ON PARDONING AND BEING PARDONED

[F]or it is in pardoning that we are pardoned....  from the Prayer of Saint Francis

I wonder if my pardoning Gertrude doesn't pardon me by my Father through Gertrude? Giving Gertrude a double win...not to mention me, of course.

There it is...forgiveness, the gift that doubles down, is born again and again and again with every grateful thought we have of the wonder of it.

The only jammer to the gift of forgiveness is our reasoning mind...sneaking in the back door with its yes, but....

Lesson learned: Never resist a yes, but. Our resistance is the only invitation needed to get us down in the hogwallow. From which we can never emerge clean, much less a winner.

Another lesson...this one aborning: The best response to a yes, but is agreement, as in,  I know, you're right...let's ask for God's will anyway. 

I wish I could say (without lying) that I have proven this. It has only recently been gifted me, and, like most spiritual growth, will take repeating before I own it. But I do know it heads me in the right direction...away from self toward God.

God loves me so much. Right back atcha, God 💓

Thank you.

GOOD NEWS, BETTER NEWS

My first conscious realization of winning through nonresistance: The old drunk on the bus saying all manner of dirty to me, and I had a clear realization that resisting him would really set him off, and that would be on me. So I smiled inwardly and said nothing.

I was about to give myself whiplash trying to figure out, with that as my remembered experience, why I would not immediately and always do that with others...i.e., not resist.  And came my flash: Not doing that with every bump or train wreck, every wild hair or ego crash-and-burn, is the essence of still more spiritual growth.

That knee-jerk reactional behavior is the spiritual gift releasing the little pockets of poison that have instantaneous birth when I See Me through my ego Lucy's eyes.

We learn to turn within at the instant of the egoic birth, or p.d.q., for that is where the error is...it is never out there, it is never her/him/them, it is ever Me writ large. Without exception.

Thank you that I know...sometimes seemingly only from my eyebrows up, sometimes from my Soul...that I am the source of all my woes. And that's the good news. The better news: God can and will intervene in my life in my behalf.

Thank you.

DESIRING TO GET TO "NOT KNOWING"

For sometime now in my ongoing desire for spiritual answers, I have been given the suggestion to learn the art of not knowing...not for willful ignorance, of course, but for emptying my egoic mind of...itself, its self-determined objectives.

Take, for instance, this spiritual discipline from a recent Rohr Daily Meditation: One  suggestion made by [Zen Roshi] Joan Halifax: Allowing oneself to separate from familiar paths and ways of coping so that one can 'not know.' 

To me, getting to "not knowing" is consciously following in the footsteps of the spiritual leaders with whom we identify who have gone before...our doing as s/he did, or aiming to. Praying our thank you without ceasing. Keeping our mind as opinion-free as possible. I'm good with that while driving, while puttering around the house not so much. Which no doubt is when I need it most...when I'm here in my at-home clothes, sipping iced coffee, and fantasizing how my world needs straightened out. In other words, when my ego Lucy ramps up rigid, righteous and right and goes on the march through my head...enough said?

Often, having a sincere desire to follow in the footsteps of the God of our understanding and actually following are akin to apples and cow piles...as in, there is no kinship. To the reasoning mind.

And there it is. There's our stand up and shout Alleluia! Amen! Great God Almighty, I see the light! We have just got to the place of "not knowing." Our sincere desire too often transforms itself into a self-determined objective and leads us right over the edge of the green pasture...that's why his rod and his staff comfort us...they bring us back to rest beside the still water, unknowing yet opened to hearing his word.

Our Father works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH DEPENDS ON ACCEPTANCE

Living spiritually in a material world has been my primary goal for many years...unrealized as such, but once I realized it, I've not faltered in my desire.

In today's world we are told we must use our words; ask for what we want or believe we need; speak up...all of which are necessary tools in this life. However, we are not told that using our words, asking and speaking guarantee us nothing. We may never get that for which we're asking, believe we need...ah, and there's our cross to bear and our prize to embrace both at the same time. 

Our spiritual growth depends on our acceptance of, not resistance to, what we get. I found the following note in my "God Calling" this morning, a note dated 2/26/15:  Mental resistance is the only block to God. 

It is important to know and to remember that mental resistance to God comes in many forms. Maybe the biggest surprise is we're doing it right when we're trying to do God's will when we haven't a clue what God's will is. Admitting that we know nothing oils the hinges of the door on which God knocks to be let out. Having not a clue and trying to do his job for him keeps that door sealed...especially when to our egoic mind we succeed at the job. Another lesson learned...when self-will wins, our inner-self loses. Any leg up our ego gets is a step or two or more back for our spiritual growth. 

Maybe that's the countable difference between spiritual-world growth and material-world growth. There is nothing wrong with "winning," it is what that winning does to and with our ego that slows our spiritual growth. There is little to no God in ego winning. But there is no within feeling that can match or better the feeling of a hug from God when we've won over our own self. 

Proving that God can and will intervene in our life in our behalf is winning over our own self.

Thank you.

GOD'S PATIENCE...EVER AND ALWAYS

I am grateful this morning to realize the God of my understanding in the midst of my recent self-willed upset. Thank you for giving me the challenge which led me to make my mistake then giving me the challenge to recover from that mistake by loosing it and letting it go...benefitting all parties concerned whether or not we all know it.

The biggie for me and for my ego Lucy: It is not mine to explain to anyone since, very likely, I've barely got it myself.

This was made clear to me by the verse in the Sermon, Matt 7:6, "Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you." My original understanding of that was, "Best not talk sobriety to a drinking drunk, it'll do nothing for them and leave me feeling trampled under foot." 

Today, it says to me, do not try to talk my version of God, the Sermon, spirituality to anyone without their specific request. Their specific request being for the purpose not for debate but to come to  understanding. Knowing which is which depends on my going to God for clarification...a thought-prayer will do it. 

Hmmm...a thought-prayer will do it. I wonder if that isn't true of any and all prayers...the flash of a thought is received and resolved by God; all the rest of our blather is probably ego trying to perfect what has already been solved, healed, made perfect.

I know God loves me by his very patience with me. We can know God loves us by his very patience with us. 

Thank you.

PHOENIX RISING...OR FUHGETTABOUTIT

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

And again: It all comes down to acceptance...to pain unto surrender unto acceptance. We're talking excruciating mental pain. Face it, nobody goes for surrender feeling good about it. The very word is off-putting.

Which proves the point. Those who fight their pain and conquer it even a little bit, hold it near. And it lives to fight us again.

It is in being conquered by the pain, also known as crashing and burning, that we rise from the ashes, dust ourselves off, say, "Well, hell...I can't do that anymore," and accept ourself and our situation. According to me.

Thank you.

ON WALKING THE ROCKY ROAD TO LOVE

I wonder if the road to love isn't rocky because it so often originates with surrender, a hot-button word that translates to our ego as loser. In fact, surrender of our wants is the path to love. We begin to feel we are on the right track when our resistance evolves within our very being to acceptance. From there it's an easy...make that easier...transition to love. 

Resisting others only cements their resistance to us. The key here is remembering that what we see is always ourself only works for us when applied to ourself alone...as opposed to remembering it for application to the other so s/he will see their error and change.

We must loose our resistance and let it go. Releasing our resistance, or changing our mind, is literally turning our very thoughts upside down. So, we go to God for God who can and will intervene in our life in our benefit...our mind set to I am right is thus reset to we are right. And we know love.

Thank you.

P.S. To quote Cicero, I have always been of the opinion that unpopularity earned by doing what is right is not unpopularity at all...but glory. (Which quote I got from the comic strip Candorville, 2/23/19.)   

GIVE OVER TO GET GOLD

All prayer disciplines are somehow trying to get mind, heart, and body to work as one, which entirely changes one’s consciousness. * * * Apart from Love, any other “handler” of your experience, including the rational mind or merely intellectual theology, eventually distorts and destroys the beauty and healing power of Wisdom. * * *  Whereas information will often inflate the ego, transformation utterly humbles us. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," February 21, 2020

There it is: "Whereas information will often inflate the ego, transformation utterly humbles us."

My comfortable, or downhome, definition of transformation came about when I realized I must stay out of intellectual reasonings...that's too ego-easy, for sure the wrong road again. So, transformation is my want-to mentality detached and reworked for the benefit of another. Most often my gold is found when I mentally give over to the one who is ticking me off at the moment, i.e., my so-called "Gertrude."

Giving up my want-to for the benefit of another is the long and lonely road of spiritual growth...it always feels wrong, not to mention unfair, and never forget too hard...and for Gertrude?!  Imagine my surprise when I found out that's when we're doing it right. Striving to overcome self for the benefit of another is pretty much like growing old...it ain't for sissies.

Ah, but like old age is called the golden years, it really is the golden gift. Breaking through the self-barrier is a feeling unlike any other. Free of self for a nanosecond compares favorably to last day of school when we were six years old...and heading for the public pool.

Giving over, giving up, giving in is the hidden gift that keeps on giving to us. There is, I'm convinced, no authentic spiritual growth without an inside need to love the God of our own understanding above all and our enemy before ourself. I'm working on it...fortunately, I have a good Teacher.

Thank  you.

IS IT ODD OR IS IT GOD?

Since recovery is a transformational journey, conflict with others is inevitable, and often unavoidable. [Our spiritual journey is teaching us] how to view our differences with others, both personal and philosophical, as opportunities to identify and overcome our knee-jerk reactions to the world in which we live.-- Anonymous

Only self can cast a shadow on the way. - God Calling, February 21

It is my changing me that will change my relationship with Gertrude. - my note to me of 2/21/15

I found it easier to think of love as The Answer when I made a deep dive into just what love means to me. The short answer is, it means nonresistance, which is to live an attitude of surrender, which is acceptance plain and simple.

Acceptance is not resignation...we all know that feeling of there is no hope, might as well lie down and let the world put on its cleats and run across my face. Acceptance, to me, is welcoming whatever I am perceiving, with an attitude of interest in how God's going to use me to work this out.

I feel joy in my heart, very close to elated, that all my readings recently, today in particular, are a variation on the same message...particularly at this point in my life. All deal with our "inevitable conflict with others," and "only self" being the problem, plus the biggie, "change me, change my relationship."

As the old question goes, Is it odd or is it God? My answer: It's God, get over yourself.

Thank you.

CERTAINTY vs. UNKNOWING, II

The following is a reprint of a previous blog of mine. I post it today for it so specifically spells out that which I have experienced the last couple weeks. It's the understandings in this post that led to my realization this morning that fear of making a mistake may well have been the bane...and the guide...of my life. 

I believe that our first glimpse of understanding that mistakes are the proof that we're doing it right is our building block in finding humility...where else is humility so readily available than in our admission of a mistake?

Here then is a rerun of my post of December 19, 2019:

We come to believe by experiencing. When we experience the wonders of our Father, we cannot not believe.

All of our perceived problems, our worrit du jour, have already been fixed, healed, lifted by God. Which remains "coincidence" for a long, long time. And that is as it must be. We fret at our unbelief when in fact we're doing it right. Our fret is our impetus to go deeper...deeper into our own self as opposed to yet another how-to book.

We must take care, however, that our certainty of God does not become the enemy, ego. Unless we practice our faithful words, as in do that which our perceived problem has us in fear of, saying God's got this is just so many words...and a block to us.

The unsettling part of practicing our words is that we fail so often. But of course we fail! That's the basis of our fear! How else do we get to the other side of our fear but by stepping out into it? Falling, getting up, trying a different tact, falling but less hard...with deeper assurance...each time.

I've come to believe that this is the fruit of what Jesus said about his lessons being too much for us to take in all at once. Those missteps, mistakes, ego-deflaters are spiritual growth aborning. That's us being shown bit by bit but only as we put in more God time, lessening the me-first time.

Call it the fallacy of personal certainty, the gift of impersonal unknowing. Or, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. -- John 16:12

Thank you.

ALL IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

Shortly after the new year I asked God if maintaining silence no matter what is always his will for me. This had been my inner message in regard to JoB, which I did, and it gave me great comfort. However, recently I had two different occasions (same situation, different times) to respond in silence or verbally.

The first occasion I responded with a calm voice, even laughing as I spoke my objection...I literally could hear my own self wonder at this because this is not me, not my pattern in speaking out. My pattern has been to remain calm but the tone of my voice becomes hard, cold...sounding almost threatening. The sound of egoic nerves most likely.

The second occasion I responded with the voice of fire and fury, lashing out in rage...which has never, not ever, been my pattern. Depending on my perceived call to arms, if a calm response did not feel appropriate, then a harsh response did, and, saying nothing, I would retreat into myself with a stony face left behind. 

I have pondered these happenings...sought insight from my spiritual adviser, my mentor and a friend, and, better yet, sat in questioning silence with the God of my understanding. I saw clearly that God  doesn't give blanket solutions...on occasion of need, go to God in faith, and we will see more clearly. 

I believe I got my directions...love is the always answer, but silence is not the always path to walk it. I was given two choices...the first, calm and laughing, fit my inner and outer self just fine. The second, petulant rage, not at all. That one all but left needle marks on my conscience. 

Let me be clear: I did not get my want fulfilled either time...which leads me to believe my want is irrelevant to me...let it be. Apparently, however, it is the necessary path for the other to walk...bless my thoughts about her, and let it be.

And there it is...my sliver of gold. To give over, give up, give in is to give all to God, and all is well.

Thank you.

LOVE HURTS...NOW LAUGH

Apparently I am into more experiential learning right now, as in, I am experiencing yet again that I do not get to be There without feeling every nick and knock before actually doing the work on this newest rut in my road. I must experience the pain of each new crash-and-burn of an ego hold-out.

We learn early on that we must walk our new life...talking is all well and good for our spiritual education (and daily living), but until we're walking it without thinking whether to or not, we're still learning, so get grateful.

My experience today is just that...again. It's not new news, even while it feels like it is. We cannot avoid our next personal crash-and-burn by having read, studied, agreed with and even having done all that our lessons have taught us.

Aha, is it because our goal in all that studying was to learn how to avoid that very pain? That necessary pain!

My only recognized-by-me goal in life has been to have peace of mind. I remember first hearing the word "serenity" as something I could and would have. No doubt I cried for it makes no nevermind, good news, bad news, I am a crier, As per usual, however, I took it to mean I could and would have serenity period, end of thought.

The great gettin' up in the morning news for me is...I know serenity in my soul right now even as my reasoning mind is stuttering "Yes, but...." I know Gertrude for the angel in my life that I have been saying s/he is but now I know it because I am experiencing the crash-and-burn pain of my resistant interaction with him.

I bless my thoughts about her, I call his name blessed, and I welcome the crash-and-burn pain that I am experiencing even as I write the right words.

Love Hurts is not just an old pop tune.

Thank you.

ON WALKING FREE OF ME

God's will for us is not for us to win but for us to lose...to lose our egoic desire to win. If we would all give the other the benefit of the doubt, there would be no more wars. 

We have learned that ego always legislates for itself. Thus, any conscious thought we have for how we can fix a broken relationship is ego-based no matter how right it sounds to us. We are best helped when we wrap our egoic want in the name of our Father, put it aside, and sit and wait on his intervention.

God's will for me is not to win, as in get over on the other, it is for me to lose over me...over my ego's desire to win over the other.

Again, God's will for me is not to win over another, it is for me to lose over me.

In the deeper world within, God's will for us is to lose...to lose our reasoning mind's hold over us. Our reasoning mind is not built to do unreasonable things...we must go beyond reason to love.

The Father is love...think of it, the Father within is love, our very insides are love...loose it and let it go! When we have detached from our ego's will, our spiritual eye clears, and we are filled with understanding (love) for the other and for ourself .

Ah, and now the hard work...holding by letting go...holding to our new gift by letting go of our old want. And the Father within has already solved that, too. Believe, do, walk free of me.

Thank you.

RADICAL SOLIDARITY...CEASE FIGHTING

I have no idea from whom, where or when the following came to me. I found it on a folded slip of paper in my "God Calling" this morning, yet I have no memory of ever seeing it before. I choose to believe God gifted it to me in my deep-need time when I See Me is rampant in my mind. I have slightly reworked it for this blog:

 An ego-deflated person living by spiritual principles 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 reasons to fight, exclude, or reject anyone. * * * *  The point of such a sober life is not to distinguish oneself from the ungodly, but to stand in radical solidarity with everyone and everything. -- Anonymous

Or, we have ceased fighting anything and anybody.

Thank you.

MY HILL TO CLIMB IS NOT A MOUNTAIN

God will not make ugly happen...if it be conjured up by me for revenge or payback, he will not stand in the way. There. That's how unintended consequences come back on me...that's how I pick up mud and sling it in my own face.

However, my going off on Gertrude may be God's way of lifting me out of my determination to say nothing in the face of less-than-wonderful...saying nothing not as a spiritual objective but as a self-determined objective does naught but harbor a nascent resentment...it doesn't get born, but it acts as a constant nettle to my being.

That is the end result of what has been going on for the last five years with Gertrude's forked tongue and my nonresponse.

My thank you prayer this morning is that I watch it play out...wait for the rest of the story, as it were. Gertrude gets to do what Gertrude will do, and I have no idea how God has planned my part in it. I expect the end result...which will happen when it happens...to be both Gertrude and I will love and laugh. My hope is not together, but there it is, my hill to climb.

Thank you.

PEACE EMANATES FROM WITHIN

I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever...for I am the house of the Lord.

Many times in the Sermon, we are promised a reward from our Father who is in heaven if we do the right thing...usually for another. The reward from our Father is the peace that passes understanding emanating from within. That peace comes from nonresistance, acceptance, love.

According to me, all spiritual growth begins with the realization that detachment from self is essential to peace of mind. We are given to see that there will be no lasting peace while still protecting self...or self-image. With that almost born-again flash, we begin to seek deeper meaning in our life. We find ourself drawn to the writings left for us...the ones that have our name on them such as the Sermon, the Twelve Steps, the writings of many mystics. The ones that fit us find us...we shall know them by their fruits.

Eventually, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, we know that our true path is simply to give over, give up, give in. Then our learning really begins...knowing is just the key, it is the doing that is the rest of our life's work. 

In doing we are taught daily how to slide past scrupulosity, ego's ever-ready gotcha! Scrupulosity flatly tells us: If you're not 100 percent right, you are 100 percent wrong...hang up your hopes, you are a failure. Tiptoeing past that foghorn is learning the art of acceptance of our warts...without which I'm convinced there is no acceptance of self or others. Face it, with our warts we all have either too many or not enough, depending on the time and day.

Here we are, back to the answer to life itself...resist not, accept all, love and laugh. Hey! We're heading in the right direction.

Thank you.

LIVING WITHIN THE COCOON OF LOVED

To live by the Sermon on the Mount is to live a turned-over life. A turned-over life is to live in acceptance. To live in acceptance is to resist nothing. To resist nothing is love. -- blinding flash of the obvious

Even as we are making a mistake, building an egoic rue, regret, remorse, our Father within is fixing it. Fixing it meaning God is intervening in our life in our behalf...in fact, in behalf of all even as it is happening. Our lesson is to realize that all steps taken by everybody involved are required to bring us to where we need to be for us to experience the relief of acceptance.

Ah, here's where the Sermon speaks: Matthew 5:17-20 Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets....For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

We will not get the relief of acceptance until we admit our wrong and try to right it, make our apology, live our amends...Do The Right Thing. There are no shortcuts.

It is living within the cocoon of doing the next right thing that we feel accepting, non-resisting...loved.

Thank you.

CONSCIENCE, GOD'S HIDEY HOLE

I am seeing more clearly every day, week, month, year that my active conscience does more to make me a believer in Almighty God than anything.

I had an experience yesterday that was nothing to speak of...it got handled, all's well or close enough.

Ah, but when I had returned to my condo, gotten into my "at  home" clothes with my iced coffee and trashy romance at hand, my conscience activated itself...went flat-foot running through my head. nattering all the way. Kinda went bat-blank crazy in fact.

I talked to myself, asked God to intervene at any time, got quieted down, but there was a heaviness about me...my chest hurt. Not my heart, my very chest.

What's the saying?...extreme something requires extreme something. So I called my mentor, told her everything, and, believe it, I included all the commas and exclamation points.

She said, "The road gets narrower doesn't it?"

Heavy lightened, I could see clearly again...I called her name blessed...and we had a lovely conversation, I went to bed and slept like a baby.

As I awoke this morning, I thanked God for living in my conscience, for giving me my mentor, for loving me even bat-blank crazy, for being the really, really Good Guy in my life.

The reasoning mind just cannot get us there. "There" being to the peace that passes understanding. God can and will if sought.

Thank you.

TO REMEMBER, ONE WITH GOD IS A MAJORITY

When we are met with a perceived block...most often an ego-threatening snark, snub or slight...our first thought must be welcoming because our second thought will invariably follow suit. Ah, there's the  conception of a resentment with its inside track leading the third, fourth, et al., thoughts...oftimes even when we consciously turn our thoughts toward God or other spiritual matters. Ego is ever-present, looking good and offering money, honey.

Our lesson to learn, and as an example, say we perceive that Gertrude has slung mud at us. We welcome that with a thank you. Ego will resist but its resistance now will be aimed at the thank you, and we have diverted the course of our nascent resentment. When we concentrate on agreeing with our adversary, the God of our understanding is the arbiter, and one with God is a majority.

The big Ah-Ha: Ours is not to teach the mud-slinger a lesson, the mud-slinger is to teach us a lesson. His snark is our gold...our road out of self. When we choose blame and shame, we choose ego, and we must needs do it all over again...until we get it right.

Basically, don't complain, don't explain, simply agree with  your adversary quickly, our self-proof that we have ceased fighting anybody and anything. If practiced faithfully, that for sure would still all arguments which, face it, are the basis of all wars.

Requiring ourself to go to God before we open our mouth, cannot be a bad thing, or better, before our first thought. There it is. The basic how-to training for going to God for God and that is all...as our mind is telling our eyelids to open, we shoot a thank you, and that welcoming leads us up, out and already in a state of grinning gratitude.

There. We are heading in the right direction. For right Now.

Thank you.

GOD'S NET IS NEVER NOT THERE

I was reminded this morning of two incidents in my life when I was totally misunderstood, misquoted, and judged wanting by many in my world who accepted the canards...possibly because I chose to respond not to either.

Here's how my Father goes before me to make my crooked places straight: Way back in 1975, a dear soul had told me that there would come times when we are misheard, and "best we not respond and risk getting their mud on our skirts." I choose to believe my Father knew I'd be needing that advice, and in 1988 then again in 2018, a 30-year period, it proved true and invaluable to me. 

My crooked places were made straight...i.e., my soul and my ego were both quieted through prescience, or the invisible ever-present power of God.

Those experiences have relieved me of much of my desire to clean up the wreckage of my future...the human tendency to fret, worry and stew. It's the basis of my acceptance that God's will is the mirror image of my dread and/or my desire. That's when that which I dreaded turns out to be my pearl, my desire becomes my what-was-I-thinking?

Consider this: Maybe we have it wrong when everything seems to be going to hell in a handbasket, and we think we're going down that wrong road again. Face it, the Road to Damascus couldn't have seemed like the right road to Saul when he was knocked clean off his horse in that instant or hour...that time...of his enlightenment.

Which isn't to say, without thought we continue down our seemingly wrong road. No. We turn to the Father within and, in faith, seek his will...then we do something about something knowing that he can and will intervene in our life in our behalf.

We will be heard, we will be answered...we only need step out in faith to live that. Which is also known as "hold your nose and take a leap of faith." God's net is already there.

That's how we come to trust the invisible ever-present power of our Father within.

Thank you.

GO FOR THE GOLD...GOD

The following is from Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation, " February 8, 2020:

In his book 'The 8 Laws of Change: How to Be an Agent of Personal and Social Transformation,' author Stephan A. Schwartz offers life-practices he gathered from observing the Quakers.  In studying the histories of  great social transformations, Schwartz found eight laws began to emerge....Taken together, they reveal how individual choice linked in consensus becomes the strategy of beingness that creates change. 

Here are the laws: 

First Law. The individuals, individually, and the group, collectively, must share a common intention. 

Second Law. The individuals and the group may have goals, but they may not have cherished outcomes. 

Third Law. The individuals in the group must accept that their goals may not be reached in their lifetimes and be okay with this. 

Fourth Law. The individuals in the group must accept that they may not get either credit or acknowledgment for what they have done and be authentically okay with this. 

Fifth Law. Each person in the group, regardless of gender, religion, race, or culture, must enjoy fundamental equality, even as the various roles in the hierarchy of the effort are respected. 

Sixth Law. The individuals in the group must forswear violence in word, act, or thought.

Seventh Law. The individuals in the group and the group itself must make their private selves consistent with their public postures. 

Eighth Law. The individuals in the group and the group collectively must always act from the beingness of life-affirming integrity.

Here's my inner law of spiritual condition...I read those eight laws, and I try to see if and how I am living them today. And I think my thank you.

Here's my human condition: I read those eight laws, and even as I am basking in my thank you, the names of a couple people who really could use them springs to mind. And I think uh-oh.

Go for the gold, find it, then love and laugh.

Thank you.

JUDGE NOT...READY SELF

God has come to save us all by grace. No exceptions. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," February 7, 2020

Hey, maybe Trump really is our Saul of Tarsus, our Saint Paul aborning. 

Maybe I am...maybe you are.

Maybe we all are.

There it be: Judge not and clean up our own act.

Whether we're heading for sainthood or just six feet under, the fact never changes: God has come to save us all by grace. No exceptions. Believe it. 

[Clue: If we focus on judging not and cleaning up our own self, it makes believing a whole lot easier.]

Thank you.

GOD...DOG...THANK YOU

Blinding flash of the obvious: I am right now as good as I am ever going to be.

I don't know if I like or dislike when my BFOs are over my own head.

Pondering my BFO, I recall my realization about patience...we need never pray for patience, we have all there is within us right now, all we need do is use it. If it be that we are all as good as we're going to get, maybe all we need do is use it, our good?

That pretty much cuts through our reliance on dual thinking...on good/bad, either/or thinking. If I am as good as I am ever going to be, I must needs live and breathe out of my Father within. But isn't that what all my studying, searching, seeking for still more spiritual growth has been about?

Probably. I had believed it was about ego-deflation in depth, about successfully living the primary purpose of my life. But face it, they are the same difference, living out of my Father within and ego-deflation in depth.

That may well be the reason for my BFO this morning. I am as good as I am ever going to be right this very instant...going forward, all I  need do is live from that good. That good is God, or for the incredulous, that good is ego-deflation in depth. I think I've just come full circle...again.

I need a dog.

Thank you.

THIS AND THAT AND THEN SOME

Lack is never our problem, want is our problem. -- blinding flash of the obvious

Easwaran's "Words to Live By" quotes the Gita's message: Our native state is freedom. I choose to take that to be freedom from want.

Insights that well up from inside can best lead us free-of-me by our sitting with them. Letting them set...gel. Take root if you will. Talking about them before they are ours dispels them.

To remember: Until we are showing forth the fruits of our prayers, we are still learning...we'd best hush, listen! Then we are open for the Father to do his good works through us...we are his vessel, his to sail, and by the fruits of our prayers we can be his rowboat or his yacht...his to choose. After all, a yacht can't go in the small ports and a rowboat is not best for mid-Atlantic rowing. The Father knows the way.

Note in my "God Calling" from 2/6/18: BFO - Fear not being thrown into the lion's den for the lion is Aslan. Thank you.

Recent BFO: The lesson I want to teach Gertrude is the lesson I need to learn. Proving: What we see is always ourself. 

Oh...new BFO: Since the lesson I want to teach Gertrude is the lesson I need to learn, own it: Ask her for her help. Go beyond reason, etc., etc., etc.

When we do that which we want to pass on, we are changed. That is grace...sit with it.

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON TO LOVE

It seems to be a human-condition truth that we find it relatively easy to believe in the devil, or our bad luck, and, with the same ease, difficult to believe in God, or the constancy of love.

I doubt anyone ever had to think, ponder, meditate on how to bring less-than-wonderful (the devil) into our life. But all that study is required, and daily, to get and to maintain an inner connection with peace of mind (God, the constancy of love).

I suspect this is the yin and yang of our ego and our inner seeking for spiritual growth...for the God of our own understanding in fact.

To "swim against the current" is ego deflation in depth...not just in meditation but in daily dealings. To get over our own self is to swim against the current...going against our egoic mind which always legislates for itself. Face it, our egoic mind's objective is simply a want dressed up as a need.

There are endless justifications for not going against our ego's dictates but few reasoning mind ones. Ego makes a most seductive case..."looking good" is its primary purpose and who hates that?

We must go beyond the reasoning mind to find the constancy of love...the reasoning mind is linked to our ego...the constancy of love flows free. Go with the flow.

Thank you.

GOD'S WILL IS OUR FIX-IT

According to me:

"Things" in and of the world keep appearing more bizarre...the election of Trump, the upside down climate, the seemingly unfettered rise of white nationalism, the BFF Putin, thawing icebergs and the disappearing snows of Mount Kilimanjaro, the debacles of our election process, the most recent being today's Iowa caucus...and all the eyeball weirdness in between.

Lest we forget: All these "things" are known to God...and God alone has the fix-it button. God alone is the fix-it button.

What if this is his fix-it? Then, we must come to accept that. To get to that acceptance, we start by getting grateful. Through our prayer of thank you, we realize that God alone can purify the results...when we are ready.

Readiness, blinding flash of the obvious, is our job. We the people...each one separate and all together...must needs clean up our own self to gut-bucket know and show forth an un-ego-encumbered self.

Cleaning up our own self is our commitment to go to God for God...and that is all. The Father lives within. He stands at the door and knocks...to go out, to flow forth, to go before us to make the crooked places straight. 

Most important to our realization is that God did not make this apparent mess. We each in some manner own our part in this. We have followed our will, often...usually...believing it to be for the best. Ah, this then is his fix-it to help us resist not evil but to turn to him in utter powerlessness.

There. That's the opened gate...our utter powerlessness.

God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.

Thank you.

GOD BLESS MY NEEDY THOUGHTS

I’m still trying to learn how to love every day of my life. - Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," February 3, 2020

Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation -- some fact of my life -- unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake. -- Anonymous

It helped me immeasurably when first I recognized that acceptance is a three-syllable word for love. 

Then came the realization that the "immeasurable help" is a constant. It comes when I ask and let God define within me exactly what love means to me, to my peace of mind and without fear of what my definition might demand of me...as in, love it. Accept that which I feel any resistance to...accept it with a wholehearted thank you. 

That is my problem with Gertrude today...it is not Gertrude, it is my reaction to Gertrude, to her resistance to me. I must needs let her resist me and love (accept) her and her resistance. With a thank you yet. A sincere thank you...um, that might come a tish later. 

Ah, and here comes my ego Lucy With the Football whose bright idea is to just ignore Gertrude...or, who's kidding whom, best idea: Shun her...that'll learn her, dern her.

I'm guessing that's what Fr Richard means about still trying to learn how to love every day of his life. Isn't it learning how to accept (love) that which is? How do I do that, Lord? 

Interesting to me...I accepted my macular degeneration upon diagnosis. I accepted my recent loss of hearing without resistance. But my perception of disrespect? No. I cannot, I will not accept this...I deserve rat-a-tat-tat and blah, blah, blah. 

No wonder God loves me so much...needy calls to a loving heart. 

Thank you.

TRUST GOD AND BEGIN

Jesus’ first recorded word in at least two Gospels quite literally means change or even more precisely 'Change your minds!' -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," February 2, 2020

I was struck right next door to speechless when I read that this morning. Neither my head nor my heart need validation for my blinding flashes of the obvious. Ah, but getting validation? Whoa, Wow, and Zip-a-dee-doo-dah! I cannot spell out what a blessing that feels to me.

It was almost ten years ago that a blinding flash of the obvious told me the hardest thing that would ever be asked of me is that I change my mind. I knew that for truth, and I knew I did not get to question when or in what circumstances or how I was to do that. I knew I was to trust God to take care of the details.

That trust has led me to becoming willing to give over, give up, give in...most of the time. Wanting to be willing, being willing and actually doing...they may be three different things, but they all head me in the right direction...toward God and God's will.

All of which starts with changing my mind. And fairly recently that led to the realization that changing my mind really means to exchange my mind...being lifted deeper into a higher dimension. There again, God's got it.

Trust God and start walking.

Thank you.

RESIST NOT, ACCEPT...OR, LOVE AND LAUGH

Out of the blue, and for sometime now, I hear myself asking, "Do you love me, God?" I am surprised when I hear that for I never consciously wonder much less think of asking.

Yesterday as I drove from getting my car lubed, in a flash came:  I can only know God loves me by loving...the more I give love away, the more I will know God's love within me/without me.

It is unlikely I will ever be able to "feel" God's love (or God for that matter), I can only "do" God's love which today I believe to be absolute acceptance of that which my ego finds unacceptable.

In short, resist not, accept. For me, the acceptance is pretty much of self-perceived snarks, snubs and slights...proof once again that first I get to laugh at how hard to do that is for me.

Thank you.