Stretch Out Your Senses

Digital art by Camille Campbell

All the Hemispheres

Leave the familiar for a while.

Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season

Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.

Make a new water-mark on your excitement

And love.

Like a blooming night flower,

Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness

And giving

Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence

Lie beside an equator

In your heart.

Greet Yourself

In your thousand other forms

As you mount the hidden tide and travel

Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven

Are sitting around a fire

Chatting

While stitching themselves together

Into the Great Circle inside of

You.

From: ‘The Subject Tonight is Love’

Poem by Hafiz - Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

You Can’t Kill Meme

Do you believe in magic? It’s a good song, that’s for sure. We all want to believe that things can happen, simply because we think about them — but is that magic? Perhaps it’s simply the way things are, although thought is powerful. I recall a documentary explaining how large numbers of people have been convinced to believe lies. It’s called, “You Can’t Kill Meme”. Frightening stuff, but I’m finally beginning to understand what has happened to us in the past few years. The mind control being exercised by large groups of people is scary, but what of the very few people who utilize the internet to exponentially heighten their thought manifestations? To quote one man, “Introduce an element of chaos to break down social hierarchies.” Without citing specific instances, what I’ve ultimately taken away from this informative video is that we must be pure in our reflection of Love and its energy. I have friends who are working for Truth and Love by the food they ingest and the information they spread, teaching us about a more pure way of living. There are many paths and we all have a purpose. Let’s not be afraid to spread love and joy! It’s our best defense against authoritarianism.

“What is healing but the removal of all that stands in the way of knowledge? And how else can one dispel illusions except by looking at them directly, without protecting them? Be not afraid, therefore, for what you will be looking at is the source of fear, and you are beginning to learn that fear is not real. You are also learning that its effects can be dispelled merely by denying their reality. The next step is obviously to recognize that what has no effects does not exist. Laws do not operate in a vacuum, and what leads to nothing has not happened. If reality is recognized by its extension, what leads to nothing could not be real. Do not be afraid, then, to look upon fear, for it cannot be seen. Clarity undoes confusion by definition, and to look upon darkness through light must dispel it.”

A Course in Miracles T-11.V.2:1-9

“Divine Life destroys death, Truth destroys error, and Love destroys hate.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 339:2-3

An Anchor of Hope

                       

Humans are extremely resilient, and our environment is awesome in its regenerative powers. The Book of Hope, by Jane Goodall, is a wonderful inspiration for our trying times. It can be difficult for us to maintain a hopeful attitude in the face of the destruction we are witnessing, but she gives us many reasons to remain hopeful. One example is a tree which was destroyed in New York City on 9/11. About a month into the clean-up process, a remnant of a pear tree was discovered between two large pieces of concrete. It almost went to the dump, but a woman asked if she could try to save it. She worked with a nursery in the Bronx and it survived! It is now planted at the memorial site and is a great inspiration to everyone, particularly those who feel hopeless. If feelings of hopelessness visit me today, I’ll remember the resurrection of the tree and know that anything is possible.

“The miracle of life is ageless, born in time but nourished in eternity. Behold this infant, to whom you gave a resting place by your forgiveness of your brother, and see in it the Will of God. Here is the babe of Bethlehem reborn. And everyone who gives him shelter will follow him, not to the cross, but to the resurrection and the life.”
A Course in Miracles T-19.IV-C.10:6-9

“The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us, and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 40:32

Thrifting

I like to shop in thrift stores. The thrill of the hunt is a fun hobby, and it’s one of the reasons I enjoy using mismatched plates and bowls: I always have a reason to look for another pattern which brings me joy! Now I'm happy when I chip a plate or break a bowl, as I have a reason to wander around in my favorite resale shop looking for a replacement. Libraries and secondhand stores hold a fascination I can’t quite describe. Not only is there a certain delight associated with finding treasures, but there’s the energy of all the hands these items have passed through. I imagine who touched the pages before, wondering if he/she was as excited as I to be learning about another way of life. In this throw-away society, there’s a certain happiness I feel in not buying things. Exchanging belongings with friends and neighbors adds to the tapestry of life. It’s the little things, don’t you think?

"All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal. You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. You go with my blessing and for my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it. We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet children are His blessed Sons. The Thoughts of God are with you.”
A Course in Miracles T-5.IV.8:2-15

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are

“Maybe the only enemy is that we don’t like the way reality is now and therefore wish it would go away fast. But what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we find the very same problem waiting for us when we arrive. It just keeps returning with new names, forms, manifestations until we learn whatever it has to teach us about where we are separating ourselves from reality, how we are pulling back instead of opening up, closing down instead of allowing ourselves to experience fully whatever we encounter, without hesitating or retreating into ourselves." 

 Pema Chödrön, in "When Things Fall Apart"

“Your whole perspective on the world will shift by just a little, every time you let your mind escape its chains. The world is not where it belongs. And you belong where it would be, and where it goes to rest when you release it from the world.Your Guide is sure. Open your mind to Him. Be still and rest.” 

A Course in Miracles W-128.7:3-8.

“The human mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 128:11-19

We’ve Been Deceived

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

We’ve been played. All of us want the same things in life — safety, enough sustenance, a home, people we love who love us — but we’ve been convinced that we’re different and some of us are “bad”. All of the name-calling and blame-shaming has had its desired effect. We have turned against each other. For the last decade or so, we’ve all been looking over our shoulder before we speak our mind. We’ve been convinced that we’re alone in our thought systems. We’ve been confined to our little bubbles of friendships and family. Sometimes even our friends and family think differently than we do, and we have been afraid of them, too – or worse, repelled by them. While most of us could name a few things we’d like to change in our country, in our society, I don’t know of anyone who wants to throw away our beautiful ideas of democracy. Maybe it takes a complete change in order to tweak a few things. But I don’t think so. Let’s work together, for the good of all. Just the way our founders dreamed we would.

“Appearances can but deceive the mind that wants to be deceived. And you can make a simple choice that will forever place you far beyond deception. You need not concern yourself with how this will be done, for this you cannot understand. But you will understand that mighty changes have been quickly brought about, when you decide one very simple thing; you do not want whatever you believe an idol gives. For thus the Son of God declares that he is free of idols. And thus is he free.”
A Course in Miracles T-30.IV.6:1-6


A lie has only one chance of successful deception, — to be accounted true. Evil seeks to fasten all error upon God, and so make the lie seem part of eternal Truth. Emerson says, “Hitch your wagon to a star.” I say, Be allied to the deific power, and all that is good will aid your journey, as the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. (Judges v. 20.) Hourly, in Christian Science, man thus weds himself with God, or rather he ratifies a union predestined from all eternity; but evil ties its wagonload of offal to the divine chariots, — or seeks so to do, — that its vileness may be christened purity, and its darkness get consolation from borrowed scintillations.”
Unity of Good page 17:1-12

The Strength of Your Conviction

 

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

I had no time to Hate -

Because

The Grave would hinder me -

And Life was not so 

Ample I

Could finish--Enmity -

Nor had I time to Love -

But since

Some Industry must be -

The little Toil of Love -

I thought

Was large enough for Me.

Emily Dickinson

“Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found, arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 94:14-16

“Fantasy is a distorted form of vision. Fantasies of any kind are distortions, because they always involve twisting perception into unreality. Actions that stem from distortions are literally the reactions of those who know not what they do. Fantasy is an attempt to control reality according to false needs. Twist reality in any way and you are perceiving destructively. Fantasies are a means of making false associations and attempting to obtain pleasure from them. But although you can perceive false associations, you can never make them real except to yourself. You believe in what you make. If you offer miracles, you will be equally strong in your belief in them. The strength of your conviction will then sustain the belief of the miracle receiver. Fantasies become totally unnecessary as the wholly satisfying nature of reality becomes apparent to both give and receiver. Reality is ‘lost’ through usurpation, which produces tyranny. As long as a single ‘slave’ remains to walk the earth, your release is not complete. Complete restoration of the Sonship is the only goal of the miracle-minded.”
A Course in Miracles T-1.VII.3:1-14