Support Groups

I heard a program on National Public Radio where people were interviewed who had been involved with hate groups, and now are in recovery. There were white nationalists, neo-nazis, Islamic terrorists. Some wanted out because they realized they were wrong, others had wives who gave them ultimatums when they saw their children behaving in the same way. Whatever the reason, they all had something in common: they couldn’t leave without help from a  support group. It was very similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. These people said they were addicted to the feelings, the strong emotions, which were aroused when they screamed messages of derision toward others. Listening to these dear people talk about their experiences — how and why they were drawn to such a destructive group of people, the way it made them feel, why they had to get away from them — I was struck by how much we truly are all the same. Sometimes we lose our way and think that pain is pleasure, hate is love, and ugliness is beauty. I’m going to double down on my efforts to scatter joy and love my neighbor. It is, indeed, important!

"...fear demands the sacrifice of love, for in love's presence fear cannot abide. For hate to be maintained, love must be feared; and only sometimes present, sometimes gone. Thus is love seen as treacherous, because it seems to come and go uncertainly, and offer no stability to you. You do not see how limited and weak is your allegiance, and how frequently you have demanded that love go away, and leave you quietly alone in 'peace.'" 

A Course in Miracles T-29.2.7.

“Pale in the presence of his own momentous question, ‘What is Truth,’ Pilate was drawn into acquiescence with the demands of Jesus’ enemies. Pilate was ignorant of the consequences of his awful decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for man.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 48:25:32 

If You Can Keep Your Head …

 

I’ve always liked this poem. As I read it today, it strikes me these are great characteristics for the President of the United States!

If - By Rudyard Kipling

“If you can keep your head when all about you

   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,   But make allowance for their doubting too;

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

   Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,   

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

   If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; 

If you can meet with triumph and disaster   

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken   

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,   

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

   And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings   

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew  

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you   

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on’;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

   Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch; 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;   

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run—   

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 

And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!”

“Evasion of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down from the pinnacle.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 448:10-11

“Christ calls to all with equal tenderness, seeing no leaders and no followers, and hearing but one answer to them all. Because He hears one Voice, He cannot hear a different answer from the one He gave when God appointed Him His only Son.” 

A Course in Miracles - T-31.II.7:5-6

Thank you, RBG!

Gender equality has always been difficult to achieve. Many have reasons, excuses, for why it's impossible. Legislators insisted it was to protect women, when they refused them the rights which were "granted" to men. These inalienable rights spoken of in the Constitution of the United States have been interpreted time and again, and usually they are deemed as applying to the male sex; for a long while, only to white males, then gradually evolving to include everyone. I watched the movie based on Ruth Bader Ginsberg's work to achieve women's equality in a man's world. It's called "On the Basis of Sex". Remembering how life was when I graduated from high school in 1970 is like remembering a dream. The cages we were crammed into were meant to keep the male animal in control, and it worked pretty well -- at least on the surface. But seeds had been planted; seeds of freedom which we are still nurturing. One of Jesus' main men informed us there are no bond nor free, no gentile nor jew, no male or female -- yet to this day we can't seem to figure that out! I take that back: many of us know these things, and that's why it's up to us to keep affirming the Truth of our being, and doing everything possible for others to see, too. Thank you, RBG!! 

"...oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 225

“You are a perfect creation, and should experience awe only in the Presence of the Creator of perfection. The miracle is therefore a sign of love among equals.Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality.”
A Course in Miracles T-1.II.3:3-5

Ramona - She Gathered

 

The beautiful Ramona

When I saw this writing from Donna Ashworth, I immediately thought of my wonderful friend, Ramona McNeal. Her friends and family know she is all this and much more! Thank you for being in our lives …

“SHE GATHERED by Donna Ashworth

She gathered beautiful things along the way to pass on, but not clothes or jewels. 

She gathered starlight when she couldn’t sleep… and sprinkled it on her stories so that the children of her children would listen in wonder and remember with delight.

She gathered lessons, learned at rock bottom, and shared them with strangers and friends alike,  to save them the need to sink so far themselves.

She gathered precious, life-giving laughter, and regaled the world with the humorous reminiscing of her follies, her foibles and her mishaps.

She gathered things that may not have caught anyone’s eye in auction, but when examined closely, became true treasure maps, to this life’s gold mines.”

Donna Ashworth 

From ‘I Wish I Knew’

“The body is beautiful or ugly, peaceful or savage, helpful or harmful, according to the use to which it is put. And in the body of another you will see the use to which you have put yours. If the body becomes a means you give to the Holy Spirit to use on behalf of union of the Sonship, you will not see anything physical except as what it is. Use it for truth and you will see it truly. Misuse it and you will misunderstand it, because you have already done so by misusing it. Interpret anything apart from the Holy Spirit and you will mistrust it. This will lead you to hatred and attack and loss of peace.” 

A Course in Miracles T-8.VII.4:3-9

“The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, undimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and material, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright and imperishable glories.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 246:15-21

Born Again in New Perspective

Thanks to Peter Coffman for editing my photo

In this time of great change, it’s easy to long for the comfort of ritualistic actions and old habits. How nice it would be if we simply floated along, happily enjoying yesterday’s fruits. But life doesn’t seem to be that way. We wake up every morning and experience things in different ways. Changing thoughts bring on changing circumstance. I hope we can all hold onto each other and know that this is a good thing. Personally, I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but I relish the possibilities!

“The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.”
Mary Bakker Eddy - Science & Health Page 96:15-20

“Let us come daily to this holy place, and spend a while together. Here we share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint of all the glory given us by God. The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have come to live within their branches. Earth is being born again in new perspective. Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.”
A Course in Miracles W-pII.2.4:1-6

Communication, Cooperation, and Counting

Photo credit: Mark McGee

Once a month, I give an organ recital for a fabulous organization called Heart of Many Ways. Today, my performance was a duet with a flute player. I was a bit nervous about it because I had not played with another instrument since high school 50 years ago! When I have solo performances, I rarely prepare anything, but flip through music books and play what tickles my fancy. Playing alone, I can make mistakes and cover them up, add beats to measures, change the tempo whenever the spirit moves, and generally have a good time with little to no preparation. Playing with someone else, rules must be followed. As I had been out of town, and the flutist had other obligations, we only had an hour to prepare yesterday. Then we did eight beautiful duets today. During the practice period and performance, I realized three things are necessary for a successful melding of instruments. Cooperation, communication — and counting!! It was a good 

“Miracles make minds one in God. They depend on cooperation because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time.” A Course in Miracles T-1.I.19:1-3

“If Mind is foremost and superior, let us rely upon Mind, which needs no cooperation from lower powers, even if these so-called powers are real.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 144:3-5

Real Purpose

Different Type of Organ at Meow Wolf

My purpose is to forget the dreams of malice, revenge, hatred, and anger. These dreams of separation from our Oneness are simply that — dreams, with no relation to the reality we are coming to know. My self is the one Self we all share, so I may choose to accept this as my identity, or I can continue to choose the illusions of belief in separation. It’s not always easy to see this false identity as something I no longer want. It jumps up and down and insists that it is good and I am bad if I choose anything other than it. How grateful I am to have friends who support my decision to grasp for the heights of my Being, allowing the lower propensities to remain where they lie. Thank you greatly —

“Christian Science commands man to master the propensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures Page 405:4-9

“To me, the purpose of everything is to prove that my illusions about myself are real. It is for this purpose that I attempt to use everyone and everything. It is for this that I believe the world is for. Therefore I do not recognize its real purpose. The purpose I have given the world has led to a frightening picture of it. Let me open my mind to the world’s real purpose by withdrawing the one I have given it, and learning the truth about it.”
A Course in Miracles W-55.5:2-7