The Good That Is Unfolding

Afternoon Tea

By Catrin Welz-Stein

I heard a term which sent me directly to a search engine: Adulting. Its definition is: “the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks”. I have found it difficult to “adult” at times when I let myself become overwhelmed by too many activities. If my mind is racing in circles with a multitude of duties whirling around in it, I may flit from one to another with no focus anywhere. At those times, it’s easy to think there is too much on my plate and I’d rather retreat into a good book. Through the years, I’ve learned to sit quietly, listening for the rhythms of divine order to lead the way, and then to be present in the Now. Some people like to make lists and prioritize, others want someone to tell them what to do first, but few of us believe there is an omnipresence which can help us navigate life’s activities. It can be difficult to override our ego’s dictates, admitting that we may not know what is best, releasing control and flowing with the good which is unfolding right in front of us. But I’m going to keep trying, because I’ve seen how much easier it is than thinking I know it all!

“The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolding.” Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health Page 584

“Do you really believe you can make a voice that can drown out God’s? Do you really believe you can devise a thought system that can separate you from Him? Do you really believe you can plan for your safety and joy better than He can? You need be neither careful nor careless; you need merely cast your cares upon Him because He careth for you. You are His care because He loves you. His Voice reminds you always that all hope is yours because of His care. You cannot choose to escape His care because that is not His Will, but you can choose to accept His care and use the infinite power of His care for all those He created by it.” 

A Course in Miracles T-5.VII.1:1-7

Frugal Repast

When I was a very young child, my parents had a slaughterhouse. It was a small operation in a small town and people would bring in the steer they raised, or the chickens they kept in the yard, to have them killed and dressed to put in their freezer. I wasn’t particularly traumatized by any of this, but I did hold the false notion that this humane treatment was the standard practice in our country. Then I started paying attention. After that, I began to restrict my animal intake and now call myself a wanna-be vegetarian (because I do on occasion eat meat). Apparently those occasions are rare enough that an indulgence in a big burger and fried side dishes has made me feel groggy and sluggish for more than a day! I’m not writing this to promote any particular way of eating, but I am hoping that everyone in the world will pay attention to what exactly it is we’re putting in our mouths. Our vegetables are poisoned on a regular basis, the corn syrup situation is frightening, and animals are living a nightmare to supply the outlandish amount of meat which is eaten. I know I eat too much and often am uncaring of what that intake is. While I’m not going to beat myself up over that burger and fries, I am going to try to eat a diet suitable for a small planet! 

"When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explanation which destroys error. Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it. Better is the frugal intellectual repast with contentment and virtue, than the luxury of learning with egotism and vice." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 452

Society is a Foolish Juror

 

New Friends

Continuing the theme of communication with the incomprehensible, I am remembering a woman at choir rehearsal. I don't know her well. She began to complain that she hadn't been able to watch her "programs" because of those "horrid people lying about the president". Rather than chastise her or ignore her, I listened to her. She rambled on about tuning in to TCM and watching an old movie called The Red Shoes. She is an Englishwoman and she mentioned it was the first movie her mother took her to see when she was 8 years old. I began asking her questions and it turns out she wanted to become a ballerina and had been told she couldn't marry because she must devote all her time to dance. Well, when she was 18, she met and married a man from Oklahoma, who was in the military stationed in England. He didn't know what ballet was and didn't want to, but she loved him and he loved her, and so she gave up her studies, married, and moved to the United States. That was more than 60 years ago. In talking to her, I found she was a lovely woman, if not an educated one. And I liked her. 

"Society is a foolish juror, listening only to one side of the case. Justice often comes too late to secure a verdict. People with mental work before them have no time for gossip about false law or testimony. To reconstruct timid justice and place the fact above the falsehood, is the work of time. " Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health Page 238:25-28

“Yet you must learn to doubt their evidence will clear the way to recognize yourself, and let the Voice for God alone be Judge of what is worthy of your own belief. He will not tell you that your brother should be judged by what your eyes behold in him, nor what his body’s mouth says to your ears, nor what your fingers’ touch reports of him. He passes by such idle witnesses, which merely bear false witness to God’s Son. He recognizes only what God loves, and in the holy light of what He sees do all the ego’s dreams of what you are vanish before the splendor He beholds.” A Course in Miracles  W-151.7:1-4

Reactions Against Oneness

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

During a conversation with a friend about political separation, she said that it was all a "reaction against Oneness". I love that statement! I'd much rather think of my desire to argue with people about their beliefs as a "reaction against Oneness", wouldn't you? That makes it much easier to hold a conversation which is not adversarial, even if I'm tempted to tell someone they're wrong. I thank you, dear Friend, for helping me to see every situation as either one of unity or one of separation. My son and his baby son will be visiting me soon. He also will be spending time with his dad who lives in a neighboring town. That side of his family are full of conservative views on life, and I’m about as liberal as they come. There is an event planned where we will all be together and I had not been looking forward to it — until I remembered the words of a fellow ACIM student: it’s just a reaction against Oneness. I promise myself to steadfastly look for the ideas which prove our unity. We all love our families and friends. We want to be comfortable in our homes and are grateful for the abundance which surrounds us. We love my son and his new baby more than we want to voice differences of opinion. I am especially grateful today for the words of my dear friend, Anne, which remind me to recognize unity rather than separation. Namaste…

"Oneness is simply the idea God is. And in His Being, He encompasses all things. No mind holds anything but Him. We say 'God is', and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source itself, it merely is." 

A Course in Miracles W-pl.169.5

“Atonement is the exemplification of man’s unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man’s oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did life’s work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 18:1-9

Light Where Darkness Was Before

 

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

I read a letter Sigmund Freud wrote to Albert Einstein, who had written him asking if there was a way to free humankind from the threat of war. Mr. Freud has quite a bit to say on this subject. One phrase which brought pause was, “…the lust for aggression and destruction”. I had never thought of it that way, and it caused me to stop and think. Part of his conclusion is as follows: “The upshot of these observations, as bearing on the subject in hand, is that there is no likelihood of our being able to suppress humanity's aggressive tendencies. In some happy corners of the earth, they say, where nature brings forth abundantly whatever man desires, there flourish races whose lives go gently by, unknowing of aggression or constraint. This I can hardly credit; I would like further details about these happy folk.” In our world, we see famine and harsh conditions in many places. I question whether this is the way creation is supposed to evolve. I’m pretty sure when we follow the laws of nature, life as we know it would become Life as we wish it were! As light bearers, we lead the way with every thought and action. Nothing is more powerful than the divine Love which moves through us into the world.

"Heaven: Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality, bliss, the atmosphere of Soul." 

Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health, Page 587

“Behold your role within the universe! To every part of true creation has the Lord of Love and life entrusted all salvation from the misery of hell. And to each one has He allowed the grace to be a savior to the holy ones especially entrusted to his care. And this he learns when first he looks upon one brother as he looks upon himself, and sees the mirror of himself in him. Thus is the concept of himself laid by, for nothing stands between his sight and what he looks upon, to judge what he beholds. And in this single vision does he see the face of Christ, and understands he looks on everyone as he beholds this one. For there is light where darkness was before, and now the veil is lifted from his sight.” 

A Course in Miracles T-31.VII.8:1-7

A Problem Set in Conflict Has No Answer

Photo credit: Arthur Bruno

In a world where we are being fed lies, it’s extremely difficult to figure out what is truth. Media spreads deception and distrust, dividing people in ways which seem irreparable. Bias doesn’t frighten me, but intentional lies do. Many of us remember the early days of television, a time when advertising really revved up and consumerism became flagrant. It has reached an apex now at which almost everything we hear and see is designed to sell us something. We must continue to be vigilant in what we allow into our thought, not only for our own good, but for the collective. Repeating stories which create divisions through feelings of superiority or inferiority, that’s playing the game which has been created for us. It’s important to use our education, our intuition, our spiritual knowledge, every bit of common sense we still have, to discern truth. A Christian Science treatment is often referred to as “knowing the Truth”. It is in reference to knowing the Truth of our being, not the beliefs we’ve come to think of as facts. We don’t need to be the victim of propaganda or other forms of hypnosis. “Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach me”. This statement from Mary Baker Eddy is all we need to keep in mind. When we are filled with Love, there is no room for anything else. 

"The human mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. ... It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 128

“In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved. In conflict there can be no answer and no resolution, for its purpose is to make no resolution possible, and to ensure no answer will be plain. A problem set in conflict has no answer, for it is seen in different ways. And what would be an answer from one point of view is not an answer in another light. You are in conflict. Thus it must be clear you cannot answer anything at all, for conflict has no limited effects. Yet if God gave an answer there must be a way in which your problems are resolved, for what He wills already has been done.” 

A Course in Miracles T-27.IV.1:1-7

To Laugh Often and Much

To Laugh Often and Much - a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To laugh often and much;

to win the respect of the intelligent people

and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others; 

to leave the world a bit better

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch,

or a redeemed social condition;

to know that one life has breathed easier 

because you lived here.

This is to have succeeded.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Prepare you now for the undoing of what never was. If you already understood the difference between truth and illusion, the Atonement would have no meaning. The holy instant, the holy relationship, the Holy Spirit’s teaching, and all the means by which salvation is accomplished, would have no purpose. For they are all but aspects of the plan to change your dreams of fear to happy dreams, from which you waken easily to knowledge. Put yourself not in charge of this, for you cannot distinguish between advance and retreat. Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success.” 

A Course in Miracles T-18.V.1:1-6

“To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and obey as God. If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show what we are winning.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page239:16-22