PEACE IN THE MIDST OF A STORM

The occasions may only be momentary and we quickly move back into the harsh reality of the everyday, but their effects linger, suggesting that new creation is possible and that transformation can happen. --"Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," April 9, 2026

"The occasions" are my so-called "blinding flashes of the obvious" which come when they come...not often and then a bunch at a time. We can take that as God's timing, not mine.

Those occasions do peace my jangled mind...my fear thoughts,

There is so much less-than going on in the world today...less-than the serenity available at any and all times. But how often do I avail myself of it, of a serene mind? Yet, an unpeaced mind is where all restlessness, unease. dis-ease begins.     

To be at peace in the midst of a storm, be it mental, physical, or spiritual, is to live God's will, God's way.

We can aim for that...God's will, God's way...but to hold out for that and only that is to hold our self out from God, it seems to me. Aiming for perfection is using our own mind to define perfection, and what is less able to do just that? Nada.

We each live God's will, God's way according to our own inner God-connection. There's our journey...to seek our own God connection. 

According to me, three days after we're dead, we'll still be seeking, and that's if we're doing it right,

Thank you.

WITH GRATITUDE AND GRACE, WE FEAR NOT

Today I know to face my fears since they are with me; but how I receive fear determines my peace of mind (God with me) or lack of peace (ego driving me).  Only a peaced mind can receive the inner truth. 

I need to welcome my fear. To deny it is to give it fear-growth...to welcome it is to give it peace-growth.

I seek the peace that passes understanding...God's will, God's way which seldom offers reason to the material mind. 

To reason is to make commonsense out of a problem. There is no commonsense in God's will, God's way...there is only God's will, God's way. 

Blinding flash of the obvious: We cannot bring God's will and way down to us, we must offer us up. 

Our very offer is evidence of the spiritual love we seek...then we experience the love flow to/from us.

Thank you.

BY GRACE AND BY GOD

It seems that everything that my material mind's eyes see and judge as 'good' or 'not good' are in the spiritual world's view the opposite of what I see and how I judge what I see.  

My very first lesson is my go-to always: To my mind back then, alcoholism was bad so I knew not to admit to it. Today, to my raised consciousness, alcoholism in God's care is my blessing and became my ticket to ride...as in, still more spiritual growth always.

We leave the alcohol behind, go to God in grace and gratitude and live happy/unhappy as God wills and self aligns...yet ever free.

This morning I am fearing dementia...Mom died with it, as did my sister, and I may be experiencing hints of it. I also have intense anxiety disorder which may be doing my fear-thinking for me.

Blinding flash of the obvious:  If dementia be Thy will for me, then dementia is my will for me.

If alcoholism can be a good thing, and it is to me today, then so can dementia be...by grace and by God, Thy will, Thy way.

Thank you.

GOD GIVES, WE RECEIVE...TO PASS IT ON

....dream a new way out of no way. -- Mark Longhurst, "Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," April 6, 2026

Those words speak for me this morning...I need to continue to dream, I just need to dream a new way.

Ah, there be my stranglehold...I have not a clue where or how to start as I know not in what direction to aim...what with the fear of dementia heavy over my head.

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, I spent doing absolutely nothing. I suspect I was paralyzed with the fear of dementia, but I felt nothing.

I wonder if dementia isn't just another direction for God to lead me. I can always give it a go, and if it works, great, if it doesn't, great. Another direction will open for me, God's will, God's way.

There's my comfort...God's will, God's way. We are all living God's will, God's way whether we know it or not.

Hallelujah! Once again, I am freed from egoic fear by God's will, God's way. 

God gives; we receive...to pass it on.

Thank you.

THY WILL, THY WAY

In my mind, I seek to seek the peace that passes understanding...God's will, God's way. However, this morning my fear of dementia is with me. I know that to deny it is to give it fear-growth...to welcome it is to give it peace-growth. 

Knowing that and growing that is the equivalent of self-will vs. God's will...with self-will rigid, righteous and right and God's will giving over, giving up, giving in...thus, winning. 

Ah, words...all just words. But not useless! Necessary steppingstones up, There's my blinding flash of the obvious, and I thank You.

I need to face the fear with me...how I receive it determines my peace of mind (God with me) or lack of peace (ego driving me).

Simply acknowledging my fear of dementia has brought to mind my friend who lives with dementia alone in her home...openly and comfortably, sans fear, shame or blame. 

Blinding flash...I need to let love be in/from/to me. There is life's never-ending lesson, the singular need of all of us...to let love win Thy will, Thy way.

Thank you. 

TO LOVE IN A LOVELESS PLACE...PEACED

Fail not in your function

of loving in a loveless place

made out of darkness and deceit,

for thus are darkness and deceit undone.

from The Gift of Peace by Bernardin, Cardinal Joseph at p.95

SPIRITUAL GROWTH...THE FOREVER PARADOX

I am beginning to see that I, in my own body, am an image of what is happening everywhere.... Fr Richard Rohr, quoting an unknown other, "Daily Meditation," April 3, 2026

Whoa...I had that very thought just yesterday which I shared with a friend. The good news is that describes how I continue to feel this morning.

Good fortune and still more spiritual growth have taught us to share these blinding flashes of the obvious with trusted friends before airing them in public. Face it, often we cannot be certain sure we're not entertaining spiritual wants as done facts.

There are no free rides to still more spiritual growth...ah, but there are only free rides for still more spiritual growth.

Spiritual growth is the forever paradox...another reason to live in gratitude.

Thank you.