A Great Secret

 'Tis the season! I am reminded tonight that many people are feeling bad for many reasons. Usually, I'm oblivious to these feelings unless someone points them out to me, as was done this evening during our celebration choir dress rehearsal. I came home and almost immediately fell asleep on the couch. I'm going to bed now with this Mary Baker statement in my mind.

Namaste...

"I have learned a great secret.

I have learned how to demonstrate, I have learned how to make Science a thing of life, not of words.

I am going to tell you what the secret is, and it is wonderful.

It is this: Not to see or hear or repeat any kind of imperfection.

It is seeing and hearing and repeating good only, at all times and under all circumstances, and in spite of everything that appears to the contrary.

I make this resolve every morning, when I first open my eyes, and I renew it every hour of the day.

I see perfection in myself, in my friends, in my so-called enemy, in my affairs and in world affairs.

I take my radical stand for the perfection of God and everything and for everything and everybody [It] has created. I look upon the world with God's eyes and see it just as [Love] sees it, and I refuse to see it in any other way.

I stop a dozen times a day, and renew the resolve, and make sure that I am not repeating error or giving way to criticism. I watch my thoughts about people, the lame, the old, the unloved to sense that I pass in the street, stray animals; I except nothing. I have taken my radical stand for perfection and I will not, absolutely will not, relax this perfect standard.

The result has been simply marvelous. Try it and you will find that you forget your glasses; they will become unnecessary.

You will be seeing with God's eyes, [Mind's] perfect sight, and you will behold a perfect universe, the outward condition of your inward thinking. To change the picture you must change the sight that produced the picture." 

By Mary Baker Eddy

Play Bridge!

 

A friend stopped for a visit today. She was on her way to apply for a job at a local restaurant. She is doing this because she needs interaction and stimulation. As she put it, if it weren’t for her husband’s doctors’ appointments, she wouldn’t know what day it was. I further contemplated this situation when I saw an episode of Boston Legal, wherein Betty White plays a character who has outlived all her friends and feels she has no purpose, nor anything which brings enjoyment. As she said, “What am I supposed to do? Go skiing?”  Most things I love to do are well-suited to a sedentary lifestyle, particularly the card game of bridge. I highly encourage everyone to cultivate this skill because you are guaranteed a lifetime of companionship and mental stimulation. Many of the best bridge players in the world are in their 80s and 90s. This activity successfully puts the young and old on the same playing field. Not just young and old, but all social and economical parameters are bypassed in this activity. Warren Buffett can sit at the same table with a penniless teenager and they will be equals. This game has also bridged the limits put on us by the pandemic. It has evolved into an online activity which is better than actually sitting at the table! And if you’re lucky enough to have bridge players within walking distance, you could play in your homes every day, in person. If not, get on the iPad and enjoy games with friends or strangers; competitively or casually. You can learn the game from home, too — so ask me if you’re interested!

"Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the demands of the affections, and should never weigh against the better claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue. 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 

Falling Gently

 

I've been listening to Alan Watts quite a bit recently. Here's some sage advice from him -- and a photo of him and his cat :)

"When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself. The cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. But if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly make up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing.

In the same way, it is the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling off a tree, at every moment of our lives. As a matter of fact, the moment we were born, we were kicked off a precipice, and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it.

So instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat." ~ Alan Watts

Invest in Bonds

 

Framework for Longevity — By: Michael J. Castori

“What is the secret of Longevity


Invest in bonds

Bond with love


Parental marital filial people spiritual


Love thy neighbor as thyself


No greater love hath man
Than he give up his life for another

Bond with nature


With its broad range of animal plant and mineral life


With its sun moon stars land sea and air


And all the creatures thereon and therein


With its solitude music challenge reverence

Bond with a positive mindset


Aim high and you won’t hit low


If things go your way don’t get too high


If things go against you don’t get too low

Bond with an upbeat lifestyle


Engage in spiritual intellectual social recreational pursuits


That guarantee health strength and daily bread


Woo the positive spurn the negative

Bond with existence


An existence that you deem worthy of your worship


Daily lift up some thought word and deed


To Him to Her to It

On each future birthday


Check your investments
If you can look at each bond and say


“Been there Done that”


You will end up dancing on the top rung


Of Longevity’s ladder”

By: Michael J. Castori

Hearing Thoughts

"Grounded in Peace"

by Teresa Pellicio DeVito

We humans believe we can hide our emotions and thoughts from others, simply by not saying anything. Where did we ever get that idea? I guess it's because we have spent so many years not listening inwardly. In an episode of the "Dog Whisperer" there was a dog fixated on attacking its own image in a mirror. This was not its only aggressive behavior, and the dog's person was afraid that it would attack someone, or another animal, any time it was outside. How did Cesar Milan stop this dog's aberrant behavior? By calming its owner. This woman was constantly in a state of fear and worry. The dog was mirroring her tense behavior. At first she had to pretend she was calm because she didn't know how to be that way! But as she watched the changes in her dog, she began to understand that her feelings and thoughts were being passed on to not only her dog, but to everyone around her. Every thought is important, especially now, when harsh words are bandied about with abandon. Let’s be the change we hope to see …

"The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real. The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from suppositional error, which affords no proof of God, Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense defines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the infinite." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 207:27-4

Letting Go Of Self-Justification

 

photo credit: Aaron Springston

Reading an article entitled, "Letting Go Of Self-Justification", brought back memories of times I was positive someone else had caused me to behave badly. Even saying that brings a feeling of embarrassment. No one can "make" me behave in any way. But a sense of self-righteous certainty can turn any situation around and allow us to justify, in our own mind, almost anything we do or say. We see a lot of this occurring around us in the world, brought into our living rooms via media of various sorts, justified by newscasters and others. I feel certain every person who stormed the Capital on January 6 feels they did so for a righteous cause and would be happy to tell you how they were justified in their actions. This is but one example, and I use this one because it is so glaring, so in-our-faces, so undeniably awful. The events I recalled from my own life are actions toward another person; things for which I have apologized, but perhaps am still feeling justified in saying or doing. So I'm going to ponder them deeply and perhaps I will make a few phone calls and deliver sincere, deep apologies. I love the Holy-Days!!

"Sorry for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform and the very easiest step. The next and great step required by wisdom is the test of our sincerity, -- namely, reformation." Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 5

Learning What is Good For the World

 

Waldemar Finke - Shepherdess with Herd at the Alps During Sunrise,1908.

"We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.” 

Wendell Berry