A Song of Freedom

Woman in France protesting treatment of Iranian Women

“Iran’s anthem for changing rusted minds” — this editorial headline pulled me in immediately! The writer tells us how a protest song became an anthem. The song is “Baraye” and was composed by a young Iranian man named Shervin Hajpour after the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was arrested by Iran’s morality police for not covering her hair sufficiently. The song reflects “exhaustion with theocratic rule, gender inequality, economic sanctions, and lack of opportunity”. A professor at Berkeley College of Music in Boston, Christian’s Karam, who grew up in Lebanon during the civil war, speaks from her experience: “Music has that ability to cut through our defenses and go straight to our hearts. It brings us to a place where we’re reminded of our shared humanity.” It’s inspiring to see how music in general, and this song in particular, reflect changes in thinking. As Ms. Karam says: “It goes beyond ideology; it goes beyond politics. It becomes a human affair. This is how momentum is built. A momentum for positive change and momentum where we are reminded that we are all in this together.” I pray that we listen and learn from each other, finding ways to celebrate our commonality and bypass the need to be always right. Namaste, dear ones…

“Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought expands into expression. ‘Let there be light,’ is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 255:1-6

“The song of freedom, which sings the praises of another world, brings to it hope of peace. For it remembers Heaven, and now it sees that Heaven has come to earth at last, from which the ego’s rule has kept it out so long. Heaven has come because it found a home in your relationship on earth. And earth can hold no longer what has been given Heaven as its own.”  A Course in Miracles T-21.IV.7:4-7

Offering Peace

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

I saw a picture of a man in a tee-shirt which said, "Give peace a chance". Then it had a photo of a big gun and the words: "I'll cover you if it doesn't work out." Where did we ever get the notion that we could be protected by violence? Later in the day, I saw an article from a few years back in which President Jimmy Carter told us the time for peace is now. He brought up our odd system of retribution, wherein we kill people for killing people, and how governments wage wars in the name of enforcing peace. There are a multitude of ways we seem to think that violence will end violence. I look back over the last few decades and it is astounding how often teachers, parents, and authority figures think they can control children with threats and corporal punishment. I’ve been studying the work of Gabor Mate, who examines the effects of violence in childhood and the after effects which appear in later life. These choices aren’t facilitating peace, so let’s choose again!

“Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God’s Judgment on this distorted world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered. What else but a Thought of God turns hell to Heaven merely by being what it is? The earth bows down before its gracious Presence, and it leans down in answer, to raise it up again. Now is the question different. It is no longer, ‘Can peace be possible in this world?’ but instead, ‘Is it not impossible that peace be absent here?’”

A Course in Miracles  M-11.4:1-12

“God has built a higher platform of human rights, and He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of “on earth peace, good-will toward men.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 225:13-17

You Are Responsible For What You Believe

I truly try to not divide people into tribes, liking or disliking them because of their affiliations. It doesn’t matter to me if you’re a fan of the LSU Tigers or a member of the Rotterdam Symphonic Orchestra, my only goal is to listen to your words and hear the motives of your heart. I will bask in your company or stay away from you according to your kindness to others as shown by the goodness you live. And so when people begin berating actions because someone is labeled as liberal, it brings up questions in my mind as to why they are throwing these barbed verbal attacks. Since the accusations usually sound uniformly similar to each other, I can only surmise they are being spoon-fed by a larger source. Our information transportation is so fast today that almost anyone can set themselves up to spread the word — no matter its veracity. This statement from John Smallman’s writings rings true: “The only way forward is for humanity to engage lovingly with itself, instead of divisively and judgmentally, by fully honoring and respecting the sovereign rights of every individual on Planet Earth”. 

“The relationship of anger to attack is obvious, but the relationship of anger to fear is not always so apparent. Anger always involves projection of separation, which must ultimately be accepted as one’s own responsibility, rather than being blamed on others. Anger cannot occur unless you believe that you have been attacked, that your attack is justified in return, and that you are in no way responsible for it. Given these three wholly irrational premises, the equally irrational conclusion that a brother is worthy of attack rather than of love must follow. What can be expected from insane premises except an insane conclusion? The way to undo an insane conclusion is to consider the sanity of the premises on which it rests. You cannot be attacked, attack has no justification, and you are responsible for what you believe.” 

A Course in Miracles T-6.in.1:1-7

“Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed to speak God’s word and to appear to mortals in such a form of humanity as they could understand as well as perceive. Mary’s conception of him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age. Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence, or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His image.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 332:23-2

Almost Reach the Stars

 

Art by Catrin Welz Stein

“When someone you love dies, you are given the gift of ‘second chances’. Their eulogy is a reminder that the living can turn their lives around at any point. You’re not bound by the past; that is who you used to be. You’re reminded that your feelings are not who you are, but how you felt at that moment. Your bad choices defined you yesterday, but they are not who you are today. Your future doesn’t have to travel the same path with the same people. You can start over. You don’t have to apologize to people that won’t listen. You don’t have to justify your feelings or actions, during a difficult time in your life. You don’t have to put up with people that are insecure and want you to fail. All you have to do is walk forward with a positive outlook... The people of quality that were meant to be in your life won’t need you to explain the beauty of your heart. They already understand what being human is...a roller coaster ride of emotions during rainstorms and sunshine, sprinkled with moments when you can almost reach the stars.” 

Shannon L. Alder

A Seeming Hierarchy of Values

 

Art by Akira Kusaka

For years I resisted admitting that only one thing was required of me in order to experience the peace I craved. It seemed that giving myself to this one thing would cause me to be  a religious zealot. I thought that to live in Spirit would be predictable and boring. At that time, material existence seemed exciting, while spiritual living implied a certain aloneness which couldn't possibly be very much fun. As years have passed and I've become more aware of what living in Spirit means, the understanding of myself as a reflection of God has taken form in many ways. On the surface, it could seem that nothing has changed. I still work, play, sleep, and interact with others. But everything is different. By listening to my inner Self and following that guidance, I don't need to make lists of pros and cons and weigh the value of these in making decisions. This following doesn't mean that I mindlessly go through life as an automaton doing what someone tells me. It means that infinite possibilities are opened to me, that thought is expanded in ways which transcend material beliefs. Contentment and peace are waiting for me to find them, as I remember my only function. 

"This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:10-15

“Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are. This is the healing and the remedy. Believe them not and they are gone. And all you need to do is recognize that you did this. Once you accept this simple fact and take unto yourself the power you gave them, you are released from them. One thing is sure; hallucinations serve a purpose, and when that purpose is no longer held they disappear. Therefore, the question never is whether you want them, but always, do you want the purpose that they serve? This world seems to hold out many purposes, each different and with different values. Yet they are all the same. Again there is no order; only a seeming hierarchy of values.” 

A Course in Miracles T-20.VIII.8:1-10

Releasing Each Other and Celebrating Together

Photo credit; Richard Quick

We always have interesting controversies in Eureka Springs. After all, we once elected a dead woman to be our mayor. And I’m pretty sure our quirkiness precedent was set long before that event in the 80s. Today I saw a post on social media from our Great Passion Play, stating that the mayor and city attorney were demanding that their nativity scene in Basin Spring Park be taken down. When I saw this post, it had been up for 24 minutes and already had 1500+ shares and over 800 comments. This was an organized effort to get people all over the nation upset at the idea that our liberal city is having a “war on Christmas”. After making a few calls, I discovered that a private citizen is threatening a lawsuit unless this religious portrayal is removed from city property. In glancing through the numerous comments on this post, I saw much vehemence being thrown toward our beautiful little town. The main question which runs through my mind is why would anyone want to make a complaint? The passion play has put up this exhibit (so to speak) for more than 50 years. It’s a part of the holiday decorations. We are a tourist town which has not only a 60-foot tall Jesus but drag queens roaming the streets. We all get along. In the interest of peace, I shall do my best to send loving vibes to all involved. I’m certain my thoughts shall stand corrected often … Namaste.

“It is in your power, in time, to delay the perfect union of the Father and the Son. For in this world, the attraction of guilt does stand between them. Neither time nor season means anything in eternity. But here it is the Holy Spirit’s function to use them both, though not as the ego uses them. This is the season when you would celebrate my birth into the world. Yet you know not how to do it. Let the Holy Spirit teach you, and let me celebrate your birth through Him. The only gift I can accept of you is the gift I gave to you. Release me as I choose your own release. The time of Christ we celebrate together, for it has no meaning if we are apart.” 

A Course in Miracles T-15.X.1:1-10

“Today the watchful shepherd shouts his welcome over the new cradle of an old truth. This truth has traversed night, through gloom to glory, from cradle to crown. To the awakened consciousness, the Bethlehem babe has left his swaddling-clothes (material environments) for the form and comeliness of the divine ideal, which has passed from a corporeal to the spiritual sense of Christ and is winning the heart of humanity with ineffable tenderness.” Mary Baker Eddy - First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany Page 257:4-11

Being Is Infinity

 

Dancing in Basin Park

Photo credit: Richard Quick

Have you ever had to force yourself to participate in an event only to find, when it was over and done, that you wouldn’t have missed it for the world? I’m thinking now of a community dinner which was held shortly before Christmas a few years ago. A friend asked me to go with her, and I said yes, although I wasn’t enthused. After it was over, I said to someone: Any event with the word “community” in the title, I’m attending! Catherine Reed, set the tone with her guitar and singing. The food was bountiful and delicious. We visited with old friends and laughed and talked and drank wine. I left feeling a communion which was deep and true. The at-one-ment felt at these events and other community-building happenings is a religious experience to me! 

“Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 45:16-21

“By accepting the Atonement for yourself, you are deciding against the belief that you can be alone, thus dispelling the idea of separation and affirming your true identification with the whole Kingdom as literally part of you. This identification is as beyond doubt as it is beyond belief. Your wholeness has no limits because being is infinity.” 

A Course in Miracles T-7.VIII.7:3-5