ON BEING THE PEACE WE SEEK, I

[The following is a reprint of an earlier post of mine.]

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.

JUDGE NOT

The dualistic mind cannot deal with the biggies: love, death, suffering, God, infinity, and the very notion of grace....It will simply jump to the next thing because the dualistic mind is always moving toward resolution. It loves closure and rushes toward judgment. That’s why all great spiritual teachers said, 'Do not judge.' -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, May 31, 2026    

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE END...JOYFULLY

 I am reminded yet again: I go to God for God, and that is all.

I've arrived at the latest...and apparently last...stage of my life on this planet. I am being neither dour nor self-pitying when I think, and not a minute too soon.

I've needed to think this through...in depth...and I am satisfied that I am anticipating in wonder the next stage of God's plan not just for me but for us...for All.

I've come to joyfully accept that each stage is for our good, but it is how we perceive the good that actually plots our life  

And there it is: The pot of gold at the end of our life's rainbow is in our perception.

Say that each of us sees the same one thing, I perceive less than, you perceive pot of gold. That perception, when seen spiritually, i.e, through God's eyes, turns our once rough and rugged road into the promised path to milk and honey.

We go to God for God and that is all, for that is All.

Thank you.

THE GRACE OF SELF-ACCEPTANCE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of July 22, 2016.]

Self-acceptance, like forgiveness, cannot be self-willed. We must go to God in humble skin to thank him for his blessings...whatever they may be. We can and will in God's good time be graced with the discovery that we have had the gift of self-acceptance within us all along.

The saddest thing is to be graced with self-acceptance and then to squander it on pride of self. Pride of self holds tight to our gift so others may admire and emulate...us.

God's gifts are freely given, but they require constant vigilance in order to keep them. Which we can only do by giving them away.

God in his goodness is really clever...and my ego Lucy still tries to get over on him. Which, according to me, cracks God up.

Thank you.

NOW WE MUST DO GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY

We say again and yet again, and then again: We go to God for God, and that is all...for that is all.

Ah, we say...now we must do, i.e., get crackin'.

Thank you.

GOD IS EVER WITH US WITHIN US

I have been in a state of fear...well, truth to tell, I'm still a tish fearful. I have the fear that I am losing my mind...which in fact, I am, but I realize I am not "losing" my mind, my mind is being exchanged. 

I am experiencing old-age forgetfulness. Which, I warn all old/long timers, is not anything like it used to be. Face it, we got old, we didn't get stupid. In our youth, we watched, learned, laughed at our parents as they were aging. 

If we paid close attention, however, we came to accept that this would be heading our way. too. 

Well, it's here. 

Time, however, has changed its characteristics. We thought aging would require us to just do as the parents did, so we had memorized and felt safe. 

Old age is here, and it is 2026...a far cry from 1956. Almost nothing I learned and held as my insurance for "doing it right" is useable today. Face it, that is off-putting not to mention scarifying. This, however, is where the old comes new...feel the fear and do it anyway is as good and true today as it ever was.

I'm living with my memory taking short breaks, my mind feeling scrambled, my fear doing whatever it wants that doesn't feel helpful. Ah...but I am writing my blog even as I pray my thank You. 

 I am still, always, forever grateful from my toes to my nose that God has me, you, us, them and all animals in the palm of His hand.

Thank you. 

GO WITH GOD AND GRIN AGAIN

 I am reminded yet again: I go to God for God and that is all...for that is all.

I also have a worry trying to make its home in my mind. The worry being that I'm probably going to need to move...to leave this home of mine that I've lived in for over a quarter of a century. Well, there it is: Me trying to scare me with a dreaded possibility. 

For whatever reasons, back-ass-wards as they may be...when I'm dreading and delaying, I get me in motion by inviting my worst fear to do my thinking for me. This is not planned...and I only realized that's what I do fairly recently. The fact is, it works, and at this late date in my life, anything that works for me is mine.

I'd best get clear honest...my main worry is not that I'm probably going to need to move. My worries are that I have dementia, that it is taking control of my life, and I have already lost control of my thinking.

Which really ticks me off. I am in my 80s! I thought I'd be long dead by now. Not only am I alive, but I'm also reasonably well...no known cancer or other life-threatening disease. 

Today, no known illness is not the good news! In my earlier years it was, but today, pushing 90...90!!!...I am less than comforted by that. I am the last member of my family still alive...not alive and well, but alive! With my luck I just might live to be 100...in what world is that good news?

I do have friends...need I say, not as many as I once did since I'm outliving them, too! 

Oh, this is just a screed on the joys of self-pity. All I really need do is get over myself...and p.d.q.

God is so good to me...he lets me wallow in my own crap then gives me his viewpoint, and I grin. God's got the answer...I go with God and grin again.

Thank you.