Collapse in Wonder

The Window (1970)

Vladimir Vladimirovich Zhivotkov

Here’s another social media share from Ramona. Plus, it reminds me of yesterday’s Mary Oliver.

Susceptible to Light 

By Chelan Harkin 

“You don't have to believe in God

but please collapse in wonder

as regularly as you can

try and let your knowledge

be side swiped by awe

and let beauty be so persuasive

you find yourself willing

to lay your opinions at her feet 

Darling, you don't have to believe in God

but please pray

for your own sake

great prayers of thanks 

for the mountains, the great rivers

the roundness of the moon

just because they're here at all

and that you get to know them

and let prayer bubble up in you

as a natural thing 

like song in a bird

You don't have to have

a spiritual path 

but do run 

the most sensitive

part of your soul 

over the soft curves 

of this world

with as much tenderness

as you can find in yourself

and let her edgeless ways

inspire you to discover more 

just find a way

that makes you want to yield

yourself

that you may be more open

to letting beauty fully

into your arms

and feel some sacred flame

inside of you that yearns toward

learning how to build a bigger 

fire of love in your heart

You don't have to believe in God

but get quiet enough to remember

we really don't know a damn thing 

about any of it

and if you can, feel a reverence to be part 

of This Great Something

whatever you want to call it

that is so much bigger

and so far beyond 

the rooftops of all

our knowing.”

Written by Chelan Harkin - Susceptible to Light

“The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God’s dominion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 516:16-22

“All this beauty will rise to bless your sight as you look upon the world with forgiving eyes. For forgiveness literally transforms vision, and lets you see the real world reaching quietly and gently across chaos, removing all illusions that had twisted your perception and fixed it on the past. The smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder, and a blade of grass a sign of God’s perfection.” 

A Course in Miracles T-17.II.6:1-3

The Attentive Soul

“Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.”

― Mary Oliver

“Hence the eternal wonder, — that infinite space is peopled with God’s ideas, reflecting Him in countless spiritual forms.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 503:15-17

“To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it. As long as you believe you can attend to what is not true, you are accepting conflict as your choice. Is it really a choice? It seems to be, but seeming and reality are hardly the same. You who are the Kingdom are not concerned with seeming. Reality is yours because you are reality. This is how having and being are ultimately reconciled, not in the Kingdom, but in your mind. The altar there is the only reality. The adfaltar is perfectly clear in thought, because it is a reflection of perfect Thought. Your right mind sees only brothers, because it sees only in its own light.” 

A Course in Miracles T-7.III.4:1-10

Structures of Truth and Love

 

Today was World Sound Healing Day and we had quite a celebration here in Eureka Springs! Four of our local musicians came together in Heart of Many Ways to bathe us in beautifully woven sounds, which included violin, harmonium, Tibetan and crystal bowls, and many other interesting tinkly instruments. It was particularly moving for me as it was held in the edifice which was built as a Christian Science Church in 1914. My parents began attending services there when I was eight years old. I learned to play the organ in this beautiful building when I was 11. A few years back, we donated the “structure of Truth and Love” to a non-profit organization which is dedicated to serving spiritual groups who do not have their own place to meet. There are affiliates from the Sufi tradition, Native Americans, a Jewish organization, and there is always room for anyone who wants to hold an event, such as today. The loving energy generated today would make Mary Baker Eddy very happy, of this I am certain. Namaste…

“Church: The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 583:12-12

“A church that does not inspire love has a hidden altar that is not serving the purpose for which God intended it. I must found His church on you, because those who accept me as a model are literally my disciples. Disciples are followers, and if the model they follow has chosen to save them pain in all respects, they are unwise not to follow him.” 

A Course in Miracles T-6.I.8:5-7

An Offering of Contentment

 

Art by Lucy Almey Bird

For years my fondest wish was to be content. For decades, it seemed this was an out-of-reach dream. I didn’t find peace by myself, nor when married, or in a roomful of friends, or with a comfortable companion. It felt as though something was missing and I couldn’t find it. Then circumstances brought me to Eureka Springs and a serious study of Christian Science. Every day brought a deeper understanding of my relationship with everyone and everything by way of the universal flow of infinite Love. Years of running a business in a tourist town showed me I needn’t agree with everyone in order to empathize and feel compassionate when faced with disagreeable attitudes. Raising children taught me to feel the joy of learning, while developing patience in trying circumstances. Being associated with spiritual groups has shown me that diversity of thought is a wonderful thing. The peace and contentment I feel this evening has been learned through surrender to not knowing everything — perhaps not even anything. Thank you greatly …

“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 452:15-17

“Be not content with littleness. But be sure you understand what littleness is, and why you could never be content with it. Littleness is the offering you give yourself. You offer this in place of magnitude, and you accept it. Everything in this world is little because it is a world made out of littleness, in the strange belief that littleness can content you. When you strive for anything in this world in the belief that it will bring you peace, you are belittling yourself and blinding yourself to glory. Littleness and glory are the choices open to your striving and your vigilance. You will always choose one at the expense of the other.” 

A Course in Miracles T-15.III.1:1-8

Purveyors of Love

 

Art by Lucy Campbell

“Dedicate your life to being a purveyor of love, and mystical companions will appear on your path – to collaborate, encourage, and guide you.” These words from Marianne Williamson were posted on the Cosmic Dancer Facebook page today, along with this photo. The mystical companions I’ve met in this parenthesis in eternity we call a lifetime take my breath away when I pause to think about them. You are all very dear to me and I love you so much!! Thinking about this causes songs to float through my mind — I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together, Thanks For The Memories, Hakuna Matata … 

“To all who share the Love of God the grace is given to be the givers of what they have received. And so they learn that it is theirs forever. All barriers disappear before their coming, as every obstacle was finally surmounted that seemed to rise and block their way before. This veil you and your brother lift together opens the way to truth to more than you. Those who would let illusions be lifted from their minds are this world’s saviors, walking the world with their Redeemer, and carrying His message of hope and freedom and release from suffering to everyone who needs a miracle to save him.” 

A Course in Miracles T-22.IV.6:1-5

“The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, and its government is divine Science. Man is the offspring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of Mind. Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged.” 

Mary Baker Eddy- Science and Health Page 264:32-4

Ram Dass Wisdom

Photo credit: Gabriel Carlson

“Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we're so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act.”

Ram Dass

Living Love

 

Photo and song from movie, Babe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pExCByqi0NU

I’ve spent the last day joyfully celebrating the miracle of connectivity between people. Sometimes we meet someone and it seems as though we’ve known them forever, or perhaps you know a married couple who have been together for decades and still enjoy each others’ company, or maybe you have a childhood friend who has been a part of your life for as long as you can remember. These musings brought back memories of a woman I was friends with for 50 years. We learned to play the trumpet together, and we had shared memories of playing reveille for school flag raising and taps for soldiers’ funerals. I played the piano at her wedding and she held my hand through divorces. Our ties were deep and filled with Love. When she was in hospice care, I visited her for the last time. She was having a hard time talking, so we sat quietly and looked into each others eyes. Every moment we ever shared was relived in the space of a few seconds. It was a miraculous communication and I was reminded of Mr. Hoggett singing to Babe in the movie by the same title. And so I sang it to her, and I did his dance in my imagination. Namasté, sweet Friend! 

“We think of an absent friend as easily as we do of one present. It is no more difficult to read the absent mind than it is to read the present. Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought in his verse. What is classic study, but discernment of the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal existence we may be in doubt?” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 81: 2-10

“Your mind will elect to join with mine, and together we are invincible. You and your brother will yet come together in my name, and your sanity will be restored. I raised the dead by knowing that life is an eternal attribute of everything that the living God created. Why do you believe it is harder for me to inspire the dis-spirited or to stabilize the unstable? I do not believe that there is an order of difficulty in miracles; you do. I have called and you will answer. I understand that miracles are natural, because they are expressions of love. My calling you is as natural as your answer, and as inevitable.” 

A Course in Miracles T-4.IV.11:5-12