THE UPSIDE-DOWN WISDOM OF THE GOSPEL

 ...the Sermon on the Mount and especially the Beatitudes are a set of descriptions of a free life. ... As long as some people hold on to the upside-down wisdom of the gospel, it will be enough to flavor the whole meal of life. -- Fr Richard Rohr

Oh, the joy! To read  the upside-down wisdom of the gospel written by a religious authority whom I trust, is another pearl beyond price. 

It has been a long time since I first realized that the other side of material mind was spiritual mind...ergo, change our mind.

Actually, what else is the Sermon on the Mount but the upside-down wisdom of the gospel? Anything that is all about blessing the poor in spirit, those who mourn, etc., for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, has found another level of perceiving life on this earth.

That is the level I was blessed with wanting...and in this case wanting was enough. I found acceptance of what is, which I did not know a lick about, and now live there the majority of the time.

I am in the midst of a seriously painful back problem...I am reminded of the straw that broke the camel's back, and I do not doubt I have a hidden resentment (the straw) that is working its way out. 

I have no conscious thought as to its name; I have faith that God's already fixed it. I go to PT tomorrow to aid in bringing my mind and my faith together.

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF UNKNOWING, I

[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. 

THE PEACE OF MIND IN BEING 90...HUH?

My sister is 90 today. 

I remember when Mom turned 90...she was so mystified/rattled, and I just thought "ho-hum." Today, with my sister turning 90, I know Mom's feelings. I am right behind my sister by only 4 years which will go by like a gasp for air. 

Ah, let the years come and go...at this point, sincerely, Thy Will, Thy Way...and thank You. 

It is a given that anytime we can honestly say, without any qualifiers, Thy Will, Thy Way, we've achieved another freebie for our peace of mind.  

Thank you.

A PRAYER FOR ALL, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 19, 2015.]

"Today may there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us." -- Author unknown to me

Thank you.

ON WALKING THROUGH FEAR IN FAITH, I

[The following is a slightly edited reprint of my post of December 29, 2019.}

Blinding flash of the obvious (as I asked to be relieved of the bondage of self): I must release You from my bondage of self...from my personalized idea of You?

It was a great gettin' up morning when I realized that for myself, fear is God in camouflage for nothing turns me to God faster than fear.

The hook, however, is that fear is not lifted. We must walk through our personal fear to God. Ah, but we do not resist the fear as we are walking through for He goes before us making the crooked places straight.

It is I; be not afraid. - John 6:20

Thank you.

FEELINGS ARE NOT FACTS...GOD IS THE PROOF

Blinding flash of the obvious: When feelings run amok, facts do not matter.

Ah, but we cannot stay there...we must try with a will or fall by the wayside.

Father, hear our prayer, thank You.

Thank you.

THE THIEF WAITING BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 25, 2014.]

The thief waiting by the side of the road in order to steal all our worldly goods? That thief is ego. The worldly goods? Those are self-determined add-ons. They begin with fear...namely, fear of losing all our worldly goods.

I am reminded: My gifts are not of this world...be of good cheer I have overcome this world.

I want to remember that it seems every time I hear of or read about a better or deeper or easier or harder Way, I immediately KNOW I am (and have been all along) doing it wrong, and I need to try this other Way.

What I really need to remember is that that is the thief waiting by the side of the road.

Thank you.

ON TAKING A LEAP OF FAITH...JUST DO IT

To pray is to practice that posture of radical trust in God’s grace—and to participate in perhaps the most radical movement of all, which is the movement of God’s Love. --Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, November 6, 2024 

Looking back to the morning of November 6th, to the re-election of Mr. Trump to the presidency, I realize the words To pray is to practice that posture of radical trust in God’s grace mean more than I could wholly comprehend. 

Who's kidding whom? I am still a little loose in the instep with the concept much less the words.

Speaking entirely in general, I believe, I do believe, yes indeedy. 

However, and that is a rather large however, speaking specifically about me practicing that posture of radical trust in God's grace in re Donald J. Trump...much less as president of the United States of America...well enough said. Admittedly, a considerable part of my today's animus is in relation to what he has already shown as president-elect. 

Father, forgive me, help me, hear my prayer...I am living in the wreckage of the future as I foresee it...the need is not for DJT, but for SFC, i.e., me.

Who is most in need of God's radical grace right now? The person who does not seem to have a clue about spiritual growth, or the person who practices still more spiritual growth daily and comes up judgy, snarky and entirely unrepentant? Asked and answered...thank You.

It is not Lord, hear my prayer, it is Self, your prayers have been answered, now do the answer: God's will, God's way. 

Comes now spiritual growth to my rescue: Hold your nose and take a leap of faith. Thank You.

Thank you.

A CHANGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS...PEACED, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 23, 2023...an annual tradition?]

As the thought crossed my mind recently that a natural part of aging is forgetfulness, a blinding flash of the obvious followed: Dementia may be just a change of consciousness.

I welcomed that thought and turned from my reasoning mind to let it perc. Slowly, it has come to me that when we depend on Big Pharma and the medical profession, our consciousness is lowered, and fear blocks our Father within. When we depend on the Father, growth in consciousness and love blocks fear, and we are peaced.

I have become leery of the overwhelmingly many things that today's world credits to dementia. In the early '80s there was a run on cancer being the go-to fear...and, like dementia, cancer is fearsome. But one day I was talking with a friend about our shampoos...I named mine, and she, aghast, said, "That causes cancer...I read it in blahblahblah." That's precisely when I quit taking notice of what all was said to be causing cancer.

I see that in dementia today. It seems there is always a product being sold that gives relief...doesn't cure, just gives relief. Meditation frees us of our fear that blocks relief.

Relying on the Father within, we live assured that whatever...dementia included...comes to us, the Father is with us. He doesn't cure, he doesn't bankroll, he doesn't deliver love with a wedding cake...he gives us peace, or growth in consciousness and love in the midst of pain, lack and scorn.

We can live with that...peaced.

Thank you.

WE MUST GO DEEPER TO BE LIFTED HIGHER

We are given permission to become intimate with our own experiences, learn from them, and allow ourselves to descend to the depth of things, even our mistakes, before we try too quickly to transcend it all in the name of some idealized purity or superiority. God hides in the depths—even the depths of our sins—and is not seen as long as we stay on the surface of anything. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, December 22, 2024

 That may be the most brilliant thing I've ever read.  

I've read it more than once and only with this last reading did that occur to me...I just read it again and wonder why it seemed so brilliant. That's enough to tell me I need to stay with it...it seems to be speaking in tongues, but it is speaking to me!

To descend to the depth of things, i.e., our own experiences, our own mistakes, is to crash and burn. We are the life-lesson proving our personal crash and burn is essential for God to lift us to our rightful place.

To try too quickly to transcend, suffering the learning of our life-lesson is staying stuck in self-determined objectives, the circular road back to self-centered fear.

God hides in the depths—even the depths of our sins—and is not seen as long as we stay on the surface of anything. Staying on the surface is stuck in self...there is no growth there, spiritual or otherwise...stuck is stuck, not moving anywhere. 

We must lose all hope...all hope of healing our wounded self. The conundrum is we cannot self-determine how we lose all hope, even as we know we are hoping for our idea of the help we need. We may even be right, yet that "right" too must fall by the wayside. 

That is the beginning of the crash and burn that leads us home. Only a deflated ego can be lifted out of self-limiting wants. A deflated ego...ah, the depths where God hides...the reasoning mind is not capable of thinking us there.

Go beneath the surface, descend to the depth of things...God hides in the depths. 

 

We must go beyond reason to love. -- Thaddeus Golas

Thank you. 

MORE...ANY YET MORE...WILL BE REVEALED

Blinding flash of the obvious: My fear is not of being left all alone, it is of not being left all alone.

Ah, I have built my fortress around the lone me. 

It is clear to me that my Father within knew that and through his holy Way has been my gratefully suspected guide ever since.

It is equally clear that more will be revealed...has already birthed within me and will show forth in God's good time.

This is the opening of my eyes at a higher level, deeper...God's will, God's way. Still, yet, again.

Sit and wait on the Lord. - Psalm 37:7

Thank you. 

AWAKENING UNAWARE...AWAKENED...AWARE

My early morning blinding flash of the obvious: My confused, conflicted, upside-down feelings are my birthing fears...feelings that are opening me to the Father within.... my unknown, forgotten, scared feelings are of God...what I am experiencing is right ... I am at the never-before-been place. This is Let. It. Be. Thank you.

Immediately after those thought, I read Fr Richard's Daily Meditation:  Moments of spontaneous meditative experience can be understood as flash points of awareness as the person we are breaks forth into human consciousness [my blinding flash of the obvious]. ***** In moments of meditative awakening we obscurely sense that who we are and who God is is, in some inscrutable manner, one mystery. 

Questions answered, thoughts foretold, fears allayed (to come again, to be allayed again)...God is so good to me. God is so good. 

Thank you.

ON BECOMING UNSELFED...LIGHTEN UP

Seek not to know, unknowing is the path ... this may be the process of becoming unselfed...

Seeking not to know was a long-ago blinding flash of the obvious which I still wrestle with on occasion. The hard lesson learning is that the process of becoming unselfed is purely of God...trying to unknow is a self-determined objective and to wrestle with is the paradox. 

It's the old try with a will or fall by the wayside vs. let go and let God. The secret: Only still more spiritual growth makes that an unanswerable gift. 

Admittedly, the reasoning mind will often wrestle just because it chooses, and the spiritualized mind goes along just for giggles.

No doubt, I've learned more from going along for giggles than I have by self-determined seeking. Going along for the fun of it is a sign that I'm not taking myself too seriously...but self-seeking? That's an often-necessary side trip, but ego is invariably present albeit well-disguised. Beware.

Rule of thumb: The more spiritual it seems to the reasoning mind, the closer to an ego-trip we're walking. 

Trust God, serve others, love and laugh...and don't take our self so seriously.

Thank you.

ACHIEVE NOTHING, RECEIVE EVERYTHING

All we need remember is the promise: 'Be not afraid...it is I.'

What if that is true? That, literally, all we need remember is the promise: 'Be not afraid...it is I.' 

Remembering is the promise, but the doing is the hard part...the be not afraid part...doing that is the stone we need to roll away. Doing it by believing it. Believing it by living it. Living it...what would that look like? 

Say, fear comes creeping into our consciousness, would we immediately turn our fear thoughts to God, not with an abject please-prayer, but with a grateful thank you-prayer? And we would need to mean it. 

We have learned to pray thank you almost continuously, even when anxiety comes around, but we've never imagined in the moment, our anxiety wearing the Robe. There be the rub.

Oh wait...this is a blinding flash of the obvious! This is God-gifted for our spiritual growth. 

This be our 2025 walking orders...when, not if, fear comes calling, to pray thank you gratefully. To honestly welcome the fear for our spiritual sustenance...continuing to prove more deeply that nothing turns us to God faster than fear.

Having no idea where to start, we can know we're on the right road for just this morning, Fr Richard's Daily Meditation promised the answer: This is something we can only fall into and receive—and nothing that we can achieve, which utterly humiliates the ego, the willful, and all overachievers.

God loves us so much.

Thank you.

SAY YES IN TRUST THOUGH WE CANNOT SEE

Anglican hermit Maggie Ross:  ...say yes, as Jesus said yes to the cup that did not pass from him. -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, December 16, 2024

These, my fear-full days, are personally essential. They draw me ever closer to God...to God's will, God's way in my life today, Now. They fulfill the gift I have been given that continues to lift me into still more spiritual growth. 

God Calling today: Joy is the reward of patiently seeing Me in the dull, dark days of trusting when you cannot see.

Again, still, always and all ways, we say yes as the Lord reveals that He has us in the palm of his hand. 

Thank you.

NOTHING TURNS US TO GOD FASTER THAN FEAR

...many people who are not at all correct are the most connected by reason of their intense need and desire. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, December 15, 2024

There's a comfort. 

I doubt I am "not at all correct" but I am aware I am not the most correct person on my block...or in my life...and I'm good with that. That fact alone keeps me coming back...loving and laughing the majority of the time.

My fear of dementia is riding me hard this morning...note, it is my fear of dementia. I welcome that fear just as I learned to welcome anxiety since fear is just upgraded anxiety. 

I am aware and I welcome the fact that my welcoming will not take dementia away, if that be God's will for me. It will, however, let me live in peace with it just as I do not fear my anxiety today. When I feel anxious, I turn within to the God of my understanding, which stands tall in proof that love defangs fear. Is it any wonder that nothing turns me to God faster than fear! 

God lives within us, for us...fear happens to be my vehicle to the Presence. My long-ago BFO telling me to turn to God p.d.q. is my working truth, and I love it.

Fr Richard's quote is proof that God is guiding me always and all ways. The Father knows my needs and that is just what I needed to calm my jangled nerves this morning. God loves me so much.

Thank you.

LINGER NOT...PRAY THANK YOU AND MOVE ON

 Like Mary giving her fiat ('let it be done') and finding her limited view of God blown open, we too are invited to give permission to the Spirit to shake up everything we thought we knew.  -- Shannon K. Evans, Daily Meditation, December 14, 2024

It was Mary's "fiat" that gave me the idea to say virtually the same thing to the God of my understanding. 

My words, Knock Yourself out, Lord...do unto me whatever needs be done. I would rather have Your will done in my life than my will no matter what it looks like to my reasoning mind's eye.

I do not recall how long ago I asked that, but it has made all the difference in my walking around world. Whatever comes to me, I silently say thank You which acknowledges I'm good with whatever comes. 

That's what I am living now with my "dementia" trepidation...if that be God's will, God's way, I welcome it. 

Mostly, I don't linger trying to make good whatever comes...when I catch myself dickering with it, I remind me to let it be what it needs be. And remember once again, wants are of self, needs are of God.

I admit I am still hoping that dementia is not God's will for me, and I'm comfortable with "hoping" being God's job in keeping me on the straight and narrow.

Thank you.

WORST FEAR COME TRUE? PEARL BEYOND PRICE!

To spiritually know things on a deeper level, ***** we’ll know that Someone Else is doing the knowing through us. God is no longer 'out there.' At this point, it’s not like one has a new relationship with God; it’s like one has a whole new God! -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, December 13, 2024

I read Fr Richard this morning, and I melted...I knew and I knew I knew and have known that for some time, and always for our well-being.

Comes now a blinding flash of the obvious: God may be holding dementia for me...that may be God's will, God's way for me.

I saw how I keep trying to sway God away from dementia so that I have no mental problems...that my mind be sharp, all clear. 

Then I recall that was my earnest desire with regard to my original incurable, progressive disease...

which now that I've lived with it for over 50 years, I know it to be my personal pearl. Clearly, I pray for God's will, God's way while secretly resisting anything but my will, my way.

This morning, I got a whisper that dementia may be what I already have...which birthed the rest of the BFO: If so, that, too, is for my benefit, and I welcome it. 

Ah, the blessed relief.

Now I need to go to the doctor for a medical diagnosis. If I am found to have a sharp and clear mind for a person 80+, am I relieved or ready to go through the fear again...when, not if, old-age forgetfulness comes on stronger, waving its fear-flag of dementia? 

The reasoning mind knows no quit, does it? But neither does God, neither does God...which is precisely how we build trust. It's all good.

Thank you. 

THE DARK NIGHT OF MY SOUL

It is shortly after 5:00 AM, and I am feeling sick with fear of dementia...of losing my mind.

I just awoke unable to remember...period...not even how to turn on the TV. 

I am just now remembering this is how my anxiety works me...remembering that does not relieve it.

I have talked me through it and got the morning news on my TV, but my belly is butterfried. I am feeling fear right this minute.

Ah, comes the quiet word: I need to welcome fear...hug it and kiss it and let it be. Then do the next thing that I need to do. First, my quiet time and then get busy with my dailies. 

My belly still burns...it's the afterburn of anxiety. Thank You, Jesus.

Later another wave: I realize I am experiencing the dark night of my soul. I feel gutbucket fear. I know no one to talk with...I am all alone...I repeat Jesus repeatedly, but I feel nada...just fear and a burning belly. 

Lord, hear my prayer...thank You. I repeat...repeatedly.

I say to myself, and I believe it I hope...this is me crashing and burning. This is the necessary crash and burn from which I must leave nothing but ashes...no hope, no idea of lifting me up; hopeless, helpless, fearful, without a single hope of help...mostly afraid that I am doubting the Lord.

I do not need outside help...I need the Father within...or is that just another self-determined objective that is standing in the way of my utter defeat? 

My belly burns, I feel no hope, just a darkness in my chest...this is the dark night of my soul...I cannot force my way out of this. My brain knowing this is the Way, the Way of the Lord...crash and burn to rise again...feels like useless information as I sit in the middle of it. 

Thy will, Thy way...Lord, help me my unbelief. Thank You.

Thank you.

GOD IS PATIENT...THANK GOD!

Be it done to me, oh Lord, according to Thy will. -- Mary's Obligate

[Note: Purely as background for my today's post, I am neither Catholic nor am I church people...I live a simple life with the God of my understanding.]

The Mary quote came to me this morning...I cannot find anything that I was reading at the time that this would have come from...especially the words Mary's Obligate. I have no knowledge or memory of the very word "obligate" much less Mary's Obligate.

But I did see it in my mind's eye along with the rest of the quote. 

I had been sitting in silence with my thoughts trained on accepting God's will, God's way, particularly, dementia if that be God's will for me. 

Mary when she accepted God's word did or must have passed my mind for then came, Be it done to me, oh Lord, according to Thy will. -- Mary's Obligate.

I felt nothing, got neither warm nor scared feelings...did not even ponder it at the time. After my quiet time, I recalled the words of "Mary's Obligate," and I had to google it. I felt poleaxed

So, now that I've pondered it by writing it down, I'm looking for the message's marching orders for me. It is to laugh...when will I ever learn? 

Thy will be done means I do not know yet but whatever, whenever works for me. Or, figure out nothing, let what is coming, come, pray thank You, and continue to trust.

God is so good to me...patient may be the better word.

Thank you.

LIFE: CIRCLES AND CYCLES LIVED IN TRUST

I found a post of mine from December 24, 2021, in which I pontificated about coming to believe: We cannot come to believe utterly until we can come to trust utterly the God of our own understanding. To trust that very God can, will and does intervene in our life in our behalf.

As I read that this morning, I flashed on a missing link in my certitude in coming to believe: When and only when reasoning mind doubts, questions...ah, despairs...only then does belief be gifted to us. Doubtless, it takes the rest of our time on this earth, questioning and unquestioning, to trust that. 

Ah, comes the recognition, the realization, that what was posted on December 24, 2021, was indeed the truth that can only be lived within the invisible universal goodness of God. 

Life is circles and cycles...live trusting It and have a ball.

Thank you.

UNEXPLAINABLE...UNREASONABLE...OF GOD

[T]he beginning levels of our consciousness are dualistic, while the later or deeper levels are non-dual and unitive. The only way to move from stage to stage is basically by some form of wounding, failure, or darkness. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, June 20, 2024

We can only know that for Truth by experiencing it, by walking through the wounding, the failure, the darkness, and coming out the other side changed...upgraded, bettered...within.

Imagine my surprise when I learned...when I experienced...coming out the other side is not a one-time journey. 

We come out the other side of our today's drama and trauma and feel changed...we are changed. But not permanently. The minute we hunker down in our changed consciousness, with the idea that Now we've got it, Now we are safe, secure, all set...that's the minute our mind begins to be changed...whether we know it or not, and usually not.

That is entry level into higher consciousness...there is no one seat at the table. Just as the more comfortable the seat we find, the surer we need to get a move on. 

This for me was the beginning of my living realization that some form of wounding, failure, or darkness is essential for our mind to be changed. From feeling untroubled, at peace...right in a word...to no longer afraid as such but not dreading. No longer seeking my will, my way, but without thought, praying thank you for God's will, God's way. In that moment...when it appears so un, just un...right there. Another of God's hidey-holes. 

Unexplainable. No need to try. Don't even want to. Just grateful. Accepting. Blessed.

Thank you.

A TRINITY: LOVE, LAUGHTER AND THANK YOU

My note on this day in my daily reader, God Calling: '22 Faith is nonresistance.

I wondered as I read that if nonresistance is acceptance, or if they are just intertwined? Then again, does it matter? For the fact is we need to live in faith, nonresistant, accepting.

We need to live there not from the reasoning mind plane for that is a self-determined objective, but from the plane of higher consciousness...where wrong (so-called evil) meets God and is...tamed? turned? upgraded? Devolved! 

I recall my long-ago BFO: Upgrade your attitude, and you upgrade your problem. There...a long-ago memory assuring me that God is still calling.

Thank you is faith, is nonresistance, is acceptance, is love, is God. When reasoning mind, our material world, meets fear, which is a this-life mental state, we need only pray thank you...and love and laugh. 

Thank you, love and laughter are always earning their keep.

Thank you.

AWAY FROM SELF...TOWARD GOD

 As Ilia Delio wrote in her poem The Christic,  We are trying too hard to find You, but You are already here....

Doesn't that say it all? 

Does that stay our continuing to "try too hard?" Of course not. "Trying to find you" is my version of walking in faith. "Trying too hard," according to me, is simply trying...trying to make conscious contact with the God of our understanding when we're doing it right.

My hard-earned belief is that we must try with a will or fall by the wayside to get to the realization that too often trying is a self-determined objective that blocks the perfect objective which is of God. 

Long ago I read then wrote about spiritual growth going in circles and cycles and there's my proof. When I first read the Sermon on the Mount and "got it," that is the glimmer of gold that I "got." I only love it.

Since then, that glimmer has been growing smaller, moving me backward, raising more questions...which is It, i.e., away from self, toward God. 

We are trying too hard to find You, but You are already here.... Yes! And long may we try.

Thank you.

SACRED DISCONTENT IS OUR GOD CONNECTION

Teilhard de Chardin in Cosmic Life said, 'To live the cosmic life is to live dominated by the consciousness that one is an atom in the body of the mystical and cosmic Christ.'

Geez, here's me wanting to live "the cosmic life"...hoping I may be already. Unknowingly, I may be! But, we, the entire universe, unknowingly may be living the cosmic life. 

Unknowingly...the spiritual pearl and also an apt description for reasoning mind.

In taking particular note of two words in the Teilhard quote, namely, "to live," we are blessed by the realization that "to know," "to realize," "to believe" do not even touch "to live." We have "known, realized, believed" for some time now...ah, but lived? No, we really have not. 

That is to say, I have not knowingly lived and breathed being an atom in the body of Christ. On my finer days...no, better moments, in my quiet time, I may have. I have wanted to...longed to...even have felt a bit of a connection, a nudge so to speak. I am comforted in knowing that is close enough for me for where I am in my world today...close enough by heading in the right direction.

I am comfortable with that but not, repeat not, content with that. It is the sacred discontent... the uncontent...that is our gold, our God connection, or God-gift, akin to unknowing being the goal we seek, whether we know it or not.

The difference between living a worried life and living with sacred discontent is worried is entirely selfed or self-centered, discontent is God centered...or, selfed free.

Discontent...the pearl beyond price. Who knew? 

Thank you.

HUMILITY IS HARD TO LOVE...LOVE HARDER

 Blinding flash of the obvious: I need to commit to the spiritual fact that raised consciousness is for our good when it feels not so good.

That's a tough one since I wonder whether my raised consciousness isn't the driver of my anxiety, my fears...fear of dementia being today's blue-plate special. 

I once believed that raised consciousness made experiencing life easier...softer. Well, NO. It makes clear that crucifixion is crucifixion. There is no comfy crucifixion, there is Glory in crucifixion. (Uh, the glory part is from belief as opposed to actual experience.)

My crucifixion equivalent today...paltry though it be...is the package of self-stuff, i.e., $1,300 physical therapy bill, Honda recall, car repairs, injured leg and foot. All one for my benefit...for me to walk through feeling...realizing...the love of God in me is in this guiding light I am following. 

There is no creature comfort enlightenment...the comfort is in meeting life's glitches on their terms, kissing them on the lips to be moved on up deeper Thy will, Thy way.

The Father alive in me is me doing what I do in reliance on the God of my understanding and accepting that as my best in and at that moment. That often looks right shabby to my reasoning mind's eyes, but shabby is God's perfect will for me in that moment.

Shabby, thy name is humility.

Thank you.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS...AND ME

Ideas floating around: Use it or lose it has popped up uninvited...ah, but right on time. I'm thinking of the "mature" folks now...those of us in our later years. The following thoughts began with a fear of dementia and how that fear seems to be silently proliferating. Many, if not most, of my older friends hesitate to mention it...a dead giveaway, and I speak from experience. 

The question is, why is dementia proliferating...in what seems like double-time? Personally, I believe it is due to our not being required to use our brain so much today. The many conveniences that we are offered today preclude the necessity of using our brain.  

A couple of for instances: I have a new lamp which turns on and off practically on its own. Tap, it is on.. tap again, it is off. There's a hand warmer that heats up on its own...it judges body temp all by itself! I can tell my TV what I want to see, and it delivers.

Then there's my experience with my 2025 Civic...a nice car but certainly one of the lesser money-wise. It has more bells and whistles than any one person could possibly need. But all of its conveniences led to the use it or lose it thought.  I've had the Civic since the end of September...less than three full months...and already I have damaged the entire right side. Be it known...I have never ever had a driving accident, big or little, until this one. Yes, I do suspect my lazy brain...now being afraid it is dementia.  

There is nothing wrong with any of these, per se...but where's the mental effort? Where's the attention we need to pay, the necessity for use it or lose it, when the "it" is our brain? 

For a while now, several friends and I have committed to a three-minute meditation at or about 8:00 AM every day. We use: For America, Thy will be done and then sit with whatever God speaks through each of us for America.  

My intention now is to find another meditation-exercise to do for the benefit of my older friends...and me. 

Thank you.  

TO NOT KNOW...THERE BE THE PEARL

On this day in 2003, I first wrote in my Easwaran daily of my realization of my living in higher consciousness. That is 21 years that I have been silently growing within me without full realization, i.e. reasoning mind awareness. 

Apparently, we can live in higher consciousness with all our rues, regrets and remorses only reasoning mind facts. I believe they are God's will, God's way for our benefit. 

More and more, I am coming to understand and accept that not knowing is our pearl. 

To the reasoning mind, knowing is essential...it may be that knowing is purely of the material world...not knowing is living in the Now, making mistakes in order to be corrected...raised higher where down is up, etc., et al.

Are these reasoning mind considerations? Necessary to drop into the cauldron of consciousness for purification, to be borne out...like 21 years later to the reasoning mind...Now to the God of our own understanding.

The unknown...God's will, God's way to lead us higher, deeper.

Thank you.

THE TIME OF TRUMP FORETOLD, !

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 12, 2015]

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,

my heart is sick.

Hark, the cry of my poor people

from far and wide in the land:

'Is the Lord not in Zion?'

—Jeremiah 8:18-19

The time of Trump foretold...or, by the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.

On the other hand...and there is always another hand...there can never be just one side of a coin or a story. The flip side of the time of Trump then is: This is the time the Lord has made. Let us relax and be happy in it. [My paraphrase.]

There is nothing outside the realm of our Lord...what takes place within the realm is ours to perfect by finding our Lord there.

Thank you.

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD AND THAT IS ALL

If, as I believe, we are evolving inward and upward then we must walk through the material-mind dregs we experience...say, a 3:00 AM terrorizing fear of what may be just around the corner of our mind. Pray thank you. 

We cannot go for higher consciousness in order to avoid feeling fear. We go to God for God and that is all, a BFO from many years ago.

We must experience...our spiritual growth needs that we experience...the grinding and gnashing of the material mind's teeth...to feel the worst that reason has to offer so we can experience its nonpower.

Experiencing "the dark night of the soul" was doubtless a forerunner of what we will know, try to escape from, get to welcome...all that the material world has to throw at God and God's world. 

We think but cannot yet know that this is already living in our consciousness...higher at a deeper level. We can realize it only as we experience it...Here and Now.

Thank you.