul. You cannot lose it, but you can not know it. It is therefore ‘lost’ to you until you choose right.” A Course in Miracles T-5.II.7:7-14

“In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God’s allness.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 15:14-18

Know Better, Do Better

Over five decades ago my favorite album of all time was released: Abbey Road by the Beatles. It’s amazing to watch a lifetime pass in a heartbeat, and it’s taken my thoughts to the simple ways my parents taught me to live. Even though it wasn’t very exciting to be an only child of older Christian Science parents, I am extremely grateful for the education I received at their hands. For years we bought nothing other than flour and sugar; everything else was raised or grown to be canned or frozen for the winter. I learned how to grow food and how to drive an old Chevy truck with three gears in the column. This lifestyle taught me to love reading, and many hours were spent hiding in the back field with my dog and a book. But I also remember that my parents fell for the “poison is safe” rhetoric pushed on us by the pesticide companies. I have vivid memories of my daddy with one of those hand-pump sprayers full of poison, chasing the flies away from the watermelon at a picnic. They also showed me how to be content, to know a loving God, and to be grateful for everything. This is why I look back at my life with a smile of thanks. I’m certain they would have learned to be better steward

“You may know when first Truth leads by the fewness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that the march of time bears onward freedom's banner. The powers of this world will fight, and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass the guard until it subscribes to their systems, but Science, heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 225:8-12

Moving Through the Fire

 

Crescent Hotel Balcony

Photo by Stephen Shogren

I want to write about the Ukrainians and their fear and pain. I want to write about a past president and his cohorts, and what they do in the name of greed and power. I want to write about my acquaintances, who are still defending the dishonesty in our government; also the conservatives who have realized there is no conservation in their chosen political party. I want to write about the pain of those who love goodness and truth. I want to write about those who cry out for full disclosure, no matter who may fall in this facing of facts, knowing this is the only way to reclaim the lofty ideals this country was built upon. I want to write about the slaves who were abused by our early ancestors, and the aftermath of our self-righteous bigotry. But I’d rather write about the new earth this cleansing fire will bring us, the beauty left in the aftermath of this torment, and the love we have not forgotten.

“How willing are you to forgive your brother? How much do you desire peace instead of endless strife and misery and pain? These questions are the same, in different form. Forgiveness is your peace, for herein lies the end of separation and the dream of danger and destruction, sin and death; of madness and of murder, grief and loss. This is the ‘sacrifice’ salvation asks, and gladly offers peace instead of this.” A Course in Miracles T-29.VI.1:1-5

“Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recompense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of existence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 97:32-3

Someday You’ll Join Me …

Dawn of Hope - by Daniel Gerhartz 

 “You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. 

I hope someday you'll join us. 

And the world will live as one.” 

John Lennon - Imagine, 1971.

Tribes and Oneness

While talking to a friend about the tribes people associate themselves with, I paused to think about the cocoon I feel cozy within here in Eureka Springs.  There are any number of groups of people I feel a deep kinship toward, but there is no limiting identity with any particular one. I remember when my boys and I moved here almost three decades ago. It was to attend the Clear Spring School. One of the mothers told me this school was a way of life, and I soon found out what she meant. We worked together to raise money to keep the school viable, and leaned on each other for child care and support in every avenue of life. This was a total-immersion situation unlike any other I’ve encountered. From that new beginning, I have been involved with and loved our metaphysical group and my Eureka Thyme family; now I feel a deep kinship with the three congregations where I play keyboards and the choirs I accompany, along with the duplicate bridge community, our Course in Miracles group, and my book club. Every day our lives expand to include others we meet. And the practice of non-duality we study opens us to our universal family fluttering just out of sight! Life is Good! 

“Groups of people who have shared spiritual Love are bound together for eternity.” Joel Goldsmith

“Peace is extended from you only to the eternal, and it reaches out from the eternal in you. It flows across all else. The second obstacle is no more solid than the first. For you want neither to get rid of peace nor limit it. What are these obstacles that you would interpose between peace and its going forth but barriers you place between your will and its accomplishment? You want communion, not the feast of fear. You want salvation, not the pain of guilt. And you want your Father, not a little mound of clay, to be your home. In your holy relationship is your Father’s Son. He has not lost communion with Him, nor with himself. When you agreed to join your brother, you acknowledged this is so. This has no cost, but it has release from cost.” A Course in Miracles T-19.IV-B.4:1-12