HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR...ALL YEAR

As yet another year winds down, we read again the following paragraph from Joel Goldsmith's "Leave Your Nets." Every rereading of this fills us with Yes!

You have come to that point in consciousness where you are seeking for what the world calls the intangible. When you came to a spiritual teaching, you knew in advance, or soon learned, that you were going to obtain nothing in the external realm. What you were seeking was the Invisible, that which cannot be seen, heard, or known. And yet you were seeking to be able to see, hear, and know just that. Through that seeking, you are coming to know that which is unknowable, see that which is invisible, hear that which is inaudible. And on this Nothing you now live.

We go to God for God...and that is All.

Thank you.

FAITH IN GOD IS RELIANCE ON LOVE

Live to bring others to Me, the only Source of Happiness and Heart-Peace. -- "God Calling," December 30

I've underlined and highlighted that sentence so many times that it is all but unreadable now...and the word "others" I have circled repeatedly with exclamation points behind it.

One year (which is now too faded to decipher) I even wrote out to the side, "I understand this more deeply now." In fact, I had barely begun to understand because I was still thinking in terms of "getting" the words as opposed to doing them.

Doing them starts with living, from our mind unto our heart, to bring others (i.e., our Gertrude of the moment) to the Source of all that is happy, joyous and free. That cannot be done with resentment, fear or just minor distaste doing our thinking for us.

Faith in God is not just faith to believe in spiritual ideas. It’s to have confidence in Love itself. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 30, 2017.

Thank you.

ON GIVING GOD A GIGGLE

According to me, God speaks very clearly and without frills. Our problem is we choose to believe that cannot be true.

For instance, we pray for help with a problem that we're having with the Gertrude of the moment, and we receive an answer to our prayer...only it's not the answer we want. We pray again, being more specific. We receive an even more "not right" answer.

It takes much praying, disregarding, praying, etc., before we ever choose to check out our prayer...the source of our problem to begin with.

We realize that we've been praying for a change in Gertrude, not in us, and the answered prayer has always been "accept," "acceptance," "resist not," etc. Who's kidding whom? That will never be right to our reasoning mind.

What we're really praying for is a "got'cha" to Gertrude's "unacceptable" behavior. Except that there ain't no God in got'cha.

I'm coming to believe that is the primary source of trouble in today's world...we all, individually, nationally, worldwide, want our own got'cha. With peace, love and joy coming out on our side.

Giving over, giving in, giving not getting will probably never be the first choice in human affairs. I suspect that's why Jesus's only two commandments, both about love and love alone, have never been accepted without exception. 

I'm preaching this morning because there are more than a couple people in my life this day that are wrong, and if I give over, give in, give up, I'll lose. And I'm right.

Father, forgive me for I know exactly what I do, and I do it anyway...still, yet, again. But I'm grinning today...mostly because I know I'm giving God a giggle.

Thank you.

RESIST NOT EVIL...AND BE SET FREE

Idle thought in my quiet time this morning: Is my resistance to Gertrude simply resistance to love and laughter?

I wonder if all resistance isn't resistance to love. I started to add "and laughter" but then I considered the death of a beloved. Loving the process of life unto death I can accept from my eyebrows up, and we must start somewhere so that's close enough to perfect for me for now.

But laughter? Laughing at the process of never seeing, being with, a beloved again requires some adjustment in my thinking. I don't ever want to lose the belief that Love and Laughter are of God and my always problem-solver, so I choose to recognize Laughter as Light, lightness of spirit will do.

But before going to the outside of enough, i.e., death, I'd best come to understand that my resistance to my many Gertrudes and all their antics is my here-and-now perplexity. I need to accept that my personal resistance is resistance to love and laughter.

I can feel my ego Lucy rising up in righteous indignation even as I type that for Lucy is very well aware that I am right, Gertrude is wrong, she needs be set straight before she does a harm to our fellowship.

It is those thoughts that all but drown my remembrance of the facts: God has us in the palm of his hand...he has our back...he can and will intervene in our life in our behalf. And there it is...the art of dual thinking at its finest.

The gold...it is that very dual thinking that brings recognition that I'm going down that wrong road again. Turn back...detour! And I recall learning that all that we see as fearful is, in truth, God. Welcome it, and be set free.

It is I: be not afraid, - John 6:20

Thank you.

ALL OUR TROUBLES, LORD, SOON BE OVER

In his Letter to the Romans, Paul has a marvelous line: 'where sin increased, grace abounded all the more' (Romans 5:20). -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 27, 2017

Recently I read that "our inner attitudes and states are the real sources of our problems, and we need to root out the problems at that level." I am convinced that is the source of all our woes, our inner, not our outer.

Since our outer behavior is 100 percent controlled by our inner thoughts and attitudes, if we upgrade our attitude, we'll upgrade our problem. The big "Yes, but..." is, relying on our self-will or want to alone, we cannot upgrade our thoughts, much less our attitude. We can start thinking prettier or loftier thoughts, but without a decision to seek higher help, we usually never get far beyond the start part.

According to me, in trying to live a spiritually based life, our problem is "trying." Reread Paul's line, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. It is not that sin increases so we must try to get grace to come fix it, or pray for God to work miracles...it is not on us.

Ours is to make our self fit to be of maximum service to God and to others. Even then God and grace do the heavy lifting. We aim our self in the right direction, slap our ego upside the head as needed, and pray our thank you without ceasing.

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

Thank you.

TELL NO HUMAN

[The following is a reworked version of my post of May 15, 2013.]

There is an admonition somewhere in the Bible that we must "tell no man" the wonders of the Lord. I'm guessing because trying to tell another about the wonders of the Lord just mucks up any real understanding of the wonders of the Lord.

Having the goal of living the Sermon is all well and good, but we must accept that the biggest block to actually doing it, actually living the Sermon, is our own ego.

We are asked to agree with our adversary quickly. To agree with our adversary quickly can give our adversary a reason to believe s/he is right...and our ego writhes. To turn the other cheek is to be thought a wuss in the extreme...and our ego agonizes.

Until we are freed from following our ego's dictates, accepting, or course, we will never be free from our ego's squawks, our ego will always try to make an end-run around our spiritual needs. In being thought wrong or being thought a wuss by X, we go to Y and explain our deep spiritual intention, knowing Y will tell X, and, if X has a brain, s/he will be shamed, envious and sorry. There is no spiritual growth there...there is only another reason why "tell no human" is essential.

Therein lies the gold. This is the impetus we need to keep us focused on becoming fully God conscious. Our own thinking is here in the material world; God is in a higher place deeper within us.

We find that we cannot deny our ego-victory wants through self-will or want to alone, that we must go for help within. We realize, seemingly after the fact, that it is our willingness daily to deny those wants that God fulfills our every need.

We go to God for God...and that is all.

Thank you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Love is always patient and kind;

it is never jealous;

love is never boastful or conceited;

it is never rude or selfish;

it does not take offense, and is not resentful.

Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in truth;

it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

Love never fails, never ceases.

--1 Corinthians 13:4-8

If I live my life to perfection, doing what is right and good on behalf of others, but act with compulsion and without love, then I am nothing at all.

If I take care of the needs of everybody in the world, especially the poor, because of my own need to help, but am without love even for myself, then I am nothing at all.

If I am efficient and successful in all that I do for the sake of justice, but act out of drivenness and without love, then I am nothing at all.

If I am cultured and refined, and in touch with the pain of existence, but am absent from the pain of persons in the present moment who need my empathy; and if I act without love and compassion, then I am nothing at all.

If I have the gifts of wisdom, insight, and understanding, but am not engaged with those around me in the present moment and am without a spirit of compassion and love, then I am nothing at all.

If I am faithful, loyal, and obedient, and never deviate from the law, but am judgmental and blaming, and am without love, then I am nothing at all.

If I live in a pain-free world of dreams and plans, enjoying optimism and pleasurable options, but am not addressing present problems and am avoiding people in actual distress and am without love, then I am nothing at all.

If I am strong and powerful, but lose my best self in a spirit of resentment, retaliation, and vindictiveness, and know nothing of the vulnerability of love, then I am nothing at all.

If I am settled and accommodating, holding onto a sense of distance and calm, but am not journeying inward to know and appreciate my weaknesses and gifts, and am neglecting my own legitimate calling to love myself, then I am nothing at all.

[From Fr. Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" of May 7, 2015, crediting Brother Joseph Schmidt who shared the paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (original author unknown)]

Peace, Love and Joy to All....

Thank you.

AH, TO KNOW WE ARE LOVED BY GOD

Love utterly redefines the nature of power. Power without love is mere brutality (even in the church), and love without power is only the sentimentality of private lives disconnected from the Whole. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 24, 2017

That certainly rings my bell. Hmmm. I wonder if this isn't "the rest of the story" that I never knew was needed. The rest of the we have ceased fighting anything and anybody story.

It was truly a revelation way back when I realized that to cease fighting does not mean we become doormats, but rather that we learn how to communicate in order to come to agreement. We become willing to give over in order to get a negotiated peace...to use the reasoning mind's words if you will.

Thinking on love without power, though...I suspect that I have thought of power as ego-related only and therefore to avoid, walk away from, deny myself.

Here's my great stand up and shout news: I have experienced very recently and several times the inner power of saying the exactly right push-back words without thinking about (or praying for) them. I spoke softly (!) and with humor. Ah, proof positive that God can and will speak through us and for us, and, more importantly, we need not pre-worry for we are not in control of that.

We have the Power since we know the answer: Love and Laugh.

Thank you. 

OWN A DIFFERENT MIND...BREATHE GRATITUDE

An example of the "human condition," according to me: We are feeling at sixes and sevens with a friend, partner, parent, spouse, whomever because they do not choose to understand us. They just want to be understood. That feels selfish and self-centered to us, and we want to explain that to them so they will understand.

Then the "spiritual plane" to me: We know until knowing becomes acceptance that he is not our problem, and we are not resisting her, personally. Our resistance is our problem, our unscratchable itch, as it were. It is our self-centered perspective that makes their actions unacceptable, i.e., resistible, that is our sore point.

The solution is simple...never easy, but simple. All we must needs do is change our mind. And there it is. Upgrading our attitude will upgrade our problem but we must go to God to do that. The reasoning mind is reasoning, it is not stupid, necessarily. If we believe we are right, just saying we are going to change our mind will not get us there. We have to go for inside help.

Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise. When we put on a different mind, heaven takes care of itself. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 23, 2017

Thank you.

CHOSE YE THIS DAY

I have set before you life and death, choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

That sentence caused me pause. I wondered if the choice of life and death isn't a choice of either 4th dimensional consciousness or material (reasoning) mind consciousness.

Fourth dimensional consciousness is the place of love, of giving over, of loosing and letting go of self and self-determined wants (that masquerade as needs). This is the place of pure paradox where releasing self and the protection of self is our only real safe place. We know security beyond imagining in the fact that God has our back. There. That, according to me, is life...living fear-free through love.

Reasoning mind consciousness, on the other hand, is where we live the majority of the time (that's 51 percent, sometimes more so). The reasoning mind is our ego's stomping grounds, the place where me getting mine is vitally important...where giving over is a sign of weakness, love is for friends (as long as we agree) and rudeness is mistaken for strength. And that defines death to me for it is the picture of anxiety, living fear-filled of not getting...period.

To ever remember: The Father knows our needs.

Thank you.

IT'S THE DOING IT THAT MATTERS

I'm beginning to believe that every word we utter is a prayer, and what we get is what we prayed for...especially the unintentionals that we get.

I said in passing, a throwaway line in truth, that I'd like to be able to do like Jesus did when he stood accused before Pontius Pilate...stood silently before his judge.

I am here to state that since I blathered that (now I see) bald-faced lie, I have been slandered, judged, found wanting and marginalized. Marginalized is just a fancy word for ignored, and, who's kidding whom, that is the worst.

I've got to say, I can find it funny when I take the time to see it as an answered prayer. But my ego, dear old Lucy, is writing a script to use to get a certain person told even as I type. 

I was led to read George Will's column this morning, and he nailed it...he wrote that Americans are addicted to indignation, and I identified from my toenails up. I regret that I identify, but there it is.

The thing is, it is that addiction to indignation that can lead me to crash-and-burn...hopeless despair, the necessary end-up place because I know from my eyebrows up what I need to do: Trust God, clean house, help others. 

Or, love and laugh.

Thank you.

WE ARE OUR POWER FOR GOOD

This morning I realized a Power for Good within me, within everyone, and I knew It has never not been with us.

I thought on this, and I could believe that It brings only good...but then I thought, what if the good seems to be for the benefit of others, and we are left feeling left out? And I reckoned that feeling of being left out is us slipping back into our reasoning mind.

I wondered, when we seek a self-determined objective no matter how good we convince our self it to be, if we aren't bypassing the Power for Good within...not bypassing as much as avoiding. We avoid our good by staying stuck in our hidey hole, our reasoning mind.

Then I read the following "Daily Meditation" of Fr Richard Rohr, and, as usual, it gave me comforting encouragement: Once we touch upon the Real, there is an inner insistence that the Real, if it is the Real, has to be forever. Call it wishful thinking, if you will, but this insistence has been a recurring intuition since the beginnings of humanity.

God is so good to me...God is so good.

Thank you.

THINGS BEYOND THE MIND

The Risen Christ is leading us into a future for which we’re never fully ready. How can we even imagine divine union? It is too big a concept for most of us. 'These are the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of humanity—what God has prepared for those who love' -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 19, 2017

What if the things beyond the mind of humanity is the way that looks and feels like failure and despair? The following is for those of us who have accepted failure and despair as the road to crash-and-burn and therefore to God.

Let's consider life as "the way of the cross" with crucifixion as the divine end, and ego as the crucified.

We say that we seek ego deflation in depth, and we beat our breast and wail when we fail at our attempts to "let" it happen. Who's kidding whom? Thinking that we can let it happen is all but a guaranteed ego trip.

But what if we openly went for an unselfish want and we failed, got slapped down and felt humiliated? We could recognize that as an ego-buster and therefore the best result. That recognition of it as the best result could lift us from our self-centered beating and wailing. We could say our thank you with a pure heart and clear mind...and there's our gold.

Why not consider life as "the way of the cross" with crucifixion as the divine end, and ego as the crucified?

Thank you.

DETACH AND FIND PEACE

I stand at the door and knock. I knock to be let out...I know your needs...I seek to do the work.

I suspect we know all we need to know when we learn that God the Father lives within, knows our needs and does the work.

Knowing is essential to coming to believe. Coming to believe is essential to acceptance. Acceptance is essential to doing that which we are knowing. And there it is, the ever-expanding circle of life...more like the open-ended circle of life.

It is our doing that proves our knowing, and few of us there be who do our spiritual knowledge without fail. Which, by the by, is the good news, according to me. I'm a believer that it is in the failing that we're doing it right...what else so fervently (and frequently) sends us to God?

Seek in order to learn in order to come to believe in order to accept in order to detach...and be at peace.

Thank you.

REALIZE FROM OUR TOES TO OUR NOSE

Again this morning the thought screams to me that if I'm not showing It, I'm only knowing it. We must needs realize It...realize that it is the Father within that does the work.

We can think more, analyze further, write on and on, but that is proof of knowing...and that is all.

Turn from the reasoning of this. Move just a teensy-tiny step forward with It as our guide. Providence, the Higher Power, Almighty God...by whatever name, It's on our side...moves in and completes our work. This  takes time beyond imagining.

We let It by believing It from our toes to our nose...from our nose up is God's workshop.

Thank you.

GOD IS MY HIDEY HOLE

God is with me in my hidey hole, too. 

As I seek to be relieved of my defect of omission, I know that God is there, too.
I need strain for nothing...God is there within me/without me.

I have long identified my primary defect of character as one of omission rather than commission...meaning, I hang back, hide out, speak not (and judge silently). I have sought relief from that defect, and I have come a long way...not far enough to quit thanking God for it, but we've made a dent.

This morning in my quiet time, I was blessed with the above blinding flash of the obvious, and I knew that defect of character had just been transmuted. It may well be with me till three days after I'm dead, but now in the midst of hanging back I can admit it, laugh at myself and do what I can do, knowing God is with me in this, too.

Cling to nothing...fly!

Thank you.

ON GOING BEYOND REASON

It came to me this morning that life itself is the Way of the Cross. Especially when we think of that way as going beyond reason to love.

The reasoning mind is a necessary stepping stone and that is all. That is all it was ever meant to be, a stepping down place to a higher consciousness. If we stay hunkered down on that stone, we stay hunkered down in our life...self-protected, looking for the win, fearing a loss.

To go deeper to that higher place, we must come to rely on a personal power for good (keep it simple, call it "God"). We begin to realize that we must go beyond taking anything personally. We "see" that which seems wrong, unacceptable to us, is our very own.

If we're doing life right, there will be many and many more rocks, ditches, cliffs and mountains for us to meet and greet. On first look, through our reasoning mind's eye, we will wonder how we are ever going to get up, down, over and/or around this (which, to that same reasoning mind, shouldn't be ours to begin with).

That's when we learn the power of our thank you...it doesn't move the rocks, it removes our resistance. God intervenes in our life in our behalf...on his timetable. We learn firsthand that God has to go slow in order for us to keep up, and slow he does go. Until we know from our toenails up, had he gone any faster, we'd have quit the field.

God can and will if asked...and we are patient.

Thank you.

GOD IS GOOD

Blinding flash of the obvious: The one who slanders me is the one I need to praise. (By praise, I suspect that means be grateful for.)

The minute that came to me, I consciously elevated my thoughts in re Gertrude, and I saw her in a new light.

If it is true that everything works together for our good, then how can we dislike, fear and/or slander anyone? Especially with the justification of “payback.”

The Father knows my needs…and hers. This may all be incidental to me and God’s special gift to her…fulfilling a fear she must needs face, and I’m the perfect (imperfect?) vehicle.

God is good...God is love.

Thank you.

THE WONDER...THE JOY!...OF A GOD-GUIDED LIFE

I'm identifying this morning with the "Peanuts" character, Pigpen. He's the one who was always depicted with a cloud of dust over his head. I wonder if that isn't how we look to God...all of us walking around with our worries and wonders in a cloud over our head. All of us totally focused on our cloud and what to do about the worries and how to use the wonders.

Today's "God Calling," entitled Perpetual Guidance, is so full of promise...promise that we have all experienced as fact. It is an assurance, a promise actually, that we can rest in knowing that every detail of your lives is planned by Me....

It ends with Oh! the wonder of this...a God-guided life.

Yes!

Thank you.

NOW IS WHEN WE BEGIN

We must go deeper to go higher. Deeper within to find our new consciousness at a higher level of realization. To realize what is already there, has ever been there, will ever be there. Life in the spiritual lane is all about pitching out, loosing and letting go...detaching. 

Ego will fight this process every step of the way for it is ego that is the block to our realization of what is buried deep within. Ego is upfront, out there, leading the parade, tooting its own little horn...then regretting every step of the way. Which, of course, leads to starting over...analyzing, thinking, talking about where we went wrong and how we're going to do it different this time. Then doing the same thing over again expecting different results.

The thing is, for the overwhelming majority of us, that is when we're doing it right! That is our right road to crash-and-burn. We, of course, do not know crash-and-burn is where...if we're doing it right...we need to end up. That's what ego is trying so desperately hard to avoid.

The light comes on when we remember that this is all about life in the spiritual lane. We stay in the reasoning mind world, relying on our own intellect, for as long as we want to. If, however, we sincerely want still more spiritual growth, there will come the day, the hour, the minute when we know that we don't know, and we never will.

Now we begin.

Thank you.

ON BEING HOME FREE IN OUR HEAD

We learn and we relearn and we learn yet again. The same thing. Only deeper each time. Fuller. Hopefully, with less me, more I in it. That came to me when I read my "God Calling" this morning. There on 12/11/89, I had written, I welcome the opportunity to be thought wrong without any opportunity to set the record straight...to be thought wrong by all or any of my peers.

Beside that note, is another note dated 1998, Ditto AGAIN! 

And beneath that is one dated 2007, Me now.

On this very day, 12/11/17, I wrote, Still...thank you.

I remember each of the reasons for my welcoming such an opportunity, and each one had to do with my being misheard or misinterpreted. Any attempt to correct the misunderstanding would have most likely created an unnecessary brouhaha, so I would shoot a silent thank you, and remember back in the day when I had first learned that lesson.

That was probably in 1975 when a man misheard me at an open forum and loudly agreed with his interpretation of what he had heard..which was so far from what I had said or believed that I felt my head and heart near to exploding.

Fortunately, before I could get my mouth in gear, I glimpsed a lady at the table very gently shaking her head, letting me know I needed to say nothing, he was the only one who misheard. She came to me after the discussion to say, people hear what they want to hear...let them...just don't get their mud on your skirts. Isn't that wonderful? I've never forgotten that, and the majority of the time over the years, I have heeded those words.

The fact of importance is that I still must needs fight my own self, my ego Lucy, to do the right thing. I See Me in that, and I am grateful. Grateful for it is when I See Me that I know to step back, that the God of my understanding has my back. I'm home free in my head.

Thank you.

TO TRY IS TO TRUST

I was mentally beating myself up this morning for having done something and came out looking like a doofus. My apparently favorite line, "When will I ever learn?" was racing around in my mind.

And then...here came my blinding flash of the obvious: I tried, I trusted.

There it is, when still more spiritual growth is our sole goal, we can know I tried, I trusted as our forever self-forgiveness mantra.

God is so good to us.

Thank you.

NOTHING IS PERSONAL TO US

[The following is a reworked version of my blog of April 24, 2013.]

He prepares a place before me in the presence of my enemies....from The 23rd Psalm.

My enemy is not Gertrude who bad mouths me, who is ugly to me, who treats me with contempt...my enemy is that within me that shows forth as Gertrude's uglies that I resist by bad mouthing her, being ugly to her, treating her with contempt.

It is for me to realize Gertrude as my angel who carries these uglies of mine in order that I may see and recognize them as my own...for me to accept without resistance, by neither cursing her/them nor currying her/their favor.

I see me, and I realize We...ah, the miraculous comfort of Oneness.

Thank you.

TRY WITH A WILL OR FALL BY THE WAYSIDE

Jesus says, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also” (Luke 6:29). Buddha says, “If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon any desires [to hurt him] and utter no evil words” (Majjhima Nikaya 21.6). [Lifted from Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," December 8, 2017]

"We have ceased fighting anything and anybody." (Anonymous)

The puzzlement to me is how I can be on the spiritual path, truly believe each of the above statements is necessary for me in my life, and still get in such mental fistfights with anyone who "strikes me on the cheek," or "gives me a blow with his hand." Or is simply nastier than they ought to be...to me.

I have heard that described as "part of the process" and "growing in God" and lots of other hoo-ha, but who's kidding whom...that is self-will on a roll. Knowing better is all well and good but until we're doing better, we ain't growing in God. End of sermon.

Although I do believe my sermons give God a giggle.

Thank you.

AGAIN...GET OVER OUR OWN SELF

Blinding flash of the obvious: Everything that is happening to me and in my life right this very instant is answered prayer...including this flipping computer.

Everything that is happening to me, that is happening in my life right this very instant is answered prayer...is the answer to my very own prayer as generated by my thoughts, my judgments, my fears, my praise, my pleasures.

It is what I do with this answered prayer that determines my ability to accept my life right this very instant. The more accepting I am (transparent), the more content or more giving I will feel. The less accepting I am (opaque), the nastier and needier I will feel.

My happiness is mine right Now...no matter this pitiful computer.

Thank you.

WE FIND GOD WHERE WE NEED HIM

Here's a wonderment...it is those times when things seem at sixes and sevens in my life, and fear whispers maybe I've been wrong all along, there really is no Jesus-power protecting me, no God at my back, that an ever-so-small something happens that shines a light on my bleak...and I am returned to peace.

Just this morning, for instance, I was gifted with a miracle, ever so small...teeny...in appearance, which I know will be my guide from now.

I've been caught up in I See Me (that's knowing better, doing it anyhow), and this morning my mind hopped on its what-to-do-what-to-do tricycle, and just as it was nearing top speed, I brushed by a shelf, and my main credit card fell out of I know not where. I had no idea I'd misplaced it. I do know I would have been half crazed if it hadn't found me first. Most important: God knew all that before I did.

I was lifted out of my own self-absorbed cycle by a fulfilled need I wasn't even aware of yet. It wasn't a reasoning-mind answered prayer, it was my unknown need that God answered.

The Father knows our needs. And there are no teeny miracles.

Thank you.

DENY YOURSELF...70 x INFINITY

I have a friend who says that we generally speak about five years ahead of where we are. I don't know if the five-year mark is set in concrete, but the idea is stone solid.

I just reread my blog of yesterday and thought how right on the money it was for what I needed to do and did not later that very afternoon.

I could feel myself blush as I read the paragraph: ...the answer, 'Deny yourself,' must needs start in our reasoning mind. When our ego is running a rant on another, on the various things we need to say or do to stop and/or top the perceived enemy, that's when we turn our thoughts inward.

Instead, I gave over to Lucy, my always-right-never-wrong ego, and watched almost proudly as she ran away with my mind and my mouth. It was one of those "I sure got them told!" moments...that is so regretted later.

I am beyond grateful that I've got the instruction book for what to do when wrong, and I can and will follow the instructions.

Here's the thing about spiritual growth...it's not that I choose to follow directions, it is that I have no choice if I hope to live at peace with my own self, if I ever expect to get the peace of mind I've always sought.

When wrong, promptly admit it...and then quit doing it, for Heaven's sake.

Thank you.

THE LORD SPEAKS...WE LISTEN

I dreamed I was walking with Jesus, talking with him...as opposed to listening, please note. I asked him, "What did You do and how did You do it?" Referring to when he was walking around in human clothes, doing the dailies of human life.

I wanted to know what did he do and how, especially when he was being mocked and scorned for being different from you and me. Different purely because he was preaching love...love your friends, love your enemies, love...and that is all.

And the answer that came?  "Deny yourself, deny yourself."

That is the singular, single, lone and only Way to love, to love alone. Our ego will ever legislate for itself, it cannot not. We must go beyond reason to love, and ego is of the reasoning mind...it roosts there. Cannot be budged by want to or knowing better...mainly because want to and knowing better are born and bred in the reasoning mind.

Paradoxically, the answer, "Deny yourself," must needs start in our reasoning mind. When our ego is running a rant on another, on the various things we need to say or do to stop and/or top the perceived enemy, that's when we turn our thoughts inward.

We turn to the Father within and pray, "Speak, Lord, your servant heareth." Then listen.

Thank you.

ON GOING TO GOD FOR GOD

We go to God for God and that is all...the big ah-ha is that going to God for God is learning how to not take anything personally, how to give over, how to cease fighting, how to...period.

Going to God for God and that is all is ego deflation in depth. Ego deflation in depth is not something we can self-will, but it can only begin within us, with our gut-bucket feeling of being hopelessly and helplessly at sea to our own life at the moment.

That is surrender. We feel like a quitter, a loser, only this is not a "feels like" situation. We are accepting that we are a loser in this no-win battle of our own choosing, our own life. And there it is...the ray of light in the form of hope that opens to us.

Gloriously, we are not given the answer to the problem that brought us to surrender...which is what we thought was necessary and what we had been praying for. No...we no longer need a situational answer. Our heart and mind and soul are freed, and we know peace.

This does not last.

If we are doing it right.

This is the first step in learning how to...period.

We go to God for God and that is all repeatedly and for the rest of our life. That is the nature of ego and of God...both are with us 24/7, 365...it is ours to choose which we obey. Ego is our free-will siren, God is our saving Grace.

Choose you this day whom ye will serve. -- Joshua 24:15

Thank you.

UNTIL LOVE FLOWS FORTH FROM WITHIN

My quiet time began this morning with my thinking:

Relationships changing and/or breaking up - Gertrude and Ruckus and my mentor and those moving on - initiation? 

To take nothing personally, especially the mean one, Gertrude...in my eyes, she is acting hurtfully, spitefully, I doubt her eyes see it thus. I'm betting she sees me in that light. God, thank you for opening my eyes to see aright, and to know seeing aright is with the eyes and mind of love - to know it and to show it. 

“It is the very love of Christ that now urges us.” Is that what Gertrude is showing me, the very love of Christ? Is that what I need to show Gertrude? How?

It was the thought that this might be initiation that opened me to the first time I ever heard of initiation in re spiritual growth. It was in my beloved "God Calling" of March 29: Initiation precedes all real work and success for Me.

I sailed past that sentence for many years until I read in a Joel Goldsmith book of the many initiations that we must experience in order to grow spiritually. 

My thoughts this morning led me to ponder taking nothing personally. That is an art, an act of purity not of our own self, meaning it is hard to do and impossible if we're just self-willing. It's just so many words until it is flowing forth from within.

Then the act of initiation itself bubbled up for pondering. It seems I've been thinking of the initiation we must go through as some mystic mind game that we just think our way through...up to the next level, as it were.

I realized that it matters not if it's initiation or real...if I'm experiencing it, it is real to me. Those who go through the rites of any initiation must do that which is presented to them in order to either be accepted or to move on up to another level.

Initiation or not, we must walk through the  pain, feel it, detach from our own resistance to the act of loving it...for this, too, is God.

Hoo, boy.

I am grateful that you've got my work cut out for you, Lord.

Thank you.

LIFE'S LESSONS AND GOD'S WILL

Learning life's lessons...then doing life's lessons...ah, there it is, the sum and substance of life itself.

Learning is the easy part, but we don't find that out until we've learned, which leaves doing as the hard part, but that's only if we go at it solo-powered.

My life's lessons are few, and looking back I feel like I knew them the minute I first heard them. Basically, they are: take nothing personally; try not to be as nasty as I want to be; pray "Thank You" to everything...and mean it.

It is the offshoots of life that keep us tethered, according to me, and by that I mean tethered to our desire for still more spiritual growth. Every hesitation, stumble and/or fall is our opportunity to seek still more spiritual growth.  

A basic offshoot of mine in learning bloomed when I became willing to show my ignorance...which is just asking for help, for another's viewpoint. The fear that then they'll know I don't know, and I'll look the fool I got to kiss on the lips and know it for just another sliver of gold in my learning process.  

And that leads to another offshoot, i.e., learning to view down as up...which is the short form of the lesson that God's view is the mirror image of our view. I accepted that as fact when I realized the worst thing that could ever happen to me had turned out to be my precious pearl beyond price, a gift of grace and God...and I use that as my yardstick for the less-than-wonderful events of life today.

Know and show that God's will is always love...there, that's the root of life's lessons.

Thank you.

HOW TO DE-STING OUR NEMESIS

The key to living a complete and fulfilled life lies in the realization that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us that has already provided our infinite supply unto eternity, that contains within itself our companionship unto eternity, and that has within Itself the power of fulfillment. -- Joel Goldsmith, "A Parenthesis In Eternity," p. 269

I've watched some people lose almost everything and everyone in order to hang on to what a friend called their 'triumphant unhappiness.' - Anonymous 

I have those two quotes tacked to my bulletin board where they have been for at least twenty years...I seldom read them. Then, when the time comes, when my seeing-life-sideways is upon me, almost cosmically my eyes are drawn to them. I reread, remember and know peace.

I know peace because I have learned the name and the cause of my "triumphant unhappiness." It is fear, my nemesis, and I know how to de-sting it. I kiss it on the lips, call its name "Blessed," and remember: The key to living a complete and fulfilled life lies in the realization that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us that has already provided our infinite supply unto eternity, that contains within itself our companionship unto eternity, and that has within Itself the power of fulfillment. Thank you, Joel Goldsmith.

Thank you.

THE HIGHER POWER CHOOSES US

As I walked through our lobby this morning, I saw that it is decorated for Christmas...and then I noticed the menorah. That's a first, I thought...and my thought was not smiling. Which caused me pause. I really had to think on that...why am I a tish peeved at a menorah amongst the Christmas decorations? 

I am half pleased and half embarrassed to admit I realized it was jealousy not bigotry that perturbed me. Christmas is for Christmas decorations and a menorah is not a Christmas decoration. Then I realized that for all I know this season is also the time of a Jewish holiday. Oh. Okay, then.

That line of thought led me to consider what I've observed but never put into words. For whatever reason, many of us seem to be borderline petrified of the word "Jesus." If the word is even said, some shrink in distaste, others shrug dismissively. However, the word "Buddha" is accepted, welcomed even, and the Buddha is quoted often.

We must needs beware: The day will come (and is probably closer than we think) when someone will walk in and simply say, "Allahu Akbar" and too many of us will go up in our own smoke.

We claim "live and let live" in defense of our own beliefs, but refuse to budge for another's...and why? To protect our shutdown mind?

Still more spiritual growth is all about living from a raised consciousness. Not to put too fine a point on it, but living from a raised consciousness is living for others. Which cannot be done from the reasoning mind...or, can only be done through a power greater than our own self, by whatever name that chooses us.

Mazel Tov. Allahu Akbar. Thank you, Christ Jesus.

Thank you.

THANK YOU IS THE COSMIC LINK

Life is comprised of "Uh-ohs" and "Oh wows!" (Not to mention, "Ho-hums.")

It's the uh-ohs in life that turn out to be our pearls...they are what teach us to view down as up. When what we're perceiving looks less than wonderful and has a hurt about it that causes us pause, we come to inside-know, this, too, is of God. 

Our problem in getting through these storms with our God-belief intact is that we tend to hold to our belief in our own idea of what God needs to do in order for our perceived problem to be fixed. 

When we hold to our idea of what fixing our problem means, self-convinced our want must be "God's will," our worst fear often comes true, i.e., we don't get our want. So we give up believing in God.

To believe as we breathe in a loving God who can and will intervene in our life on our behalf is to, first, stay focused on Now which is perfect Now; second, accept whatever is appearing as God's will for us; third, do our best with what we are given...and our best is a heartfelt "thank you." Good or not so good, our thank you will suffice.

Ah, and there's our gift: Our thank you is the cosmic link to that which goes before us to make the crooked places straight. 

Thank you.

MORE WILL BE REVEALED

Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfish desire.  -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)

I wonder if "selfish desire" isn't all our  wants. A want by its very nature is for self even if its object seems to be for another.

We start out wanting our way***we find we are not happy when we are selfish, so we begin to make allowances for other peoples' wills***this again does not give us full happiness, and we begin to see that the only way to be truly happy is to try to do God's will. -- Anonymous

The meat on the bone is that period of time when we are sincerely trying to give over to others...and, who's kidding whom, rarely feeling all that good about the results. So we try harder...does the definition of insanity come to mind?

We are in the process of learning that the meat on the bone is our coming to comprehend the difference between a self-determined objective (no matter how pretty we think it) and the perfect objective which is of God (no matter how un-pretty we think it).

I'm coming to accept that "making allowances for other peoples' wills" is best served not by inserting my agreeing words or works into the other's life, but by holding that person nonjudgmentally in my mind and heart until I can hold them nonjudgmentally in my mind and heart without effort.

That is as near as I have come to feeling an assurance that I have given over to God. And that's close enough to perfect for me...for now. 

Thank you.

GO FORWARD WITH AN OPEN MIND

Do not fear change. Run toward it. Run forward with open arms...or an open mind more like.

I have been feeling very melancholy of late. There are at least ten people who recently have left or are soon leaving my life...through moves to other states or illness or death...and the one, of course, in high dungeon quoting Jesus in the original Aramaic. (The God of my understanding and I still think that is funny, take it up with him.)

Then, this morning I'm reading "God Calling," and there on November 26 are my notes I had written in 1975 and again in 1985,  referencing major changes in and to my life. In 1985 it was that my job was being moved to Connecticut, my apartment was being sold, my car was about to go wheels up and various friends were moving on. Same day in 1987 I noted, "All those 'outers' have been wiped clean."

There it is...life itself written in one sentence in the margin of a book. Whatever is going on in our life, stay with it, run toward it, learn from it...all those "outers" will be wiped clean.

Thank you.

BE PRESENT TO THE PRESENCE

I had a flutter-by revelation this morning: I do believe that I accept that our Father is within, yet when I pray the Our Father I have never considered that I am seeking within. It is a toughie to think right now that that for which I pray, i.e., our daily bread, forgiveness, being led not into temptation is Now being done unto me through the Father within me.

If this be truth, then mine is to know it and to show it. How?

There it is...why we need spiritual teachers. Just a day or so ago this question was answered in a writing by Fr. Richard Rohr:  The great wisdom teachers know that one major change is needed: how we do the moment. *** “Only one thing is necessary,” Jesus says. "If you are present, you will be able to know what you need to know."

Interestingly, this is not new. It may well be the same-old-same-old, but it's the s-o-s-o spelled out...not just words we hope are true, but what to do to prove their truth. Learn, then practice unto doing: Stay in the Now by responding with peace, love and joy especially at 2:00 AM when we awake remembering a perceived unkindness.

Repeat, repeatedly.

Thank you.

FLOW WITH DIVINE ENERGY

We have to find a way to more deeply experience our experiences. *** Whether we realize it or not, the divine energy of God is flowing through each one of us. When we draw upon this Source consciously, our life starts filling with what some call coincidences or synchronicities which we can never explain. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 24, 2017

We are always in a state of flux...that is the nature of life itself. Back in my day, we called it flowing with the go. Today, I believe the unfortunates are those of us who refuse to go within our flow.

There are several events happening in my life right now...or, to be more exact, unknown endings going on in my mind right now.

I have been blessed with no particular preference for my own result. No feeling of need for this ending or that ending. I feel like the idea borned itself that my input is unnecessary since the perfect ending is already in the mix...I have no itch nor wish to know or to cause my results. So far.

My perfect ending may come looking to my reasoning mind's eye like a bed of lilies of the valley (wonderful) or it may come looking like a pig sty (not so much). The lesson I am learning is to accept either (and anything in between) as exactly what I need for my still more spiritual growth.

I am grateful that I have learned whatever happens is my Father's gift to me...all I must needs do is be willing to see down as up.

Thank you.

OR, JUST GET OVER YOUR SELF

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

That quote is a favorite of mine. It gives me permission...permission I need if I am ever going to take nothing personally...to stop before I start mentally justifying my desire to respond in kind.

To "go beyond reason" is to learn the art of subtraction. Quoting the mystic, Meister Eckhart, God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction. The art of subtraction, then, is to release my want to justify my self, to win, to get over on, etc.

Interestingly, the idea just flashed re going beyond reason to love...love is what is beyond reason...love is not reasonable...to stay in the reasoning mind is to miss the miracle of love. (Enough. I think my reasoning mind just kicked in.)

Actually, it can probably all be boiled down to, just don't be as nasty as you want to be... thank you, Henry Mitchell.

Thank you.

EVERYTHING SHOWS ITSELF TO BE A DISGUISE

....everything shows itself  *** to be a disguise: weakness is really strength, wisdom is really foolishness, death is really life, matter is really spirit, religion is often slavery, and sin itself is actually the trapdoor into salvation. -- from Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" of December 14, 2013

That is what I call "mirror image," and what I've come to suspect is God's view of our material world. And it sprouted wings in my world this morning.

I was on the short-end of the love stick yesterday...snubbed royally in fact. That's never a fun feeling so, of course, I'm right thankful it rarely happens. But my heart felt bruised and my head was all packed, ready to move on down the line.

I spent the day reminding me of "thank you" and "love and laugh" and continuing to feel bruised and to hear "split already." Even as I awoke and arose this morning, I was feeling the drag.

Then, just as I was walking out with Ruckus, I got my blinding flash...in God's view, this is his gift for me to use to do, not just to talk that all things work together for my good. To do is to realize the mirror image of the snub...i.e., to know it as a gift to me.

I talk about taking nothing personally, and I've become fairly good about it if I do say so myself. But here was an ego-buster and right in my face. Which this morning I realized was exactly what I needed in order to continue learning to take nothing personally. The snub said nothing at all about me...and I'd best not get into what I want it to say about them for that's just a sneakier way to take it personally.

From the moment of that realization, I've been mentally singing my thank you and grinning like I love me. God is so good to me.

Thank you.

ENOUGH WITH THE CHATTER...DO!

Life really is about doing the word of God.

We can read it till our face falls off...read and understand, then quote, preach and teach. If we are not actually loving our enemy, or giving half of our last dollar for the benefit of another, then all that knowledge represents is our own self pounding ego's toy drum.

I do not doubt that refusal to accept our self just as we are...and love us anyway...is our greatest (and gravest) block to feeling the love of God.

Affirmations, as such, give me the willies. Just repeating "I am a beloved child of God" seems to me to be trying to make something true that already is true. We  need to go forward showing it. I mean, we cannot show that we are a beloved child of God while we're spitting in another's eye, now can we?

When we get caught up in sitting in judgment of how honest, good and pure our efforts are, or are not, that is the measure of our growth...and, who's kidding whom, it ain't spiritual.

Our lesson to learn is that however we do...are doing...the word of God is close enough to perfect for God.  But not us???

Thank you.

ON LEARNING THE ART OF COOPERATION

According to me, the singular fear in the life of us humans is the fear of feeling unconditional love for and accepting unconditional love from another. It's a very well-hidden fear because, from our eyebrows up, we all want to feel that love...for and from anybody including our goldfish and canaries.

The problem, however, is two-fold: First, that word unconditional both giving and receiving represents a huge responsibility, mentally. As in, just how much am I going to need to give to get? Second, which precludes the first but we're unaware of it, is that humans are incapable of unconditional love. Only God can love unconditionally and that's because God is love.

I'm wondering if the sole purpose of still more spiritual growth isn't for us to learn how to accept (not only with an open heart but with an uncritical mind) any and all who enter our earthly space, including our own self. To accept all equally, meaning our warts, worms, and incandescent wonders...and with love and laughter.

I wonder that because that is pretty much all that spiritual literature comes right down to. Or, to paraphrase...love the God of your own understanding with all your heart, soul, body and brains and love your friends and your enemies as yourself.

Simpler still: Cooperate and graduate.

Thank you.

ALL IS WELL

I was weeping for my little boy and for my mentor recently...weeping almost uncontrollably...after which I had a pounding headache.

I was taken up short by a thought reminding me of what is written about emotional hangovers. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they come from giving in to a boatload of negative emotions...and that we cannot afford.

I was a tish stupefied by my reminder, my first thought being, "Yes, but...." Negative emotions spent for love, in sympathy, with no selfish attaching? They cannot be unaffordable, they are for someone else, not for me!

But aren't they? Neither my mentor nor my little guy was with me...my mentor was thirty miles away and Ruckus was sound asleep on the sofa.

I realized by the ache of my pounding head that "weeping almost uncontrollably" was for me. The physical condition of each of my loved ones was simply my ticket to ride., i.e., my projecting inwardly my favorite fear, "left alone." Then reveling in it.

Appropriate grief tears in the appropriate timeframe are just that...appropriate. But weeping uncontrollably (and two weeks after receiving the less-than-wonderful news) is my ego Lucy on parade with me applauding as she marches.

But, hey! What a wonderful passel of lessons I was gifted with: (1) the value of staying in the Now; (2) knowing God at my back, always; (3) knowing that Lucy, too, will ever be there for me...let her and laugh; and (4) the best, knowing that God laughs with us...all is well.

Thank you.

FOR AN ACTUAL FACT, GOD LOVES US

It does not take courage to meet our bully...it takes a turned-over sense of self. When we are living a turned-over to God life, we can meet a bully, a beast or a toad in the road without fear and/or trepidation. Just not one hundred percent of the time.

There's the thing. Those of us just walking around seeking still more spiritual growth don't (yet?) have that certain-sure ability, and that may well be how we build our faith.

We succeed the first time which is our proof that God really does have our back. Then the next time, and there is always a next time for that is life, we are assured that this is doable by our own God-guarded self. Ah, but that does not preclude our feeling fear...and we do it anyway. There. That's the building of our faith, fear-block by no-fear-block by fear-block by no-fear, etc.

We're allowed to fear, to doubt, to stumble, to trip over our own tongue...those are some of God's gifts to us. We fear and go forward hoping. We doubt and go forward seeking. We stumble and curse...and go forward grinning. For we are knowing, underneath are the everlasting arms.

Thank you.

SURRENDER IS IN NOT KNOWING

I had an experience recently that was flat-out ugly and utterly unexpected. An acquaintance let loose an uncontrolled and personal stream of vitriol...I was not physically harmed, but the viciousness was right off-putting to put it delicately.

It looked and felt like an oncoming...runaway...train, and it was clear that I could not derail this. I had but one thought, "God, this one's on you." Then I made listening noises and silently repeated my "thank you." I felt no fear, and I knew it was neither necessary nor desirable to defend myself for nothing being said wore any of my truth.

When I got home, I promptly did what I do...I searched and found the gold in the situation. First, I did shoot a prayer for the speaker's well-being, then I just let my mind flow free. I realized the gift was in the Now. God had stayed me in the divinity of Now. I'm convinced there is no other way I would or could have responded as I did...with a "God bless," as I walked away with no ego-victory need to respond in kind.

I do believe that being focused on God Now, elicits our unthinking response...our un-thought-out spiritual response. More importantly, reliance on our unaided will alone cannot stay our focus on God Now; we must surrender our will.

It is in surrender that the love of God flows out and heals...and "I don't know" is surrender.

Thank you.

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING

Many times I’ve watched, for instance, as a person with Down syndrome stands with a gold medal around her neck, arms raised high to a cheering crowd. I can’t look at that child, at that human being, without slipping out of dualistic thinking. Those moments are a kind of sacrament of unitive consciousness. They are 'both-and' moments where shadow and light coexist in the same experience. -- Tim Shriver, Chair of Special Olympics, from Fr. Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," November 16, 2017

I do wonder, is it possible for me, for you, for Joe and Jo Doaks to experience just what Shriver is talking about only for us to experience it in the meeting of our adversary. To know, to realize, to experience "a kind of sacrament of unitive consciousness...both-and moments where shadow and light coexist in the same experience."

I suspect that is what needs to happen within us if we are ever to spiritually "agree with our adversary quickly." 

We know the right words, but doing them, other than by rote, ah, there's the high road we seek. Our lips can agree through sheer self-will, but if our thoughts are on the attack then, who's kidding whom, our ego is on parade, high-stepping, flaunting its power...in control.

It is the "slipping out of dualistic thinking" that is the Way...there is no peace of mind and attack mind in unitive consciousness. And self-will cannot get us there. God can and will if sought. And daily. 

Thank you.

TO LIVE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE OTHER

In spiritual growth, there is a different...a better...way of hearing ...we hear from the 4th dimension where peace, love and joy flow freely...on the material plane our ego-victory thinking does our hearing for us. -- My morning blinding flash of the obvious.

What needs to change, I'm coming to believe, is my hearing. According to me, we hear that which we want to hear the way we want to hear it...then react to our interpretation of what we chose to hear. If we hear pretty, we respond in kind; if we hear not-so-pretty, we react in kind.

With still more spiritual growth as our singular life goal, we find a new way of hearing. It is not ours to work for, to attempt to "get." No. It is the free gift we receive from living not for our gain, but for the well-being of the other...which is my definition of still more spiritual growth. Knowing and showing that God has our back frees us up to think, then act, for the other's good.

I suspect that this takes a lifetime to learn unto doing as we breathe, but it's a lifetime well-lived.

Thank you.

IT'S ALL JUST ANOTHER ANSWERED PRAYER

Until I am doing that which I am learning, I am as a court jester which makes mock of all that I am learning. I don't know if that is literally true, but I do believe that there is no spiritual growth in talk, just talk. Mainly because the prettier the sound, the more we build on the sound of it, we strain to make the pretty words prettier, to sound deeper, to impress more (the impressed often being only our own self).

The paradox being, of course, that shared talk is essential...I choose to believe that if my thoughts are not expressed to another's ears, I'm still living in fantasy.

It may be that we talk in order to learn how to listen. To truly listen to the other side of what I'm saying and believing is an art that I am in the slow process of learning. The trick is to listen to another who is coming from the same state of consciousness as our own. Who's kidding whom...there's little growth that will come from talking virginity to a prostitute.

I'm guessing that's why (and I'll paraphrase here) Jesus advised us when we come into a town that does not welcome us, to shake the dust off our feet and move on. There will always be people and topics that do not fit us...move on before we buy in.

Resistance just keeps us nailed to our cross of self-will, and self-will is the toughest to kiss on the lips and release in order to move on. To move on without toting the other's baggage in our mind...ah, there's the hard lesson alearning,

Maybe that's why God gave us free will...which is ego's playground, according to me. When we can and will turn from our want to win in any form, and welcome God's perfect will in any form, we will know peace. In other words, when nothing but God will crack our resistance, that's answered prayer.

Thank you.

MY NEMESIS, MY FRIEND

[The following is a reprint of my blog of July 1, 2016.]

We must needs come to believe unto knowing unto living the truth that hides within us...that our worst fear is our best friend. We hate yet hold to this truth as we realize that nothing else could or would, can or will, goose us to God more consistently...or imperatively.

That is the pain and the peace of God's perfect will.

Thank you.

NOT BY WORDS, BY ACTIONS

I recently was with a lady who found it necessary to proclaim that she reads Jesus's words in the original Aramaic.

Our teacher asked her when she planned to start doing those words.

That is the question we all must answer...and not by words.

Thank you.

TAKE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING PERSONALLY

Christianity is not about avoiding punishment or gaining reward. It is about loving God and loving what God loves. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 11, 2017

I read that this morning and flashed on my version: Life is not about avoiding punishment or gaining reward. It is about loving our Father within and loving what he loves.

If that be true, it seems to me that our entire life's work boils down to ego-deflation in depth. Which, I'm convinced, is as simple and as difficult as taking nothing personally...and I am saying, absolutely nothing. Not the dump of a misguided other, nor the praise of a misguided other.

With a thank you, accept all that comes our way by letting it pass on by.

There it is. That's one of those that my head just loves, but my feet will not willingly march in that direction...it's as if my toes are tacked to the floor.

There's the gift that seeking still more spiritual growth gives: I know, even with toes, feet, body stationary, that I am going in the right direction because I do love that...I do know it to be true...and I may not get there till a thousand lifetimes pass away, but holding to that truth, I'll be going in the right direction all the way.

God loves me so much.

Thank you.

THE GOLDEN GOOSE IS OUR ANGEL

Remember that life's difficulties and troubles are not intended to arrest your progress, but to increase your speed. -- "God Calling," November 10.

If only we would remember that one sentence, we'd never again pray to have our difficulties lifted. It is the Oh-No's of our personal life that send us to God. Trouble is, we usually go to God with the self-determined "fix" we want, rather than "Thy will be done" that we need.

I've come to believe, too, that the word "personal" is the tripwire for our wants. To depersonalize our very thinking is the essence of spiritual growth...the definition of ego-deflation in depth, according to me.

Long ago I was advised to make a habit of studying my own reactions whenever I am feeling irked, hurt, offended and/or  disrespected. I've found those feelings are nearly always my reactive response to my feeling of a personal attack. That realization led to the gift of saying "thank you" first thing as opposed to reacting in kind, meaning personally attacking the other in thought or deed.

I'm convinced that "thank you" is what opens my mind and my heart simultaneously which allows me to see from the other person's perspective...or to seek to understand their view and stop doubling down on my own hurt, anger, etc.

The rest of the gift of thank you is to know this difficulty, this trouble...specifically, the person delivering the difficulty...is my angel. S/He represents the golden goose that turns me to God who can and will increase my speed toward peace of mind no matter life's difficulties and troubles.

 God can and will intervene in our life in our behalf.

Thank you.

THAT MOMENT GIVEN TO GOD

Knowing the Word of God is imperative. Almost the minute we know it, though, it becomes secondary. Until we are doing the Word of God, all the while feeling scared, uncertain, quaky and shaky, our knowing is virtually locked in a box in our reasoning mind. Where we pull it out often to quote, lecture and assure others of the rightness of it.

We can be sure that arguing, fighting, or, for that matter, remaining silent out of fear, are not tools of the Lord's...of our reasoning mind, but not God's will. The quandary, of course, is that we live in the material world. There will be times when we must stand up, speak up, for or against.

Our still more spiritual growth is in the self-discipline we have been working toward that allows us that half-second of silence that invites the Lord's way and will to flow for the benefit of all concerned.

There will be times when we just don't quite get the Word...those are the times we will come to know as sacred. Having come away from our own self thus far, we have no choice but to speak...very likely regretting in the next instant the words we spoke. In our quiet time later we often realize either how exactly right our words were or how useful they will prove to be...not from our clever thinking, but by God's perfect intervention.

We learn that when we speak without that moment given to God, even when the outcome looks right, we feel wrong. We realize that we have relied yet again on self-will, and, pretty as it may look, it is the wrong path heading us in the wrong direction.

It is in that moment given to God that God is the breath we breathe. We may not even know it...ah, but there's the gift: We show it.

Thank you.

WELCOME AND ENTERTAIN...EVERYTHING

Morning's blinding flash of the obvious:  To seek to have  no fear of financial insecurity is akin to praying for patience...we will be given financial insecurity to walk through to God which is just another  way to build our inner faith in God, to give over to his perfect will.

Guest House

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~Rumi

There it is. Our daily instructions for living happy, joyous and free. (Thanks to Mac for forwarding to me.)

Thank you.

LET. IT. BE.

I feel like I'm a walking-around tsunami. Things, events, happenings, diagnoses, tantrums, loved ones leaving, unloved ones staying. They're everywhere, they're everywhere! I have no idea where I first heard that, but it sure fits right now.

They are all appearing as less-than to me and my reasoning mind, and I give thanks from my toenails up that my reasoning mind does know that God has my back, all I need do is let all these less-thans float right on by me.

We all go through these times..."these times" are life itself. It is how we deal with life, our life just as it is right this very minute, that determines how at peace we are going to feel on the other side of these times.

Feeling stress is not "doing it wrong." No...it is having appropriate feelings for the situation at hand. The great gettin' up morning in our head is when we realize that we have a choice, and we choose not to act on our stressed feelings...this is the exact minute when we say, "Thank you," and mean it.

No need to define it for God, he's already fixed it. We just need to consciously know we're turning our head around, changing our mind, getting out of the driver's seat, letting go and letting God...all of those and any more we can think of to Let. It. Be.

We are going in the right direction, especially and specifically when things look bleak, and we say our thank you prayer without quibbling about it. Wow! That feels good just seeing it in black and white. Yes!

God just loves us. Hey...that's very likely why we have bleak times, to realize God's love for us.

Thank you.

WITHOUT CEASING

[The following is a reprint of my blog of April 8, 2015.]

I offered my ego to God to tame, to do with as he willed...the answer came back that the ego is mine to tame, to do with as I will...that’s the “free will” we are given before conception, at birth, throughout our life.

Our heart and soul we can give to God, but our ego is ours TO DISCIPLINE...that’s why we must needs seek still more spiritual growth daily, twice, thrice daily...”without ceasing.”

Thank you.

THANK YOU THAT I SEEK

Thank you for my everything just the way it appears to be through my eyes right this minute.

Thank you for my everything just the way it is through Your eyes Now, ever Now.

I seek to joy in the melding of mine, my will, into Yours. I seek to be enfolded into...enwrapped by...Your will and Your way.

I seek to ever seek by grace and gratitude.

Thank you.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE OTHER...AH, PEACE

The thing is it is utterly useless just knowing that we have all the patience, love and kindness that we will ever need within us right this very minute if we do not use it on a daily basis. No. Not daily but as needed. Which is several, or many...who's kidding whom, innumerable...times a day.

That is not a blinding flash of the obvious...that is common sense.

Furthermore, that is common sense that cannot be done by the unaided self alone. Or, according to me, by the unaided-by-God self alone. Getting all the psychological aid there is or speaking affirmations till our face falls off...and all things in between...may well get our self-determined result, but it won't find us lasting peace of mind...which, to me today, is the kingdom of Heaven.

We get peace of mind by using for the benefit of the other our inner source of patience, love and kindness. We can only do that by knowing and showing that God is our supply of patience, love and kindness which effectively, and with a period behind it, takes out our concern for getting ours. Ah, now that is peace of mind.

Thank you.

SEEK YE FIRST...ACCEPTANCE

Picking up on my yesterday's off-the-top-of-my-head thought, that peace is the kingdom of Heaven, I wonder if it can be that peace of mind really is the kingdom of Heaven.

I suspect that describing the kingdom of Heaven is akin to describing God...impossible...but it's good for a ramble around in my head: 

Say that peace of mind is the kingdom of heaven, it seems that acceptance, then, would be the Way.

Seek first acceptance of any and all and every person, thing, situation, event...is it then, through that acceptance, that all things will be added unto us? Through our nonresistance to, or our acceptance of, all things, we will never not have peace of mind. Which for sure equates to God in my world.

Hmmm...would that then be God consciousness? A mind at peace...or, love, actually? There it is. God is love.

What a comforting ramble.

Thank you.

SO DO IT ALREADY

I can and do believe that becoming willing to love our nemesis is God's personal plan and gift for us, but until we actually DO "loving your enemy," i.e., the Sermon, not write about, talk about, but DO, we will not have peace...and that is the kingdom of Heaven.

Comes now another blinding flash of the obvious: Not by will, but by grace, be it done unto me.

What that says to me is actually doing the Sermon with gritted teeth and certitude in my rightness is just another self-determined objective...just another item on my 2-Do checklist. And, as a matter of fact, it can be done...but there is no spiritual growth there, no God or lasting good for that matter.

According to me, God's personal plan and gift for us is to turn daily to his love so It may walk us  through the Sermon with no other objective but to show forth the impersonal love of acceptance. All of which is harder for this natural person than actually doing the Sermon with gritted teeth and certitude in my rightness. The fact that it is doable and on my timetable does not make it right, it makes it the double-edged checklist...looking good, doing not so much.

To my ego-victory thinking, saying, "Yea, Yea," to an adversary with whom I am in mental disagreement is close enough to perfect. No. It is the mental disagreement that we must take to  God to be resolved within us. Until it is "peaced," it is growing a  resentment, and that resentment will haunt us, do our thinking for us, and cause us to doubt the power of spiritual growth...or, who's kidding whom, the existence of God.

Really, this just boils down to the same-old-same-old: Seek ye first the kingdom of Heaven and all these things will be added unto you. There's my cheap shot of gratitude...my best thinking is speaking Biblically approved jargon. (Now, do it.)

Thank you.

LOVE AND LOVE ONLY

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: There is a reason why changing our mind is the hardest thing life will ever ask of us...the reason is because our ego always legislates for itself, a.k.a., me, and love legislates for the other. Which leaves the reasoning mind between the proverbial rock and a hard place...because it always legislates for me, too, but it knows better.

More and more I am knowing  that impersonal love is gut-bucket acceptance of everything that comes into our consciousness. In the silence, I see me giving over...unresisting...joyous...giving with both hands and my heart singing.

And then...my ego Lucy comes along, whispering words of personal love, I am right, s/he is wrong, it's not fair, why me? How long, oh Lord?

That's when I am knowing that which I am knowing is from my eyebrows up.

It is purely through grace that I am content that at least I've got it from my eyebrows up. Now the continuing discipline is to keep an attitude of gratitude and never cease seeking to bring it down to and through my heart, returning it to my Soul in order to set forth again.

I'll likely not get there till three days after I'm dead, or even in fourteen more lifetimes, but it makes no never mind to me when it happens...that it will happen is the promise I cling to, and it will happen if, as and when I follow the commandment to love and love only.

There it is...that's exactly how my nemesis du jour is my angel...becoming willing to love my nemesis is God's personal plan and gift for me...and you.

That's close enough to perfect for me.

Thank you.

DON'T BE SORRY, BE GRATEFUL!

Eeeek! Whole new world! Whole new world!

Instead of apologizing, I thanked Gertrude for her part in our brouhaha. In my quiet time, the thought rolled through that she helped me to actually feel my ego Lucy doing my thinking for me...and that is never, not ever, a good thing. For that, I could not be sorry, only grateful.

There's my whole new world...a new tool for my use in deflating Lucy: Don't be sorry, be grateful!

It boils down to the same-old-same-old though, doesn't it? It's all about the hardest thing life is ever going to ask of us which is that we change our mind...for the benefit of the other.

Thank you.

ON UN-POLLUTING MY SHARE OF THE EARTH

Franciscan sister Ilia Delio  writes:  We’re reaching a fork in the road; two paths are diverging on planet Earth, and the one we choose will make all the difference for the life of the planet. 

WHOA...God is sooo good to me. Just this morning, when I really need it, in that quote having to do with the earth, I see me in my little quirks which pollute my share of the earth.

My story: My sleep last night began fretfully. My friend Gertrude is all set to chew my face off, and I'm all set to let her just so I can rip her right back. Around 2:00 AM, with no preplanned thought, I had a blinding flash of the obvious...I heard, "You're right, Gertrude. I apologize."

I felt such all-encompassing peace that I knew it to be my answer. With which, I drifted into sleep.

I'm forever preaching (which I prefer to call "sharing") that we must agree with our adversary quickly, that we have ceased fighting anything and anybody. But I don't recall ever knowing such complete peace after coming to agree to agree. I've known I needed to do it and have done it, not with recalcitrance but for sure never with a sense almost of joy.

I fully realized...I actually felt... how much more peaceful it would be within me to accept my part, leave her part to her, apologize, and let it be. In other words, to agree with my adversary quickly.

Thank you.

NOW TO DO IT

Most likely there will  ever be times in our lives that appear to be less than wonderful...when we seem to be at sixes and sevens as it were. Naturally, we will resist. Ah, but it is the overcoming of our own natural impulses that is the aim and the gift of still more spiritual growth.

The hardest lesson...and I am still learning...is to let that be my gift. To work to earn it is to miss the message.

Here's my problem: I still can't believe that'll do us a harm, that is, to work to earn it. It may well be wasted effort but it keeps my thoughts turned toward God. Where's the harm?

Uh-oh...my thoughts. When I know full well our thoughts will ever be legislating for our will, and our will alone. That's the harm, our block if you will. That's why it is Let go and let God, not Let go a little and think on how to help God.

It's like we're taught at age five or six: When someone offers you a gift, a compliment or a present, accept it and say "Thank you." And that is all.

Thank you.

THIS, TOO, IS GOD

Here's me, feeling uncertain, scared, fretty...again.

This is the exact time of year, that my beloved Ari first got sick...he went back to Heaven the day after Thanksgiving. 1989. And my adored Ruckus is not well. And I'm half crazed. And God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world...only it doesn't feel all that right with my world.

But you know what? All those things we learn and say and try to teach others? They do count. I can say...pray...God can and will intervene in my life in my behalf and feel the better for the reminder. I do remind me to upgrade my attitude, and I'll upgrade my problem, and that does give me a positive  to turn my attention toward.

Here's my truth this morning: If the only prayer you ever say is 'Thank You,' that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart

Thank you.

ON MEANDERING THOUGHTS AND LOVING THEM

[The following is a reprint of my blog of June 20, 2015.]

My thoughts are meandering this morning, and I remember again that in the midst of any apparent disaster or simply unwanted situation, to realize that God's hand is in it is all that is needed to bring peace.

In pondering that, it occurred to me that that realization ought to bring peace not only to me, realizing it, but to any others in the situation. But ought schmought...I cannot direct it, I can only know it. If the other is not on my spiritual wavelength...being higher or lower...s/he will miss it.

Spiritual power, however, is like water...it goes to its own level. That realization at that time may touch someone I have no knowledge of...and come as a needed blinding flash of the obvious to him or her. Maybe that's one way I get my blinding flashes of the obvious...from someone in meditation 100 miles away!

I love that image but what do I know? Just enough to know that if I'll love and laugh I won't have to analyze these things...and call it pondering.

God loves me so much.

Thank you.

WHATEVER THE OUTCOME

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil....

We face each day not knowing if this is the day we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (a.k.a.,  meet ego deflation in depth). When the time is now, we're not doing it wrong if our heart is pounding, our hands are shaking and our eyes are filled with  tears.

In fact, there's our still more spiritual growth. We can give our self credit for going forward, for walking toward our fear. To the reasoning mind, that is a low bar to clear...driven by our ego, we can only accept looking good, i.e., winning, as the "right" goal.

We can be grateful that we know that our worst fear may well be realized but also that it may not be. Our highest hope can be realized only when the result is not ego-driven, when we have no desire for one over the other. We'd best want God's will to be done in our life more than we want our will to be done...which does not preclude pounding heart, shaky hands and teary eyes.

Whatever the outcome, it is our still more spiritual growth, and there's the pearl beyond price.

Thank you.

LIVING IN AN ACCEPTING WORLD

Love is the highest and holiest action because it always contains that which is not love within itself, it always and ever moves to include the unloving. -- Thaddeus Golas, "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment"

I've read "The Lazy Man's Guide" too many times to count, yet I nearly always find something I do not recall having read...underlined and highlighted as they may be. 

Golas's quote is especially meaningful to me today because I am stumbling and bumbling my way through the ever-deepening meaning of love. Seems that every time I get a new insight, I feel sure that This Is It...then I'm hit with yet another unlovable, another resistible which is just something that to my reasoning mind must be resisted, set straight, made right by me.

Loving the unlovable, accepting the unacceptable...ah, those are the impossibles to our mind's eye. We think they are obviously not right since they go against our basic instinct...i.e., to win (which we call "survival").

The hard lesson learning is that when we win, we lose. For winning is of the ego, and it is not that losing is of  God, it is that there is no win, there is no lose in an accepting world, a.k.a., The Peaceable Kingdom. And isn't that where our still more spiritual growth is aiming us? 

Thank you.

WALK FORWARD UNASHAMED OF OUR FEAR

I find myself today relying on the many quotes I have stored and truisms I have memorized to get me through these, my dark...or less than light...days. And I am reminded, thank you, Father, that it is not the words I memorize, it is my actions stemming from those words that can and will lighten my fretting mind.

My most recent that I am clinging to today is a Teilhard quote (and I don't even know how to pronounce his name):

Ah, you know it yourself, Lord, * * * on certain days the world seems a terrifying thing: huge, blind, and brutal. . . . At any moment the vast and horrible thing may break in through the cracks—the thing which we try hard to forget is always there, separated from us by a flimsy partition: fire, pestilence, storms, earthquakes, or the unleashing of dark moral forces—these callously sweep away in one moment what we had laboriously built up and beautified with all our intelligence and all our love.

Since my human dignity, O God, forbids me to close my eyes to this . . . teach me to adore it by seeing you concealed within it.

There it is...my today's marching order: Let myself be taught to adore every dark corner conjured up in my mind by seeing my Father concealed within it. Reminder to me: A thank you will suffice (so said Meister Eckhart).

God loves us so much that he protects us from nothing...he need protect us from nothing. He lives within/without, and as we walk forward toward the feared abyss, we walk unashamed of our fear thus with courage and love, an all-encompassing love of Self.

Thank you.

RESPOND IN LOVE vs. REACT IN KIND

Fr Richard Rohr has written, ...let go of your attachment to your self-image, your expectations, your very ideas. Every such 'set up' is a resentment waiting to happen.

I do believe that to be true. I believe, too, our resentment comes from our resistance to any perceived "attack" on our self-image, expectations and very ideas. I am not saying such attacks do not come...it is just that they touch us less, the less we react.

There are a multitude of ways to respond (not react), and our time is well spent pondering responses we might say that reflect our own values...in other words, that fit us. Responses such as, "You may be right" which is probably my favorite; putting my hand out in the "halt" position and saying "Whoa!" works for me, too. A friend of mine uses. "I regret you feel that way."

I used to think saying absolutely nothing was best, and it maybe, but it doesn't quiet my ego Lucy. I have finally accepted that my ego Lucy must have a say and to pretend not actually feeds the resentment.

There are those who will not be deflected. To me, they are Lucy in the flesh, and saying "God bless" and removing myself from their presence is best for all concerned...meaning, me, myself and Lucy.

None of that is possible, according to me, without a personal commitment to still more spiritual growth. Interestingly, without a personal need for spiritual growth, the idea of not responding in kind would have been a laugh to my reasoning mind.

There it is...the proof that resist not evil is the paradoxical path to Heaven...a.k.a., peace of mind.

Thank you.