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:
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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.