I Want To Be Like Jennifer

Herb and Jennifer in WKRP in Cincinnati 

Recently, I told a friend about a scene I remembered from a decades-old sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati. The beautiful character played by Lonnie Anderson was stuck in an elevator with the boorish character named Herb. There was a fire in the building and Herb was certain they were going to die. Jennifer, played by Lonnie Anderson, said to him, “Everything will be all right.” Herb told her she couldn’t possibly know that. Lonnie Anderson said yes, she did, because nothing bad ever happened to her! I told my friend that when I heard that, I realized that was the attitude I wanted for myself. And now I realize I have it! No matter what happens, I do not label it as good or bad; I look at it for what it is. This putting aside of judgment and preconceived notions doesn’t happen overnight. And many times, I forget and fall into old thought patterns. I used to see things as bad and want to turn them into good. I might’ve seen good and wanted it to be bad! But whatever the case, it is such a relief to see things as they are, without putting my interpretations on them.

“Communication ends separation. Attack promotes it. 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.4:1-9

“The world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, — blind to the reality of man’s existence, — for the world of sensation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health 13:29-32

Moving Through The Day

Dinner Salad

How many tears of frustration have I shed today? Let me not count them! My every move must be analyzed, watched, planned. There can be no mindless moves, nor rushed actions. This is a study in being in the present moment. I’ve always thought I lived in the Now, but how little did I know! A few times today I found myself thinking, “I can’t do this“. Eventually, I caught myself in this negative thought and started turning it around to something like, “Yes, this is difficult, but I’ll think of it as a little mini-workout, feeling every muscle stretch out, every move, enjoying what seems so difficult.” And so it is. As I enjoy my freshly-made salad this evening, while watching a favorite series called Stick, I am grateful for the cooler weather coming soon. I am thankful for the showers of rain we have had today, and the bees and hummingbirds I see flying in my garden. What could be better?

“Who could maintain that lessons such as these are easy? Yet you have learned more than this. You have continued, taking every step, however difficult, without complaint, until a world was built that suited you. And every lesson that makes up the world arises from the first accomplishment of learning; an enormity so great the Holy Spirit’s Voice seems small and still before its magnitude. The world began with one strange lesson, powerful enough to render God forgotten, and His Son an alien to himself, in exile from the home where God Himself established him. You who have taught yourself the Son of God is guilty, say not that you cannot learn the simple things salvation teaches you!”
A Course in Miracles T-31.I.4:1-6

“This Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of being for time and eternity.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 285:3-6

Love Fulfills Itself

I’m home, happy, and tired. So I give you these words:

LET THESE BE YOUR DESIRES - KAHLIL GIBRAN

"Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself

But if your love and must needs have desires,

Let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook

That sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart

And give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer

For the beloved in your heart

And a song of praise upon your lips."

KAHLIL GIBRAN

“These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here.”

A Course in Miracles W-186.14:1-6

“One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 340:22-29

Make Room For The New

Photo courtesy of Gabe Carlson

“You have no obligation to be

the same person you were minutes ago.”

–Alan Watts

“You wish to have proof of

A world beyond this one?

See how the old leaves fall and

Makes room for the new.

A new day, a new night, a new garden,

Even a new trap to fall into. 

A new thought in each breath.

Newness is a wonder.

It surely is a treasure.

Did you ever wonder

Where the new comes from? 

Where the old disappear to?

The world is a flowing stream,

It looks enclosed and unchanging,

But the old flows away and

The new arrives.”

—Rumi 

“To be free of all authority, 

of your own and that of another, 

is to die to everything of yesterday, 

so that your mind is always fresh, 

always young, innocent, full of vigour

and passion. 

It is only in that state that 

one learns and observes.”

–Jiddu Krishnamurti 

“This course is a beginning, not an end. Your Friend goes with you. You are not alone. No one who calls on Him can call in vain. Whatever troubles you, be certain that He has the answer, and will gladly give it to you, if you simply turn to Him and ask it of Him. He will not withhold all answers that you need for anything that seems to trouble you. He knows the way to solve all problems, and resolve all doubts. His certainty is yours. 

You need but ask it of Him, and it will be given you.”

A Course in Miracles W-ep.1:1-9

“Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man was not created from a material basis, nor bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never made; 

his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher law of Mind.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 307:25-30

The Wonder of Every Little Thing

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

You know that feeling when your electricity or water has been out for a few hours — or longer! — and it comes back on? You’re ecstatic, elated, grateful! That is how I felt today as the physical therapists gave me a date and time of release from this lovely facility of rehabilitation. I’ve been happily making plans all day and imagining the feeling of my cats’ fur and the sound of their purrs. The bliss of watching fireflies rise out of my mess of a cottage garden is a heavenly thought. The memory of watching a sunset from my back deck brings a kind of peace to my mind like nothing else. I’m looking forward to every little thing, and I am feeling great happiness — elation, even!

“As you can hear two voices, so you can see in two ways. One way shows you an image, or an idol that you may worship out of fear, but will never love. The other shows you only truth, which you will love because you will understand it. Understanding is appreciation, because what you understand you can identify with, and by making it part of you, you have accepted it with love. That is how God Himself created you; in understanding, in appreciation and in love.”
A Course in Miracles T-7.V.9:1-6

“Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, — all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 240:1-9

Undoing Error — or When Pigs Fly!

"When Pigs Fly" by Michael Sowa

Review #6 in A Course in Miracles Workbook is very exciting to many of us! “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” My little mortal mind, or ego, wants me to believe this is foolishness. How can I be lying here in this hospital bed if I am not a body? Because we were not created as bodies, but as Spirit. That is what Jesus was here to teach us: We are spiritual, not material. We are all capable of much more than we have been led to believe. I never understood why people didn’t shout hallelujah and do what that delightful man instructed: The things I do, you can do also — and more! But for some reason, that did not happen. Nor did it happen when various seers tried to take us to Truth. But it is happening as more and more of us realize the kingdom of heaven resides within our own selves. It’s not some place in the sky, but right here and now. The more of us realize this, the more of us will realize this! We are free!

"Question: What is the scientific statement of being?
Answer: There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 468:8-16

“A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays within time’s limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love’s awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.”
A Course in Miracles W-pII.13.1:1-6

Let Us Not Fight Our Function

A friend recently shared with me a book: Women Who Love Books Too Much by Brenda Knight. A quote from the end of the introduction: “A great book or poem is, at its zenith , an expression of the divine. For you, for me, for the women portrayed here, to read, and to write is to live!“ This book is a tribute to women throughout recorded time who have dared to write, to be creative, to be political. May we never be silent, nor afraid we’re not good enough, or frightened of our own power.
Namaste …

“The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality--much error--in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun.”
Mary Baker Eddy-Science & Health Page 295:14-24

“Let us not fight our function. We did not establish it. It is not our idea. The means are given us by which it will be perfectly accomplished. All that we are asked to do is to accept our part in genuine humility, and not deny with self-deceiving arrogance that we are worthy. What is given us to do, we have the strength to do. Our minds are suited perfectly to take the part assigned to us by One Who knows us well.”
A Course in Miracles W-186.2:1-7