WE ARE NEVER ALONE...THANK YOU, FATHER

 I am beginning my next life-change journey...my last if I'm doing it right.

I am in the process of accepting that I must move from my condo where I have lived for 27 years. I have decorated it to my liking (no easy do) and believed I would die from here. But then I never dreamed I'd live this long...I thought I'd survive to 80 at the latest. 

Well, I hit that flatfoot running and am still going with no known problems. Talk about the good news looking sorry...like me now, pushing 90, still healthy, and all family, friends and neighbors gone to a retirement home or to Heaven. 

SO...it is coming on time for me to move feet, not to mention body and particularly head. Head is resisting. Mightily. It's not fair is a favorite of Head's.

God is so good to me...it is times like these, when I am singing the blues, that God shows me love by reminding me that I am not alone...have never been alone and will never be alone. 

The Father within us carries us 24/7...whether we know it or not. I do know it...I misremember on occasion, but He has my back, slips a hug in, and I'm good to go. 

God is our ever-burning light...we are never alone, we go to God for God, and that is all...for that is all.

Thank. you. 

NO RESISTANCE, NO PROBLEM, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of September 1, 2019.}

Giving of our physical, mental, and emotional resources isn’t usually ego-affirming, but it is a path toward holiness. It’s not what you do that makes you holy. It’s what you allow to be done to you that makes you holy. - Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 23, 2019

It is what we allow to be done to us for the benefit of others that is the hidden message. The hidden message is the forever message.

The unwritten message of the entire Sermon on the Mount is: We do these things for the benefit of others, for we are God's representative on this earth, and we are dealing with God's representative on this earth. Be ye therefore perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect.

This earth is God's proving ground; we are each God's image, each given free will, each being made perfect with the free will of each dictating our terms. Everything happens by invitation only. The sooner we loose it and let it go, the sooner we are freed from the tether of our own will.

All, of course, according to me.

Thank you.

I AM THE BEING OF ALL SAINTS, ALL SINNERS. I

[The following is a reprint of my post of August 9, 2020.]

Blinding flash of the obvious: I am the wolf stalking the night...I am the skunk stinking up the place.

Thoughts flow: I am the wolf stalking the night...I am the skunk stinking up the place. I am the lion whose roar reverberates across the Serengeti...I am the jackal doing the dirt, carrying the water.
I am the soul of my most revered saint, I am the conscience of my most resented enemy...I am the Being of all the saints and sinners in between.

Parents, siblings, friends, enemies, The Church, the employer, lost loves...none get the credit, none get the blame...for each is the wolf stalking the night, the skunk stinking up the place...just as I am.

I Am that I Am.

Thank you.

WE CAN NEVER NOT HAVE GOD, I

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of August 30, 2013.]

We must be willing to give up getting...but if our objective in giving up is to get, we deny ourselves for there is no God in self-determined objectives.

Our main life objective once was to get God.

That is a reasoning-mind objective and cannot be achieved because we already have God. We cannot not have God. God lives in us, within us.

As we realize that, we have All.

Thank you.

ON BEING 55...SOBERLY JOYOUS AND FREE

Today, August 24, 2026, is my 55th anniversary with and within an Always Available spiritual fellowship that, with the God of my understanding, has made me its own.

I am happy, joyous and free today...even when, not if...my ego is riding herd.

The gift of freedom is that I know my ego can and will drive me...ah, but no longer whenever it wants, but only when I am taken up by self. Thanks to my Always Available friends and the God of my understanding isn't that often today and is short-term. 

Self, ever with us, no longer leads the way, often is the last in line.

Self no longer has a chance at ruining my today...an hour or two, maybe, but not my day.  I live by grace and by God, and I am oh so grateful that I know that, and It shows.

Thank you.

THE SLIVER OF GOLD...THE PEARL BEYOND PRICE

A blinding flash of the obvious from some 45 years ago: Find the sliver of gold in any less-than situation we are met with, then let that sliver of gold lead us free of that less-than situation.

We look not at the trouble...no, we find the sliver of gold in that trouble. 

When we focus on the sliver of gold, our outlook is uplifted. It is spiritually transmuted, gifting us with a feeling not unlike space travel...not to get too fanciful about it.

Ah. the gifts we receive when we go to God for God and that is all. There it is: the pearl beyond price.

Thank you.

WHEN THERE IS ONLY ME...NO WE

Every graced change lives in us...not by memorizing, but by that very grace.

Most things we've learned by rote without the inner message attached simply become words...words we quote and even walk, but rarely if ever give us a spiritual wake-up. 

There it is...the human condition when spirituality is bypassed.  

It becomes personal, i.e., all about us...you, me, them...with crumbs of thank you sprinkled in to keep us feeling peaced. There is little to no spiritual growth in that.

We remember again: We go to God for God, and that is all...for that is all.

Thank you.

THIS PRIVILEGE OF A LIFETIME

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. -- Carl Jung

Mercy...that is Truth on the hoof.

As I begin the 55th year of my journey into consciously living this privilege of a lifetime, I ponder how many times we have realized that truth, each time anew...anew meaning more deeply each time, with sideroads on most trips.

It is humbly exhilarating to accept that each realization is complete in and of itself. Each holds a spiritual message for each of us personally, and we are changed with our realization.

Changed by grace and by God with every graced change alive in us always.

Brand new thought: Staying spiritually present is akin to an electric current...except that its jolt is its comfort.

God is ever good to us. God is ever good.

Thank you.

OUR SPIRITUAL NATURE CHANGES US, I

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of August 24, 2021.]

I sometimes think the hardest thing life asks of us is that we change our mind...particularly when we are certain sure that we are right.

We are brought to a standstill with the realization, yet again, that we cannot by self-will alone change our mind when we don't want to. We have learned that just changing our words...as in, agree just to shut the other up...has no spiritual core and is simply inviting a resentment to settle in, take root and bloom.

We must go to the God of our own understanding...Higher Power, Providence, whatever name fits our understanding...and, in trust, turn our thoughts over to It. We pray not for the generic Gertrude, not for a cure for cancer or covid, not for peace everlasting...God has our needs already taken care of.

We pray to get nothing, no future goodies...we pray for what we have, just as it is. We pray thank you, and that is All. Thank you hands it off, and our very own spiritual nature is set free from our reasoning mind. There. Our spiritual nature changes our mind.

 
The further gift, the pearl beyond price: Spiritual nature is the light within that shines before our world that others may see, and in seeing, realize their spiritual nature, and give their thanks to the Father. The quiet word to give over, give up, give in begins to shine...no longer a self-determined objective, it has been transmuted, and thank you is now the quiet word.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.-- Matthew 5:14

Thank you.

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD...PERIOD

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

Again and again that prayer comes to me...singing hallelujah and bringing me peace.

Thank you.

ON BEING THE PEACE WE SEEK, I

[The following is a reprint of an earlier post of mine.]

As we start our life's journey, we learn free will is a gift from God which often reasoning mind accepts as "want-to" permission. We soon interpret that, "want-to with permission," as ego having free will for its very own playground.

 
It is the journey we choose to walk that determines our life. Do we choose to use or to misuse our free will? Our choice, our trip. Cling to "my will, not thine" or exchange it? Our choice, our trip. Ego driven or God led? Our choice, our trip.

It is more spiritual growth plain and simple that informs our decision. Trying to spiritually educate our ego is an ego-trip trap...the egoic mind legislates for itself only.

Our spiritual growth bares fruit when we let ego be ego. We don't fight it, even those times when we use it to get our way. That's why we've got laughter as our fallback...for when we show our world we are still human, still futzing, and still needing God so that we still be laughing.

Ah, but answered prayer comes when nothing but God will crack our resistance...and, almost surprised, we know it. We welcome it with our thank you.

Maybe this is why God gave us free will. When we can turn from our want-to in any form, and welcome God's perfect will in any form, we will be the peace we seek.

Thank you.

JUDGE NOT

The dualistic mind cannot deal with the biggies: love, death, suffering, God, infinity, and the very notion of grace....It will simply jump to the next thing because the dualistic mind is always moving toward resolution. It loves closure and rushes toward judgment. That’s why all great spiritual teachers said, 'Do not judge.' -- Fr Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation, May 31, 2026    

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE END...JOYFULLY

 I am reminded yet again: I go to God for God, and that is all.

I've arrived at the latest...and apparently last...stage of my life on this planet. I am being neither dour nor self-pitying when I think, and not a minute too soon.

I've needed to think this through...in depth...and I am satisfied that I am anticipating in wonder the next stage of God's plan not just for me but for us...for All.

I've come to joyfully accept that each stage is for our good, but it is how we perceive the good that actually plots our life  

And there it is: The pot of gold at the end of our life's rainbow is in our perception.

Say that each of us sees the same one thing, I perceive less than, you perceive pot of gold. That perception, when seen spiritually, i.e, through God's eyes, turns our once rough and rugged road into the promised path to milk and honey.

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

Thank you.

THE GRACE OF SELF-ACCEPTANCE, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of July 22, 2016.]

Self-acceptance, like forgiveness, cannot be self-willed. We must go to God in humble skin to thank him for his blessings...whatever they may be. We can and will in God's good time be graced with the discovery that we have had the gift of self-acceptance within us all along.

The saddest thing is to be graced with self-acceptance and then to squander it on pride of self. Pride of self holds tight to our gift so others may admire and emulate...us.

God's gifts are freely given, but they require constant vigilance in order to keep them. Which we can only do by giving them away.

God in his goodness is really clever...and my ego Lucy still tries to get over on him. Which, according to me, cracks God up.

Thank you.

NOW WE MUST DO GOD'S WILL, GOD'S WAY

We say again and yet again, and then again: We go to God for God, and that is all...for that is all.

Ah, we say...now we must do, i.e., get crackin'.

Thank you.

GOD IS EVER WITH US WITHIN US

I have been in a state of fear...well, truth to tell, I'm still a tish fearful. I have the fear that I am losing my mind...which in fact, I am, but I realize I am not "losing" my mind, my mind is being exchanged. 

I am experiencing old-age forgetfulness. Which, I warn all old/long timers, is not anything like it used to be. Face it, we got old, we didn't get stupid. In our youth, we watched, learned, laughed at our parents as they were aging. 

If we paid close attention, however, we came to accept that this would be heading our way. too. 

Well, it's here. 

Time, however, has changed its characteristics. We thought aging would require us to just do as the parents did, so we had memorized and felt safe. 

Old age is here, and it is 2026...a far cry from 1956. Almost nothing I learned and held as my insurance for "doing it right" is useable today. Face it, that is off-putting not to mention scarifying. This, however, is where the old comes new...feel the fear and do it anyway is as good and true today as it ever was.

I'm living with my memory taking short breaks, my mind feeling scrambled, my fear doing whatever it wants that doesn't feel helpful. Ah...but I am writing my blog even as I pray my thank You. 

 I am still, always, forever grateful from my toes to my nose that God has me, you, us, them and all animals in the palm of His hand.

Thank you. 

GO WITH GOD AND GRIN AGAIN

 I am reminded yet again: I go to God for God and that is all...for that is all.

I also have a worry trying to make its home in my mind. The worry being that I'm probably going to need to move...to leave this home of mine that I've lived in for over a quarter of a century. Well, there it is: Me trying to scare me with a dreaded possibility. 

For whatever reasons, back-ass-wards as they may be...when I'm dreading and delaying, I get me in motion by inviting my worst fear to do my thinking for me. This is not planned...and I only realized that's what I do fairly recently. The fact is, it works, and at this late date in my life, anything that works for me is mine.

I'd best get clear honest...my main worry is not that I'm probably going to need to move. My worries are that I have dementia, that it is taking control of my life, and I have already lost control of my thinking.

Which really ticks me off. I am in my 80s! I thought I'd be long dead by now. Not only am I alive, but I'm also reasonably well...no known cancer or other life-threatening disease. 

Today, no known illness is not the good news! In my earlier years it was, but today, pushing 90...90!!!...I am less than comforted by that. I am the last member of my family still alive...not alive and well, but alive! With my luck I just might live to be 100...in what world is that good news?

I do have friends...need I say, not as many as I once did since I'm outliving them, too! 

Oh, this is just a screed on the joys of self-pity. All I really need do is get over myself...and p.d.q.

God is so good to me...he lets me wallow in my own crap then gives me his viewpoint, and I grin. God's got the answer...I go with God and grin again.

Thank you.