THE MIND ALONE WILL NEVER GET US THERE

The bottom line is that everybody has enough. *** Trying to understand it with your mind, you’ll never get it.... Cynthia Bourgeault, "Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation," June 11, 2026

When I read "everybody has enough," my head, my heart my Soul shouted Amen! That I have enough has for a long time now been my mental safety net. 

Back in the '80s when I had what I call the care and feeding of the IRS, I intuitively knew that I had enough, would always have enough. I knew I could and would be able to feed and house my beloved dog and me...and I did not know that by the evidence in my bank account which was reading zero. 

I did get through that period without needing to beg, borrow or steal. I had a job, I made the deal the IRS presented, and I was moved on to my next level...learning the art of spiritual love. Or, learning to feel love for others when the response feels less that loving. 

I can see...but cannot yet do without serious effort...the need is to take nothing personally. Acceptance in a word. 

As Bourgeault wrote, Trying to understand it with your mind, you’ll never get it.

Thank you.

TO FIND OUR FATHER WITHIN, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of June 30, 2018,]

What if Donald Trump is our Saul of Tarsus? As in Saint Paul before his involuntary conversion.

What if that's you and me? What if we're all Saul, rigid, righteous and right, before involuntary or voluntary conversion? According to me, some of us crash and burn leaving no place to turn but to a power greater than ourselves; some of us are born seeking a higher power and some just stumble onto it. It makes no never mind how we get there, get there we must...again, according to me.

Will we open our mind to the possibility of it?...to the possibility that we are Trump in disguise...or Pruitt...or Hillary! Are we willing to find within our own self that part of them we are repulsed by, to seek for that identity in order to release it...loose it and let it go...and find our Father within?

Until we do, we will be tied to our own repugnant thoughts...calling our own thoughts Trump, Pruitt, Hillary, et al. 

Those thoughts will grow...but we won't.

Thank you.

A LITTLE HAND MIRROR, I

[The following is a reprint of my blog of November 21, 2012.]

So I'm talking with God this morning, and He says, "I'll tell you what you need...you need a little hand mirror to carry with you at all times. That way you'll always be able to see immediately and exactly who and what your problem is."

That was such a good idea that I immediately thought of all the people I needed to give a little hand mirror to....

Thank you.

ON BEING...JUST BE

[Spiritual growth] is all about being who you are....here’s the first step: Know who you are. Be who you are. Be the person God created you to be. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 5, 2026

I go to God for God, and that is all keeps playing in my mind. I received that as a blinding flash of the obvious a while back. It plays in and through me regularly...for which I am grateful.

The fact of the matter though...I go to God with thank You the majority of the time. There's my comfort... knowing I have turned me over to the care of our Father which art in Heaven. 

Leaving me there is my spiritual growth. 

Thank you.

A BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 2, 2025.]

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 posted it again as noted, and I post it now. Clearly, I love it.

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF GRATITUDE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of June 29, 2017.]

Today my plan is to take a risk...a personal, inside, no-big-deal-to-you-but-huge-to-me risk.

As I opened my "God Calling," the words with God all things are possible were there before me. It just so happens that seemingly every time I have a challenge to meet, those words are given to me, and sometimes from the most unlikely places.

It's not surprising I'd find them in "God Calling" but on this particular day with no preplan or thought? When in doubt, assume the best is my mantra...my risk just transmuted into God's will which makes it feel less risky. Thank you, Lord.

Now, even if my action turns out less than wonderful to my ego's eyes, I can know God's hand was in it...meaning, there will be bennies. I'll get to sit and wait on the Lord.

If the results are close enough to wonderful, I'll have the gift of gratitude to wrap me in...no better feeling.

God is so good to me.

Thank you.

ON WALKING THROUGH FEAR IN FAITH, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 29, 2019.]

Blinding flash of the obvious (as I asked to be relieved of the bondage of self): I must release You from my bondage of self.

It was a great gettin' up morning when I realized that for myself, fear is God in camouflage for nothing turns me to God faster than fear.

The hook, however, is that fear is not lifted. We must walk through our personal fear to God. Ah, but we do not feel the fear as we are walking through for He goes before us making the crooked places straight.

It is I; be not afraid. - John 6:20

Thank you.

THE GRACE OF GRATITUDE

The infinite expanse of who we are is a place to offer our own unfixed and unmixed attention, a place of prayer, a place where the contemplative life thrives.-- "Daily Meditation," June 3, 2026

Being who we are, who I am, is a long-time, mind-changing, life-changing act of self will and spiritual will wove together as One.

I am in my 80s now, and at times it will take by-grace-and-by-God for me to comfortably be who I am in- and outside my very Me.

I am comfortable being me the majority of the time, but the times that I feel...let's call it antsy...get my fuller attention. I have learned to accept that God-thoughts slip in without pre-knowledge or consent, often are resisted, but once realized, are always for me...for my spiritual-growth benefit.

I am in that space now...brought to me by age, accident (a fall), and spiritual growth (whereby I leaned on everything happens for my benefit...resist not evil being the key).

I no longer need remind me to go to God for God and that is all. I am comfortable recognizing that is my Place in the Sun today. And I am grateful.

Thank you.

FEELING FEAR, I WALK WITH GOD

I was becoming more and more open to letting the spirit of God breathe through me and make me new. Therein is the source of real personal change, evolution, and transformation, and it’s never ending…. The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, "Daily Meditation," June 2, 2026

As I reread the Curry quote, I realize that may well be what I am experiencing, letting the spirit of God breathe through me.

Only it hurts.

I feel as filled with anxiety as I have ever felt. I thought that was the inside boil that would be lanced...painlessly...and I would feel healed, thus whole.

Well, I don't.

I am shaking like an Aspen, stomach tight and growing tighter, heart pounding.

Whoa! Blinding flash: I 'see' Jesus going to his crucifixion...no one knows for certain sure what His inner thoughts were. It may well be He was shaking like an Aspen, etc., but He did not falter, He did not fail to continue His walk with God to His destiny.

Feeling fear, I walk with God...He knows my name.

Thank you.

WORST FEAR INVITES GOD'S WILL AND WAY

Applying binary logic to assess or judge the infinite variables of human experience is illogical. —Larry B., "Daily Meditation," June 1, 2026

Trying to open oneself to the infinite variables of human experience is still self-will driving the bus. 

Trying is the giveaway...trying is our self in control, inviting is our willingness to hear God.

I am feeling scared right now...scared of Thy will, Thy way. I am in my new level of spiritual growth, and I feel abandoned, threatened, all alone. 

Feel the fear and do it anyway floats by. I fear I am losing my mind...blinding flash: and I am. 

Comes the quiet word: All I need do is accept that losing my mind is simply changing my mind. 

I fear my life will now be me seeking others' aid and assistance and being dependent on that. 

Now I get to believe that as so, thus for my good. By grace and by God.

Thank you. 

THE SPIRITUAL LEARNING PROCESS

I hear myself saying over and over, God, you've just gottta help me.

This morning I intuited, Stacey, you've just gotta let Me.

I remind myself that I go to God for God and that is all, but I suspect those words have become just words...words I repeat, repeatedly, so their meaning is akin to dust in the wind...more of an irritation than an aid.

I realize, also, that I find myself repeating, repeatedly, Lord, hear my prayer. I have never asked that God help me hear him, his response. 

I begin to understand: This is the spiritual learning process. The feeling that we are going nowhere, getting no God-attention. This may just be the winding road to God's ear...out of self into Self. 

I'll accept it as such until further enlightenment opens to me.

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

Thank you. 

NOTHING LEFT FOR WHICH TO WISH, I

[The following is a reprint, slightly reworked, of my post of April 29, 2018.]

The crucifixion of the self is accomplished when there is nothing left for which we wish to pray. -- Joel Goldsmith, "The Heart of Mysticism," at p. 377

If that be true, then it follows that the road to ego deflation in depth is accomplished by letting go of our self-determined objectives, i.e., our wants...no matter how pretty we dress our wants.

Which is close enough for me to what in the 15th century Meister Eckhart espoused: If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.

Thank you.

TO FEEL FEAR IS TO INVITE GOD'S WILL

When we open up space for the Spirit and let the Spirit fill that space within us, we begin to change.... --Brian McLaren, "Daily Meditations," May 29, 2026

I felt joy when I read McLaren's quote. As I pondered that, I was stopped by a loud Uh-Oh, and I realized that we begin to change was the promise and the warning both at the same time. On the one hand, Spirit says, for the better, and reasoning mind says, fear is here, hunker down.

Right now, I am in my reasoning mind, and I feel fear...fear of losing my mind. I feel paralyzed with fear in that I don't seem to be able to do anything, as in to actually move to get the test I've been nattering myself about getting. That's the test for cognitive disorder...for whatever reason, cognitive disorder feels softer to me than dementia...the very word stabs my worried-zone.  

This panic attack started earlier, around 4:00 AM, and it has been flitting in and out since...it is 8:00 AM now. I do not shame, blame or pity...I go to God for God and this is His answer. That is my truth that I get to deal with just as it is...for my benefit. 

I go to God for God and that is all, for that is All.

Now, feel the fear and keep on truckin'...with the grace of God and gratitude.

Thank you.

GOD INDWELLING IS.... I

[The following is a reprint of my post of  May 31, 1995.]

Jesus became a highly contrived problem-solver for our own guilt and fear (a problem that was inevitable if God was not indwelling) instead of the Archetypal Blueprint for what God has been doing all the time and everywhere. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," May 31, 1995

There. That parenthetical phrase, "(a problem that was inevitable if God was not indwelling)," explains everything...according to me.

God indwelling is the driver, producer, agent of our soul, always using our own chosen tools, i.e., defects of character or personal assets, to get us where we need to be for our still more spiritual growth...no matter how ego-shattering it looks and feels to us and/or our world.

I am the source of all my woes; I am the good I seek.

Thank you.

WE MUST FEEL THE FEAR TO RELEASE IT

Father Richard envisions the Holy Spirit as the loving immensity of God’s presence within us.,,,You must contact this Immensity! ...You must know that this Immensity is already within you. The only thing separating you from such Immensity is the ego. -- "Father Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," May 27, 2026

I am again at the place of intense anxiety (that always feels like the first time)...fear on the hoof, galloping free rein within me. It tells me to fall back, go for cover, hide...all the while I am knowing from my eyebrows up that I must go further. 

I must feel the fear and do it anyway. The "it" is my life just as it is presenting itself to me Now.

I keep being whisked back in memory to me, living in my first five years which is fairly close to my feeling today.  Solid fear...anxiety up the gump-stump, which, with God as my Guide, I walked through. 

 

You must contact this Immensity...there it is, my marching orders which are seldom as I envision them. I must contact this Immensity...go to God for God and that is all. 

I feel no peace, my heart beats harder, my breath comes in gasps...this is panic on the hoof. There are no shortcuts to God's will, God's way...and it takes as long as it takes.

All this I must feel all the way through to the other side...to my Immensity. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

You must contact this Immensity!

Thank you.

GRATEFULLY, WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD

So, dementia, with the grace of gratitude and just for today, I leave you to God. If you are God's will for me, then you are my will for me. No doubt, we'll visit again tomorrow...."With Grace, We Welcome the Unwelcome," my blog of May 19, 2026 

Such good advice, so difficult to do. 

It is akin to the quiet word we once received, i.e., we go to God for God, and that is all. 

Again, we note that is a toughie...when we are feeling pea-green-purple terrified, we know the specific that needs lifted, banished, erased from our life, from our consciousness. The idea that we need to welcome it feels like the devil doing his dance in our ear.

There it is, why we spent so much time and effort on our still more spiritual growth. When blind-sided by self-centered fear, the holy whisper is there for us...it is our choice to go with It or stay with fear. 

Hard lesson learning: It is God that makes our choice...only God knows when we are truly ready. We are comforted with the reminder to resist not evil for God uses that, too, for our benefit.

Gratefully, we go to God for God, and that is all.

Thank you.

FEAR...GOD'S GIFT TO ME

Blinding flash of the obvious: Fear is God's gift to me for it turns me to Him faster than thought.

I am still living in the anxiety attack I've written about this past week. Clearly, it is not an attack which I think of as quick and terrorizing in the moment. 

Ah, I am living in anxiety from which I got my BFO... ergo, good and of God.

It is comforting to realize these truths, but they do not slow my fast-beating heart... a God gift that holds my feet to the fire to ensure I stay to learn His will, His way for me. 

It is clear that I am given to running the other way, but God ever has better for me. I go to God...dragging foot but moving forward. God is so good to me.

Thank you.

TO WANT TO WANT GOD AND THAT IS ALL

...until we know and rely on [God], and until we call upon, share, and love [God], we’re just going along for the ride. --Fr Richard Rohr. "Daily Meditation," May 24,2026  

According to me, we can't want God in order to fulfill our material needs...we must want God for Itself and that is all.

That is and has been my hardest reach. 

I want to want God and only God, but it seems there is ever an urgent "need" that steps in front and demands attention. Even my self-determined spiritual growth is not purely of God being self determined. 

Blinding flash of the obvious: When self is driving the bus, self is first on the bus...God is first one welcomed after.

Mercy, that's a sobering flash...but not new to me. What else have I been striving for all these years but the God of my own understanding...and that is all. 

Thank you. 

SIMPLIFY, SIMPLY SIMPLIFY, I

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of May 26, 2019.]

Boy, did I get a blinding flash of the obvious this morning: Keep it simple. Simplify. Stop with the trying to make Shinola outta s**t. 

When Meister Eckhart said the answer is in subtracting, not adding on, he was talking simplify...simply simplify. When we are told that the answer is in detaching all that means is SIMPLIFY. 

Keep it simple, stupid, means keep it simple, stupid.

And then I read Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" with the Word: Remember, the only thing that separates you from God is the thought that you are separate from God!

Thank you.

ACCEPTING THE GIFT...AH, THERE IT IS

Each moment is an opportunity to practice contemplation, to see things as they are, and to receive the gift of divine presence. -- Father Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," May 22, 2026

We are given the opportunity...ah, but how often do we accept the gift? What is the first thought we have on being the opportunity to practice any new thing?

Being given that opportunity often brings the feeling of trepidation...fear of failure, looking the fool. That is ego on the move; just knowing that does not stop ego. That is usually our first stumbling block...when confronted, ego often speaks louder than good sense.

To quote Amy Frykholm, the practice of 'beholding' anything takes desire and discipline -- and what is 'beholding' but contemplation or deep reflective thought?

Ah, we know these truths, but how well do we live them? 

I have learned to give credit for every second that my mind is reflecting God's will, God's way...too often that is just a second, but it counts!

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

Thank you.

ALL IS WELL...NOW TO LET THAT BE MY TRUTH

Julian of Norwich: All will be well, and all manner of things will be well.

I feel like I am suffering the tortures of the damned...high anxiety or fear of dementia? or, blinding flash of the obvious, high anxiety from fear of dementia.

Lord, hear my prayer: Thank You.

Thank you.

ON MOVING BENEATH REASON INTO SPIRITUAL

We have to move beyond recited, formulaic, and social prayers to bring the mind down into the heart. -- Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," May 20, 2026

Early on I received the gift of reverse blessing, i.e, recognizing that the scary appearing life events that come into our reasoning mind's eyes are blessings in disguise.

I received that gift fairly early in my spiritual growth, and it has never ceased growing deeper...truer...within me.

No doubt that is how I learned to say thank You to whatever my consciousness received. It began with my resisting the admonition to resist not evil. How could I not resist that? I've often called that the dark night of my soul...I arm-wrestled with that for as long as it took for me to hear and my heart to welcome it.

That was my great gettin' up morning when my Sun began to shine.

It shines still...I feel it particularly warm when my reasoning mind gets ahead of itself, and determines what is wrong with my world that I need to fix...now.

That's me...giving God a grin. I suspect that's how I now live fret-free...not that fret doesn't visit on occasion, it just doesn't stay long.

That's when I am reminded to move beyond recited, formulaic, and social prayers to bring the mind down into the heart.

Thank you.

WITH GRACE, WE WELCOME THE UNWELCOME

The more faithfully and hopefully we respond to God’s love in our life, the greater will be the fullness of our joy. -- Thomas Merton

I take heart that Merton wrote the more hopefully we respond to God's love. 

I have felt secure in my belief in God's love for what seems like a long time, but actually only in the last 20 or so years have I begun to entertain the possibility of God's personal love for me. 

I have learned not to quibble over uncertain possibilities...I believe that God is love, thus He loves All. It is walking that fact down the road of what ifs and uh-ohs that we learn true welcome. I doubt there is much that turns us to God faster than the uncertain outcome of a personally perceived need.

From my eyebrows up, I want to feel assured that I do not have, nor will I ever have, dementia. 

The good news is I am not married to that want...there have been too many things that I prayed to happen or to not happen that came to me in the exact reverse of my prayer...with each turning out to be my pearl beyond price. God's will, God's way, my blessing in disguise. 

So dementia, with the grace of gratitude and just for today, I leave you to God. If you are God's will for me, then you are my will for me. No doubt, we'll visit again tomorrow.

Thank you.

ON THE RUGGED ROAD WITH GOD'S WILL

We’re already the beloved, and as the beloved, we’re already beyond being compromised or threatened by anything because of God’s infinite love for us. *** The mystical realization is the realization of that. --Julian of Norwich

Beginning in February of this year, 2026, it seems that my life began living me: I am experiencing my life, my every minute breathing in and out, as living me.

Yesterday, I was guided to a weekly food-and-fun get together which I have never attended for no reason other than I have no interest in it. I had no personal interest in it yesterday, but I was guided to attend, and I don't say Nay to the Guide.

From my eyebrows up, I felt nothing, but my inner self knew to stay...to let my life live whatever came. 

Nothing came.

Ah, but I still have the inner feeling, the knowing, that I learned...I do not need to know what I learned with all the commas and periods in place for I will. I will know when I am ready to know. as in when I am looking back and seeing God's will in my life.

I am being led right this minute even as I am shrugging my way through. 

Either we believe in God, in all the miracles of God as promised, known and unknown, or we are still steeped in self-knowledge...which, spiritually, avails us nothing.

My fear is that I have dementia; my faith is if dementia is God's will for me, I welcome it. 

Our destiny needs us to stay, with gratitude and grace, on the rugged road to God's will, God's way.

Thank you.

TRUST GOD AND REMAIN WILLING

Creation and cosmos belong to everyone—and no one—and it calls us to a larger consciousness of expanded love. -- Julian of Norwich 

Ah, a larger consciousness of expanded love. There...life's marching orders repeated. 

My note in my daily reader: Whatever is mine by grace and by God, I welcome...fear of dementia, or dementia itself (or simply my old friend nerves), I welcome.

Big (God) change: I welcome my recent betrayer back into my life...we are all too old, too needy, too honest to live in an attitude of spite and malice...payback is for sissies, too afraid to trust God's will, God's way.

Further, I need beware of self-determined objectives...I see me running to my former betrayer and hugging him, thus "proving" my superior spiritual nature. I need to just be friendly, hug if a hug is called for, force nothing.  

Trust God, be willing and keep on truckin'. 

Thank you. 

THE GIFT OF HOPE

This morning the fear of dementia hovered over me...still. The fear tends to come, go, come again. I tend to let it for I know fighting fear grows fear stronger. 

I recall all the reminders to love, love our enemy, love our fear...kiss it on the lips, we were told.

It is very hard to honestly love the fear of dementia, much less dementia itself. I do not know if I have dementia, but I do know my fear of it is causing me to forget a lot.

Here's God's gift to me: Julian of Norwich was my reading today, and the first thing I read? Julian of Norwich was especially aware of the joyful character of hope.

There. God just gifted me with hope.

Thank you.

GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY

I am remembering the song, 'Whatever Will Be Will Be.' This I know from my own experience, whatever will be, will be for my benefit.

That is the last line of my yesterday's blog which today has a deeper meaning for me; namely, that for my benefit rarely resembles my reasoning-mind prayer. 

Neither God's will nor God's way is of the reasoning mind. That is how we learn to pray thank You for whatever comes to us, knowing that this is God's will, God's way...unrecognizable to us on first meeting. 

We go to God for God, and that is all...for that is all. 

Thank you.

GRACE OF GOD AND GRATITUDE

Here's me today, bordering on fear and trepidation...fear that dementia is on my plate and ready...ah, for what? There's the dreaded border.

I am a tish surprised that I wrote "bordering on"...it is true, I am not full-out panic stricken, but I do have a sense of dread in my belly.

Being in the crosshairs of dementia and not feeling dread is akin to being on the tracks of an oncoming train and feeling fairly calm about it. Say what?!

However, I am not full-out panicked. I attribute that to God, grace and the willingness to grow spiritually, as in: Give over, give up, give in while praying thank You for the good, the bad and the ugly.

I achieve that today the majority of the time...some days that is 51 percent, some days I get way up in the 70s. bordering 80s. There: Shout hallelujah and feel the grace of God.

I am remembering the song, Whatever Will Be Will Be. This I know from my own experience, whatever will be, will be for my benefit.

Thank you.

WITH GRACE AND GRATITUDE

Say we make a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God as we understand Him...the hard lesson we learn is that leaves all to God. Every jot and tittle, every breath we take is left to the care of God. [From my post of May 29, 2019.]

That is my hard lesson to accept today. Recently, I've written about my suspicion (fear) that I am coming into dementia...or that I have dementia.

That is a scary fact, the fact of dementia. 

This is where lessons learned rush to our aid. The pearl beyond price in my life is that I have learned to welcome my fear, specifically my fear of whatever unwanted that I see coming to me.

I suspect that dementia is an unwanted to any one of us. I do have anxiety disorder which causes panic-forgetfulness so I'm letting my self-diagnosed dementia hover in the land of maybe/maybe not.  

This I know from personal and priceless experience...whatever I am fearing that looks less-than yet is heading to me is for my benefit by grace and by God. Ergo, I pray thank You.

The thought occurs that I can think of dementia as an untrained puppy...it rules until I learn how to...with grace and gratitude. 

And God is back on the field.

Thank you.

GOD-GUIDED IS FREEDOM

 We must try with a will or fall by the wayside. -- Anonymous (to me)

Let go and let God. -- Anonymous (to me)

At many different times in my life, I have lived by both of those adages. Both are right on target if and when we know when to apply them in our life.

To try with a will in an obviously negative-result situation qualifies for self-will run riot. 

Pretty much the same goes for let go and let God only in the opposite direction...as in, too afraid to try, or to trust God to walk us through our dilemma. We tend to describe that as being "chicken" which says more than we want to hear.

As life flies by, I am becoming more aware of the truth we quote so blithely, i.e., that living in the now, the here and now, is God's home...for Him and for me, for you, for us.

The wonder of that flash of insight is it came when I felt fear of dementia...of my possibly/probably having dementia. I gut-bucket knew that if I do, I will live there by God and by grace. 

With God as our Guide, we are free. 

Thank you.

FREED FROM RESENTMENT, 1

[The following is a reprint of my post of May 25, 2016.]

We must be willing to hurt our own feelings for the benefit of another. This is a major, but just another, lesson in learning to detach from our dependence on our own reasoning mind.

Since it is our own thoughts that engineer our hurt, we must feel that hurt and know it for the nothingness that it is. Otherwise, we will put someone else's name on it and feel a compulsive want (that we mistake for need) to "set him straight" or hurt her in kind, i.e., the way we perceive they have hurt us.

In fact, our hurt feelings begin when our own thinking grows horns and gores us. I suspect that is the journey of psychic hurt...it begins with our resistance to it, really.

This explains the how and why of the Sermon's "turn the other cheek." It frees us from our guilty desire to feel resentful.

Peace, be still.

Thank you.

REGRET NAUGHT, LOVE ALL, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of May 29, 2016.]

Regrets are just resentments in fancy dress. - Blinding flash of the obvious

Thank you.

LOVE...GIVE OVER, GIVE UP, GIVE IN

Love and love alone is the substance of reality. -- James Finley 

It seems that it has been fairly recently (last ten years or so) that I fully realized that I know naught about love...specifically, how to love. Love not as written about in the Song of Songs but love of the un...the unlovable, the unpretty, the un. 

I know family love, I know friend and pet love, I know love of country...but none of those move me inwardly. I know fear of not loving God...or of thinking that I love God.

I wonder...have I ever thought what love would feel like...impersonal love, that is. Not a crush on a guy, nor a best friend to talk with about the guy, etc. 

Impersonal love seems like the ultimate contradiction in terms. How can love be impersonal? But it seems to me that personal love is all about me...where's God in that? For that matter, where's God in impersonal love?

Maybe God is love, personal, impersonal and all feelings in between Maybe there's no maybe in that.

It appears that I have my new study...what love means to/for me. I'm guessing kill self now is the starting point...ah, but not by self-will, but by grace and by God...which right now I know primarily from my eyebrows up. 

My study most likely is about giving over, giving up and giving in to God to do whatever inner moving happens.

Let it be...more will be revealed from within.

Thank you.

ON LIVING A TURNED-OVER LIFE, 1

[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.

GOD INDWELLING IS...., I

[The following is a reprint of my post of May 31, 2015.]

Jesus became a highly contrived problem-solver for our own guilt and fear (a problem that was inevitable if God was not indwelling) instead of the Archetypal Blueprint for what God has been doing all the time and everywhere. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations"

 
There. That parenthetical phrase, (a problem that was inevitable if God was not indwelling), explains everything...according to me.

God indwelling is the driver, producer, agent of our soul, always using our own chosen tools, i.e., defects of character or personal assets, to get us where we need to be for our still more spiritual growth...no matter how ego-shattering it looks and feels to us and/or our world.

I am the source of all my woes, I am the good I seek.

Thank you.

FEAR...LOVE IT AND LEAVE IT

I have not been doctor-diagnosed, but I fear that I may have dementia.

I know I am afraid of dementia which may be the cross I bear right now. Fear cares not what we choose to believe, it just rules...rules our thinking, feeling, doing and being. Us, in a word.

I shared at a meeting yesterday that I am scared...didn't go into the whys and wherefores, just "I am scared."

 
There! Proof of God in my life, as my voice. That I am in fear is no longer a secret, secrets having once been my way of life without my knowing they were the bane of my life.

I have learned, when I am feeling afraid, to invite my fear to come in, sit down, get comfy. God is here to hug us as we welcome our fear...all is well.

There...I'm not shaking now. I'm not ready to lead a parade, but I'm open to feeling my fear and doing the next thing...right or wrong, God's got us.

Hallelujah, God loves me so...you, too!

Thank you.

GRATITUDE AND GRACE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 14, 2014.]

Gratitude is the handmaiden of grace. Grace leaves us with our facts unchanged, but our feelings about our facts upgraded, uplifted, enlightened.

We know peace by developing and maintaining an attitude of gratitude. Then, no matter the appearance to our reasoning mind's eye, grace through our own gratitude lets us realize...again and again and, yes, again...that this, too, is God's will. All is well.

Thank you.

NOT TO DISCOVER BUT TO RETRIEVE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 30, 2013.]

It is such a comfort to me, when a problem looms, to remind myself that that problem has already been solved.

I usually want to get in the midst of it, figure it out (to my advantage), get all concerned to agree with me, but I need to quiet my mind, to listen. To listen...not for the answer to my perceived problem (for in God's world, there is no problem), but for the discipline of simply sitting quietly and listening.

Fr. Richard Rohr writes, ...spiritual knowledge is more like retrieving than discovering.

Whatever answer we need (which likely has not an iota to do with what we're thinking we need) will come to us. That answer may look less than wonderful and a butt-biter into the bargain, but it is, in truth, our gold mine.

We remember the promise: Be not afraid...it is I.

Thank you.

GRACE WILL LEAD US INTO AND OUT OF

Grace will lead us into such fears and emptiness, and grace alone can fill them, if we are willing to stay in the void. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," May 1, 2026

Ah, there's the dreaded gift that births peace of mind, the willingness to stay in the void. 

It's hard to remember that our peace of mind is the last thing we receive...but, of course. That's why we must walk through the void! That becomes our truth with still more spiritual growth. 

I am living in fear of dementia, but it is a different feeling of fear...apprehension comes closest, I guess. 

Curious may fit because I am curious as to how God is going to walk me through. It is an accepting curiosity which is spiritually based...or must be because fear is absent.

I do know I am in a higher mindset...try with a will no longer applies. Let go and let God is my watchword now.

The rest of let go and let God is born here...let go and let God while we do God's will, God's way fits now.

Thank you.

    

EYES ON THE PRIZE...A PEACED MIND

I said to the Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to you, and I know you will see me through. —Harriet Tubman, "Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman" 

That is akin to what I said to the Lord just yesterday...thank You.

I can't help but wonder just how dementia became epidemical in the last few months. Dementia! Dementia which, in general, was rarely mentioned until recently. 

There are mind-healers advertised up the gump stump, and they never before had a piece of the pie...again, until recently.   

Or is this just me...my now concern with my own mind that has sharpened my awareness...opened my mind to the rapidly expanding word about dementia...or, more to the point, the rapidly expanding word about cures and meds for dementia. The ads are legion...I have not studied them carefully, but a quick scan tells me none promise full cure, only a tish above a 50 percent cure. 

It is clear to me that my mind has taken a downturn. I plan to stay as calm as I am capable without self-driving, ever reminding me that God can and will if sought. I will take the four-hour test next week, take whatever the doctor prescribes, keep my eye on the prize, God, and pray for a peaced mind.

I wish I could have a dog.

Thank you.

GOD CALLING! LOVE IT AND LAUGH

Being raised from the deadened weight of fear to love. Perhaps that’s what is meant by resurrection. -- Author Diana Butler Bass, "Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," April 28, 2026

For some time now, I have practiced embracing the deadened weight of fear...anxiety being my first (and lasting) fear. Anxiety attacks were my personal stalkers. Since they seemed to be ever with me, I was given the gift of acceptance...I learned to love and laugh thus not resist fear.

I am not church people, but from my own personal experience, I became a believer. I came to believe that still more spiritual growth is the answer to the dailies of life. 

The main path? Whatever comes, love it and laugh; and there it is: God's secret handshake.

It seems there will always be something that comes that is truly unacceptable to our human eye. I have found that to be God's greatest gift to us...we have no choice but to go to God for God.

That dreaded feeling of being unloved, unneeded, unwanted, and unappreciated? God calling! Love it and laugh.

Thank you.

THE GRACE OF GRATITUDE

The storm rages on. But if you want to know how to walk through a storm? Keep your eyes on the prize. -- the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry

Lord, hear my prayer: Thank You.

My fear of dementia is for me to walk through (or with) today. With fear, without fear, we walk through that which we perceive as before us.

Blinding flash of the obvious: My perception is the storm...the grace of gratitude, the prize.

Thank you.

OUR WORST FEAR IS GOD'S GIFT

Fr. Richard Rohr writes, ...spiritual knowledge is more like retrieving than discovering.

Every time I read that statement, I get an ah-ha feeling...like I just got new information that is going to open a hidden spiritual reserve.

I am reminded that what we are retrieving is the gold, that we retrieve what we already have. Being unaware contains the spiritual invitation to be awakened repeatedly...each time at a deeper level. Whether we consciously know it or not.

I ponder that Fr Richard's spiritual knowledge is more like retrieving than discovering, and I feel hope anew...hope that what I already have is what I already have, i.e., our worst fear is our best gift.

We are opened to the inner truth: Our worst fear is God's gift...embrace it and be peaced.

Thank you.

NOTHING TURNS ME TO GOD FASTER THAN FEAR

Fear can keep us from hearing what is really being said. Mary’s spirituality is focused on trusting....She just says, 'I trust you, God. Do with me what you will. Let it be.' -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," April 26, 2026

I want to remember that...spirituality focused on trusting. I want to gratefully remember that until I live it without thought. 

Being human, likely I can remember it with a tish of fear, but then, that's my gig. It is with God's blessing that I know nothing turns me to God faster than fear, so I don't resist fear, I let it be and find my comfort there.

That was my blinding flash of the obvious many years ago. I was oh so comforted when I got it then, and it still washes over me in the peace that passes understanding.

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

Thank you.

SIMPLE PRESENCE...THY WILL, THY WAY

This spirituality....almost entirely depends on our capacity for simple presence. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," April 23, 2026

I felt betrayed recently and big time. Before our noon meeting, I asked a friend, who had previously announced his dementia, if I could talk with him about my fear of possible dementia to which he agreed.

After the meeting while most everyone was still there mingling, my friend announced, for all to hear,  "Stacey's got to deal with her Alzheimer's."  I just smiled, like "what a joker" and nothing further was said. 

For me to remember: That is not the important personal part. That part is for me to follow Friend 2's openness about her dementia...but on my timetable. The announcement felt like a betrayal just an hour after I first mentioned my "fear of possible dementia" to him. 

That is what I need to detach from...detach my resentful thinking by welcoming a higher interpretation to dwell on, i.e., God's will, God's way.  Remembering all the while that my "betrayer" is not bad, not even a "betrayer," he's just not the right confidant for me. 

There...I've got my inside work cut out for me. God loves me us so much.

Thy will, not mine, be done.

Thank you. 

FEAR...LOVE IT TO LET IT BE

Today, fear of dementia is sneaking into my thinking. 

I remind me to love it and laugh...if love and laugh are, as I believe, life's best answer whatever the problem, then dementia, too, can be met there.

Love and laughter will not cancel it, heal it, stop it...it simply will not determine my daily me. I can and do have another incurable disease which I meet daily with God and grace, love and laughter. Dementia, too, can be met there.

Also, my friend Bob may have a mean streak which I experienced recently in the form of a cheap shot he delivered to me before several of our friends.

Ah, it is fear, of course. I need to seek to change me, my gossipy reaction, not Bob...my want to rat him out to others.

Love that and let it perc. Personally, my feet are not there yet...my head has it but that is a far cry from walking it. 

Please and thank You, 

Thank you.

NEW ORDERS ...A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

Everything visible, without exception, is the outpouring of God.....go forward on this inward migration toward sovereignty of mind. -- "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," April 19, 2026

Whoa!...go forward on this inward migration toward sovereignty of mind.

To go forward inwardly is a stretch...for me anyway. By a stretch I mean I need to stop right there...stop and ponder that until it explains itself to me. It reads so pretty that we feel invited to believe we agree or even know what we're agreeing with.

The first half of that quote, from Everything visible to outpouring of God I get, agree with, and if I stopped there, it would not enter my thinking again.

Ah, but the last half of that, go forward on this inward migration, etc.. causes me pause...a long pause. I suspect toward sovereignty of mind is my Full Stop. When. and/or how, did sovereignty of mind become a goal?

I've been living for, working toward, thinking of, turning my will and my life, i.e., my thinking, over to the care of God...to be a follower of God's will, God's way. Going toward sovereignty of mind is going to require...ah-ha!...is going to require that I change my mind. Reminder to me: That I change my mind has been my meditative goal for a long time now.

Well. I make no rash self-promises, but I suspect and hope I have just received my new marching orders, Or, not new...just newly clarified.

God loves me so much...us...loves us so much. And I am grateful.

Thank you.

DEEP HEALING IS OF GOD

Both the Christian religion and the American psyche need deep healing, and I do not say that lightly.  -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," March 24, 2026

Today I know, and I know I know, and I finally and freely admit that I am in need of deep healing, and I do not say that lightly.

It is dementia I fear...loss of my reasoning mind...and it seems I am forgetting more each day. I note I particularly say it seems, etc., and I thank You.

From my own experience, I know that fear can and will do our thinking, feeling, doing for us whether we realize it or not. I remind myself of that fact a lot these days. If or when the fear of dementia takes over, it is that fear not dementia itself, that does our thinking for us. 

There is the truth about fear itself...when fear takes over, fear does our thinking for us...does our thinking, feeling, doing, being for us. 

I have long held that humans have two primary emotions from which all feelings are birthed...namely, love or fear. Love is harder to hold onto than fear...probably because God is love, not ours to hold onto but to live...fear is on its own which is scary in its own right...there is no God in fear. 

God is walking me through my personal way of dealing with a "what if"...think it through, repeatedly; when I am ready, God can and will lead me free. Then, if wrong, promptly admit it. Apologize to God for thinking I got ahead of him and go for it again. 

All the while loving and laughing...my new-found inner peace tools, and I thank You.

Dementia, shake hands with God...now you can get in line behind...God's got the wheel.

Thank you.

OUR NEMESIS AND AN UNSELFED LIFE. I

[The following is a reprint of my post of April 30, 2017.]

I've been contemplating nemesis and my belief that we all have our own. I equate nemesis with undeserved suffering...kinda like it is our cross to bear.

I tend to believe our acceptance of it comes with the realization that it became ours by our own unknowing choice before conception...maybe as an act of solidarity with all the pain of our chosen people.

I compare my "unknowing choice," to the line from an old novelty song (a favorite of mine): When they were passing out noses, I thought they said roses, and I said, 'I'll have a big red one.'

Having learned who I am and what I'm all about, that makes sense to me...it is neither logical nor believable that I would choose suffering purely for the benefit of others. I mean, it's comforting having Jesus as a role model, I just don't want to have to do as he did; i.e., suffer for others.

I'm guessing the key to our nemesis is the acceptance of it, resistance and all, and to welcome it as it comes to us. Why do I say I'm guessing that? That's the key to an unselfed life...which, after all, is our spiritual goal.

Thank you.

ON MATURE SPIRITUAL GROWTH, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of May 30, 2016.]

The ego gets what it wants with words. The soul finds what it needs in silence. -- Fr. Richard Rohr

There it is: The essence of our reasoning mind's resistance to powerlessness. Our ego's path out is through our reasoning mind; our soul has no path...in its transparence, it flows freely, cannot be cornered or captured...it is. It simply is.

We often hear that mature spiritual growth is all about detaching. Letting go of our self-perceived needs...embracing our self-perceived lack. When we are no longer talking that but are, in fact and without thought, doing that...we will know mature spiritual growth. And heading in the right direction counts.

Thank you.

ON SEEKING ANSWERS OF MY OWN SELF

The journey to sovereignty of mind requires an inward migration, where we in a sense become refugees from our external nation, culture, economy, and civilization, even though we still live within its borders. We withdraw inwardly. -- Alexis Wright, an Aboriginal writer from Australia

I have found myself being led (fed?) by a self-demanding search within.

I started following the feeling of demand, and faster than I realized that it was happening, I found myself seeking, questioning, demanding answers of my own self.

No, it does not make sense...reasoning-mind sense...but the answer popped almost immediately: Follow Me...where and for what, I know not. Follow that.

When I read the Alexis Wright quote above, I knew I am on the right track, going in the right direction, and though I know not my destination, I know it is God's will, God's way.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but there just is no getting better than that! 

I am peaced.

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

Thank you.

WITHOUT CEASING, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of April 8, 2015.]

I offered my ego to God to tame, to do with as he willed...the answer came back that the ego is mine to tame, to do with as I will...that’s the “free will” we are given before conception, at birth, throughout our life.

Our heart and soul we can give to God, but our ego is ours TO DISCIPLINE...that’s why we must needs seek still more spiritual growth daily, twice, thrice daily...”without ceasing.”

Thank you.

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD...AND THAT IS ALL

Fear of dementia is with me. 

This I have learned: To deny our fear is to grow it ever deeper, ever darker...to welcome it is to be peaced...or to deny our fear is to grow ego-panic; to welcome it is to be lifted into God consciousness.

I am in the process of facing my fear this morning...my fear that dementia is with me. I have journaled about it, but now, for the first time, I have shared my fear with a friend. 

How I go forward determines whether I have peace of mind (God with me) or lack of peace (egoic fear driving me). 

An idea came to me a week or so back: I may start a spiritually based Happily Living With Dementia group. Our goal: To share our fears and its recovery with others who have dementia or the fear of dementia who seek the peace that passes understanding...God's will, God's way.

We could meet weekly to share our current personal fears and facts of living with and adjusting spiritually to dementia. And/or of our recovery...free of fret, worry and self-centered fear.  

Just as an aside, I am amazed at how many folks I know or know of who are dealing with dementia...nine or ten years ago I knew no one dealing with dementia or the fear of it.

Reminder: We go to God for God, and that is all...for that is All.

Thank you. 

LET GOD TAKE OVER, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of July 25, 2016.]

But I say unto you, * * * whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.... == Matthew 5:39

I know of no one, most especially myself, who hasn't (using good common sense) resisted that line upon hearing it...and not just hearing it for the first time, but every single time. Until we take God's time to ponder it; i.e., go into our quiet and open our self to a higher understanding.

My common sense led me to the realization that no one I know, friend or unfriend, would slap me upside the head. Talk about me behind my back, maybe...or, more likely, chew me a new one to my eyeballs...but not slap my face. Therefore, if someone did slap my face, I could reckon that this person was not dealing from a full deck...best to smile and turn the other cheek as I quietly walk away. In other words, resist not and high tail it.

There. Common sense can lead us to the fourth dimension, and we can let God take over from there.

Thank you.

PEACE IN THE MIDST OF A STORM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

WITH GRATITUDE AND GRACE, WE FEAR NOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

BY GRACE AND BY GOD

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

THY WILL, THY WAY

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you. 

TO LOVE IN A LOVELESS PLACE...PEACED

Fail not in your function

of loving in a loveless place

made out of darkness and deceit,

for thus are darkness and deceit undone.

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

SPIRITUAL GROWTH...THE FOREVER PARADOX

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you.

UNLOVE...WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

Only a contemplative mind can hold our fear, confusion, vulnerability, and anger and guide us toward love. Those who allow themselves to be challenged and changed will be the new cultural creative voices of the next period of history after this purifying exile. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," March 24, 2026

I'm hearing the hymn Were You There? in my head this morning...repeatedly. Namely, I'm hearing the rest of that sentence: when they crucified my Lord.  

For those five words I am substituting when I lied, or I cheated, or I stole

What an exercise in arm-wrestling with my own self...everything I name, I promptly knock down for good cause. There's my ego on parade; as in, it was never my fault, never that much, never counted really.

Who is kidding whom? Clearly, it never counted that much to me...and apparently must struggle to matter yet. 

To reiterate: Only a contemplative mind can hold our fear, confusion, vulnerability, and anger and guide us toward love. 

Chilling fact: It is the last four words that cause me pause...it is the last word that causes my panic. Love. 

I have a fear of love...no, I fear love. Uh-oh...there's a whole new chapter in my book of self Unto Self. 

That is way too deep to go any further with now, or yet, but it is God's grace that I've owned it in writing this morning. 

God is so good to me...I repeat with fingers crossed.

Thank you.

THERE IS NO WRONG DIRECTION TO GOD

It doesn’t matter if we are right or wrong about what 'is.' As long as we hold on to our certainty, there is no room for faith. The discovery that 'the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty' is one of the most freeing discoveries of my life.—Barry H., "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," April 1, 2026

I, too, was gifted with that well-hidden spiritual realization that 'the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.'  

I had no certainty about spirituality itself, but I wanted it...in truth, I wanted to be worry-free according to my lights. There...that is the cornerstone of my still more spiritual growth, i.e., going in the wrong direction and getting to God against my best thinking.

I no longer seek for my idea of God in my life...whatever questionable comes to me, looking good, bad or indifferent, I let this, too, is of God guide me, and it is no longer questionable, it just is. Kinda like breathing.

Let me be clear for my own self...this is not a one-thought deal. It takes as long as it takes for me to find my peace...one second, one day, whatever. I know God is driving this bus, and...eventually...I let Him.

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

Thank you.

GETTING TO GOD IN REVERSE...PERFECT PEACE

The reversal of powers, this movement from being a community that scapegoats to a community that liberates, is how we can participate fully in remaking the world. -- "Daily Meditation," March 31, 2026

NOW...now is the time for me to fully accept through realization that my fears have come true and are my gift of gold...not to overcome but to come over to!

If dementia be my gift today, I embrace it and invite it to get comfy with my primary disease which has turned out to be God's gift to me.

Acceptance of the unacceptable...God's path to peace, i.e., resist not evil.

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

Thank you.

ON WORKING TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD

History has shown us that authority itself is not a good guide. Yet for many people, authority figures soothe their anxiety and relieve their own responsibility to form a mature conscience. We love to follow someone else and let them take the responsibility. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations." March 30, 2026

That surely speaks to my maturing process...I grew up willfully following my sister's guidance...I made no decisions for myself. 

It took me years to fully change after I first came to realize that...or to begin to realize that.

Yet, I had the full-throated opinions, the tone of my voice was commanding (I was told, and not in a complimentary way). As I grew deeper into my spiritual growth, I recognized much about my fears that I hid behind my sister, which I now see comforted both my sister and me. 

The personally good news is I have no rues, regrets or resentments...we worked together for our mutual good. Don't tell me God wasn't in the midst of that...anonymously. since neither my sister nor I had a clue.

There is great comfort in that realization for me as I live my way through the fear of dementia today. 

God is in place doing His good for each of us however we each need His good which rarely looks individually the same. Face it, my good could hardly peace, say my dentist, and vice versa.

Today I am comforted in what I consider a blessed gift...that which comes to me looking not welcome is a gift to be welcomed; that which I seek, which I self-determine as for my good, seldom is. A self= determined objective is just that...self-determined. God is rarely found there.

But if we would look, we'd doubtless find God there. God is everywhere...preserving our Souls.

Thank you.

ON RELEASING RESENTMENT...DON'T PICK IT UP

Unless scapegoating can be consciously seen and named through concrete rituals, owned mistakes, shadow work, or repentance, the pattern will usually remain unconscious and unchallenged. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," March 29, 2026

Ah. scapegoating. Back in the day (when I was way younger), scapegoating was my thing; but, face it, to young peeps, scapegoating was the smart way to be. Blame was the name of the game. Find someone to blame for our own...um, let's call them errors in judgment...especially if the one we're blaming is not present. Remember?

Moving into today's world, how free from scapegoating are we in our own mind...in our free-floating thoughts?

I used to jokingly say that finding someone to blame was perfect peace. I did not consciously find peace in blaming; it was finding the point/place/person of origin where my peace began. Often, I did not even realize it...it was after spiritual growth came into my consciousness that I began to earn peace by owning, not blaming, my problem.

My peace of mind came by sharing the ownership of any upset with God. Forgiveness then enwrapped me...no fault attaches made a home in me. Best part...I learned to train that belief on whomever I was resenting. I'm talking freedom.

Truth be told, there is no cheap freedom...letting go of a prized resentment requires that we release it before it becomes prized. Hug it and kiss it and let it go...God's will, God's way.

Thank you.

BEING PEACED BY THE THOUGHT OF GOD

We must not imagine that political changes of themselves will ever bring about the goodness, charity, or transformation that the gospel offers the world. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations", March, 24, 2026

Looking back and longing for the freedom of my chains...." from "Loving Arms" by Tom Jans

I find it strange but interesting the things one reads that speaks to us. The line from "Loving Arms" is a good example...the freedom of my chains. Wow. That says it all.

Just letting that sit in my head, its meaning changed for me more than a few times. Maybe that's why I like the song so much...it changes my mind almost every time I hear it. I like that.

I like that maybe because that's fairly close to my relationship with God. He changes/my mind changes almost every time I think of Him, and I feel peaced in a different, a better, way.

I'm going to ponder that.

Thank you.

GOD LOVES US ALWAYS AND ALL WAYS

That old familiar feeling. the feeling that there is something wrong with me, is with me this morning.

Ah, blinding flash: That is the gift for it turns me to God quick, fast and in a hurry.

That is the feeling that birthed the realization of fear as my friend, Specifically, when I was gifted with the realization that nothing turns me to God faster than fear, I was made whole. 

Fear wearing horns can and will return. and God with His angel wings can and will peace fear, and I am freed again...always and all ways.

God loves us so much. God loves. God is love.

Thank you.

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE...THE KEY, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of March 28, 2019.]

To see our petty problems from a different angle may well be the answer to all our problems. Indeed, if it be true that what we see is always ourselves, then being willing to refocus could be our answer. To see you as right and me as not so much is an enormous step to just consider...in a positive light.

That may be the key to working with God to change our own mind. I'm convinced a mind cannot be changed through self-will alone. We might say it, but...like acceptance, just saying that we're giving up or letting go does not get us there...we must needs work with God.

Yet again, "God Calling" has the answer. Today's entire entry is short, simple and direct: Faith and obedience will remove mountains, mountains of evil, mountains of difficulty. But they must go hand in hand.

That's it.

It doesn't take a mystic to know that the key word there is obedience. Faith, of course, but that goes almost without saying. I mean, who's seeking still more spiritual growth without at least a tish of faith as their golden goose? But obedience? The actual how-to is all about obedience...studying, pondering, striving...to give over, give up, give in. Ah, to not talk back or defend yourself too much against accusations, whether false or true, a.k.a., to agree with your adversary quickly.

That can only come to us through our doing it...actually, through our willingness to give it a start. And failing. Trying again. And failing...but not so totally this time. With a modicum of peace in our heart and our head the next time.

We are building faith and obedience within so we can walk it without. Ah, now we're beginning to know our Father on earth (without) as He is in Heaven (within).

Thank you.

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD

I suspect that we get the leaders who mirror what we have become as a nation. They are our shadow self for all to see. -- Fr, Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," March 24, 2026

Whoa! There it is, my unacknowledged worst fear walking: we get the leaders who mirror what we have become.

I am the source of all my woes. When that idea flashed through me, I knew it for Truth. I knew in that moment that we each are the source of our living, thinking, doing, being, that a Higher Power lives within each of us to guide our every thought and action when we turn away from self to It.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.... == Matthew 7:7

The hard part for most of us is remembering to ask, to seek...that is the I want what I want when I want it living of the self on parade.

It seems to take a long time to, in truth, come to believe...even when we are sincerely trying to come to believe. It is our surrender that leads us to acceptance...to finally accept that it is our trying that blocks God's will, God's way

To remember. To remember God. To remember and believe from our toenails up that God is with us, within us. That God can and will if sought and has a better way than we do, no matter how much we love our way.

This fairly well describes my still more spiritual growth to this day...try with a will, surrender, which transmutes into acceptance, pray thank You, and know peace. 

Until the next time. 

There is the comfort...there is no cheap spiritual growth, but the price is paid for us by our spiritual growth.

God is so good to us.

Thank you.

GOD'S WILL, THE PEARL BEYOND PRICE, I

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

Something in you dies when you bear the unbearable. And it is only in that dark night of the soul that you are prepared to see as God sees and to love as God loves. —Ram Das

I'm betting there are a gazillion unbearables in our life...egoic snags and snarks that we wrestle with, praying God to take them, all the while we are refusing to release them.

If that be so, ponder this: They, our ego's issues, would comprise the steppingstones to the Big Unbearable that eventually leads to life everlasting...i.e., God. Or, our ego is our well-hidden gold.

Coming to that realization unto acceptance is transforming.

There is a promise that holds the key to that transformation. The promise is that God can and will intervene in our life in our behalf. Our transformation is all about our realization that his intervention is not a guarantee that we will get our want, that likely we will not get our want...and we will be the better for it. (This is what Rohr describes as developing the art of losing. I only love that.)

We are transformed when our head and our heart know God's will for the long-sought cosmic pearl beyond price.

Thank you.

ON BECOMING PEACED...HURTS

We come to believe we are on God's journey when we find our self whispering, Are You sure this is the Way? ***** The answer does not come until after we have felt every rock in our road, felt every thorn, lived through every doubt all while believing (or wanting to) that this, too, is God's will, God's way....

I lifted the above from previous posts of mine...it expresses well where I am in my head and heart today. That is to say, worried...into self...all atremble...scared.

There are reasons aplenty, of course. When...not if...I sit in silence and let thank You flow through me, I am quieted. For that moment in time. 

Ah, but fear rejects quiet...and There It Is! My long-ago realization, my forever answer: Nothing turns me to God faster than fear. 

I will not know peace until after I have walked through my perceived problem. The way there is to resist not. Lean into knowing that this, too, is for my benefit.

I am being peaced. God is so good to me.

Thank you.

LEARNING TO LOVE REQUIRES UNLEARNING

God does not demand that we all agree. God only asks that we love one another well. -- Rachel Held Evans, "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," March 21, 2026

Learning to love...dispassionately, with no "giftee" promised...is the most difficult thing I've ever attempted. I realized that when, looking back, I recognized my lack of unselfed love.

I am grateful that I learned and still live with the realization that there are only two emotions: Love and Fear. Apparently, I lived under the assumption that any "feel good" passed for love, and that was close enough to perfect for me. Mentally expanding the two emotions entered and saved me. It has been...admittedly, still is...a less than easy slog. 

"It" being the effort required to change my mind. In truth, to upgrade my mind. To feel repulsed by any mouth-breather...repulsed unto bad-mouthing them if only in my mind...is my turning point. That realization was the origin of my finding the gift of thank You. Resist not, with thank You following, became my inner mantra.

I have been on this journey for over fifty years, and I suspect I've only just begun...but I do believe: If not in this life span, then the next...always moving upward.

Thank you.

BEING PEACED IN THE MIDST OF FEAR

H]ave patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day. -- The German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

I first posted this Rilke quote on March 29, 2016. 

It is particularly fitting for me today what with my current resistance to my personal fear of dementia...my fear that I may be coming into full-blown dementia. (Personally, I prefer to refer to it as old-age forgetfulness.) 

Words are comforting, we rely on them to sooth our jangled nerves. Ah, but they come into reality when we try to use them to fix our perceived broken place. Soothing is nice, but it doesn't fix. 

Comes the blinding light: Only God can fix, and only God's will, God's way can do that. 

Comes the dire reality, seldom if ever does God's fix arrive looking personally comforting. The lesson we continue to learn: We must needs walk through our pain...or, more aptly, the cause of our pain.

Forever lesson, relearned as needed, sometimes daily: If it is appearing to us, welcome it. The cause of our pain is our resistance to what and how we are perceiving our life's problem.

Again, and yet again: Hug it and kiss it and let it go.

There. There is the proof that words are comforting, but they do not fix. Living through our trauma, be it a broken fingernail or the death of a loved one, is the way of the Lord. 

How else can we build faith if we never have a reason to have faith?

I feel fear...I pray my thank You for the fear for it is truly turning me to God.

Thank you.

ALL ONE IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD'S LOVE

It is such divine extravagance, a philosophy of love them into loving me back, that sets the pattern for all the prophets to follow. -- "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," March 2, 2026

To me, "a philosophy of love them into loving me back," is the baseline from which all spiritual growth follows. When, without thought, we are living that, we know God's will, God's way as our own...as we breathe. 

Clearly, I forecast that without one hundred percent living experience...but my head hopes, my heart knows, my gut is good with that...so I walk it very nearly as much as I think it today. 

God knows my limitations, and I go to God to learn them which is spiritual growth. I used to seek my answers from whomever stood closest to me at the time. Kinda one-shot-deal spiritual growth. I regret it not...it was a starting point, and to start is ever God's grace.

My comfort today is that I know, and I know that I know, God loves me (and you) personally without qualifiers, and we are One in that goodness.

Thank you.

LESS-THAN AS MORE THAN ENOUGH

Throughout the Gospels, we find numerous teachings promoting downward mobility. The most familiar of these may be, 'The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.' (Matthew 20:16) "Richard Rohr Daily Meditation," March 19, 2026 [ABTW, happy birthday to me.]

Don't tell me God isn't in my thinking, my feeling, my doing, my being...and exchange "my" for "our." 

Looking back, I vaguely remember when it was that I came into my realization that less-than was right for me. I do know that it simply fit so I questioned it not; I built on it, and (gratefully) I still do.

Today, I joyfully accept that was when I gave up the will to win! To the reasoning mind, that has loser written all over it...spiritually ir all but sings "Peace in the Valley." 

For my own self I accept that I have barely begun...but I have begun, and I thank You, Lord. 

Thank you.

DO NOT LOOK FOR THE ANSWERS

[H]ave patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day. -- The German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

I have put this Rilke quote out before, and I'm fairly certain I will again for there it is, the answer...his,  It is a question of experiencing everything. 

Ah, experiencing. 

We get to...we must...accept and walk through all that our own life offers us. Lest we forget: All that comes to us, comes by our invitation only.

 

End of mind-nattering questions pretending to be discussion.

Thank you.

ON LIVING ABOVE REASONING

My blinding flash this morning:  We are being led...whether we know it or not. 

There is a spiritual reason and a material reason for our being exactly where we are...ours to choose. When, not if, we choose spirituality, we begin to live anew.

Just as The Man needed water from the well, we need material-world aids, too. The underlying reason for the need is spiritual, our own inner treasure:  It is still more spiritual growth that brings one to that essential realization...the reasoning mind resists the idea.

Thy will, Thy way. Our will is of self; Thy will is of Self.

Thank you.

RADICAL UNITY...LOVE, AND THAT IS ALL

Radical unity with God and neighbor is the only way any of us truly heals or improves. -- "Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," March 2, 2026

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

Thank you.

THE WELCOMING LIGHT OF GOD

I do not believe that sin is the enemy we often make it out to be, at least not when we recognize it and name it as such. When we see how we have turned away from God, then and only then do we have what we need to begin turning back. Sin is our only hope, the fire alarm that wakes us up to the possibility of true repentance. -- Author Barbara Brown Taylor, "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," March 10, 2026

I suspect that the inner meaning of that quote is the insight with which I was gifted way back when; i.e., "wrong" is not the enemy..."wrong" is what turns us around to do "right."  

Blinding flash...that gift has been growing me ever since and still is...please and thank You.

When we get stuck in the remorses of our self-described "wrong," we seldom find God's way of accepting that which is gifted us. 

My life took me down the dark hole until I gave over, gave up, gave in...surrendered in a word...to come into the anonymous light of God.

My continuing life lesson: Find the good in the bad appearing...there the light of God welcomes.

Thank you.

BLESSED BEYOND THE MIND'S IMAGINING

I do not believe that sin is the enemy we often make it out to be, at least not when we recognize it and name it as such. When we see how we have turned away from God, then and only then do we have what we need to begin turning back. Sin is our only hope, the fire alarm that wakes us up to the possibility of true repentance. -- Author Barbara Brown Taylor, "Daily Meditation," March 10, 2026

The inner meaning of the Taylor quote is the insight I was gifted with way back when, i.e., wrong is not the enemy...wrong is what turns us around to go for right, a.k.a., God.

That blinding flash has been developing within me ever since...and is still developing me.

When we get stuck in the remorses of our self-described "wrong," we rarely find God's will, or acceptance of that which is gifted us. 

My early life took me down the dark hole into the anonymous light of God. There I learned to find the good in the bad appearing...there God awaits.

My life today...now in my 80s...is my pearl beyond price. 

I do not have many of the "things" I prayed for back in the day, i.e., money, a man, money. No, but I do have the pearls beyond price, i.e., peace of mind, love for others, the God of my own understanding. 

I am blessed beyond the mind's imagining.

Thank you. 

PEACE OF MIND BRINGS PEACE ON EARTH

We have ceased fighting everything and everybody. -- Anonymous

Comes the light! 

We realize unto acceptance that the "fight" begins in our head...in our thinking...in our first resistant thought.

The need to cease resisting everything and everybody is but a beginning. Now the thought must be raised up into action. 

Our choice is not to resist but to overcome...to overcome "my way" thoughts, not to ignore for others to deal with but to overcome within using the Sermon as our guide. 

We no longer opt to set others straight. By grace and by God, all sides are lifted into the God space where all are in agreement...God's will, God's way. 

With God's will, God's way leading us out of self, we find peace of mind...thus, peace on earth.

Thank you.

OUR CHANGED LIFE IS GOD'S GIFT

....a whole new set of behaviors and lifestyle will emerge. It is not that if I am righteous, then I will be loved by God; rather, I must first come to experience God’s love and then I will—almost naturally—be righteous. -- paraphrase of "Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation," March 7, 2026

From my own experience, I believe "to experience God's love," we must experience the mess of our own making. We must crash and burn which we have so arduously been attempting to avoid...by denial mostly.

There is no God in denial...there is, however, an invitation to God to come save us from our self.

There it is...God's gift to the down-and-out: Realization unto admission unto acceptance of our utter powerlessness, and Help! is born.

The beginnings of faith is trust. In trust, we go to God for God, that is all...and unknowingly we are healed. Our changed life is our daily proof.

Thank you.

RADICAL UNITY: GIVE...ONLY GIVE

Radical unity with God and neighbor is the only way any of us truly heals or improves. -- Fr Richard Rohr, 'Daily Meditations,'' March 2, 2026   

Give over, give up, give in. There...the blinding flash of the obvious that came to me some years back.

I have been open to learning how to do that (to give, only give) ever since. By open, I do not mean I have actually achieved it. I mean I have been gifted on occasion, and I remain willing to continue to try for it. to receive it.

I know I cannot, of myself, do that, give only give, but that we can. With God as our guide and goal, we can and do practice giving. "All" that is required of us is that we be willing to try. 

God's gift of insight: We are not in it to win it; we are in it to give it. Ah, we can only give what we have earned with God as our teacher, leader, guide and goal.

The underlying wonderment: We have given over, given up, given in on occasion...and not realized it until sometime later. It cannot be a self-determined objective; it is God's gift plain and simple.

We "win" when our reasoning mind is into regrets, and we realize spiritual peace...both at the same time.  There: radical unity.

Thank you.