THE GIFT OF UNKNOWING

The more we know the more we know we don't know...reasoning mind weeps, Spirit exults.

Thank you.

THE PLACE WHERE GOD LIVES

The bar to acceptance for many of us is the fear that by accepting whatever we are resisting, we will make it true...that acceptance itself will make it true. We ignore the fact that whatever we are not wanting to be true is already a fact if only in our own mind, or how could we be resisting it?

Hard lesson learning: It is not accepting that makes our fear true.

Whatever we are resisting with all our heart, soul, body and brains...from addiction to he-doesn't-love-me to panic attacks...is kept alive by our obsessive attempts to make it not true. Leading us to overeat, drink, smoke, medicate which pushes her further away and brings on another panic attack.

The secret about acceptance is the minute we accept the truth of that which we are resisting, that changes it. 

We may not like it, but we are no longer resisting it. Which, if we're lucky, leads us to complete surrender, to crash and burn...also known as the place where God lives.

We surrender to the fact that we do not know, we do not know what we do not know, we are helpless in the face of that fact, and we need help. We turn to an unknown power greater than our self to find a way to live without our perceived heart's desire.

That is acceptance.

We do not know it at the time of surrender, but we will return here in our thoughts repeatedly for here is where our answers are...our answers to any and all problems, puzzles, secrets of life itself. Here in the ashes of self-will. Here...the place where God lives.

Thank you.

GOD'S CALLING! LISTEN! HEED! LOVE!

"God calling!" Once, way long ago when I was young, that's what I'd say when my phone rang. I delighted in saying it...singing it out loud, really. I'd just been given my book, God Calling, and those words made a home in my heart.

My blinding flash of the obvious this morning is when our ego starts doing our thinking for us, obsessing over the various "slings and arrows" niggling at our brain, instead of tending that, we can immediately say, "God calling." Gertrude's perfidy? Joe's insult? Herkimer's snub?..."God calling!"

Because It is! Each sling, each arrow, is God seeking to do our thinking for us. To lift us out of our own solution into his perfect solution...which is always and ever love. It isn't as if our solution, responding in kind to Gertrude, Joe and Herkimer, has worked for us. All that got is them responding in kind to our responding in kind...and the beat(ing) goes on.

The single only thing in this world stopping us from loving in a loveless place is wanting to. What place needs love more? That loveless place is within us, begging for the love we already have but fear using lest we show our need for love. The only way we are ever going to realize the limitless love we already have is to use it...give it away...sling it with the arrows. Be a "Cupid," open and transparent, as opposed to a "Stupid," closed and opaque. There is no God there.

Stop the runaway train. Get off. God's calling. Listen...heed...love.

Thank you.

THERE IS NO CHEAP SPIRITUAL GROWTH

My long-ago blinding flash of the obvious taunts me: We can't get that which we already have, and we can't realize we have it until we give it away. ("It" being, specifically, love, patience, kindness, thoughtfulness...all the goodies.)

Is it the results we get when we use those goodies that trip us up? That seems to be my current problem with the Sermon. I agree with my adversary quickly...and my adversary mistakes my agreement for weakness. S/He promptly doubles down, going from, in my ever-so-humble opinion, a borderline jerk to a horse's patoot.

It is hard to remember that the answer...still...is to agree with my adversary quickly. It's probably not as hard to remember as it is to want to do it...I can remember, but for what? being the blinding flash of the obvious then. The answer, of course, is for still more spiritual growth.

"Pay me now or pay me later." Meaning, if we're serious about seeking still more spiritual growth, we do now that which we need to do to grow spiritually...or we do it later, and always, without fail, 100 percent of the time, it is harder later.

So s/he doubles down...I can think "thank you, God, for this opportunity to grow with you" and let God speak. He can and he will...I know this because on the too few occasions that I've given over to him, he has...he has used my mouth and my voice to speak kind words, words that I had no idea were coming.

There. That's the solution to my "problem with the Sermon." Feel the resistance and do it anyway. Kiss it on the lips and do it anyway. There is no cheap spiritual growth.

Thank you.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

[The following is a reprint of my blog of December 22, 2011.]

Unconditional love is just like hugs…you cannot get, you can only give…with which, you get.

Unconditional love is loving your enemy as yourself…your enemy is whatever/whomever is vexing you at the moment.

Unconditional love is not self-determined-objective attainable…you must go through God. But it helps that you have the objective of attaining unconditional love when you go to God, with a simple thank you.

Thank you.

OUR PROBLEM...OUR PERFECT GIFT

Blinding flash of the obvious: God does not fix problems. He helps us to see our problem through his eyes...and it becomes then our perfect gift.

In God's world, there is never a problem to be fixed. God's world is love...love of any and all peoples, things, places, situations...perceived, feared and/or imagined. Humanity's tendency is toward fear and hate...probably because humans are usually driven by their ego. Ego's only concern is self and how to protect it.

To stay focused on God and the things of God keeps us in alignment with God's will...we resist that at our peril. Which is a high-falutin way of saying resist that and we're back into self will, praying for God to give over to our ego and bring us God's perfect outcome. God does not fix problems. He helps us to see our problem through his eyes...and it becomes then our perfect gift.

Thank you.

...THAT IT SHOULD TAKE PLACE IN ME

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal

Birth which God the Father has borne and

never ceases to bear in all Eternity. . . . But if

it takes not place in me, what avails it?

Everything lies in this, that it

should take place in me.
Meister Eckhart

Thank you.

THE TRAP OF THE LITERAL TRUTH

"Literalism is invariably the lowest and least level of meaning," according to Fr. Richard Rohr. Which reminds me of the point made in The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an unknown 14th century monk, to "be wary of the overly scrupulous."

In my experience, the overly scrupulous are well defended in their thoughts, in their words...ready to fight in a heartbeat at even a question of their perceived facts. Per Rohr again, "Overly defended people do not change, grow, or 'realize' anything that does not confirm their illusions."

I often think that scrupulosity is the "blankie" to the intellectually self-sufficient, or probably it's the intellectually insecure. Scrupulosity...that mindset married to the literal truth, whereby any variation is not only wrong, but a lie.

The overly scrupulous remind me of what English poet W. H. Auden wrote in Apropos of Many Things: "We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die."

There. That's me putting on airs...I've never read W.H. Auden in my life, but I came across the quote and it fits. Personally, I just think,  "Oh, get over yourself for cryin' out loud." That fits, too.

Thank you.

HOW TO LIVE "PEACE ON EARTH"

The change that the Sermon asks us to make is simply to be the first to give over, be the last to take offense. When we have differences, the great canard is that we just need to talk it over. It is seldom...rare, in fact...that talking it over sets both parties free.

Talking is a useful, maybe essential, first step. It is what we do when talking goes south that matters.

There is an old saying, "You can't unring a bell." Neither can we unsay that which we didn't say in the first place! The hard lesson learning is we have no control over how we are heard. Nor how s/he interpreted what s/he heard. Talk about a wrecking ball. Wrecking friendships through words that were never said, intentions that were skewed by self-perception unrelated to original meaning.

The fix, then, is not to just talk about it, but to accept that we need to change our perspective. Specifically, we need to remember that we are in the wrong, too. 

"So if someone hurts you and you are sore, you are in the wrong, too" is part of a spiritual axiom that is worth trying to live by. It links perfectly with "agree with your adversary quickly," the Sermon's great gift.

There. That's my goal...to remember if someone hurts me and I am sore, I am in the wrong, too, so that then I can agree with my adversary quickly. 

Think about it...if all parties know this, there will be no disagreements to begin with. So I say let's bring this giftee into our consciousness...and live peace on earth.

Thank you.

TRUTH MUST BE PROVEN

We must prove Truth.

We can have our favorite affirmations, repeat them till our face falls off, but until we prove them, they are just so many words.

I love "He goes before me to make the crooked places straight." That's from somewhere in the Bible. The trouble is when we're standing at the wrong end of a crooked place, or we're at the edge of a never-land chasm, our reasoning mind too often tells us God is not available. Period.

The logic being if God were going to make this crooked place straight...why hasn't he? It's still here, and we've got to walk it or leap into it or...do it our self, to be blunt. So we decide we never really wanted that anyway and quit...or we need a pill/a joint/a drink to calm us down or build us up, and we turn that way.

The not-quite-bright part is when the next difficulty arises, we say our affirmation, "He goes before me to make the crooked places straight," and know we're lying. Because he doesn't if we don't get out of his way! As in, if we quit. Or rely on an ersatz god to do our feeling for us.

We must prove our truth. It is only by risking our all that we learn after the fact that there was no risk. God does the proving, and he uses our hands and feet, our body and brains to do it. We just need to hold our nose and take a leap of faith to prove it.

Thank you.

A SHAKY BUT SINCERE THANK YOU

I believe that no problem has the power to defeat us if we will upgrade our attitude about it. The humbling part is that we cannot upgrade our attitude all on our own...as a self-determined objective. We can try but we will fail...beat our breasts, wail...give up...try again. Several times. It is our own self-will that finally must fold.

A friend of mine told me of his awful what-to-do panicky morning. He was facing an enormous challenge at work, and there was no apparent good outcome for him.

On the way to work, he ran into a group of friends with whom he had coffee, and they talked about his situation. He went on to work with an uplifted spirit. The work problem remained exactly the same, but his attitude about it had been upgraded, and he was freed. Freed from the bondage of self.

Is that the only real bondage there is...the bondage of self? The gazillion what about mes?...what ifs? The future garbage that sends otherwise rational people to an early grave or a desire for it...or their medicine cabinets. God, who?

I'm guessing we all have what-to-do panicky mornings no matter how deep our spiritual growth. The trick is to limit the time we give to that panic, that self-centered fear that, given into, walks, talks and cries like a baby in our own head.

Changing our attitude...changing our mind. It takes a minimal amount of time...a heartbeat...to turn our thoughts toward God. It is our ego that links up with fear that we must needs detach from. It only has as much power as we give it, but when we give it an inch we have given it our all.

The paradox is that all we need do to detach is to kiss it on the lips. Resist it not, by a shaky but sincere "thank you," and God has us in his arms again. We know it and we show it.

Thank you.

MOVE ON ALREADY

It was Saint Augustine who said, "What I needed most was to love and be loved. I rushed headlong into love, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me, and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers of jealousy, suspicions and fear, by bursts of anger and quarrels."

It was that same Saint Augustine who is reported to have said he expected to be feeling lust three day after he was dead.

The most important word...I'm talking vitally important...in both of those quotes is the word "Saint."

The man was canonized, lifted up, sainted...by the Catholic Church! That's the same church all the p.o.'d Catholics use to justify their bad behavior...the rest of us use our mothers.

In our youth no doubt the majority of us felt the need to love and be loved, not having a clue what to love or to be loved meant. In fact, it was usually lust. But as we aged, lust gave over to other things to get hung up by...most of them leading to the rues, regrets and remorses we suffer from today.

And that's the point. Saint Augustine suffered the same pangs, pains and pitfalls...why do we hold ours so dear and feel so hopeless of ever overcoming them? Why not accept, just as the Saint did, that we may well have these till three days after we're dead?

I mean, who's kidding whom? If we could have removed them, we would have by now. I say we fall to our knees and thank God  Almighty it's not a lot worse, quitcherbitchin' and move on.

A less than spiritually uplifting message at Christmastime...but my truth nonetheless.

Thank you.

A PRAYER FOR ALL

"Today may there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us." -- Anonymous to me

Thank you.

GO BEOND REASON TO LOVE

[The following is a reprint of my blog of July 31, 2008.]

I don’t recall ever truly letting go of any resentment I’ve held of another by praying for them. The very prayer keeps me focused on the wrong as a fact.

I pray for my thoughts about that person…for my heart to be changed, upgraded, toward that person. And in that prayer, I accept the responsibility for letting go of the resentment…that’s when I’m working toward aligning my will with God’s will. Just that slight change of focus, from looking through my eyes at how I’ve been wronged to looking through God’s eyes to peace, takes my thoughts off the resentment, my real problem.

In my idea of a perfect world, I’d only have to do that once, and voila! I’m resentment free. Unfortunately, my resentments are always justified, I am right, and you are wrong. To get free of me takes persistence, sharing my petty problem with another (risking their agreement that this is really petty), and plain old willingness to simply change my mind (an extremely difficult act for me).

But the incredible freedom, the wrap-my-heart-around-it joy, that comes from going beyond reason to love…an impossible get when one is into winning through another’s losing, no matter what the cause.

Thank you.

TO KNOW GENUINE LOVE

More and more I am believing that life's second most important lesson is all about forgiveness.

Easwaran writes "if you do not learn how to love, everywhere you go you are going to suffer." Ah, and there's our paradox. It is that suffering that we come to treasure for, as has been written, "pain is the touchstone of all spiritual growth," and there is no pain without suffering. In my world at any rate.

Suffering almost without fail comes with someone else's name on it as the cause. And there s/he is...our angel. The one we must forgive just exactly as she presents herself to us...precisely as we translate his actions and/or words as personal. Disrespectful in a word.

That does not mean forgive him but never forget. No. It means forgive her and let it go...hug the ugly, kiss it on the lips, and wave it good-bye.

That's how we come to know pain as the touchstone of all spiritual growth for this is a painful process. What a shock it is when we realize it is painful to our ego...and that is all. The more we dress it up in order to validate our hurt ("my heart was pierced"), the tighter we hold to our ego's rule.

Forgive, i.e., go to God for God. In that moment of transcendent surrender, we are stripped of our need to hurt or be hurt. We give over and we know genuine love.

Thank you.

OUR JOURNEY HAS JUST BEGUN

Again I am reminded that we open ourselves not to let God in, but to let God out.

I used to think that we were sent out to find God. Today I believe that we were sent out to meet our many selves and to forgive each of them. The big uh-oh comes when we learn that we, by our unaided will, are incapable of forgiving...that is a Joint Venture with us not in the lead.

To me, that's when we discover our Rosetta Stone, or message board, for our many lives. A message, each one pointing to the same place, for each and every individual born of this earth. We each must needs find our own message which is the key that unlocks the seal within, releasing the God of our own understanding. It cannot be unlocked by our thinking, talking, or doing even...but we must think, talk and do to ever fully get that.

It is in that transcendent moment of surrender of self...that pinpoint in infinity where self will is not...that our own Self is unsealed.

Fileted like a fish. Freed. In grateful pain. Yet we know we have made our U-bie, we are heading home. Sing Hallelujah1 Shout Amen, praise the Lord and free at last! Our real journey has begun.

Thank you.

NOT FOR ME, BUT FOR THEE

Fr. Richard Rohr made a slight mention this morning about marriage and child rearing. It translated in my mind to mentoring...Some people are called to mentor. It's the surest path to death of the ego, if you really allow your mentoring to mirror you, revealing your ordinary and weak self, and also helping you to experience unconditional love.

Interestingly, I picked up another book and read,  "...he does his deed well who does it rather for the common good than for his own will." 

Blinding flash of the obvious: The gift is to get over myself with her/him, not for myself but for the benefit of others. Others I may not even know...to emit vibrations of love, forgiveness and peace to be received by whomever, wherever. We need never be consciously aware who receives our forgiveness vibrations for the whole world needs love.

Conquer self...all good within will thus be unblocked and will flow out to others and will return with twelve bushels full left over.

Thank you.

THE FIGHT TO GIVE UP THE FIGHT

It seems to me that everything comes down to the doing...how well am I living it, walking it, breathing it? "It" being the spiritual life...the thinking of others first life. The one where we give over to another even...and especially...when we know we're right. Learning the difference between caving in and agreeing with exceptions. Ah, there's the nut. Agreeing with exceptions, also known as, disagreeing agreeably.

That's the one that makes believers out of hard-core atheists because, according to me, it cannot be done relying on self-will alone. Just knowing we want to, setting our mind to "just do it," gritting our teeth and lip-synching nice-nice often get us a face full of hateful and, lately, a middle-finger salute into the bargain.

The most important words, and the pearl beyond price, in that paragraph are "relying on self-will alone." For it can be done, that agreeing with exceptions. It can be done when we rely on the God of our own understanding...the God to whom we have given our will, or our life's "I want" list.

Not very long ago I ran into a problem with a friend, and I consciously decided to trust God and move forward. In effect, I held my nose and took a leap of faith...I did not cave, I agreed with exceptions. Our entire friendship changed...for the better, and we are having a much more fun friendship today.

I am in the midst of an almost identical situation, and, even with my recent experience, I am having the devil's own time just wanting to trust God and give over.

I will...my own self-chosen penalties make that determination. It's just a hoot that I'm still in it to win it...a phrase that is overused and under-attained.

That, though, is what makes life so interesting, never boring, exciting, in fact. The fight to give up the fight. Another reminder to love and laugh...and letting go will follow.

Thank you.

RESIGNATION IS NOT ACCEPTANCE

Our life's joy...our daily life's joy...comes once we have turned our will over to the care of God. Our life will follow if and when we do that. Our turned-over will becomes our perpetual pearl beyond price for we now are free to lead a God-guided life.

It takes time to learn to trust unto living that guided life. Too often we refuse to use the boatload of patience we were born with and opt for self-will. That's just part of our learning curve.

Just yesterday someone said she thought she was accepting too much and doing too little. In my world, there is no way to be accepting too much...resigning oneself is not acceptance. Doing too little is often a temptation...especially if we've asked God what to do, what to do, and he's remained mute to our ears. It never enters our mind that we need to move on from that question, that self-perceived problem...it's been taken care of, it's just not our time to know how yet.

Eknath Easwaran recommends withdrawing our attention completely from the problem...stay pinpoint focused on now: "When we can withdraw our attention completely from the past [or the future], it is not possible to get resentful, it is not possible to be oppressed by mistakes in our past, no matter who made them. All our attention is in the present, which makes every moment fresh, every relationship fresh."

A turned-over life is a God-guided life and all we need ponder is peace, love and joy. Being human, we'll wander off into the ether but that, too, we get to accept as our learning curve. That's what self-discipline is for.

Thank you.

THE TIME OF TRUMP FORETOLD

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
    my heart is sick.
Hark, the cry of my poor people
    from far and wide in the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
            —Jeremiah 8:18-19a

The time of Trump foretold...or by the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.

On the other hand...and there is always another hand...there can never be just one side of a coin or a story. The flip side of the time of Trump then is: This is the time the Lord has made. Let us relax and be happy in it. [My paraphrase.] 

There is nothing outside the realm of our Lord...what takes place within the realm is ours to perfect by finding our Lord there.

Thank you.

IT TAKES A LIFETIME

We cannot directly fight or separate ourselves from evil or untruth. -- Fr. Richard Rohr

There. That is a pure fact that we need to remember in order to stay focused on still more spiritual growth...on God. The word "directly" is the key.

In general, to attempt to repair a cracked relationship by talking about it is to break it completely. Mainly because our ego-based reasoning mind always legislates for itself.

We must go within our self to examine our soul in search of our wrong for it is our wrong that must needs be corrected. Our ego only sees outward...will only see you...will only recognize your wrongs as the source of the problem. And whatever the other is exhibiting, we will respond in kind...with both correctly identifying the problem while thinking it belongs solely to the other.

I don't believe freedom from that tangle can be done in a single sit-down think-through, write a little, pray a little session. It is a lifetime work. For our reasoning mind is ever with us, and our ego is reliant on and complicit with it.

Freedom comes through surrender...losing in a word. This is psychically painful. Which, according to me, hurts way more than physical pain. It is psychical pain that brings on our "dark night of the soul," which, we find after, is essential for still more spiritual growth.

According to me, there is no "the" dark night, there are as many dark nights of the soul as we need individually and personally in order to gain release from the self-protection that our ego promises. In other words, for us to get over ourselves.

That's why it takes a lifetime.

That's also why we need to remember that God is with us 24/7 always and all ways.

Thank you.

NOT TO GET, BUT TO GIVE

In my ongoing search to quit taking myself so seriously, I thanked God for any tidbits he'd like to throw my way. And I heard: "Not to get, but to give...to release self for the benefit of another."

I'd like to think that'll take the rest of my life doing, but who's kidding whom? At my age, I expect that's for the rest of this life and way into my next one...and very likely the one beyond that.

Once again, I find my sliver of gold...I know I'm on the right track, heading in the right direction. And I am grateful.

The grace of gratitude bathes my battered mind...and even my ego feels relief.

Thank you.

IN THE STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

I am convinced that the universe is under the control of a loving purpose and that in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

The most important words to me in King's quote are "in the struggle for righteousness."

Who knew it would be such a struggle to just do the right thing? And I'm talking the simple right thing, the non-complex right thing...like not only keeping one's mouth shut but getting our thoughts in line, too. In line spiritually...in line with goodness.

I wonder if divorcing myself from my own opinions isn't simply letting go of my own judgments? And why in the world would I use "simply" there? That's a judgment aborning because there is no simply about letting go of anything. According to me.

At the root of our opinions isn't there usually a human face...that "other" that we're itching to set straight? Whatever else would we make judgments on that we awake at 2:00 PM regretting? I mean, I've never woke up regretting my judgment about climate change....about the congressman who argues there is no such thing, yes. And there it is...I do not for a minute regret sitting in judgment of that fool one. There's my struggle for righteousness.

God's got his work cut out for me if we're going to purify my thoughts.

Thank you.

LOVE EXTENDED UNTO INFINITY

 The gift of darkness draws you to know God’s presence beyond what thought, imagination, or sensory feeling can comprehend. - Fr. Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" of October 14, 2015

You are never angry for the reason that you think. - Anonymous (meaning I can't remember which of my many reads this comes from) 

You must go beyond reason to love. -  "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment" by Thaddeus Golas

Those three ideas, if practiced faithfully, could change the world...according to me. I believe that because they continue to change me and thus my world. 

I list them in reverse order of learning because they are so interconnected from bottom to top with room at the top for more to be added.

If I'd never connected with the necessity to go beyond reason to love, I couldn't have heard that I am never angry for the reason that I think which opened my mind to darkness as a gift, confirming that which I had come to believe.

The interconnecting link, of course, is that each requires our looking within, changing our mind, divorcing our self from our own opinions. In a nutshell, finding the other innocent...which, paradoxically, lets us walk free in our own head.

Love extended is love returned tenfold...a hundredfold...unto infinity.

Thank you.

ANGELS IN DISGUISE

I shall keep the silence of my heart with greater care, so that in the silence of my heart I hear His words of comfort, and from the fullness of my heart I comfort Jesus in the distressing disguise of the poor. For in the silence and purity of the heart God speaks. -- Mother Teresa

What a concept...the distressing disguise of the poor.

What if all the ills of the world at any time and in any place are simply distressing disguises seeking God? To resist them in kind is to nurture them...to grow them stronger, meaner, more ours.

Instead of searching for the strongest, toughest, meanest human to beat all the ills that are before our eyes right this very minute, what if we acknowledged them as our own distressing disguises? Disguises that we have birthed, disguises that can be overcome only by seeing them through God's eyes...with love and gratitude.

We can be grateful that we have finally brought ourselves to our knees in complete defeat. There we can finally accept that God can and will expose them for the angels they are. Angels in disguise.

Thank you.

THROW IN WITH GOD

It is reasonably obvious that one is not required to be a member of a church, synagogue, mosque, spiritual fellowship, or any formal anything to live a spiritually based life.

What isn't so obvious, and may only be my belief, is that living a spiritually based life is as near to a guarantee for peace of mind as it is possible to get. By living I mean utter dependence on a personal Power of Love, a power for good and good alone...with our reasoning mind always coming in second. I mean living it.

If that would be so, then it follows that each of us would be individually responsible for making that guarantee breathe in our life. Each making the decision to throw in 100 percent with the God of our own understanding. That then would be our life's journey...if our heart's desire is for peace, love and joy.

I'm guessing what we would find in choosing that path is we would be relieved of concern for our own self, for our nickels, dimes and dollars, head colds. and old age. We would be wholly involved with helping others...with God turning foes into friends and friends into family.

If we would but try, I'm betting we'd find ourselves feeling like a kid again...like rolling around on a carpet of green, green grass the day before school's out, anticipating the joy...with friends, foes, family and Ruckus right there, laughing and scratching.

My God rocks.

Thank you.

IN THE END, ALL THAT MATTERS....

[The following is a reprint from my blog of December 29, 2009.]

“In the end, all that matters is what you have done for Christ.”

Some years ago, I saw that message, framed, picture-like, at the home of a lovely lady who was my mother’s friend.

I’ve thought of that message over the years, and it becomes truer to me as I open my mind to it…true for all, when one realizes “for Christ” as for God, for Allah, for Buddha, for Mohammad, for Jehovah, for Mary, for Self, for the Great Spirit, for….

In the end, all that matters is what you have done…selflessly…for others.

Thank you.

ON BEING OFF THE SPIRITUAL BEAM

Three truths to know unto believing, unto living: 

1. Every time we are upset, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.
2. When someone hurts us, makes us sore, we are in the wrong, too. 
3. When someone steps on our toes, seemingly without provocation, invariably we find that we have made a decision based on self that later placed us in a position to be hurt.

I wrote of  the above three truths recently...here's the rest of the story as I know it for me: If, when we read "...there is something wrong with us" or  "...we are in the wrong, too," we start digging into our personal thinking, feeling, doing, being, we are going down that wrong road again.

The "wrong" we're in is that we are off the spiritual beam. We can only get back on that beam by going to God for God and that is all.

Relying on our reasoning mind to get back on the beam, we stay with our self-determined objective of fixing our self. That way invariably leads to victimhood because we are of two minds: One, we're angry/hurt that we've been wronged, and two, we truly want to figure out how, apparently, God thinks we're in the wrong because we've been wronged.

All we need do to get back on the spiritual beam is to remember to say and to mean, "Thy will, not mine, be done. I'd rather have your will done in my life than my will...always and all ways." We can then understand that the only thing being asked of us is that we give up our desire for self-satisfaction. That is the perfect objective which is of God which I doubt we ever attain...to our own satisfaction.

Thank you.

BEAUTIFUL AND BOUNTIFUL

The first time my friend Natalie saw the Grand Canyon she had a blinding flash of the obvious: "All that grandeur is within me." I love that, and I go there often in my mind.

I think of the Grand Canyon and, say, the Grand Coulee Dam. Both marvels...one a marvel of nature, the other a marvel of man.

Here's my blinding flash of the obvious...it took Nature thousands upon thousands of years to make the Grand Canyon, which is still a work in progress, and it only has beautiful and bountiful side benefits.

It took man several years to build the likes of the Grand Coulee Dam which has daily upkeep but is essentially finished, and the unintended consequences of that and other dams are devastating.

That's the difference between a self-driven life and a God-driven life. God's way takes longer, but the unintended consequences are beautiful and bountiful for all, self and others.

Thank you.

FILLED WITH THAT QUIET JOY

The healing magic of laughter is my everything. Specifically, laughter at my own self. God sent us out at birth with two separate but equal gifts...free will and laughter. Maybe our life's job is returning that free will to God and laughing at our self-willed attempts to do it.

I'm a believer there are certain life-truths that, if accepted unto living them, will make our life joyful...not, repeat NOT, easy. If it seems easy, chances are we're lying.

[I've found these truths in some form in every spiritual tract I've read, which admittedly is not a great number but to find a couple of anything from different religions that are in agreement passes my low standard. The three as set out here are from my favorite spiritual literature...my favorites because they are written for the likes of me...short, to the point, and easy to understand.]

Three truths to know unto believing, unto living: 

1. Every time we are upset, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.
2. When someone hurts us, makes us sore, we are in the wrong, too. 
3. When someone steps on our toes, seemingly without provocation, invariably we find that we have made a decision based on self that later placed us in a position to be hurt.

There. Those three simple guides are difficult beyond imagining because they ask only that we give up our desire to keep our self feeling safe, secure, happy and better than you.

If and when we give up our preoccupation with self, we will know a quiet joy. We will know it and we will show it. And we will begin to heal, to become One with the universe, God itself.

According to me.

And I am nowhere near living a life filled with that quiet joy all of the time. I do, however, know I am heading in the right direction because I live there some of the time. There. Knowing my life's journey is on the right track is the pearl beyond price.

Thank you.

THE SECRET GARDEN OF GOD

...you have to let God reveal your real faults to you, usually by falling many times, and by other people's opinions of you. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 29, 2015

The secret garden of God fits on the point of a pin, is within, and is nearly always only  accessible through our own falling and failing.

Every time we have a disagreement with another, we are in conflict with our Source within, our own Self. Until we get right with our Self, we will project our failings onto the other and call her responsible...obsessing on ways to hurt him the way we're hurting and/or to apologize for our hurt.

We waste so much mental, physical and spiritual energy trying to fix our own feelings so we can feel good about our self, and we do it by thinking of ways to hurt another...setting her straight, making him pay.

There is that secret garden within each of us that we can go to and in that instant be free. Finding that garden must needs be our singular search. All else is self on parade.

Thank you.