TO BE HAPPY, LIVE GRATEFULLY. I

[The following is a reprint of my post of February 27, 2015.]

Thank you, dear God, almighty force for good, that you work through me as you worked through Mohammad, through the Buddha, through Christ Jesus. Amen

Thank you that I do thy will always whether or not I know it...that my reasoning-mind mistakes are your right-road-to-Heaven for me. For it is in my mistakes that my rues, regrets and remorses are born, those very rues, regrets and remorses that you have shown me are, transmuted, my good, my gold.

Those very mistakes are my Teacher's tools, designed for me personally that I may grow from them by learning your will, your way. ..and thereby find my happiness.

Thank you.

THE NEW COLOSSUS GONE BEGGING. I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 29, 2023]

'The New Colossus' by Emma Lazarus

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

We come again to our need to recall the promise of America to the 'wretched refuse' of other teeming shores.

Again, and yet again, we trample that promise without so much as a backward glance as we roll on...and who cares if we're going in the right direction? We're strutting our stuff, showing 'em how it's done...and who cares if we do not have a clue our own self? Throw another log on the fire.

I miss Kate Smith singing 'God Bless America,' and America standing with its hand over its heart and tears of gratitude in its eyes.

Father, Forgive us for we know not what we do.

Thank you.

ON BEING SET FREE

....as Desmond Tutu says, those who have been oppressed are free from oppression, and those who have done the oppressing are free from being the oppressor, everyone is set free.  -- "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," February 6, 2026

Over the years, it has been my occasional challenge to mentally compare Tutu's actual state of oppression with my self-perceived state of oppression.

I suspect that helped me gain an ability to laugh at and with myself in my self-diagnosed "oppression," or, more honestly, in my rues, regrets and remorses.

Better than that, it helped me develop a sense of empathy for others...others who had less than...and best of all (so far) it has been the key that opened the compassion so well-hidden within me. Not just the feeling of compassion, but the ability for me, with God's grace, to compassionately do for others in need.  

In my eighties now, I do less actively but my thoughts are more consistently prayerful...less self-centered (not wholly just less, which is proof of God's will, God's way in my life). 

Thank you.

LOOKING BACK AND LONGING

Snow and frigid temps kept me house-bound for over a week, but I got out yesterday for an hour or two and still feel remarkably better...clearer...for it. Which reminds me of a long-ago blinding flash of the obvious: mental resistance is the only block. 

Apparently, I needed to find that reminder this morning. What other kind of block could there be to the personal experience of a loving God in our life?

A favorite line from a song from yesteryear...Looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains.... comes to mind.

That is a well-nigh perfect description of rues, regrets and remorses...looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains.... 

It doesn't get any clearer than that...to me at any rate.

My long-ago flash, mental resistance is the only block, when followed by thank You, is the mind's golden door. It opens us to the grace of gratitude, the most comforting answer to our reasoning mind's questions. 

Ah, a rush of gratitude just visited me...God is so good to me, and I am so grateful.

Thank you.

GRATITUDE...A HIGHER INVITATION

Imagine if all of us who know the Lord’s Prayer by heart took the challenge embedded in it seriously? .... This revolutionary prayer is a place to begin, now, wherever you are, whoever you are.... -- Author Kelley Nikondehal, February 4, 2026. [Lifted from today's "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation" and reworked...with gratitude...for my meditation.]

Anyone who does not know the Lord's Prayer by heart, can just give over, give up, give in and pray Thank You. Consider that a higher invitation to learning. According to me.

Gratitude: God's word, God's way. 

Thank you.

RANDOM THOUGHTS...TO DELAY DOING

Snow and frigid temps have kept me house-bound for over a week. I realize that I am feeling crazy as a cockroach which is no exaggeration.

I am reminded of a God-gift to me from some years ago; namely. mental resistance is the only block....

There it is, written in my "God Calling" as if it were news: Mental resistance is the only block. That feels like news to me today,

But what other kind of block could there possibly be to the personal experience of a loving God in our life?

I am reminded of a favorite line from a song from yesterday...Looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains....

That is a well-nigh perfect description of rues, regrets and remorses...looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains....

It doesn't get any clearer than that...to me at any rate.

I am rambling...putting off going outside where I get to knock the snow off my car, then drive to the store, shop and return home. 

There...put down in black and white it doesn't seem that daunting. But I'm going nowhere, doing nothing toward that end for a few more hours. I got sober, I didn't get stupid.

Ah, a rush of gratitude just visited me...God is so good to me, and I am so grateful.

Thank you.

CHEAP SHOT AT GRATITUDE, I

[The following is a reprint of my blog of  January 31, 2014.]

God is so good to me.

I've had a bad case of I See Me for the past X number of days, and God has not lifted me out of it. Has not gifted me, has not punished me. There. That's how it's done. That's how we become transparent to our perceptions, our self-determined problems. Do as God does. Which is to laugh...as in, I wish!

I feel an attack of my mother coming on: "You have only yourself to blame." 

Oh, Mom, if you only knew. I have a whole cast of characters that I can blame...and will if left to my own devices. There's my cheap shot at gratitude...I'm never left to my own devices today.

That's how I know God is so good to me...I aspire to be God, and He sends Mom to set me straight. Hoo-boy.

Thank you.