Just Breathe

 

What a difference a day makes! I've been encouraging a dear friend who has been going through tough times, feeling suicidal, hopeless, deeply sad. Something shifted in her attitude yesterday, and today she's almost happy again! I encourage everyone who is feeling depressed, or desperate, to know there is an end to it. Plant some flowers, even if you have no energy. Take a walk, even if you want to stay in bed. Get some sunshine, even if you'd rather stay in a deeply-curtained room. Talk to friends, when you're rather be alone. Watch a funny movie, even if you want to cry. But don't be afraid to cry, and savor every moment of the grief. It, too, is life. Feel everything to its ultimate end. Be grateful for all these things, and remember to breathe.

"Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love." Mary Baker Eddy 

“The opposite of joy is depression. When your learning promotes depression instead of joy, you cannot be listening to God’s joyous Teacher and learning His lessons. To see a body as anything except a means of communication is to limit your mind and to hurt yourself. Health is therefore nothing more than united purpose. If the body is brought under the purpose of the mind, it becomes whole because the mind’s purpose is one. Attack can only be an assumed purpose of the body, because apart from the mind the body has no purpose at all.” A Course in Miracles T-8.VII.13:1-6

Seeking Successive Autumns

 

Félix Vallotton 

The Bridge Over Béal (Le Pont sur le Béal), 1922.

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”

George Eliot - Letter to Miss Lewis, 1841.

Give A Good Day

A dear friend gave some fine advice: Instead of worrying about having a good day, put your attention on GIVING a good day. What a wonderful perspective this gives to life! It also reminded me of something which happened when my gallery was open. People would ask how my day had been and I’d say, Great! Almost always they were referring to whether I’d made a lot of sales, which never factored into my answer. One day, a lady brought a stained glass ornament up and showed me that it was broken. I thanked her and she said, I’m so sorry to ruin your day. Of course, I laughed. If the requirement for having a good day was to make money, or if a broken item could ruin my day — well, most days would have been so-so at best! Thank you, dear heart-centered friend, for the reminder to “give a good day”! It’s a wonderful saying, which I will now use: Are you giving a great day today?

“Protect all things you value by the act of giving them away, and you are sure that you will never lose them. What you thought you did not have is thereby proven yours. Yet value not its form. For this will change and grow unrecognizable in time, however much you try to keep it safe. No form endures. It is the thought behind the form of things that lives unchangeable.” A Course in Miracles  W-187.4:1-6

“Mind-science teaches that mortals need ‘not be weary in well doing.’ It dissipates fatigue in doing good. Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 79:29-32

Kindness Matters

 

Why are we so afraid of each other? Could it be all the crime television shows, or maybe we have been physically attacked in the past? We all have our reasons for turning away from our fellow humans. We probably say it’s wise to be cautious. I know that’s what everyone feels on a much-viewed county social media page. Someone who delivers for “door dash” related a tale of woe in which she delivered food to a man and he “grabbed her” and said “I’m glad it’s you”. As I looked through the responses telling her to carry a gun, or never go there again, or call the police, I saw where she said she HAD called the police because he had fallen off his porch and she wanted to make sure he was okay. In trying to imagine this scenario, I saw something quite different from the defensive responders interpretations. I visualized an old man who was unable to leave his home and had ordered food, as he had done many times in the past. When he saw it was someone who had delivered to him before, he reached out and said he was glad to see her again. Or maybe he was reaching toward her because he was about to fall over — which he did! I don’t know the details, but I do know our perceptions can be askew. Perhaps we’ve bypassed our intuitions which tell us about others’ true intentions. When you get a bad vibe from someone, listen. If you’re afraid of everything, question yourself as to why that is. Kindness matters. It may be the only way to heal humanity…

“Dream softly of your sinless brother, who unites with you in holy innocence. And from this dream the Lord of Heaven will Himself awaken His beloved Son. Dream of your brother’s kindnesses instead of dwelling in your dreams on his mistakes. Select his thoughtfulness to dream about instead of counting up the hurts he gave. Forgive him his illusions, and give thanks to him for all the helpfulness he gave. And do not brush aside his many gifts because he is not perfect in your dreams. He represents his Father, Whom you see as offering both life and death to you.” A Course in Miracles 

“Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spiritualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error is wholly destroyed, there will be interruptions of the general material routine. Earth will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter, seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will continue unto the end, — until the final spiritualization of all things. ‘The darkest hour precedes the dawn.’” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 95:4-11

Sowing Joy

 

The Dalai Lama has profound and beautiful messages for us. He speaks of peace and love, reminding us of our true identity in an unassuming and pure manner. His gleeful words never leave me where they found me, and for this I am most grateful. I remember a DVD of his entitled “Compassion in Emptiness”.  He talks about the importance of relationships based on honesty and trust. The joyfulness born of these interactions is essential to our liberation from fearful illusions. The trust and honesty he speaks of isn't limited to those who have "earned" it. It isn't limited in any way. As we go through our daily activities, let's remember to treat everyone with the loving respect and courtesy with which we would afford a dearly beloved parent or child. May kindness and joy spread to every person you come into contact with today, and everyday. And if you happen to forget what that feels like, look up a video of the Dalai Lama and let him remind you!

“If selfishness has given place to kindness, we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great duty simply by asking that it may be done.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 9:11-14

“How can you who are so holy suffer? 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.” A Course in Miracles T-5.IV.8:1-6

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