SELF-ACCEPTANCE...GOD APPEARING

Blinding flash of the obvious: Divine self-acceptance is the inner realization that I am right this minute God appearing as my form and substance. 

We work so hard to fix ourself, to upgrade ourself, usually for the approval of others...calling it "for God." Walking the spiritual path, our want to be acceptable by looking good and sounding better is  lessened as we learn the joy of Being. It takes as long as it takes for that to become our inner truth...without regrets, justifications or apologies. 

For right this minute. self-acceptance is knowing and showing, inwardly and outwardly, who I am as I am...for that is me in God's eyes. 

Today, we hold the idea sacred that we all are God appearing as our form and substance. 

Thank you.

And go Bengals!

TRUTH LIVES...LIVE IT

Ill that He blesses is our good. -- "God Calling," January 30 

When I realized that for true, realized from my own life experience, it began...or continued...the turning of my mind from the material toward the spiritual. 

Then, recently, I came across an essay by Anne Lamont in which she wrote, When we cast our bread upon the water, maybe its return is not the blessing, but the casting. 

It is purely a double blessing to read biblical words, "cast our bread upon the water,"  used in the context of today to illustrate a deeper meaning.

Truth lives.

That which we curse today, blesses us tomorrow. -- reflected blinding flash of the obvious

Thank you.

WE ARE THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR HURTS, II

[The following is a reworked reprint of my post of December 30, 2019.]

When we feel the hurt, anger...less-than...inflicted by another's remarks or actions, that wound is not ours to fix but ours to forgive. It is the other's to atone for, but in the instant of pain...resistance...it is ours to forgive. 
 
The hard lesson learning is the minute we respond in kind or natter at all about the hurt, we have a self-inflicted wound.

A self-inflicted wound makes a mockery of forgiveness in the wash of ego's "poor, pitiful, put-upon me." With ego riding herd, the hurt feels justified by our retelling, but more by each resistant thought. All rethinking, retelling is ego seeking the balm of self-sympathy, not to mention pay back the originator...if only in our own mind.

Comes enlightenment: Our hurt continues because our wound is being self-inflicted. We stop the hurt by praying not for the originator, who may well be happy as a pig in pig heaven, but for our thoughts...maybe thoughts of thank you to God for the opportunity to bless the originator.

Again: The proof that we have turned our will and our life over to the care of God is our act of forgiveness...the grace of forgiveness that flows from us without our will attached.
 
Thank you.

...WITHOUT OUR WILL ATTACHED

Forgiveness. 

I'm convinced that the proof that we have turned our will and our life over to the care of God is our forgiveness...the grace of forgiveness that flows from us without our will attached.

Personally, I doubt it is possible for forgiveness to be self-determined. Forgiveness can start with a want-to, with our praying to and/or for. but hidden in the want is the hurt or angry or guilty self. Until our heart, our body and our brain collapse in defeat without a hope left amongst them, our reasoning mind will be slipping answers to our ego...legislating for self. Talking forgiveness, seeking justification. Or to place blame.

It matters not if we are seeking to forgive God for taking our loved one too soon or to forgive ourself for our own life-errors, forgiveness is ever gifted, never self-actuated. 

The punchline, according to me, is turning of our will and our life over to the care of God lets forgiveness, like love, unconsciously flow without our yes or no. We can still be praying to love while it is flowing from us unbidden.

When we find ourself sharing all the while laughing and scratching, be assured we've turned our will and our life over to the care of God. What's not to laugh about? What's not to love?

Thank you.

JUSTICE...GOD SPEAKS THROUGH OUR ACTIONS

Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. -- The civil rights leader John Lewis (1940–2020)

My question to me and thee: Why, when we had the likes of John Lewis walking amongst us, would...and did...we choose the likes of Donald Trump to lead us? 

We can ponder that question, but we must face the fact...accept...we chose what we chose, we got what we got. 

Now we need to change, and the lightbulb of enlightenment flashes: All we need change is our mind. From way too much experience, we have learned that in the end minds are not changed by a self-determined objective, want to or not.

Only by trust in God, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won, can and do we walk free. We find that it is the time between our knowing better and our doing better that when wrong (not if), promptly admit it, saves us. 

Now, it is our time. We fear not for we are guided by a Power greater than ourself which enables us to choose wisely...and change!

If our answer does not begin with finding peace within toward Trump, et al. (particularly et al., for only they will ever be with us), know this: We are still following self and no matter how righteous the appearance, we are flat out going down that wrong road again. Change!

Our heart, mind, need are one'd. We follow John Lewis, and those upon whose shoulders he yet stands, as he speaks to us today...when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. 

Thank you.

ON REALIZING, THEN LIVING,TRUTH

The key to living a complete and fulfilled life lies in the realization that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us that has already provided our infinite supply unto eternity, that contains within Itself our companionship unto eternity, and that has within Itself the power of fulfillment. -- Joel Goldsmith, "A Parenthesis in Eternity" at p. 269

"The key to living a complete and fulfilled life...." 

How many times I have read that, believed it, quoted it, wrote about it...yet today I feel the need to study on it as if for the first time. 

I doubt not that this is yet another step in the realization of the truth spelled out there.

I "got it" as in recognized it for true...which is to say that I understood from my eyebrows up as it stayed stationary in my brain. I choose to believe this is the gentle movement from its resting place in my head as it flows to my heart and on to my Soul.

I accept that spiritual realization requires the hand of God turning us around, away from self to Self...which I learned in changing our mind. It seems realization is a deeper layer on the higher road toward changing our mind.

Right now, this I believe: The key to living a complete and fulfilled life lies in the realization that God is alive and well within us from before conception until beyond the Beyond. 

Further, I believe until I am living that without thought...as I breathe walking around or in deep sleep...it is just a promise. Ah, it is a promise that only the realized I can fulfill...which we cannot self-determine, we can only be ready to accept.

Become entirely ready,  step up, hold your nose and take a leap of faith. The message never changes. But we do.

Thank you. 

ON BEING LED FREE OF ME, II

[The following is a slightly reworked  reprint of my post of December 30, 2018, and particularly appropriate to me today.]

If what our life is showing at the moment seems to be less-than-wonderful, recall...again...that God knows our needs...and they are seldom what we're wanting.

What we are getting is what we are needing for our still more spiritual growth according to whom and what we are inside where God lives. Where we keep digging, trying to get to that which is still unknown to us, is just another room in God's hidey-hole.

God knows, and he is sending out clues. Those are the things we keep rejecting and pushing aside and calling by another's name. No. They are our very own, and when we recognize them for our very own, we will break free...free of me.

It is breaking from our self, not breaking the defect but our resistance to the defect, that will free us from the bondage of self.

Face it, those we curse are leading us free...without them, our freedom would be hidden from us for Now.

Be grateful...love and laugh.

Thank you.

IMAGINE...AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN

For Jesus, there are no postures, group memberships, behaviors, prayer rituals, dietary rules, asceticism, or social awareness that, of themselves, transform us or make us enlightened, saved, or superior. There are no contaminating elements or people to expel or exclude. These answers are exposed as inadequate only when goodness is exposed as the divine field of action. Everyone and everything belongs. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," January 24, 2022

Of minor interest, as I read the above, "For Jesus," stalled me, but then got substituted by the phrase, "For the enlightened us...the generic Jesus," and I was freed up to write today:

More often than not in today's world, the very name Jesus is sneered at, mocked and trivialized, ignored at best. Which is particularly interesting since his simple ask is that we condemn no one, or more to the point, that we love  all...the liar, the cheat, the thief, the whore. Face it, the whole lot of whom is not all that hard to love; the almost impossible to love is the one who mocked me, lied to me, cheated me.   

Maybe making peace with our own self is the impossible improbable dream. By finding peace within, we let go of our attachments...me, my, mine become obsolete. We live to give love...then we get love.

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

It's come to this: We can accept John Lennon, but Jesus is still a bridge too far. But that, too, we can love for they are one, same as you and I.

Thank you.

THE EGO STRIPPED, KISSED AND GRATEFUL

Sometime in the next week or so, someone will cross your path who needs to know that God loves them. The challenge is a simple one: don’t pass up the chance to share the good news! -- from Rev. Mac McKenney's Sermon of January 23, 2022

I read that and was reminded of the suggestion put forth by the child Nikka, age 6, who said, "If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." 

Those are two of the most profoundly moving ideas that have come to my conscious thinking in a long time...if not ever. 

I suspect in most people's mind, both would be followed by the one-word question: How?

"How" is precisely what all our Step-Up studying of the Sermon has been teaching us for these many years. Our Step-Up Study work needs the Sermon as its base...there is no questioning the how-to of "turn the other cheek." We may "why" it to the outside of enough, but we can't honestly ask "how?"

The Sermon shucks the shield of our egoic mind which will ever find a fig leaf so I See Me is covered...justified in fact. 

Plainly, the Sermon on the Mount strips the ego bare-butt naked, kisses that same ego on the lips and leaves it grateful. Naught else can do that, according to me.

How else can we begin to learn to love by starting with someone we hate? How else do we recognize someone who needs to know that God loves them to whom we can share the good news?

The transmuted ego resists not evil but freely loves!

Thank you.

WE HAVE THE FAITH WE NEED...NOW BELIEVE IT

I did not have a strong religious upbringing and am not strong on religion today. However, our How-To-And-Why Manual states that we need to agree with the religious ones...as in resist not and maybe learn...so I became willing to learn if not join wholeheartedly. 

As a child, I heard that Saint Joseph's Day is March 19, my birth date, so naturally I have had a soft spot for the man ever since.  

For whatever reason, of late his name has included itself in my meditative quiet time, and I have welcomed it...thus, him. He has become the carpenter in charge of shaping the wooden-ness of my heart. I pray my thank you, and, grinning, accept my you're welcome.

This morning came an idle thought...or possible blinding flash of the obvious: Joseph should get as much credit as Mary for faith. She, after all, heard the very voice of God. He only heard her voice...and he believed her. Not only believed her but stood with her.  

Here's where knowing nothing, I speak freely, is my crutch to lean on...for today I'm taking this as  proof that my faith is as strong as Joseph's was as strong as Mary's.

If his, why not mine? If him, why not me?

If he could have faith as strong as Mary's so can I...so can you...so can we. All we need do is to go with it, quit straining to feel it...straining is just resistance all prettied up, fooling nobody but our egoic mind. 

Face it, "feeling it," is ego wanting proof of purchase. We did not "feel it" when we dragged ourself up off the floor and moved into a new life...spiritual in nature, self less. 

There...I believe alive and growing.

Thank you.

ENOUGH AND MORE THAN ENOUGH, PART II

[This is an updated version of my post of May 31, 2012]

When I was 10 years old, my 12-year-old brother, who was my hero, became very ill and was admitted into Children's Hospital. After a month or so of many tests, he was found to have an incurable illness, was brought home and, three months later, passed away. There was enormous debt, yet we never went hungry, we always had a roof over our head, a bed to sleep in...enough, in a word. I'd be putting on airs to call us "middle class," but it never entered my mind that we'd not have...enough.

Same goes in my adult life...I have always had enough. I've never gone hungry, I've always had my bed to sleep in, I've always been able to pay my rent or mortgage, I've always had friends...I've always had enough.

Yet it is a fact that back in the day my prayers to God were always for more. I'd dress it up right pretty, but it was always for more...more love, more glory, more security...more.

I've been pondering this since I saw a news story recently about a youngish teacher whose job was abolished. From the sounds of it, she immediately went right down the tubes. Lived on the streets, admitted, with tears in her eyes, that she went home more than once with a stranger..."lived under the bridge" in the vernacular and maybe in truth.

My heart went out to her because I know the pain of relying on the reasoning mind to fix our problems. It matters not if they are the apparently unfixable ones or the dailies, our go-to fix is ever our reasoning mind...worrying, in point of fact, but call it thinking, please.

My interpretation of her story is that in her consciousness that job was her security, her God. If she lost the job, she lost her God...no job, no God. So that when that happened, it so demoralized her, so demolished her, that she simply slipped into hopelessness, rather than accept that the job was not the answer...rather than change her mind.

Lo! It is the reasoning mind's utter defeat that frees its worst case scenario from the bondage of self. The dreaded surrender gets its time to shine. In our inability to think of a solution, feeling hopeless, helpless, powerless, our Soul seeks help...and we are raised into a deeper consciousness.

We go beyond reason to love, to our Higher Power...and find green pastures, still waters, peace. Enough in a word.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want....

Thank you.

WE MAY BE WILLING, BUT ARE WE READY?

Jesus is the stand-in for all of us. We had thought our form was merely human, but Jesus came to show us that our actual form is human-divine, just as he is. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," January 10, 2022 

When I read that sentence from Rohr on January 10th, I felt gobsmacked. I had had a blinding flash of the obvious just two weeks previously, to wit: 12/27/21 BFO: Jesus is the generic name for me.

That thought has been paying stop-and-go visits since it came to me, then Rohr's quote gave it more credence...more "what if?" possibility. 

It was my (at the time kinda embarrassing) BFO about the name Jesus being generic for me that caused me pause. Then I realized, if generic for me, then for all of us in this world...which opened me to its roots, as in, what else could the Father and I are One be about? 

I'll say this, it is a lot easier for me to see me being "loving" to my Gertrude-nemesis as opposed to "not as nasty as I want to be" when I picture me walking in Jesus' sandals.

For  now, I'm taking this as my 2022 To Try For...I can only give it my best shot which is God-directed so I just need remember to walk behind and follow directions. As always, mistakes will be made...and why the quiet word is when, not if, wrong, promptly admit it.

I feel like I'm setting out on a journey! As has been said, if invited to go to Paris, we know we're willing to go but are we ready? As in, current passport? Shots? Packed?   

I'm trusting that I wouldn't have had my blinding flash if I weren't ready. And if I'm not, what's the harm in trying? Win-win.

God loves me so much. 

Thank you. 

P.S.  For years the very word "Jesus" gave me heartburn...except to mock, I did not go there. Early on my path of spiritual growth, three personal events happened not simultaneously but too close to quibble over...first, I found it essential to find a God of my own understanding, then spirituality was introduced to me, then I learned from one of the first members of my fellowship that the Sermon on the Mount was their early-days textbook...and that Sermon came from Jesus's mouth to our ears. Thus ended my resistance.

NOT PUNISHED, TAUGHT...LISTEN

A half-awake thought tottered into my mind this morning; namely, I probably should quit thinking that we must go through the muck and mire to realize our good...that that is why I'm not rich, famous and beloved by all. 

Believe it, that opened my eyes p.d.q. Doubtless it flashed the thought that it is the realization of the rough and rutted road as My way that, "rocketed into the 4th dimension," has kept me there or close enough. Clearly, "rich, famous and beloved by all" is I See Me, that first one a-calling. 

For whatever reason, as I sipped my coffee, relieve me of the bondage of self came to mind. With it, I realized that we are relieved of the bondage of self today, but we trot along with the reins of self ever present, albeit invisibly. Whenever I See Me, the reins tighten, sometimes imperceptibly, and we head too far left, too far right. 

It is the trust we have built through spiritual growth that reminds us God knows our needs and remembers for us our learning to drive a car...a little to the right, back to the left is the way. It is also the Way that leads us out of self to God.   

Life is all about our return journey to God...our passage along the path of the material mind with its many detours, pitstops, U-bies and necessary changes of mind. We are ever being led deeper into the consciousness of the higher Power.

God is so good to us...we are never punished, only taught. 

Thank you.

THE HOW-TO FOR A FOREVER GOOD OUTCOME

I am reminded...yet again...that all paths lead to God. We will get to where we need to get to as we learn to surrender our wants and welcome our need. There are unlimited wants, some often necessary...think your favorite thing, as in Georgette Heyer Regency romance novels...ah, but there is only one need.

Wants are of the reasoning mind, need is of God. 

As we grow spiritually, we discover our reliance is not so much on thinking and rethinking but more on a wondering acceptance of intuitive knowing. Going less to our reasoning mind allows reliance on intuitive answers to catch breath within us. 

As we're growing into our intuition, it sometimes comes up bupkis...but that is also true of our reasoning mind even after we "think it through." There it is: Choose you this day whom you shall serve, and be ready to accept that neither is going to be to our liking one hundred percent of the time.

The walking-around fact is that neither reasoning mind nor intuition are black-and-white proven beneficial before their time. With a good reasoning mind outcome, we strut our stuff and move on; with intuition, sometimes outwardly the result seems to be less-than-wonderful but inwardly proves to be priceless. 

That is our building of faith, of trust in our spiritual core, a forever "good outcome."

Thank you.

IF WE ARE TO HAVE PEACE ON EARTH...EXTEND IT

An atmosphere of loving understanding to all. This is your part to carry out, and then I surround you with a protective screen that keeps all evil from you. It is fashioned by your own attitude of mind, words, and deeds., towards others. -- "God Calling," January 17

Extending an atmosphere of loving understanding to all, is to invite into our life even those with whom we disagree. It is then that we begin to realize they are truly our angels for few but the personally disagreeable turn us so quickly...so sincerely...away from self toward God.

We delve deeper under Saint Francis' words, "Help me to seek to understand rather than seek to be understood," and we are opened to the beyond-me prayer, "Relieve me of the bondage of self." There. Our invitation to God to help us shuck the shield of resistance.

To the reasoning mind everything we feel the need to resist, loosely put, qualifies as evil. Thus our  glimmer of acceptance to resist not evil...to the recognition that our need is basically to resist not. All our arguments, debates, no-nevers about resist not evil as God's will are as crib notes for ego.   

We are on the precipice of that leap of faith out into the wild blue yonder...of actually realizing unto living the words: This is your part to carry out, and then I surround you with a protective screen that keeps all evil from you. It is fashioned by your own attitude of mind, words, and deeds., towards others. 

There's the key to the kingdom of Heaven...others.

It is not complicated. We have come to believe and trust that God has our back, knows our needs, can and will intervene in our life in our behalf. Now, we pass it on...to others who are seeking to extend it to others, who are seeking.... 

It is not about me, it is not about you, it is about us for we are each somebody else's other. It is about all of us in this world and the peace we seek.

...if we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. . . . We must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. . . . The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Thank you.

SILENCE...ON LETTING THE SPIRIT SPEAK

Our true and deep need is to experience the unitive mystery in ourselves and in all of creation. The spiritual and the material are one....For more and more people, union with the divine is first experienced through “the Universal Christ”—in nature, in moments of pure love, silence, inner or outer music, with animals, or a primal sense of awe. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," January 16, 2022

I seem unconsciously to be evidencing silence as my new learning tool, and consciously recognizing  that my work is to accept that as the beginning of still expanding consciousness. 

Most like, this is why trust has been the flashing light to my inner eye for a while now. I need honor the voice of the Spirit by my trust in silence, as in letting my spoken words come or not only as the Spirit moves me. 

Mistakes will be made. 

But I trust, and my trust is supported and encouraged by knowing in willing wonder that mistakes will be made...if I'm doing it right. There will be no mistakes if self-willed silence prevails...then my Old Reliable can be tape crossed the mouth.

Whoa, Wow, and Oh rats. This is all news to me. But look....no exclamation points ! . Proof...silence aborning.

Here's me, Lord, do with me, build of me, as you will so that I may better serve you.

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF UNKNOWING, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 31, 2015.]

The more we know the more we know we don't know...reasoning mind weeps, Spirit exults.

Thank you.

EGO-DEFLATION AND GLORY

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. - Matthew 5:11-12

 

Note the three words in the quote, on My account...not as a personal matter and not to denigrate us. Plain and simple, the point is flat out on My account, or fancy, For The Glory Of The Lord (which kinda puts my back up but that's on me). 

This is the windup of the Beatitudes, the final verses, and, I'm convinced, the crux of the matter. What could be a more ego-deflating proposition than having all manner of evil uttered against us...falsely!... and getting to rejoice and be glad about it? Reminds me of poor, pitiful Bobby McGhee who was left busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train...I've always felt for the rejected me in Bobby.

To go a step further, the achieving of this ego-deflation is well nigh impossible even thanking God righteously...it is not an easy leap. Which brings up my explanation of reincarnation...we keep coming back until we get it right. Right is when we have no hand in it, i.e., not by self-will but by God's will. 

We are seeking God through a raised consciousness, and our consciousness can be lifted deeper only on My account. The key is to remember, or not forget, the Father and I are one. I suspect true spiritual growth does not start until we realize, experience and live in that truth. Speaking of feeling  busted flat and waiting...oh wait, here comes the light: that feeling is not a fact, and we're waiting on My account.   

All roads lead to God. I try to live by the Beatitudes, in particular Matthew 5:11-12, mainly because there is no possibility of my  misinterpreting it for my benefit...which is just me trying to make an end-run around God's will for me. I finally got it. If I'd do it his way to begin with, it would result in his intervening in my life in my behalf...plus, I wouldn't resist having yet another amends to make.  

Yet I'm convinced the following say the same thing just in fewer words: First, there's Easwaran's quote, the Buddha sums up the spiritual life in one simple phrase: 'going against the current.'  Then there is our dreaded favorite: We have ceased fighting everything and everybody. Ego-deflation in depth, baby.

Thank you. 

LOVE CAN LITERALLY CHANGE OUR BRAIN

I remember nearly fifty years ago now when my beloved friend, Ellie B., and I set out to learn about love, specifically how to love. Learning to love. How hard can that be? He caught on before I did, but then he always swore the reverse. Both of us trying to be humble probably.

At any rate, learning to love is not easy-peasy...shucking our shields is merely a first step in the right direction. The first shield being our overcoming, letting go, detaching from our fear of being loved. Wholly and completely loved...God's free gift to give, ours to accept. 

To accept, we must loose our shield, ego's invisible fortress, and let it go. That fortress is loosed through ego-deflation in depth...in short, a swap out of our self-determined objective for God's perfect objective.  

As we know, we defeat our purpose when we try sending self-determined love to anyone...simply put, trying to self-will love for a perceived unlovable can only get us bupkis. 

Love for others comes from within our own self for our own need. Our own need to love. Which then invites anyone in need ...or even want...of love. Dogs have this in their DNA.

I'm convinced love is nonresistance...don't resist, depersonalize. Take nothing personally, and nothing attaches...to our ego or our id...likely because taking nothing personally is a spiritually based action. Spiritually, there is no personal self to protect. There is only Self, which covers it.

The primary analogy for God is Source of Love, Word of Love, and Spirit of Love....Our hearts can literally change our brains. Our altered brains will change our actions. -- Professor Heidi Russell as quoted in Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," January 13, 2022

Thank you.

THE BAD NEWS IS THE GOOD NEWS...THANK YOU!

As usual, I read my "God Calling" this morning, but the first sentence...the first paragraph!...of the  reading sent a tingle, a chill, a whaa? through me. I felt gobsmacked twice-over. 

Here is the source of my, ummm, surprise: You must say 'Thank You' for everything, even seeming trials and worries.

See my dilemma? 

I have read those words close to every day for nearly 45 years, yet there is not an underline, a hi-lite, no note by me at all marking them...as in, no indication that I attached any importance to them...or that they attached to me.

However, some years back I felt thunderstruck when I read Meister Eckhart's If the only prayer you pray in your life is thank you, that would suffice. Which I have not only quoted daily but have lived by also daily...or close enough...since the day I first received or realized the import.

I suppose I feel so elated this morning for there is the proof I seek...the answer I have been relying on, living if you will, for the past maybe 20 years has been mine for the past nearly 45 years. So, for 25 years I have wandered through my life clueless, praying for I knew not what. All the while, there was my answer in my daily reading...more importantly, awaiting within me. (Actually, waiting since before conception, but that's a whole 'nother, deeper layer higher.)

Now I can aver from my own experience: All our answers are within us, waiting to be realized, all our needs are already met within us, waiting to be released...not by self-will but by the Father, not we, when he knows we are ready. 

The Father knows our needs. Yes! Now we sit and wait on the Lord. Oh. Rats. But thank you!

Thank you.

FINDING PEACE IN DIFFICULTIES...THE ONLY WAY

This morning, I am reminded that all roads lead to God, that it is our mistakes that bring us to crash and burn...thus opening the door on which God knocks allowing thank you to enter and set us free.

Since our reasoning mind cannot believe it is that simple, we almost always go with guilt...stuck in the muck and mire of our yesterdays. Then we're left with our egoic go-to, feelings of unloved, unwanted, unneeded and unappreciated. There. Evidence that we willingly wrap up in yesterday's ego...ahem...stuff. 

Ever-new old BFO: There is no God in yesterday, or, for that matter, in tomorrow...God is only here Now.

I suspect we can hear this, want this, but cannot trust this because we need live it for so long before its wobbly legs gain walking-around strength. Yet it is a wary fact that often others can see our change before we are fully aware...or dare to believe. 

The "others" are our angels in disguise. Believe them. Then say thank you.

Life with Me is not immunity from difficulties but peace in difficulties....Expect rebuffs until this is learned -- it is the only way. -- God Calling, January 8

Thank you.

LET GO & LET GOD IS NOT JUST AN OLD ADAGE

Nonresistance. Face it, the word nonresistance shouts "loser," at least to the spiritually unformed mind...and a long time into the spiritually forming mind. The reasoning mind comes to our aid when we become willing to want to believe. We can ponder with selfless intent.

Nonresistance to those who have crashed and burned and experienced utter hopelessness, the absence of self-will, know gratitude for the resultant miracle. 

My recent blinding flash expanded my awareness. We call many things "miracle" today...but I suspect that actual miracles seldom occur purely because we are living in the flow of grace now. That first miracle of crash and burn has never stopped, it is just continuing with the flow of grace through us. 

The sooner we detach from one-shot-miracle thinking to the acceptance of grace in our life's happenings, the sooner we can believe without our fingers crossed. Our realization and acceptance allows us to believe in God's blessing of a defeated self-will as a continuing spiritual necessity. 

Let go and let God is not just an old adage. 

Thank you.

BEST PART...IT IS NO LONGER DEBATABLE

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied, - from the Beatitudes

It is our hunger and thirst for righteousness that invites God to transmute our rues, regrets and remorses into our good, love and laughter...our satisfaction.

To my elementary, keep-it-simple-stupid mind, either we must have something to show as evidence of God's protection or he has to have something to correct to overcome our doubting minds.  

Our spiritual growth has led us to the realization that there are no irreversible mistakes...only opportunities for God to reveal his protection. We go forward, often wary but not deterred, living a trusting life. 

In trust we make our mistakes. We are amazed they no are longer rues, regrets and remorses but...let's call them "misfires."  In God's perfect outworking, a misfire becomes an admit-to-it error in judgment...creating a pearl beyond price. 

I am grateful that I learned early to take the step allowing us to make mistakes; i.e., when, not if, wrong promptly admit it. That is my backup, my proof of truth if you will. 

With that in my pocket, I pray thank you freely (or not so much) for my daily mistakes, knowing they do not define me, the end...no, they inspire me to grow, to extend love and laughter...to get out of self. 

That is a lot easier to write about than to walk about, giving us another pearl beyond price: God perfects that which is given us to do.

Thank you.

TRAIN AND DISCIPLINE FOR GOD TO USE

 ....train and discipline yourself. That is your work -- Mine is to use you. -- "God Calling," January 6

Blinding flash of the obvious: Take care my own idea of what is right does not hinder God's will. 

Self-denial begins with our realizing our need for daily training and discipline...fitting ourself to be of maximum service to God and the people about us. 

We begin by developing the habit of denying our little self its hurt, wronged, rigid, righteous and right feelings. The sliver of gold is our own conscience which natters us until the time is right...then, God will not be denied. The way is cleared, and we are opened to God which uses our faculties to correct our own boondoggles. 

It is our want-to that needs the discipline...our want to feel the delicious hurt of our victim that must be denied. Others supply us daily with reasons to try not to be as nasty as we want to be, to not react in kind, but to free the love that lives within us seeking to be released. 

A new way of thinking, a clarifying thought, comes like the proverbial thunder 'crost the Bay...others' hurt, anger, misunderstanding, none are mine to fix! These are the others' spiritual needs...these are for the others to accept as their boondoggles looking for God's fixit. 

The recent quiet word about silence, for me to hold my silence, is balm to my tongue. 

As I pray my thank you, I wanna believe I hear Meister Eckhart whispering, "Told you so." 

Thank you. 

SIT AND WAIT IN TRUST

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.... -- The 23rd Psalm

An unformed thought has been floating around in my mind for sometime now. It coalesced this morning: Yea though I walk through the valley all alone, unloved, unneeded, unwanted and unappreciated...the fool, I fear not for thou art with me.

That came about from a mental conversation I was having with the generic Gertrude which ended with: "It's not that I regret saying such, the pity is that you took personally what you heard me say, and I accepted your personal affront as my fault."

Not to bang my drum too loudly, but that's bloody brilliant. 

Over the banging of my drum came William James words, Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an inhabitual way, followed by "inhabitual way" is God at work. 

Back from my ego trip, I ponder, underneath it all, what does my Gertrude conversation mean to me? Her taking personally what she heard is on her and not for me to fix or to judge. 

My acceptance of another's affront as my fault, even though unknowingly and unintended, is my sliver of gold. There is the root of self-deception...that my words have import outside their meaning. Or, that my words have more import than they can possibly carry. 

Spiritually, that might be the mentality of the good Samaritan aborning; materially, ego-driven. Probably mix and match which goes against my scrupulous grain but that too is spiritual growth. Or I'm calling it that.

With no clear-cut idea of how it was to come about, this past year I have thought, even written, that my mouth needs to take a backseat to my ears. 

Today, I've got a glimmer: Sit and wait on the Lord...and trust.

Ah, hallelujah, plain and simple...I never doubted that  God loves me.  

  

Thank you.

GOD WITH US...ALWAYS AND ALL WAYS

Today, January 6, 2022,  is the first anniversary of the day a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. 

That fact and act has flashed on and off in my mind nearly every day since that day a year ago...me, wanting to respond in kind yet seeking to feel forgiveness. 

I awoke this morning to the anniversary news which let me know this will be the news all day.  

As I stumbled toward my coffee with insurrection looking for its right to be heard, resist not evil edged in. 

First thought...oh well, rats. Because...how?

Second thought...it seems that every day this past year, resist not evil has been present to me...in thought, word or trying-to deed.

Now here it is in relation to an insurrection against the United States of America instigated by a sitting President of the United States of America. 

We note I'm building my case...yet I'm convinced that's what makes God smile. He knows that's the very thinking needed to turn our thinking around...away from my will toward Thy will, from me to He...or She or It, if you will. To God. Period.

The acceptance of resist not evil brings the question: How? 

Comes the answer with all but flashing lights: Love. Resist not evil...love.

The acceptance of resist not evil...love brings the question: How? 

I'm convinced the answer is what felled the walls of Jericho...not by might, not by winning the battle but by ceding self to the Divine ever-present power of love. We turn kind and loving thoughts to anyone in need of kind and loving thoughts. The hungry, the downtrodden...the tyrant? The gazillionaire? Uh-oh. 

We defeat our purpose when we try sending self-determined love to anyone...Donald J. Trump, his people, the generic Gertrude, any one. Not through self-will but through God's will, grace, we accept them within our own self for our own need. Our own need to love. Which then becomes available to whomever as and when needed. 

Apparently "How?" is what grace is for.  

Oh my...as I was winding this up, I mishit a key, and this saved-file of mine came on screen:

Since victory and defeat there must be, the victory to be philosophically prayed for is that of the more inclusive side, - of the side which even in the hour of triumph will to some degree do justice to the ideal in which the vanquished party’s interests lay.

The course of history is nothing but the story of men’s struggles from generation to generation to find the more and more inclusive order.

Invent some manner of realizing your own ideals which will also satisfy the [other's] demands, - that and that only is the path of peace!

From "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James (1842-1910)

Don't tell me God isn't working with us...always and all ways.

Thank you.

THE UNFATHOMABLE IS OUR SPIRITUAL GOLD

Those seeking to know God's will in order to do God's will...to think, walk and talk God's will...when they succeed often appear to be the loser. Or as Father Richard Rohr puts it, Their altruism is hard to understand by almost any psychological definition of the human person.

There comes a time when the psychological answer, albeit soothing to the reasoning mind, is unaligned with God's will. Psychologically, we're in it to win it; spiritually, everybody comes out the winner.

We find that a trusted friend (or a mental enemy, who almost invariably is an angel in disguise) is particularly necessary when trudging our road of happy destiny. Not someone to glibly unload our stuff on, but someone to accept the gift of our trust as we share with them. Ah, the transmutation of our garbage to gold. 

On the way out of self, then, is the holy sharing with a trusted friend of our shame- and-blame thinking. We have learned (too often) that when we simply "unload," we dump that load within, holding it to grow deeper. 

Comes again Fr Richard: I wonder if the only way to spiritually hold suffering—and not let it destroy us—is to recognize that we cannot do it alone. *** Shared struggle somehow makes us one—in a way that easy comfort and entertainment never can.

The Father and I and you are One...pets, too. 

Thank you.

FORGIVENESS...LOOSE IT AND LET IT GO

Our proof to our own self that we have turned our will and our life over to the care of God is in forgiveness. 

Forgiveness is not forgiveness unless it flows from us without our will attached. We can smile, feel "want to" and make nice-nice while dancing on the head of a pin...and be no closer to forgiveness than we were when first we were gifted with the need to forgive.  

We can, and usually do, call all that forgiveness, but it is not, it is jive. Our heart knows. Our soul knows. Our Father knows. And our Father knows jive when we're dishing it. 

What our heart and our soul know is that we have built a forgiveness look-alike, but the need, the reason for forgiving, is still an ache in our gut. 

Here it is...Enlightenment 101:  All on our own, we are powerless to forgive. 

We must shuck our shields and cry for help for our own self. That cry unites us with the person whose name is on our pain...and forgiveness flows out from within.

Loose it and let it go.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL TRUTH IS COUNTERINTUITIVE

When we allow ourselves to be perfectly received, totally gazed upon by the One who knows everything and receives everything, we are indestructible. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," January 3, 2022

Knowing God is the One, just suppose that One is the person with whom we are sharing and/or resisting in the moment. Having a friend one can trust utterly is essential for the time when grace lifts our selfed protection, with Self waiting to enwrap the whole of us in love and laughter.

 

The surprise is that we must speak out loud the me that is mired in ego, covered over by fear of and for self. Our reasoning mind and our friend's intention of helping by redirecting us away from ourself blocks the flow of the me-ness that can only die by being birthed...not by silencing it, by speaking it.

The secret is in realizing by experiencing our very me-ness...we held our nose and took a leap of faith a long time ago. We have been caught, loved, settled in, and sent back out to learn more...repeatedly. That's when we're doing it right. 

We have realized spiritual truth is counterintuitive by proving it to ourself...repeatedly. Comes yet again a test of our vaunted realization. God makes available the ears (and the love) of a trusted friend to whom we spew our egoic fears, then wallow in them...even feel a touch of pride as they strut their stuff. There...the ultimate trust that God has our back.  

Face it, on the purely practical level, hiding those ego-trips surely hasn't stymied them. Here's our still more spiritual growth paying off: We are re-re-reminded that we must go beyond reason to love. There it is, it is realizing by experiencing our very me-ness that removes the veil from our eyes.   

 

We must remember when that time comes for another, and we are the friend being invited in, that we all have been lifted to a higher plane...we are not there to issue spiritual answers, not to redirect the egoic mind, not to speak but to listen. 

It is our honest and ongoing search for the spiritual that sets the wheels in motion. The One, using our friends ears, hears in lovingkindness and accepts our me-ness. 

There...we are freed from that me-fear, free for it to strut its stuff again if that be God's will for its secret power is out in the open...secret no more. Powerless.

When we cast our bread upon the water, maybe its return is not the blessing, but the casting. -- Anne Lamont

 

Thank you.

FORGIVENESS, OUR GIFT WE GET BY GIVING

We are One, the realization of which is the birth of forgiveness. 

Spirituality 101 is all about the essentiality of forgiveness in our walking-around world. Basically, forgiveness is not an act of will but the depletion of will. That is a very hard...and ongoing!...lesson to learn unto living. 

I suspect our spiritual growth is well spent by our beginning to understand daily that forgiveness is and will ever be the pain reliever in this world of human beings...the only inhabitants who need relief from the pain of the bondage of self. 

We are all God's imperfect messenger...not messengers...and our only message, being God's message, is Love. 

Love the one you hate...or as the unknown six-year-old Nikka said, "If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." 

Our marching orders for 2022: Start with love and laughter, learn to mean it, and there be forgiveness, effortless. 

Thank you.

OUR SELFLESS ACT RETURNED

I began this new year at 5:00 AM with an unselfish act for the benefit of me...and the other if they choose to accept it. 

We are all God's imperfect messengers. That being the case, our one combined spiritual and intellectual act is to give over, give up, give in. Spiritually that is done without forethought, the intellectual is forethought. 

As long as we get where we're going, we mix and match until spiritual flows...with our reasoning mind along for the ride. 

The ticklish part of putting an unselfish act out in the wind is riding herd on our want-to...want-to masquerading as need-to, ego's need to know how it got received. Which, we say repeatedly, is none of our business, but who's kidding whom? To the self, that is our business. 

Face it, that's the building blocks toward still more spiritual growth. The building blocks: Get over yourself. Let go and let God. God can and will...let him. Natternatternatter. Until...until...until...God smiles. 

Our selfless act is returned in God's smile. I have felt God's smile this morning...I know not the result, I need not know.

Love and laugh...with God. 

Thank you.