THE FATHER AND I ARE ONE

Blinding flash of the obvious: Oneness cannot be Oneness if it only exists spiritually. There is ever the quality of Oneness within us, without us...mentally and spiritually.

I have tended to think of Oneness, being One with the universe, as a purely spiritual goal to reach...something to attain someday by grace and by God.

The picture popped this morning of me as Lucy With The Football, lording it over the schnook who always falls for my ploy. At one and the same time, I saw me as poor, pitiful Charlie Brown, the schnook who falls for it every time. I felt equally Lucy's glory mingled with Charlie's shame. And I knew this for Oneness on the material plane.

I wonder if Oneness exists on the material plane without striving, seeking, praying, then isn't my seeking for it only on the spiritual plane me going in the wrong direction? Must they not meld?

Ah, experiencing my Lucy/Charlie moments requires my turning to my Father in that moment. Right then and there is the marriage of material and spiritual when I realize my need of  his spiritual view, when I know again that my reasoning mind cannot get me there.

Still more spiritual growth, then, is the same-old-same-old: Not all on our own to experience anything but for our perspective to ever be lifted up...turned around...turned over to our Father to be righted.

Thank you.

OUR DIFFICULTIES ARE OUR BLESSINGS

Take away my difficulties that victory over them may bear witness to others of Your love, Your power and Your way of life. -- Anonymous, lifted and interpreted by me for me.

It is in looking back that we realize our own experience with that very line. We can see that our difficulties are not taken away, as such, they are transmuted. 

More often than not (when we've had a what's-best-for-me result in mind), to our egoic eye, it may look and feel as if our Father has ignored our prayer, abandoned us even. Ah, but...blinding flash of the obvious...our walking through those difficulties by grace and by God is the witness that is the benefit to others and to our self. 

The benefit can come clearly...a gift from God...but, who's kidding whom, it usually comes disguised and often more obvious to others first than to our self. 

The natural fact is that others are seeing our ego deflation and how we walk with and through it. That is their bennie. We, however, are feeling our ego deflation. That we turn quickly from that feeling to our sliver of gold in it is our bennie. Our feelings, linked with our ego, will dictate for as long as we let them.

The lesson in seeking still more spiritual growth is that there is always still more spiritual growth to seek. 

Thank you.

WE GET NOT AROUND OUR FEAR BUT THROUGH

In a recent conversation with a friend concerning a friend's passing, we were regretting that our friend was so resistant at the end. We were a tish critical of him and were consciously seeking to understand rather than judge.

We were blessed with the realization that none of us get to choose exactly how we go out...even a suicide cannot foretell the last thought s/he may experience. The karmic possibility is their last mental flash may be the perfect solution to the perceived problem that led them to opt for suicide.

We may seriously and sincerely believe that, our goal having long been for still more spiritual growth, we are immune from dying angry. Then at the moment of death, we flash on the old, we thought forgiven, unfair punishment we got when we were ten and there it is: We mentally go out kicking, carping and crying.

We do know that obsessively trying to guard against (or pull for) anything opposes the will of God. The singular desire to ensure that we won't die angry may well be in opposition to a known-only-to-God beneficial reason that we need to die less than happy. It is, after all, just our own idea of happy that we're holding to.

We oppose the will of God at our own peril, and not from God's punishment but from our own ego's vengeance. The answer still, yet, again: Love and laugh. Which is the only possible way around, i.e., through, our woes.

Since this will take a lot of time and concentrated effort, best start packing now. In honor of Veteran's Day, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile.

God loves us sooo much.

Thank you.

THE NEED FOR HUMANS...LOVE AND LAUGHTER

Ramblings in my quiet time:

The only purpose for my ego, Lucy With the Football, is to get God to kick the football. It is Lucy who ever goes for it and winds up on her back with mud on her face. Ah, there it is: The mirror image of God again. What we go for, our self-determined objective, and what we get, God's will,  are the same only with an opposite end view.

God made all things...all there is, was, ever will be...made by  God. God made all living things, plants, animals, fishes, insects, oceans, earth, et al., to be in perfect harmony in order to maintain the universe. 

Then God made humans. I'm guessing he made us to keep himself on his toes proving love is always the answer no matter the perception. That required him to bring in laughter for to be love's emery board to smooth and straighten the way. It is God's love and laughter that go before us to make the crooked places straight. 

God knew if it weren't for humans, he'd have no laughs at all...and there goes the universe.

Thank you.

MOVE ON...GOD'S ALREADY PERFECTED US

It is not wholly a mistake to go to God in prayer seeking to get a self-determined objective...how else do we come to complete defeat? Going to God in prayer for any reason at least heads us in the right direction.

Our problem, of course, is refusing to accept that we're going in the wrong direction. That God's answer was I've already got that covered, move on, or Ain't no way, Babe, move on. However we hear God, the most important words there are move on.

Continuing to pray for our objective...refusing to budge because we don't agree with any reason given us...is ego-driven self-will at its hairiest, which, and we can count on it, opposes the will of God.

We depend on our own rational mind, and, in general, rightly so in daily living, but it is holding to that reasoning mind for our security that is the source of our insecurity, i.e., our fear.

At some point in our life, we must hold our nose and take a leap of faith. And then become willing to do it again...repeatedly. There. That is one leg of the path leading us on to a life well-lived by seeking still more spiritual growth...till three days after we're dead.

Thank you.

THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE VALLEY

Yea. though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil...for the Father within...unseeable, unhearable, invisible in a word... is with us (I AM that I AM). The more we try to ward off evil, or fear in any guise, the more fear takes hold of us. 

It is our failure to defeat our own fear that brings us to bitter hopelessness...ah, but it is that personal inability that opens the door for our glory, the Father within, to flow forth to do its perfect work. It is that complete defeat that shucks our shields and allows the grace of our Father to bring us peace, the ever-present universal peace. 

According to me, universal peace is for me and for thee both at the same time for he is within me/without me, within thee/without thee ever and always..

Yea. though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil...and I am grateful.

Thank you.

ON ACCEPTING OUR SELF...OUR FEELINGS

People who do not feel deeply finally do not know or love deeply either. It is the price we pay for loving. Like Job we must be willing to feel our emotions and come to grips with the mystery in our head, our heart, and, yes, our body too. To be honest, that takes our entire life. My emotions are still a mystery to me, and without contemplation they would control me.   Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," July 9, 2013

It took awhile for me to realize, then to accept, that I do feel deeply, that I have, in fact, an empathetic soul. 

My inner work came in seeking help in divorcing my spiritually empathetic self from my strong egoic opinions. I tended toward the dogmatic, not to put too fine a point on it. Which too often led to coulda, woulda, shoulda at 3:00 AM.

I sought God's help...and here she came. I was blessed with a friend at work who would not state a simple fact without qualifying it forty ways from Sunday, then apologizing for it after the fact. She refused to state a preference for a place to eat lunch. "Anywhere" is not a diner. Mercy. They kid not when they say be careful what you pray for.

To state the obvious, I mentally judged her endlessly and, who's kidding whom, mental judgment is silent scorn...not acceptable. Clearly, I needed to change my ways.

I was forced by my own conscience to start blessing my thoughts about her. I was opened to the real goodness in her. The added-on pearl is I found permission to be me in that I'd much rather be opinionated than wishy-washy...and for sure I am.

With a little help from my mentor, my friends and God, I toned me down as needed...and the friend moved to New York. Don't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor.

Thank  you.