GOD'S WILL, THE PEARL BEYOND PRICE

Something in you dies when you bear the unbearable. And it is only in that dark night of the soul that you are prepared to see as God sees and to love as God loves. —Ram Das

I'm betting there are a gazillion unbearables in our life...egoic snags and snarks that we wrestle with, praying God to take them all the while we are refusing to release them.

If that be so, ponder this: They, our ego's issues, would comprise the stepping stones to the Big Unbearable that eventually leads to life everlasting...i.e., God. Or, our ego is our well-hidden gold.

Coming to that realization unto acceptance is transforming.

There is a promise that holds the key to that transformation. The promise is that God can and will intervene in our life in our behalf. Our transformation is all about our realization that his intervention is not a guarantee that we will get our want, that likely we will not get our want...and we will be the better for it. (This is what Rohr describes as developing the art of losing. I only love that.)

We are transformed when our head and our heart know God's will for the long-sought cosmic pearl beyond price.

Thank you.

A HUG FROM GOD...AH, HAPPINESS

Here's my dilemma: I am going through a period of conflict, as in, shake the dust off your sandals and move on? Or move closer to your offender with love?

I read today's "Daily Meditation," and am told: Where we are now is perfect. It is perfect for the lessons the Holy Spirit wants us to learn. It is perfect in providing us with mirrors, that is, other people who reflect back to us our level of consciousness, our fears, and our strengths. . . .

I receive a blinding flash of the obvious: When we're walking through dross, keep in mind that this is God intervening in our life in our behalf.

This is precisely why an enlightened mind can be a plain old pain. My ego Lucy is getting crude, and we want to split. There it is, plain and simple. If we never get to shake the dust off our sandals and move on, why is it even mentioned? Why are we given the option?

Then my spiritual awakening awakens, and from my eyebrows up, it's love and laugh. My gut, however, is not so easily swayed. Right now, green pastures to God seem to be cow piles to me, still waters to God seem to be Flint, MI, waters to me. At least I have both common sense and spiritual awareness enough to know God is righter than I'll ever be, so I'll go with God.

And there it is, the balm to my Soul...I can natter God, disagree with him, all but call him a crazy old coot, and I can feel him laughing with love for me personally.

I just got hugged by God. Happiness is....

Thank you.

AWARENESS...THE COSMIC GIFT

Maybe love is its own protector. The common sense resister to love all is the fear (and the material  world fact) that to love all would likely ensure we would be run over, diminished, humiliated, taken advantage of...and the list goes on. There is always an acceptable-to-the-rational-mind reason to not love...to not hate necessarily, but to not love all.

There. That's the rocky road to enlightenment...giving up our own idea of, and resistance to, love. The old song, Love Hurts, once spoke truth to us; until we make a conscious decision to go beyond Love Hurts to Love All, we're stuck with our reasoning mind definition...and its reality.

Only there is no spiritual growth there. No spiritual growth, no God. Alone again, naturally.

Which returns us to the possibility that love is its own protector. To get to that place requires an upgrade in our consciousness...that which we thought we were seeking, but now...whoa, Nellie!...we realize that going beyond reason to love requires much more than our reasoning mind can imagine.

We can ponder the martyrs going to their deaths a-singing, and the pilgrims crossing the ocean in that next-door-to-a-rowboat, the Mayflower, and that's going in the right direction, but staying in our imagining keeps us just there.

All that is absent is awareness. This awareness is the gift of the cosmic self.. This knowing is often called enlightenment because it involves seeing what is [with the eyes of the heart]. . . .  --  David Benner, as quoted in Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" today

Thank you.

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE...THE KEY

To see our petty problems from a different angle may well be the answer to all our problems. Indeed,  if it be true that what we see is always ourselves, then being willing to refocus could be our answer. To see you as right and me as not so much is an enormous step to just consider...in a positive light.

That may be the key to working with God to change our own mind. I'm convinced a mind cannot be changed through self-will alone. We might say it, but...like acceptance, just saying that we're giving up or letting go does not get us there...we must needs work with God.

Yet again, "God Calling" has the answer. Today's entire entry is short, simple and direct:  Faith and obedience will remove mountains, mountains of evil, mountains of difficulty. But they must go hand in hand.

That's it.

It doesn't take a mystic to know that the key word there is obedience. Faith, of course, but that goes almost without saying. I mean, who's seeking still more spiritual growth without at least a tish of faith as their golden goose? But obedience? The actual how-to is all about obedience...studying, pondering, striving...to give over, give up, give in. Ah, to not talk back or defend yourself too much against accusations, whether false or true, a.k.a., to agree with your adversary quickly.

That can only come to us through our doing it...actually, through our willingness to give it a start. And failing. Trying again. And failing...but not so totally this time. With a modicum of peace in our heart and our head the next time.

We are building faith and obedience within so we can walk it without. Ah, now we're beginning to  know our Father on earth (without) as He is in Heaven (within).

Thank you.

OUR DARK PAST, OUR GREATEST TREASURE

The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility that entails. -- Author unknown

A friend quoted that to me yesterday, and I've pondered it since...especially the unremitting willingness part.

It seems to me that a huge part of my growth, my change, is clear only as I look back. As I remember...or as I am called to remember...how I once was. How I viewed me, you, life itself. Ah, then I realize the changed me and my view of the whole barrel of love and laughter we are today...seriously. If my friend could see me now. Friend. Seriously.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I can't see me initially setting forth with an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility [change] entails.

It is only in memory that I see that is what's happened, and then only if you don't count crying, complaining, kvetching but doing it anyway. Because that's fairly close to how I shouldered through.

Looking back I see that I don't do that (as  much) anymore. And the great stand up and shout Glory Hallelujah is that basically I live a turned-over-to-God life now. Not only that, but when self-will has its say, I can and do trust my God, my mentor and my friends to gentle me back upright.

The proof of the essence of all growth in my life...my unremitting willingness to continue changing for the better...is the fact that I have God, my mentor and you in my life, and I trust the whole lot of us. We're talking seismic change here, and I am grateful.

The quiet word that is my Amazing Grace equivalence: Cling to the thought that your dark past is your greatest treasure. -- Anonymous 

Thank you.

GOD'S JOB...AND DOING IT

The sage awakes to light in the night of all creatures. That which the world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise. -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita)

The first X number of times I read that quote, it sailed right over my head. Today, the thought of Shakespeare's all the world's a stage flitted through which clarified it for me.

That which the world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise to me means the material world we are consciously aware of is folly to the wise...the world of the wise is within, unseeable with the naked eye, unreachable by the highest intellect, lighted only to the awakened. 

That which the world calls day is our personal picture show...where what we see is always our self, what we do is always for self. Which explains why all the spiritual literature that I read is about elevating our demands, our desires, our daily thoughts...our self in a word. By elevating, I mean, get out of self...go to God for God and that is all. 

I am reminded again of the Saint Augustine quote: Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt. It took me some time to get that so my translation became, ask what You will, then do what You ask. 

Came the light...all that says is thy will not mine be done. Ah, but now to mean it...and that too is God's job. 

A dear friend of nearly fifty years passed from this world yesterday. It was time, and he was ready...and it wasn't time, and he wasn't ready. It's all the same in this world. 

I choose to lift my eyes and believe he was not here, he is ever present. Ah, and that too is God's job.

Thank you.

ANALYZE NOT...LET IT BE

Thoughts, certainties and uncertainties, on earning our faith: 

What is awful to our natural eye is God's gift...our new view is instantaneous recognition that God's hand is in less-than-wonderful appearing. The Trump presidency, the Mueller Report and AG Barr...my little Ruckus going back to Heaven too soon...God's hand is in it.

Here's a kicker: When we go all up in our head, trying to reason goodness in any apparently less-than-wonderful situation, we are playing at God's work. The conundrum may be that is our starting point...our training wheels if you will...thinking it through, but our need is to delay not, to detach and move on.

Hard lesson learning (but aren't they all?): Pondering it all is usually necessary to begin to change, but the sooner we can let go of "making" it good and realize that it is already God's good just as it is...without knowing how and/or why...the more secure our spiritual understanding grows. 

Another paradox: The less our reasoning mind is involved, the clearer our spiritual path is. Which invites this imponderable: God loves Donald Trump, Pope Francis, you and me equally. 

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH FOREVER, BUT ONLY NOW

I pray that my faith may be based on my own experience of the power of God in my life. -- Anonymous

Remember that this [quiet time] is to gain an intimate knowledge of Me which will teach you all things and be the very foundation of your faith. -- "God Calling"

I read once, can't remember where, that we must give up the hope of Heaven to realize God in our life.

Then there's the more common, we all have to take our turn in the barrel. We all know what that means. Ah, but here's where self-knowledge alone avails us nothing. We can know we must take our turn in the barrel, but we're thinking not now...not with this.

Then there's our fine by me, but.... There's the qualifier...our hope of Heaven, if you will. That which is going to magically save us from our dreaded picture show. Our ego is already sitting shiva while we're spouting rote messages of faith.

That's if we're doing it right. 

We will never break loose from our self-reliance until we...uh, break loose from our self-reliance. Hold our nose and take a leap of faith, according to me, to gain an intimate knowledge of Me. And
"to gain" being our marching orders...for as long as it takes to become our faith's foundation. We'd best settle on "forever" for as long as it takes so we don't keep asking if we're there yet.

Spiritual growth is the ultimate paradox...it takes a long, long time to happen in a heartbeat.

Thank you.

CAMEL/EYE OF THE NEEDLE/RICH MAN

I shared with a friend this morning that when I come back, I want to be a rich woman with a farm and as many dogs, et al., as want to come live with me. Later, I flashed that when I come back, I want to be a spiritually rich woman with a farm and animals, etc.

A spiritually rich woman would have the realization of the need for God to care for all the animals. A rich woman would have the money to do the job. There...that's the breaker. Having money would not preclude her from having God just not the urgent need for God.

The urgent need...the fierce urgency of Now. I sometimes suspect that phrase, the fierce urgency of Now, is fear in disguise. But then they're both God's calling card so mox nix.

As long as I come back with the grace of God (and, know it or not, don't we all?), I leave my wants to him.

Thank you.

LETTING GOD...AH, THE HARD PART

Of late I've been feeling like I'm walking through a minefield. The trouble is (yes!) that I know I am not, that this is how I need to be feeling at this time under the conditions of my life right this very minute. Just knowing, I'm here to shout, does not bring peace...nor quietude which may be the first time I've ever used that word or wanted to.

Back in the day, before I learned that all my worries were self-driven, signifying nothing...don't worry, be happy...the blessed relief came in being gifted with the Word of Peace. From a reading, from my mentor, from...out there. But now when I'm feeling the need, it's missing its razzmatazz. Razzmatazz only comes the first time, apparently. Once learned, gratitude is supposed to take over...or maybe self-will is supposed to sit down and shut up. Uh-huh.

WOW! Don't tell me God isn't alive and well and kicking. I just took a break for my Rohr "Daily Meditation," and look what I read: One of the only ways God can get us to let go of our private salvation project is some kind of suffering. * * * * However we’ve defined ourselves as successful, moral, better than, right, good, on top of it, number one . . . has to fail us!

And there it is: I'm failing me! Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, Great God Almighty...not a minute too soon.

Now, to complete the fall...to let me suffer. Not make me suffer...let me suffer. That's going to be the hard part...Lucy is already quoting Scripture in my head. And I get to let her...as long as I remember to love and laugh, I'm heading in the right direction,

Letting God do my job is the nut of it. No wonder it's so hard...God is not the swiftest kid on the block. And I'm reminded yet again, God has to go slow in order for me to keep up.

Thank you.

LIVE BY SPIRITUAL STANDARDS, LIVE FREE

A giftee from I know not where: A person living by spiritual standards sees first the spiritual nature of everything and everyone else. That is a definition that will never fail you, always demand more of you, and give you no reason to fight, exclude, or reject anyone. The point of life is not to distinguish oneself from the ungodly, but to stand in radical solidarity with everyone and everything else.

In other words, apparently the point of life is to love and laugh. How else can we stand in "radical solidarity" with our nearest and dearest much less our un-beloveds?

How easy a concept to imagine, how all but impossible to do, to actually love and laugh when someone is baiting, bullying, and/or getting over on us! Face it, baiting and bullying are getting over on us...and that's the outside of enough to our ego. Or to our common sense, our reasoning mind, or if we really get into it, our very sense of self-worth. That's when we know we're going down that wrong road again...we're butting in on God's job.

Here comes our golden rule to our aid: Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be. Ego is ever on the alert for slams, snarks and snubs so we've learned to keep the rule in mind. There's little spiritual growth when we start fighting back at anything, but slights to our ego? A for sure no-winner.

The Man wasn't kidding when he said we need to pray without ceasing. The simpler the prayer, the more effective...since it's more likely we will use it. A simple prayer stays our focus...like a mantra, our mind becomes one-pointed and not out looking for trouble. We can pray our thank you and move on.

There...the proof of  truth in the words, A person living by spiritual standards sees first the spiritual nature of everything and everyone else.

Thank you.

WE WIN BY LOSING

I suspect that God is filling in the blanks for me regarding my understanding of fear, specifically that nothing brings us to God quicker than fear so welcome it. That solidified my belief that fighting fear increases fear or that which we fight we invite...welcome fear, find peace.

My first flash that fear is God's camouflage was too closely identified with war for me so that morphed into fear is God's calling card. As in, when I feel fear...God calling!

That opened me to the rest of the story, i.e., the reality. The reality is that God wields no magic wand, he does not make our uglies disappear and our pretties appear. No. We get to step out and do that which we are fearing.

We have heard the injunction, feel the fear and do it anyway...that really is the quiet word. That fear we are projecting inward? That is our trigger to use the courage we were given, along with patience, and all the other goodies, before conception.

Now we find that our reasoning mind can make itself useful...it, too, was given us before conception, and we use it now to decide, after consultation with God, self and a trusted other, exactly what seems the better course to take to meet our fear.

Then, we just do it...we meet our fear and trust the outcome to God.

There will be times when the outcome is just what we wanted. Unlikely we will learn a lot from it. End of story.

If we are truly blessed, however, the outcome will feel ugly, awful, not good, terrible. Ah, but God knows his business...roses and rainbows might just make pontificators of us, but less than that would send us back to God. Where we find we've lost our fear, the outcome is inconsequential, and we have peace of mind. Win, win, win.

We can't outfox God.

Thank you.

RISK, TRUST, SURRENDER TO UNCOMMON SENSE

The hardest thing in life may be staying open to the Father within. Hear the word of the Lord...ah, the wonder! The comfort! The assurance! 

And then...and then...and then....

Holy moly, Mama! Here comes a brand new word, seemingly the exact opposite of what we've  worked so hard to accept and then to live by. Fortunately, our spiritual growth has prepared us for an uh-oh here and a whaaa? there, and we move forward...slowly...so as to grasp this new way, this way of unreasoning rightness. 

Just yesterday I took a leap of faith and used one of the new commands, which felt wildly risky. I got no atta girl from within and awoke this morning feeling a tish dicey...did I blunder or maybe hear wrong? 

Ah, we can know we are heading in the right direction by the markers laid down before us. 

Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" today gave me my atta girl:  But this wisdom only comes later, when we’ve learned to listen to the different voices that guide us in the second half of life. ***  These deeper voices will sound like risk, trust, surrender, uncommon sense, destiny, love. They will be the voices of an intimate stranger, a voice that’s from somewhere else, and yet it’s my deepest self at the same time. It’s the still, small voice that the prophet Elijah slowly but surely learned to hear.

My edgy feeling was smoothed as I read and realized that my Father knows my needs before I do and fulfills them in the instant.  Risk, trust, surrender to uncommon sense. 

Thank you.

GOD'S OLD HOME PLACE

A friend of mine is an adamant atheist which unbelief I do  not touch...mainly because I'm sure that  we do not need to believe in God for Him to love us, to take righteous care of us, so my friend's safe.

The fact is that trying to make someone believe in God is akin to trying to make somebody love us...it cannot be done. Ah, but we have gratitude...I suspect everybody believes in gratitude, they've just not learned to rely on it.

Remember upgrade our attitude, we upgrade our problem? The great lesson learning about gratitude is if we upgrade our gratitude...hey, we ain't got no problem!

I about half believe that there are only two mental blocks between us and our God: (1) our worry about the future, whether we're going to have enough of any and everything; and (2) our stewing with our past trying to figure how we can make it have happened better...and not lie about it.

Those two worries keep us strangers to our own life for we stay untouched by the here and now. There. The here and now, the place where God lives.

There is no God in tomorrow just as there is no God in yesterday. There is only Now, God's old home place. Where we're always welcome.

Thank you.

THE INFINITE IOTA OF GOD

[The following is a partial piece of my post of March 17, 2017. Slightly reworked, it fits me today.]

In these my later years, I have let go of a great deal of my self-imposed standards...I found all they did was keep my sense of inferior superiority alive and kicking my butt daily. I do, however, hold close two sentences that ensure my peace:

1. Most important was the discovery that spiritual principles could solve all of my problems.
2. Just try not to be as nasty as you want to be.

I'm convinced I'm my authentic self when I consciously rely on those two sentences. The majority of the time (sometimes 51%, sometimes a tish more) I put the welfare of another before my concern for my own self...which is surprisingly calming.

I can believe I am being my authentic self, that infinite iota of God within me, because even with my rag-a-muffin self nattering with a better idea, I rely on spiritual principles. They can and do help me not be as nasty as I want to be.

Thank you.

WELCOME PEACE, LOVE AND JOY...ALWAYS

The following idea is from Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," March 16, 2019, with my ideas inserted in italics: 

"We learn to develop our new eyes, the same way we learn any art, by ongoing practice.  Here is a basic spiritual practice of Teilhardian spirituality:

"In order to discover and frequently exercise your new eyes to discern the fire or luminosity within things, start small. Choose one living thing, such as a flower, a bug, a pet, or a baby, and with your imagination picture a kind of glow or luminousness surrounding and penetrating the object of your contemplation. Stay with it for a few minutes, focusing not on the external beauty or complexity of the object but upon the glow surrounding and penetrating it, as if that were its source of life and existence.

"Once you learn to do this, the glow or luminosity will develop a life of its own. Then you can move on to another object of contemplation to witness its glowing luminosity."

Now we move deeper into our spiritual practice: Our goal is the same, to discern the luminosity within things, but the things we want to choose now are the things that comprise our, say, nemesis...our rues, regrets, remorses...our oncoming dreads. With God as our guide, and welcome as our mantra, these fears are transmuted, and we move forward in peace. 

"From time to time, say a word of thanks to this benevolent God who is constantly revealing God’s self to you everywhere in creation."

Thus, through practice, our consciousness is lifted into the practicality of thank you as the source of peace, love and joy no matter the facts of life, the picture as it were, that we are facing.

Thank you.

GOD LIVES THROUGH LOVE AND LAUGHTER

One purpose of meditation is to connect with the Great Spirit within. We must ponder Its words...not to draw our own conclusions, but to absorb the words of the Lord.

To make that connection, our way is simple...we complicate it by our egoic desire to analyze. We ponder the truths we are given, ever checking our understanding with our mentor for we have learned that going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous.

As we accept them and make them our own, we begin to live these truths. Ah, and we come to the realization that these are the words heard by the Soul before conception. These are the words that have echoed through the eons to be lived today.

Only thus are they passed on...not by repetition but by our life. Our life that God lives...then and now with Love and Laughter.

Thank you.

LOVE AND LAUGH...KNOW PEACE

It is not to be learned by world-flight, running away from things, turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, one must learn an  inner solitude....One must learn to penetrate things and find God there.... - Meister Eckhart

There it is: My personally favorite way to find peace of mind; to wit, find the sliver of gold in whatever is causing us pause, and we will have peace. Or, per Eckhart, learn to penetrate things and find God there.

No matter how slight the sliver of gold may seem, we mentally grab hold and let naught else enter our mind. As we focus on the good, it expands filling us with peace. Our outward "pauser" will not necessarily change, but it will no longer adversely matter now. In effect, we have just kissed it on the lips...we can smile and move on.

God. gold, good...all One. Ah, transmuted...all love and laughter.

Thank you.

TIME TO SEARCH FOR THE GOLD

Experiential realization: It isn't old age per se that is less-than-wonderful (people are really nice, courteous, helpful to little old grey-haired ladies leaning on a cane), it's the frailty of old age that is the wicked witch.

I am being presented with my own frailty in the realization that I probably will not get...never have for my own...another dog. A cat maybe, but not a dog. I have nothing against cats except that they're not dogs.

The truth is I all but totter now, and a dog on a leash in the early morning dark doesn't bode well. And it doesn't bode well either for me or for the dog. He wouldn't get the outside time, the playtime...the dog time...that he deserves.

I'm saying my thank you, but my heart is breaking.

Thank you.

ON BEING PART OF GOD'S CHRIST PROJECT

It seems 40/11 things went haywire for me this morning before ever I got to my yoga or my quiet time...as I was cleaning up the various messes, idle thoughts were tripping from me. As in:

• Maybe it took 40 days in the wilderness for Jesus to get over his own self considering the less-than-wonderful that was coming to him...and seemingly through his own father...and certainly with his father's permission. 
• Picture Trump as an amalgam of human character defects...each of which makes up a part of him...as we each clean up our own defects, that part of him is cleansed...imagine that as God's purpose for him on this earth...we defy God in cursing or resenting Trump...he is here to cleanse us. 
• Ah, what about my many Gertrudes, the shes and hes who tick me off daily? Picture them as an amalgam of my character defects...each of which makes up a part of Gertrude...as I clean up my own defects, that part of them is cleansed...imagine that as God's purpose for them on this earth...I defy God in cursing or resenting them...they are here to cleanse me.

Maybe just idle thoughts, but they made the cleaning up go easier. Then I read my morning Rohr. and a hopeful thought popped...maybe we are part of God's Christ Project.

God’s Christ Project encompasses the entire evolving universe, and its aim is to bring creation (along with all of us) back to God, fully conscious of our divine origin and divine destiny. . . ..  -- from Fr Richard Rohr's March 12, 2019, "Daily Meditation"

Thank you.

A STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The following is from a sort of dream this morning:

The followers of the president are our gift. We'd best not resist the president's presence or his preachings...each is the identifier of his followers, especially the downtrodden and revolters against the 1%, those who will follow him down to the grave. For mostly they came from good and honest stock.

It is those folks we will learn from...for this, too, shall pass. Their consciousness will be lifted back to their original good and honest state, and they will be free and eager to attest to what is the better way...self or not.

And those in Congress who are following them in order to stay in office and ensure they keep their golden parachute will also be returned to their original state...some honest, some not so much. 

The decent followers will awaken, send their elected officials to their official grave or otherwise rightful place, and the name of this president will echo through the years as an example of how off-course we can willingly get when we follow our base nature.

Our base nature is our self unleashed with only fearful self-interest as our concern. Our spiritual nature is our Self unleashed with only love for others as our concern...and to love and laugh together.

We can give thanks for this president not for himself, but for the gilded promises so many have bought into that, when the gilt wears off, will show our self. Plain and simple.  Left to our own want-to, this is us. In need.

There is nothing that cannot be solved when we enter it, not for the purpose of gaining our will, wish, or desire, but rather of surrendering our will, wish, or desire, so that the will of God may be made evident. (A paraphrase, from Joel Goldsmith's "The Gift of Love").

Thank you.

FEAR NOT THE UNKNOWN...WELCOME IT

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

I saw a PBS Deepak Chopra clip this morning wherein he said virtually the same thing as Goldsmith's quote, His words (or close enough):  There is a transcendental spark within us that only desires to be brought forth into our life.

I read that 40 years ago in Goldsmith's book, then I began to notice it in most every spiritual writing with which I identify. I believe it. I know it to be true. I can prove it by the gift of my life today. Still I seek it. Still I feel uncertain in the moment...in the moment when I am faced with an uncertain outcome, the outcome that I have predetermined and really want.

In looking back, I have only certainty for there it is, the proof that all my needs have been met. And a goodly percentage of my wants have not been...for which I can now give thanks.

Ah, it is looking forward that causes us pause. As Chopra said, From this moment on is the Unknown. There's a whole new slant for that is the fact, the precious fact that we need hold in our heart. We need not fear the unknown, we need welcome it.

Maybe the unknown is just another of God's hidey-holes...like fear, the instant we feel it, we turn to God. Now, we can welcome it with a kiss on the lips, pull our egoic mind back from the edge and envelop our self in the grace of gratitude.

Thank you.

ALONE AGAIN...UNNATURALLY

[This is a reprint of my post of December 16, 2016.]

Life is a balancing act, I'm thinking. On the one hand there is that which requires us to turn to God, on the other hand there are the dailies we must meet, greet and deal with.

The balancing rests in our acceptance of a power greater than our own self. For it is the dailies that determine how rocky our life's road will be, that require us to turn to God to keep our Self centered. For if we lose that center, we are back to being self-centered.

Our self-centeredness is where none other is allowed full entrance into our consciousness, certainly not a higher power, for sure not God. There. That is when we are alone again, unnaturally. That may be the definition of unbalanced.

Thank you.

GOD GOES BEFORE US PROTECTING OUR BACK

The Dark Night of the Soul, as John conceived it, is actually an inner state that may or may not have anything to do with external circumstances. It is an experience of being stripped of all the spiritual feelings and concepts with which we are accustomed to propping up our inner lives. It is a plunge into the abyss of radical unknowingness. This spiritual crisis, John assures us, is a cause for celebration.....  Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," September 8, 2017

That quote gives me much comfort. I was introduced to such a thought many years ago, and, who's kidding whom, it scared me enough that I resisted it. By resisted it, I mean I ignored it. It was sometime later that the concept was again brought to me...and then again...and again...until one fine day: An abyss of radical unknowingness became my sliver of gold.

The reasoning mind gift is: It was only in looking back that I "got" it. An all but unrealized BFO is that most of my spiritual gifts are realized thusly...in looking back with grateful memories as my guide.

For instance, the first time I walked into a meeting of a fellowship that was to change my life, I was sick, sad and sorry. I walked out a changed woman. My reasoning mind was only impressed with the fact that I had attended the meeting. It took awhile before I realized I was changed, and only in looking back did I see that I had been changed from that one-hour meeting.

Reasoning mind: We're stewing in our own juices, begging God to make an unfixable problem go away. Spiritual mind: Our Father within has already shook it off...we are already free.

Even as we are praying to be changed, we have already been swept clear of the cobweb that had us fearfully nattering. There. That's why a thank you is called for before we are consciously aware that our crooked place has been made straight.

Not only that, but I'm guessing that the three o'clock in the morning rues, regrets and remorses are our angels arm-wrestling with our ego...we can welcome them with our thank you and go back to sleep.

If the only prayer we ever prayed was thank you, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart

Thank you.

OUR JOURNEY IS BEYOND REASON

Death is not when we are left alone...death is when we rejoin the mix.-- Morning blinding flash of the obvious

Just as at birth, at death we all have a single-entry/exit. We may die in a 300-passenger plane crash, but we each leave by our own exit door. As we pass through, we are rejoined with All, that is to say with Love, and that is to say with God from whence we came.

It is that single pass-through that tells our reasoning mind that we each die alone which is fear inducing for sure. Fear of death takes root, and, if we do not learn some manner for loosing fear in our own self, we cause our lifelong resistance to the very thought of death.

I choose to believe that fear is God's calling card. Face it, nothing sends us to God faster than fear.

I think of fear as a pop-up, and we get to choose what to buy there: Our own life-altering paralyzing thoughts or a loving Higher Power who uses fear to wipe the flop sweat from our brow. We can welcome fear just as we welcome water on a hot day...not analyzing, just letting God do his perfect work. As we feel free-er,  our way is eased, and we are freed.

If we are doing it right, we will be called upon to do this repeatedly...or until we get it right. Chances are getting it permanently right comes as we pass through that single-exit door.

We must go beyond reason to Love.

Thank you.

GOD'S "YOU'RE WELCOME"

The secret of acceptance is the minute we accept the truth of that which we are resisting, that changes it...actually, changes us. We have become, in that instant, nonresistant and at peace; we feel open and light whereas before we felt closed and dark. Be it noted that we seldom realize the instantaneous change for...however long it takes for our reasoning mind to detach.

The time it takes determines best whether we have reached acceptance (detached) or are still trying to make an end-run around that which we are resisting by calling it fine by me, or some such (still attached). Indeed, that is part of the process of learning how to let go.

It's akin to coming to an unending flight of stairs we must climb to get where we know we need to go. We stand at the bottom and stare up. We hesitate...pondering, dreading...then we pray, Find me another way, please and thank you. We repeat this process as many times as we think we need to, praying the same prayer each time, only with more intensity. When our discomfort becomes unbearable, we give up on self and God. We know despair. We need to get up those stairs. We cannot do it. This is also known as surrender.

It is when we take the first step up, disbelieving all the while and not a bit happy about it...hopeless, in a word...we find not only the strength but the want-to to take the second step, then the third...feeling lighter all the while. Better about our self even. The dreaded surrender has morphed into acceptance, and we're feeling the grace of gratitude.

This is a lifetime practice. There will be seemingly insurmountable stairs to climb...sometimes feels like every other day, but actually only until we learn the art of living gratitude as we breathe.

That art is simple. It's called praying without ceasing, and keeping thank you going is just that. We pray our thank you, and God's perfect work is his you're welcome.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL RITES OF INITIATION

The spiritual rites of initiation fascinate me probably because I never heard of such until I began seriously seeking...studying...practicing a spiritual life sometime in the early '70s.

Even seeking and studying, I read "God Calling" for years, before I saw initiation mentioned more than a few times throughout the book. Same goes with Goldsmith, Easwaran, Rohr, and most others I read, too. They all mention initiation in passing, like we'd mention the weather in idle chit-chat.

I have come to accept for my own self that life itself is the necessary rites of initiation...for me for sure, but most likely for all of us human beings.

All of our wondrous moments when we knew it was not us that should reap the rewards, that it was a gift to us...all of our rues, regrets and remorses that taught us an essential lesson but more than we wanted to know in that moment...all good, bad and indifferent events comprising our very life were and are our initiation rites intended to shock us into realizing God as All (per Rohr). 

The realization of God as our all gives us permission to name Him/Her/It...Higher Power, Buddha, Mother, Father, Tao, Allah, Brahman, Great Spirit...makes no never mind what we call It, but call It, we must. Call It unto realization that we don't need to call, but to listen. Ah, now we heading in the right direction.

Be still and know that I am God. -- Psalm 46:10

Thank you.

HUMAN CONDITION OR SPIRITUAL GROWTH?

I'm hearing "the human condition" used more and more as an excuse for less-than-wonderful behavior. It seems to have become our blankie for when we screw up but not enough to do anything about it. As in look at our error from the other's eyes...recognize the unintended hurt, hurt...the unintended offense, offended...and then take responsibility for it

To take responsibility for it is to own it, a fairly simple act...it's wanting to that is so difficult. That requires our admitting our error...out loud...to the other. We take responsibility for our unintendeds by 'fessing up.

Ah, comes now The Choice...stick with the human condition, our blankie or go for spiritual growth, our gold?

The human condition-reaction: shoot a snark or two, flip them off and walk away. Spiritual growth is to silently shoot our thank you, speak a word or two, I regret you feel that way, and walk away concentrating on mentally letting them off the hook (which is my version of forgiveness).

I suspect that the human condition, underneath it all, means we legislate for our self first. Spiritual growth teaches that we must learn to legislate for others first. Still more spiritual growth is all about the reduction of our ego. Or, more specifically, the reduction unto deflation of our ego as our personal legislator.

To clarify, it was mind-opening to me to accept that legislating for others first frees others to legislate for me first. That's the gold in giving over, giving up, giving in. There is nothing to fight if no fight is given. The reasoning mind cannot grasp this. This kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting.

The elimination of self is the key to holiness and happiness, and can only be accomplished with My help. -- "God Calling," March 4

Thank you.

HOW TO STUDY WAR NO MORE

My recurring blinding flash of the obvious: Life...a healthy, happy, whole life...is not about self...not you, not me, not him, her or them. Life...a spiritually based, healthy, happy, whole life...is about others. If everybody got on that wavelength, we would have everybody concerned for us just as we would be concerned for them. We could study war no more.

Imagine.

Thank you.

AND AGAIN...FIND THE GOLD!

[The following is a reprint of my post of September 19, 2016.]

This is what it means to be awake: to be constantly willing to say that God could even be coming to me in this! Even in this! -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 9, 2014

I love that quote sooo much. Probably because that is the foundation of my spiritual growth which began the day I was graced by a blinding flash of the obvious: "Find the gold in this."

To my eyes, the "this" was just awful, and I was just powerless to do anything about it. But I had never heard of such a concept, and I felt like I had just run out of gas in the fast lane on the freeway.

I know now that God, or a whole flock of angels, was coming to me in that...even in that!

There have been a lot more "oh no!" times that have come, but none as "oh no!" as the first one. Every time, I've turned it around in my mind until I found the gold...and all it takes is finding the slightest sliver of gold. Hold to that, and gratitude just starts flowing through body, mind and spirit.

Gratitude is the gate God uses...go there often and sit and wait on the Lord. He cannot fail to come, laughing and scratching. Or maybe that part's just me.

Thank you.

ACCEPTANCE, A PROCESS OF SUBTRACTION

Without a Shared and Big Story, all humans retreat into private individualism for a bit of sanity and safety. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," March 1, 2019

Ponder that...our private individualism in particular. That may be the source of a boatload of our woes, our private individualism. Especially as represented by our reasoning mind left to its own devices.

Left on its own, our private individualism may eventually manifest as fear. Our fear, wearing a crown and carrying a scepter...no God, no grace, no higher power, no cosmic dust rays, just our own thoughts. And our own fearful thoughts at that...which we cling to for our safety, our security, our sanity. And who's kidding whom...that's just crazy.

Of course, being alone, finding oneself alone not by choice but by circumstance...fire, flood, hurricane...does not private individualism make. The paradox being that unholy disasters can and often do bring holy healing...thoughts leading to safety are given to us that we never could have birthed all on our own, or Something comes to us in the form of a person, a log floating by, a dog coming to lead us, whatever. We don't think, we just accept and are brought to safety.

The fact is, with those disasters, to many safety comes in the form of death itself. That, too, is for acceptance. Whether by dog or by God, we are relieved of the burden of self, and acceptance is the answer.

Just as Meister Eckhart preached, God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction. Acceptance is a process of subtraction.

Thank you.