THE MIRACLE OF GOD APPEARING

At the point of unexplainable is where the miracle of God appears. -- my note in today's "God Calling" from 2012  

To the reasoning mind, "the point of unexplainable" pretty much describes the entire Sermon on the Mount. Agree with your adversary quickly? If someone slaps you upside your head, turn the other cheek? Resist not evil? Reasoning mind is so out of its element, at first we do not even attempt to make sense of it all.

Our saving grace is there are other books we read (because our life relies on their truth) that have unexplainable directions...e.g., We have ceased fighting everything and everybody. Or, Cling to the thought that in God's hands our dark past is our greatest treasure. Huh?

Then, the biggie: It is a spiritual axiom that whenever anything upsets me, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with me. With this one in particular, it has become "practical" to say that the "something wrong with me" is that there is something wrong with me. There's reasoning mind at full throttle. If we want to stay stuck on self (S.O.S.), that's a comfy resting place...albeit temporarily comfy if we are sincerely seeking still more spiritual growth. The "what" that is wrong is the dreaded key.

Our common sense labels all of these "unexplainable." Take heart, unexplainable equals "yes, but" to the seeking mind which invites a deeper dig. To the shutdown mind, unexplainable is just wrong, forget it and walk away.

For those of us who seek, the Sermon on the Mount is our goldmine...it is said that Gandhi studied it every day for forty years. I've been studying it for sometime now, and it seems there is always a deeper level higher that opens to me...or opens me.

Still more spiritual growth may be as simple as let go and let God...let go of our want to make sense of that which presents itself for our still more spiritual growth, pray thank you and grow.

Thank you.

BEAUTIFUL AND BOUNTIFUL, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 3, 2015.]   

The first time my friend Natalie saw the Grand Canyon she had a blinding flash of the obvious: "All that grandeur is within me." I love that, and I go there often in my mind.

I think of the Grand Canyon and, say, the Grand Coulee Dam. Both marvels...one a marvel of nature, the other a marvel of man.

Here's my blinding flash of the obvious...it took Nature thousands upon thousands of years to make the Grand Canyon, which is still a work in progress, and it has beautiful and bountiful side benefits.

It took man several years to build the likes of the Grand Coulee Dam which has daily upkeep but is essentially finished, and the unintended consequences of that and other such dams are devastating.

That's the difference between a God-driven life and a self-driven life. God's way takes longer, but the unintended consequences are beautiful and bountiful for all...any and all others.

Thank you.

WHAT IF I AM THE WHO IN NEED?

The true and essential work of all [spiritual growth] is to help us recognize the divine image in everyone and every thing. It is to mirror things correctly, deeply, and fully until all things know who they are. --  Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 24, 2021 

Recently, an unthinking, unbidden image runs in my mind when and as it chooses: I am in a place of natural danger...a horrific flood or mudslide or hurricane is coming or is here...I come upon an animal who is quivering in fear, and I pick him up and cuddle her inside my jacket and carry it with me, assuring her all is well, I will protect him. End of image.

Blinding flash of the obvious: It is I who is the little one in need of love...I who seeks protection. 

That resonates with unwanted truth...what if I am the one who needs love? Who needs cuddling...who needs protection from the elements, natural and/or manmade? What if I am the little animal, lost, alone, scared and looking to and for love?

Immediate BFO: I Am that I am. 

Oh, joy!! I see. I know. 

It is for this, danger natural or manmade, that I Am with you, within/without, ever present, your protection in time of need. For this, I speak to you...for this, you know and you show, you hold dear and you pass on: Peace, be still. For I Am that I am. 

Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. -- Mark 4:39

Thank you.

FOLLOW GOD'S LEAD...LOVE AND LAUGH

Another...maybe the hardest...lesson we learn is that fear is never lifted out of us. We hear that, reject it, hear it enough and think we've got it...but reason is the stonewall to acceptance. Even while we are knowing (from experience) that until we accept that which we are reluctantly learning, we will be stayed in our own perceptions. 

Since fear is never lifted out of us, we must needs welcome it. Which means we are lifted way deeper to reach understanding of that welcome.   

We can use fear as opposed to letting fear use us. We can think of it as God's torch lighting our way as we make our turnaround back to him...from fear to thank you.

Learning to welcome fear is akin to learning to love our enemy, a spiritual direction that by its nature will never make a lick of sense to our reasoning mind. Again, we must go beyond reason to love.

It is beyond reason where we find the gold we seek, the peace that passes understanding. We know the peace we seek is beyond the reasoning mind, that all our thinking has been done for us, yet still we keep thinking, trying to break the code. 

Comes the dawn! The code is: Go to God for God and that is all. 

The human condition is such that few there be who, knowing the code, loose fear and let it go. Love and laugh.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH, NO-FAULT INSURANCE

Spiritual growth is no-fault insurance assuring us that no blame, no shame attaches. Personal accountability, personal responsibility are spiritual growth's replacement gifts. 

Ego seeks to be absolved of all blame always...and shames whoever is handy so as to cover its misdirected view.  Ego's eye is directed outward, looking for someone to blame and shame; gratitude, our spiritual eye, is turned inward, seeking the Father within.

We learn...slowly, very slowly if we're doing it right...that blame and shame are fear, plain and simple. Fear comes in different shapes and sizes, always self-directed and always cut to fit our shape-shifting ego. 

The mistake we make is believing ego's press...that if spiritual fitness is so good and right, then we should be able to control our self and all about us. Which we cannot. It is our utter capitulation, when I See Me is in full sway, that we crash and burn. It is in that moment that we are freed from the bondage of self, and we receive the gift of love and laughter at and for our own self.

We are freed in spirit and in fact...ah, then we learn it is a fleeting freedom. We must ever recommit, turn repeatedly within, as we slowly learn to accept our powerlessness as the door upon which our Father knocks. 

He stands at the door and knocks seeking to be released...to go before us to make the crooked places straight, to intervene in our life in our behalf. There it is...the pearl beyond price. 

Thank you.

GOD CAN AND WILL IF ASKED, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 9, 2013.]

Our goal is not to agree with that which we know to be wrong...our goal is to not disagree with it. It is the disagreement that is the glue that holds our ego together...our ego's sword and shield in truth. As long as we allow our ego to believe that we need a sword and shield, our ego will be our god.

Just this morning, in his "Daily Meditations," Fr. Richard Rohr wrote, "The contemplative [quieted] mind does not need to prove anything or disprove anything. It’s…a reading of [our literature] that looks for wisdom instead of quick answers. It first says, 'What does this text ask of me? How can I change because of this story?' And not 'How can I use this to prove that I am right and others are wrong...?'”

This is the path we get to walk in order to cease fighting anything or anybody...that which, when first we read it, we know is either a misprint or a forget it, I can't/won't/don't want to learn how.

Again we find that the hardest thing life asks of us is to simply change our mind. I can't, God can, He  has my work cut out for me, thank you.

Thank you.

TO GIVE LOVE IS TO GET LOVE

I am reminded of a long ago blinding flash of the obvious concerning my first dog, a seven-pound Maltese, Ari of Aslan, and his sole desire: To love.  All Ari wanted was to give love...which led to his mirroring the old saying, if I can't be with the one I love, I'll love the one I'm with. He lived to love.

My BFO was that we all of us have a tish of Ari at our core...we need to give love. Our mistake is believing that we need to get love. No. We are loved. In this instance, our only need is to pass that love on.

Until we gutbucket know, trust and live the love of God hidden within us, we will squander that love on trinkets, trifles and whatnot. Those skin-deep feelings masquerade as heavy emotions and important ponderings, all self-geared toward getting the love we already have but are spiritually unaware of. Forest meet trees.

Confession...here is my quibble with God: Why is his love hidden? Why can't we feel God, the love of God, God's perfect answer to our imperfect self? 

The answer my imperfect self has come up with...if  God's perfect love were ever-available to reason, it would be reasonable...and easily pondered out of being. Since God is not of the reasoning mind, God's love is not attainable by the reasoning mind. We must go beyond reason to love.

Lest we forget...the reasoning mind is essential. It is a tool of God's, used to help in laying the bricks that build the road upward to that deeper place within. Our job is to keep that tool, our reasoning mind, stayed on God and the will of God. Here and Now. 

Our attempts at future "staying" is self still digging.

Thank you.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE CHANGES US

I often say that the hardest thing life will ever ask of us is that we change our mind. 

We are brought to a standstill with the realization, yet again, that we cannot by self-will alone change our mind. We have learned that just changing our words...as in, agree just to shut the other up...has no spiritual core and is simply inviting a resentment to settle in, take root and bloom. 

We must go to the God of our own understanding...Higher Power, Providence, whatever name fits our understanding...and, in trust, turn our thoughts over to It. We pray not for the generic Gertrude, not for a cure for covid, not for peace everlasting...God has our needs already taken care of. 

We pray to get nothing, no future goodies...we pray for what we have, just as it is. We pray thank you. And that is All. Thank you hands it off, and our very own spiritual nature is set free from our reasoning mind. There. Our spiritual nature changes our mind. 

The further gift, the pearl beyond price: Spiritual nature is the light within that shines before our world that others may see, and in seeing, realize their spiritual nature, and give their thanks to the Father. The quiet word to give over, give up, give in begins to shine...no longer a self-determined objective, it has been transmuted, and thank you is now the quiet word.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.-- Matthew 5:14-16

Thank you.

ON BEING THE PEACE WE SEEK

As we start our life's journey, we learn free will is a gift from God which often reasoning mind accepts as "want-to" permission. We soon interpret that, "want-to with permission," as ego having free will for its very own playground. 

It is the journey we choose to walk that determines our life. Do we choose to use or to misuse our free will? Our choice, our trip. Cling to "my will, not thine" or exchange it? Our choice, our trip. Ego driven or God led? Our choice, our trip.

It is more spiritual growth plain and simple that informs our decision. Trying to spiritually educate our ego is an ego-trip trap...the egoic mind legislates for itself only. 

Our spiritual growth bares fruit when we let ego be ego. We don't fight it, even those times when we use it to get our way. That's why we've got laughter as our fallback...for when we show our world we are still human, still futzing, and still needing God so that we still be laughing. 

Ah, but answered prayer comes when nothing but God will crack our resistance...and, almost surprised, we know it. We welcome it with our thank you.

Maybe this is why God gave us free will. When we can turn from our want-to in any form, and welcome God's perfect will in any form, we will be the peace we seek. 

Thank you.

LOVE...GIVE IT OR FORGET IT, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of September 22, 2013.]

If grace and gratitude...if love itself...are not within us this very minute, where are we going to go to get them?

There is no store on the corner, at the mall, on-line where we can go to order up a single helping...or a double dip.

There is within us from before conception unto this very minute a lifetime supply of peace, love and joy. All we need do is realize that, then use them...first (before our reasoning mind gets a crack at them).

If we do not give the love we have, we will never get the love we seek.

Thank you.

TO BE GRATEFUL IS TO BE FREE

To many of us, back in the day when we were stuck in self, gratitude seemed to mock us...like a sneering nah-nah-nah. Interestingly, that's how we responded when gratitude was mentioned...with a sneering putdown.

The unsought/sought turnaround came from a spark of the divine within us. For those of us chasing God, whether we knew it or not, this was the necessary crash-and-burn from which we would arise from the ashes a changed person wrapped in the grace of gratitude.   

Once we've felt gratitude, once we've known gratitude for our own, we can only want more...and there's our gift abloom. We experience gratitude as akin to love...we can neither force it nor self-will it. It comes by grace, and even as we realize that, the deeper it grows.

Our breakthrough comes when we realize we can turn within to find gratitude at any time...a simple thank you, and we're going in the right direction...toward Home.

The gut-bucket, toenails up, hair-on-fire reveal is that gratitude dissolves, resolves, absolves shame and blame. It is forgiveness in a coat of many colors...to be grateful is to be freed of "me."

Thank you.

TO KEEP PEACE...PASS IT ON

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: The secret to peace of mind is to be the first to give over...not to curry favor but to pass it on. Pass peace on to keep peace. 

Passing it on to keep it is holy...also hard to live primarily because its prerequisite is that we change our mind. The hardest thing life will ever ask of us is simply that...we change our mind. The first twinge of resistance is the Pavlovian bell...or God calling.

I tend to believe being born into the material world gives our ego dibs on our first thought. We read of the rare few who are born bypassing the material world, going straight to spiritual, but that's not us. Apparently, ours is to learn what they were born knowing...and then to want it.

It seems we are born believing our egoic mind...me first and devil take the hindmost is an ancient, but still active!, saying...and our spiritual growth is all about making the sacred U-bie away from that belief. In the reasoning mind world, our wants are our needs and must be met, i.e., we must stand up for ourself, take our own part, be heard or be damned. 

When we make our turn away from self toward Self, we enter that upside-down world of spiritual growth. We turn our will for our wants to be met over to God only to learn that our wants are immaterial...that our needs are already met, and we must walk a whole 'nother path to find them...within. We find them by using them. Patience...we've got all there is, all we need do is use it. Love, same goes. Supply, faith, etc.

Our still more spiritual growth begins with the realization that our always need is to change our mind. It continues with our acceptance of our inability to do that all on our own. It may not end till three days after we're dead content to let God continue to change our mind. Ah, Heaven.

Thank you.

THE NON-RESISTANT FLOW OF LOVE

Looking back, I am certain that one of the most important spiritual directions I received in my start toward spiritual growth was the necessity to cease fighting everything and everybody. 

That did not make a lick of sense which, I have come to realize, was the beginning of my initiation in the upside-down logic of the Sermon. My short form for spiritual growth: If it makes sense at first blush, we're heading in the wrong direction. Again, and yet again, We must go beyond reason to love. 

All that is necessary for us to live free in our own head (meaning, nonresistant) is for us to realize that we only need come to agree with whatever or whomever we are in disagreement with right this very minute. That nonresistance is the blinding flash: Be the first to give over...acceptance is the answer, no matter the question.

The shadowed clue to the peace we find in being the first to give over is that we give over with love and no "winner" expectations. Only then can our attitude of gratitude kiss ego on the lips and let it go. 

From my own experience, I say this is the spiritual work of a lifetime. It can never be finished for it builds on our foundational attitude of gratitude. 

It is in our own head that God has his hidey-hole. It is our ego, God's roommate in that hidey-hole, that we must be willing to get over in order to free us to receive the ever-flowing love of God. 

Thank you.

DOING IT WRONG, GETTING IT RIGHT

You must succeed at dualistic clarity about real and unreal before you advance to nondual responses. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation, July 16, 2021 

Paradox alert! Trying to do the right thing, as in going against our own "want to," is a self-determined objective and not of God. It is not of God until we are doing the right thing without trying...without thought, trepidation or hope of glory. 

We find we must try with a will or fall by the wayside, i.e., do the right thing as a self-determined objective, until one fine day we are doing the right thing without thought or notice...just as we breathe.

Doing the right thing is not only a want, it is a need. Knowledge of our needs is born and bred in our still more spiritual growth...knowledge unto reliance is trust in divine Providence...God in a word.

As long as we are dependent upon doing the right thing by not doing what we want to do we are stayed in the reasoning mind. Even, probably especially, when we are going against our wants. We want to set the generic Gertrude straight, but we offer loving kindness to her instead. And there is nothing humanly wrong with that...we feel good about ourself. 

We slowly realize that self is too much in there...it is still a self-determined objective. Take heart, we are being headed in the right direction. We inwardly acknowledge gratitude for another opportunity to learn Thy will, Thy way, and pray our thank you. 

For sure, we will get many more opportunities to learn...as we continue making false starts, hitting egoic walls, but aiming in the right direction. Learning to get over our own self. 

 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

Thank you.

NO GREATER LOVE

To the reasoning mind, or plain common sense, pain...physical, mental, spiritual...is to be avoided at all costs. 

But, as Beatrice Bruteau writes, Children of God are supremely safe in this love (but not protected in the world).

Rarely, if ever, do we see that truth so clearly spelled out in black and white. Preachers, priests, gurus  and hucksters allude to the fact of our unprotected state with the promise of safety IF...we believe what they're preaching, teaching, offering, selling...if we believe enough. So, our unfilled enough is not their product that is lacking, it is our problem that is our problem.

Bruteau states right out that we are supremely safe in God's love, but not protected in our walking-around world. The paradox is that the flat-out truth of not protected brings a sense of peace...it takes away the unfulfillable promise of ever-safe and the blame and shame if we don't feel that.

To me, that explains why thank you is the only prayer we will ever need. From experience, I can vouch for thank you in the midst of less-than-wonderful bringing a sense of peace...peace in the face of worst case imaginable. Imaginable...not necessarily what is, but what might be coming. 

Thank you allows our mind to resist not, to welcome...to let it be. There. That's our supremely safe in God's love. 

Whether  or not we know it in toto, when we make a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, our inner Self is activated. From that point forward, whatever our life brings, the best and the worst, we learn...slowly if we're doing it right...to meet it with Welcome! The mental trauma is appeased...our egoic mind is silenced for now. 

The worst will happen...our acceptance will bring us peace. The best will happen...our acceptance will pass that peace to others. Ah, no greater love.

Thank you. 

***************************************************

@8/11/21

GOD ASKS LITTLE, AS IN LOVE AND LAUGH

I say it often, probably as a reminder to myself when I am resisting the dust bunnies in my mind: The hardest thing life is ever going to ask of us is that we change our mind.

It is particularly important that we realize the need is not to change our mind in order to agree with whomever or whatever we're resisting...face it, we all may be wrong. The need is to open our mind to God...to get a perspective from a higher consciousness altogether.

To reach that higher consciousness is the acme of still more spiritual growth. That is when our mind has been exchanged...by grace and by God.

I'm coming to believe that we make a mistake when we try to stay in that higher consciousness...to live there. The very trying makes it a self-determined objective as opposed to the perfect objective which is of God. We are, after all, human beings, subject to all the limitations that go with being human.

There it is, another reason why we need God...to aid us in doing better than we are naturally inclined to do. Lest we forget, better by God's lights, not ours.

Aim for progress not perfection, focus on the well-being of others, be kind to invalids and animals, and don't be as nasty as we want to be. Or love and laugh.

If we fail at that, then do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Thank you.

FOR ALL MY OTHERS...AND FOR ME

If all our happiness

is bound up entirely

in our personal circumstances

it is difficult not to demand of life

more than it has to give.

-- Bertrand Russell

I see my ghost of yesterday 

Walking the streets in shades of gray 

Bumbling through the open door 

There but for the grace of you go I.

-- lifted from I forget who

 

With God, grace and guts, the not-just-for-Sunday Trinity.

-- my personal ode to the Fellowship

Thank you.

ON REALIZING OUR ANGEL

Our inner freedom is actualized by our realization of the spiritual truths we have been drawn to.  Those laid out in the Sermon have ever called to me...as applied to each egoic stumbling block I come to and recognize by my resistance to it. In one form or another, inner resistance comes as the you are wrong, I am right response.

My morning's realization of the perfect response to another Gertrude glitch is to agree with her...I had already recognized that she was right...it is her Drill Sergeant tone of voice that I mentally resist.

The breakthrough was the Sermon interrupted to turn me around, without intellectual effort. My resisting mind was already toying with ways to appease it...the idea of quitting the meeting had slithered in, moving to Santa Fe was no doubt coming up. But, whoa!, instantly came the flash, agree with your adversary quickly.    

Because she was right, and I did learn from that, I saw that I could thank her for giving me that new information. Begin thank you, end mental gyrations. 

Interestingly, way back when, I recognized that very same problem with my tone of voice. With Gertrude, my next step may be to be open to sharing my voice problem. I know and often have shared that the tone of my voice hardens, sounds accusatory, depending upon to whom I am speaking and what the message is...or, more like, how attached I am to the message.

The best is in the paragraph from this morning's "Daily Meditation" of Fr Richard Rohr: Every time we manage to let go of a thought..., 'consenting to the presence and action of God within,' the gesture is actually physically embodied. It’s not just an attitude; something actually 'drops and releases' in the solar plexus region of your body, a subtle but distinct form of interior relaxation....And in time, this gentle and persistent 'inner aerobics,' .... will gradually establish that 'mind of Christ' within you as your own authentic self.

There. Proof that the generic Gertrude is my angel.

Thank you.

COURAGE IS NONRESISTANCE

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear. -- Mark Twain

Learning the fine art of acceptance requires spiritually ingrown patience, tolerance, understanding...love in a word. The fine art of spiritually ingrown love requires that we have an exchange of mind. That exchange moves us from reasoning mind, i.e., black-and-white thinking, beyond reason to Providence, to One, i.e., God's hidey hole.  

I read the Mark Twain quote and had a blinding flash of the obvious: In the material world, the world of the reasoning mind, courage is just as Twain wrote. However, Providence, which is beyond reasoning, knows courage is nonresistance to fear, mastery of fear by welcoming--by 'thank you'--not absence of fear. 

Being neither entirely stupid nor wholly ingrown spiritually, we gutbucket know we are incapable of that degree of courage. 

Ah, here comes our aborning faith to save our hopeful mind. We recognize it is for this we are building trust, for this we daily practice opening to faith, for this God holds us up. To live not in the absence of fear but in the God-glow welcoming brings from all who enter our space...friend, foe, attack-mind tiger or friendly puppy. 

Welcome...trust, faith, thank you...does not keep friend from leaving, foe from backstabbing, mental tiger from attacking or friendly puppy from peeing on our leg...no. Welcome brings bone-deep gratitude that God has it all in hand...for the benefit of all.

It is that gratitude that informs us that we are protected, provided for, and we feel the need to pass it on...to share our grateful heart's peace that passes understanding.

Thank you.

WE MUST LET GO TO LOVE

Rohr has written, "If we have not made contact with our true power, the Indwelling Spirit, we will seek power in all the wrong places."

I wonder if our continuous seeking, searching, reading, pondering for to make contact with "our true power" is not our block to making that contact. 

We say, and believe, that God is in our life...our life being that very proof. Yet every time a new or more cleverly put idea comes to us, we copy it to our long list of truths. We discover another mystic, saint, reclaimed sinner whose words have been published, and quote them endlessly...until we discover the writings of a new and different spiritual guru whose words are honest and true. 

Just like those of the Sermon on the Mount. 

The trouble with the Sermon is there are no ego-enticing promises. We quote the Sermon, e.g., agree with your adversary quickly, or resist not evil, and one of two things happen: eyes glaze over or tempers flare. Neither of which invite a loving feeling in response.

And there it is! There is the grace of God, the divine gift that keeps on giving...it is in the ego-threatened glazed eyes, temper up that we get our golden opportunity to practice the Sermon. Not by words but by our of-God response...being of God, we cannot plan it, practice it, rehearse it. We trust and respond with love....and very likely receive sneers or snarks back. Hey! Another golden opportunity...to live the Sermon.

Our changed mind has given over...our exchanged mind is taking hold. We can, if we choose, model: God is the love that gives itself away for the sake of more love. (Fr Richard Rohr)

Hard, ain't it hard, oh Lord, loving you. (Our reasoning mind)

 

Thank you.

WHAT WE RESIST PERSISTS

According to me, resistance is the stumbling block of life. That led to my own conclusion about the hardest demand of life...that we change our mind. 

A recent proof of purchase for me is one of today's common snarks, Get over yourself! It matters  not whether we say that to ourself in a moment of pique or to another when in a snit...it is not said with respect much less love.  

Clearly, our pique or our snit is powered by self-will. Just knowing that gives us a choice...to stay stuck in reliance on our attack mind all hunkered down with anger or to change our mind and rely on the  spiritual answer to give over, give up, give in and be at peace.

It takes as long as it takes to begin the process of changing our mind. "Should"  gets us bupkis, "want-to" heads us in the right direction but will not get us there. It does, however, bring a sliver of light which appears to be a brick wall but is, in fact, a spiritual way through.

The spiritual way through is...we change our mind. With God as our guide. I'm convinced a true change of mind is impossible relying on self-will alone. There must come an awakening within. 

I doubt anybody ever changed their mind when they were convinced they were right...changed their behavior, maybe, else suffer dire consequences, but a rigid, righteous and right mind is a resentment aborning. That resentment assures us of another, often worse, dire consequence.   

That change of mind shines a whole new light on get over yourself...it becomes a spiritual gift: To get over ourself is to get our own self out of our own way. 

It is to rely on God as our guide. Trusting God, we comfortably resist not evil. Trusting God, we welcome the crooked places. Trusting God, we are grateful thank you is the only prayer we will ever need pray. We keep it simple. 

All that...a new way of life...just by changing our mind. With God as our guide.

Thank you.

WE ARE THE CROOKED PLACE

If we could see our wounds as the way through...then they would become sacred wounds, and not something to deny, disguise, or export to others. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," July 27, 2021

To the reasoning mind, or the material mind, an exchanged mind is upside-down...senseless it seems...reasonably, just wrong. 

The answer is to let it be reasonably wrong which is precisely how we make our U-turn...away from self back to Self. It takes our many mistakes, missteps, errors in judgment to step out onto the long road toward acceptance of that exchanged mind...it feels threatening, doesn't it? 

Yet once this truth enters our consciousness, once it finds its roots, our fight is over. We are home free. 

Except. Only. Yes, but....reasoning mind, married to ego, does not give up without reasoning mind proof of purchase. That, then, is the necessary invitation for our still more spiritual growth to begin to pay off. We experience God intervening in our life in our behalf by the blinding flash: We are the source of all our woes. 

It probably takes the rest of our conscious life to fully realize, to walk it in real time, that our resistance to you, to them, to it....to the other, any other...is our angel working for us...in our behalf. 

How often we say that, God is working in our life in our behalf, never recognizing that any apparent snag is our angel sent from God in our behalf. Comes the hammer: Not to set the other straight, but to set us straight...we are the crooked place that God goes before to straighten. The crooked place is our answered prayer.

I'm beginning to believe the put-down, get over yourself, is a spiritual axiom for that is the all of it...and surely a shortcut to God. Maybe the surest...only?...way to God. Speaking of an exchanged mind.

We must go beyond reason to love.

Thank you.

OUR SACRIFICE IS OUR GAIN

God is able to use unlikely figures who in one way or another are always inept, unprepared, and incapable—powerless in some way. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 9, 2021

There it is...the very heart of the matter: We know God uses us for his good; we did not know it was because we are inept, unprepared, and incapable...ergo, we have ever prayed to God to make us ept, prepared and capable.

Comes the light, we hear the word: Self-determined objectives are not for us. However, hearing and learning are as different as a kitten at birth and a lion full grown. There's a lot of practice, practice, practice in the mix. 

Paradox alert! Practice...letting go. Practice...detaching. Practice...resist not, welcome. 

Huh? How?

It seems it is all about changing our mind, which we go down fighting to learn we cannot do on self-charge alone. We go back to God, again with a self-determined objective, now praying for him to change our mind. 

It is in that failure that we get the first glimmer...we need an exchanged mind. From our reasoning, rational, material mind to the mind that was in the Buddha, the Christ, Saints Mary, Francis and Claire...and our mentor when we finally listen. 

The second glimmer...this is not a one-shot deal. We are learning life changes. 

We realize a change of mind boils down to a change of opinion; an exchange of mind is to be rocketed into the fourth dimension, then hanging out there are much as possible. Not to put too fine a point on it, that is not all that often. We gratefully accept progress, not perfection, as our new life-goal.

It is that new goal, progress not perfection, that invites evergreen growth. It opens the door for God to come out from within imbuing us with the peace that then passes on to others. 

All spiritual progress requires the sacrifice of self-will. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," July 28

Thank you. 

TRUST...GOD ANSWERS OUR CALL

 I once read that the primary audience for the Sermon on the Mount would have been the “disinherited.” 

I have pondered that off and on, and I recognize that is the audience, the disinherited, that make up the apparent "less thans," the "have nots," the meek, the poor, pitiful put-upons among us. 

They are the ones to whom we need be entirely open. Mainly because, blinding flash, each of them is each of us...is you, is me. 

There is the very soul of us...those we meet and subconsciously avoid as if they were the "unclean" of yesteryear. 

We need to let that truth come into our walking around consciousness, to know them as our peeps, to consciously shut out no one. 

When reasoning mind gets hold of the joy stick, the others, our lessers, and the other "others," our  betters, meet in the middle and call our name. Our powerlessness is our clarion call to our self's Self...for God's answer.

As Howard Thurman wrote: When all hope for release in this world seems unrealistic and groundless, the heart turns to a way of escape beyond the present order. 

A way of escape beyond the present order...God answering our call. 

Thank you.

WELCOMING TRANSMUTES...WHO KNEW?

The way to free yourself from pain is to feel it, not to run away, as difficult as that may be. Be a mountain and be porous at the same time. Become interested in yourself, your thoughts, your emotions, your sensations. - from Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," August 7, 2021

I read that this morning and recognized it as that which over the years I have learned to do. That which I already know, already do...ah, what I do with current pain. 

The blinding truth came when I recognized it as the solution for what I do with my 2:00 AM rues, regrets and remorses. The pain most often mine is wrapped in those memories that I refuse to cede to God, my want-to holding me in thrall. 

The big ah-ha? My want-to is not what I thought it was, to change the facts, as in to make my regret unhappen. But, no, my well-hidden want-to was to remain the victim of those regrets...self-inflicted wounds regretted are nurtured by guilt. Blame and shame's Miracle-Gro for sure. 

There it is this morning in black-and-white, my personal evergreen instructions: Do not piss and moan and beg to be relieved of regrets, but pray thank you for the privilege of the painful memories. 

Little known, less used fact: Welcoming transmutes, a.k.a., hug 'em and  kiss 'em and let 'em go. 

Thank you.

THE OLD MADE NEW AGAIN...AND AGAIN

I meditate every morning on the 23rd Psalm, and often I get a glimpse of a new and different meaning, but mostly I get the same-old-same-old only entirely applicable to my problem du jour. 

This is a s-o-s-o with the generic Gertrude whose angel wings flap in my face whenever they want to: Thou prepares a place before me in the presence of my enemies. 

Deny we will, but accept we must: Always my enemies are me, myself and i, and that is all. Harrumph to Gertrude and her/his angel wings...kiss 'em on the lips, and pray thank you for the privilege. 

Another old newbie: Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you. 

The hidden, found, forgotten, recalled fact: The kingdom of heaven, the Father's hidey-hole, is within. That is, within our very own self and soul. We find that, seek to settle there (an always search, we learn), and all else, diamonds, dollars and glory, are as dust on the wind...they matter not.

An aside about our Father within, a.k.a., love: It is ever with/within us, was born with/within us, can never not be with/within us. Whether we know it or not. Whether we accept it or not. And our reasoning mind is the last to know. We must go beyond reason to love.

Go beyond reason to love - it is safe. It is the only safety. Love all you can, and when you are ready all will be shown to you. --  Thaddeus Golas, "The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment," p. 104.

Thank you.

GRIEF & LAUGHTER...TWO TAKES, SAME COIN

It [grief] is the blue mood that greets us upon waking....It is essential for us to welcome our grief, whatever form it takes. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," August 5, 2021

There's my answer. I  awoke recently in that blue mood, but with no idea of what brought it on. I prayed my thank you, wrote about it, shared the fact of it with beloveds...I let it go with the natural question of what was that about? coming and going in my mind.

Rohr wrote of grief, and my perplexity was released. It is unrealized grief awakening that got up with me feeling all blue all over.  

Face it, grief does not have a good rep in this world, and that let in the thought...all we need do is change our mind about grief. We can recognize grief as the companion to laughter...we can't have one without the other. We need make both welcome as one in our life.

This is a humbling example of divine providence making a personal homecare visit. With no specific instructions, requests, directions...hints even!...from me.

Divine providence in a word: Trust. Trust that all our needs have already been met, all our questions already answered. 

A particular note to Rohr's assuring us how essential welcoming is...there's our thank you prayer. There is no unanswered need or even want when we realize the power of thank you...there is the go-ahead.  Not for God to move, for our own self to remove! 

Thank you. 

ON LIVING THE UNSELFED WAY

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for Thou art with me. --  Psalm 23:4 

 

There it is, the promise that we will walk through feelings of despair, defeat, depression...if we're doing it right. That is precisely how, not to mention why, we build faith in our Father, trust in the Lord, our Shepherd. 

It is painful to my soul how many of us believe, albeit usually unaware, that anytime we are feeling less than our idea of spiritually fit, we are in spiritual trouble, or are just plain wrong. Neither supposition is even close to true.  

It's the like principles of when, not if, wrong and the though I walk  through the valley of the shadow of death that tell the tale. Face it, it is the fear factor that stalls us...fear of doing "it" wrong or not doing it right, more like. What we must needs accept is that we will feel fear...that is the If We Are Doing It Right principle. 

What else turns us to God faster than fear? A recent example of my own is feeling fear of depression, and hitting my knees with my thank you prayer. I have not been on my knees in a way long time, but that's how we learn to feel the fear and welcome it...trusting that fear is God calling us home. 

We do not learn to trust after the fact. The essence of our thank you prayer is trust in God that all is well before we gut-bucket know all is well...reasoning mind can play no part in that. 

This is why we make ourself available to a power greater than ourself on a daily basis...so we can continue to learn an unselfed way of life through personal experience. An unselfed way of life is based on the nonresistance of thank you, on give over, give up, give in...on trust.

As a learning tool, with no expectations of attaining this in my lifetime, I am in awe of an example of Saint Francis' teaching: We are stranded out in a sleet storm, lost, weary, hungry and afraid, and we come to an apparently friendly home. We knock on the door with hope in our heart, and we are met with a punch in the eye and curses to get ourself gone. If we can say with love in our heart, 'Bless you in the name of the Father,' then we shall have found perfect peace. 

Admittedly, few of us even have the want-to for that. But we can be pleased...surprised and pleased...that we stand in awe of Francis' belief. 

Maybe because of his belief, we can actually take baby steps toward giving love to our own less-than-lovable foe...our doppelgänger in truth.

Thank you.

IT'S ALL IN AN EXCHANGED MIND

Simone Biles is still teaching us. She competed again for the first time since she hit the wall with the Twisties, which I take to be a gymnast term for pea-green-purple petrified in the midst of a required  upside-down contortion. 

This being the last women's gymnastics event for this Olympics, the apparatus she got to compete on was the balance beam, known to be the hardest of all.

She won the Bronze. 

I can't think any Olympic contender ever prayed to win the Bronze; yet, according to me, for Simone Biles today, her Bronze can forever be her most cherished medal. 

By bowing out, simply letting go, she hung on, hung in, and hung tough, and won an Olympic medal first time back. There, that is showing the world how it's done...with God, grace and guts, the not-just-for-Sunday Trinity.

Don't tell me God's will isn't perfection wrapped in toilet paper. All we need do is change our mind, and lo! it's now toilet tissue. Love and laugh.

Thank you.

GOT THE "UNWANTEDS"? SIT, SMILE, CHEER

I awoke this morning feeling almost paralyzed...with nothingness. It took well into an hour to pull me out of bed. I self-diagnosed it as depression and like to scared myself silly.

I have never been a depressive person...an anxious person certainly, but not depressed. I for sure do not want to land there now so I took dire measures...I folded my down comforter into a kneeling cushion and hit my decrepit knees. 

I prayed my thank you and named each "oh, no" that is digging ditches in my mind, and I welcomed them. 

With that, the image of Simone Biles came to me, and I knew her as blessed. She is showing us how to deal with our deepest unwanteds, our ego-fears. Who knew that "deal with it" would be to sit, smile, cheer? As in, cheer for others, with others, about others. 

Cheering for others in the midst of personal mental pain? Unquestionably, that is spirituality on the hoof. Praising others, gifting glory to others returns to us the peace that passes understanding...or, love and laughter. 

In the midst of those images floated a blinding flash: Beware of trying so hard for spirituality that it  becomes our self-determined idea of spirituality, and we lose to ego with a halo.

I can believe that is God heading me off at the pass: Do not try to show forth Biles' spirituality...she has earned hers, and good on her. I need to continue building on that which is already my own.

My already own comes not by knowing better but by doing better...by being out of step and trying to right it with God, with friends and, face it, with unfriends showing me the way. By grace and by God.

Thank you.

THE POSITIVE POWER OF YES!

In my quiet time this morning, I came across this saying from Confucius: When you have faults do not fear to abandon them. 

That birthed a blinding flash of the obvious: Stop fighting for a breakthrough from my childhood fear...abandon the long-gone fact and enjoy what Is. I recognized that my letting go has been happening within me for a fair bit of time now without my conscious awareness of the fact.

Later, I came across a saved passage by Howard Thurman with an insertion of Rohr's. Thurman: The awareness of being a child of God tends to stabilize the ego and results in a new courage, fearlessness, and power. Then Rohr: Knowing our true identity as sons and daughters of God can save us thousands of dollars in psychotherapy. Knowing that everyone else is a child of God— and treating them as such—can save the world!

Recognizing that the Confucius, Thurman and Rohr passages were linked, had come to me now, as one, helped me to see my fairly recent inner growing. I have been enjoying these new behavior patterns, thanking God, and letting them come...letting them happen in, by, through me as it were. 

A whole new inner awareness is blooming...I am doing, acting, being the same old me in a brand new awareness...laughing at the incongruity of it all yet resisting nothing...which is close enough to loving it for me. 

I'm calling all this change/s.o.s.o. as the power of "Yes!" at a higher level...deeper.

I like to think my reasoning mind and divine mind are grinning at each other here. Ego's tish of anxiety bumps me, it's Beware Believing, blinking red lights while Trust is kissing anxiety on the lips and whispering thank you for sharing. 

I trust, and I stand on  it...never denying I See Me's powerful voice. 

Right there is God, unmoved and loving all...ego, trust, you, me, them...the whole fam-damily as we say back home.

Thank you.