Free Listening

What would you do if you saw a person sitting on the steps of a building with a sign that said, “Free Listening”? I read an article about a man, Kip Clark, who did this on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his words, "Listening is at the root of anything good that exists between people. It can have a powerful impact when done with sincerity and presence." I’ve been noticing how often people only hear a portion of what is being said — or written. This leads to misunderstandings and hurt feelings. The man featured in this article says he offers no advice, but pays attention without judgment, speaking if it seems appropriate, but mainly listening. Feelings of loneliness and isolation are at an all-time high, and we are searching for ways to help others feel included. Perhaps this is the way. We can all listen with attention and respond when it feels right, allowing true communication to create unity. This could pertain to someone who lives in our home, or a friend far away, or the clerk in the food market. I feel excited at the prospect of being a sounding board during these times of immediate response and rebuttal via social media! 

“Be still and listen to the truth today. For each five minutes spent in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will hear the holy Word you hear. And when the hour is past, you will again release a thousand more who pause to ask that truth be given them, along with you.” 

—A Course in Miracles W-106.9:1-3

“Ears. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding. Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, ‘Having ears, hear ye not?’ (Mark viii. 18.) 

—Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 585:1-4

Solidly Here

A Gathering of Friends 

“Lean on us, we are solidly here. Strong. With love in our hearts.” These are the words written from a friend to another friend whose husband had just begun hospice care. I’ve said before how important it is to have a strong network of friends, and this seems to be more important as we age. Perhaps it’s not more important; maybe it’s that we find ourselves in need of the comfort more often. For instance, I have friends with dementia, others with serious illnesses, a couple are having a tough time retiring from their life work; although some of us are enjoying said retirement very much, because there is more time to bask in the lifelong connections we have nurtured over the years. I also know some people who feel alone and without deep connections. That’s when it becomes important to realize that we are never alone, by virtue of our constant kinship with Mother Earth, and with each other through divine Mind. Allowing ourselves to sink into the arms of all-encompassing Love brings a security few other relationships afford us. And I am grateful …

“When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His, — no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 205:32-3

“Love is freedom. To look for it by placing yourself in bondage is to separate yourself from it. For the Love of God, no longer seek for union in separation, nor for freedom in bondage! As you release, so will you be released. Forget this not, or Love will be unable to find you and comfort you.”
—A Course in Miracles T-16.VI.2:1-5

You Can’t Push the River

Alaska - photo from Aaron Springston

A dear friend is trying to make a decision about her future: whether to sell her business, how to sell a house she loves, where to go — if anywhere. Hearing her worries reminded me of 30 years ago when I wanted to move to my present village. My boys were going to Clear Spring School and I decided to move from Berryville to Eureka Springs. There were obstacles which seemed insurmountable and no matter how much I planned and worried, nothing was working out. At some point I read an article purported to be written by Mary Baker Eddy entitled “Place”, and it was her words which allowed me to stop all the mental chatter and surrender to divine Mind. Shortly afterwards, I was recycling newspapers and a house rental ad jumped off the page at me. It’s the same house where I’ve happily raised my children, the home where inspiration was sparked for a business which introduced me to hundreds of great friends, the place I love to be more than anywhere. Through the years, I've watched in wonder as answers come when I no longer worry over possibilities. Unfortunately, trying to explain this concept is not easy. Yielding of personal will is not a popular idea. We are learning we can't push the river...

“The place you seek is seeking you, the place you need is needing you.”
—Mary Baker Eddy [There is some controversy as to whether she wrote the article entitled “Place”.

“Child of Light, you know not that the light is in you. Yet you will find it through its witnesses, for having given light to them they will return it. Each one you see in light brings your light closer to your awareness. Love always leads to love. The sick, who ask for love, are grateful for it, and in their joy they shine with holy thanks. And this they offer you who gave them joy. They are your guides to joy, for having received it of you they would keep it. You have established them as guides to peace, for you have made it manifest in them. And seeing it, its beauty calls you home.”
—A Course in Miracles T-13.VI.10:1-9

On Beauty …

Solar Eclipse in Antarctica 

Kahlil Gibran has always been my go-to inspirational guru. After watching numerous skating events, I was drawn to see what he had to say about beauty. Even if you do not want to read the whole poem, please go to the last stanza. It knocks me out!

On Beauty

BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

And a poet said, Speak to us of Beauty.

     And he answered:

     Where shall you seek beauty, and how

shall you find her unless she herself be your

way and your guide?

     And how shall you speak of her except

she be the weaver of your speech?

 

     The aggrieved and the injured say,

“Beauty is kind and gentle.

     Like a young mother half-shy of her

own glory she walks among us.”

     And the passionate say, “Nay, beauty is

a thing of might and dread.

     Like the tempest she shakes the earth

beneath us and the sky above us.”

 

     The tired and the weary say, “Beauty is

of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.

     Her voice yields to our silences like a faint

light that quivers in fear of the shadow.”

     But the restless say, “We have heard her

shouting among the mountains,

     And with her cries came the sound of

hoofs, and the beating of wings and

the roaring of lions.”

 

     At night the watchmen of the city say,

“Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the

east.”

     And at noontide the toilers and the way-

farers say, “We have seen her leaning over

the earth from the windows of the sunset.”

 

     In winter say the snow-bound, “She shall

come with the spring leaping upon the hills.”

     And in the summer heat the reapers say,

“We have seen her dancing with the autumn

leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her

hair.”

     All these things have you said of beauty,

     Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of

needs unsatisfied,

     And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

     It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty

hand stretched forth,

     But rather a heart enflamed and a soul en-

chanted.

     It is not the image you would see nor the

song you would hear,

     But rather an image you see though you

close your eyes and a song you hear though

you shut your ears.

     It is not the sap within the furrowed bark,

nor a wing attached to a claw,

     But rather a garden for ever in bloom and

a flock of angels for ever in flight.

 

     People of Orphalese, beauty is life when

life unveils her holy face.

     But you are life and you are the veil.

     Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mir-

ror.

     But you are eternity and you are the mir-

ror.

— On Beauty, by Kahlil Gibran

Wholehearted Joy

Alysa Liu in Free Skate Olympic Event

In the last couple of days, many of us have witnessed pure joy skating on ice. Alysa Liu skates with a freedom we seldom see in any creature other than the very young, when they are playing with no thought for anything other than how good it feels. This young woman began to win skating competitions at an extremely young age, then stopped because of the pressure she felt and the restrictions being imposed on her. But she missed the feeling of pushing herself physically, of giving everything she had, and she began competing again a couple of years ago. Yesterday, she won a gold medal in the women’s singles competition. She is the epitome of what these United States have been founded upon. Her father immigrated to this country following his participation in protests over the Tiananmen Square events in Beijing. Alysa had a very non-traditional childhood, but says that memories of living in a small apartment with her four siblings are happy ones. Look up her winning free-style performance on youtube. I guarantee some of her exuberance will spread to you!

“Joy calls forth an integrated willingness to share it, and promotes the mind’s natural impulse to respond as one. Those who attempt to heal without being wholly joyous themselves call forth different kinds of responses at the same time, and thus deprive others of the joy of responding wholeheartedly.”

—A Course in Miracles T-5.in.1:6-7

“Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is spiritual.”

—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:23-30

Metaphorical Sunbeams

Pine Forest in Tirol - 1890

Art by Bertha Weggman

A cantankerous friend, who insists he’s an atheist, engaged me in a discussion about God. His diatribe consisted of stories from the news about people’s actions in the name of their church and beliefs. He told me of close friends who profess to be Christians, yet have become increasingly hateful in their speech in the last few years. I countered each of his stories with stories of my own which illustrated what I think of as God. I told him of a non-dualistic God, one which doesn’t sit up on a cloud granting favors and dispensing retribution, but which is found within. I endeavored to explain how this ever-presence wasn’t pantheism because God is not IN us, but God IS us — in much the same way as a sunbeam is the expression of the sun. We are the experience of divine Love, Mind, Soul, Truth, Spirit, Life. The peace of God is shining through me now.

“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

“Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose ‘light shall we see light;’ and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense.”
—Mary Baker Eddy Science & Health Page 510:9-12

Perceiving Our Oneness is Healing

 

Bad Bunny at Super Bowl Halftime Show

Many times I day, I must remind myself to “practice what I preach”. It’s easy to see how others are allowing their thoughts and actions to work against the greater Good — or the lesser good, according to perceptions. But to recognize it within myself, that is more difficult. I tend to rationalize my way of thinking about things, pretending my words are coming from love, not fear. The main reason for keeping my thoughts above the onslaught of material turmoil is that it will do no good to join in the anger and sadness. No matter how bad I feel, it will not improve the situation. This goes for not only the global craziness we are witnessing, but the health issues many of our friends are in the midst of minding. My compassion doesn’t require me to cry and repeat symptoms to others, but it does demand that I lift up my thoughts about the situation. And by that I mean: seeing through the picture and recognizing the reality hidden by the illusion. As someone who has witnessed the beauty of spiritual/metaphysical healing since childhood, I also recognize how easy it is to fall into by-rote thinking about physical causes and cures. And so today I shall double down on my desire to know the Truth about our true, spiritual selves. Join me!

“Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them, and lets God go out into them and through them. Only the healed mind can experience revelation with lasting effect, because revelation is an experience of pure joy. If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot have what it does not choose to be. Remember that spirit knows no difference between having and being. The higher mind thinks according to the laws spirit obeys, and therefore honors only the laws of God. To spirit getting is meaningless and giving is all. Having everything, spirit holds everything by giving it, and thus creates as the Father created. While this kind of thinking is totally alien to having things, even to the lower mind it is quite comprehensible in connection with ideas. If you share a physical possession, you do divide its ownership. If you share an idea, however, you do not lessen it. All of it is still yours although all of it has been given away. Further, if the one to whom you give it accepts it as his, he reinforces it in your mind and thus increases it. If you can accept the concept that the world is one of ideas, the whole belief in the false association the ego makes between giving and losing is gone.”
—A Course in Miracles T-5.I.1:1-14

“You render the divine law of healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in the scale with the divine, or limit in any direction of thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of God.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 445:14-18