Of Dogs and Other Loved Ones

 

Daffy and Jeter - circa 2016

In honor of Jeter the Dog, December 2011 - January 2023 — I repeat this writing from 2020. 

I’ve been observing our dogs facilitate change and I’m sure there’s a lesson there for us all. Daffy the Doberman generally sleeps/lays wherever she wants. Jeter has his favorite places, but acquiesces to the Alpha dog. Recently we rearranged the furniture in the living room and, in the process, decided that Jeter would have to give up his couch, so we removed the cover and told him “no”. He seemed okay with this, but was at a loss as to what to do with himself when the love of his life, Kevin, was at work. In the bedroom, Daffy had her special bed which was closest to the door and she would growl if Jeter tried to walk by her to get to his nighttime bed against the far wall. So Jeter would lay in the hallway, occasionally trying to sneak past her if she was snoring. Then suddenly we noticed they had switched beds! Jeter is sleeping closest to the door and Daphne  has taken the far wall position. The lessons we can all take from this are varied, but what I’m seeing is that change can happen with patience and, eventually, cooperation. Actually, we think that Scout the Cat was instrumental in this shift, so perhaps it simply takes a strong leader to help us move forward. Whatever the case, I trust we can all work together as well as our dogs!

"Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality -- infinite Life, Truth, and Love." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 518:19

“Help Me to wake My children from the dream of retribution and a little life beset with fear, that ends so soon it might as well have never been. Let Me instead remind you of eternity, in which your joy grows greater as your love extends along with Mine beyond infinity, where time and distance have no meaning. While you wait in sorrow Heaven’s melody is incomplete, because your song is part of the eternal harmony of love.” 

A Course in Miracles S-3.IV.8:1-3

Listen

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Listening can be difficult, even under the most conducive of circumstances. I have a dear friend who often  would interrupt me (and others) in mid-sentence to say something totally unrelated to the topic; then ramble on in an odd rant about whatever popped into her head. One day I decided she needed to know how difficult it was to have a conversation with her, so I told her what I had observed. The results have been marvelous! Not only has she begun to listen to what's going on around her, she has noticed that many people are wrapped up in their own thoughts and don’t know what’s being said to them. She is happy to have turned into a listener. Yippee!! So I shall follow my own lead and tell myself that I'm often interrupting divine Mind with my busy brain. Let's hope I'm as good of a student as my sweet friend!

“Listen,—perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten, and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you.” A Course in Miracles T-21.I.6:1-3

“We must silence this lie of material sense with the truth of spiritual sense.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 318:12-13

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are

 

Colorado Kin

For the past two months, I have been pondering a major change. Before this year’s end, I will be moving to Colorado. My son and his wife and baby are there, along with her family. And there’s no hope they’ll move to my part of the country because they have close family ties there — and a love of skiing. For the past almost-seven decades, I have lived in a 50-mile radius of where I presently am. And so this is not a decision I’m taking lightly. But the things I most enjoy in life can be done no matter where I am living. Friends here will always be with me, not only in my heart, but on the internet! I will miss many things, like visits with my book club, and spades games with friends, and Course in Miracles gatherings, and good neighbors — well, I could go on and on about the ties which have brought such joy. I will continue to write to you every day!

“God is with me. He is my Source of life, the life within, the air I breathe, the food by which I am sustained, the water which renews and cleanses me. He is my home, wherein I live and move; the Spirit which directs my actions, offers me Its Thoughts, and guarantees my safety from all pain. He covers me with kindness and with care, and holds in love the Son He shines upon, who also shines on Him. How still is he who knows the truth of what He speaks today!” 

A Course in Miracles W-222.1:1-5)

“Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 454: 18-23

A Sense of Somebody-ness

 

Thinking of the words and works of Martin Luther King brought to mind a book which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The Nickel Boys by Colton Whitehead. This book is described as "a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity, and redemption." The main character is working in a tobacco shop, where children often steal candy and comic books. The proprietor allows this because he says if he called them on it, their parents would be too embarrassed to shop in his establishment. He has told Elwood to allow them to take things, as he thinks of it as a promotion. This doesn’t sit right with Elwood, and at first he can’t understand why. But a quote of Dr. King’s brings it into focus for him: “We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.” Elwood comes to the realization that to do nothing about the kids stealing was to undermine his own dignity. I think that’s the position we the People are in today. To do nothing is to undermine our own dignity. I urge you to listen to your own inner guidance, your soul (if you will), and do whatever it takes to maintain your dignity. 

“Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we get clearer views of Principle. Break up cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views of humanity.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 239:5-10

“Of your ego you can do nothing to save yourself or others, but of your spirit you can do everything for the salvation of both. Humility is a lesson for the ego, not for the spirit. Spirit is beyond humility, because it recognizes its radiance and gladly sheds its light everywhere. The meek shall inherit the earth because their egos are humble, and this gives them truer perception. The Kingdom of Heaven is the spirit’s right, whose beauty and dignity are far beyond doubt, beyond perception, and stand forever as the mark of the Love of God for His creations, who are wholly worthy of Him and only of Him. Nothing else is sufficiently worthy to be a gift for a creation of God Himself.” 

A Course in Miracles T-4.I.12:1-6

Thank you, Martin Luther King

 

Quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Pilgrimage to Nonviolence - “The phrase ‘passive resistance’ often gives the false impression that this is a sort of ‘do-nothing method’ in which the resister quietly and passively accepts evil. But nothing is further from the truth. For while the nonviolent resister is passive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade his opponent that he is wrong. The method is passive physically, but strongly active spiritually.” Martin Luther King Jr.

“Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning, because cause and effect are never separated. The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is ‘in them but not of them’. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world.” 

A Course in Miracles M-4.I.1:2-7

“‘Thy kingdom come;’ let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Manual Page 41:19-25

Love as an Action Verb

 

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Many people are dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression. It is more necessary than ever to “be in this world, but not of it”. I fully understand how difficult it can be to look beyond the illusion. When we see a person being cruel, it would be cruel of us to look the other way. But we can begin by seeing that person as they were created from Love; not making comparisons, but seeing the purity of Spirit. It breaks my heart to think of the pain people in war-torn countries are experiencing. But no matter how bad I feel, it won’t help them. Love is an action verb and feeling it deeply exposes what we need to know in our quest to help situations. Every thought is important!

“God goes with me wherever I go.

1. Today’s idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.

2. The separated ones have invented many ‘cures’ for what they believe to be ‘the ills of the world.’ But the one thing they do not do is to question the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the problem is not real. The idea for today has the power to end all this foolishness forever. And foolishness it is, despite the serious and tragic forms it may take.” 

A Course in Miracles W-41.1:1–2:5)

“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. The mythical human theories of creation, anciently classified as the higher criticism, sprang from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by the divine Mind.” 

Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 255:1-10

Sometimes - by Mary Oliver

 

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Sometimes

by Mary Oliver

1.

Something came up
out of the dark.
It wasn’t anything I had ever seen before.
It wasn’t an animal
or a flower,
unless it was both.

Something came up out of the water,
a head the size of a cat
but muddy and without ears.
I don’t know what God is.
I don’t know what death is.

But I believe they have between them
some fervent and necessary arrangement.

2.

Sometime
melancholy leaves me breathless…

3.

Water from the heavens! Electricity from the source!
Both of them mad to create something!

The lighting brighter than any flower.
The thunder without a drowsy bone in its body.

4.

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

5.
Two or three times in my life I discovered love.
Each time it seemed to solve everything.
Each time it solved a great many things
but not everything.
Yet left me as grateful as if it had indeed, and
thoroughly, solved everything.

6.

God, rest in my heart
and fortify me,
take away my hunger for answers,
let the hours play upon my body

like the hands of my beloved.
Let the cathead appear again—
the smallest of your mysteries,
some wild cousin of my own blood probably—
some cousin of my own wild blood probably,
in the black dinner-bowl of the pond.

7.

Death waits for me, I know it, around
one corner or another.
This doesn’t amuse me.
Neither does it frighten me.

After the rain, I went back into the field of sunflowers.
It was cool, and I was anything but drowsy.
I walked slowly, and listened

to the crazy roots, in the drenched earth, laughing and growing.