THE SECRET GARDEN OF GOD, Redux

[The following is a reprint of  my post of December 1, 2015.]

...you have to let God reveal your real faults to you, usually by falling many times, and by other people's opinions of you. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 29, 2015

The secret garden of God fits on the point of a pin, is within, and is nearly always only accessible through our own falling and failing.

Every time we have a disagreement with another, we are in conflict with our Source within, our own Self. Until we get right with our Self, we will project our failings onto the other and call her responsible...obsessing on ways to hurt him the way we're hurting and/or to apologize for our hurt.

We waste so much mental, physical and spiritual energy trying to fix our own feelings so we can feel good about our self, and we do it by thinking of ways to hurt another...setting her straight, making him pay.

There is that secret garden within each of us that we can go to and in that instant be free. Finding that garden must needs be our singular search. All else is self on parade.

Thank you.

WATCH THE SEAGULLS...FIND THE RHYTHM

 As I watched the seagulls, I thought 'That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust.' -- Nikos Kazantzakis

I came across the Greek writer Kazantzakis' quote this morning, and it spoke to me. 

I wondered, is it possible we found the absolute rhythm and followed it...minus the trust? Maybe our life has been about building that trust. 

But how do we build trust? 

Oh, yeah...by making mistakes. Then finding the God in the mistake, sharing that now-blessed mistake and tucking it in to be shared again...repeatedly, or as needed.

I'm finding the longer I live the more I am becoming the person I started out as...all the while trying so hard not to be. Only I'm getting a kick out of that me today.

My new definition of self-acceptance: Find the God within ourself, love it, take it for a walkabout...often...and be prepared to love and laugh at our mistakes in the doing.  

Trust this: If we don't make mistakes, we're not doing it right.

Thank you.

A REAL LIVE STUDY IN MINDFULNESS

Simone Biles is my spiritual study today. Probably everyone who knows who she is and what she is experiencing at the Olympics today has if not an opinion a feeling about her, her actions, her thoughts, her goals.

I am going to use a favorite quote, "Knowing nothing I speak freely," to opine about her Olympic experiences these last few days. I have no personal  knowledge of Biles, much less her inner life, but I am touched from my toes to my nose with what I am seeing her walk through currently.

Based entirely on my own anxiety experience, I'm thinking she has been feeling anxiety for a while and is now caught in an ongoing panic attack. I suspect she suffered a major panic attack in midair while doing an intricate flip and rightly feared this was too dangerous to continue. 

That she openly and immediately admitted that she suffered no physical harm, it was entirely mental, to me was spirituality speaking. She knew she was inviting the slings and arrows of outrageous ignorance, and she held true to her Self anyway and all the way. 

That reminds me of past spiritual leaders, Jesus, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Jr., et al., who, upon being unfairly judged, neither admitted nor denied anything. They showed, in the vernacular, "Judge if you must, God's got my back...I'm cool."

It will be interesting, enlightening even, to watch for the rest of Biles' story. I have learned from my own self that doing the right thing immediately, while clearly God inspired, can make a U-bie in a snail's crawl and, too slow to be aware of, become a self-determined objective. Where self-will rules.

Which does not mean we did it wrong...no. It means we need to remain true to that God-inspired action but pull ourself back from the glory of it, from both the putdowns and the praise. They are but our own out picture appearing as others' public blather. Best welcome it all with love and laughter and let it go. 

In my opinion, Biles has started on this journey God inspired. Her gold may come from her actions in response to what may have been her worst fear come true. She is self-honest, admitting her pride is hurt but that's all, being a cheerleader for her team, making herself useful in whatever way she is asked. Giving over, giving up, giving in...for others.

There she is, a walking, breathing model of mindfulness. Let's shoot our thank you and help her stay the course.

Thank you.

THE GRACE OF MIRACLES HAPPENING

If God is our goal, "spiritual in nature" is the true guidepost for life itself.

If God is not our goal, likely personal profit, "money, Honey," is the primary guidepost. 

If that be true, I'm thinking that a true non-believer, a good and honest person, may well be the best person to be in charge of a for-profit business...not, however, the best person to be in charge of the business of a spiritually based fellowship.

There are profit-loss decisions to be made daily...hourly often. To gutbucket trust God has our back therefore I need to give over for the benefit of the other has got to be a stretch for the rational mind.

But that's the ask. That is precisely what is asked of us if truly God is our goal. 

The unimaginable, but flat-fact wonder, is: We will be taken care of...we will come out for the better...probably not even close to the way we go in hoping for...but beyond our reasoning mind's reach, for the good of all concerned.

The even more unimaginable, but flat-fact wonder, is: We will not get there by our working it, but by our trusting It. I'm guessing all miracles begin in God-consciousness and are usually carried out by our hands and feet always at God's direction.   

Again, we will not get there by our working it, but by our trusting It...by faith in the Father.

Thank you.

MIRACLES HAPPEN IN THE IMMEDIATE NOW

The secret code is the miracle happens immediately upon our realizing our want is our need for God in our life.

The budding miracle begins our healing from within. We fall to our knees and beg God to do our will, mainly "Stop the pain," "Lift the mental burden," "Take the physical, mental, spiritual hurt away." Then we deny healing and double the pain by hating ourself for our misbegotten begging. 

Wait! What if our idea of misbegotten begging is not the wrong way to go about realizing our want is our need for God? It may not be the right or the better way but since it is what we are giving to God to use, use it he does. 

Ours is to accept it with grace and gratitude (or, quitcherbitchin' and think thanks). The point being, we clear the way for our need to be met.

It's akin to when we cut ourself...we wash the cut, put some ointment on it, slap a bandage over it, and let it heal from within. 

I suspect our begging God to do our will is tantamount to cleaning, treating, letting healing begin...from within. Face it, that is all we know at the moment, what we have to offer...our widow's mite, if you will.  

Regret nothing, get grateful! Going down that wrong road again is a lesson in learning. Love it...the sooner we can love it, the sooner we can make our U-bie, as in shoot a thank you and move on.

This is life's lesson in learning: There are no future miracles waiting for us out there. All miracles happen Now. It is our realization of the miracle that needs fine tuning...which starts with trust. Our willingness to rest our (unseen) reasoning mind and rely on our (unseen) divine source is the first step up toward trust in God.

All this amounts to hold your nose and take a leap of faith. But, who's kidding whom? That leap of faith requires a lot of prior proper planning before our reasoning mind is willing and our will is ready...to let go and let God.

Thank you.

FROM FEAR-DRIVEN TO LOVE-DRAWN

 We come again to Rohr's statement, In meditation, we move from ego consciousness to soul awareness, from being fear-driven to being love-drawn. 

The trouble with relying on the reasoning mind is we want as our own such a sound-good (albeit true) statement, believe because we want it that we have it...then quote it as if it is our own.

We are at the point of change, or, more like, the point of exchange...of exchanging our mind to Oned  from binary. There's our Gregorian knot...the knot being "want to," or my will, as opposed to "need to," or Thy will. 

Our instinct is to natter unto haranguing ourself for not immediately moving from fear-driven to love-drawn...from self to Self in a single bound. Instead, we kiss our instinct on the lips...hug it and kiss it and let it go...for we are at the door of God's will. 

Welcome to Gratitude Row. We are about to begin to learn that the way of praise, our  Gratitude Row, gives detachment its due, a whole 'nother level of nonresistance. 

Our changing mind releases our reliance on commonsense and opens us to still more spiritual growth, the place where hair shirts are satin-lined jackets in waiting...for when we are ready.

Commonsense says Gratitude Row is the way of peace of mind forever, so hush. The "Oh, No" is finding Gratitude Row is paved with self-will, good intentions, coulda, woulda, shoulda, and "Oh, Rats!"  All of which are God's upside-down tools for building our peace of mind forever. 

We often hear, "Don't quit five minutes before the miracle happens." The secret code is, the miracle happens immediately upon our realizing our want is our need for God in our life. It takes as long as it takes for our reasoning mind to unclinch a tish and accept that..to give over, give up, give in. To loose it and let it go. 

Thank you.

PERCEPTION...LOOSE IT AND LET IT GO

Wisdom is not the gathering of more facts and information, as if that would eventually coalesce into truth. Rather Wisdom is a different way of seeing and knowing. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 17, 2020.

Our greatest teaching is not the words we talk but the model that we walk. If we set our mind to it, any one of us at any given day or time could sound right up there with NMandela, MLKing, JFK and Churchill all as one...to our own self at any rate, but isn't everything? 

We remind ourself often and oftener...it is not how we sound, it is how we live that proves our truth. And doesn't that sound all right and good rolling around in our mind? But because it sounds good doesn't mean it isn't, it's just not settled truth within...yet.

I have a friend who I admire greatly...we can see her inner goodness by her living. I have another friend I also admire greatly but who seems to me to need guidance...I see his need by his zipped- lip silence. 

Well. There it is. There is the thorn amongst the roses...my perception. 

I have been unconsciously rolling my perception around in my mind, not consciously aware of it until my blinding flash of the obvious: My need is to silently praise his silence by shooting a thank you for his quietude. 

I'd best hug, kiss and loose my perception of zipped lips since that is my thorn, my judgment signifying my need...for silence. 

Proving Rohr's further "Meditation": In meditation, we move from ego consciousness to soul awareness, from being fear-driven to being love-drawn. 

Mine now is to model that...how grateful am I that He goes before me to make the crooked places straight?

  
Thank you.

OUR SPIRITUAL CORE...LOVE

We know God by loving God. And I think that it is actually more important to know that we love God than to know that God loves us.... -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 10, 2020

Having heard that many times over the years, I knew to be true Rohr's belief that "it is more important to know that we love God than to know that God loves us." 

It was in looking back that I could see that my reasoning mind resisted that which sounded...what? Pompous? Egotistical? Probably. For sure, our barely believing self did not want to offend God just as we were getting air.

There's the value of letting things perc...resist not, welcome with reservations. To adopt as our own before its time is to cause chaos between our ears. "Before its time" is before God has turned our resistant mind over to our spiritual core.

According to me, all spiritual growth begins in our spiritual core...that place within of which we know naught and discover almost with disbelief. I am realizing (cementing within) much of what I've learned over the years, believed to be true, preached and prayed about...but knew not as my born-within gifts.

We take them as that which has been gifted us from without. Never daring to believe that we are born with a spiritual core breathing the love of our Father, our angels, our Self. Not being certain sure back then that God IS, made it fairly dicey to admit to believing "It's more important to know that I love God than to know that God loves me." 

No wonder it takes so long to trust, to have gut-bucket faith in the God of our own understanding. But there it is...the Rock upon which we are building our Home.

That Rock is love, our spiritual core, our love of God...God's love of us, of you and me. Love...and laughter, of course. 

Thank you.

THE UNBLOCKABLE LOVE OF GOD

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.-- Matthew 6:33

For whatever reason, I am brought again to the three words in Matthew 6:33 that cause me pause more than most any of the other words. Those three are and his righteousness.

There. Those are the three words most often not seen, not read, skimmed over, cut out... ignored, in a word. And why? Because they set the boundary around and all these things shall be added unto you.

No one wants to limit all things being added unto us. Face it, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you" makes a comfy home for magical thinking. 

According to me, those three words hold the keys to the kingdom...to seek first God and his righteousness is to hold God's righteousness first in our consciousness...where ego, all rigid, righteous and right, stands guard for self. 

It's most unlikely that we will ever get to heaven, the peace that passes reasoning-mind understanding, seeking to get anything added to us from the kingdom of God. 

God consciousness is love...to seek God consciousness is to seek to return our inborn love to God and to pass on that love to our neighbor...ah. who so often masquerades as our enemy.  

God consciousness is love ever present, unblockable...whether we know it or not.

Thank you.

WITH THANKS TO WALT KELLY

The way to remove mountains is the way of Praise....Say 'Thank you' all the time. This is the remover of mountains--your thankful hearts of praise. -- "God Calling," July 21

...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons and daughters of your heavenly God (Matthew 5:43–45). "These are the most radical, political, and revolutionary words ever uttered," per John Dear, founder of The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus, in Morro Bay, CA.

Giving up the fight...the fight within...is, not may be, is...the hardest thing I've ever decided to attempt...or attempted to attempt. Giving up the fight with my own judgments, my own opinions, my own rigid, righteous and right no doubt will be my hair shirt till three days after I'm dead. 

I suspect the giving up becomes most difficult when we learn to keep our mouths shut which devious art I have perfected. But silencing the mind? Or, not silencing...quieting! Quieting the mind is God's perfect art. Our turning to God for that perfect art is, I'm almost certain, what we are here to learn.

The way varies for each and all of us. For me, the way is what I've learned is "crash and burn." And doesn't that explain why it is so difficult to do? What mentally competent person deliberately sets out to crash and burn? There it is, the answer to its own question...that "mentally competent" qualifier linked with "deliberately" spells the poisonous protected self-interest of "No...I'll think of something else." 

To which, inevitably, we fail.

There. At one and the same time, our self-protection is the key that opens the door upon which God knocks. Our dreaded (albeit blessed) crash and burn removes self-protection, self-interest, self-itself. 

We pray our thank you as we recognize our own self as the enemy who needs our love...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. We have met the enemy and s/he is us. 

The God of our own understanding, our inner Self, clears our hurdles and brings us Home...daily and/or as needed.  

Thank you.

FIELDS OF GOLD...LOVE AND LAUGHTER

In this my fiftieth year, I seem to be experiencing much of my early years' fears, fantasies and remorseful memories. Ah, but in a Fields of Gold sense. 

The old rues, regrets and remorses are showing themselves, and my hard-earned release of those...detachment by grace and by God...is dropping me softly as onto a bed of clover. 

When we set out on our life's road, not knowing who we are or who we are to become...not to mention how?...when?...where?...were never conscious thoughts. It's only in looking back that we realize that we didn't know what we didn't know, and so what? Fly by the seat of our pants and laugh, cry, spit nails and get on with life was pretty much our Just Do It.

Now, at 83, I laugh more, cry just at much (only at "good news" stuff today), and have all but forgotten how to spit nails...or why, more like. 

When the old me flits through my memory-field, I feel...what?  Compassion? Yes, but really forgiveness, I think. It's a warm feeling no matter its name. To have a warm and loving feeling for the screw-up, fool, stupid glass-bowl I knew me as back then is the pearl beyond price. I hug her, I kiss her, I hold her dear. 

All because God...and you...love me. 

Thank you.

TO FACE OUR FEAR, EMBRACE LOVE

To live our lives based on the principles of a love ethic (showing care, respect, knowledge, integrity, and the will to cooperate), we have to be courageous. Learning how to face our fears is one way we embrace love. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 11, 2020 

When first we read, To live our lives based on the principles of a love ethic, we eagerly jump to the assumption that that we can and will do. Then we read further and see showing care, respect, knowledge, integrity, and the will to cooperate, and we hesitate...but only for a moment for we sincerely want to love and be loved. 

As (and if) we grow spiritually, we become aware that being "rocketed into the fourth dimension" carries a whole 'nother mindset than to love and be loved...if we are to move up to a deeper level. 

We are brought to a new understanding...that living God's will, the basis for a spiritually based life, results in a mirror-image of our idea of the way things "ought" to be...or, in introducing the Sermon on the Mount, Rohr calls it, "Jesus' upside-down version." As a for-instance, check out Matthew 5:39: Do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the  other also. It only gets better...by which I mean spiritually rich, reasoning mind resistant. 

We are at an entirely different level of our turned-over-to-God decision. We see without seeing, hear without hearing, know without knowing how we know. Our inner eye is opened...we begin learning the art of acceptance.

Learning how to face our fears is one way we embrace love. Acceptance, in a word.

Thank you.

GOBSMACKED...LOVE AND LAUGH

God has communicated in a million ways that 'I am your power,' but we do not believe and trust what we cannot see or prove. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," July 3, 2021

That causes me to wonder if the reasoning mind's spiritual reason for being isn't to prove the unproveable. As in, to explain God to the satisfaction of our own reason...which will ever be met with dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is the human situation anyway, according to Rohr.

I am reminded of my June bug experience: Some years back, when the screens in our windows were the two-piece, sliding apart kind, I was alone in my apartment when I heard an agitated, whirring sound. Caught in my two-piece screen was a June bug.

Clearly, it could not get free, and it was not happy...or it sounded less than happy at any rate. Of course, I determined to free it...I got some object, a pen maybe, and went to work trying to free this poor thing. The harder I tried, the more agitated it sounded, and I was getting pretty agitated myself. It seemed so simple: push the bug out from between the two pieces and be done with it.

I finally realized I was about to kill the bug trying to free it. I threw down the pen, and said, out loud to the bug, "You have the same God I have...you're going to need to rely on Him because I can't help you." 

With that, I turned and as I walked away, I heard a new whirring sound, I looked over my shoulder, and there was the bug...flying away. Free.

Think gobsmacked...then multiply it by infinity. That was me.

I even wrote it all out in my "God Calling," and I recall every year that now faded feeling of gobsmacked and awe. 

There's the well-hidden clue, that now faded feeling. I am certain sure if I had not written about the June bug experience in my "God Calling," it would be a bare memory now, fainter all the time. 

We do have God, we can and we need to rely on Him always and all ways, and that is all we need. Which truth rests peacefully within. 

Our own material world is ever with us albeit only occasionally peaceful. Ah...and there is our good news...what else would bring us to God with hope in our heart but our reasoning mind kicking our can down the road?

We know we're at the end of that particular rough road when again we recall: We do have God, and we can rely on God for God is all we need. 

We love it and laugh.

Thank you.

SECOND THOUGHTS ARE ALSO OF GOD

I am grateful that I learned long ago not to try to keep the God of my understanding in a box...in the box of my original understanding of God. As our understanding grows, so must our God grow. God  cannot be boxed!

With that in mind, my first flash that fear is God in camouflage calling me through the briars and brambles to Him is asking for another look. 

  

That second look came by way of another flash: There are no briars and brambles, there is naught but God.  

I accept that for truth...for Now.

However, when (not if) the reasoning mind takes charge and my innards start to run scared, I find it helpful to remind myself "fear is God in camouflage"...and I shoot my thank you prayer. 

Here it is, my go-to mental picture...God, appearing as Jesus my Mentor, Mary my Nana, Joseph my Homie and all my Angels, is present to me as, if and when I knowingly or unknowingly call for God. By my thank you, I am readied. 

I choose to accept this as a gift of my reasoning mind on its way to giving over to God. With second thoughts being perfectly acceptable...invited, in fact. 

God is so good to me. You, too.

Thank you.

CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING UNTO UNKNOWING

I ponder this morning, He goes before us to make the crooked places straight. What is so easily missed there is the promise that there will be crooked places.  

Just to repeat that sentence with no attempt to prove it for ourself spiritually is the reasoning mind in charge. No spiritual effort leads to wishful thinking and results in feelings of God Schmod...or, alone again naturally. 

Our spiritual effort begins with acceptance of not knowing, of unknowing, as a favorite in God's toolbox. 

   

The cloud of unknowing is the place of faith in almighty goodness abounding for our benefit. 

Doesn't it follow then that not knowing what is around the next curve in the crooked road is where faith hangs out? We build our faith by holding our nose and taking that leap of faith...up into the cloud of unknowing. 

Even better is: If it doesn't make a lick of sense, we know we're on the right road heading in the right direction. Or maybe that's just my reasoning mind wanting to have a say.

What is true is we are building the faith essential to opening the door upon which God knocks. We are being invited to walk out with God and be enveloped in loving kindness, peace, love and joy. All ours to give away in order to keep it.

Thank you.

GROWING SPIRITUALLY...WANTING TO

I wonder if that which makes us whole within our self isn't that which we worry is wrong with us...is, in fact, God's will for us? Face it, those worries were the goose that got us to go to God in the first place. 

When we look back and relive our "worst fears" revealed today as our pearl beyond price, we can know God's hand was in it.

To our reasoning mind, our current fears are basically frets that get solved or resolved fairly quickly. It is our thoughts that set the time limit, and our thoughts are dependent upon the road we walk them down...set in self or spiritually awakened.

Ninety times out of one hundred, our self-determination is driven by another's actions, reactions, words or deeds. Specifically, how we interpret them as applying to us...or, more honestly, to our ego, Lucy With the Football, who usually decides that we are being disrespected.

Here's the stonewall: Learning unto doing spiritual growth is our only true answer. Until we are doing what we are learning, we are stuck in sounds-good words.

We learn the words give over, give up, give in...but for the benefit of the other kinda gets lost in our ego's translation. 

I believe those words are the beginning of The Answer. I believe it because it has been passed to me by spiritual leaders of good repute and personally by people I trust...also, from my very limited experience. 

The Answer grows out of our worrying, "What is wrong with me?" 

What is wrong is we have never wholly detached from self...awareness, control, will.

 Our life spiritually, mentally, physically simplified: Hold your nose and take a leap of faith. Or, give over, give up, give in...for the benefit of the other.

Thank you.

BUILDING OUR TRUST IN GOD

On learning to let go with love, i.e., the art of nonresistance, specifically not resisting others with whom we find ourselves at seemingly cross-purposes:

We must beware of the self-determined-objective trap. Our sincere aim is to let go with love by not "correcting" their interpretation of who and what we are, say and do. We find that unless and until we humbly ask God to carry forward our long-held but wavery decision to "say nothing," to "respond not at all," we have ourself a self-determined objective...a resentment aborning. 

We negate our want to attack in reaction to our feeling personally attacked by staying our focus on our own need to let go with love. We cannot let go...with or without love...of another's resistance.

The paradox is that to accept them and their opinion of us we focus not on the way they view us, but on our own understanding of ourself and our intentions. We find love in...do not resist...our intent, do not change up or down any part of what we know about us and our intentions. We release our urge to defend ourself...we rely on God and let it be.  

There. We are on the right road heading in a better direction...accepting with love, not resisting, all and/or any part of another's reactions to us.  

We are also securing our trust in God...ever the better goal.

Thank you.

TO BE GOD'S PLEASANT PLACE OF SHELTER

If you are willing to bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to yourself, you will be for [God] a pleasant place of shelter. —St. Thérèse of Lisieux

I have been pondering that quote for a while now. What I've found is to ponder without taking positive or selfless action is to worry. To worry without taking selfless action is to birth a resentment.  

I proposed a change in a situation some time ago. The change was not taken all that seriously...so dropped. I later learned it was dropped into another's discussions and dropped less than lovingly...with laughter but no love shall we say.

My spiritual goal has been to learn how to do the Beatitude Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely.... 

My "how to" has been to shuck down "revile" and "persecute," substituting "gossip about me," then aim for responding not at all, as in, say not a word to or about it to anyone. 

Great gettin' up morning!...the realization is dawning that to let go with love is to find love in...not resist...our own original actions, not others' reactions. To change no part of our memory about our actions or our intentions. Until we can do that, their reaction will hold us in thrall. 

Blinding flash of the obvious: To let go with love (not resist) their interpretation of what was proposed, "saying nothing...responding not at all " is a self-determined objective, likely to build resentment within. 

It is faith in the Father that allows us to accept our own part in it...to accept as good, without malice, not currying favor. Then without a thought we can accept with love...not resist...their reactions and retelling. 

None of which is doable by a self-determined objective alone; it is, however, a self-determined objective that points the way. So, thank you there, too. 

Until I recognize a U-bie in my path, I'll keep heading forward, relying on the Father by doing Our  thing. There. I take that to be for [God] a pleasant place of shelter. 

Thank you.

ON KNOWING YOURSELF IN GOD

When you've stumbled--and the guilt, loneliness, and fear come to assault you--if you don't have at least one good friend, or if you have not developed a prayer life where you know how to find yourself in God instead of in your own feelings, you will simply retrench and reassert your correctness. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 13, 2016

"When you've stumbled...." When, not if. 

"When wrong, promptly admit it...." When, not if.

We will stumble, we will be wrong...we are not only allowed to, we are expected to! 

Where's the need for all our spiritual seeking if stumbling, if being wrong, weren't allowed? For that matter, where's the need for God? If we be perfect, there's no God necessary. Even God grins at the folly.

Even when in our childhood we actually were mistreated, picked on and put upon, we learn that using those memories as our justification for who we are today is just another tale of poor, pitiful, put-upon me...boring to anyone but our own self. And a stone block to our spiritual needs.

Having someone to blame...from our teachers to the family to the family dog...allows us to never take responsibility for the life we are living, that we chose for ourself. 

To paraphrase Rohr, if you haven't accepted full responsibility for who and what you are and how you got here...for yourself in God instead of in your own feelings as Rohr puts it...you will simply retrench and reassert your correctness.

We learn again, feeling like for the first time, that what you see is always yourself. How you got to be that self was by your invitation only. There. That is the freedom of knowing yourself in God instead of your own feelings. 

Thank you. 

OUR ANGELS...EVER ACTIVE WITHIN

My angels are the fallen. the redeemed, the self-forgiven through God by grace...and each is here for me.

My angels are in my fears...they fight not, they are the kiss on fear's lips that calms my runaway thoughts. 

My angels welcome my doubts...judging not, loving each just as it is.

My angels resist nothing, love all...judge no one, neither me nor you. 

It is my realization of my angels' active love within that frees me of me...frees me to pass it on for the benefit of others, thus for my own.

It is the nature of the reasoning mind to doubt, to resist, to want. We have learned not to fight our self-centered desires but to welcome each as the virtual pebble-in-the-shoe signaling our needed U-bie, returning us to still more spiritual growth.

Thank you.

ON WELCOMING THE UNWELCOME

In our chasing after God, the blinding flash of the obvious is that our chasing after God is the wrong we must cease...chasing after God is just another self-determined objective. 

Comes the bright light...not chasing after God is the wrong we must cease...not chasing after God is just another self-determined objective.

When our prayer is to show forth loving kindness, we are seeking another self-determined objective. When we must ever remind ourself to be kind, to be considerate, to be thoughtful, self is rowing our boat, and we will not get to the other shore any time soon. 

The gift we have and are not acknowledging is all of our needs were met and sealed within us from before conception...ours is to loose them and let them go. To pray to get them is a waste of our breath and God's time. 

We recall Meister Eckart's spiritual growth is more about subtraction than addition. To be in God's grace, not pray to be, is spiritually essential...personally unattainable. 

There are many ways for us to choose to get us there, but the way I personally know is through crash and burn. That is, my will, my way, my resistant self...masquerading as still more spiritual growth...all reduced to grist.  

Feeling naught but despair, we give up our holy sounding wants...i.e., to be a better person, to be a loving soul, to know God in others...and accept that this sorry self that we are is our lot in life. This is the grace of crash and burn. 

It is from the ashes of our self-willed wants, that...ever so slowly...Self arises, and, changed by the decision birthed within us, we call it quits. We let it be. 

Our previously self-contained loving kindness begins to flow from us without prompts. Others remark on our change before we are fully aware of it. Our mind has been exchanged. 

Our outer life is no longer our concern; our inner life, God's hidey-hole, is in charge. Now the discipline begins...the discipline of welcoming. Of welcoming the unwelcome. 

We take comfort. Our Father knows our needs.

Thank you. 

FREE OUR SELF, FREE OUR NEMESIS

Blinding flash of the obvious: Freedom from self comes when we can freely kiss our nemesis on the lips and laugh.

Freedom comes not from finding a more highly evolved guide to follow, nor discovering another deeper book to read, share and chatter about. 

Freedom from self comes when, without thought, we invite our nemesis out from its hidey-hole within. Where it has sheltered itself in our denial, basically unknown to  us. 

We find we can look it in the eye, kiss it on the lips, and in that instant claim it as our very own...resisting nothing. No feelings or thoughts are unwelcome, they live sheltered no longer. 

We know, we believe, we trust: This then is Thy will, and now mine.

Thank you.

LIFE IS A RECONCILIATION IN LOVE

If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you. -- Ramana Maharshi

That sentence ever reminds me of one very similar in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. Specifically, in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," Aslan the Lion assures the lost children that they had no cause to panic for as they were frantically searching for him, already he was on the way to them.

That sentence changed me...turned me from fearfully searching for a God of my own understanding to silently pondering the mystery of God. I began meditating daily.

The freedom I have received from my daily meet-ups is beyond price...a lot of which I realize only in looking back. In seeing the path I have walked, often figuratively beating my breast and wailing, I am opened to the realization of God's work perfected in humility. 

Humility...my rues, regrets and remorses made gold. 

Comes another awakening: Remorses are useless until we share them. Then they are transmuted from self-centered pain into the healing power of selflessness...for the benefit of another. Ah, and a hundred times out of a hundred through love and laughter.

Life, its pain and its power, is singularized in Rohr's "Daily Meditation" today: The whole story flows toward reconciliation, not in human creeds or constitutions, but in love, the love of the One who gave us being and life. . .

Thank you.

ON THE BENEFIT OF WELCOMING PRAYER

Anything that upsets our normalcy is a threat to the ego but in the Big Picture, it really isn’t.....Falling apart is for the sake of renewal, not punishment. *** Our best response is to end our fight with reality-as-it-is. We will benefit from anything that approaches a welcoming prayer. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," April 26, 2021

It seems the hardest lesson to learn unto living is what Rohr has long preached: We don't get to heaven by doing it right, we get to heaven by doing it wrong. 

Which might lead unaware thinkers to the conclusion that doing it wrong is doing it right. The butt-kicker is that doing it wrong as a self-determined objective is not doing it right, will get us naught but grief for which we definitely will be called to account. 

We learned early on of the necessity of holding our mind open, willing to change our mind. Now we are at this, the next step up to a deeper learning...an exchanged mind which is of God. We can neither think nor unthink our way to an exchanged mind. 

I suspect we will ever live in the material world, but upgraded by discipline and the maintenance of our own spiritual condition. But by grace and by God on occasion experiencing a higher plane...in preparation for yet more spiritual growth.

So we do get to heaven by doing it wrong to the mind's eye which leads us to atone, amend, admit and detach...to God. Or, righted in a word.

God calls us to a new way of living, a new way of relating to God, to others, and to the world....a way of cooperating rather than competing, a way of giving rather than getting, a way of sharing rather than hoarding, a way of sacrifice rather than comfort, a way of faith rather than knowledge, a way of relationship rather than anonymity, a way of love rather than animosity. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," July 8, 2021

Thank you

WE, THE CHOSEN, FLAWED & ORDINARY FOLKS

Being chosen doesn’t mean that God likes one over another or finds some better than others. Almost always, in fact, those chosen are quite flawed or at least ordinary people. It is clear that their power is not their own. --- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation." 

Oh, what a blessing that is, that quote from Rohr. It clarifies that there is nothing inherently wrong with feeling like we've been chosen, the error is thinking...speaking...of our self as chosen. 

Talk alone is to "cast our pearls before swine" which not only begs others to challenge with put downs, snarks and misquotes, but invites our ego to the fray...to bray. 

According to me, if the Lord isn't saying it, it is not true. The Lord says it through our walk, not our talk, and our walk shows forth primarily through our care and concern for others since our Father knows our needs.

It is in the reverent silence that we feel acknowledged as chosen, and that births our new and necessary care and concern for others.  

Not to put too fine a point on it, but as Rohr wrote: Almost always, in fact, those chosen are quite flawed or at least ordinary people. 

Can I get an Amen!

Thank you.

LOVE...GOES AROUND TO COME AROUND

My hope for me and for you is that today our thoughts be gentle for, with and about others. 

Our hope frees others to be gentle with us or not to be gentle with us. It makes no nevermind what others choose to do or to be when we loose them and let them go with love and laughter.

Our hope and goal remain unchanged: That the peace of love and laughter within us right this very minute be time-released...with every breath we breathe...for the benefit of others. 

Like the decision we must make to be a forgiving person, this decision for the benefit of others only we can make. We realize the benefits as they redound to us, unplanned, unsought and available for the sole purpose of passing them on.

We now live the true benefits through a life of love and laughter...within us, without us. 

Those who hear, live, love and laugh. Those who do not hear, may...if and when they so choose.

Thank you.

AND GOD IS GREATER

Blinding flash of the obvious: It is God consciousness that overcomes death. God is greater. 

There are religious and secular examples of that, Jesus' death being the most well-known to me. As I ponder that, I recognize that it is God consciousness that overcomes all adversity...specifically, all "incurable," "impossible" terrifying adversity. 

Reasoning mind can and will put up all blocks...stripped, whipped, crucified...all necessary pain endured and that must be endured...to be overcome by our own consciousness of God.

If we choose not to endure the reality of our own worst fear (our "crucifixion") unto the final realization, then we choose to endure...and to endure worse each time. We are the determiner...and it keeps coming back until we get it right. We get it right when our will, our way, fails utterly...a.k.a., crash and burn. 

To fight and fail is to fail; to fight and win is to fail; to fight is to fail...for by the fighting, we are seeing it as real...it is not.

To the likes of Jesus, and other named and unnamed saints, not fighting that which the reasoning mind knows as reality is the spiritual lesson to learn. Spiritually, love is the only reality, and God is love. To the likes of you and me, that's the impossible dream in this lifetime...to hold to that impossible dream is to visualize it as possible...and God's will.

All of that started in a blinding flash this morning. And then I read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation":  It means nothing if we intellectually accept that there is a God. The only moment that has any effect or revolution for us is when we acknowledge God’s active presence in our lives and the power of unconditional love.

Now, whether the blinding flash proves to be my spiritual turning point or more intellectual acceptance will become clearer to me daily...mostly by the activity of my mind, i.e., just how my thoughts, my wants and my will continue to detach, loosen and let go. 

The conundrum: I will realize my BFO as a true turning point by the resistance I get from others...very few will know it as good, fewer will even see it. That is my thank you.

Thank you.

WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless. -- Frederick Douglass

Where's my beer? -- John Q. Public

 -- Reprinted from July 4, 2018, comic strip "Candorville" 

Thank you

WE FIND BETTER BY DOING BETTER

About the Bible...knowing nothing, I speak freely applies here for sure. I know little to less than that about the Bible, so, you betcha, I'm now writing about Bible matters, things written therein. What I rely on from the Bible is what makes sense to me...proven true or not true by popes, preachers, agnostics and atheists. 

So this came to me to ponder: When David first spoke the 23rd Psalm, the words came to him from within himself...from the Father within, speaking through him.

When Jesus first prayed the Lord's Prayer, the words came to him from within himself...from the Father within, speaking through him.

When Francis of Assisi first prayed his prayer,  the words came to him from within himself...from the Father within, speaking through him.

I use each of those for my meditation every morning...and I doubt not many do the same or close enough. My entire point being: David, Jesus, Francis all spoke from God consciousness...and the same God consciousness is ours as we meditate each day. 

I continue to want to be lifted into God consciousness. Well, whoa and wow! We are in God consciousness. The reasoning mind's inability to believe it does not make the reasoning mind's word righter, just louder.

Here's a thought: What if we are ever in God consciousness? Our trusting unto living that would determine our actions, our behavior, our decisions...our life. 

Actually, I doubt we are intended to live 100 percent in God consciousness...else why be given "free choice" and "the human condition"? 

I'm guessing the intent is for us to live in our gift, the human condition, with our life's aim being to live not for our self but for others. Which is to say, messing up, as in, when...not if...wrong, admit, atone and move on...to mess up again. How else do we learn but by getting it wrong to get it right. 

There...that may well be as close to living in God consciousness as we are intended to get. Maybe not, but it's a path to walk until we find a better path. 

We find better by doing better, then screwing up...again... and praying our thank you. In other words, living in gratitude...by grace.

Thank you.

MOVING ONWARD BACK TO GOD

 We can patiently accept not being good. What we cannot bear is not being considered good, not appearing good.—St. Francis of Assisi

Well, ain't that the truth! 

The "accept" part in particular..."patiently," too, if we let beating our breasts and wailing about it be our patience. 

I wonder where we ever got the mistaken idea that carping is as good as doing...complaining to the Lord, considering that Our Prayer, then taking no forward action must've seemed like a good idea at the time. 

The adage all things work together for good is the key. Spiritual growth...praying our thank you...leads us through life's briars and brambles, self, to God's roses and rainbows, Self. 

According to me, we are born with peace, love and joy within us...all we need do is use them. Which is also true of disgruntled, peeved and put-upon...all we need do is not use them. 

For this we are given freewill...we can choose at anytime which way we will lean. To lean toward peace, we grow with God, and Self rules; to lean toward disgruntled, our ego grows, and self rules. 

There's the root difference between spiritual and egoic minds...spiritual looks inward in gratitude, ego focuses outward...looking to blame.

The good news is that all things working together for good brings us to the deeper discovery that a spiritual mindset neither encourages nor discourages complaining. Spiritual resists nothing; it takes all our reasoning mind throws at it, and lead us onward back to God.

Thank you.

GOD'S WILL AND OUR ATTITUDE

What you see is always yourself. -- "A Gift of Peace, Selections From 'A Course in Miracles'"

I see Mathilda and think liar; Mathilda sees me and thinks liar. To love the one we see is God's will and our charge. 

I see Mortimer and think phony; Mortimer sees me and thinks phony. To love the one we see is God's will and our charge. 

It matters not who or what represents the thorn that turns us around...we need to know each as our invited thorn not to be blunted but to be loved as our angel who served its Now purpose. 

We need only get grateful for this that we bring to God...not in prayer for our burden to be lifted, but in thanks for the gift of the burden, our new path leading us Home.  

Here then is God's will and rational mind working together for our good: Everything can be taken from [us] but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. -- Viktor Frankl, "Man’s Search for Meaning" 

Thank you.