At the point of unexplainable is where the miracle of God appears.
We delay our realizing the ever-present miracle of God by scrutinizing, analyzing, pondering, picking and choosing that which makes the most sense to us.
But then we delay it further by faking our acceptance of the unexplainable. We cannot make an end run around God.
The miracle God has readied for us is ours for our surrendering.
Thank you.
Friday, August 31, 2018
Thursday, August 30, 2018
WE BREATHE AS ONE
To know God is not to show God, it is for God to show Itself...without any personal effort, any me, myself or I at all working it. Ah, work it not, praise it ever. When we get that, we begin to realize that God is not changing so much as our comprehension of God changes.
So often we, unthinking, do a "good" deed, say the exactly right thing, help a stranger...unasked, and in relating it later, aver that it had to be God, it couldn't have been us. What we have not yet realized is without us, God would not have done that good deed, spoken that right word, aided the stranger...by denying our part, we hold our self out from the realization of God's very breath as our own.
While we're beating our self with rues, regrets and remorses for our low self-esteem, God is busy using our hands and feet, breath and life, showing forth love...which we're denying any part of.
It is the gut-bucket realization that the Father and I are One that betters our self, improves our intentions, softens our judgments. For the benefit of others. Our bettered self, improved intentions and softened judgments are our reward.
Thank you.
So often we, unthinking, do a "good" deed, say the exactly right thing, help a stranger...unasked, and in relating it later, aver that it had to be God, it couldn't have been us. What we have not yet realized is without us, God would not have done that good deed, spoken that right word, aided the stranger...by denying our part, we hold our self out from the realization of God's very breath as our own.
While we're beating our self with rues, regrets and remorses for our low self-esteem, God is busy using our hands and feet, breath and life, showing forth love...which we're denying any part of.
It is the gut-bucket realization that the Father and I are One that betters our self, improves our intentions, softens our judgments. For the benefit of others. Our bettered self, improved intentions and softened judgments are our reward.
Thank you.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
LOVE AND LAUGHTER DO NOT LIVE IN REASON
A state of permanent joy, hidden at the very center of consciousness, is the Eden to which the long journey of spiritual seeking leads. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," August 29
This morning I can believe that hidden is the most important word in Easwaran's quote.
I was talking with a friend yesterday, and we each have a relative who is unhappy. Miserably unhappy, not to put too fine a point on it. Both have financial security, good-enough health (they are both elderly...our age...so they've got aches, pains and doctors for everything), plus people to step-and-fetch for them.
In talking my friend and I agreed that what our respective relatives lack is an attitude of gratitude. And that is all. Interestingly, that is also freely available...can't be bought, bartered or pilfered. Ah, but just because it is freely available does not mean it is freely given.
Like the permanent joy Easwaran wrote about, gratitude is hidden at our very core...oh, hey, with joy! That's probably why it is a long journey of spiritual seeking that is needed...miserably unhappy does not lend itself to gratitude, much less to joy. And through spiritual seeking, to boot!
It is a shame, but it is too often true, that which we most need, love and laughter, is that which we most resist...with grim resolve. Mainly because when we chose to feel unloved, unwanted, unneeded and unappreciated, what's to love and laugh about? We can see no reason for it.
We must go beyond reason to love.
Thank you.
It is a shame, but it is too often true, that which we most need, love and laughter, is that which we most resist...with grim resolve. Mainly because when we chose to feel unloved, unwanted, unneeded and unappreciated, what's to love and laugh about? We can see no reason for it.
We must go beyond reason to love.
Thank you.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
INFINITY ON THE POINT OF A PIN
...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.... - from The Lord's Prayer
Those words grabbed my unthinking mind this morning...through all my prayers, meditations and meandering thoughts, it was like low-hanging fog over a country field.
They took me back to Our Father, which art in Heaven...and caused me to wonder (yet again), where is Heaven? Within and without. Everywhere. Infinite. Infinity on the point of a pin. And God occupies every infinite inch...the only limit being our own concept of God.
When we were in college, a friend told me of sitting on a huge boulder by a lake and imagining a rope going out into space...and she focused entirely on expanding the length of the rope, further and further...and still farther. Until she experienced a great light and an almost unbearable feeling of peace...which scared her so that she never tried it again. It was years later before she understood she had experienced a break through to the fourth dimension.
I wonder if that almost unbearable feeling of peace isn't what keeps most of us anchored here...not only because it is so unfathomable but because we try so hard to catch it, to grasp and hold it.
I am reminded of her story because I feel that I almost touched that this morning as I was pondering infinity and God's unboundaried space within. And lost it in my reaching for it. Ah, there it is. The reasoning mind needs boundaries, will manufacture them for its own feeling of security. God cannot be bound. Maybe another aspect of spiritual growth is our detaching from our own conceptual boundaries.
As Meister Eckhart preached, God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.
Thank you.
Those words grabbed my unthinking mind this morning...through all my prayers, meditations and meandering thoughts, it was like low-hanging fog over a country field.
They took me back to Our Father, which art in Heaven...and caused me to wonder (yet again), where is Heaven? Within and without. Everywhere. Infinite. Infinity on the point of a pin. And God occupies every infinite inch...the only limit being our own concept of God.
When we were in college, a friend told me of sitting on a huge boulder by a lake and imagining a rope going out into space...and she focused entirely on expanding the length of the rope, further and further...and still farther. Until she experienced a great light and an almost unbearable feeling of peace...which scared her so that she never tried it again. It was years later before she understood she had experienced a break through to the fourth dimension.
I wonder if that almost unbearable feeling of peace isn't what keeps most of us anchored here...not only because it is so unfathomable but because we try so hard to catch it, to grasp and hold it.
I am reminded of her story because I feel that I almost touched that this morning as I was pondering infinity and God's unboundaried space within. And lost it in my reaching for it. Ah, there it is. The reasoning mind needs boundaries, will manufacture them for its own feeling of security. God cannot be bound. Maybe another aspect of spiritual growth is our detaching from our own conceptual boundaries.
As Meister Eckhart preached, God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.
Thank you.
Monday, August 27, 2018
A SEA CHANGE IN CONSCIOUSNESS
Great is this power of memory, exceedingly great, O my God, a spreading and limitless room within me. Who can reach its uttermost depth? Here are men going afar to marvel at the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the long courses of great rivers, the vastness of the ocean, the movements of the stars, yet they leave themselves unnoticed! -- Saint Augustine
Many travel to distant lands to find, to experience, all the wonders of the world; some are content to seek the wonders within.
Interestingly, we are changed, we are ever changing, but so slowly that we cannot fully realize it, thus we keep expecting...praying for...a sea change in consciousness. Ah, but that is what keeps us seeking.
I sometimes think we live our life through the rearview mirror...trying to fix our past, that which God has already perfected. We need to stay centered in the here and now, also that which God has already perfected. It is ours to realize...yes and to live...that perfection.
The Father fulfills our needs.
Thank you.
Many travel to distant lands to find, to experience, all the wonders of the world; some are content to seek the wonders within.
Interestingly, we are changed, we are ever changing, but so slowly that we cannot fully realize it, thus we keep expecting...praying for...a sea change in consciousness. Ah, but that is what keeps us seeking.
I sometimes think we live our life through the rearview mirror...trying to fix our past, that which God has already perfected. We need to stay centered in the here and now, also that which God has already perfected. It is ours to realize...yes and to live...that perfection.
The Father fulfills our needs.
Thank you.
Sunday, August 26, 2018
FILLED WITH GRACE
Fear is our camouflage for God, ginned up by the egoic mind to keep us separate from the Unknown.
We must walk to and through the fear we project to realize our Oneness with the God that our reasoning mind perceives as a threat...a threat simply because it is unknowable, cannot be known, only realized.
To realize our Oneness with the God of our own understanding is the long path of spiritual growth.
As we trudge that path, it often seems decidedly unfair. Ah, but when we can look at our life through the clarity of hindsight, we are filled with gratitude. Every rock we stumbled over, every mud puddle we fell into, when seen in relation to the end result, fills us with a sense of grace.
God's mirror image: Be grateful for our fear...it can be the rough and rocky road to peace.
Thank you.
We must walk to and through the fear we project to realize our Oneness with the God that our reasoning mind perceives as a threat...a threat simply because it is unknowable, cannot be known, only realized.
To realize our Oneness with the God of our own understanding is the long path of spiritual growth.
As we trudge that path, it often seems decidedly unfair. Ah, but when we can look at our life through the clarity of hindsight, we are filled with gratitude. Every rock we stumbled over, every mud puddle we fell into, when seen in relation to the end result, fills us with a sense of grace.
God's mirror image: Be grateful for our fear...it can be the rough and rocky road to peace.
Thank you.
Saturday, August 25, 2018
WE ARE GOD'S RUCKUS
Just because s/he is wrong does not mean I am right. - My note to me of one year ago.
There it is...a great example of God speaking directly to me, me getting it...and forgetting all about it. Which is why I write down those BFOs...even when I start out practicing them, if I don't make them mine by living them, they fade.
Ah, but there's the good news...they fade not into nothingness, they are always there. It is our need that releases them...when needed, they make themselves known.
Which puts the proof to the idea that we are but channels of God's word...for the benefit of others. We keep our channel open through still more spiritual growth. And when, not if, our ego gets loose in the channel, God uses his tools of love and laughter to free us up.
Our job is to stay alert for the invitation to love and laugh for ego will ever see snarks, snubs and hurts...in other words, ego personalizes period. And the cure for that is to love and laugh.
We are God's Ruckus. He cannot not love us.
Thank you.
There it is...a great example of God speaking directly to me, me getting it...and forgetting all about it. Which is why I write down those BFOs...even when I start out practicing them, if I don't make them mine by living them, they fade.
Ah, but there's the good news...they fade not into nothingness, they are always there. It is our need that releases them...when needed, they make themselves known.
Which puts the proof to the idea that we are but channels of God's word...for the benefit of others. We keep our channel open through still more spiritual growth. And when, not if, our ego gets loose in the channel, God uses his tools of love and laughter to free us up.
Our job is to stay alert for the invitation to love and laugh for ego will ever see snarks, snubs and hurts...in other words, ego personalizes period. And the cure for that is to love and laugh.
We are God's Ruckus. He cannot not love us.
Thank you.
Friday, August 24, 2018
PRAY IN GRATITUDE...ALWAYS
Wish nothing away...pray not in need for anything (Please), but pray in gratitude for what is (Thank You).
That which we fear, we want to wish away. No. Embrace it. Embrace the fear to transmute it.
That is truth. The problem is that we cannot do it. The pearl is we cannot do it. And not only because we are incapable but because it is already done for us...it is perfected within us.
We waste our energy and God's time trying to embrace the unembraceable, our fear...not because it is too ugly, too huge, too terrible, but because it is not real. It is a figment born in our own mind. Ah, therefore, change our mind. Uh-oh, another we cannot do it.
Thus our circle is being perfected. We are realizing again the always and ever answer: I can't, God can, let Him.
This is the conundrum of life. If we expect God to do life for us, we're in for a rude awakening; however, if we try to live our life all on our own, we're in for a ruder awakening. The answer: Live in the Now. Do what we can do right now and, looking back, we will see the miracle of our life made whole, interwoven with friends, foes, foes made friends, dreadnoughts and whatnots...with little remembered effort on our part. According to me.
We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds! -- Chekhov
Thank you.
That which we fear, we want to wish away. No. Embrace it. Embrace the fear to transmute it.
That is truth. The problem is that we cannot do it. The pearl is we cannot do it. And not only because we are incapable but because it is already done for us...it is perfected within us.
We waste our energy and God's time trying to embrace the unembraceable, our fear...not because it is too ugly, too huge, too terrible, but because it is not real. It is a figment born in our own mind. Ah, therefore, change our mind. Uh-oh, another we cannot do it.
Thus our circle is being perfected. We are realizing again the always and ever answer: I can't, God can, let Him.
This is the conundrum of life. If we expect God to do life for us, we're in for a rude awakening; however, if we try to live our life all on our own, we're in for a ruder awakening. The answer: Live in the Now. Do what we can do right now and, looking back, we will see the miracle of our life made whole, interwoven with friends, foes, foes made friends, dreadnoughts and whatnots...with little remembered effort on our part. According to me.
We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds! -- Chekhov
Thank you.
Thursday, August 23, 2018
OUT OF DESPAIR INTO LOVE
Morning blinding flash of the obvious: The 4th dimension as the material world torn asunder...wreckage and ruin everywhere...nothing undamaged...naught untouched...out of which we emerge, in despair...hopeless, helpless, alone and afraid. In that fleeting moment of knowing unloved, unwanted, unneeded, unappreciated is God's love aborning.
This is God's invitation to the love that passes understanding...we must be shut of those egoic wants to realize the one need, God's love.
Ah, now we can see fear as a camouflage for God's love which is too deep, intense, bright and beautiful for us to comprehend on sight...fear draws us slowly into the crucible and love emerges.
Our life's journey is in ever realizing that the love that emerges is us. This journey is of many lifetimes, and if we are doing it right, there will be detours. Wrong turns. Misunderstandings. Ego trips. And the ever-growing wonder of the love within us that grows therefrom.
Thank you.
This is God's invitation to the love that passes understanding...we must be shut of those egoic wants to realize the one need, God's love.
Ah, now we can see fear as a camouflage for God's love which is too deep, intense, bright and beautiful for us to comprehend on sight...fear draws us slowly into the crucible and love emerges.
Our life's journey is in ever realizing that the love that emerges is us. This journey is of many lifetimes, and if we are doing it right, there will be detours. Wrong turns. Misunderstandings. Ego trips. And the ever-growing wonder of the love within us that grows therefrom.
Thank you.
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
AGING IN PLACE...OH MY
This is what the spiritual practices are so good at—achieving such unitive experiences in which the self is so transformed that it finds itself through losing itself. [This is paraphrased...meaning tailored to fit my thinking. Just FYI, I substituted "spiritual practices" for the original "Buddhist practices."]
In my quiet time this morning, in pondering fear, I caught the mirror image of God's world and fear became love. I can accept that. It is fear that pushes us toward God for sure. Fear it is that we can rely on to motivate us to seek still more spiritual growth...consistently.
It is our egoic reasoning mind that resists fear, that urges us to run, hide, lie, any means is fine by ego to get away from fear. No. Our transformed self knows to go toward our fear...feel the fear and do it anyway is the quiet word.
As I age, I am experiencing young-me feelings, trepidations, anxieties. Things I once felt anxious about, those fears which I had allayed, are showing up, trying to do my thinking for me. And I rejoice.
It is for this that I am still seeking spiritual answers...and finding them.
I am guessing that these uh-ohs are revisiting me in order to be embraced...to get their kiss on the lips. It was mostly self-will, grit and guts that I used originally...with a lot of Please, God, do for me thrown in. Which was close enough to spiritual growth at the time...got me through anyhow. But now in my twilight years (eek!), I'm getting the opportunity to unclench, detach...love the unlovable, and call it grace.
And I am, and I do, and I am grateful.
Thank you.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
QUESTION NOT...ACCEPT GRACE AND BE FREE
It is better that others know God in me than that I feel It. He is with me whether I feel it or not...and the proof is others knowing it. -- Blinding flash of the obvious from sometime back.
What is the relation of [contemplation] to action? Simply this. He [or she] who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love will not have anything to give others. He will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of his own obsessions, his aggressiveness, his ego-centered ambitions, his delusions about ends and means, his doctrinaire prejudices and ideas. There is nothing more tragic in the modern world than the misuse of power and action. . . . —Thomas Merton [from Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," July 9, 2018]
What is the relation of [contemplation] to action? Simply this. He [or she] who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love will not have anything to give others. He will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of his own obsessions, his aggressiveness, his ego-centered ambitions, his delusions about ends and means, his doctrinaire prejudices and ideas. There is nothing more tragic in the modern world than the misuse of power and action. . . . —Thomas Merton [from Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," July 9, 2018]
I did not make note of when I had the blinding flash of the obvious, but I just could not accept it...realize it...as truth. So I saved it for if and/or when I got it.
Much later I read and saved the Merton quote because it spoke to me.
Just this morning I came across the two, and I realized the truth of my earlier BFO for, to me, they both say the same thing...Merton's is considerably clearer, of course.
According to me, this is the difference between striving for a self-determined objective (no matter how good our intentions, how sacred it sounds) and experiencing the perfect objective which is performed through us by a power greater than our self, God.
That is trust building itself. It seems we start seeing it by looking back...in wonder, usually. Seeing the wondrous result of an unplanned action or unrehearsed word...and feeling humbled that it came from our house...knowing it could as well have come from any other's house and feeling graced.
God is so good to us.
Thank you.
Monday, August 20, 2018
THE TRUSTWORTHY NATURE OF WHAT IS
[The Buddha] saw, we might say, the boundary-less, trustworthy nature of what is. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 20, 2018
Trust seems to be my watchword right now since I'm seeing it everywhere. What is in my awareness is my need to trust that what is in my eyes, on my mind, right this very minute is for my personal benefit...not for my reasoning mind benefit, but for my inner benefit. Trust what is is the manna that feeds our Soul.
Our spiritual response to what is determines our comfort level in the moment...Now. It is not our reasoning mind reaction that determines our spiritual comfort, it is exactly the opposite.
Our spiritual response...trust...must needs come first before all else. For that we seek still more spiritual growth...for that we welcome discipline. For it is through that...trust...that we become willing to give over, give up, give in. And realize the peace that passes understanding.
Thank you.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
YIELD AND OVERCOME...TRUST
Morning blinding flash of the obvious: What we in America must needs beware of today is the politics of resistance...resist to conquer is the ego's path...our need is to trust...to trust the invisible good that lives and thrives within us...which is accessed by the need and for the benefit of others.
Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 19, 2018: This deep inner knowing has a lot to do with trust and letting be; there is nirvanic peace in things just as they are. * * * Like the underlying continuum of reality, the great Tao is groundless and boundless; it is flowing, dynamic, yet unmoved amidst infinite change. 'Yield and overcome, and you cannot be broken,' they taught. 'Bend and be straight.'
I will fight no more forever. -- Chief Joseph
We have ceased fighting anything and anybody. - Anonymous
God loves us so much. Know it and show it.
Thank you.
Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 19, 2018: This deep inner knowing has a lot to do with trust and letting be; there is nirvanic peace in things just as they are. * * * Like the underlying continuum of reality, the great Tao is groundless and boundless; it is flowing, dynamic, yet unmoved amidst infinite change. 'Yield and overcome, and you cannot be broken,' they taught. 'Bend and be straight.'
I will fight no more forever. -- Chief Joseph
We have ceased fighting anything and anybody. - Anonymous
God loves us so much. Know it and show it.
Thank you.
Saturday, August 18, 2018
OUR MUSTARD SEED...ENOUGH
The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast, for, until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly. -- Saint John of the Cross
It's a humbling fact that our fear...be it of such as oncoming trains or another's snark...is our block to the liberty of divine union, i.e., the Father within. It is not his clever hidey hole, therefore his fault, that keeps us in bondage to self...it is our fear that holds us in thrall.
The reasoning mind will justify fear of oncoming trains, but isn't it common sense that we can rely on there? I suspect when we feel the need to justify fear we are in cahoots with ego, aiding in tightening its grip.
The paradox is that trying to loose our own self from fear aids and abets that fear. It is not letting go of fear but seeking truer trust in the Father within that must needs be our goal.
Ah, our need is to accept that any trust we have in the Father is his perfect gift to us. And enough...it is our mustard seed.
Thank you.
It's a humbling fact that our fear...be it of such as oncoming trains or another's snark...is our block to the liberty of divine union, i.e., the Father within. It is not his clever hidey hole, therefore his fault, that keeps us in bondage to self...it is our fear that holds us in thrall.
The reasoning mind will justify fear of oncoming trains, but isn't it common sense that we can rely on there? I suspect when we feel the need to justify fear we are in cahoots with ego, aiding in tightening its grip.
The paradox is that trying to loose our own self from fear aids and abets that fear. It is not letting go of fear but seeking truer trust in the Father within that must needs be our goal.
Ah, our need is to accept that any trust we have in the Father is his perfect gift to us. And enough...it is our mustard seed.
Thank you.
Friday, August 17, 2018
POSSIBLE, YES...PROBABLE, NOT SO MUCH
I know so little of the Bible...it sometimes seems I only remember those things that I agree with, most of which aren't actually in the Bible but are my interpretation of it.
I believe, help me my unbelief has been floating through my thoughts so I Googled it to see how close I am to the written word, and I'm surprisingly close:
Mark 9:23-24 New King James Version (NKJV):
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Equally wonderful to me is all things are possible to him who believes. That is one of my favorites, and it seems whenever I feel that my thoughts are in league against me, that comes to me. It came to me once in a comic strip! When I was badly in need of some encouraging words. The Father knows our needs.
It's a comfort to realize that seeking perfect peace is the proverbial fool's errand. Peace...perfect peace...may only come through the acceptance of worry as God's reins on our ego. Which will be with us until three days after we're dead, no doubt.
Thank you.
I believe, help me my unbelief has been floating through my thoughts so I Googled it to see how close I am to the written word, and I'm surprisingly close:
Mark 9:23-24 New King James Version (NKJV):
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Equally wonderful to me is all things are possible to him who believes. That is one of my favorites, and it seems whenever I feel that my thoughts are in league against me, that comes to me. It came to me once in a comic strip! When I was badly in need of some encouraging words. The Father knows our needs.
It's a comfort to realize that seeking perfect peace is the proverbial fool's errand. Peace...perfect peace...may only come through the acceptance of worry as God's reins on our ego. Which will be with us until three days after we're dead, no doubt.
Thank you.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
GOD CAN AND WILL IF WE DO IT
My thoughts are a-tangle right now...I am completing my annual physical check-ups, and three doctors have given me potential less-than-wonderful news.
Here's my dilemma...I'd rather have bad news upfront than potential not-wonderful news. Potential anything...even potential good...requires checking further, with another doctor or hospital or specialist...then a three- or six-month recheck. And there is always something else. Who's kidding whom? It is just an ongoing hassle.
Here's my solution: Quit getting annual physical checkups.
Ah, here comes gratitude to save me from myself. I am grateful I've learned that magic thinking, about the unlimited wonders of God, may calm our fears but it does not get the ditch dug, the bed made, or the potential less-than-whatever eliminated.
If we are sincerely seeking still more spiritual growth, we'd best be prepared to take action...do something about something is God's watchword, according to me.
So I go for my three-month follow-up in November and my six-month in February. And kick the hassle down the road.
Thank you.
Here's my dilemma...I'd rather have bad news upfront than potential not-wonderful news. Potential anything...even potential good...requires checking further, with another doctor or hospital or specialist...then a three- or six-month recheck. And there is always something else. Who's kidding whom? It is just an ongoing hassle.
Here's my solution: Quit getting annual physical checkups.
Ah, here comes gratitude to save me from myself. I am grateful I've learned that magic thinking, about the unlimited wonders of God, may calm our fears but it does not get the ditch dug, the bed made, or the potential less-than-whatever eliminated.
If we are sincerely seeking still more spiritual growth, we'd best be prepared to take action...do something about something is God's watchword, according to me.
So I go for my three-month follow-up in November and my six-month in February. And kick the hassle down the road.
Thank you.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
SEEK WHAT GOD WILLS AND BE AT PEACE
There are times when we will not feel the reality of God in our lives. I suppose we've all read of saints who've gone through those periods of feeling uh-oh God's missing, what to do? For sure, most of us have gone there and have friends who tell the same story.
We can't wish that feeling away, and praying that it be lifted is rather incongruous...praying to that which we're doubting exists? Please.
I choose to believe this is the fear that my reasoning mind generates whenever it wants to, and I'm powerless over that, but...whether I feel it, whether I believe it, or not...God is never powerless. God is.
Since I cannot foretell when my reasoning mind will slip out of God's embrace and meander over into ego's victory field of outrageous delights, I welcome that doubt...or, I don't dodge it, more like. I remember the before times and how I discovered my doubt to be God's and my meeting-up place...where I experienced God waiting to lift me up deeper.
God can and will if sought what God wills.
Thank you.
We can't wish that feeling away, and praying that it be lifted is rather incongruous...praying to that which we're doubting exists? Please.
I choose to believe this is the fear that my reasoning mind generates whenever it wants to, and I'm powerless over that, but...whether I feel it, whether I believe it, or not...God is never powerless. God is.
Since I cannot foretell when my reasoning mind will slip out of God's embrace and meander over into ego's victory field of outrageous delights, I welcome that doubt...or, I don't dodge it, more like. I remember the before times and how I discovered my doubt to be God's and my meeting-up place...where I experienced God waiting to lift me up deeper.
God can and will if sought what God wills.
Thank you.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
FEAR, A POWERFUL MOTIVATOR
It is said that fear is an evil ally; ah, but fear is a powerful motivator, too. We think fear is an ally when we attempt to use it against another...which is a no-win situation. It is our motivator, our golden goose, when it directs us toward God...a win-win situation.
It's hard to come up with anything but fear that turns head, heart and actions toward God more quickly. The turning, of course, is ever inward for Who, What, When, Where that we see as the problem is not. Our nemesis lives within.
It is an oft-quoted spiritual axiom that whenever we are upset, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.
We cannot find what that something wrong with us is by focusing out there...we must needs look inward. There we will find...eventually, the time it takes depending entirely upon our willingness to look and keep looking...our very own nemesis. With our name on it.
Simply put, we look inward to discover what it is we have attached to that we must hug, kiss on the lips and let go. It is tamed by our accepting our defect, specifically our attachment to it, thus taking responsibility away from the other in order to own it, as it were. Incongruously (or, best) through love and laughter.
Thank you.
It's hard to come up with anything but fear that turns head, heart and actions toward God more quickly. The turning, of course, is ever inward for Who, What, When, Where that we see as the problem is not. Our nemesis lives within.
It is an oft-quoted spiritual axiom that whenever we are upset, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.
We cannot find what that something wrong with us is by focusing out there...we must needs look inward. There we will find...eventually, the time it takes depending entirely upon our willingness to look and keep looking...our very own nemesis. With our name on it.
Simply put, we look inward to discover what it is we have attached to that we must hug, kiss on the lips and let go. It is tamed by our accepting our defect, specifically our attachment to it, thus taking responsibility away from the other in order to own it, as it were. Incongruously (or, best) through love and laughter.
Thank you.
Monday, August 13, 2018
CHOOSE GOD INSTEAD
The quality of loving kindness is already within you, but if you don’t practice daily and deliberately, it is unlikely that a year from now you will be any more loving. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November, 2017
Interestingly, all the qualities that we pray for...patience, peace, joy...are within us, are ours, right this very minute. Even more interesting is that they are useless to us unless and until we practice them as we breathe.
There will ever be reasons to resist, deny, refuse their being...but each are ego-victory reasons. There is no God there, no spiritual growth, the foundation upon which we are building our new life.
As Easwaran has written, But [for spiritual seekers, each irritant] is an opportunity for learning the skills that matter most in life: patience, forgiveness, and freedom from likes and dislikes.
Those who are seemingly the cause of our irritation are transformed into our angels...he is our personal teacher of forgiveness; she is our personal guide to patience. Just because that is not their conscious intent does not mean it cannot count toward our good. Ah, but only by our own response do we benefit.
It happens simply by our willingness to get over our own self. And choose God instead.
Thank you.
Interestingly, all the qualities that we pray for...patience, peace, joy...are within us, are ours, right this very minute. Even more interesting is that they are useless to us unless and until we practice them as we breathe.
There will ever be reasons to resist, deny, refuse their being...but each are ego-victory reasons. There is no God there, no spiritual growth, the foundation upon which we are building our new life.
As Easwaran has written, But [for spiritual seekers, each irritant] is an opportunity for learning the skills that matter most in life: patience, forgiveness, and freedom from likes and dislikes.
Those who are seemingly the cause of our irritation are transformed into our angels...he is our personal teacher of forgiveness; she is our personal guide to patience. Just because that is not their conscious intent does not mean it cannot count toward our good. Ah, but only by our own response do we benefit.
It happens simply by our willingness to get over our own self. And choose God instead.
Thank you.
Sunday, August 12, 2018
HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
If anything is true, then it has always been true; and people who sincerely search will touch upon the same truth in every age and culture, while using different language, symbols, and rituals to point us in the same direction. The direction is always toward more love and union—in ever widening circles. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 12, 2018
I had a thought this morning that all I have written over the years may prove to be wrong. I felt relief with my next thought...it can't be too wrong for nothing is original to me...or to any of us.
There is no new truth, just different ways of coming to it.
Then I read Rohr's "Meditation," and I take particular comfort in his words of being pointed in the same direction, The direction is always toward more love and union
My checkpoint for me and mine has even been, Are you heading in the right direction? Ah, and here's truth: The direction is always toward more love and union.
Thank you.
I had a thought this morning that all I have written over the years may prove to be wrong. I felt relief with my next thought...it can't be too wrong for nothing is original to me...or to any of us.
There is no new truth, just different ways of coming to it.
Then I read Rohr's "Meditation," and I take particular comfort in his words of being pointed in the same direction, The direction is always toward more love and union
My checkpoint for me and mine has even been, Are you heading in the right direction? Ah, and here's truth: The direction is always toward more love and union.
Thank you.
Saturday, August 11, 2018
GOD IS SO GOOD TO ME
[The following is a reprint of my post of March 23, 2012.]
I just spent an hour writing my blog, but it'll likely never get posted. Too angry, too self-righteous...I became too much like those I was angry at. I'll just say that denying women's rights and young black men shot down dead just for being young black men leaves me baying at the moon.
I guess I need to go back to what I awoke thinking about this morning...me, of course.
A friend came over to help me move some furniture yesterday, and I started talking about a resentment of mine. Must've gotten a tish carried away, because my friend asked, "When did this happen?" I, red-faced, said, "Nine years ago."
I did some serious work looking at that this morning...I think the resentment is about to be "lifted." Purely because I've finally embarrassed myself into being willing to let it go. As my mentor says, "Showing your butt is also spiritual." Sure proved to be in this case.
And God bless friends...I have very rarely talked about my resentment, so I truly hadn't realized how fat and happy it had become. And my friend wasn't in my life nine years ago, so her question was just one of curiosity, not pointing me out to me...which is the best way a friend can teach.
God is so good to me, and I am so grateful.
Thank you.
Friday, August 10, 2018
...IF TURNED OVER TO
I went to the root of things,
and found nothing but Him alone.
Mira Bai
Your nemesis is the root of all your good...resist it not for it is the Shepherd leading you Home. -- my morning blinding flash of the obvious
I wonder if the root of all things isn't in that infinitesimal space between stuffing our self-interest and living a turned over life. There, between the material and the spiritual mind, is the pinpoint upon which our raised consciousness rests, from which our raised consciousness flows.
The kicker, of course, is that even when we know and agree with our higher knowledge, we delay or detour its expression by trying to make it happen. That's still self wanting to control the outcome.
Our reasoning mind, fed by our ego, does always legislate for itself...it cannot not. Even when we kid our self, say by remaining silent for Gertrude's peace of mind or donating to a cause to prove our spirituality. All self-determined objectives...none bad, probably better than not, but we get no points in our spiritual bank to draw on later.
Those points come in our trusting God when God seems not there...when our nemesis, our fear...is in our face, riding herd. There. That is the infinitesimal space between acting and trusting. From which all blessings flow...some well-disguised, ah, but those are the pearls.
It is one thing to say...to know...God can and will intervene in my life in my behalf...it is another thing entirely to let him do his thing when the point of the sword is at our heart.
Instead of saying, God can and will if sought, we should practice God can and will if allowed.
Thank you.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
GRACE, OUR TICKET TO HEAVEN
I recently read, The Jungian aphorism holds true: 'The greater light you have, the greater shadow you cast.' Personally, I never knew that was a Jungian aphorism. However, many years ago, when I was into macrobiotics, I heard someone say of a guru-wannabe, The bigger the front, the bigger the back. I pretty much thought of it in that negative sense until I came across another paradoxical gem: We must remember that our dark past is our greatest treasure.
To me, that puts a much deeper light on the aphorism. Now I could see our dark past...our regrets, or our shadow...is our blessing. The purchase price for our angel wings.
As Rohr has written, ...forgive within yourself, which can only be done by the grace of God--and which grace is always given.
It is our regrets that break us...and let in the light of grace, our ticket to heaven. Which is forgiveness of self and other undeservers.
Another paradox: Although grace is always given, I, the receiver, can block it...by continuing to pray for grace. Say thank you, Gracie.
Thank you.
To me, that puts a much deeper light on the aphorism. Now I could see our dark past...our regrets, or our shadow...is our blessing. The purchase price for our angel wings.
As Rohr has written, ...forgive within yourself, which can only be done by the grace of God--and which grace is always given.
It is our regrets that break us...and let in the light of grace, our ticket to heaven. Which is forgiveness of self and other undeservers.
Another paradox: Although grace is always given, I, the receiver, can block it...by continuing to pray for grace. Say thank you, Gracie.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
SHARING THE UNDILUTED LOVE OF GOD
One of my favorite Fr Richard Rohr Meditations, entitled Losing Is Winning, was posted on June 19, 2015. His opening paragraph is everything we need know unto breathing about self-acceptance, also known as ego-deflation in depth: We don't come to God by doing it right. Please believe me on this. We come to God by doing it wrong. Any guide of souls knows this to be true. If we come to God by being perfect, no one is going to come to God. This absolutely levels the playing field. Our failures open our hearts of stone and move the rigid mind space toward understanding and patience. It is in doing it wrong, being rejected, and experiencing pain that we are lead to total reliance upon God.
To me, full understanding of that requires acceptance that our reasoning mind driven by ego, which always legislates for self, will invariably chastise, scold and natter when we do make our mistakes.
To our ego, if that quote is right, deliberately doing it wrong would be our goal. No. That's just another self-determined objective. Leading to a boatload of trouble. For which we'd blame God.
Our reasoning mind must be gentled into accepting that God's will is in the spiritual risk of doing our best to live by spiritual principles, seeking guidance from God and friends, becoming willing to give over, give up, give in...and ofttimes to end up feeling What was I thinking? I must look the fool. There. God's will in a unwanted flash...to risk looking like a fool in the search for still more spiritual growth is grace...probably only appreciated through ego-deflation in depth.
In our fear of looking the fool, we more often overlook the pearl beyond price...that our peace comes in our doing what we are learning...in our giving over, up and in. In risking giving over, we feel immersed in love...as we give love, we receive love. We are a child of God...and so is our former foe with whom we share the undiluted love of God.
Thank you.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
BY GRACE AND BY GOD
Where are you searching for me, Friend?
Look! Here am I right within you.
Not in temple, nor in mosque,
Not in Kaaba, nor Kailas,
But here right within you am I.
-- Kabir, a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint
All that is necessary to make the mind pure is to undo the negative conditioning to which it has been subjected; then we will be left with pure, unconditioned awareness. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," August 8
Though Easwaran's words speak true, it is our negative conditioning we must overcome. We can accept, even welcome, the words; it is the immediately following Yes, but...that stops us. As in How? How do I undo?
The underlying message is that which we've been learning for these many years (assuring our self that since we agree with the words, we can teach it to others). What we're agreeing with and resisting both at the same time is all that is necessary.
The reason we're resisting is that this is God's work, God's to do. All that is necessary is for us to turn our mind in utter trust to the Father within which does the work, leave it there, and we will know completion.
We are, however, not given a timetable. Ah. And uh-oh.
Remember, God works on his own time schedule his wonders to perform. By grace and by God occur when they occur...our blessing comes by our trusting that.
In the meantime, do something about something. For another optimally.
In the meantime, do something about something. For another optimally.
Thank you.
Monday, August 6, 2018
TO HOLD THE LESSON WE ARE LEARNING
Our conscious need for daily mercy is our only real boarding pass for heaven. The ego does not like that very much, but the soul fully understands. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 19, 2015
Learning to love our self in the midst of our self-doubts, our rues, regrets and remorses, may be our life's most trying lesson. It all goes back to that word love. In this case, I think of learning to love our self means to accept our self, to humbly accept our self, warts and all. Humbly keeps us honest...otherwise, it's resignation, and that's just passive-aggressive defiance in camouflage.
Our conscious need is the key. I think of that as God's GPS...awareness of our own daily need for mercy stays our focus inward, even as our ego focuses outward.
As a for instance: Just yesterday I was lunching with friends, one of whom is very competitive...and proud of it. I was exhausted afterward and, thinking about it, I realized I had been in competition with her competing. Rather than not resisting her, I was keeping count of each time she topped or stopped another...there I was, mentally stopping her by topping her, and judging her into the bargain.
We both stood in need of mercy...forgiveness. Forgiveness in the form of laughter. I say we laugh in order to learn...to hold the lesson we are learning in order to continue learning the same lesson.
It is to laugh...and love.
Thank you.
Learning to love our self in the midst of our self-doubts, our rues, regrets and remorses, may be our life's most trying lesson. It all goes back to that word love. In this case, I think of learning to love our self means to accept our self, to humbly accept our self, warts and all. Humbly keeps us honest...otherwise, it's resignation, and that's just passive-aggressive defiance in camouflage.
Our conscious need is the key. I think of that as God's GPS...awareness of our own daily need for mercy stays our focus inward, even as our ego focuses outward.
As a for instance: Just yesterday I was lunching with friends, one of whom is very competitive...and proud of it. I was exhausted afterward and, thinking about it, I realized I had been in competition with her competing. Rather than not resisting her, I was keeping count of each time she topped or stopped another...there I was, mentally stopping her by topping her, and judging her into the bargain.
We both stood in need of mercy...forgiveness. Forgiveness in the form of laughter. I say we laugh in order to learn...to hold the lesson we are learning in order to continue learning the same lesson.
It is to laugh...and love.
Thank you.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
ON WELCOMING WORLD PEACE
I awoke this morning with stark fear speaking in my ear: What if America is right now on the same path as Nazi Germany in the '30s?
I read my "God Calling," and there is my comfort: Did you not know that I am here? Your hour of need is the moment of My Coming.
My comfort lasts just as long and as well as I hold that truth...not cling to it in fear, but hold it as I would a babe...or a puppy. Nourish it by my thoughts...embrace it through my words...show it in my actions.
And my thoughts, words and deeds will not be of overcoming but of welcoming. Ah, that spells out the fact of my powerlessness...makes clear that a power greater than myself does the work through me...and you.
We needs must follow that which we have learned and are learning: Trust God; resist not evil; love and laugh; go beyond reason to love; trust God; try not to be as nasty as we want to be; clean house, help others; trust God.
Not for me and you, not for America...for God in me and you, in America...in the world.
Thank you.
I read my "God Calling," and there is my comfort: Did you not know that I am here? Your hour of need is the moment of My Coming.
My comfort lasts just as long and as well as I hold that truth...not cling to it in fear, but hold it as I would a babe...or a puppy. Nourish it by my thoughts...embrace it through my words...show it in my actions.
And my thoughts, words and deeds will not be of overcoming but of welcoming. Ah, that spells out the fact of my powerlessness...makes clear that a power greater than myself does the work through me...and you.
We needs must follow that which we have learned and are learning: Trust God; resist not evil; love and laugh; go beyond reason to love; trust God; try not to be as nasty as we want to be; clean house, help others; trust God.
Not for me and you, not for America...for God in me and you, in America...in the world.
Thank you.
Saturday, August 4, 2018
GOD AND HIS MYSTERIOUS WAYS
In the Eknath Easwaran daily reader, "Words to Live By," there is a vignette of Saint Francis teaching a disciple what perfect joy is. It's a bit of a shaggy dog story, going on about what perfect joy is not, with the punchline being: Brother, suppose we go to that monastery across the field and tell the gatekeeper how weary and cold we are, and he calls us tramps and beats us and throws us out into the winter night. Then, Brother, if we can say with love in our hearts, 'Bless you in the name of Jesus,' then we shall have found perfect joy.
Every year on this day, August 4, I read that and marvel that I knew it to be true the first time ever I read it in 1996 when the book was given to me. I used to think the real marvel was that I never thought less of me for not being anywhere near able to do that. Today, I know the pearl beyond price...I am no longer "nowhere near...."
This year, my angel JoB came to my aid in this regard, and I have held her in my prayerful heart every day since.
Even better, the gift she gave me is multi-tiered: First, I do know that my material mind can be seduced by reason in a heartbeat. Second, the spiritual directive to tell no human is the antidote to my reasoning mind getting seduced...which is priceless and really hard to remember. Third, the difference between psychological (self-care) and spiritual (God care) could not be clearer. Fourth through a gazillion will come as long as I continue practicing it.
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.
Thank you.
Every year on this day, August 4, I read that and marvel that I knew it to be true the first time ever I read it in 1996 when the book was given to me. I used to think the real marvel was that I never thought less of me for not being anywhere near able to do that. Today, I know the pearl beyond price...I am no longer "nowhere near...."
This year, my angel JoB came to my aid in this regard, and I have held her in my prayerful heart every day since.
Even better, the gift she gave me is multi-tiered: First, I do know that my material mind can be seduced by reason in a heartbeat. Second, the spiritual directive to tell no human is the antidote to my reasoning mind getting seduced...which is priceless and really hard to remember. Third, the difference between psychological (self-care) and spiritual (God care) could not be clearer. Fourth through a gazillion will come as long as I continue practicing it.
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.
Thank you.
Friday, August 3, 2018
THE ESSENTIALNESS OF FORGIVENESS
Pope Francis insists that mercy is at the very top of the Christian hierarchy of great truths and everything falls apart whenever mercy is displaced by anything else or anything less. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 3, 2018
Mercy - Compassion or forgiveness given when it is within one's power to punish.
I suspect our tendency is to think of extending mercy only in the biggies of life...for the murderer of the babies at Sandy Hook, of the church people at Mother Emanuel. And our "to think of extending mercy" is to wonder how in the world to do that...or, more honestly, how to ever want to. Who's kidding whom? That's what preachers and popes are for. But there it is, our cross to bear: to ever want to.
The saying that old age ain't for sissies is just as true for mercy. Mercy is never on our bucket list, but neither old age nor forgiveness is a choice if we're doing it right.
Just like old age, which comes on us in an instant, and there we are all unprepared, the need to be merciful needs preparation...a lot of preparation...and still we're often caught flatfooted when the need arrives.
We need to start preparing early on. Not for mercy per se, but for the willingness to change our way of thinking...to detach from reliance on our reasoning mind in order to seek the spiritual mindset.
The secret is in the need (God's word) to use mercy as our every-day-in-every-way yardstick. Ah...there's the key to the peace of mind we seek. Which we cannot get without giving.
We get peace of mind by extending mercy to the snarker (don't respond in kind), the bore (pull up our unused patience), the cut-in-line one (extend a silent thank you)...which we fail more often than not.
And there's our gift!...we receive God's mercy. We learn to extend mercy by our very need for it.
Thank you.
Mercy - Compassion or forgiveness given when it is within one's power to punish.
I suspect our tendency is to think of extending mercy only in the biggies of life...for the murderer of the babies at Sandy Hook, of the church people at Mother Emanuel. And our "to think of extending mercy" is to wonder how in the world to do that...or, more honestly, how to ever want to. Who's kidding whom? That's what preachers and popes are for. But there it is, our cross to bear: to ever want to.
The saying that old age ain't for sissies is just as true for mercy. Mercy is never on our bucket list, but neither old age nor forgiveness is a choice if we're doing it right.
Just like old age, which comes on us in an instant, and there we are all unprepared, the need to be merciful needs preparation...a lot of preparation...and still we're often caught flatfooted when the need arrives.
We need to start preparing early on. Not for mercy per se, but for the willingness to change our way of thinking...to detach from reliance on our reasoning mind in order to seek the spiritual mindset.
The secret is in the need (God's word) to use mercy as our every-day-in-every-way yardstick. Ah...there's the key to the peace of mind we seek. Which we cannot get without giving.
We get peace of mind by extending mercy to the snarker (don't respond in kind), the bore (pull up our unused patience), the cut-in-line one (extend a silent thank you)...which we fail more often than not.
And there's our gift!...we receive God's mercy. We learn to extend mercy by our very need for it.
Thank you.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
FEAR NOT, HATE NOT...LOVE
An effective way of dealing with a disagreement is simply to listen with complete attention even if we don't care for what the other person is saying. - Eknath Easwaran, August 1, "Words to Live By"
BFO: love the Confederate flag for it set us free. That was a note to myself in the early days of my realizing that the answer is love not hate no matter the question or the conundrum. Love will reduce its power, hate will grow it more so.
According to me, the same is true of the swastika, the "N" word, and other signs and symbols that generate our fear-born hate. It is our fear that consumes us, our fear which we choose to call hate. Hate sounds stronger, less cowardly, plus bringing a feeling of justified.
In our willingness to give over to the hated, our hate burns within us, and love is lost in its ashes. Our Father which art in Heaven is still within, but we have built us another god, the god of Other...not you, not them, not theirs...just Us, fortified by our fear.
I submit that we diminish ourselves when we fight or ban symbols of hate. Let the Confederate flag stand for what it is...an historic symbol for an unjust cause that lost...lost because it was a wrong cause...lost to the just cause of love for all humans who are created equal...lost because God created all humans equal.
I doubt any such fear-filled hate symbol would stand for very long...without the passion of hate, it has no reason for being, no meaning.
Thank you.
BFO: love the Confederate flag for it set us free. That was a note to myself in the early days of my realizing that the answer is love not hate no matter the question or the conundrum. Love will reduce its power, hate will grow it more so.
According to me, the same is true of the swastika, the "N" word, and other signs and symbols that generate our fear-born hate. It is our fear that consumes us, our fear which we choose to call hate. Hate sounds stronger, less cowardly, plus bringing a feeling of justified.
In our willingness to give over to the hated, our hate burns within us, and love is lost in its ashes. Our Father which art in Heaven is still within, but we have built us another god, the god of Other...not you, not them, not theirs...just Us, fortified by our fear.
I submit that we diminish ourselves when we fight or ban symbols of hate. Let the Confederate flag stand for what it is...an historic symbol for an unjust cause that lost...lost because it was a wrong cause...lost to the just cause of love for all humans who are created equal...lost because God created all humans equal.
I doubt any such fear-filled hate symbol would stand for very long...without the passion of hate, it has no reason for being, no meaning.
Thank you.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
THE SECRET TO ACCEPTANCE...LAUGHTER
There's a new song on my country radio station...I think the name is Life Changes. That's what it's all about at any rate. Yesterday as I was driving and hearing that song, I recalled how my life changed almost the instant I realized (which took long years to get to) that I have but one character defect: I take myself too seriously.
All other defects of character come and go in my life but they are as little orphans in the dark...alone and harmless...until they bump against that Big One. Ah, they've found a home. Yes, self-centered is mine...oh, and fear of being wrong in public? Ummm, ummm, ummm. But why list them? They're all there. However, sitting in my favorite chair, reading the latest J.D. Robb, do they bother me? No. Put down the book, and, just in passing, remember the mistake I made in front of Gertrude, my nemesis, SPROING...they have a home, and they're building a fire in the fireplace.
Here's the good news...that's what happens if we're doing it right! How else do we learn our powerlessness? Why seek a power greater than our self if we don't need one?
Our reasoning mind's plan of action: Have a regret? Stop it. Now, walk free.
Who's kidding whom? If we could do that, we surely would do that...and miss completely the wonder of God's forgiving love, not to mention the warmth of a friend's identifying with us and our regret. And laughing with us about it.
The great and glorious gift of rues, regrets and remorses is that they are not only harbingers of spiritual growth...they are one with our spiritual growth.
As Fr Richard Rohr wrote in his July 27th Daily Meditation: If we deny that the spiritual can enter the material world, then we are in trouble, since that is exactly what we are—fully spiritual and fully material human beings. * * * We are supposed to struggle with this, otherwise, we are not sincerely engaged with it.
Short form: Trust God, love, laugh, and get over our self.
Thank you.
All other defects of character come and go in my life but they are as little orphans in the dark...alone and harmless...until they bump against that Big One. Ah, they've found a home. Yes, self-centered is mine...oh, and fear of being wrong in public? Ummm, ummm, ummm. But why list them? They're all there. However, sitting in my favorite chair, reading the latest J.D. Robb, do they bother me? No. Put down the book, and, just in passing, remember the mistake I made in front of Gertrude, my nemesis, SPROING...they have a home, and they're building a fire in the fireplace.
Here's the good news...that's what happens if we're doing it right! How else do we learn our powerlessness? Why seek a power greater than our self if we don't need one?
Our reasoning mind's plan of action: Have a regret? Stop it. Now, walk free.
Who's kidding whom? If we could do that, we surely would do that...and miss completely the wonder of God's forgiving love, not to mention the warmth of a friend's identifying with us and our regret. And laughing with us about it.
The great and glorious gift of rues, regrets and remorses is that they are not only harbingers of spiritual growth...they are one with our spiritual growth.
As Fr Richard Rohr wrote in his July 27th Daily Meditation: If we deny that the spiritual can enter the material world, then we are in trouble, since that is exactly what we are—fully spiritual and fully material human beings. * * * We are supposed to struggle with this, otherwise, we are not sincerely engaged with it.
Short form: Trust God, love, laugh, and get over our self.
Thank you.
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