EXPERIENCE LOVE BY LOVING

I wonder if the world doesn't seem to be in such a manic state...maniacal state, really...because we each as individuals have reneged on our personal responsibility to love. Period.

We can only experience love by loving. Loving in the dark and lonely places, in the bright and shining glades, in the head of the angry and the heart of the saintly. For, in our own heart, we each are the dark, the lonely, the bright, the shining, the angry, the saintly. There. There is where we must needs love...in our own heart.

Find that love. Then share it. With the unlovable. 

Thank you.

ON THE NEED TO LOVE AND BE LOVED

I read this morning that God creates us with a bottomless and endless need to be loved and to love.

That's a comfort and a hunh! both at the same time. Because in todays walking around world to have a bottomless and endless need to be loved and to love would be called excessively needy...or even stalking. We would be advised to get to a shrink already.

That's the difference between seeking head help and Soul growth. When someone comes to me for what-to-do suggestions, I never knock head help, but I usually check to be sure she is seeking still more spiritual growth with regard to the problem.

Still more spiritual growth without fail will turn us within in order to discover our decision based on self that later placed us in this position to be hurt. A person not ready to hear that can get a tish irate for he is still looking for an outside solution to an inside problem.

Seeking the answer to the satisfaction of our head invariably is all about finding the cause of the hurt...parent, boss, spouse, friend. Which cause may be true, but it won't get us free. It usually gets us one of two things (sometimes both)...justification or resentment...ensuring we remain our own victim.

Until we see, realize and accept that our reasoning mind's answers are the result of our invitation...our own personal, albeit unconscious, invitation...we will continue seeking mental solutions to our spiritual problem.

Choose you this day whom ye will serve. -- Joshua 24:15

Thank you.

HUMILITY...OR HOW TO STUDY WAR NO MORE

According to Fr. Richard Rohr, St. Francis fell in love with the "humility" of God, a word, as Rohr says, that most of us would not even think could apply to God.

I'm guessing the humility of God is in God's love of...everything. Because, we learn, God IS love. Being love, God cannot see, feel, taste, touch, hear anything but love. There is no resistance because there is nothing to resist.

Without resistance, there is no ego. Without ego, there is only a humble recognition that all is exactly as it needs to be...without any fixing, meddling, guarding against or pulling for.

Now that is humbling.

I wondered if that isn't also the bar to aim for, the unspoken goal of the Sermon on the Mount, actually. For it is only love, the absence of ego, that would allow us to "turn the other cheek," to "agree with your adversary quickly," to, in fact, "resist not evil."

Love, the absence of ego, is all that is needed to "study war no more." Please and thank you.

Thank you.

TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH

When wrong, promptly admit it...be the first to give over...just change your mind.  These are the words to heed if we are truly seeking peace of mind and want to live a joy-full life.

It has been my experience that changing my mind, being the first to give over, or promptly admitting I am wrong all require my ego to take a hike and my heart, soul, body and brain to align in one desire: to seek and do God's will in the matter.

I cannot change my mind about anything by just saying I'm going to or even that I want to...it is God's grace when I can upgrade my opinion about a celebrity for heavens sake. Paris Hilton almost sunk me, and we'll skate right on by the Trumpeter.

Same goes with giving over...giving over not from the eyebrows up, as in making nice-nice and thinking "fool," but giving over with love and a desire for the other's peace of mind. Likewise, admitting my wrong...promptly. God's grace. That's all.

Without the grace of God and all my angels, I'd still be fighting to the death with my sister about who was the rightful owner of that cashmere sweater...a fight that started when I was 16, she was 19, and the last time it was mentioned, we were both in our 40s. I could feel fire starting in my belly and see little sparks in her eyes...then we both laughed. At the same time. With neither of us having said a conciliatory word. Don't tell me God doesn't concern himself with petty problems. God is available 24/7...why wouldn't he make himself useful as needed whenever, wherever?

There is no limit to God's wonderworking power. If we will commit to when wrong, promptly admit it...be the first to give over...just change your mind, God can and will prove that power...and in the instant that we trust and move forward.

It's known as holding your nose and taking a leap of faith.

Thank you.

KNOW AND BE GRATEFUL FOR THE KNOWING

Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. -- Eckhart Tolle

I had a scarifying experience on January 1, another on January 2, and today, the 3rd, I found Tolle's quote which I originally read in an "Agnes" cartoon on January 3, 2009.  I knew it was a keeper and saved it, folded in my "God Calling."

These are the "little" things that tell me my God knows my needs long before the need becomes evident to me. He knew in 2009 I'd need to read that, and it's been here for me ever since. The minute I read it this morning, I felt great peace settle over me.

I laughed as it occurred to me that consciousness continues to evolve even at age 77. The scarifying, the humdrum, the roses and rainbows...all come by invitation only and are for my personal benefit...how I receive them is evidence of my consciousness evolving.

I can know and be grateful I know, "It is I be not afraid."

Thank you.

WE ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE

Apparently, it is a hard concept to grasp but we always have a choice between feeling happy or feeling hurt...or feeling anything else for that matter.

I recall an experience I had back when I had the care and feeding of the IRS. A fairly wealthy friend of mine from my California days paid my plane fare to come visit her and her husband. At the time, I didn't have two pennies to bless myself with, and I of course had to give her a gift. I haunted used book stores, second-hand accessory shops...anywhere I thought I'd find an impressive brand name gift at a miracle price.

I found nothing. My fallback, failsafe idea was that I might be willing to part with my beloved sterling and turquoise bracelet...if I found nothing at all to give her. She was a fan of Indian jewelry, particularly silver and turquoise, so I knew it would be welcome.

Indeed, I found nothing else, so I wrapped my bracelet and gave it to her for Christmas. It never entered my mind that there are different levels of acceptable silver and turquoise bracelets. Mine did not make the cut. My friend looked at it with distinct disdain, thanked me, and that was it.

My gift from God right on the spot was that I realized I could choose to feel hurt at her response or to feel happy that I loved a friend more than I loved a piece of jewelry...how she felt about it was of no never mind.

I never had another thought about that until just recently when a similar event occurred to another friend. I had my experience to pass on to her, and she got it. What a joy! We giggled like teenagers at our freedom of choice!

God is so good to us.

Thank you.

TO REMEMBER

Our comforter...for use as needed throughout the year:

When we feel the road before us is too difficult, Isa.45:2 - ”I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight….”

When an unexpected or scary situation looms large, Matt.14:27 - ”….it is I, be not afraid.”

When called upon to meet a life situation that weighs heavy over our head, Job.23:14 - ”For He performs the thing that is appointed for me….”

Upon awakening:  I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart

Thank you.