ON WALKING FREE IN OUR OWN HEAD

Random thoughts: 

What if President Trump is God's gift to America? It may be that we have become arrogant, power hungry, self-willed...in need of humility in short. For sure, Trump can be viewed as America's visible humility.

He may well be bringing US to our knees which is where we must needs be in order to make the necessary U-bie that has been needed for awhile now (according to me).

All who follow Trump for material gain (money/power/glory) will get what they get. Those who follow Trump sincerely believing in his message will get what they get.

Those who curse Trump and call his name evil will rue their own resistance. Those who make peace with President Trump as the 45th president of America will live free in their own heads.

Blinding flash of the obvious: Though we lose all material things, if our mind be stayed on Thee, we will know and we will show peace, love and joy.

Thank you.

LOVE, PATIENCE AND GRATITUDE

We can realize God's will as always done in our life if we will thank God for everything...every single thing...that comes to us before we allow our reasoning mind to personalize whatever is appearing.

Whether we're personalizing it upward or downward, to personalize is to be disappointed since our ego always legislates for itself, and there is no enough. Wonderful becomes boring in a heartbeat, and  less-than-wonderful arrives as unfair and poor me.

For me, I have become willing to live from a non-oppositional consciousness. Becoming ready is my goal today and to actually live there means I have my work cut out for me. The work is to refuse my ego Lucy every day in every way.

The great get-up-and-shout news is that God does the heavy lifting...as in, God can and will perform that which is given us to do. He picks us up, heads us in the right direction, and walks us forward. How long it takes before we find our peace in that depends entirely on how long it takes us to remember to think thank you.

To think thank you first thing is to live an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude is boundaryless, unlimited good...ours through our own state of mind. It is, however, akin to love and patience...always available, last thing called forth.

Thank you.

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING...THANK YOU

The times of trials in our material world...ah, in the spiritual dimension those are our green pastures, our still waters. We will not believe that unless and until we are willing to change our mind so our eyes can be opened...to see through God's eyes.

I'm beginning to believe that it is the grace of gratitude alone that changes our mind. It is grace that opens our eyes to our trials as seen through God's eyes. When we try to make that happen, to will it, we separate our self from grace. 

That self-will transmutes a want into a self-determined objective, limited, held within a mental box of time and space. This objective is simply our own idea of what we want to happen in order to rid us of our trials, and, of course, benefiting us all the while. Of course, we wish no harm to the other person (there is always another person) which to the reasoning mind qualifies our want as God's will...thus, to be granted.

I'm guessing there are a lot of atheists born as a result of unfulfilled self-determined objectives. The fact is, however, that God's will is always done if we thank God for everything that comes our way. It becomes an easy thing to do the more we do it...before we take the time to form a judgment, learn to think "thank you." 

To pray without ceasing, get grateful, be thankful.

Thank you.

INTELLECTUAL LEAPS INTO FAITH

For me, this wondrous universe cannot be an incoherent and accidental cosmos, nor can it be grounded in evil, although I admit that this intellectual leap and bias toward beauty is still an act of faith and trust. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," February 25, 2018

It is a comfort to read Rohr's admission that this intellectual leap and bias toward beauty is still an act of faith and trust. Sometimes, for sure not always but simply sometimes, it feels an act of faith and trust is my entire spiritual foundation.

And, honestly, if it is, that is enough. 

Not to split hairs, but what soul comfort has the fact that 2 + 2 = 4 ever given me? That's probably the equation that assures the world is going around and in the right direction, but it's hard for me to feel peace, love or joy because of it. 

Whether a blinding flash of the obvious or a self-determined objective, the fact is I'm at peace with my intellectual leap upward toward the Father within being enough...right Now.

Possibly the best intuitive advice I ever got: Hold your nose and take a leap of faith.

Thank you.

TO STAY DETACHED FROM THE TEMPTATION

The grace of God is a wind which is always blowing. -- Sri Ramakrishna [from Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," today]

Isn't that a comforting thought? That the grace of God is an ever-present wind blowing in, around, through us. All we need do is stay our mind on Thee, and the grace of God walks us free.

The block to the grace of God is our self in the form of our self-determined wants that we choose to believe are needs. Those wants, depending entirely on our attachment to them, become the God of our understanding in the moment. No matter how insignificant they appear (running late? the green light is our God right then) or how significant they appear (unexpected and steep medical expenses turn the dollar into our higher power without another thought).

According to me, any perceived lack that we consider essential to our life becomes our entire focus, our God, and grace blows by unrealized, unaccepted, unfulfilled.

"God Calling" note dated 2/24/12: BFO - realized "the kingdom of heaven" as our worst fear/greatest glory signifying nothing - Jesus in the wilderness being tempted and staying detached from the temptation.

Thank you.

FATHER, FORGIVE US...AGAIN

I saw a man on the news last night...a farmer-type. Looked a lot like my Dad, like my uncles. Did not sound like them. But I knew within my heart that he used to sound like them...that is, reasonable, steady, calm. And I wondered if Dad and my uncles were alive today...would they sound angry, mean, vengeful? Would they be accepting bald-faced lies (or saying they do) just to put the thoughts presented by "the other side" down?

I heard myself  talking back to the man on the news, and whoa! I had him blasted half way to Georgia with words that I did not learn at my mama's knee...as in, mouth meet soap. I had a smart return for every stupid word he uttered, and mine were cleverer by half. Maybe not wholly true, but his were entirely false. And I did not care because I was winning. 

Who knew winning could feel so ugly? 

Then the thought popped up: What if I were face-to-face with that man? Would I be so carelessly outspoken? So rigid, righteous and right at any cost? To my own Self?

I wonder if that isn't the source of our country's woes today...us, in a word. Us and our refusal to allow us to be thought anything but right...or righter-than-they-are at any rate. Specifically, what we are allowing ourselves to think about those we disagree with.

It is not them or their beliefs, it is the lack of any spirituality in our thoughts about them and their beliefs. Which is the price we are willing to pay to believe ourselves right...a lack of our spiritual foundation within...a reckless disregard of the God of our own understanding right here and right now. Later. Later, we'll pray. Later, we'll ask for the other fellow to be forgiven.

Father, forgive us for we know exactly what we do, and we do it anyway.

Thank you.

UNTHINKING OUR WAY INTO HEAVEN

According to me, our greatest block to realizing our own spiritual growth is our failure to pay attention. Unthinkingly inviting someone to go ahead of us at the grocery is a spiritual act. Forcing our self to do it is a self-determined objective...Miss Manners nice, but not spiritual. It's the unthinking that counts and at the same time causes our failure to recognize our angels among us.

Here's us, our ego longing to do the personal act that will have the "New York Times" writing about it/us...brass band on the march, flags unfurling in our honor. When, Lucy thinks, when we get that, then we'll be able to know, to trust, that God is on our side.

Ah, but it is our teeny tiny unconsciously loving acts that are our gold nuggets, the macadam of our life's journey. They are throwaways to our ego, too small to even note, all the while our very own angels are high-fiving all our Heaven in happiness for us.

The thing is...we don't want that to change. The not noting, that is, not wanting the brass band. That want will be with us until three days after we're dead, I'm guessing, but we'll die with a grin on our face. If we've done it right.

God is on our side. God does have our back. That we trust since God lets Lucy reign through love and laughter...thus showing forth God.

Thank you.

ON WELCOMING CRASH-AND-BURN

It is in the devastation of surrender that we are gifted with the sweet taste of impersonal victory. It is that impersonal victory that is a brief glimpse of the 4th dimension, and we know peace.

Never having known true peace our reasoning mind mistakes it for nuthing' happenin' here so we self-determine various actions based on self that we must take...thus blocking our realization for as long as it takes for us to become entirely ready to give over, give up, give in.

There it is. The golden key to the 4th dimension...surrender of self to Self...give over, give up, give in.

Thank you.

OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING!

I want to live by the Sermon but my self will (self-determined objectives) can't/won't/hasn't been able to get me there...I intellectually know that is my rightful place and I ask Your help...lift me, lead me, show me for I cannot of myself do it. 

That is a note I wrote in my "God Calling" on this day, February 20, of 1986...with "ditto" noted and dated 1996 and same again in 2006.

I bring good news. This year, 2018, I have written: I am doing it...baby steps, teeny, tiny baby steps! Thank you. Amen.

In particular what I love about being able to write this year that I am doing it, is that to my mind's eye the happenings that constitute my life right now look less than wonderful. Ah, but my mind is not swamped...a tish edgy, but not swamped. I count that in God's column.

Best part...even as I write, I can feel God smiling on me. Oh, it's a great gettin' up morning in my heart!

Thank you.

FLIGHT OF FANTASY OR REALITY?

I believe in reincarnation which is unprovable to some, heretical to others, but truth to me.

Based on that belief, here's another unprovable that gives me comfort: There is an invisible ribbon running through our many lives which originates in the before-conception pool...God, I call it. It is the core of our existence upon which we build from previous life to the next and the many nexts. 

We are given free will at birth, and the choices we made originally, we have built on which has brought us this day to the life we lead now...living to the best of our ability by the Sermon and its principles. Which means, of course, we make mistakes, uglies are visited upon us...it rains on the just and the unjust alike...and unearned goodies fall in our lap.

With a spiritually based life as our choice, we accept all that and enjoy this life, warts and gold intermingled. We are in preparation for our next round by learning to live a giving-over life now. 

We know, when we are coming again, to choose not my will but Thy will ...free will in exchange for Thy will. Ah, but will we remember? Or is that the right path we are given to take?...not reasoning-mind remembering, but God-realization at an ever new and deeper level.

There it is...a whole new level of learning to let go and let God.

Thank you.

AMEN

For this I pray:

Thank you that I know the glorious thrill of an earner of the Big Mac Award without winning anything or ever being considered to win anything.

Thank you that I have the inner comfort of financial security of a winner of the billion-dollar lottery without winning a penny.

Thank you that loving energy is now flowing to and from me to and from those with whom my ego fights and/or loves. 

All that I need, all that I seek is within me Now. It is sealed up with God in his hidey hole, and it is already mine to use...if God so wills and I be willing to loose it and let it go.

Thank you.

GOD'S WASHING MY WINDOWS

It seems there is a trend in my life that, looking back, I realize began sometime in June of this year...people leaving my orbit. There has been a full dozen people leave in one way or the other; i.e., moving to other states, illness, anger, whatever. And not only socially, but seeming reversals are showing forth financially and physically.

This seeming overhaul sends a whimper to my lips but...the biggie...not to my heart. I am not now, nor have I ever been, known as an example of calm in any storm so I'll not claim that now. But, for me, I feel sorta, kinda, I-hope-I-hope as if I am being guided toward those green pastures beside the still waters...a new place within.

In the midst of wondering what decision based on self I'd made that brought me to this place, I got my blinding flash of the obvious: This mass exodus of my entire mental/material security, all in the same time period, is my gold. It is God's perfect plan for me for it has God's hand prints all over it

I have experienced the weirdly wonderful fact of horrific to my mind happening, and, lo! God's hand has been there for me. All these life-events happening at once? God's cleaning my house! Don't tell me God doesn't wash windows.

Look for the gold, find his hand, hang on, love and laugh.

Thank you.

ACCEPTANCE...LOOSE IT AND LET IT GO

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: I can know God loves me by the burden I feel I'm bearing...for that feeling is God drawing me close.

It seems most of us can say in all truthfulness that we are not afraid of dying; it's our projection of the way we may die that causes us pause. Whether most of us say that or not, I certainly think that.

With that in mind. it occurred to me that I might die at peace if I could let go of my martyred-me, i.e., the mud on my ego's tires. Those rues, regrets and remorses which were not my fault, were my fault but I didn't mean to, which s/he caused and I got blamed for, which I caused and s/he got blamed for, etc., etc., etc.

What I have learned, or am learning, is that we can make peace with these things, make amends for our part in them, rise above them, accept that we will never rise above them...at three o'clock in the morning of our unconscious despair, they can sing our song as if it were a symphony.

Accepting that my martyred-me will never get cleaned up to my reasoning mind's satisfaction may be freedom.

I'm guessing there will necessarily be mud left on all our tires when we die. Since we were not perfect persons in our walking, talking world, and no one is, why continue to hold to perfection as our standard for dying at peace?

 I can know God loves me by the burden I feel I'm bearing...for that feeling is God drawing me close.

Thank you.

LAUGHTER, FREEDOM FROM SELF

According to me, there's a little Judas that lives within all of us. We'd best learn to bless him, to call her name blessed.

Wherever, whenever there is a mutual resistance going on (and it seems there's always someone!) we can consciously think: "I'm the Judas s/he sees in me, s/he's the Judas I see in her/him...what I see is always myself. Thank you."

We need to bless that Judas who lives within since we cannot stop her and we cannot top him, We can only go to God with it. We take it to God...and we surely know God's answer by now...love and laugh. There. That which we knew as Judas is transmuted into our spiritual guide leading us to freedom from self. 

The pearl beyond price is learning that to love the Judas who lives within is to love our own self, our warts in particular. I've not found a better way to love my warts than to laugh. Despair and disparagement seem to be their Miracle-Gro...grins, their wart-killer.

Ah, we can relax now, knowing, Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused.

Thank you.

THE SPIRITUAL BRINGS NOTHING BUT PEACE

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: Our only need is God...God is peace of mind. Our want is financial security in order to get peace of mind.

What seems to be the block to having a living, breathing, walking around faith in the miracle of God in our life is not our inability to believe, but our refusal to let go of our reasoning mind's right of first refusal.

As I say way too often, I have been reading "God Calling" for over forty years, I still believe it to be the most profound book I'll ever read (which is no steep hill to climb), yet today I realize as if for the first time what is written I am doing. As in, [What counts]is not the hearing Me so much as the being in My Presence.

And I wrote beside that, My morning quiet time counts whether I feel Him or not.   Having written that, I noticed that in 2003 I had written: It is making myself available ...that is all...He does the rest.

According to me, there are two ways to interpret that: (1) Reasoning mind: Proof yet again that I just don't get it...what I am given as realization, I "forget" in my continuing search for the material; (2) Spiritually: Thank you that here I have my own proof that I continue on the right path heading in the right direction...time is not of God and realization is never lost.

Now, why wouldn't we go with the spiritual interpretation? The reasoning mind's just looking for a fight and the spiritual brings nothing but peace.

God is so good to me.

Thank you.

ANSWERED PRAYERS

Lately, I've been pondering my defect of omission rather than commission, and I suspect my pendulum is swinging back to center. Back in the day, I said nuthin' to nobody and hid out within myself.

Then the pendulum began to swing for I had learned I could trust friends and even God. I began to put forth my own thoughts, and WOW: I found my voice. Well, look out...I also found I did not have a Shut Up switch.

Imagine my gulping surprise when I realized the pendulum is broken if it is not moving. Just like driving a car, we have to make constant correcting movements. That's how I realized my pendulum was in its long swing back, and I learned the art of silence. Ah, I knew I'd found my home.

Lately, I've been given reason to see that I'm on the road to making my art of silence my hidey hole. 

God is never late...this reason that I've been given is, in effect, an answered prayer.

[Sidebar: Answered prayers often look like mud to our ego-victory eye. They are akin to our Mama force feeding us medicine when we were little and telling us it was for our own good. It's only later that we learn it was for our own good...it's the getting it that's hard to take.]

Recalling a quote of Saint Augustine, Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt,  I said to God, Let me know what needs to happen in re my misstep...what I need to do...then do it, please. Thank you.

Here's what I've learned to love about trusting God...he is never late, he is not on my timetable, and it takes as long as it takes for my eyes to see and my brain to accept God's will has already been worked out here...and on my behalf.

Thank you.

PRACTICE...AND BE AT PEACE

To be without and to be at peace is to know God. To lose that which represents our walking-around security is to find our inner peace if we so choose. The decision is ours. -- morning BFO

It is a humbling fact that I have felt panic, akin to terror in my heart, when I have made a mistake in front of my own world...that's one or more friends or mere acquaintances, my world. And no matter how minor the mistake. When I could accept that seemingly insignificant defect as my first level of insecurity, I got relatively free of being right as my walking around security.

I count it as proof of God in my life that, upon making such a mistake, my first thought is no longer to lie, cheat, steal...or to want to actually...to cover it up. I don't like it a lot, but here comes laughter to save my face! Which can at times make it worth it.

What I'm coming to understand (a.k.a., the road to realization) is these small steps, the fruit of still more spiritual growth, in order to be lasting do not, cannot, happen in an "Oh, I see" minute. We must needs have our "Oh, I see" minute, of course, but unless we hold it close and build on it constantly, it is like that dream we'll never forget that vanishes upon awakening.

It's the old practice, practice, practice...which doesn't make perfect, it just brings peace about the imperfect. Which is close enough to perfect for me.

Thank you.

GOD IS LOVE

To be a Sufi is to cease from taking trouble; and there is no greater trouble for thee than thine own self, for when thou art occupied with thyself, thou remainest away from God. -- Abu Sa'id

There it is, whether we be Sufi, Christian, atheist, whatever, there's the entire instruction book for how to be a free person...cease from being occupied with self.

Occupied with self is pretty much just being married to our own opinions. Facts can stand alone, it is opinions that our ego fights for, and an ego fight is a losing fight. Especially when ego wins.

The leaven in still more spiritual growth is that grain of willingness to detach...or to just agree. We learn sooner or later the first telltale sign of attachment as when s/he says whatever and we think no...already our ego is answering the call to "stand up for our self."

Aren't most disagreements started in our reasoning mind with an either/or premise? It's only in the spiritual realm that we even consider that a good thing is for both sides to be right. The reasoning mind fueled by ego and, who's kidding whom?, common sense, balks at the idea. That's why it's in the spiritual realm, and we must needs go to God for it to have even a wee, small chance.

Here's the hard lesson a-learnin'...we go to God for God and that is all. Not for willingness, not to give over to the other, not to be more loving...those are all self-determined objectives, and if we're  seeking to live a spiritual life, we're doing those things already...or we're trying to. 

We go to God for God and that is all opens the door to God's hidey hole in our Soul. Then, however the end result looks to our reasoning mind...roses or ragweed...we know peace in our heart, body, bones and brain. Knowing it, we release it...and it returns a hundred fold. That is love.

And we are reminded: God is love...especially when It doesn't look like it.

Thank you.

ASLAN, THE LION OF CHRIST

Idle thoughts this morning:

• Fear is a crisis of doubt.
• Fear of financial insecurity is doubt that faith really is more important than money.
• God, grant us knowledge of your will for us and the power to carry that out. God's power is our courage. Our courage is feeling fear and doing it anyway. God, grant us knowledge of your will for us and the courage to carry that out.
• He goes before me to make the crooked places straight...right Now, not tomorrow, not next week, not as I lay dying whenever. Now.
• He goes before me, walking on my feet, breathing my breath, seeing from my eyes, hearing from my ears...my only need is to trust that.
• Trust is built by detaching from reliance on the reasoning mind where doubt lurks and lives.

Blinding flash of the obvious: We need never fear being thrown in the lion's den for the lion is Aslan.

Thank you.

GOD'S BLINDING LIGHT...MIND CHANGING

When you can weep, when you can identify with the little ones, when you can make peace, when you can be persecuted and still be joyful . . . then you’re doing it right. -- Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," February 9, 2018

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: Circumstances in our lives may distract us; follow not the distractions nor be dismayed by those circumstances for they are God's leading strings.

The hardest thing we will ever need do in life is to become willing to change our mind. That willingness is the first crack in our ego's rigid, righteous and right hold on us. It lays the first brick in the building of our unselfed foundation.

There are a lifetime of such bricks to come no matter the length of our natural life. And when we can weep, when we can identify with the little ones, when we can make peace, when we can be persecuted and still be joyful...then we can shout our Hallelujahs for we know we're doing it right.

Thank you.

HIT HARD? THANK GOD

Blinding flash of the obvious: The harder the hit the truer my God.

I asked for this "hit." My voiced wish for myself, for the first time out loud, was in conversation with Gertrude. That is my proof positive that God's hand is in it and in it for me and for Gertrude.

Thank you that this has hit me hard, hit my reasoning mind hard, for it is opening me to the fact of Jesus's journey toward his destiny...answering not a word in self defense (which was my specific voiced desire that started this contretemps).

I am just beginning to understand (without a doubt only from my eyebrows up) that the prize really is crucifixion. Crucifixion within and without...within, of self (ego-deflation in depth), and without, of persona (in the desire to save face).

My gratitude rests in the fact that I know to let it be unto realization from my toenails up...however long it takes and however many windmills I meet.

Thank you. Amen.

GOD SPEAKS...LISTEN!

Blinding flash of the obvious: Never fear being thrown in the lion's den for the lion is Aslan.

There. Proof yet again that God has my back. To me, that BFO is a direct instruction to welcome the "lion's den," i.e., anything appearing in life that causes one pause...fear, trepidation, angst or anxiety.

Or, "….it is I, be not afraid." -- Matt.14:27

Thank you.

FINDING GOD IN THE DAILIES

Telling others about our spiritual growth often gets the same response as watching sausage get made...euwww, and thanks, but no, into the bargain.

For instance, just yesterday as I drove along a thought popped that I'd love to hear again "I Will Survive," a favorite song of mine from the '80s that I haven't heard probably since the '90s. Barely a half hour later, as I pulled into the parking lot, here comes the voice of Gloria Gaynor out of my radio singing, WOW, "I Will Survive." Now that, to me, is a spiritual lesson, plain and simple.

Naturally, I told that to the friends I was meeting. No one outright challenged the idea, but we did get a giggle out of it. They're a mannerly group.

The exchange led me to thinking, a sometimes red flag, but this time it bore good fruit: We read in a lot of spiritual literature to guard our thoughts for they determine our destiny. Not being entirely stupid, we know that is generally about not thinking on how we'd like to see Putin, Trump or our nemesis du jour dead and buried...specifically, shamed to death.

The word, however, is "thoughts," to be careful of our thoughts, and let's face it, thoughts are constant, varied and fertile territory for spiritual and material growth.

Just because we're learning the art of disciplining our mind, doesn't mean we can't (or shouldn't) find God in the daily weeds of life...a dandelion is a flower when we need it to be, we can just change our mind about it in that moment.

The big plus in finding God in the dailies is I have my proof that God was listening to me yesterday at 11:40 AM...heard me and gifted me. Ah...another piece of gold in my yellow brick road.

Thank you.

GETTING FREE OF ME

A Minute/Hour/Day in the Life: I get wrapped around my own wants, mistake them for needs, hit my own wall of self-will, surrender, say "thank you," love it and laugh, and move on...with however much angst I choose to toss in occurring in the midst of it.

Red flag: The degree of personal angst determines the length and depth of my self-centered misery.

To remember: Nothing short sheets angst like a smile, and the idea that we and our ego-jinx are God's laugh track can set us free...a'laughing.

Thank you.

THE EVER RENEWING GIFT OF LOVE

The Sermon on the Mount really is the how-to for living the spiritual upside-down, inside out world. According to me, that is what acceptance is. Acceptance without exception, that is. 

Acceptance puts the period to "Yes, but...."

Agree with your adversary quickly...not, try to make him see your side, and when she won't, finally agree...resentfully.

If someone takes away your coat, let him have your cloak also. Whaaat? Yes.

Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. There. Is that not the recipe for peace of mind?

Think about it: The undisciplined reasoning mind, the ego's water boy, is ever on the defensive. Its first responsive feeling is fear...fear that we are being, or are about to be, used, abused, cursed and/or persecuted.

Acceptance without exception allows us to go beyond reason...to love. Same-old-same-old...only, if done right, it never gets old.

Thank you.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON

[The following is a reworked post of April 1, 2016, then titled "My Beloved Pogo."]

Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent. - Pogo

I can't decide if that is the good news or the bad news. I'm just glad (and a tish relieved) that Pogo is still a primary Muse of mine.

Thank you.

BE FREE OF MAGIC THINKING...LIVE NOW

I awoke this morning with the thought that how I am right this very minute is how I am supposed to be. God is walking me toward God, and every step I take, thought I think, is his...with free will and ego riding herd.

Then I read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," and in particular: To live a just life in this world is to identify with the longings and hungers of the poor, the meek, and those who weep. This identification and solidarity is in itself a profound form of social justice.

What I felt upon reading that was the old familiar niggling, "I ain't never going to get there." So when I copied it I noted that this requires pondering with an unthinking mind.

I got an immediate cheap shot of gratitude for that early-morning thought of mine because that told me God knew I was going to need it when I read Rohr...that left to my own thinking, I'd be doubting me. There...that's my interpretation of praying without ceasing...finding God in every little stumble-bumble.

Just this morning I read in "God Calling" a note from 1996: Getting free of my sister simply means freeing my sister, and she's free in my mind today. We can tell our self that God has our back till our face falls off. Until we let it be true, it's just so many words.

Thank you.

KNOWING vs. PROVING...THERE'S THE RUB

Blinding flash of the obvious: I know unto the depths of my being all I need to know.

It may well be true that at this very instant, I do know all I need to know. It will ever be in the very next instant, though, that I may be gifted with a whole new, different and confounding Something...in need of an answer. An answer that my head does not know but is hidden with God in me.

It's akin to learning the old canard, I've been poor, and I've been rich, rich is better is just that, an old canard. I'm guessing only a truly rich person can know that, and I suspect it's only the poor soul who won the million dollar lottery who can say how false that is with authority...and then only some years later.

According to me, it follows that I've been up and I've been down, up is better is reasoning mind logic. Spiritually, down is better for where can we go but to God when all our best thinking is shot down...and shot down by our very own thinking?

I know unto the depths of my being all I need to know...love and laughter, amen. Ah, now to choose to prove that.

Thank you.