Dancing With the Absurdity of Life

Art by Laurie’s Tuxen

“Morning Atmosphere From My House in Skagen” 1916

Anne Lamott has been a bright light in my life for decades. From her early writing, “Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year”, to her recent essay written in regard to school shootings, this woman brings me hope. She helps me understand how to keep on moving forward, with determination and eventual joy. You can find her essays on her Facebook page; her books are readily available from all book sources.

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again.”
Anne Lamott - Bird by Bird, 1999

“There is one major difference in the role of Heaven’s messengers, which sets them off from those the world appoints. The messages that they deliver are intended first for them. And it is only as they can accept them for themselves that they become able to bring them further, and to give them everywhere that they were meant to be. Like earthly messengers, they did not write the messages they bear, but they become their first receivers in the truest sense, receiving to prepare themselves to give.”
A Course in Miracles W-154.6:1-4

“The author has not compromised conscience to suit the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and honestly given the text of Truth. She has made no effort to embellish, elaborate, or treat in full detail so infinite a theme.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page x:11-13

Universal Harmony

Photo courtesy of Pat Quinn

How many times have you felt that we're on the verge of the realization of universal peace and harmony? I know I have, a number of times. January 1, 2000 felt like a tipping point. Although I don't remember specific dates other than that one, I know there have been many occasions when it simply "felt like" this was it; that we would forget differences and only remember unity and the fact that we are all One. I felt this again today. Any unrest and dis-ease going on around me seemed like a cry for Love. Really, truly, I saw people reaching out for something secure in a material world full of insecurity and fear. We are all the same in the reality of Spirit. The "reign and rule of universal harmony which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen" is waiting for us to cast off fear and embrace it!

"Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven,—the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 208:20-24 

“Prayer is a way to true humility. And here again it rises slowly up, and grows in strength and love and holiness. Let it but leave the ground where it begins to rise to God, and true humility will come at last to grace the mind that thought it was alone and stood against the world. Humility brings peace because it does not claim that you must rule the universe, nor judge all things as you would have them be. All little gods it gladly lays aside, not in resentment, but in honesty and recognition that they do not serve.” 

A Course in Miracles S-1.V.1:1-

The Spiritual Activist

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

A Sense of Somebody-ness

Today I was remembering 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 Martin Luther 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

Herd - The Healing Power of Horses

 

Photo of unknown origin

The documentary, Herd, is a film about the healing power of horses, our connection with all things, and compassion. Liz Mitten Ryan is an artist, an author, and a compassionate human. She has developed a retreat in British Columbia where she and ten or so horses, a big old steer, and a few dogs and cats hold healing retreats for people who are ready to face themselves and release pain. As one woman said, “This is not so much a place to escape as it is a place to leave things behind that you don’t want any more.” All the people sharing their stories in this hour-long film had emotional baggage holding them hostage: loss of a young child, abuse of various types, or one man simply wanted to become a better physician and parent. The founder of this beautiful retreat discovered that two of her horses would touch her chakras when she was laying in their midst, and she would feel unified with them. She began to write about this phenomenon and states that she didn’t know if she was telling the animals’ stories or her own. (She says the dogs and cats were in on it, too.) She realized that horses see the invisible all around us, and that's what makes them amazing healers. We have much to learn, and the animals are ready to teach us. When we are in our truth, they come to us, and that is all they ask. 

"As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 264:13

“Think you the world could fail to gain thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed perception? Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security. He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his, and offers peace to both.” 

A Course in Miracles  W-194.8:3-5

Friendship

My cat, Scout, and our neighbor, Maggie

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Determine now to see all these people as friends. Say to them all, thinking of each one in turn as you do so: I would see you as my friend, that I may remember you are part of me and come to know myself.”
A Course in Miracles W-68.6:1-3


“Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 266:5-12

Do You Have Time To Linger?

Photo credit: Don Matt

Invitation by Mary Oliver

“Oh do you have time

to linger

for just a little while

out of your busy

and very important day

for the goldfinches

that have gathered

in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,

to see who can sing

the highest note,

or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,

or the most tender?

Their strong, blunt beaks

drink the air

as they strive

melodiously

not for your sake

and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning

but for sheer delight and gratitude –

believe us, they say,

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you,

do not walk by

without pausing

to attend to this

rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

It could mean everything.

It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:

You must change your life.”

Mary Oliver - Invitation

from A Thousand Mornings, 2013

“In you is all of Heaven. Every leaf that falls is given life in you. Each bird that ever sang will sing again in you. And every flower that ever bloomed has saved its perfume and its loveliness for you. What aim can supersede the Will of God and of His Son, that Heaven be restored to him for whom it was created as his only home? Nothing before and nothing after it. No other place; no other state nor time. Nothing beyond nor nearer. Nothing else. In any form. This can you bring to all the world, and all the thoughts that entered it and were mistaken for a little while. How better could your own mistakes be brought to truth than by your willingness to bring the light of Heaven with you, 

as you walk beyond the world of darkness into light?” 

A Course in Miracles T-25.IV.5:1-12

“Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle, — is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.” 

Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 306:25-29