RISK FAILING...THAT'S HOW WISDOM IS GAINED

On wisdom’s path we take the risk of making mistakes. On this path we take the risk of being wrong. That’s how wisdom is gained. -- Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 31, 2025

My life's turnaround came when unconsciously I gave me permission to admit. without pride or guilt, whenever, not if ever, I was wrong. 

That was not an original thought, of course. It came from hard-earned life experience...specifically when I realized when wrong, promptly admit it was direct advice to me...God's will, God's way in fact.

I am halfway convinced that making mistakes is God's perfect will for us...clearly, making mistakes is not our self-determined objective. 

Our making mistakes could be God's teaching skill...face it, He knows us well! 

It has ever been true that I must try with a will, fail, turn to God, flounder, seek God, fail...admit complete defeat, accept God's will, God's way...live happily that day.

That is my life today...and in my (relative) freedom from fear of making a mistake, I live happy, joyous and free.  

Thank you. 

OUR CONTINUING GOAL...LOVE AND LAUGHTER, I

The following is a reprint, updated, of my blog of December 31, 2016:
:
My mind is still; my ego has been set at rest. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," December 31.

Humility, a healer of pain. -- Anonymous

You're taking yourself too seriously. -- my bathroom mirror

There is just one answer, no matter the question, and that is: Love and Laugh. -- Life experience

My hope for you and for me is that we let 2026 be gentle with others. 

Let others be free to be gentle with us or not to be gentle with us. It makes no never mind what others choose to do or to be, our hope and goal remain unchanged...i.e., for the peace of love and laughter. 

Only we each can choose to do that...with God's will, God's way ever guiding.

Thank you.

ON GIVING GOD A GRIN...PERFECT PEACE

This then is our walk: [To] sit with and be present to this light, shining into our own lives in the midst of the unresolved matters of our hearts. -- CAC faculty member James Finley, "Richard Rohr Daily Meditations," December 29, 2025

That is another indirectly direct answer to my ever-questioning mind. Quite simply...it is to trust. To trust that the God of my understanding is on the field for me, for my benefit.

That is my always, rarely spoken, prayer...to trust that which I believe I believe: That God can and will, sought or not, do for me that which I cannot do for myself...always for my benefit.

The great lesson that opened my heart, mind and soul to the truth of that is that answered prayers rarely come looking good...as in, looking like what we had in mind when we first realized the need for a specific prayer.

The reasoning mind's idea for a personally answered prayer is it brings peace, love, joy and looking good all in one package...with looking good holding the edge.

Here's my peace...I suspect my best thinking likely gives God a grin. Here's my happy...feeling God grinning on me. 

That is love pure and simple. Best part is it flows both ways.

Thank you.

OUR CONTINUING GOAL...LOVE AND LAUGHTER, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 31, 2016.]

My mind is still; my ego has been set at rest. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," December 31.

Humility, a healer of pain. -- Anonymous

You're taking yourself too seriously. -- My bathroom mirror

There is just one answer, no matter the question, and that is: Love and laugh. -- Life experience

My hope for me and for you is that we let 2026 be gentle with others. Let others be free to be gentle with us or not to be gentle with us. It makes no never mind what others choose to do or to be, our hope and goal remains unchanged...i.e., for the peace of love and laughter. Ah, only we can choose that for our self.

Thank you.

CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY. . .I

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of December 25, 2016.]

God lives within us all. I wonder if only certified saints live that truth. I suspect not...I'm guessing it isn't only saints who can live that, but that saints and grownups alike live that truth.

The question is, do they realize it?

 
We read Mother Teresa's dairies and letters, and she seemed as unsure of her spirituality as just plain folks do. And Saint Augustine was the one who was alleged to have said that lust would be with him three days after his death.

 
They say it's not easy being green, but it's no easier being a grownup, according to me. None of us need wonder about the saints.

But isn't that the goal? To be a grownup. to know it and show it. The catch phrase in today's world is, But what does that look like? 

Grownups don't have to ask.

God lives within, but it is a hard lesson learning that we our own self must choose to loose him...loose him and let him flow.

Thank you.

WALK FREE...GOD HAS OUR BACK

It is happening again...or still. The spiritual reality that I am realizing is written about in the next page I then read...no matter where or what the page is from.

Blinding flash of the obvious: I have begun my turn around. 

It began with my feeling like a babe in a blanket, i.e., utterly un...unknowing, unaware, unworried. Ah, free...expecting naught but my next breath.

There it is: God's gift, our next breath. Thank You. Amen.

All that comes after our next breath is for our benefit, and our now job is to pass it on not by words, by our raised consciousness, Resist not...God consciousness is our mentor.

It is fact, I am beginning again...on the God consciousness path...always for the benefit of the other, assured that God has my back. 

It is also assured that the going will be slow when, not if, I am doing it right.

Thank you 

ALL MATTER AS INCARNATE

"As [Teilhard] writes in 'The Mass on the World': Through your own incarnation, my God, all matter is henceforth incarnate."  - "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," December 23, 2025

That sentence, that thought, has begun to open my mind, my Soul, to the realization that we, that everyone and everything, is One...IS one. 

That which I have read about, talked around, thought on for so long is coming into Being...with and within me.

Now, to let it. There. That's my new job description: Let It. Period. End of job description; and the beginning of my new thought process...which is not to let it (the thought) become an obsession. 

The God of my understanding has just been handed another brake hold for me. Thank You, Father.

Thank you.

ON FAITH ALONE FORGIVENESS IS BORN, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 17, 2019.]

I doubt not that forgiveness is so difficult for us not only to do but to want to do because we have not a clue what forgiveness means to us personally.

Letting go of a justified resentment comes easily to mind, but that very ease brings the reason for the resentment, then the justification...and forgive? No way, not in this lifetime, follows.

Our material mind tells us what forgiveness should feel like...warm, wonderful and just a tish superior. Which is the clue that the root of the problem is our material mind.

I am convinced that forgiveness cannot be done by self-will or want-to alone...they may be "Santa's little helpers," but we must go beyond the reasoning mind. Beyond our self-will and want-to. As in, Deliver all those giftees all over the world in one night? Can't be done. Except by a power greater than ourself. 

Go to bed, go to sleep, wake up...giftees! All our own!

When we become as a little child, on faith alone Christ is born, Santa flies, and Christmas comes to our heart, our soul, our body and our brain. With forgiveness the lead Dog.

Thank you.

THE MEANING BEYOND THE MYSTERY

Faith is not belief, an assent to a proposition; faith is attachment to transcendence, to the meaning beyond the mystery. -- Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

According to me, to believe...truly Believe...is to not know. To not have the capability of "getting" that which will make "it" all clear to us. 

God's blessing is received not by our reasoning mind, but in the realization of still more spiritual growth. To inner-know...that is the blessing. 

We must go beyond our reasoning mind's abilities...if we are truly seeking still more spiritual growth. 

The promise is great, the doing is slow and slower still. It is virtually a surprise when we realize we have received a glimmer of truth. It is not of the reasoning mind...which leads to questions, more questions, and finally faith. 

If we w/could put faith first in our reasoning mind...ah, we would not have a reasoning mind. Panic would ensue...led, of course, by our reasoning mind.

We go beyond reason at our egoic peril. There be God's job. 

I am told that when we get where we are going...whenever that may be...we will know, and we will know that we know. And we will know to tell no one for as we live It, It will show Itself.

Thank you.

PRACTICE STAYING MENTALLY IN THE NOW, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 7, 2012.]

I so often write how long ago it was that I realized this or that. That is my ego assuring me that I'm not a newbie here...that I got cred.

I suspect I need to start writing "a long time ago/yesterday" until I do not feel the need to qualify myself. At least I've learned not to promise me that I'll immediately perfect myself and start writing "yesterday" alone.

This is a neat way to practice staying mentally here and now...and there's my carrot. It is my truth that we can never over-practice staying mentally here and now.

Thank you.

CONNECTING WITH THE FATHER WITHIN

When we sense that our little story is part of the great story, we are basically content. No amount of psychology and therapy can offer us such a cosmology; I believe only good religion can. -- Richard  Rohr, "Daily Meditation," December 19, 2025

For whatever reason, this morning I am sensing a change in me...a releasing. 

Now, of course, I wonder: What am I releasing? 

The answer does not come to me fully dressed and looking good. It comes to me as a question that I need to meditate on for my deeper understanding. 

It matters not if I am right or wrong to my world around me...it matters only that I know a connection with the Father within. And I do. Which births the material mind question...do I really, really feel a connection with the Father within me? 

My experience assures me that any feeling I have now or have ever had of the Father alive within me lasts less than a heartbeat...but the memory is never gone.

On that I thrive...thank You, Father.

Thank you.

 ABTW, exactly what is good religion?

GOD IS WALKING US BACK HOME, 1

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 20, 2019.]

God has no good-conduct hook...that is what our own conscience is for.

When we seek God's forgiveness, we'd best understand that we are seeking our own forgiveness. God does not forgive...God loves. He cannot see a need for forgiveness. We, however, can. We invariably and simultaneously over- and under-estimate the reason for the need, but that's just ego riding herd.

Slowly we learn: Since ego is ever with us, we stay in ego's hold when we resist it...ah, but with God as our guide, we can use it. We're reminded (daily) that ego legislates for itself, but it no longer functions as our joystick.

Now we can rely on our inner connection, our conscience, which has been molded, scolded and loved into our pot of gold. Through our ongoing spiritual footwork, we detach (daily) from our egoic mind.

Detaching from our reasoning mind while allowing it (as if we have a choice!) to function within us is God's great gift of free will. Trusting our conscience now, we also trust our free will to continue journeying us back Home.

Thank you.

ON WELCOMING FEAR...WE GO TO GOD

Blinding flash of the obvious: Whatever is coming...or is already here...God can handle it. He has already "handled" it.

Fear not...ah, welcome fear!

Now that we realize nothing turns us to God faster than fear, we are freed from ego's weapon, self-centered fear.

But we must never think we shall not feel the effects of our fear. It is the effects of fear that turns us to God quick, fast and in a hurry...get grateful.

I suspect that our feelings of fear will never be open-hearted welcomed. It may be akin to our feelings of God...from our eyebrows up, we know God is love...it's just that the reasoning mind balks at welcoming as love fearsome appearing.

Yet again: We must go beyond reason to love.

Thank you.

THE DARK NIGHTS OF OUR SOUL...THANK YOU

I think it’s safe to say that dark nights do involve a loss of meaning, loss of joy, and loss of certainty. Doubt and self-doubt are regular visitors, as is deep sorrow. -- Granberg-Michaelson

That from a deeply spiritual person...educated and well-versed in living still more spiritual growth.

That being true, then feeling less than...unloved, unwanted, unneeded, unappreciated...is evidence that we are doing it right.

Our desire being for still more spiritual growth, we are peaced knowing that God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.

Thank you.

PRAY THANK YOU AND BE FREE

We must go beyond reason...

Reason is self's safety net...self depends entirely on its belief in itself.

We are led to God by God...self accepts or rejects God, the idea of a Higher Power, based on its reliance on its own ability or inclination to think.

The idea of "going beyond reason" as desirable is any number of things...all un to the reasoning mind.

There...our first glimpse that God...that going to God for God and that is all...is going to be a heavy lift. It is heavy until it is lifted, and we find feather light, life-affirming breath.

Fortunately, it takes a long time for us to quit straining to lift it and welcome it with an open mind and heart. That long time is God's will, God's way, God's timing. 

We pray our welcome...thank You...and walk free.

Thank you.

THE QUIET WORKINGS OF TIME AND GRACE

God has to undo our illusions secretly, as it were, when we are not watching and not in perfect control, say the mystics. We move forward in ways that we do not even understand and through the quiet workings of time and grace. —Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," December 13, 2025

I believe that my today's inner life experience...ie., fear of dementia hovering...is God undoing my illusions secretly. As in, God's will may be for me to fully experience dementia in order to fully realize the quiet workings of time and grace. 

I remind me of my long-ago and always current desire, i.e., to live God's will rather than my will.  

It hurts...I hurt. I silently howl. I do not quit. The Father and I are One. I know it and in secret It shows. Thank You.

Thank you.

THIS, TOO, IS FOR OUR BENEFIT

I am feeling a sense of lost without the panic of "feeling lost." 

As I have previously written (probably repeatedly), I am on the edge of the state today known as dementia...known back in the day as "old-age forgetfulness."

No doubt there are deeper, even darker, symptoms today...identified actually...which doesn't mean they are new, just recognized. By the medical profession, and I'll not linger there.

As for me, I do believe that dementia is akin to any human hurt, harm or happenstance...in and under God's care and concern. Our only "job" is to let Him have it, heal it, make it our glory. 

The code is: Thank you. Say it...pray it...mean it... then rest in peace.

God loves us so much...God loves us... God loves.

Thank you.

ANSWERED PRAYER DEEPENING

 It is time to enter into utter unknowing—and, by unknowing, come to know truly. The mind is an impediment on this journey. -- Mirabel Starr

There...answered prayer. Growing deeper. 

Thank you.

BY UNKNOWING COME TO KNOW

It is time to enter into utter unknowing—and, by unknowing, come to know truly. ***** The mind is an impediment on this journey. -- Mirabal Starr, "Fr Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," December 9, 2025

I trust that I have come to the place of knowing...of knowing I am open now to my utter unknowing...and that is of God. 

On the material level I am exhibiting signs of dementia (which seems to be episodic today)...yet what I am reading describes my spiritual sense of right -- right where I am. 

I suspect this is a "tell no man" situation, but I know we are only as sick as our secrets. Interestingly, I am on schedule to call N today...he may be the only friend I have that I believe can understand this or at least not deny it out of hand. 

Thy way, Thy will.

Thank you. 

HIS PRESENCE IS IN THE REVERSE OF REASON

And that this darkness of the soul you have come upon and cannot seem to come out of is his final and greatest gift to you. ***** Because it is only in this vast emptiness that he can enter, as your Beloved, and fill you. Where the darkness is nothing but unutterable radiance. -- Mirabal Starr, "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," December 8, 2025

 This I found for my truth some years ago: God seems to be in reverse of reason...the opposite of what common sense would find. That which we resist turns out to be our great gift.

I rarely if ever find peace in the midst of my fear...it is God walking me through, i.e. out of, my fear that settles me. 

God may or may not remove the cause of my fear, He simply enwraps me in peace.

Thank you.

TWO WAYS TO SEE ONE THING, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 24, 2016.]

I just read an old note I wrote in my "God Calling," and it thrilled me to my toes. All I had written was, Yesterday, I gave over to John in a very small but ego-denying way. Thank you.

I made note of it because I had just started the big turn from thinking any giving over was proof I was gutless and would never be able to stand up for myself, take my own part, know and show that I'm just as good as anyone...the poor-pitiful-put-upon-me list drags on.

I'm glad I date my notes and that I made note of this because, in truth, it isn't all that old. In my mind, I've been doing this for a long, long time..."this" being giving over. And there it is...that is my ah-ha. I've given over for a long, long time, only I've just begun to realize it as God's better way and not ego's wimp-out.

This is proof again that there are two ways of looking at every one thing...through our ego's eyes and whine or through God's and bask in sunshine.

Thank you.

ON LIVING A TURNED-OVER LIFE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 29, 2018.]

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

So the difference between 'the boys and the men' is the difference between striving for a self-determined objective and for the perfect objective which is of God. -- Anonymous

So the difference between relying on the reasoning mind and relying on spiritual consciousness is the difference between striving to build our inner house by our own devices and not striving but trusting our Father within to perfectly lead us through the building and then our living therein.

According to me.

Thank you.

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD AND THAT IS ALL

Thought: Oh, Lord, I am ashamed of me. 

Answering blinding flash of the obvious: Your shame is My glory. 

We show God's glory by releasing our shame with thank You...in gratitude to God for God. An attitude of gratitude is The Way.

Shame is an ego trip as it keeps us tied to self...trying to "fix" us all on our own.

We go to God for God and that is All.

Thank you.

SEEK LESS...ON THIS NOTHING WE NOW LIVE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 31, 2022.]

You have come to that point in consciousness where you are seeking for what the world calls the intangible. When you came to a spiritual teaching, you knew in advance, or soon learned, that you were going to obtain nothing in the external realm. What you were seeking was the Invisible, that which cannot be seen, heard, or known. And yet you were seeking to be able to see, hear, and know just that. Through that seeking, you are coming to know that which is unknowable, see that which is invisible, hear that which is inaudible. And on this Nothing you now live. -- Joel Goldsmith, "Leave Your Nets"

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

Thank you.

I GOT IT! HOLD NEAR: JUST FOR TODAY, I GOT IT

...you have to let God reveal your real faults to you, usually by falling many times, and by other people's opinions of you. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 29, 2015

In a shortened sentence, there is our worst fear exposed as God's will, God's way. For that truth to walk free in our head and our heart requires that we change our mind. 

Ah, there it is...the basic truth of still more spiritual growth: We cannot change our mind on want alone. Our want is self-will in camouflage...seemingly God's perfect will which benefits all, but underneath entirely for our benefit.

I'm convinced the only "cure" for that is to love it and laugh...then laugh more when our "love it" flips us the bird.

I'm convinced still more spiritual growth requires our complete capitulation to God's will, God's way without our knowing what that will show itself to be. For our good, of course, but who's kidding whom, God's will for our good rarely, if ever, comes looking good to our reasoning mind.

Again, we get The Answer: We must go beyond reason to God.

Leave Your Nets and Follow Me...I get it! From my eyebrows up, I've thought I got it, but today, It got me! Now, to remember: Just for today. Just for today I got it. 

Thank You, Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all my angels.

Thank you.

GOD'S GIFT: A BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS

Know this: Our problem is never the named thing; it is fear of the named thing. -- 8/24/24 BFO

That blinding flash of the obvious was the Spirit's gift to me on my anniversary in 2024.

I posted it then; I post it now. I love it.

Thank you.

ASK, SEEK, KNOCK...THEN ACCEPT THE ANSWER, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 21, 2019.]

Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. -- Matthew 7:7

We have learned that we are not responsible for what others hear us say nor are we responsible for how they interpret what they hear us say. I can believe that it is in the Sermon at this verse that that lesson originates. 

After a whole lot of deep study of detaching from reliance on our reasoning mind, we realize: What we are given, what we find, what is opened to us is God's understanding of our ask. Ah, yes...the Father provides our needs not our wants.  

We pray for our want, God hears and answers our need. That it is perfect for us may take a long time to "get." Which is as it must be...that assures our still more spiritual study.

Thank you.

GOD LED, WE JOY IN FOLLOWING

The only way to increase authentic spirituality is to deliberately practice actually enjoying a positive response and a grateful heart. — Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," November 29, 2025

It has been said that to have an upgraded life, upgrade your gratitude ...your attitude will follow suit. 

That is a spiritual certainty when we follow it. When we strive for it (our self-determined objective), we shut down our spiritual center by giving over to self.

When we deliberately practice actually enjoying a positive response and a grateful heart, our practice is God-led, and we are followers.

Thank you.

LETTING GO...THINK OF IT!, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 29, 2015.]

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

There. That is exactly why, with spiritual growth, the difference between the right way and the wrong way is "the difference between a self-determined objective and the perfect objective which is of God."

Even if the objective is good, beautiful, wholly acceptable in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, we must know as we breathe, that it is as dust if the Lord's hand is not in it.

Think of all the things that we saw heading our way that we prayed would pass us by. Then on arrival, or at some point thereafter, they became to us obvious gifts from God. Then ponder the things we prayed for...and got!..and bemoaned ever after.

We can never out-think God. His up may very well be our down and/or vice versa. All we are asked to do is accept that. Why is that so easy to preach and so hard to do? The very question causes us to stop and think about it... and there we go, down that wrong road again.

And God loves us anyway. Think of it!

Thank you.

ON LIVING A TURNED-OVER LIFE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 29, 2018.]

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

So the difference between 'the boys and the men' is the difference between striving for a self-determined objective and for the perfect objective which is of God. -- Anonymous

So the difference between relying on the reasoning mind and relying on spiritual consciousness is the difference between striving to build our inner house by our own devices and not striving but trusting our Father within to perfectly lead us through the building and then our living therein.

According to me.

Thank you.

ON BEING LIFTED BY GRACE AND BY GOD

Notes from my journal on this Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2025:

Blinding flash of the obvious: For this I am alone today: To realize His will for me.

The beginning of this day...NOW...feels to me like my early awakening years when I had no real hope.

Lord, I accept this is evidence of my having made the next turn away from self, upward toward Self. As usual it begins by my feeling all the haunting uns...the unloved, unwanted, unneeded, unappreciated ghosts.

BFO: This is the uns clawing to hold on but being lifted away by grace and by God.

May it be so...thank You, Amen.

Thank you.

SELF IS NOT A RELIABLE GUIDE...HENCE, FAITH

Blinding flash of the obvious: Faith is thank you that this is for my benefit in not needing to respond/top what I perceive as an attack...no matter how minor...or major.

Ah, faith is 'thank You' that this, i.e., everything, is for my benefit.

"This" that is for my benefit is a less-than to my reasoning mind's eye. Not needing to respond/top what I perceive as an attack, no matter how minor or major, is continuing spiritual growth. 

We have no physical/mental control over our upward growth, that is where all spiritual growth pays off...in faith a-borning. 

We do have control over impeding our upward growth...it is self-will. 

The mark of spiritual peace comes with the realization that not all self-will is detrimental. It is, however, spiritual growth that determines when, where and how self-will is called for. Self is not a reliable guide.

Faith accepts that we never stop our upward growth...even after death to this world, God is with us for our benefit. That relieves us of the material mind's worry about the way we die with all its self-centered hangers-on.

God is so good to me and thee and us...we. God is so good.

Thank you.

GRATITUDE, GOD'S PERFECT SOLUTION

Here is the deepest lesson of gratitude, then. We are to be grateful not just in the good times, but also in the bad times; to be grateful not just in plenty, but also in need; to maintain thankfulness not just in laughter, but also through tears and sorrow....You may lose a loved one, or facet after facet of your physical [or mental] health, but you can still be grateful for what you have left. -- Brian McLaren, Richard Rohr Daily Meditations, November 25, 2025

In these dark and dangerous times appearing today, we must needs rely on the God of our own understanding...by doubling down on letting go of our resistance to these times. We double down on letting go by love...love alone resists not evil, according to me.

We remember that God can and will if sought...then we recall God can and will whether sought or not. God does not need our permission...it is our open and inviting heart, mind and soul that ease our way. 

The more we think on that, the more we ponder but how?, and the harder we cling to our wants, or self-determined will and way. Loose it and let it go...which is Thy will, not mine, be done...applies if and as we use it.

Here again, our answer: If the only prayer you ever pray in your lifetime is thank You, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON TO GOD

We may even prefer a pessimistic certainty to a potentially optimistic uncertainty. —Brian McLaren, "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," November 22, 2025
 
From my own experience, I know that to be true of me...I prefer to know, quick, fast and in a hurry the outcome of any unknown to me. I recall in high school saying that I'd rather be told bad news than to be told to "wait and see."

The hard lesson we are learning is that staying in the mental process of spiritual growth is well-nigh impossible; being lifted above the mental is the pearl beyond price.

We must go beyond reason to love.

Reason is the go-to of the material mind, and the material mind is not naturally attuned to spiritual growth. It's when the material mind gets shucked of its shields by God that our spiritual growth blossoms...and we go beyond reason to love.

We are beginning, barely beginning, to realize that life itself is beyond reason. Now...now!...our inner being, the place where our Father lives, has opened. 

We have been moved beyond reason, and we live now in gratitude.

Thank you.

LIFTED BEYOND FEAR TO THY WILL, THY WAY

If we are not radically grateful every day, resentment always takes over. Moreover, to ask for 'our daily bread' is to recognize that it is already being given. Not to ask is to take our own efforts, needs, and goals—and ourselves—far too seriously. -- "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," November 23, 2025

Reading that, I realize here's me, sitting in the midst of my fear of dementia and...no, I need to back that up. 

With the grace of God and my own grit, I have moved beyond my fear of dementia, to the place of if dementia be Thy will for me, I can let it be. 

I accept that today as my jumping off place...away from self-determined objectives to Thy will, not mine, be done...please and thank You.

That relieves my gutbucket fear but does not entirely relieve the trepidation. That, too, is a good thing...it keeps me turned to God, for God, with God. 

The miracle-working power of gratitude...it keeps us turned to God from which flows all good whether we realize it in the moment or not.

God is so good to me...and thee...and them. To All. 

Thank you.

IF THIS BE FEAR, LOVE IT, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 20, 2019.]

The line what was it that you thought needed to be loved comes to me when I find that I've invited a fear into my consciousness...not a fear of such as cancer or dementia, but a common-as-dirt fear, like looking dumb in public, getting caught putting on airs...that kind of fear, the "soft" fears.

Unsurprisingly, those fears are harder to love than the "hard" fears of cancer or dementia, obviously because coming to love cancer, et al., when we don't have them, is purely in the abstract.

Ah, but common or soft fears live in our ego and visit at their pleasure, any hour of the day or night. It helps to think of them as the human condition. Our job is not to be rid of them forever and ever, an ego-wish if ever there was one, but to give them breathing room.

For instance, when, not if, I again find myself mentally knowing I am better than Gertrude, I count myself blessed when I quick remember that this is fear, i am resisting that which i fear, I can love this...thank you. Then turn my thoughts to lilies of the valley, my dog Ruckus romping around Heaven, or what I'm going to have for dinner...which, who's kidding whom, works best.

What I particularly like about giving my ego fears breathing room is it reminds me that I need beware of trying to be so spiritual that I fault myself for being human. Love, laugh and move on is the goal.

Face it, if it weren't for humans, God wouldn't have any laughs at all.

Thank you.

OURS IS TO LOVE...PERIOD

Source of all truth, help me to hunger for truth, even if it upsets, modifies, or overturns what I already think is true. Guide me into all the truth I can bear and stretch me to bear more, so that I may always choose the whole truth, even with disruption, over half- truths with self-deception. Grant me the passion to follow wisdom wherever it leads. Thank you.  -- Brian McLaren

It is so easy to say Thy will, not mine, be done, oh Lord...to say and kid our self that we are praying the essence of those words. 

We are not. We are not even praying; we are saying...repeating...parroting, etc.

This came to me this morning in this blinding flash of the obvious: Our need is to realize that it is not for our worst fear (dementia today) to be lifted out of us, it is for us to love. Period. To love. aiming to love as God loves...dementia, raindrops and roses, friends and those on the way to becoming friends, et al. 

Plain and simple...our need is to realize that we are the love we seek. The Christ hook:  We must give it away to get it.

Thank you.

ON USING THE WORDS OF THE LORD ARIGHT

When the words of [the Lord] are put into practice the kingdom comes -- Theologian Megan McKenna, "Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations" November 6, 2025

My hard lesson a-learning: It is not only acceptable but necessary to put "the words of the Lord" into our own words. How else do we come to own them?

Just quoting the Bible, with no inner connection, or with only an eyebrows-up understanding, is akin to words on a blackboard...no matter how true their meaning, until we absorb them, make them our own, they are temporary to us.

It's like having a pricey sable coat in our closet that we refuse to wear lest we "wear it out." It is, in fact, useless in its primary purpose...our warmth in the wintertime...and for that matter it is useless in its secondary purpose, i.e., parading it for others to see and envy. The envy we seek is for us yet all we've done is own a warm coat that is useless in its primary purpose.

When the words of [the Lord] are put into practice the kingdom comes. When we use aright the words of the Lord (the tools of daily living), our inner life knows the kingdom which then is reflected in the world.

Thank you. 

ON SEEKING TO LIVE OUR REVELATIONS

They that have revelation must live it. Practice doing no harm...set an intention...it’s not just words that we speak, it’s a life practice that supports us in regularly aligning our heart and mind with our actions...set an intention and reflect on it often. This intention is about doing no harm in our speech, our actions, or in our thoughts. -- Fr Richard Rohr, August 3, 2019, "Daily Meditation"

They that have revelation must live it. 

Whoa! I have felt that I have had revelation many times, and often it turned out to be egoic hope...but I don't fault even that. Face it, egoic hope just needs to get shed of the egoic part. 

"Just."  Uh-huh. 

I have learned...am still learning...of the two levels of learning, i.e., spiritual and material.  Spiritual is of God, material is of the egoic self... getting rid of any egoic idea requires direct interaction with our Father. our Father taking the lead.

Ah, there it is...the Gordian Knot: Our Father does not take the lead, our Father is the lead. 

Giving over, giving up, giving in to that is the important, all but impossible, deal. Especially when we so earnestly want to do just that. 

There...another lesson in learning, Want is THE self-determined objective...that's how we come to realize that it is not our want that hinders us, it is the result of our want that hinders us. I have wanted still more spiritual growth for nigh on fifty years...and I've gotten it, only not how I pictured it. I saw it as making me not only feel good but look good.

Who would envision that showing your bumm in public is a spiritual act? Who would pray for that?  

To the material mind, praying for that is the self-determined objective of a misguided soul...I almost put "of an egomaniacal fool" but that is a tish strong.

Learning, and then acting on what we've learned, is all there is to still more spiritual growth, isn't it? Because it requires giving over to the unthinking, invisible, silent Spirit within. Faith, in a word. 

God is so good to us...God is so good.

Thank you.

MY LESSON IN LEARNING HOW TO SEE

Philosopher George Lakoff challenges the mistaken idea that arose during the Enlightenment that it is possible to see issues clearly, based entirely on reason. -- Brian McLaren, "Learning How to See," Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, November 17, 2025 

There's my eye-opener... the idea that it is possible to see issues clearly, based entirely on reason is mistaken! Never did I fully realize that about me...it's like breathing, why question it?

But that fairly well excludes faith, the need for faith, the very fact of faith...if reason be the all-in-all, faith of necessity would be left in the dust of despair aborning, I'm guessing. 

Enlightenment reason does not recognize different worldviews. That seems entirely contradictory...to me, enlightenment is a God-opened mind, but, of course, this refers to the Age of Enlightenment, not today's view of enlightenment. Or my today's view at any rate.

Good news/bad news: Here's me showing my ignorance in public...that's it, the good news and the bad news as one. 

God is so good to me.

Thank you.

GOD'S MOST PRECIOUS GIFT...DEMENTIA?

Dementia may be my it's-just-life plan. My mind has ever been my safety net and working free from that has been my spiritual gift...thus, dementia may be the cherry on top. 

Like the priest with the lepers ... if that be so, thank You for letting me guide others coming into this...anonymously/spiritually. 

It has been noted that all through the Gospels, there are people like us who receive what they don’t deserve...yet we who crash and burn are blessed. Our worst-case scenario, that we have nowhere to go but to a Higher Power, becomes our saving grace. 

The idea of being blessed with dementia looms as another hard road to walk. But, I remind me, if my primary dread disease can be a blessing, and it is to me today, then so can dementia be.

Go with God's will, God's way, stay in the Now, and peace will enwrap us. I know this from experience, and I am grateful...just a tish leery, but ready.

Thank you.

TO PONDER...FOR TO DO

Among Native Americans, spirituality is integral in everything. It’s tangible. Whether ceremony or just the way we conduct ourselves daily, the entirety of life is viewed as a sacred, spiritual path. -- Randy and Edith Woodley, from a recent "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations"

I found the following in the above-noted Rohr article, and it interests me: How might we think about ceremony in our own life? As in, have we looked into the meaning of symbols in our own ancestry? Or, is there a group with whom we talk about spiritual things? Could the group come up with a practice that connects us to the land or water—even something small. 

Ah, a project to help upgrade my judgmental mind from my opinion of today's World According to Trump. 

Please and thank You.

Thank you.

OUR NEMESIS IS OUR ANGEL, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 28, 2018.]

The forever lesson to learn: To our reasoning mind, the one arousing our negative side is our nemesis...ah, but spiritually, that one is our angel.

There it is...the key to changing our mind. Then we must needs stay our focus on the power within which is ever on hand to further the opening, as needed.

This is an ongoing spiritual process...an opened mind releases the power for good within. Our detachment frees our thoughts from building self-determined results. That which we are resisting is freely transmuted in our mind...and we are graced with another angel in our midst.

Thank you.

GOD'S MYSTERIOUS WAYS...OUR WONDROUS, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of November 22, 2021.]

When you've stumbled--and the guilt, loneliness, and fear come to assault you--if you don't have at least one good friend, or if you have not developed a prayer life where you know how to find yourself in God instead of in your own feelings, you will simply retrench and reassert your correctness. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 13, 2016

I love to note and note again: "When you've stumbled...." When not if.

We only parade our victim-self when we stumble and call ourself all manner of ugly...or find someone to blame and shame for our ugly. There is no God there. There is only self, glorified in our own feelings of less-than...unloved, unwanted, unneeded, unappreciated...and loving our hurt of it. Why would we ever let that go?

I'm a believer that it is the stumbling that is the root of thank you.

When, not if, we stumble, trip, fall, make a blithering fool of ourself, thank you is the Velveteen Rabbit that hugs us, kisses us, calls us Beloved. Ah, and opens us to God's love and laughter...now ours.

God works in mysterious ways to make our life wondrous.

Thank you.

THE NEXT LEG OF MY JOURNEY

The inner Christ is leading us to It, the new self, on a new path, which is the total transformation of consciousness, worldview, motivation, goals, and rewards that characterize one who loves and is loved by God. — a paraphrase of the November 8, 2025, Richard Rohr quote

Dementia!

There. I've put our newest scare word out there...up front and shaky.

Dementia seems to be an epidemic today and, being as we can't "catch" dementia from each other, I tend to believe the medical profession is the source...or, in short, money, honey. 

According to me, today's "dementia" is yesterday's "old-age forgetfulness."  But who made money off that? 

I know. I know...that is a fairly jaded opinion. The medical profession may be right: Dementia may be on the march and rising...but may be and certain sure are two different diagnoses, leading to life-altering paths. 

Face it, dementia is going to require doctors which costs money...old-age forgetfulness requires patience with self and others, and a deeper relationship with our Higher Power...or God. This does not mean we never need to see a doctor...falls, cuts, flu, they will continue and will need a doctor's care. We can be grateful to have an understanding one.

I am aware that today there are neurological tests for dementia. I'm all for getting tested, and I'm even looking forward to getting mine. I've let the Father walk me into accepting whatever the outcome is for me. 

This I know from experience: Whatever the outcome, best or worst case, God is already there with me. 

Thank you.

LETTING GO...THINK OF IT! 1

[The following is a reprint of my blog of November 29, 2015.]

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. -- Psalm 127

There. That is exactly why, with spiritual growth, the difference between the right way and the wrong way is "the difference between a self-determined objective and the perfect objective which is of God."

Even if the objective is good, beautiful, wholly acceptable in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, we must know as we breathe, that it is as dust if the Lord's hand is not in it.

Think of all the things that we saw heading our way that we prayed would pass us by. Then on arrival, or at some point thereafter, they became to us obvious gifts from God. Then ponder the things we prayed for...and got!..and bemoaned ever after.

We can never out-think God. His up may very well be our down and/or vice versa. All we are asked to do is accept that. Why is that so easy to preach and so hard to do? The very question causes us to stop and think about it... and there we go, down that wrong road again.

And God loves us anyway. Think of it!

Thank you.

NEVER SHORT-SHEET SELF-DISCIPLINE. I

[This is a reprint of my blog of November 18, 2016.]

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have sent my spirit upon him, he will bring fair judgment to the nations.--Isaiah 42:1

I sent the above quote to a friend on the day of President Obama's first inaugural, January 20, 2009, with a note that I felt it perfectly described our new president.

My sincere prayer for myself is to upgrade my own opinion of President-elect Trump so that I can know within myself that quote perfectly describes this new president.

Achieving that upgrade is my responsibility through the grace of gratitude and God...and self-discipline.

Thank you.

Addendum: November 10, 2025...Well, achieving that upgrade has proven impossible for me...maybe even for God, but I'll not belabor that point. I pray for peace and keep on truckin'.

LET HIM...THE HARDEST PART, 1

 [This is a reprint of my post of November 15, 2016.]

Not by might, nor by Power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. - Zechariah 4:6

There it is, the simplified version of the Bible, according to me. I say it is the one instruction we need hold near and dear in our head and heart. Fighting with words or guns...or silent scorn...will never get us free. This is especially true if we win our fight; we have a better chance for freedom from self if we lose.

The great gettin' up news is "My Spirit" is always, always, always available to us. The uh-oh, wait a  minute news is It is not available on demand. Although It is within us, without us, we accept that it is our privilege, our honor, our very duty to seek My Spirit. Our seeking is what brings us into the atmosphere of God.

It is in the atmosphere of God that our mind is changed, upgraded actually, from our hard-charging, gotta win, gotta get mine, runaway thought-train into the peace that passes all understanding. Into the presence of the Father within "who doeth the works."

Let Him.

Thank you. 

TWO WAYS TO SEE ONE THING, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 24, 2016.]

I just read an old note I wrote in my "God Calling," and it thrilled me to my toes. All I had written was, Yesterday, I gave over to John in a very small but ego-denying way. Thank you.

I made note of it because I had just started the big turn from thinking any giving over was proof I was gutless and would never be able to stand up for myself, take my own part, know and show that I'm just as good as anyone...the poor-pitiful-put-upon-me list drags on.

I'm glad I date my notes and that I made note of this because, in truth, it isn't all that old. In my mind, I've been doing this for a long, long time..."this" being giving over. And there it is...that is my ah-ha. I've given over for a long, long time, only I've just begun to realize it as God's better way and not ego's wimp-out.

This is proof again that there are two ways of looking at every one thing...through our ego's eyes and whine or through God's and bask in sunshine.

Thank you.

WRONG MADE RIGHT, MADE RIGHTEOUS

Whatever you believe about [them], believe this about you: the things that seem to be going most wrong for you may in fact be the things that are going most right. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to fix them. It just means they may need blessing as much as they need fixing, since the blessing is already right there. -- Spiritual writer Barbara Brown Taylor, Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, November 4, 2025

I had plans yesterday to have lunch with a friend when I would share (dump on her?) my deepening fear of dementia.

Quite often, plans are made to be broken.

My friend, feeling less than well, had to cancel...clearly, I had come to the time for taking my own "part"...of doing my growth work for me. I had so resigned myself to the fear of dementia that I did not remember my hard-earned alternatives...that God and I are responsible for me, my thoughts, and any and all glitches in my life, within me/without me.

I am the source of all my good and all my good does not often appear as good to my reasoning mind's eyes. I once believed that I am the source of all my woes, which I see now is the same difference.

Having been led to God, I am content being the source of all my woes from which has, did, will come all my good...I go to God a-grinning.

Thy will, Thy way.

Thank you.

SECRETS AND SAND DUNES, I

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

I am deeply shaken. Secrets, the bane of life itself.

I've learned of a friend's secret which feels like a complete betrayal of me and all I've shared with her. She keeps secrets, and I never realized it...until recently. Then she let slip her secret of something she stole from me. I don't really mind that she has it, I care beyond words that she did it in secret...and does not seem to have a clue that her behavior is hurtful.

I'm reminded of the cat that does her business in a sand box, covers it up and calls it a sand dune. It is not...it is a secret.

I go back again to my fail-safe: "If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also." That's where I need to keep my focus. Not on the wrong...that's not mine...but on my "deeply shaken," my "hurt."

Fortunately, I have learned it is true what Eckhart Tolle espouses: "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness." In short, I needed this, if for no other reason than to learn more completely that my reaction is more important to my spiritual growth than what I am reacting to.

Thy will not mine be done.

Thank you.

ON LIVING IN THE REIGN OF GOD

The Sermon on the Mount is not about preserving the status quo! It’s about living here on earth as if the reign of God has already begun. In this reign, the Sermon tells us, the poor are blessed, the hungry are filled, the grieving are filled with joy, and enemies are loved. -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

Blinding flash of the obvious: Unselfed...dementia; ah, answered prayer.

If dementia be our answered prayer, then that is where God is...in the dementia which we welcome. It is in welcoming the less-thans of life that fear is transmuted unto peace. 

The transformation is the blessing.

Fear...we hug it, we kiss it, we let it go, and we live in the reign of God.

Thank you.

THE ESSENCE OF NONVIOLENCE, I

 [The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my blog of November 3, 2015.]

Bearing with people is the essence of nonviolence. -- Eknath Easwaran

That makes sense to me. Actually, it leads me to wonder if all violence doesn't begin with a single resistant thought; and if that single resistant thought, not addressed, isn't the path to God. We can give up addressing the one we are resisting, and go inside, to the really and truly great emancipator, God. There it is, the first step in getting free of our own resistance.

Or, put more beautifully, not to mention succinctly, by Julian of Norwich: And thus I saw when we are all in peace and in love, we find no contrariness, nor no manner of letting through that contrariness which is now in us.

Our happiness, our peace, our joy itself is entirely ours to show and to shower. Yet still we war.

War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Thank you.

FEAR...GOD'S TOOL FOR US TO WELCOME

All through the Gospels, people receive what they don’t deserve. Relentless generosity is hard for us to comprehend, much less practice. That kind of unconditional justice is beyond our human power. -- Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations, November 14, 2024

Fear. My unwelcome friend. My nemesis without which I likely would never have chosen my spiritual path. 

My spiritual path, that which saves my sanity on a daily basis. It requires me to go beyond reason to love.

I am resisting my fear of dementia...to be clean-hearted honest, I am resisting my fear that I have dementia right now. Words are wonderful, but, when fear is riding herd, repeating God's will, God's way feels like whistling in the dark...un, just un.

The hidden pearl beyond price: It is fear riding herd that turns us to the Father within...or, our wholly...holey...holy...safety net.

Comes the blinding flash: My path to walk today is to believe dementia is another of God's gifts for my benefit. Then let it come...with fear, of course, but unresisting.

Thank you.

LEGIMATE SUFFERING IS THE REWARD, I

 [The following is a reprint of my post of October 23, 2022.]

Long-ago blinding flash of the obvious: If we do not grow spiritually, welcoming ego reduction in depth, then ego-victory thinking will be our guide, and ego-invited pain will be our reward.

Our "reward" will cause us to miss the gift of what Fr Richard defines as "legitimate suffering." 

According to me, legitimate suffering is of God. In the moment, it hurts as much as egoic suffering,..hurt is hurt, pain is pain...ah, but it leaves us feeling enwrapped in the peace that passes understanding. 

Egoic suffering just brings resentful pain which doubles down on us until by grace and by God, we can let it go.

Thank you. 

  

SEEKING OTHER GRATEFUL HEARTS, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of  October 31, 2013.]

Gratitude must be lived. A living attitude of gratitude shows forth as a beacon and draws others to It. It especially draws grateful people who are as yet unaware...seeking they know not what.

I have read that the measure of our gratitude is in proportion to the amount of time and effort we give to others, to other seekers.

That for sure keeps our gratitude replenished. In that way, it's like a hug: You give it to get it. Which is the best reason in the world to live in gratitude, knowing It will seek other grateful hearts.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH...NEVER ENDING

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

My morning blinding flash: To go beyond reason has been...is...my inner being without my intellect directing.

The rest of that story is that we all f up. That's how we get to go beyond reason without rues, regrets and remorses...which, doubt not, takes time, a lotta, lotta time. 

Fully realizing the need for time is God at work...to be led through our own self to our Self cannot be done by self alone, Then of course we must come to believe until we are walking it. Early belief is based in hope. 

We must stay with the hope until it transmutes into fact. We know it when we realize we are acting without thinking it through but as we breathe. 

Our life now is to let that be...ponder not but give over, give up, give in. We will realize we are doing just that when we look back. There we see us agreeing with our adversary quickly when we know our adversary is not right, or more specifically we know that we are not wrong. And, without thought, we have let the other person "win." 

This happened for me just yesterday. I did not fully realize it until this morning in my quiet time. God is so good to me for that kept me from going directly to ego...with that how great I art feeling slithering around in my brain and shame hanging my head in regret.

Spiritual growth...never boring! 

Thank you.

MOVE ON ALREADY, I

[The following is a reprint, slightly altered, of my post of December 20, 2015.]

It was Saint Augustine who said, "What I needed most was to love and be loved. I rushed headlong into love, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me, and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers of jealousy, suspicions and fear, by bursts of anger and quarrels."

It was that same Saint Augustine who is reported to have said he expected to be feeling lust three day after he was dead.

The most important word...I'm talking vitally important...in both of those quotes is the word "Saint."

The man was canonized, lifted up, sainted...by the Catholic Church! That's the same church all the p.o.'d Catholics use to justify their bad behavior...the rest of us use our mothers.

In our youth no doubt the majority of us felt the need to love and be loved, not having a clue what to love or to be loved meant. In fact, it was usually lust. But as we aged, lust gave over to other things to get hung up by...most of them leading to the rues, regrets and remorses we suffer from today.

And that's the point. Saint Augustine suffered the same pangs, pains and pitfalls...why do we hold ours so dear and feel so hopeless of ever overcoming them? Why not accept, just as the Saint did, that we may well have these till three days after we're dead?

I mean, who's kidding whom? If we could have removed them, we would have by now. I say we fall to our knees and thank God Almighty it's not a lot worse...quitcherbitchin' and move on.

A less than spiritually uplifting message...but my truth nonetheless.

Thank you.

RIGHTEOUS WONDER

We Westerners have lost the ability to frame the significance of our own little lives. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," October 26, 2025

Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place...Fr Richard's quote describes me now. I feel as if I have lost the ability to frame the significance of my life. 

Actually, today, and for some time now, I am focused on America...For America. For America, land of the free, home of the brave, God bless America and all who live here and love it. Or want to. Live here and love it.

I am a World War II baby...a passing thought of that time in my life and I am there...not even three years old but knowing Something Ain't Right but Daddy and Mommy would take care of my sister, my brother, me and America. As time passed, we sang God Bless America a lot...and believed in America.

Oh, how I wish that today we could all have that sense of righteous wonder without the fighting, the hate, War. 

We can all have that sense...we just need to lay down our sword and shield, i.e., change our mind. Which we cannot do on our own...we must go to God for God, with a want for peace in our heart and trust in our head. 

That is a small order masquerading as holy. It is not; it is of God is all...Is All.

Thank you.

AN UPGRADED MIND IS PEACE OF MIND, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of October 31, 2019.]

Many years ago a nutritionist gave me a short formula for healthier eating: What goes in hard comes out soft; what goes in soft comes out hard.

It occurs to me a like formula could apply to our inner life...what goes in bitter comes out sweet, what goes in sweet comes out bitter.

For example, we perceive an incoming remark, action, tax bill, etc., as nasty, hurtful, unfair...bitter in a word. As long as we stay in our reasoning mind with our perception, it is a bitter pill, and we take it personally...resentment aborning. However, when we resist not but trust our inner connection God to lead us peacefully through this, we open our self to a new way of responding...not reacting but responding. How sweet it is!

Same goes when we receive a lovely compliment, delightful gift, unexpected lottery win...and that feels sweet. Then the compliment sours, the gift ain't what it looked to be, the lottery win turns costly...now we're growing resentments.

Peace of mind begins with our change of mind...from seeking a self-determined objective to seeking God's will whatever that may be. We find peace of mind in an accepting mind when we resist not but trust our inner connection, God.

Believe. Trust. Love and laugh.

Thank you.

GRACED AND BLESSED, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 30, 2014.]

I am convinced that the only thing blocking our doing God's will consistently is our resistance to what he's offering. And, of course, that resistance is based on our own idea of what he's offering.

We hear, "Let go and let God." We say it...repeatedly. Nine times out of ten, even as we pray for God's will, we're picturing our want, our self-perceived need. Then we're gifted with what appears to be the exact opposite of what we perceived we needed! In fact, it often seems to be the one thing we're praying it won't be.

Having no choice, we accept what we got, and, through gritted teeth, thank God for it. Then, YOWZER. it comes to be that what we got was and continues to be much...oh, so much...better than our initial desire. We are forced to realize and accept that only God could have pulled it off.

A thank you prayer: Thank you, God, that I want your will done in my life more than I want my own will done in my life no matter what. Open-ended. Knock yourself out, God. Do your thing. You got the power, use it. You're nothing but good so nothing but good can come from you no matter what it looks like to my eyes. You'll make it clear to me when it needs to be clear to me. I am graced with gratitude and blessed with love. Amen

Thank you.

THE UNFAILING GOODNESS OF GOD

I have discarded a lot of what I consider religious baggage. I now tell people that I am a “follower of Jesus,” trying to live by the “terms and conditions” of the Sermon on the Mount. —Eric F., "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations," October 18, 2025

I connect with the Sermon more than with anything else I've read, but I still have a mental hesitancy in owning the proposal that I am a follower of Jesus. It is naming Jesus that causes me pause. 

Whoa! Blinding flash of the obvious: I need to accept the truth of the matter which is that is my teen rebellion never allayed.

Factually, I am a follower of what Jesus taught, but not a follower solely of Jesus. But who is kidding whom? It seems that everything that calls to me originated with Jesus's teachings. 

So, why do I quibble? 

What does it matter whether I credit Jesus? Believers know it, and non-believers deny it, so let it be my truth and fret not. It came to me from God by whatever circuitous route God chose. 

God is so good to me...to us. God is so good.

Thank you.

GOD'S GIFT...AND WANTING IT, I

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

I believe that life's spiritual test is how well we can comprehend and live the promise that the God we seek is already ours...already within me, within you, within us which includes every living thing, and every living thing includes stone and steel. Cats even. Everything. Everywhere.

The word is that there cannot be a place that the living God is not. This becomes ours to prove, and the battle begins...within. Between the reasoning mind's view and the spiritual view.

"Ours to prove" takes a lifetime for most of us. It is life itself that teaches us that only through surrender do we reach our gold. The paradox is that we learn to resist not, yet the only way to surrender is to resist! For how are we ever going to surrender if there is naught to resist?

We can accept that our road to God is to resist a little less each day. To find within our self daily the love necessary to give over to another, specifically to give over to the one we are resisting...there's always someone to our ego-victory mind.

Maybe God's gift to use is an attack mind and the spiritual tools to overcome it. We get to supply the want to.

Thank you.

LET THE SILENCE BECOME THE BRIDGE

The following is lifted entirely from October 18th  "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation." I regret I neglected to note the author:

I wake in the morning and sink down into the quiet Center.

Before the news and the heartbreak. 
Before the world becomes all fire and brimstone. 
Tell me, is this salvation? 
I could stay here, alone and away. 
I could place my life in the company of the undisturbed. 
But if I do, I will surely lose You. 
Friend of Sorrows. Acquaintance of Grief. 
Let this silence, then, become a bridge. 
Let me walk it to where Love is. 
At the edges. Amidst the rubble. 
Trudging among the bones 
Where the prophets call to the four winds 
And a Voice cries out saying Live! Live! 
Let this silence become a forgotten thing 
If it does not lead me to the hill 
Outside the camp.

Thank you.

WE MUST GO BEYOND REASON

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me...thy rod and thy staff are love and laughter...or, tears and travail. 

Interesting to me...the first part being named "love and laughter" came to me many years ago, but the "tears and travail" flashed just this morning. 

I'm guessing whether we are consciously aware of it or not, our inner prayer is for love and laughter with tears and travail never on our wish list.

Yet, as we mature in faith, we realize that without tears and travail, where is our soul's need for the hand of God?  We may have the egoic want, but the God-given need is a faith-driven imperative. 

This is most often the very thing we pray God relieve us of...and gift us with our own self-determined objective dressed up in our mind as God's will, God's way

We must go beyond reason to love, to God's will, God's way.

Thank you.

BEYOND GRATEFUL...BLESSED

 ....pain is physical discomfort, but suffering comes from our resistance, denial, and sense of injustice or wrongness about that pain. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, July 5, 2023 

This gives proof of truth to resist not evil, a quote from the Bible, which makes no sense to the reasoning mind. I probably wrestled with that quote, resist not evil, longer and harder than with any other teaching presented to me. 

I kept coming back to: It does not make a lick of sense. Truth to tell, there isn't a boatload of truth in the Bible that does make sense to the reasoning mind...virgin birth? Uh-huh. 

To me, that's paradox, and accepting paradox for a learning tool has opened my mind...which has opened my life. I now accept...or do not resist...a questionable statement or theory. I kinda let it explain itself to me rather than breaking a sweat trying to disprove it. 

This has proven to be an invaluable tool for my acceptance. My first thought is no longer, I doubt that...it is now that may be so. That way I can let it perc awhile to see what comes, and what comes is rarely what my first thought was. I don't always accept it, but it's usually for an entirely different reason than my first thought presented.

Truth to tell, that is precisely how I came to accept Jesus...I'm not the Jesus-freak I feared I'd become if I let him in at all, but I've found nothing to reject in his thoughts, words and deeds. For which I am beyond grateful...blessed is the word.

Thank you. 

THE PUNY GLORY OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Action without contemplation is the work of hamsters and gerbils. It gets us through the day, it gives us a temporary sense of movement, but the world is not made new by spinning wheels going nowhere. --  Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," October 15, 2023

Action without contemplation is the work of hamsters and gerbils.  That is a good definition of a self-determined objective.

My personal trouble with a self-determined objective is that it nearly always feels so right...as in, no need to think this over, or even ask for God's input...it is right.

I have learned, even often remember, that that is my ego on the stroll...admiring its kingdom, i.e., self.

It has taken me over fifty years coming to my personal gut-bucket acceptance that any original right idea of mine is wrong. That is to say, it is wrong for my spiritual growth, especially when it is right for my walking-around world.

There...that is proof of progress for my spiritual growth...puny to my egoic mind, glorious beyond dreaming to my inner Self.

Thank you.

ON USING FEAR TO LIGHT OUR PATH, I

 [The following if a reprint of my post of December 31, 2019.]

Fear is never lifted out of us. Praying for God to take away fear is a waste of our breath and God's time. No, God does not take away our fear...He imbues us with the power to walk through it to get to Him. Face it, we are the source of all our woes, and God is the cleanup crew.

Our ego seeks to be absolved of all blame always...but blame is just fear with a new haircut. We are slow to learn that is where God's glory lies...blame (fear) is spiritual growth aborning for to lift us deeper. Time set aside daily to meditate, to journal, to ponder on the mysteries of the spiritual is the new GPS we are gifted with.

We slowly realize the nature of the path we have been set upon. It is a path that leads us ever forward guided by ego's denial of its determined hold. The many bumps in our road are our hard-earned giftees; equally important, they benefit others at the same time. Thus, we all come out of self free.

Fear is never lifted out of us...it is used to light our path out of self into God's hidey-hole.

Thank you.

ON LIVING HAPPY, JOYOUS AND FREE

 At its best, Franciscan life is not words or even ethics. It is flesh—naked, vulnerable flesh—unable to deny its limitations, unable to cover its wounds. Francis called this inner nakedness 'poverty.' -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations

I choose to believe that all words have two meanings, the good and the not-so-good, the words of peace or love and the words of hate or hurt, 

Maybe all acts fall into those two categories...keep it simple being our best intention. Keeping it spiritually simple...ah, there be the Self stripped bare.

My recent revelation...the reasoning mind is incapable of keeping it simple.  We go to God or we live in self-centered fear, which we suspect is the natural state of the reasoning mind. 

The great and glorious news is: We do not need to live in that state...we can and do trust God. We can have faith and live happy, joyous and free!  

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF UNKNOWING, I

[This 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.

ON LIVING HAPPY, JOYOUS AND FREE

 At its best, Franciscan life is not words or even ethics. It is flesh—naked, vulnerable flesh—unable to deny its limitations, unable to cover its wounds. Francis called this inner nakedness 'poverty.' -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations

I choose to believe that all words have two meanings, the good and the not-to-good, the words of peace or love and the words of hate or hurt, 

Maybe all acts fall into those two categories...keep it simple being our best intention. Keeping it spiritually simple...ah, there be the Self stripped bare.

My recent revelation...the reasoning mind is incapable of keeping it simple.  We go to God or we live in self-centered fear, which we suspect is the natural state of the reasoning mind. 

The great and glorious news is: We do not need to live in that state...we can and do trust God. We can have faith and live happy, joyous and free!  

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF LOVE AND LAUGHTER

In order to be free for a full and authentic life, we must quite simply be free from our smaller selves. -- Fr Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, October 3, 2025

According to me, there is no greater task than to be free from our smaller selves. Probably because our smaller self looms so large in our mind. 

I can't help but appreciate the old saying, I don't think much of me, but me is all I ever think about. How true, oh Lord, how true. 

Comes the dawn...that is so true that all we can do is laugh. Proving yet again, our worst fear, thought, reaction comes as a gift wrapped in laughter.

Love and laugh, live happily ever after...with mini breaks for taking oneself too seriously. 

Thank you.

THE MAGIC OF WHEN

 I suppose there is no more counterintuitive spiritual idea than the possibility that God might actually use and find necessary what we fear, avoid, deny, and deem unworthy. This is what I mean by the “integration of the negative.” Yet I believe this is the core of Jesus’ revolutionary good news.... "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," January 19, 2025

I've written about that before...probably more than a couple of times...yet it speaks to me louder each time I am met with it. 

I recall when the still small voice first came to me with you gotta find the good in this bad situation, and I knew that to be a direct message to me from my own Higher Power, i.e., God. That was many years ago. 

It is the mystical realization of that fact that turns us around...heads us in the right direction which at first feels like the wrong direction. 

As a young teen, I realized that I had a different daily pattern to live by. God's gift was the vital point: I knew and accepted that I could not set the new pattern for me; I could only live it as It presented Itself to me. 

That was my first glimpse of the New Way. Over the years, that led to my knowing...knowing when I am doing God's will, God's way...when conversely this is ego's choice. 

When...the pearl beyond price. No greater gift.

Thank you.

KISS...KEEP IT SIMPLE, SWEETIE

Righteous violence ultimately leads to self-justifying monologues, rather than the continuous love dialogue that reflects the Trinitarian nature of God and, by extension, the entire universe. -- Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 27, 2025 

Righteous violence is violence in fancy dress. 

I write that without any thought behind it so it's subject to change. I wonder, though, if that isn't how wars begin...a spat leads to an argument leads to a fight leads to war...with no memory of what led to that first feeling of resistance. 

It could be that all that leads to a war is one person's first feeling of resistance.

That certainly clarifies the "magic" of thank You...feel a twinge of resistance, promptly pray thank You, and there, a peaced mind. 

That is simplified in the extreme, but if Keep It Simple, Sweetie isn't our mantra, it does qualify,

KISS...what could be easier to remember? And with God's grin thrown in to bless us.

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF BEING A HOLY FOOL

We find ourselves invited by Francis to be fools. Is it really possible that what is given up will be returned a hundredfold? ***** We can neutralize the challenge and promise of Jesus and Francis by elevating [them] into the realm of sainthood and perfection,...Or we can ponder their way of living in the world and attempt to follow them, fools though we would be. -- Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 30, 2025

The flash came to me at 6:15 this morning, and I quietly understood: The "mistakes" we fear to make, the wrong way, the errors, are the tools...the U-turns...we need in order to find our new way.

Spiritually, there is no reason to ask for Jesus' help, God's intervention...we have it. We live it without realizing it. Until we act on it without thought, preplanning, or guile, we live in the material mind. 

The lesson for us now is to realize how deeply enmeshed we already are and have been in living this. The missteps with my new friend, for instance, are likely harbingers for each of us. 

Ponder not, let it be...and breathe love.

Thank you.

THANK YOU...THE PEARL BEYOND PRICE

I sincerely think Francis found a Third Way, which is the creative and courageous role of a prophet and a mystic. He basically repeated what all prophets say: that the message and the medium for the message have to be the same thing. -- Fr Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 29. 2025

If we're not living and breathing what we're saying, we are still in the material mind, no matter how advanced spiritually we feel.

 

Slowly dawns the light: We each grow at the God of our understanding's pace for us. 

Ego will always urge faster, deeper, better...but the priceless lesson we are always learning is that ego's voice takes a backseat to God's. It talks louder, but that's ego's job...all talk with little to show for it.

A recent experience I had exemplifies the learning lessons of God: In a phone conversation, a friend and I came to differing ideas...long/short: She hung up on me. I did not realize that and kept talking...until I realized it. 

The Gift: I took it as nada...in short, as spiritual work takes hold, we take less and less personally. Bottomline: neither of us flinched, and we haven't needed to "talk it over" for it to be over.  

Guaranteed, that is not material mind, but better than anything, it proves God's mind can and does work for our benefit with and/or without our knowledge or consent. 

Question answered...why thank You is the only prayer we will ever need to pray.

Thank you. 

ON LIVING THE LOVE WE TALK

Love is not only what we do; it’s how we do it. When we stand in the state of love that Jesus offers, we live inside of a different energy. —Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 20, 2025 

For a while now, I have been led to ponder love...to read about it, write about it, think about it. Then came the big reveal: to learn about love as it already lives through me.

Like many...maybe most...of us, for the early part of my life, I considered love as between a woman and a man, leading to marriage, children, happy ever after. I outlived that and simply did not care...I was around 35 when understanding awoke, and I began to accept what I was living.  

Looking back, it seems the understanding came in a flash. It didn't of course...for the fact is, it is still growing. Growing me...deeper where I am feeling more alive, with answers to unrealized questions.

My personal whys, hows, whens, etc, have all but faded away, but the political arena seems to be rotting on the vine. That scares me even as I consciously rely on the fact that the Father knows...knows what is happening everywhere, all the time, and He is protecting all...especially all who turn to Him to be peaced. 

It's not that He is protecting us more, it's that by our faith, we are awake to His presence, i.e., protection/peace, and that we have work to do for America, for our world.

What we must needs remember at all times...or the majority of the time at any rate (that's 51 percent, not to get too uptight about it), is that God has the back of each of us...man, woman, child, bulldog, crocodile, fly and flea...and white nationalist. 

We need not fret, worry or stew about anything...make note of it, do our best to follow God's will, God's way, then hug it and kiss it and let it go...or get comfortable with it as it continues to teach us spiritually.

Thank you. 

GOD'S STEPPINGSTONES...FOR OUR BENEFIT

Every human personality is something sacred, something special. We don’t have a right, as another person or as a nation, to destroy that spark of divinity, that spark of humanity, that is made and created in the image of God. —John Lewis, Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 27, 2025

As I read John Lewis's quote, I realized that we are each interpreted by the other...by the other's sacred inner knowledge...by the other's spark of humanity that was made in the image of the God of their understanding. 

I suspect that there are no "exactly alike" folks...identical twins look alike, and their thinking, feeling, doing and being may seem identical, but God sees, knows each of us intimately, exactly...individually. 

Now that I am in my 80s, I have come to understand that our lives have ever been heading upward...toward the welcoming of God's will, God's way...and the majority of our rues, regrets and remorses were ever God's steppingstones for our benefit. 

Ah, there it is...there's the righteous reason for love and laugh...they are God's steppingstones for our benefit.

End of discussion, thank You, Father.

Thank you.