LIVE IN GRATITUDE, KNOW PEACE

How you see anything is how you will see everything. -- from Fr Richard Rohr, often and repeatedly

There it is. How we see anything is how we will see everything is the very reason we are encouraged to develop an attitude of gratitude. That also is why thank you is a sufficient prayer...sufficient for all wants and needs, for all times and climes.

Most important, in our search for still more spiritual growth, we learn that we must develop an attitude of gratitude first for it is through our own attitude that we view our world in the moment, i.e., Now.

When we have settled into gratitude, then thank you comes naturally. We will have discovered to our dismay that just saying thank you while thinking less-than-wonderful thoughts stays us in our ego-victory mind...where it's either/or, win/lose all the time. And, who's kidding whom, that's ego driving the bus with no regard for the road signs, "Danger," "Detour," "Turn Back."

What is so beyond our reasoning mind is that is the road we must needs take...right on by the signs as if they don't exist for us. That's how we receive the grace of understanding that thank you is a sufficient prayer for all our needs.

When we self-will us over the cliff we'd been warned about, it takes a real act of faith to pray thank you out there in the ether. Having no other choice, pray it we do...and land on the cloud of unknowing. Safe. Changed, but safe. And grateful.

We have now cemented how we see anything is how we will see everything. We realize our life's goal: Be grateful, know peace.

Thank you.

SEEK WITHIN, SHOW WITHOUT

Blinding flash of the obvious: the 3 Rs of life: readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic; rigid, righteous and right; rues, regrets and remorses.

The three "Rs" of life: readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic - get those, get confidence.

Rigid, righteous and right follows in the form of overconfidence into arrogance.

Rues, regrets and remorses cannot but follow.

The final three we'll spend the rest of our life trying to get shed of by thinking about unto obsessing over, justifying...and trying to wish away. Until we lose all hope, crash and burn.

Start praising God for there is our goldmine.

Our utter powerlessness in the face of our own self will opens us to our path to God, i.e., still more spiritual growth. We seek within at an ever deeper level in order to realize our Higher Power.

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON TO LOVE...AND LAUGHTER

I've become convinced that spiritual life is all about proving Truth and welcoming the process...or, actually, welcoming the process of proving Truth; Truth being that God can and will intervene in our life in our behalf, that the Father goes before us to make the crooked placed straight...also that he performs that which is given us to do. All those words and oh so many more that we secretly hope are true, but, when we're in the crucible, fear aren't. Of course, the hard part about the process is we actually must be in the crucible in order to do the welcoming...there are  no short cuts!

The doing, the letting go of our own security blanket, sometimes strains our reasoning mind to the point of bringing on our great fear of losing our mind. Spiritual growth: We feel that fear and let go anyway. We have learned, slowly, slowly, that we must let go in order to realize the peace promised in our Truths. We must go beyond reason to love, a.k.a., we must go beyond our reasoning mind to find God's peace, the peace that passes understanding. 

First there is a 'light in the soul that is uncreated and uncreatable,' * * * Second, this divine essence can be realized. * * * so that its presence becomes a reality in daily life. -- From Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," January 29, 2018, quoting Eknath Easwaran.

For that I live.

Thank you.

WALK IT AUTHENTICALLY INSIDE OUT

We want, we seek, we need to pay attention to what [Jesus] actually taught and see how we can begin to walk it authentically from the inside.

There it is. The reason why we fall to our knees and thank almighty God for the ankle biters and body blows that come into our life. They come seemingly unbidden...some may appear to come with malice aforethought. We learn that even when meant for ill, God meant it for good.

Those biters and blows represent Jesus’ upside-down world where the last are first and the first are last, and all is for our spiritual good. We begin to walk our spiritual growth authentically from the inside.

When we're living in our reasoning mind world, we're in it to win it. Hard lesson a'learning: In that world, even when we win we lose for is no God there.

Thank you.

OUR GREAT NEED IS GOD'S KEY

God is nearest when our fear is greatest.

When our feeling of need is greatest is when the fear of "all alone" rides deepest...and there it is: God's hidey hole.

Welcome that fear for it is our angel in disguise, leading us to the great power of love...and laughter.

Thank you.

THE PERPETUAL EGO...OUR ETERNAL GOD

...we are actually announcing our commitment to Jesus’ upside-down world where 'the last are first and the first are last' (Matthew 20:16) over any other power system or frame of reference.-- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," January 26, 2018

To seek to know God aright, we must become willing (and it starts with a breakthrough in our intellect) to accept that God's view is perfect and diametrically opposite of our view...the mirror image. We are actually committing to an upside-down world where the last are first and the first are last.

This is ego deflation in depth. It cannot be done through the reasoning mind alone, the heavy lifting is always God's job. Our job is to work with God using our reasoning mind and spiritual principles...and it all begins painfully, exceedingly so. Ego does not go down without a (perpetual) fight.

The good news, of course, is that crash-and-burn, i.e., ego deflation in depth, gives birth to the peace that passes understanding. For now.

Our new mantra as life goes on being daily...bring it back to Now.

Thank you.

GOD'S HIDEY HOLE

I seek God's help, inwardly wanting him to perfect my tumultuous material world. But it is my spiritual world, His world, that I am being lifted into...and by that which I seek to banish. It is my fear and resistance to my view of my material world that is the crucifixion (crash-and-burn) necessary to be freed from self.

My very hopelessness is the wind beneath my angels' wings, carrying me ever upward to My inner depth.

Thank you. 

ON TAKING INNER RISKS

We are absolutely grounded in the absolute love of God that protects us from nothing, even as it sustains us in all things, it grounds us to face all things with courage and tenderness. - Fr Richard Rohr's October 14, 2017, "Daily Meditation."

I held my nose and took a leap of faith yesterday. Just as an aside, the immediate result of inner to outer risk-taking is always filtered through our reasoning mind. There where ego holds sway. It is learning that that grows into the basis of our faith...go beyond reason to love.

All of which is by way of saying, a naysayer present responded neg-a-tive-ly to my risk, and from my toenails up, I felt: OMG! No! Uh-oh...look out, I've made a fool of myself. Again.

Ah, and here comes God to save my day!

The naysayer later sent me a hate e-mail with regard to my risk...my first hate letter. I knew to seek help and through the good advice of two of my most trusted advisors (both of whom agreed with me and, in effect, gave me a hug and an "atta girl!"), I responded to the naysayer with "You may be right." And that is all.

We can trust that which appears to be a defeat from a risk taken is in God's mirror-image our precious gift...no matter its end result. Not what we wanted, what we wanted...makes no never mind. We would not have learned our spiritual lesson as well any other way.

God is so good to us.

Thank you.

NOW...START NOW

I have a long way to go and a short time to get there.

There's a thought I'd as soon not have had this morning. Thinking it through, though, that's a good way to stay in the Now...there is no shorter time. Hey! BFO...there is no longer time either.

If we're going to start...anything...we do start now. Whenever we finish...there it is again: Now.

All of that is fairly esoteric...or whoo-whoo, is my word for it. It's true, but so what?

Knowing it is true is necessary, but I suspect we don't get the gift of realization of its gut-bucket reality until after we've completed whatever task we're doubting we can do. And we are doubting or we wouldn't be needing the golden goose of Now...start Now.

I'm a believer in whatever it takes that the God of my understanding would approve of is a good tool to use. Pray for peace and go for it.

When (not if) wrong, promptly admit it. According to me, that's the key that opens the door for God to perfect whatever it is we've screwed up. Win-win.

Thank you.

THE CHOICE IS OURS

Who gave you your authority?

I have no authority.

I have the gift of intuition, gifted by grace and by God.

I awoke around 3:00 AM with the above dialogue playing in my head.

I remembered that this morning and thought that often, and more often than I'd like, I confuse my reasoning mind wants with my intuition. The less-than-wonderful truth about that is that my rues, regrets and remorses show up when my self-will comes home shamefaced and sorry, looking for someone to blame. And then it's only a negative for as long as I choose to stay there. Love it and laugh works wonders.

I like to think that going down that wrong road again is part of God's perfect plan for our spiritual education. How else could we learn to trust his coming to our aid as needed if we never needed it?

We must needs remember that ego, our own ego, is with us 24/7, 365/6, and that's where God's gift of free will lives. It is ours to remember that God, too, is always there, and it is ours to keep tuned to our God, not our ego, a.k.a., Lucy with the football.

That's a simple enough fact...doing it is as simple as we choose it to be.

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

Thank you.

THIS I BELIEVE

[The following is a reworked version of my post of January21, 2013.]

Bless her, bless him, bless them...change me.

Until we can pray that prayer with a sincere heart and mind, we will not make the necessary turn from wanting to get over on him, get over on her, get over on them to needing to give over, to just give over.

And until we make that turn, we will never know lasting [note, not uninterrupted] peace of mind and heart.

And until we have lasting peace of mind and heart, our soul will remain essentially bankrupt.

And a bankrupt soul can never fully realize God.

Thank you.

WELCOME DOUBTS...THEY INVITE GOD

I got up feeling unloved, unwanted, unneeded and unappreciated, it's not fair, and I'm justified. So there.

Fortunately, that feeling inevitably brings doubt to my reasoning mind. As in: What if all my spiritual growth is just magic thinking? What if there is no good God covering my back? What if all my angels are my own flights of fantasy? What if Jesus was just a good salesman of pretty words?

That's why I welcome doubts, it is those very doubts that send me scurrying to God. Since the only choice is God or ego, my own experience shouts, "Choose God!"

And as my beloved James says, "My ego is not my amigo."

So I said to God, "All my doubts may be true, but I choose to purely believe otherwise. You're it, Lamb chop. You're my last hope, my only backer so get cracking. You got the power, use it...I need you now!"

Then I read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," and there was my answered prayer:

Jesus announced, lived, and inaugurated a new social order, an alternative to violence, exclusion, and separation. It is no fantastical utopia, but a very real and achievable peace—by the grace of God.

And I knew God loves me, heard me and spoke to me. He especially loves my doubts...I suspect he considers them to be my invitation to him to strut his stuff. And nobody does it better.

Thank you.

I BRING GOOD NEWS...SURRENDER!

I suspect the reason giving over, giving in, giving up has such a puny reputation is vindication for giving over, giving in, giving up, if done right, only has a guaranteed good impact within our own self. We don't get to parade it, humbly, for the benefit of others, so they may see, learn and admire. For the teaching to get admiration is an ego-victory goal...there is no God in that.

And who's kidding whom? Giving over, giving in, giving up means surrender, plain and simple. Which explains why we can't imagine that very word ever bringing an anticipatory smile to our lips or a gleeful "can't wait" to our mind.

The human condition being such as it is, most of us immediately go to the worst sense of the word surrender...loser. We then take it to the outside of enough...losing docilely to a maniacal killer or without a fight to a diabolical dictator loose on the world. That is how we avoid staying in the Now, the only time we will ever learn a spiritual lesson personally.

It is the discipline of each of us of our own self that leads eventually to world peace...we can't start trying to bring about peace in our time, i.e., Now while still hating Gertrude/Trump for being Gertrude/Trump. Or, for that matter, while justifying us for being us.

It is the change in each of us through still more spiritual growth that can and will bring a change in our world...and thus the slow but ever-widening change in the universe.

Thank you.

FLU OR STILL MORE SPIRITUAL GROWTH?

I got up this morning thinking I was in the midst of either the mother of all allergy attacks or a very slow moving cold...for the past 24 hours, all I've done, it seems, is sneeze and blow my nose. Otherwise I have no body aches or other than the usual pains of old age (of which there are many, may I say with a certain about of jaundice).

I've opened my mind that allergy or cold may not be the only two options. A friend called a couple days ago sounding like a fog-horn and with her own sneeze, blow and bitch. I remembered back when I was doing macrobiotics that the instructor then told us we could expect to experience cold-like symptoms. He said we need not be overly concerned, that came from our body adjusting to a healthy regime as it threw off the results of fast foods, negative attitudes, and a self-absorbed mindset. Toxins, in fact, stored inside from our own less-than-wonderful habits.

Since I do believe all things work together for our good, I'm choosing to believe that I'm experiencing the release of those toxins, not an allergy attack, not a cold. Follow me here, please: My friend's call jogged my memory of cold-like symptoms being the release of toxins...which brought back my recent recognition of the possibility of Gertrude's to-the-naked-eye negative actions actually being initiation for me and for her, gifting me with forgiveness. And there it is, forgiveness releases...period.

The trouble with spiritual beliefs in the moment is we can't show proof until after the fact. So if tomorrow I write about the flu I've come down with...well, there it is: God can't help but love me, I give him so much to work with.

Thank you.

AND STILL SHE PERSISTS, THANK YOU

The difference between Donald Trump and any woman in America is he has a foul mouth, and we have a voice.

The thing that keeps us silent is fear...fear that we have been taught by others who are fearful of our voice and our vote.

We can and do admire Barbara Frietchie who said, "Shoot if you must this old gray head, but you're not going to shut me up or tear me down." (My loose paraphrase.)

We can and do stand with Eleanor Roosevelt's "We must do the thing we fear the most." (Close enough.)

Abigail Adams' "Remember the ladies" still rings right...and let's not quibble about 18th century words in the 21st century. She said it to her husband, but I'm thinking she meant it for each of us, too: "Remember ladies, girls, women...you, too, have a voice. Use it!"

According to me, the one factor that keeps the NRA growing is fear...fear of the oppressed, the downtrodden, the weak and the meek. Fear that allowed the shooting of little children in their schoolroom, the meek...with not a single action from our Congress taken in response.

It is written (and derided) that the meek shall inherit the earth...yet, we will. Not with arms and ammunition but with our voice and our vote.

Someone once said, "Right is might and truth prevail." True then, true now...stand on it. Then take it out, air it...with a sure and pure voice backed by love and laughter.

Thank you.

THE UNFORESEEN GIFT-BEARER

I had a lovely experience yesterday. Just as I stepped out of my unit to take the trash to the trash room, my new neighbor was about to enter his unit, and he offered to do that for me. When I politely refused because I couldn't imagine he was being other than nice, he insisted. It didn't take him a third time asking...and clearly we both were pleased with our self and with each other about the whole thing.

Later I remembered that that was Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, a day we are asked to do for others, give aid to a stranger...or a friend in need. And I was touched by that young man's willingness to step up, insistent even, in doing what Rev. King exemplified.

I pondered how we cannot self will happiness especially when it is for the benefit of self alone. I wondered if that isn't the path of certain discontent, the search for happiness at the disregard of all else or others.

We are taught, and I do believe, that true happiness is a given when someone else is the benefactor of our thoughts, words and/or deeds. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that happiness nearly always comes uncontrived...hoped for, of course, wanted for sure...but upon receipt, it's WOW, I never dreamed this could be mine.

Interestingly, and as an aside, it's the one seemingly causing us angst that is revealed as our gift-bearer. When we are graced with the gift of giving over is when our nemesis becomes our angel. We would do well to name him/her our angel at the outset of resistance for it surely softens ego's strident voice.

To remember to do for others, friend or foe, as our everyday goal...ah, there's the pearl, the road to inner happiness. And, who's kidding whom, the road less taken. (Remember to laugh, love and laugh...nothing better helps us to remember our goal.)

Thank you.

HAPPINESS...AND HOW TO GIVE IT

A fairly easy to understand truism...it is not what happens to us, it is our reaction to what happens that determines our level of personal happiness. Ergo, it is our resistance to parent, spouse, friend, whomever, not the "whomever" but our very own resistance to them, that causes our unrest, our angst. The simple answer, impossible to do leaning on our unaided will, is to change our mind.

The thing about changing our mind is that we tend to forget that we need to keep it changed. Ego always legislates for itself...or, humans will ever bow to self. That's probably why we're told to pray without ceasing...or maybe just one reason why, but it's a very good one.

Focusing on God (praying without ceasing) is what quiets our mind. We've turned away from self (chaos, the razzle-dazzle of ego-wants) toward the peace that passes understanding (God, spiritual needs).

The human condition is such that when our mind is stayed on better understanding God, we are holding our "whomevers" in ego's go-cart ever ready and revved. According to me, that's ego's job...we resist it not, but we best never forget it.

It all comes down to feeling good about our self, happiness in a word. We cannot self-will our happiness, but it is a given whenever someone else is the benefactor of our thoughts, words and deeds.

The old choice between being right and being happy is easier when we realize unto acceptance that true happiness comes when we quit trying to get it and seek to give it.

Thank you.

FORGIVENESS MADE EASY

Our outer world and its inner significance must come together for there to be any wholeness—and holiness. [A] universal truth: Matter is, and always has been, the hiding place for Spirit, forever offering itself to be discovered anew. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," January, 2018

I awoke this morning remembering that the material is the way to the spiritual. With that thought, I wonder if my $2,000 tooth (a material fret) and Gertrude's to-the-naked-eye negative actions (a spiritual gift) aren't those two sides of the same coin. That they are happening concurrently may well tell its own tale.

I wonder, too, if this isn't all part of my initiation? And mayhap part of Gertrude's initiation, too? For me to stay stuck in "seeing" her as a confabulator (thus phony) is to miss my own lesson. My need is to not pick it up, pass it on, worry it or judge it...that just makes it mine, akin to picking up mud and slinging it in my own face.

More importantly, it is not that telling others of my own interpretation (judgment) of Gertrude's actions stays my own spiritual growth, it is thinking those judgments, too. Remaining silent but thinking ill reminds me of the old (ever true) shoutout: War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Same goes for sitting in silence, thinking self-justifying thoughts...a.k.a., you can't get there from here.

I love seeing all this as not only part of my initiation, but part of Gertrude's initiation, too. There it is: Forgiveness made easy.

The $2,000 tooth is still in the crucible.

Thank you.

ACCEPTANCE, IN A WORD

My morning blinding flash of the obvious: It is better (spiritually) for me to gain peace within, without than it is to win the high opinion of my nemesis.

In pondering that, I find comfort knowing I am on my right track heading in the right direction. That track, that direction is, just give up the fight...and Now. The fight being my inner resistance to my outer picture...whatever that picture is Now. And, who's kidding whom, we give up the fight in order to realize the Presence within us, without us...else we may never "get" it.

When I read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" for today, I was happy (and relieved) that, to me, he says the same thing only much clearer:  We must discover and accept what unique part of the divine mystery is ours to reflect. The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality, to trust our divine image and grow in God’s likeness.

Today, the "unique part of the divine mystery" that is mine to reflect is that which seems to be a  paradox, Resist not evil. Love and laugh.

Thank you.

OR JUST SAY "THANK YOU!"

I saw the light this morning! The light of understanding that I am living that which I say and (apparently) had not quite believed was true. By that I mean, it has seemed as if I am walking a road strewn with garbage...daily. And it takes no great thought to guess aright whose name is on that garbage, and it is not mine. It's yours.

Here's my learning process: I do know, if only from my eyebrows up, this is I See Me plain and simple. But from my toes to my nose, I'm feeling a tish scared, slightly put-upon...who's kidding whom, unloved, unwanted, unneeded and unappreciated is what I've been feeling.

Great stand-up-and-shout news! This morning my blinding flash of the obvious was: All that I'm experiencing is God's crooked road that he is going before me and making straight. It has to be there in order for him to make it straight...I need worrit not about the how-to, I just need to start and keep on walking.

With that came memories of events in my life that at the time I seriously wondered if I could get through. Fear rode me like a pack mule...if it wasn't lack of money, it was lack of knowledge or lack of social grace or lack of six other things...it was fear of lack, why try to enumerate. But each situation worked out and worked out for my benefit and never in a way I would have imagined. Of course, that means some of the workings out took their own sweet time for me to realize that this result was for my benefit. That's how faith is built. Can I get an Amen!

God gave me a hug and an atta girl! this morning. And I am grateful... doubly grateful actually for with his hug he let you off the hook, too!

Thank you.

WELCOME FEAR AND WALK FREE

I pray that I may welcome difficulties. - "God Calling," January 8

To my mind that is the perfect answered prayer.

If we are doing life right... as in seeking God's will rather than our own...we will for sure meet difficulties. We will meet difficulties and then some, a lot of which qualify in our mind as Our Cross To Bear. And who's kidding whom, it is in our own mind where all our difficulties begin.

Another elusive spiritual lesson we're learning is that welcoming dispels worries...fear in a word. Shoots fear in the back of the head as it were for it is welcoming that dissolves resistance. Resistance is just fear cloaked in feelings of hopeless and helpless and what-to-do-what-do-do.

Considering how hard we work (or beg God) for peace of mind, it is laughable that we work just a tish harder to hold close worry, fret and fear. Those, too, we need welcome for they are the ego's favorite God blockers.

We've learned (repeatedly) that there are only two things with us 24/7...God and ego. God has all power...ego has no power except that which we choose to give it.

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

Thank you.

NO WRONG, NO RIGHT...ONLY LOVE

Seeking still more spiritual growth while still living in the material world (hence, for all intents and purposes, dependent on our reasoning mind) gets us finally to the realization that one size fits none. Our reasoning mind wants (thus believes we need) one certain-sure, never-fail answer to any and all of life's problems.

The paradox is that we have that one answer; i.e., spiritual principles can solve all our problems.

The problem, we think, is knowing which spiritual principle for this immediate problem? Because it's the same problem as last time but what we did last time is not working, is making the problem worse, is drawing us deeper into what-to-do-what-to-do?

That's the dawning of our new day... when we are given the gift of understanding that we do not have, and cannot hold, in our brain our insurance for always-right-never-wrong. That brings us right smack up against Now...to What or to Whom do I need to open my inner Self right this very minute? And how?

It is our perplexity that causes us to turn to another, to seek human help...to admit out loud to another's ears that we do not know. We feel blessed when we get a "good" answer...we are doubly blessed when that "good" answer seems to not work. Those of us who have run out of other options continue to seek still more spiritual growth, and at some point we find our seeking help was all we needed to do. The answer was immaterial, the "wrong" we saw gave us the blessing we needed. And we laugh.

In the end, our lesson a'learning is, there is only one spiritual principle, Love, it just comes in different guises.

Thank you.

ON LEARNING TO LOVE OUR ENEMY

We are not so much human beings trying to become spiritual. We’re already inherently spiritual beings and our job is learning how to be good humans! I believe that’s why Jesus came as a human being: not to teach us how to go to heaven, but to teach us how to be a fully alive human being here on this earth. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," January 9, 2018

I read Rohr's quote and felt a deep connection with it, but what grabbed me was his take on the reason Jesus came as a human being: to teach us how to be a fully alive human being here on this earth.

Jesus's teaching was based on love and love alone. According to me, getting to that place is based on God's mirror image of material reality; i.e., if it looks less than wonderful to the mind's eye, to God's eye it is wonderful.

That is The Way, the yellow brick road toward learning to love our enemy as our self.

See a jerk, recognize a friend in need, love him. Find our self at sixes and sevens with our own world...she's doing it wrong, he's baiting me, they're full of it...pull back, go silent (in mind and mouth), and affirm our powerlessness, our grateful powerlessness. Our attitude begins to upgrade in that moment.

Upgrade your attitude, you upgrade your problem.

It is giving over to God that begins the upgrade...staying silently receptive completes it which we will recognize by the lightness of our being and our smiling heart.

God loves us so much.

Thank you.

ONLY I CAN PARDON....

[The following is a reworked version of my post of June 24, 2015.]

Only I can pardon my persecutors...only I can set them free.

Isn't that a wonderful thought? Doesn't it quiet your mind?...even when there are no known persecutors in your life.

The clarion call that lifts my heart is the realization that simply changing my mind sets me and my persecutor free...s/he now walks free in my mind.

The freedom is in knowing, gut-bucket knowing, that we are right, and we let our persecutor off the hook at the same time. We saw the living example of that awhile back in Charleston, SC, after the murders in the Mother Emanuel AME Church...those agonized family members crying uncontrollably, speaking to the murderer of their loved ones, and simultaneously saying, "I forgive you."

There. A living picture of "God's hand is in it." Not in the murders...that's ego gone evil, but in the hearts and minds of those left behind. God's hand healing their hurt, and in that healing, bringing the possibility of good to the city, the state, the country...and even maybe, please and thank You, the murderer.

Resist not evil and be free.

Thank you.

DECIDE...AH, PEACE

Blinding flash of the obvious: A lesson in learning about standing up for our self: We stand up for our self with the inner assurance that God has our back so we are able to speak softly, or not at all!, with the welfare of the other, not our welfare, as our preferred primary "winner." Which ensures we are a winner, too. When both sides come out the winner, God's hand is in it.

I sometimes think the hardest thing to believe unto breathing is the fact that we are going in the right direction when we feel no need, or even want, to protect our self. Specifically, we have no need to protect our self from the dailies of life for it is the dailies that slice and dice our peace of mind. It is our reasoning mind that blocks our trust, that will immediately project the fear of an undaily on us, a big hulking Unknown that has not and most likely never will happen.

Ah, but we have made a decision to rely no more on our reasoning mind. The instant we begin to feel the need to "stand up for" self is the instant we learn to shoot a "thank you." We do not wait to figure out why a thank you...that's second guessing God. If we are feeling attacked, or just uncomfortable, our reasoning mind will never immediately think that's a good thing. So we get to train (ah, ugly word alert, discipline) our own reasoning mind to realize it as a God thing.

Give over, give in, give up...get peace.

We must learn, relearn, and learn yet again to trust that we are utterly and completely protected by an unseen power, or God, no matter how or what is appearing before our very eyes.

We learn until, without hesitation, we are doing it! This is the certain, sure road to peace of mind that our undisciplined mind rejects repeatedly and consistently.

What our reasoning mind can never accept is that by our decision to throw in with God and God alone, God does the work...God takes the action...God completes us.

"I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight…." Isa.45:2

Thank you.

GOD IS IN THE ORDINARY AND HUMDRUM

I am reminded this morning of President Harry S Truman. He was a firebrand, and the story is that when he was campaigning, people would shout at him, "Give 'em hell, Harry!" He always said that he didn't "give 'em hell," he just told the truth, and people thought it was hell.

I'm reminded of that because I'm going through another self-described Job period. There are more than a few things that are falling apart in my life...not inside but outside things, like in my condo. Hassles in a word, not to put too fine a point on it. (I used to all but brag about how much I hate hassles until God whispered, "And who doesn't?")

But I thought of old Harry S after I read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" this morning, in particular the sentence: Contemplative practice helps us become habituated to this way of being, opening ourselves to presence in the ordinary and humdrum.

I saw opening ourselves to presence in the ordinary and humdrum to be opening me (becoming transparent) to the presence in the broken pantry door, the stained carpet, etc., as opposed to staying in my closed mind with put-upon thoughts (i.e., remaining opaque).

That one line exemplifies the difference between reasoning mind (self-centered) thought and spiritual (God-centered) discernment. Because life, if we're doing it right, really does on occasion bring mud, sludge, and unsunny days no matter how good we believe we're being...how we deal with those less-than-wonderfuls determines our inner happiness...

It is our inner happiness that determines what we know and what we show to our world. It is that inner happiness that invites the friends and foes who are in our walking around lives...and to recognize what we see is always ourselves, be it friend or foe.

Thank you.

THE CARRIER: LOVE AND LAUGHTER

So I'm brushing my teeth last night, and...uh-oh...there goes my new $2,000 tooth into the sink. I spent (it seems) nearly all of October into November at the dentist getting this tooth built, rebuilt, fitted, and refitted. And that's not even the punchline...my dentist of over 20 years, with whom I spent all that time building, fitting and re-re-, retired at the end of November. Left for parts unknown (but I have a foreboding that it's probably Hawaii, my personal idea of Paradise).

I heard my mouth say something other than thank you...well, other than what you're thinking, but that, too...what I heard, though, was "whatever." And I went to bed and to sleep.

I decided that may well be my new one-word-fits-all prayer, so I tried it this morning. I'm thinking of my $2,000 tooth and the hassle I'm going to have to go through getting it fixed to my idea of proper, and I'm saying, "Whatever."

And I learn (again) that the trouble with God is: He listens...and isn't shy about giving directions. Like, I pray my first whatever, and I'm feeling less than wonderful when I'm all but blinded by the light of realization...that one word only works when I mean it. And I can only mean it when I can honest and true substitute 'Thy will, not mine, be done.'

When I think about it, I see that is also true of thank you, but thank you carries a sense of grace with it, doesn't it? When first we pray thank you, we have a sense of hope which builds the more we rely on it. Whatever, though, seems fairly cynical...it's kinda like, "Who gives a flip?"

I do have to give whatever props, though...it got me into bed and asleep without any of the drama-trauma that my ego Lucy loves and does so well.

I returned to praying thank you this morning...love and laughter to follow.

Thank you.

ON KEEPING OUR KARMA CLEAN

When first I ever heard of karma, I couldn't quite grasp the concept. Then I thought of the ocean. The tide ebbs, taking out the trash on the shore. Then it flows back, bringing back trash...some the same that it took out which has collected barnacles and beer bottles, some apparently new collected from the other shore.

The ocean not being the problem, we check out the trash, and there it is: The Problem. It is the trash that we deposit on the shore that births our karma. Our job is to clean up our shores...and keep them clean.

To flow with karma, then, we must needs clean up our shores, a.k.a., our inner self. To keep it clean is to stay our minds in God.

I believe that our inner thoughts are where our karma is born...our reactive inner thoughts in particular. For instance, there is no God in rage...if there is no God in rage, then it isn't likely there'd be God in peeved, irritated or put-upon. We learn ever so slowly to not respond in kind (react) to negative stimulus (which is simply fear), but to respond in kind to positive stimulus (love, simply).

In learning to not respond in kind to the negatives of life, I try to keep in mind the story of the old black man and his response to hate: He was walking down the street one day, leaning on his cane, bothering nobody. A less-than-loving person walks by and calls him the n-word. He responds not at all, just keeps moving forward. A person with him was aghast and asked if he wasn't furious to be called that.

And the old man said, "It's not what I'm called, it's what I answer to that matters."

According to me, that's God's shortcut for keeping our inner shores clean, then we can welcome our karma.

Thank you.

BY GRACE AND BY GOD

Blinding flash of the obvious 1: When my cover up quits covering, I See Me. This is a warning. Heed it well.

On pondering: My cover-up is me staying up in my head, saying all the right things to "talk" me over a resentment. In fact, that is usually heading in the right direction. We must needs beware, though, for we never know when we will make a U-bie and head for our self-determined objective, and there it is: I See Me...know it and seek our mentor's input

Blinding flash of the obvious 2: Be grateful for your atheism for it is the golden goose that will bring you to God. 

On pondering: Our "atheism" is our Victim in the form of self-will, anger, ego-victory thoughts...self first, God not present. By being grateful for our Victim, we name it and defang it...ah, and God appears.

Thank you.

TRUST GOD AND WALK FREE

If I truly trust God, I cannot doubt myself.

That thought floated across my mind as I sat in stillness this morning. In pondering it later, I think that may well be true but possible only if I'm honestly seeking to do God's will, not mine.

We cannot try to "win" using our self-centered ways, then blame God for the result if it turns up ugly. Nor, for that matter, can we credit God for the result if it appears to be for our benefit for, who's kidding whom, that just opened the door for karma's entry whenever...usually long after we've forgotten our "win.".

It is winning through our self-determined ways that allows karma alone to bite us in the butt someday someway. It is karma that brings with it that delicious feeling of being The Victim...unfair...not right...and why me? That victim-feeling, our ego's theme song, we learn the extremely hard way is all but addictive.

The simplest way to avoid attachment to that victim, i.e., self (pity, protection, glory, etc.) is to throw in with a power greater than our own reasoning mind...God in a word. Want-to heads us in the right direction, it just doesn't get us there...that takes discipline. Ah-ha...self-discipline. We can't dismiss self entirely...with God at the wheel, self is the tool, and the way becomes less crooked, a tish smoother, more soothing to our Soul.

Kill self and Self arises...within and without.

Thank you.

FOR REMEMBERING...

Our comforter to rely on as needed throughout the year:

When we feel the road before us is too difficult, Isa.45:2 - ”I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight….”

When an unexpected or scary situation looms large, Matt.14:27 - ”….it is I, be not afraid.”

When called upon to meet a life situation that weighs heavy over our head, Job.23:14 - ”For He performs the thing that is appointed for me….”

When our world feels at sixes and sevens in our heart,  Romans 5:20 - "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more...."  

Upon awakening:  I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

At any hour of the day or night: God loves me...all's right with my world whether I feel it or not.

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

Thank you.