Is Healing Love a Cliché

Photo credit: Stephen Shogren

Love heals. We hear this so often, it's probably become somewhat of a cliché. We may think that nothing can heal the ills of the world, much less something as intangible as love. What if love were the most powerful force in the universe? Not just an emotion called love, but an omnipotent, gentle presence which is a synonym for Source. What if experiencing this Love was sufficient to heal every thought of evil or sickness or misery which has ever been imagined? Then we'd all be lining up to get some of this stuff, don't you think? And it's even easier than that. We only need get out of our own way to see what has always been there. Love heals.

“One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 598:23-25

“Who uses but Christ’s vision finds a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly changeless, that the world contains no counterpart. Comparisons are still before this peace. And all the world departs in silence as this peace envelops it, and gently carries it to truth, no more to be the home of fear. For love has come, and healed the world by giving it Christ’s peace.” 

A Course in Miracles - W-305.1:1-4

Awareness of Love’s Presence

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Spending the better part of two weeks with my son, his fantastic wife, and their baby, has been a time of renewal for me. The past few years have been difficult for us all. We’ve experienced friends’ deaths, illnesses, and other emotionally draining events. It seems there’s no time to recover from one sadness before another is upon us. Even so, until I held my sweet grandson in my arms, I had not realized how bereft I was feeling. The rejuvenation of spirit this new child brought to my existence was surprising in its intensity. And the gratitude I feel for the rushes of love experienced from holding him have been an awakening from a slumber not realized. I suppose it’s easy to slip into a certain ennui and not know it. Perhaps this is something many others are not aware of feeling, because nothing has awakened them, such as a sweet new baby looking in their eyes. Let us not forget to be kind to each other. There’s no way to know how it could change a life. Namaste…

"When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts." 

~ Mary Baker Eddy

“The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.” A Course in Miracles T-in.1:6-7

Hitting the Road …

This was Torin’s first time to be outside sitting on the ground. He is not pleased. 😊 

Soon I will be traveling to Colorado to meet my grand baby! I love visiting with my son and his wife, so this will be extra special having their new addition there, too. My writings will be sporadic for the next two weeks. Please know you are in my heart…

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.” Kahlil Gibran

Happiness is Love. Full Stop.

Eureka Women - photo credit, Richard Quick

Arthur C Brooks has spent decades studying happiness. We all know that things which bring us pleasure in our early years are not necessarily what nurtures us in our later ones. In his recent book, “From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life”, this columnist for The Atlantic reports, “Those who are unhappiest later in life are often the strivers on a continual quest for money, power, pleasure, and prestige.” Mr. Brooks also teaches a class on happiness at Harvard Business School. He tells us what most of us already know: “The world gives you a bogus formula for happiness. No 1: Use people. No. 2: Love things. No 3: Worship yourself. And it actually seems right because it’s so close to the truth. It just mixes up the nouns and the verbs. The right formula, based on all of the best neuroscience, clinical, and social scientific research, is simply: Use things, love people, and worship the divine. You can boil down all of the studies of happiness to five words. Those words are: Happiness is love. Full stop.” 

"Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 57:18-21

“Happy dreams come true, not because they are dreams, but only because they are happy. And so they must be loving. Their message is, ‘Thy Will be done,’and not, ‘I want it otherwise.’” A Course in Miracles Text Page 223

Reflections of Truth

unknown photographer 

Many, perhaps most, self-help books concentrate on how to change behaviors. The two disciplines I study focus on how to rid ourselves of barriers in our thoughts which keep us from being our true selves. What if everything we deem to be wrong about ourselves would simply melt away if we actually knew that we are the image and likeness of our Source? Mary Baker Eddy defines God as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. We are the reflection of these words. And they are capitalized because the same words with a small letter at the beginning would simply be the ego’s creations, mortal mind’s confusing interpretations  — of which there are many! When I notice myself falling into the little letter mode of thought, I try not to berate myself, but simply turn thought to a higher level than where the world continually encourages it to be. Let’s be gentle with our corrections, just as Love is. 

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it IS necessary to seek for what is false."

A Course in Miracles, Text, page 338

“Correct material belief by spiritual understanding and Spirit will form you anew." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health 425:24

Grief Without Suffering

 

Photo credit: Blake Lasater 

My thoughts turn to a family friend from long ago. She was a wonderful, spiritually-aware person who showed me the truth in Workbook Lesson #248 from A Course in Miracles: “Whatever suffers is not part of me”. Over the course of a year, this friend’s husband passed on, her daughter was in a car accident which left her in a coma for months before she died, and her house burned down. While I know she felt grief, I'm not sure there was despair. She always had a twinkle in her eye and a generous heart. When she herself passed on some 20 years later, I am told she went with a smile on her face. I often think of her. "Whatever suffers is not a part of me" is not a heartless statement. It doesn't deny the feelings we have, nor does it bring a hardness which excludes emotion. On the contrary! It's a pure Love which allows us to face hard times with a firm understanding of the beauty of Truth. After walking through the grief, we're free to see that nothing can touch our true Self or change the reality of Love. My heart is with everyone in the midst of grief today. Namaste …

"If grief causes suffering, convince the sufferer that affliction is often the source of joy, and that he should rejoice always in ever-present Love." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 377:3

Cosmic Time

We all have experienced the relativity of time passing. Time spent in the dentist’s chair passes much slower than time laughing and talking to friends! Years ago, it seemed we had sped up time with all of the rushing about we do. Even youngsters think time  passes quickly. Then the pandemic came and time took on a whole new persona, don’t you think? It seems to be both slow and fast at the same time! I can’t tell you if something happened a couple of months ago or last year — unless there is a definitive event involved. When we were told that big cosmic changes were on the way, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the world we are now experiencing. And individually we are feeling both torn and united. We have loved ones dying, being hospitalized, breaking bones, losing their homes, losing their minds. And somehow there seems to be greater clarity than ever. It’s an impossible thing for me to define, but we need to talk to each other when we become afraid. Love is stronger than fear, and we only need a reminder of that to bring us back to true reality. Namaste, dear friends …

“The miracle minimizes the need for time. In the longitudinal or horizontal plane the recognition of the equality of the members of the Sonship appears to involve almost endless time. However, the miracle entails a sudden shift from horizontal to vertical perception. This introduces an interval from which the giver and receiver both emerge farther along in time than they would otherwise have been. The miracle thus has the unique property of abolishing time to the extent that it renders the interval of time it spans unnecessary. There is no relationship between the time a miracle takes and the time it covers. The miracle substitutes for learning that might have taken thousands of years. It does so by the underlying recognition of perfect equality of giver and receiver on which the miracle rests. The miracle shortens time by collapsing it, thus eliminating certain intervals within it. ¹It does this, however, within the larger temporal sequence.” A Course in Miracles - T-1.II.6:1-10 

“You may know when first Truth leads by the fewness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that the march of time bears onward freedom’s banner. The powers of this world will fight, and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass the guard until it subscribes to their systems, but Science, heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth’s standard.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 7