OUR ABILITY IS OUR SUPPLY

We are told to take no thought for our life, what we shall eat, what we shall wear, how we shall prosper.

My morning's blinding flash of the obvious: It is our ability, our talent, that is our supply. We must use that which we have within us, for that is what comes back to us doubled, tripled...more than enough.

We all have ability...we stay stuck when we get caught up in nit-picking, judging, our ability rather than simply using that which we have and being grateful for it.

I never believed I had a talent to use...and when I found it, I discounted it. I have a talent for listening. And that's going to get me prosperity? Looking back, I can see that it did. I always had enough, I never went without a need...and that is my definition of prosperity.

I've never gone hungry, nor has my dog, we've always had a decent roof over our head, a comfortable bed, and, most important, people who love us. I sometimes say that if it weren't for Ruckus I wouldn't have any friends at all, but I know that's an exaggeration.

When I look back over my career, it is clear to me today that the basis of any success I had was in my willingness to  listen...the first step of which was knowing when to keep my mouth shut. The next step was in my willingness to listen in order to hear what I was being asked to do. After my retirement, I was inducted into my company's Hall of Honor...proof that my ability to listen mattered.

Sidebar: In retirement, I'm really recognizing my listening as a talent. It's hard to comprehend that so many people are incapable of listening...and with so little to say. But that may just be me, judging.

Thank You.

THE COMFORT OF UNSELF-CONCERN

I have heard it said that wisdom is simply knowing God's will.

It seems to me there is no universal knowing of God's will...where all the world agrees that Such-and-Such is God's will. All the world can't even agree that Such-and-Such is God.

There is a personal knowing of God's will, as spoken to us internally, through our conscience. If we haven't done a fair amount of work on our internal life, our conscience is undeveloped and still based in ego where "I want" rules, dressed up as "I need."

One really must work hard to have utterly no internal compass of right and wrong. The hard part is in caring whether our actions are right, good, for others or wrong, not good, for self.

By not caring, we stay in the world of the ego-victory. The daily fight to protect self, get over on others, get our rewards according to our wants...in other words, get ours whether we deserve ours or not. This is also the way of stress, ulcers, paranoia and bad backs.

By caring, we are turned within by grace to the Source, consisting of all the good that is or has ever been or will ever be, from which we build a loving conscience...daily. The end result is for the comfort of others which brings us the comfort of unself-concern, the pearl beyond price.

Thank You.

THE GIFT OF LEGITIMATE SUFFERING

The human condition is such that we need to live by a higher standard than we’d naturally choose...open to God and grace and growth.

Per Fr. Richard Rohr: "I am most quoted for this line: 'If you do not transform your pain, you will always transmit it.' Always someone else has to suffer because I don’t know how to suffer; that is what it comes down to. Jesus, you could say, came to show us how to suffer, how to carry 'the legitimate pain of being human,' as C.G. Jung called it. Beware of running from yourself and your own legitimate suffering, which is the price of being a human being in a limited world."

If we do not grow spiritually, welcoming ego reduction in depth, then ego-victory thinking will be our guide, and ego-invited pain will be our reward...and we will miss the gift of legitimate suffering.

Thank You.

ON OPENING THE MIND

For some reason, it is very difficult for us to accept our divine nature. This has always puzzled me. We pay money for books about how destructive we are. We stand in line to see movies that emphasize our capacity for making trouble. We go to encounter groups where we agitate each other over our weaknesses. Then, when [It] comes to tell us that the kingdom of heaven is within us, we say, 'There must be some mistake.' - "Words to Live By," by Eknath Easwaran, October 28.

Thank You.

GRATITUDE...A COSMIC FIX

[The following is a reprint of a blog of mine from July 15, 2008.]

It has been said that all one needs do to be happy right this very moment is to thank God for everything exactly as it is right this very moment.

Every time I find myself hoping, praying that “this” will happen or “that” won’t happen, I know, once again, I’m outside my gratitude field…in effect, telling God how life should be.  

I’m told that God’s will is what I would wish for if I had all the facts. To my chagrin, I’ve had enough of my prayers answered, exactly as I prayed, to know that for truth. [Meaning, of course, that I did not have all the facts and now look at the mess I have.]

I spent way too much of my life not knowing the exactly right thing to do, so doing nothing. I half jokingly say my idea of perfect peace back then was having somebody to blame.

Most times today, when I’m totally clueless how to handle something, I figuratively hold my nose, take a leap of faith, and thank God for whatever comes. That’s the joy of coming to believe, and then trusting, that a loving God is on my side…and yours.

Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.”

Thank You.

FILLED WITH LOVING-KINDNESS

The following is a really neat meditation from A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield, at p. 20:

"...begin to recite inwardly the following phrases directed to yourself. You begin with yourself because without loving yourself it is almost impossible to love others.

May I be filled with loving-kindness.
May I be well.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
May I be happy.

"As you say the phrases, you may also wish to...picture yourself as a young and beloved child, or sense yourself as you are now, held in a heart of loving-kindness."

I use that for my afternoon meditation, and always add my recent BFO: "I am as good as I ought to be...being me."

Thank You.

THE SECRET OF ALL RELATIONSHIPS

My Easwaran daily this morning spoke of relationships, how jealousy comes into a relationship when we try to possess someone for ourselves. "This is the secret of all relationships....Instead of trying to exact and demand, just give, give more, and give still more. This is the way to earn love and respect."

Note, he wrote "all"  relationships...within that, I'm thinking of our ever so tenuous relationship with God.

I'm guessing that is why so many of us cannot believe in a personal God, a loving God...God period. We have never not demanded from It. We have never thought to give to It...to ponder exactly how we could give to It.

We give to It in the exact same way we heard back in the day: Give to a friend, a spouse, a parent, a love with open hand, head, heart, seeking nothing in return but to give more. We heard that back when we were believing in Cinderella, Snow White, and that becoming homecoming queen would make us perfect and loved forever...back when it was easy to believe that we could and would love with open hand, head, heart, seeking nothing in return but to give more.

We believed that until we got run over by a Mack truck a few times (never accepting that we were the ones choosing to lay down in front of that truck). That's when we took matters unto our own self...and Armageddon bloomed.

And there's the pearl...our own personal Armageddon is our pearl beyond price. Without it, we'd still be looking for love in front of Mack trucks.

The trouble with loving with open hand, head, heart, seeking nothing in return but to give more is it is the truth, and it does not make sense to our reasoning mind. It is a hard, hard lesson learning that we  must go beyond reason to love...reason will block our every move.

We start with friends and family...and find it's actually easier to start with those we don't know at all. Then move up to those we're not too fond of. "With those we dislike we can begin to practice justice and courtesy, perhaps going out of our way to understand and help them." [Author anonymous.]

I think we move to our beloveds last because we expect with them that it will be easier...expecting them to respond in kind. When we don't get our expected result, it's devastating, and we drop the whole experiment and never move on to those we're not all that fond of to begin with...much less to God.

My life experience in giving love, just love, is it is a daily exercise...first in remembering, then in trying, then in trying again...and yet again. The miraculous news...the beyond my wildest dreams: I know I am going in the right direction. I have had some success. I'm building on that by asking God daily, "Whom  may I serve for you today?"

"You send them, I'll serve them" is my motto...any modicum of success is a YES! day for me.

Thank You.

EVENTUALLY IS HERE AND NOW

In any discord, no matter how minor, if one party does not yield, if only within him/herself, a major war will erupt...eventually. It will only be resolved by the yielding of one or both sides...complete surrender or compromise...which, when we look back, means that the discord was unnecessary to begin with.

Our reasoning mind always legislates for itself and will always have a self-determined objective at hand. Introduce a "minor discord," as in, we may want to simply shut the other person up or, something prettier, to not "upset" the other one (which, in reality, is the proverbial moi), and there is the seed of  resentment.  That seed will grow, will fester, will erupt into the very war our self-determined objective was seeking to avoid.

Again we are reminded: We have given up fighting anything and anybody. Eventually, the lesson we  learn is in how we give up. We learn to shuck our shields, to live with a giving-over attitude...also known as an attitude of gratitude. We give over through spiritual principles, spiritual growth, spiritual means.

The great lesson is that eventually is always NOW the instant that we realize that this, too, is of God, that in giving over we have been graced with peace, the pearl beyond price, our reasoning mind's one desire.

Thank You.

WHATEVER, GOD

My blinding flash of the obvious: To the ego-based reasoning mind, "changing my mind" equates to "losing my mind."

We do...in fact, we must...lose our ego-based reasoning mind. We must "loose it and let it go" in order to move more deeply into higher consciousness. Our reasoning mind becomes that which it was intended to be, a tool for the use of the higher power, the force within.

This is also known as turning over our will to a higher power. We do not turn over our will outwardly, we turn it over inwardly, to the power within. And that's not all: If we in truth turn over our will, our life will follow and follow into a better place...a place not dictated by ego-victory self-determined objectives, but determined by the perfect objective which is of God.

It all starts with our willingness to simply change our minds...not to what we think will be a better-for-me result, but to...the result we cannot know except that it will be in our behalf. It already is set and is in our behalf, we just need to awaken to that.

Being hesitant to trust what we cannot see, we need to look back over our life...almost invariably those events we tried to pray away became our gifts, those that we fought for and succeeded in winning became our "What was I thinking?!"

It comes down to the willingness to exchange our reasoning mind's "for me" results to "Whatever, God, thy will not mine be done."

Thank You.

TICKED OFF? GET GRATEFUL

I realized sometime back that all my defects of character are my gifts, my Golden Goose. I keep saying that I haven't had a bad day since I retired, but, in truth, I haven't had a bad day since I realized that.

The Golden Goose is the defect du jour. There's always something. Since I accept that nothing is in the past tense with me, I have learned to get grateful for everything. Whatever is ticking me today is that which I can use in my search for still more spiritual growth today.

Nothing else is such an effective prod. Knowing that to remove this character defect I should, I want to, I must...do naught because each leaves the burden of removal on me. That is like asking a handcuffed person to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls. The chances of success are slim to nil.

Living an attitude of gratitude keeps a constant "Thank You" flowing...without thought therefore without reasoning mind deciding whether this one is thank-able or not. Unless it is wrapped in gold, it's rarely thank-able to the reasoning mind.

The reasoning mind, driven by the ego, will never find a less-than-wonderful appearing thing to be thank-able. My greatest gift awoke within me looking unwanted, ugly, bad and not good for me...I thank God for it daily.

That being true, then the current "Oh no, not that" can be...no, IS...thank-able.

Thank You.

GOD HAS MY BACK

[This is a reprint of a blog of mine from August 28, 2008.]

In my quiet time this morning, I read a reference to the Bible verse that advises us to take no thought for what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall wear, that our Father knows our needs…seek Him first and get our needs met in His (plenty of) time (paraphrasing, of course).

And the thought popped that I have never seen a naked “bag lady.” The very term “bag lady” negates the possibility…chances are, if she’s toting bags, she’s got something with which to cover herself.

I then imagined me as that bag lady. I’d be praying for something to eat, drink, wear while eating out of dumpsters, drinking rain water, wearing rags…never realizing that these are my answered prayers, that if I’d give God His head, I would do considerably better…or at least not any worse.

My take then is how deep within am I willing to know God. Like the bag lady, the dumpster and the rain water, I already have all that I need. It is simply to seek deeper within to find better, to what already is, God. 

God has my back. Mine is to believe, trust, live that fact, knowing and showing care and concern for others by not imposing me or my wants on them. 

If/when I feel disrespected by another, I get to thank God for having my back, knowing that my good will come to me and that to return disrespect for disrespect is to pick up mud and throw it in my own face. God can…and will…do better.

Thank You.

MORAL DILEMMAS...UGH

I hate moral dilemmas. That used to be because I didn't have any morals. Then I got me some. Which didn't make the dilemma any more welcome...a dilemma is a dilemma, "an undesirable or unpleasant choice," according to Websters.

All this is over some probably nice person parking their car in my parking space...my paid-for parking space. There are ample other parking spaces all around, clearly marked "VISITOR," which mine isn't.

My moral dilemma is: Do I call Towing or not? I parked in a visitor space, one space over from mine, I've been everywhere I plan to go today so I'm home, it isn't hurting me to let it go. However, the intruding parker does not have a visitor's pass showing the unit number of the person they are visiting, which is required, so they might not even be here in my building. Doing nothing and having something less than wonderful happen because I did nothing now falls on me.  I, in effect, give permission by doing nothing.

But what if it's some body's parents just visiting here with no harm intended, no harm coming?...and they walk out to find their car gone? I know the tow people are located in a whole different time zone, and it costs a bucket of money to get your car back, etc., etc., etc.

Geez...I'm doing nothing...purely because it is easier, and so there to moral dilemmas.

Thank You.

LET GO, DETACH, ACCEPT, GIVE OVER

Becoming entirely willing to take directions in order to change our own selves begins with becoming willing to change our minds...about our own selves, about our defects of character.  (A defect of character is simply a trait we like in ourselves that puts others off...thus becoming the source of our woes).

There are many self-help books in the world...many of which are excellent guides to our changing for the better. That same "many books" seldom work, or seldom work for long. Simply because we're unwilling to use that which we find in them. It's like being given our first arithmetic book, reading that 2 + 2 = 4, and not agreeing with that. So we continue to use our idea that 2 + 2 = 3...and defending it. That is the way to remaining lost, confused, hurting, and blaming God, parents, family, friends, foes...the inevitable endless list.

I remember when I got my basic and best book of instructions. I was told, "All your thinking has been done for you." The happy news is that my primary job for the rest of my life has been learning to do what that book says to do; the less-than-happy news is it's all about ego-reduction in depth...giving over.

All I need do, whenever my ego is resisting whatever comes my way, is talk with a friend who points me to my book of instructions. I invariably find my how-to...my how to deal with this current problem which to my eyes is different than any problem I have ever had before, and I find my answer...let go, detach, accept, give over.

The answer changes to meet my changed circumstances, and the answer is always the same...let go of your desired result and seek to know and do God's will. That's it. It is not complicated. There is no profit, no growth, no peace in complicating it (which is simply trying to make the instructions fit what I want rather than what I need.)

Thank You.

LOOK IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION

Learning to love is not about learning to love others.

It is especially not about learning to love another for that is just transference of feelings onto another in hopes that that one will make us feel whole, complete, right, better than we are...than you are. In short, seeking for someone to love is the ego's search for someone else to make us feel good 100 percent of the time day and night 24/7 forever and ever.

Learning to love is to look in the opposite direction...realizing there is nothing to learn.  Love is simply  opening ourselves to let the sun within shine out.

It, love, is a power, already within us/without us. When we let that power flow forth, we detach from our fear-based self interests, accepting that which we fear is in our self interest. By walking toward it, arms outstretched in welcome, we find that it is not coming toward us, it is coming from us. 

It is love...love of rabbits and rattlesnakes and rusted-out cars, tiaras, tears and track meets...and all in between, in front, behind, beside, within, without...it is love and it is everywhere.

There is no place we can be that love is not...which does us no good at all until we become willing to give up all hope of ever getting love, still willing to give love anyway. We find we want to give love more than we want to get love. Which is when we get it.

Thank You.

DIVORCE OURSELVES FROM OUR OWN OPINIONS

At one time I believed that our rues, regrets and remorses were the bane of our lives, to be dropped, walked away from, forgotten...and yet who has ever been able to simply drop one rue, walk away from one regret, forget one remorse?

I now believe that our rues, regrets and remorses are our angels. I believe this based on my experience with my anxieties which I used to plead with God to remove. When I became willing to change my mind, in other words, to listen, I accepted my anxieties as the golden goose that would keep me moving toward spiritual solutions...as nothing else could.

I read often that the old self must die in order for the new self to be born. The way there, it seems to me, is for the things of the old self to be transmuted...our rues, regrets, remorses, are not forgotten, but made golden, ever to be our touchstone of humility. The way of love and laughter.

Our spiritual abundance is the gold that has been transmuted from our rues, regrets, remorses...never again can we, need we, writhe in regret...gleefully can we sing "Thank You" for every old way of being.

By simply changing our minds...by divorcing ourselves from our own opinions...in exchange for still more spiritual growth, we have been made new.

Thank You.

CLOSE ENOUGH TO PERFECT FOR ME

As all reform is from within out, you will find the outward has improved too. To do this is to release the imprisoned God-Power within you. -- "God Calling," October 16.

Learning to be in the fourth dimension for most of us...for me...is a real stretch. It is a difficult thing to remember that we go to God for God...that is all, nothing more nor less. We go to God for God. Perceiving a problem that needs to be fixed is a denial of God. We go within and let God speak or not...we do not seek solutions, we praise God for everything that is right this very minute.

In our third dimensional world, there will always be problems because it is a dual world, a good/bad, black/white world. The good news is that we have been given all the tools we need to live in the third dimensional world happy, joyous and free. This is the way of ego-reduction in depth, the way of giving over without show when we think we're right, the way of being true to the Force within rather than our own self.

The spiritual axiom, whenever I'm upset no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with me, is true...our gift is in proving that to ourselves.

Another gift is learning to accept and prove, whenever we feel slighted, disrespected, that we have made a decision based on self that placed us in a position to feel hurt. Our joy is in finding that decision that we made and taking responsibility for it...in order to let the other off the hook for that is the exact moment we are free, let off our own hook.

I wonder if learning to live by spiritual principles in the third dimensional world is as close to being in  the fourth dimension as we get? Any closer is purely God walking. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm guessing it's God's choice, so we live by the spiritual principles in our third dimensional with love and laughter. Which is close enough to perfect for me.

Thank You.

TRUST GOD AND DO BETTER THAN YOU WANT TO

...to be in the world but not of it is to lead an active, interesting, creative and profitable life and still not seek selfishly for gain, for reputation, for glory.... Joel Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism" at p. 399.

I like that definition of "to be in the world but not of it." It's sometimes hard getting a fix on how one can be in it but not of it. It's the "seeking selfishly" that turns it around.

Doing for others in order to look good because we're doing for others is of the world. All we wind up with then is a count of the number of people we've helped...and that's just our count, because those we're counting may not be counting themselves as having been helped all that much.

We've often heard if our supply seems to be blocked, give something away. Giving to charity, looking to get twice the amount back...or any amount back...will not get us there. It usually just depletes the small amount we're thinking we have.

It seems to me that "to lead an active, interesting, creative and profitable life," is purely a by-product of leading a life stripped of ego, a God-centered life in a word.

I need to remember, of course, that there is no 100%. A life stripped of ego for me is to daily recommit, with the occasional failure expected, to being not as nasty as I want to be, to let the other driver go before me when we're at a yield sign in his lane, or the person with fewer groceries in her cart go before me (but not more groceries...I'm not a fanatic about it).

It's all about learning balance which is not an inborn gene...or it wasn't for me. Learning to trust God and doing better than I want to when I'm not feeling it is being in my world but not of it.

Thank You.

THE ENEMY WITHIN IS THE ENEMY WITHOUT

So the [Seeker], too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. And The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. -- "Life Together," Dietrich Bonhoeffer, at p. 17.

It seems that most everything that is true, of God true, is a paradox...on its face, it does not make sense, yet meditate on it, and it becomes clear.

I have ever been taken with the 23rd Psalm...in particular, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." Whose reasoning mind would think that's a good idea? And yet, what better way to walk free of our enemies than by sitting down to, literally or metaphorically, break bread with them?

It seems to me that, in the end and after trying everything else possible, the path to peace is quite simply the overcoming of self, a.k.a., ego reduction in depth. There is no more lasting way to that end than making peace with our enemies, our enemies within and without...for there are no enemies without that do not originate within.

Thank You.

"I WILL FIGHT NO MORE FOREVER"

The sin of respectable people reveals itself in flight from responsibility. -- "Life Together," Dietrich Bonhoeffer, at p. 11.

That quote reminds me of the one about all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

Whenever I come across that, I wonder if I'd step up or if I'd justify passing by.

My prayer of praise today: If it be Thy will for me to meet a situation requiring responsible action, thank you that I recognize it, that I recognize it as Yours to fix through me and for leading me into and through it with passive resistance, the way of Christ Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Chief Joseph.

I am grateful that I have no idea how to do that...and that I know better than to try to think of a way, because my mind is already trying to figure a way to win.

The will of God is not in winning or in losing...it is in showing forth peace for and from all.

Thank You.

NO FINAL RESULT OF MINE IS MINE

It's an unsettling experience to realize the aging process as it is happening. Usually, it has been in looking back that I saw, realized, the change. But just yesterday as I was driving to my final new-knee exam (passed with flying colors, thank you, Jesus, doctor and friends), I hesitated to go  to the doctor's office by my usual route because of a dicey left-turn. So I drove a longer way. I realized as I did that that something akin to it had happened just the day before, too.

I also realized that now is the time for me to make a decision about my driving. I get to decide to either go with what's happening, i.e., limiting me more and more in my driving and thus other areas which I haven't even noticed yet...OR, consciously try something new.

The new being to consciously practice the Presence in the present...to stay in the now, which simply boils done to staying alert NOW, as I drive. Be the driver of the school bus as it were. I continue driving, doing, as I have always done, but to consciously keep a clear mind...no longer carrying on long and difficult conversations with my sister who was wrong back in 1984 and has never even seen it much less admitted to it, or with one or the other political figure who is a flamer if there ever was one, and here's what s/he needs to do about it. (I can always continue those  in the safety of my own home.)

It is a comfort to me that I know my own limitations today...I know I cannot of myself do that just because I know that is what I need to do.

Here's where I remind me that my job is to make the decision and know that all of heaven will align with me to carry me forward to perfect completion. I can trust that because I have experienced that. It's no longer just pretty words that I wish were true...there's the comfort in self-knowledge, in having taken that leap of faith more than once and landing on the other side, better for it.

It's all about remembering that no final result is mine, and more important that my reasoning mind will never get me there.

Thank You.

THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS

I have that "walking under a pall" feeling. Just can't quite get my interest up for much of anything.

I even have an idea for a neat project...put it on my "2-Do" list on Monday and have carried it over every day since. Even added a second neat project that includes Ruckus...am carrying it over daily.

This is the kind of behavior about which I can get rigid, righteous and right with others...when others behave this way, I'm saying. I wear out that old Nike slogan..."Just Do It," for God's sake. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I will.

The good news is that I know that is just a temporary bother, not a lifetime sentence. The oh-well-hell news is that only I can do something about it.

This is where I miss my old belief in a Santa Claus God...because then, when I prayed for Him to fix it and nothing happened, I had someone/something, to blame.

This, too, shall pass.

Thank You.

IT IS MINE TO INTERPRET...WAR OR PEACE?

I wonder if paradox is fourth dimensional? It seems to me when I meet anything that is unacceptable to my reasoning mind, if I find the paradox in it, I can wend my way to peace.

I remember not too long ago when there was much opining and editorializing about the State of South Carolina flying the Confederate flag over its capitol's dome. To so many people, the Confederate flag represented all the ugly, bad and evil of the Civil War, and there was much resistance to it, to the flag, in general.

In my opinion that flag (any flag in fact) doesn't represent anything in and of itself. It is a piece of material, that's all. Its only representation is in what a person brings to it, i.e., chooses to think about it. What we lay on it in our own mind is on us.

I thought then that another way of looking at the flag is: It was under that banner that so many were freed...don't be insulted, honor it, claim it as your own. Human nature being what it is, I can all but guarantee it wouldn't be flying over the state capital for long. There...you get the same result fighting about it gets you only without the fight...you wend your way to peace.

A friend of mine recently told me how angry she was at someone who asked her a question...an innocuous question, I thought. My friend was insulted, incensed and trying to figure out how to return the insult...without it being an insult, of course, because hers would be justified. I worked out in my own mind how the perceived insult could be perceived as a compliment...I didn't offer it up, because my friend was way into enjoying her angry hurt. And, I reminded me, other people's justified anger is usually nothing to the uninvolved others.

I like that my job is to learn (and then to remember) that how I interpret what I hear/see/think is my choice...that I get to choose resistance or acceptance. In other words, it is my own personal choice whether my mind lives at war or at peace.

Thank You.

FAVORABLE EVENTS ISSUE FROM OUR DECISION

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now. - Goethe

HUMAN CONDITION OR CYA?

I remember sometime ago when a friend of mine took exception to something she thought I'd said. She exploded, chewed me a new one in fact. We did the necessaries, made up, and been fine since...but always with a hairline of underlying tension running between us.

I still feel a tish of resentment, a soupcon (to quote Chet) of hurt feelings, an edge of justification for my part in it...and I do not doubt that those are the exact feelings of my friend for herself. In truth, that is what is keeping the hairline of underlying tension in place. I know, however, that whoever lets go first (gets over herself first) "wins" which allows the other to feel like a winner, and we both come out with love in our hearts.

Which, of course, sets up the most important question: If I do believe that, why don't/won't I "just do it," just let go?

Is that simply the human condition?

It seems to me lately that  I'm hearing a lot of "that's the human condition." About most every unexamined stumbling block in our daily life, in fact. But I believe that the human condition is such that we need to live by a higher standard than we’d naturally choose...else "human condition" risks becoming an excuse, a cop-out, a CYA for doing what we want to do because we want to do it. Which may or may not be true...it's just what it seems to me today.

As for me, I've got too many human conditions as it is...and none of them have ever given me peace of mind.  I'm going to continue praying, "Bless her, change me."

Thank You.

LIVING THE GOLDEN RULE

[The following is a reprint of my blog of October 29, 2011.]

God comes to us disguised as our life. - Paula D’Arcy 

I wonder if my essential mistake isn’t in trying to be me. It seems I’ve spent the greater part of my life trying to be me by bettering myself…as in, making me appear better than I appear to be. It is all appearances if, as I believe, the Father is, I am, my core.

My job then is to quit trying to improve me for my own peace of mind…my job is to show forth who I am inside for the benefit of others. As “God Calling” sets it out in today’s entry, “Your success is the measure of My Will and Mind that you have revealed to those around you.” 

The key, of course, is to quit trying to improve me for my own peace of mind. I believe that the human condition is such that we need to live by a higher standard than we’d naturally choose. A standard as simple as the Golden Rule is antithetical naturally…else we wouldn’t need a Rule.

It seems peace of mind always comes back to detaching from my own idea of peace of mind…it’s all about giving peace without thought of whether or how or when I’m going to get mine.

Thank You.

THE GOAL OF ALL SPIRITUALITY

"The object and goal of all spirituality is finally the same for all genders: union, divine love, inner aliveness, soul abundance . . ."     — Richard Rohr, OFM

That sounds simple enough. I guess it's the measure of my spirituality as opposed to my materialism (or is it vice versa?) that I usually seek still more spiritual growth as a last resort.

I know it is a measure of my growth in self-acceptance that that fact is now a hoot to me...it doesn't seem all that long ago that that would have been just another unholy cross I have to bear.

Thank You.

GOD REMOVES THE VEIL

Remember that the commands I have given you have been already worked out by Me in the Spirit World to produce in your case, in your circumstance, the required result. God Calling, July 20.

I keep that page marked for just such times as these. Yesterday I had reason to recall something that comes to me often (after it came to me the first time): Happenings that are just awful, so unexpectedly perverse through no obvious fault of one's own, inevitably have the hand of God in them.

I'm reminded of a lady I once knew whose beloved brother unbeknownst to her used her name, her pin, etc., to swindle her out of a righteous amount of money. Much back and forth and time lapse...they are best friends today, both acknowledging "it needed to happen just exactly as it happened."

That is how I can see my IRS experience...a blessing, well-disguised in the moment, but truly a life blessing today.

This came to me yesterday in the aftermath of the presidential debate the night before.

President Obama  and all his supporters can take heart...God's hand was in that. However, the most important thing that I've experienced, is that God's hand is never in these "awful, unexpectedly perverse" happenings only for one side...if both sides do not come out a winner, God's hand is not in it. So...Governor Romney and all his supporters can take heart...God's hand was in that.

The realization of God's hand in it comes when we consciously let go of our own idea of how being a winner here should look. When we consciously detach ourselves from our reasoning mind and let our consciousness be lifted...it's called "unlearning."

We sit and wait on the Lord...we'll not realize God's hand in it until God removes the veil. I'm convinced that can only happen as we live by spiritual principles.

Thank You.

DENIAL OF SELF...THE ULTIMATE FREEDOM

The first thing I read this morning, "Love consists...in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved. (Saint John of the Cross)," gave me a slight twinge because I immediately added "in suffering for the Beloved by denial of self."

That is my ultimate idea of suffering...denial of my self, my self-centered expectations, my wants dressed up as my needs.

No person with a lick of common sense loves physical suffering, I'm guessing the overwhelming majority of people avoid that and rightly so. It is emotional suffering that is the dreaded pox.

So there's the mountain to climb...the willingness to emotionally suffer for the God of my own understanding whose only job is guiding me to peace. It's all about letting go of my own self-determined objectives while striving for the perfect objectives which are of my own God.

The last word: "To live without self-centered expectations is the secret of freedom in personal relationships." Eknath Easwaran

Thank You.

FOCUSED AND READY TO BE USED

"...you must open out a way for the imprisoned splendor to escape." -- Robert Browning

If, as I believe, God does live within, how do I open the way for the splendor of God to escape?

• The reasoning mind cannot (and being ego-driven, will not) do it. 
• Neither my hands nor my feet can do it, God being invisible.

All three...indeed, the all of me...must be turned over to the care and the use of God as/if/when S/He so chooses them for Its use. How is Its secret...mine is to show forth the results.

My job is to simply be available to God on command...focused and ready to be used "for the imprisoned splendor to escape."

Thank You.

IDLE THOUGHTS

"We teach best that which we need to learn." -- Don't know who first said it, but I saved it for myself...helps me remember when I'm in my lecture mode that I really do need to learn what I'm talking about.

My prayer needs to be "Guide my thoughts," not "Guard my thoughts." -- My note to myself.

"I learned that a long time ago. Then I relearned it a couple of times." -- Chet the Jet, a.k.a., Chet, pure and simple.

You do not need to believe in God for Him to take good care of you. -- Blinding Flash of the Obvious
You do not need to believe in God for Him to take better care of you than you can of yourself. -- Me thinking the previous BFO through.

Thank You.

GETTING OVER OURSELVES

I am amazed when I read my spiritual dailies (the same three I've been reading for a whole bunch of years), and there's something that I've underlined two to ten different times...and it feels brand new and WOW to me.

Just this morning, there were mind ticklers in each of my books...a couple I had underlined from previous readings, and one that I'd never consciously noted before: "...make follow-up calls tonight to those who haven't returned mine."

I do that today, call again when a call of mine hasn't been returned. Chances are I came to it because of that very phrase. I do know it took me a long time to get over my own self in order to do it. My self-centered preference was to sit in silence, sulking about being unloved, unneeded, unwanted and unappreciated...all because I didn't get one returned call. I, of course, refused to make another because clearly s/he did not want to hear from me ever again in this lifetime.

I used to think the saying, "It hurts so good!" originated with sex but now I think it originated in victim thinking. Hopping on the treadmill of unlovedunneededunwantedunappreciated (that's one word when we're into it) is not easily hopped off...and purely because "It hurts so good!"

As my friend Sam used to say, "Self-pity is seductive because it's so sincere."

Another goodie this morning, "Failure comes from depending too much on your own strength," which   is what we do when we get on the victim treadmill. Rather than ask for help from God or wo/man, we choose to depend on ourselves alone...for how else are we going to get that warm and wonderful poor, pitiful, put-upon-me feeling?

And God laughs.

Thank You.