The End?

 

Photo credit: Blake Lasater

On a reverse-recommendation from an acquaintance, I am watching a series called The End. It deals with various people who are dying and/or want to. The woman who told me about the show was appalled as she felt that it encouraged people to commit suicide. She also thought that all the talk about death would “normalize” it and cause people to feel it was okay. Of course, I felt the urge to see it! I find it to be more about life than death. There is enough black humor to amuse me and enough love to inspire me. This show has caused me to think deeply about issues surrounding our life choices. There is a woman who feels guilty because she’s happy her philandering, preacher husband died. There’s the teenager who has attempted suicide because others at school ostracize her. I am reminded of friends and neighbors who are unhappy and are having trouble finding reasons to live. Life is good, even when it doesn’t feel that way. Finding joy in the small things brings happiness to the whole, don’t you think? 

“⁶Life and death, light and darkness, knowledge and perception, are irreconcilable. To believe that they can be reconciled is to believe that God and His Son can not. Only the oneness of knowledge is free of conflict. Your Kingdom is not of this world because it was given you from beyond this world. Only in this world is the idea of an authority problem meaningful. The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth can be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created, and for whom it waits.” A Course in Miracles T-3.VII.6:6-11

“We know that all will be changed ‘in the twinkling of an eye,’ when the last trump shall sound, but this last call of wisdom cannot come til mortals have already yielded to each lesser call in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken them to glorified being.” Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 291:5

Three Things

Martin Johnson Heade - Blue Morpho Butterfly, 1864-5.

To live in this world by Mary Oliver

To live in this world you must be able to do three things:

To love what is mortal,

To hold it against your bones knowing

Your own life depends on it;

And when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

Mary Oliver - In Blackwater Woods from her collection, American Primitive, 1983. 

Shrinking Address Books?

After numerous decades of living, we humans begin to notice that our address books are having more and more names crossed out — or deleted, as the case may be. Many of us stress over this, and it becomes a constant topic of conversation when we’re together with others. We know lots of dead people, do we not? Many of our friends have moved offstage, and we’re standing in the queue. But as some of us move out, others move in. There are more and more grandchildren — either ours or our friends — and we delight in the newness and pure love. And that’s a good thing. We are in the process of recycling, perhaps? As many wise seers remind us, Reality is that which does not change. And nothing material is permanent. It is all in the process of changing. I have always chosen to embrace change and I hope to be as fearless in this unknown adventure. But for now, I choose to ground myself in the earth; feel the openness of the sky; watch the trees renewing themselves, and know all is well. Namaste…

“Change is always fearful to the separated, because they cannot conceive of it as a move towards healing the separation. They always perceive it as a move toward further separation, because the separation was their first experience of change. You believe that if you allow no change to enter into your ego you will find peace. This profound confusion is possible only if you maintain that the same thought system can stand on two foundations. Nothing can reach spirit from the ego, and nothing can reach the ego from spirit. Spirit can neither strengthen the ego nor reduce the conflict within it.” A Course in Miracles T-4.I.2

"The true history of the universe, including man is not in material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal.” Mary Baker Eddy -  Science & Health Page 547

Recognizing The Light As Our Own

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

Defenselessness is strength; defensiveness is weakness. This is most likely backwards from the way we think, and it may feel wrong because we’ve been taught to defend ourselves as thoroughly as possible in every situation. Ask yourself what you did and how you felt the last time someone disagreed with you, perhaps vehemently. If you began a verbal defense, listing all the reasons you were right, you may have felt many negative emotions such as anger. On the contrary, any time I’m able to witness events and calmly watch and listen, I can say something simple such as, “You may be right about that” — and walk away, happily and peacefully. We are told in A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #153 that we will not see the light until we offer it to others and they take it; then we will recognize it as our own. How lovely is that! I look forward to opportunities for seeing peace today.

“It is the function of God’s ministers to help their brothers choose as they have done. God has elected all, but few have come to realize His Will is but their own. And while you fail to teach what you have learned, salvation waits and darkness holds the world in grim imprisonment. Nor will you learn that light has come to you, and your escape has been accomplished. For you will not see the light, until you offer it to all your brothers. As they take it from your hands, so will you recognize it as your own.” A Course in Miracles -  W-153.11:1-6

“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

Sage Advice From Emerson

Eureka Springs, AR 

Unknown photographer

“Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day in the year.

He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day

who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.

Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,

with its hopes and invitations,

to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Collected Poems and Translations.

Looking at America Through the Lens of Values

 

Art by Judy Clement Wall

JudyClementWall.com

For the last seven years, Lucy Harper has been trying to get Americans to think about their country differently. She has been teaching classes and workshops to instill the idea that America is not a political prize to be fought over, but an idea to be fought FOR. What started her on this journey was becoming part of the Idea of America Network. This organization’s goal is to create a network of Americans who can help their communities look at the country through the lens of values. Ms. Harper says, “When you talk about values and America, everyone knows life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but the values that really drive the United States are all about balance: freedom and equality, law and ethics, common wealth and private wealth, unity and diversity. How citizens find the balance between these essential but conflicting values determines the nation’s character and direction.” She has now written a play which has many historical characters debating these points.  To quote her: “It’s about seeing this as a country of good people. There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary, but we jolly well better see [the good in] people, ... giving people the room to grow – including ourselves.”

[I got this information from an editorial in The Christian Science Monitor, May 30, 2022]

“Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable … Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfish love, receives directly the divine power.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 192

“Values are relative, but they are powerful because they are mental judgments.” A Course in Miracles - T-7.VII.4:3

A Heart Centered in Gratitude

 

This morning I attended our local American Legion tribute to veterans, where I was the accompanist for the Star-Spangled Ensemble, a local choir. Earlier, in honor of my World War I veteran dad, I made a post about him on Facebook. In it I mentioned something he often said: “I killed good Germans for a dollar a day so you can enjoy this good life.” A friend made this comment about his words: “It’s such a statement of accountability, regret, rationale, and call to action all rolled into one. To unflinchingly accept his own actions, to be neither victim or perpetrator of injustice, and to assure that it had value by keeping his heart centered in gratitude.” Wow! Thinking about the difference in his attitude and that of today’s military fighters is quite a contrast. At the event this morning, the main speaker spent most of his time talking about suicides within the ranks of the military. I could go on and on about the reasons I see for this pain and suffering of soldiers and their families, but I won’t. My thoughts turn to Thich Nhat Hanh and his work with soldiers in forgiving themselves. I think about A Course in Miracles and how its precepts could help so many through forgiveness. Once again, we get back to Jesus’s request: Put down the sword. Namaste …

“Lay down your arms, and come without defense into the quiet place where Heaven’s peace holds all things still at last. Lay down all thoughts of danger and of fear. Let no attack enter with you. Lay down the cruel sword of judgment that you hold against your throat, and put aside the withering assaults with which you seek to hide your holiness.” A Course in Miracles W-190.9:1-4