Primal Order

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photo credit: Richard Quick

I​ love this quote attributed to Albert Einstein: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Through various religious teachings, most of us think of a miracle as divine power setting aside a material law, allowing something otherworldly or supernatural to occur. What if a miracle is simply a correction of our limiting beliefs, opening us to divine Mind and the limitless Life which is our true heritage as a child of Love? By this remembrance, we heal our mind of separation, giving us a clarity of thought and sight before unknown. I am very grateful —

“The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God’s unchangeable law. Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of divine power.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 135:6-10

Taking Off Human Shackles

photo credit: Aaron Springston

 ​I received a call from a political pollster which has left me confused about more than a few things. Mainly, I’m wondering when three words in particular began to imply varying degrees of lunacy. Here are the words, with a short definition: Liberal - open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. Conservative - holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation. Moderate - average in amount, intensity, quality, or degree. These words and their definitions do not convey the extreme meaning which the news media apparently wants us to feel. When I was asked by the pollster which I considered myself to be, I was speechless. But then I threw caution to the wind and answered boldly, remembering what I write about every day: change of thought, seeing a new world where illusions appear to be, living fearlessly as Love!

“Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must yield to the infinite. Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 256:1-5

Love Supports the Struggling Heart

 

My neighbor across the street was in her ​90s​ when she moved away​. ​After her husband passed on, she ​was unhappy with everything around her. Holidays reminded​ her of times they shared, and she​ was​ sad they​ were ​over. The changing of seasons ​brought grief for various husband-related reasons. She d​idn't enjoy meals or celebrations of any sort because she ​couldn't share them with him. We spoke ​many times about th​ese things​, ​because she talked about him a lot. ​When she would lament her life and tell me why she was sad, I​'d​ remind her of ​the joy around her and encourage her to participate. ​I talked her into going to a Willie Nelson concert with me once, but she mentioned time and again what Jack (her husband) would say. ​I don't think she​ understood ​it​ was all right to be happy. She fe​lt she would dishonor him by having fun without him. ​But I saw it as the opposite: the dishonor ​was in turning from joy to sadness in the name of love. ​I highly advocate honoring grief and feeling it to its full extent, giving it its due and turning it inside out. I know many widow women (as my mother would have called us), and I hope you will post your feelings and ideas on the blog, which is linked below. Namaste, dear friends ...

“Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, enlarging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for heaven.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 346: 13-16

Vibrational Energies on the Rise

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photo credit: Richard Quick

In the years I was involved with the metafizzies here in Eureka Springs, I learned many things. Never would I have been exposed to crystal skulls, or pyramid power, or any number of other fascinating thought systems if not for our weekly meetings. Because of those years, nothing surprises me today. One of the main topics of conversation in the first decade of the 2000s was that of the Mayan Calendar. Some believed that in 2012 time would end and we would simply disappear. Others predicted huge upheavals in the environment which would cause us all to die. Many people saw it as the end of an era, rather than the end of time. We have certainly seen that occur, and are still witnessing changes we never dreamed of back then. Most humans acknowledge that everything is made of energy -- and some even happily opine that we are all the same energy. As much as I dislike saying so, it seems many people are not able to accept the rising vibrational energies which are swirling around in this time of shifting consciousness. This inability to accept change is manifested in horrific ways, along with those who embrace the new paradigm and are finding joyous expressions of living the Love which is our natural state. Perhaps some of us simply can't or won't participate in these changes and are returning to pure energy to await whatever comes next. Our lives are quite an adventure on the calmest of days, and it's been a while since we've seen those! Let's love life right now, just as it is, and be kind to those who can't leave the old for the new. And please, remember to laugh and dance whenever possible!

"Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sackcloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers: 'Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's wife, -- Love wedded to its own spiritual idea.' Then cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will destroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material sense." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 574:25

Arise and Shine

 ​[This is an article from the Christian Science Monitor on Easter 2018. I particularly liked it. Happy Easter!]​

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This year Easter fell on what’s called April Fools’ Day in the United States and several other countries. The coincidence of these days got me thinking that some people might feel anyone who believes a man named Jesus literally rose from the dead is a fool of sorts.

The Bible says, “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (I Corinthians 3:19). What is wisdom – the obvious appearance that death is inevitable and irreversible? Or could there be a wisdom Christ Jesus and a few others in history have had that overcame death?

Common science describes human life as made of material elements that finally die. Yet it’s becoming more accepted in physics today that consciousness, rather than matter, may be the foundational reality.

Christian Science accepts that premise, not just intellectually but as something that can be proved by degrees in daily life. It takes the Bible accounts of Jesus’ power to heal disease and injury and even raise people from death as evidence that he understood each life as the expression of an indestructible Principle called God. His advanced consciousness of life as wholly spiritual could restore what we observe as physical life.

It’s a big claim to say that even one person actually rose from the dead, but one way to think of it as not just a legend is to begin taking small steps ourselves toward proving it. For example, it’s possible to rise from the death of joy regarding something we’re missing by gaining the consciousness that happiness isn’t in something physical but is always present if we live to give it to others. Many people have risen from the death of hope and have overcome fear or shame or sickness through the consciousness that they are loved by the perfect Love that gives life.

Easter is a celebration of healing possibilities for those who accept that consciousness, rather than physicality, constitutes life. That’s not foolishness. It’s the promise of expanding life for everyone, one risen thought at a time.

Free Your Mind

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photo credit: Richard Quick

In my lifetime, I have seen a huge evolution in thought! A video story set in Australia in the 1950s has reminded me of how far we’ve come. (For you video buffs, it’s called A Place to Call Home.) It’s beautiful to see what beliefs we have given up, replacing them with Love rather than fear. For instance, we had many closed-minded ideas about people of different skin color marrying each other, not to mention the barriers imposed by religious separation and gender. People had to live through electrical shock treatment and its aftermath to “cure” homosexuality or hysteria. Natural acts, such as giving birth, were thought of as a disease which needed to be managed in torturous ways. We’ve come a long way in dispelling erroneous thought and replacing it with what we now see as advanced thinking! What if we’re meant to advance even further? We’ll never know until we are able to divest ourselves of the shackles holding us in place, and listen to the guidance of divine Mind inspiring us to heights never before imagined!

"Our false views of matter perish as we grasp the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the inspiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be lost." ​Mary Baker Eddy - ​Science & Health Page 281:28-1

Ethereal Flights

 

photo credit: Datura Böes

I vividly remember a sleeping dream from a few years ago. In it, we had no need to speak, as we knew each other's thoughts. We had no fear, as our thoughts were uncluttered and pure. Everywhere I looked there were happy people, busy at tasks which would benefit everyone. There was no need for television or radios, as we knew everything, and it was Good. At one point, I thought I was lost in the woods, but that was impossible because others sensed my confusion and were there immediately to lead me to a safe and beautiful home. While traveling on a road, suddenly the way was filled with huge boulders and ancient fallen trees, but to the left side there was a field filled with beautiful flowers, and a pathway leading to my destination. All needs were met before I knew of them. And there was the most wonderful sense of peace. I will hold to these beautiful feelings today, while seeing the meaningless basis of my ego-driven thoughts and desires. [I wrote this a number of years ago. There was also a man in the dream who reminded me of Steve Jobs. A few years later, I met a man and remembered him from this dream]

“Sleep and apathy are phases of the dream that life, substance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its mundane flights quite ethereal.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 249:24-30