Make Room For The New

Photo Courtesy of Blake Lasater

“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

An Ancient Journey

Don't we all love new beginnings? Every symbolic new beginning which we experience gives us hope that there truly will be one — this time. We yearn for peace and plenty, purity of heart and environment, and joy Sometimes we catch glimpses of what it could be like. I felt a big shift on New Year's Eve in the year 2000. There was a palpable expectation of change, and now, two-and-a-half decades later, I feel it is upon us. A true new beginning is at hand -- your hand and mine, today, right now. Let’s not be distracted by ego-based taunting, urging us join in the game which is being enacted all around us. By giving energy to the lower propensities, we remain stuck in this muddle of material belief. Raising thought above what cries out so loudly for attention, we allow ourselves a new beginning in every situation. Ah, ever-flowing forever — now!

“The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only, — that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 502:24-27

"Be not afraid. We only start again an ancient journey long ago begun that but seems new. We have begun again upon a road we travelled on before and lost our way a little while. And now we try again. Our new beginning has the certainty the journey lacked till now. Look up and see His Word among the stars, where He has set your Name along with His. Look up and find your certain destiny the world would hide but God would have you see."
A Course in Miracles C-ep.3.

Expressions of Love

Celebrating Holidays With A Dear Friend

Many people think of winter as a time of new beginnings. The winter solstice signifies a time of dying and being reborn, and that feels good to me. Visiting with friends, old and new, is energizing in and of itself. When that is coupled with spiritually uplifting conversations, beautiful music, and all the other nurturing events clustered into a few scant days, most of us are floating on Cloud 9 before the end of the year. Throw in a few sappy holiday movies and I’m in heaven. Of course, a seer once told us the kingdom of heaven is within us, and we’ve celebrated that knowledge ever since! As we grow in our understanding of the metaphysical Truth which Jesus was here to teach us, we gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a reflection of divine Love. Realizing everything is either an expression of love or a call for love allows us to release attack thoughts about others and enjoy the peace of a quiet mind. Namaste, dear Friends …

“The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever. What it gives must be eternal. It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. It brings renewal to all tired hearts, and lights all vision as it passes by. All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give, and you who have received.”
A Course in Miracles W-188.3:1-6

“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 264:13-19

Set Your Table With a Spotless Cloth

Flat Earthers, Hoarders, Agoraphobics -- I've been thinking about people who exhibit what could be called aberrant behavior. I have friends who are afraid to lose their past because they wouldn't know who they are; then there are those afraid of the future, hence they're afraid of everything. I think about personas I've tried on through the years: a survivalist in the early 80's; my mother said the only thing that "saved me from being a hippie" in the 70s was that I liked to be clean (little did she know it has nothing to do with outer accoutrements!); for a summer I even wanted to be a go-go dancer -- ha! There are many identities we can cling to, and it's certainly difficult to keep from mentioning one or more when asked "who are you?" In the new year, my word for the year shall be "truth". It doesn't matter to me what may happen as the result of truth telling; I simply want everything to be out in the open. While pondering that, I realize that the proclivities we identify with are part of what we have decided upon as our own personal truth. As part of my new, more-open thought, I resolve to not fault anyone for thinking in ways I find to be odd or disconcerting. We all have different expressions of the divinity we are, and it is not my place to pass judgment. (Although I'm not sure what's up with people who think the earth is flat!) Happy end-of- the-year, end-of-an-era, to everyone. Here's to Truth!

"Love, too, would set a feast before you, on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden where no sound but singing and a softly joyous whispering is ever heard. This is a feast that honors your holy relationship, and at which everyone is welcomed as an honored guest. And in a holy instant grace is said by everyone together, as they join in gentleness before the table of communion. And I will join you there, as long ago I promised and promise still. For in your new relationship am I made welcome. And where I am made welcome, there I am." 

A Course in Miracles T-19.IV.A.16. 

“Thus we arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human illusions. If Soul sinned, it would be mortal, for sin is mortality’s self, because it kills itself. If Truth is immortal, error must be mortal, because error is unlike Truth. Because Soul is immortal, Soul cannot sin, for sin is not the eternal verity of being.

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:32-7

Seeing the Face of Christ in Each Other

The Big Jesus

Also Known As: Christ of the Ozarks

In Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Photo credit: Ron Lutz

I’ve never understood wars, and so-called religious wars are particularly incomprehensible. As a youngster, upon hearing of the disputes between the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, I thought there must be something incredibly important to cause so much death and destruction. As an adult, I discovered it was basically a disagreement of semantics. When I began playing organ for the Catholics and Methodists a few years back, I learned many things about mainstream religion. As I’d only been exposed to Christian Science services before this, I had no idea what other churches thought of communion, Jesus, death, and the concept of God in general. I could go on and on about this, but there’s no reason to do so. The main thing I discovered is that there is basically no difference in the Protestants and Catholics — certainly nothing to precipitate years of battle. And now we have denominations breaking apart over human rights. What a waste of time and energy, when we could simply follow Jesus’ two great precepts. Let’s love one another actively, and love God with every thought and action. Happy Holidays EVERYONE!

“The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his own statements: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life;’ ‘I and my Father are one.’ This Christ, or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 26:10-18

“The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.”
A Course in Miracles - C-5.2:1-6

Peace is our Gift to Each Other

Art by J. Clement Wall 

Praying for peace — I think we are all doing this in our individual way. It is extremely painful to see the ravages of war. It’s difficult to face and understand the unrest within the United States over more things than I care to count. With this in mind, I offer you quotes on peace today.   Namaste …

"We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate - thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising."

 Maya Angelou

"Peace is our gift to each other." 

Elie Wiesel

"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures." 

John F. Kennedy

"There is no time left for anything but to make peace work a dimension of our every waking activity." 

Elise M. Boulding

"Every year at this time, an important phrase marks the season: peace on earth and goodwill towards men. It's so common we sometimes forget about what it really means - that we strive for a world without war, a society where we respect and help our neighbors, a place where we protect and uplift our most in need. This isn't a phrase we should live by for one day or one month. It's a set of values that must bond and motivate us every day." 

Dennis Kucinich

“We cannot give what we do not have: We cannot bring peace to the world if we ourselves are not peaceful. We cannot bring love to the world if we ourselves are not loving. Our true gift to ourselves and others lies not in what we have but in who we are.”

Marianne Williamson

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress." 

Mary Baker Eddy 

“Illusion meets illusion; truth, itself. The meeting of illusions leads to war. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself. War is the condition in which fear is born, and grows and seeks to dominate. Peace is the state where love abides, and seeks to share itself. Conflict and peace are opposites. Where one abides the other cannot be; where either goes the other disappears. So is the memory of God obscured in minds that have become illusions’ battleground. Yet far beyond this senseless war it shines, ready to be remembered when you side with peace.” 

A Course in Miracles

Peace Like A River — Happy Christmas Day

Joni Mitchell - photo by Joel Bernstein

"God's answer is some form of peace. All pain is healed; all misery replaced with joy. All prison doors are opened. And all sin is understood as merely a mistake."
A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #359

Peace like a river. As I read the above words. this is what keeps coming to mind. Peace like a river. On this beautiful Christmas morning, I allow all imprisoning beliefs to leave my mind, while welcoming Love through the Science of the Christ. The Christ that we celebrate today flows through each and every thing there is. It leads us to healing in all thought and deed. It keeps us happy, safe, wholly directed by eternal Truth to green pastures and quiet repose. Peace like a river, flowing before and around us, pulling and pushing wherever we need to be. I won't fight the flow. I'll float and rest in the Christ consciousness which we celebrate today. This Spirit which permeates everything is recognized by me for what it is: God's answer.

“Christmas to me is the reminder of God's great gift, — His spiritual idea, man and the universe, — a gift which so transcends mortal, material, sensual giving that the merriment, mad ambition, rivalry, and ritual of our common Christmas seem a human mockery in mimicry of the real worship in commemoration of Christ's coming.

“I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth's appearing.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Miscellany 262:20-30

“Let no despair darken the joy of Christmas, for the time of Christ is meaningless apart from joy. Let us join in celebrating peace by demanding no sacrifice of anyone, for so you offer me the love I offer you. What can be more joyous than to perceive we are deprived of nothing? Such is the message of the time of Christ, which I give you that you may give it and return it to the Father, Who gave it to me. For in the time of Christ communication is restored, and He joins us in the celebration of His Son’s creation.”
A Course in Miracles T-15.XI.8:1-5