LOVE...AND THAT IS ALL, I

[The following is a slightly reworked reprint of my post of September 26, 2017.]

"God Calling," 9/26/01 Note to Self: When our actions are 'less than' toward others, we are living in two worlds.' Love = One.

What we see is always our self; what we receive is always sent by us to us...it is never she/he/they. There is no she/he/they.

The Father and I are One.

Thank you.

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD...GRATEFULLY

I need to keep in the forefront of my mind: I go to God for God and that is all...for that is all.

It seems I've written that every day recently, and I may have, but nothing, or no words, seem more important to me right now than I go to God for God and that is all...for that is all.

The pullback in endless repetition of important thoughts is often they become just  words.

I think of The Lord's Prayer and how we learned that almost before we learned how to spell our own name.  But having said it, it was forgotten till the next time...morning, evening, whenever.

Too often I forget my intent is to make those words...I go to God for God and that is all...for that is all...my goal for the day...daily. Ah, but have I ever? Have I ever achieved that? No...or not nearly enough.

At this stage of my life...old, and I know that for good...I seldom get in a mental boondoggle with my thoughts, feelings, doings. 

Acceptance! Glory hallelujah, I've achieved acceptance. No, truth to tell, God has gifted me, and I am grateful.

Thank you.

GRATEFUL MEMORIES

 Today, September 11, brings its own kind of memories...I'm feeling a tish gobsmacked that 2001 was only 25 years ago. 

Our lives...my life...has gone on,  tripping, skipping, stumbline, falling...but all-in-all, successfully...as in, no regrets.

Some oh, I'd rather not remember that, but in general, I'm good with my memories...it might be that my memory is not what it once was, i.e., great, but I'm good with that, too...or close enough.

The one sentence that solidifies peace in my mind and my heart is I go to God for God, and that is all...for that is all.

There...peace is upon me. 

I've nattered enough about my anxieties that I need take that no further.

On this rather holy day, I am grateful to be alive, aware albeit with memory fading. I know from my toes to my nose that I go to God for God and that is all...for that is all. 

Ah, I am peaced.

Thank you.

IN GRATITUDE, WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD

 And yet again I ponder: I go to God for God, and that is all...for that is all.

That sentence brings peace to my mind, to my Soul if you will.

I go to God for God and that is all...for that is all: The good, the bad, the ugly. the wonderful...all One.

Thank you.

WHEN GOD SPEAKS, LISTEN

Again I am reminded:  If we do not give the love we have, we will never get the love we seek.

Thank you.

LOVE...AND THAT IS ALL, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of September 26, 2017.]

'God Calling,' 9/26/01 Note to Self: When our actions are 'less than' toward others, we are living in two worlds.' Love = One.

What we see is always our self; what we receive is always sent by us to us...it is never her/him/them. There is no her/him/them.

The Father and I are One.

Thank you.

WE GO TO GOD FOR GOD...FOREVER AND ALWAYS

 I am feeling pepper sprayed by unlove...not hate, but, I suspect, fear. The fear of a former friend who has diagnosed me and found me wanting. I cannot say exactly what her diagnosis is since she has not talked with me...just with friends and strangers on streetcorners. 

Apparently, dementia is the word, so there it is out in the open. 

I, of course, have diagnosed the former friend with fear of dementia in that she "sees" it everywhere.

I would say this makes me crazy except....

So, I pray a little prayer for my friend and for me and for all who are feeling attacked by unlove. 

I go to the God of my understanding, and...ever unfailing...He gives me the quiet word again: Love...love...love. 

Thus begins the love we harbor but use only in emergency. Like daily if we ever get gutbucket honest. 

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

Thank you.

DE-HEADED BY GOD. I

I[The following is a reprint of my post of September 18, 2015.]

Blinding flash of the obvious: Atheists call it "whatever;" theists call It "God."

There is a fine line between those two...take, for instance, pain.

There are those who resist the very idea of pain, of suffering ever for any reason. There are hospitals, mental wards, drug and alcohol rehab facilities...churches!...filled with our kind. We will go to any length to avoid the possibility of our own idea of suffering.

Then there are those of us whose sole goal is to seek still more spiritual growth. When we first hear that the path to God is through pain, we resist...mightily. But, having no choice, we find as we go forward that our suffering is self-inflicted...it is the pain of ego-reduction in depth.

Too often our fear of pain is our imagining the pain of being beheaded by Isis when in fact we are being de-headed by God. The gift of grace through humility is our reward.

Suffering is the ancient law of love; there is no quest without pain, there is no lover who is not also a martyr. -- Heinrich Suso

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.

ON BEING HEADED HIGHER

 It is more spiritual growth plain and simple that informs our decisions. Trying to spiritually educate our ego is an ego-trip trap...the egoic mind legislates for itself only. (From a previous post.)

As I read that this morning, I realized that is where my thinking has dropped me. I have been wrapped around my ego...trying to spiritualize it, I reckon. 

It is to laugh...I only love it. 

Given half a chance, my ego and I will dig in until we hit pay dirt...God's will, God's way: The Ever Right Answer that we are trying to either improve or disprove. Also known as giving God a grin.

Primarily, that is how my spiritual education has come...from doing it wrong so God could turn me around, head me aright.

According to me, there are no mistakes...only God-gifts that we need to head us toward higher ground. 

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

Thank you.

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.