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.

TRY WITH A WILL AND PRAY THANK YOU

We must try with a will or fall by the wayside.

That is one of my favorite quotes...probably because the older I get, the more I wonder if I can actually do much of anything. So, I try and pray thank You.

So far, I lean on my early learning when I doubted me at every turn. Having no one but God to lean on, I leaned, repeating that which I came to realize as my newly learned mantra, I hadn't even heard the word mantra at that time...but fear is a good teacher. I learned by leaning in.

Back story: My cell phone got infected with a virus, and I finally gave up on making it work for me with a virus. 

I spent all day yesterday not bothering the genius who was clearing out my cell phone. He got it clear, but I'm finding I need to relearn how to use it...everything has changed, from sign-in to password and then...well, it is all over my head. Thus, my try with a will or fall by the wayside.

I must admit the wayside is singing my song right now. However, I choose to continue to trust the word of Meister Eckhard about the only prayer we will ever need,  I pray Thank You,...with God can and will if sought added on.

Thank you.

FEAR OF TRUSTING GOD, I

[The following is a reprint of a previous blog of mine, slightly reworked.]

I dreamed last night:

I am living in poverty. I am gifted with the Hope Diamond. I am ecstatic…all my worries are over. I’m told its value which is more money than I ever dreamed of having. I’m also told that the value may double or even triple within a day or two. 

Of course I hold onto it because if a million is good, etc. Weeks pass. I do nothing but worry and check on the value…has it gone up yet? How bout now? Any movement today? 

I do not have a buck to buy a dollar meal with. I am starving as I clutch my Hope to my heart. I think of how much more money I will get if I just hold on to my fortune another day or two. 

As I lay dying, I realize my death is not from starvation but from fear. Fear of trusting God. I hear again, "God can and will intervene in your life in your behalf." 

I realize that before God can and will...anything...I must needs let go. God will not force me...I have free will to choose.

Choose ye this day....

Thank you.

TRY WITH A WILL...AND TRUST

Idle thoughts: Is America being put to the test by self-serving Trump-ists? Or, just as likely, by our reliance on our own interpretation of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and our hopes, dreams and prayers for America.

Deep within me, I suspect (know?) that I am being that which I see in "them"...rigid, righteous and right.

Comes the startler: What if they are right? Or, maybe less of a gut punch...not entirely wrong?

None of us are entirely right nor entirely wrong, but what if they win? is my real quandary. According to my thinking, if they win, they will destroy America as we know it. But God knows that, or more to the point, God knows. 

We can trust that and worry not. But where's the frazzled what-to-do-what-to-do in that? Ah, there be reasoning mind's real goal...feeling that we are actually doing something by how frayed our nerves.

 Stay calm, trust that God can, will and does have our back, then do our part toward that end...meaning that we will need to experience necessary suffering. 

There be the knife point, what we feel that we are suffering now. We must suffer to release our self-determined objectives, or self-inflicted suffering.

Now...what can we personally do for America? Raise our consciousness and speak our truth...not lecture...speak God's will, God's way as we experience it. 

Still more spiritual growth, the ever answer.

Thank you.

NEITHER TO WIN NOR TO LOSE, BUT TO BE

Rev. James Bevel then took the mike. We are not just fighting for our rights, he said, but for the good of the whole society. 'It’s not enough to defeat Jim Clark—do you hear me Jim?—we want you converted. We cannot win by hating our oppressors. We have to love them into changing.'  -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, September 22, 2025

The material mind has two ways of thinking, i.e., win or lose, which plays out in our walking-around world as love or hate.

The spiritual mind has but one way: Be. Just as I am...right here, right now...of God. 

My new realization is that we must learn to unthink. 

There is nothing wrong with thinking, we just need to let God do the heavy lifting...as in, whatever thought passes our mind, let it. No longer do we hunker down with our thoughts and ponder them endlessly (or, more like, let them ponder us endlessly) ...instead we hug them, kiss them and let them go...with a thank You.

Be the embodiment of God, realizing...accepting...that each individual will be just that...individual. The same in our differences and different in our sameness, and that is not wordplay, that is our innermost goal...our own realization of that as our truth...our truth to walk, with God-mind leading the way.

There. We give up, give over, give in, neither winning nor losing, we Be. With God as our guide, we Be.

Thank you.

FEAR NOT, I AM HERE

For some time, I was led to ponder love...to read about it, write about it, think about it. Then came the big reveal: to learn about love as I already live it.

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'm guessing I was around 25-30 when my inner understanding 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...the political arena seems to be rotting on the vine. That scares me, but 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 more aware of His presence, i.e., protection/peace.

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 up-tight about it), is that God has the back of each of us...man, woman, child, bulldog, crocodile, ant, flea, et al.

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.

Now...just do it.

Thank you. 

CLING NOT...FLY FREE, I

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of September 21, 2018.]

Blinding flash of the obvious: This is my time for finding myself in 80...old age is not a harbinger of all that is not good...it is not hard...it is not anything that it wasn't at age 20 except for my attitude about it...an attitude of hope in positive expectation is more likely at 20, but 80 years of experience tempers that lively expectation...it does not need douse the fire! It needs turned over to God, that higher power within me. 

It is only through the gift of long-lived experience that I can turn it over for God has come to my aid repeatedly...daily if I but paid attention. 

That is what I must needs look to now. It is not out there I need look...not another BFF, not another lunch buddy, not another gossip pal that I need...want, yes, and that's ok, but I need focus on the fact that 80 is my open door to flying free.

As my beloved David told me all those years ago, Cling to nothing, fly!

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

Thank you.

IMPERSONAL, ALBEIT LIVING, LOVE

The light of love is always in us, no matter how cold the flame. It is always present, waiting for the spark to ignite, waiting for the heart to awaken and call us back to the first memory of being the life force inside a dark place waiting to be born—waiting to see the light. -- Cultural critic bell hooks

It is interesting to me how often I have a flash of brand-new insight yet when I go to write about it, I find an almost identical thought of another having just come to light. The bell hooks' quote is a fairly close example. 

For the past few days, weeks...months?...I have been pondering love...and realizing how little I know about love...what I call impersonal love or even free-floating love. Love not attached to anyone or anything in particular, just free-standing love.

I guess a fairly decent way to describe it is nonresistance to anything or anybody. I think nonresistance as opposed to acceptance. Nonresistance calls for no response...nada.  Acceptance gives a peaced feeling which just calls for sharing it, talking about it, telling our world!

At any rate, I've been pondering love purely because it was given me as a passing thought.  I simply accepted it by letting it wander loose in my mind...I attached no personal thought to it, I kinda, sorta, almost let it ponder me.

I make note of this because I had an example of it alive in my life just yesterday...I was in discussion with a friend who, somewhat agitatedly, said "You are wrong!" I responded not at all...not in an "I'm ignoring you" way, I just continued chatting on my thought. At that point, she responded positively to what I was saying, and our conversation continued undisturbed.

That is not the way I would normally act nor the way she would normally respond. Looking back, it was as if we were both taken out of context of the conversation, blessed, dropped back in, so we could keep on chatting. 

Don't tell me that wasn't God's will, God's way. 

Personally, I expect more such spiritual acts in our lives, please and thank You. Amen.

Thank you.

TO KNOW GOD...LOVE AND BE LOVED

 If 'God is love' (1 John 4:8) then those who live in love, live in God, and know God experientially. There’s no other way we can know who God is—or who we truly are—but to love and be loved. -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations

The thought flashes: Love is nonresistance.

Naturally, I must ponder that...and I realize that, among other things, for sure love is nonresistance. The newly realized fact is that learning to love is and has been our unrealized marching orders.

Our spiritual orders always have been for us to love...plain and simple.   

A good start was to find my difference between acceptance and nonresistance; i.e., acceptance is of reasoning mind, nonresistance is spiritual mind. How simple could it be? And isn't that the nature of still more spiritual growth? Complicate it, and we're in the zone of the reasoning mind...again.

If there is an of God difference, we can let it be. Our raised consciousness will enlighten us as we continue to loose it and let it be.

Thank you.

HOLD YOUR NOSE & TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH, I

[The following is a reprint of my blog of September 28, 2019.]

Primary paradox...our reasoning mind can agree with spiritual truths, but because it can't figure out how to do spiritual truths, it doubts spiritual truths.

We feel safer identifying spiritual truths and their cosmic nature as coincidence, or serendipitous, or even lucky! That is, we cling to our feeling of security, refusing to step out of our comfort zone, thus keeping reason in control.

Going beyond reason to love is a scary journey...albeit completely nonhazardous. Which we cannot realize unless and until we get to the other side, a.k.a., hold our nose and take a leap of faith.

Thank you.

BY FAITH...OR BY GRACE AND BY GOD, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of June 27, 2025.]

Morning blinding flash of the obvious: Every step forward I take the waters open...

The Red Sea did not open all at once...it opened one step forward at a time...faith is what made that one step forward possible...and thus the opening of the Sea.

Our personal Red Sea does not open all at once...it opens as we take one Step at a time...faith is what makes possible our using the Steps...and thus the opening of the Sea...slowly but inevitably, by faith or by grace and by God.

Thank you.

FOR ME, PLEASE AND THANK YOU

Where is this God being revealed? Not in the safe world, but at the edge, at the bottom, among those where we don’t want to find God, where we don’t look for God, where we don’t expect God. — Richard Rohr

There...the answer. The answer to how resist not evil is God's will, God's way. 

We learn...are learning...to the reasoning mind, God's will, God's way is not a comfortable idea right now...maybe later. Later, when we have more time. Later, when we don't feel irritated at the need to understand this convoluted thing called still more spiritual growth.

To me that has been one of the hardest lessons to learn and to continue to learn (until three days after we are dead, I'm guessing). That being God's will, God's way cannot be accessed by the reasoning mind. Ah, more proof that we must go beyond reason...end of discussion, except it never is, is it? 

The reasoning mind ain't got no quit in it. For which we get to be grateful...why else would we be inclined to seek still more spiritual growth? It's a hard enough climb with want-to pushing us every step of the way.

Blinding flash...and God built us this way. God knew before time began that in general humans would likely be satisfied with the easy way out. The proof of that to me is the realization that I've never heard of anyone praying to God without a want dictating the prayer. Face it, that's the definition of prayer. As in, do me a favor, Lord....

God knew then, knows now, will ever know our exact needs...which are the same for each of us, i.e., for me, please and thank You.

Which is as it must be.

Thankyou.

LOVE AND LAUGH

 In rites of initiation we teach people that they have to go down before they can possibly go up.***That’s initiation! We have to be swallowed by something bigger than ourselves. The phrase used by many, including Thomas Merton, was that we have to go into the “belly of the beast”—a place where we are not in control, where we can’t fix it, explain it, understand it, or even like it. -- Richard Rohr Daily Meditations, July 11, 2025

Maybe life itself is a rite of initiation and life itself is to live in the belly of the beast. 

If that be true, no wonder love and laugh is the better answer...no matter the question.

Thank you.

RESIST NOT EVIL...PRAY THANK YOU

God’s empire created a network of solidarity and mutuality that turned conventional pyramids upside down and gave “the last, the least, and the lost” the honored place at the table. -- Brian McLaren [from Fr Richard's Daily Meditations, 9/10/25]

In today's world, "God's empire...the last, the least, and the lost,” is our highest hope. 

I am learning...still realizing...that my idea of "God's best" is ever my own idea, my own thinking. Any and all attempts by me to shuck it down, to make my honored place at the table less than, will ever be my self-determined objectives, and I need let it be! How else to learn to resist not evil?

My stripped-down spiritual truth: If it doesn't make a lick of sense to my reasoning mind, I'm on the right track, heading in the right direction...seeking God's will, God's way.

Thank you.  

LET IT BE...STAND ON IT, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of October 20, 2021.]

In my free-floating thoughts, I've found my resting place is simplicity...mainly because I tend toward mix-and-match, and they never do. The result being, I can complicate a free lunch.

For today, in simplifying my own world view, I've settled for the primary source of trouble in today's world is we all...individually, nationally, worldwide...want our own personal "got'cha." With peace, love and joy coming out on our side.

We earnestly pray that God's will be done, but what we're really praying for is our "got'cha" over the other's "unacceptable" behavior...except there ain't no God in "got'cha."

Slowly and right on time, we learn the art of detachment. We detach...not from the other, but from our own self, our own wants. We go toward the other offering the peace, love and joy that we seek, never realizing until we offer it to the other that we already have it.

We let It by trusting It from our toes to our nose...from our nose up is God's workshop.

Thank you.

THE ANSWER IS 'THANK YOU'...ALWAYS

Powerlessness seems to be God’s starting place, as in Twelve-Step programs. Until we admit that “we are powerless,” Real Power will not be recognized, accepted, or even sought. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," September 8, 2025

This morning I am being led to understand more deeply the gift of powerlessness. It is to grin...powerlessness, as in OMG, what if I'm losing my mind? What if I can't fix this? What if, what if, what if...I don't know what to do. 

All the scare-thoughts that race around our mind are simply reminders that God has already taken care of us, of our perceived problem, of our life itself. There. That's why the always answer is Thank You. 

Any problem perceivable by our reasoning mind is ego born and bred. It has a life of its own only if by our thoughts we allow it. Ego does not now, never has, never will, have an equal power to God, God's will, God's way. Its only power is in our thinking it has power, thus our surrender to our own ego as opposed to God...God's will, God's way.

Most important for us to remember is that those are just so many words, meaningless in our walking-around world, if we do not live them daily. 

We realize the quiet word we hear, i.e., give over, give up, give in, is the how-to of life. Even better, we resist it not...we welcome the opportunity to give over, give up, give in.

Thank you.

ON PRACTICING THE STILLNESS

The following is what I just this morning realized about me, my spiritual growth, today...my ongoing transformation as it were: 

For most of my life, every thought process has revolved around solving problems and seeking answers, but I’ve started to practice stillness and silence instead of searching for anything at all. In this new space of contemplation, powerful insights arise at the most unexpected moments. They aren’t the result of my own effort and mental machinations; they are gifts directly communicated to me through God’s love. Our intellects can be clever and ever so knowledgeable, but when we gaze up at the night sky or watch a butterfly, we understand that our minds must take a backseat to the quiet, gentle guidance of God. —David M. [from Fr Richard's Daily Meditations, 9/7/25]

I believe this to be available to everyone whether we know it or not...or, knowing it, whether we choose it or not. 

The Word without our will at the wheel: It will find us eventually, and It will drive us to our glory.

Thank you.

ON PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

It seems to me that in a blinding flash, all I'm reading about is practicing the presence of God...as in, the necessity of practicing the presence of God.

One of the first spiritual books I read nearly fifty years ago was Practicing the Presence by or about an illiterate friar who was the dishwasher at his monastery...of course, that's if I remember correctly. It was a little book only known to a minority of spiritual seekers...again if I remember rightly. Apparently, if it is the same book, its reputation has blossomed as has its author's. I hope so.

Interestingly, I have the same question today as I had all those years ago...other than living as unselfishly as we're capable of, with still more spiritual growth as our guide and our goal, how do we practice the presence of God?

To my way of thinking, that's how we live life...basically, with the mental, physical and spiritual welfare of others being first in our mind, trusting others to have the same goal. In which case, we're each covered.

That may be too simplistic, but it fits the God of my understanding and me. I'll hold to that until I'm led further...or higher...or hit a spiritual U-bie and get to start up a new road. That, too, has happened. 

With the God of my understanding, I'm good just as I am...for right Now anyway.

Thank you.

GET IT RIGHT, NOW - I

[The following is a reprint of my post of October 5, 2015.]

Here's my theory of life everlasting: Life is simply a test. 

We all come from the same gene pool of God consciousness, which is also known as "heaven," and that is where we return. The time we each have with our test varies, and none of us knows our time limit.

All are born with free will; the test being how quickly and completely we exchange that free will for God's will. The sooner we begin to make our exchange, the freer we are...to help others make their exchange. That is our only job.

The exchange can only be made through forgiveness...which is love at its toughest, i.e., best.

We keep coming back until we get it right.

Thank you.

GO AHEAD...BE THE GREAT DAY!

 Hope. 

We must go beyond reason to hope. 

Reason wears drab grey and puce...hope is our very own rainbow. Hope is God's will, God's way alive in our heart leading us to our personal rainbow...follow our heart.

When you're down and out, lift up your head and shout, 'It's gonna be a great day!'

Thank you.

GO BEYOND REASON TO AN UNSELFED LIFE

Again, we hear the quiet word: An unselfed life is to go beyond reason to love.

Reason again feels stumped...how does one become unselfed? By going beyond reason, and that is what is known as living a circuitous life, or, more to the material mind's point, chasing one's own tail. 

Moving on up, we accept this as the way of growing faith since faith is born by believing without material evidence at hand. 

There's the material mind, then we move up to the spiritual (divine) mind. 

Those of us just trying to live by spiritual principles get lifted into the spiritual mind on occasion, but we live in the material world. 

Living in the material world with spiritual principles as our guide completes our life cycle.

Thank you.

TO PRACTICE THE PRESENCE

The most sacred, most ordinary, and most necessary practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God. -- Brother Lawrence, "Practice of the Presence"

Learning how to practice the presence of God is my deeper goal now. To practice the presence of God is more than thoughts and words and prayers and even practices...I've learned.

The evergreen how to? is the gift that lives to give. 

I wonder if it isn't to live my life just as I have been living my life, but realizing, or recognizing, the inner working is and has ever been going on and for my benefit. For my benefit by benefitting others.

Here's where go beyond reason hits paydirt...go beyond reason to love. or to hope, or to...ah, or to practice the presence. Period. There. God's will, God's way simplified for us.

Knowing the right words is a good start, but doing is the pearl beyond price...not of self, but of Self. There's God's will...unexplainable in Its perfection.

Thank you.

GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY A-BLOOMING

 Well. 

This morning began with me feeling like this was the morning from hell...yet, underneath there was the sense of rightness.

Several differing feelings addled me. Boiling them down, it was not fear of insanity, but...maybe, it was the feeling of God's will, God's way a-blooming, thus not of my reasoning mind? 

I think that's as close as I'm going to get to it.

For sure something is happening within me...

I can stick with my reasoning mind and fear dementia...or...let it be dementia and begin my new life of God's will, God's way without my reasoning mind interpreting. 

Or I can love and laugh and know peace is at hand.

God thought: The crucifixion couldn't have felt like a party, albeit being for Our Man's benefit...for us.

Thank You.