It is not to be learned by world-flight, running away from things, turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, one must learn an inner solitude....One must learn to penetrate things and find God there.... - Meister Eckhart
There it is: My personally favorite way to find peace of mind; to wit, find the sliver of gold in whatever is causing us pause, and we will have peace. Or, per Eckhart, learn to penetrate things and find God there.
No matter how slight the sliver of gold may seem, we mentally grab hold and let naught else enter our mind. As we focus on the good, it expands filling us with peace. Our outward "pauser" will not necessarily change, but it will no longer adversely matter now. In effect, we have just kissed it on the lips...we can smile and move on.
God. gold, good...all One. Ah, transmuted...all love and laughter.
Thank you.
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
TIME TO SEARCH FOR THE GOLD
Experiential realization: It isn't old age per se that is less-than-wonderful (people are really nice, courteous, helpful to little old grey-haired ladies leaning on a cane), it's the frailty of old age that is the wicked witch.
I am being presented with my own frailty in the realization that I probably will not get...never have for my own...another dog. A cat maybe, but not a dog. I have nothing against cats except that they're not dogs.
The truth is I all but totter now, and a dog on a leash in the early morning dark doesn't bode well. And it doesn't bode well either for me or for the dog. He wouldn't get the outside time, the playtime...the dog time...that he deserves.
I'm saying my thank you, but my heart is breaking.
Thank you.
The truth is I all but totter now, and a dog on a leash in the early morning dark doesn't bode well. And it doesn't bode well either for me or for the dog. He wouldn't get the outside time, the playtime...the dog time...that he deserves.
I'm saying my thank you, but my heart is breaking.
Thank you.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
ON BEING PART OF GOD'S CHRIST PROJECT
It seems 40/11 things went haywire for me this morning before ever I got to my yoga or my quiet time...as I was cleaning up the various messes, idle thoughts were tripping from me. As in:
Maybe just idle thoughts, but they made the cleaning up go easier. Then I read my morning Rohr. and a hopeful thought popped...maybe we are part of God's Christ Project.- Maybe it took 40 days in the wilderness for Jesus to get over his own self considering the less-than-wonderful that was coming to him...and seemingly through his own father...and certainly with his father's permission.
- Picture Trump as an amalgam of human character defects...each of which makes up a part of him...as we each clean up our own defects, that part of him is cleansed...imagine that as God's purpose for him on this earth...we defy God in cursing or resenting Trump...he is here to cleanse us.
- Ah, what about my many Gertrudes, the shes and hes who tick me off daily? Picture them as an amalgam of my character defects...each of which makes up a part of Gertrude...as I clean up my own defects, that part of them is cleansed...imagine that as God's purpose for them on this earth...I defy God in cursing or resenting them...they are here to cleanse me.
God’s Christ Project encompasses the entire evolving universe, and its aim is to bring creation (along with all of us) back to God, fully conscious of our divine origin and divine destiny. . . .. -- from Fr Richard Rohr's March 12, 2019, "Daily Meditation"
Thank you.
Monday, March 11, 2019
A STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The following is from a sort of dream this morning:
The followers of the president are our gift. We'd best not resist the president's presence or his preachings...each is the identifier of his followers, especially the downtrodden and revolters against the 1%, those who will follow him down to the grave. For mostly they came from good and honest stock.
The followers of the president are our gift. We'd best not resist the president's presence or his preachings...each is the identifier of his followers, especially the downtrodden and revolters against the 1%, those who will follow him down to the grave. For mostly they came from good and honest stock.
It is those folks we will learn from...for this, too, shall pass. Their consciousness will be lifted back to their original good and honest state, and they will be free and eager to attest to what is the better way...self or not.
And those in Congress who are following them in order to stay in office and ensure they keep their golden parachute will also be returned to their original state...some honest, some not so much.
The decent followers will awaken, send their elected officials to their official grave or otherwise rightful place, and the name of this president will echo through the years as an example of how off-course we can willingly get when we follow our base nature.
Our base nature is our self unleashed with only fearful self-interest as our concern. Our spiritual nature is our Self unleashed with only love for others as our concern...and to love and laugh together.
We can give thanks for this president not for himself, but for the gilded promises so many have bought into that, when the gilt wears off, will show our self. Plain and simple. Left to our own want-to, this is us. In need.
We can give thanks for this president not for himself, but for the gilded promises so many have bought into that, when the gilt wears off, will show our self. Plain and simple. Left to our own want-to, this is us. In need.
There is nothing that cannot be solved when we enter it, not for the purpose of gaining our will, wish, or desire, but rather of surrendering our will, wish, or desire, so that the will of God may be made evident. (A paraphrase, from Joel Goldsmith's "The Gift of Love").
Thank you.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
FEAR NOT THE UNKNOWN...WELCOME IT
The key to living a complete and fulfilled life lies in the realization that there is a mystical, transcendental Presence within us that has already provided our infinite supply unto eternity, that contains within Itself our companionship unto eternity, and that has within Itself the power of fulfillment. -- Joel Goldsmith, "A Parenthesis in Eternity"
I saw a PBS Deepak Chopra clip this morning wherein he said virtually the same thing as Goldsmith's quote, His words (or close enough): There is a transcendental spark within us that only desires to be brought forth into our life.
I read that 40 years ago in Goldsmith's book, then I began to notice it in most every spiritual writing with which I identify. I believe it. I know it to be true. I can prove it by the gift of my life today. Still I seek it. Still I feel uncertain in the moment...in the moment when I am faced with an uncertain outcome, the outcome that I have predetermined and really want.
In looking back, I have only certainty for there it is, the proof that all my needs have been met. And a goodly percentage of my wants have not been...for which I can now give thanks.
Ah, it is looking forward that causes us pause. As Chopra said, From this moment on is the Unknown. There's a whole new slant for that is the fact, the precious fact that we need hold in our heart. We need not fear the unknown, we need welcome it.
Maybe the unknown is just another of God's hidey-holes...like fear, the instant we feel it, we turn to God. Now, we can welcome it with a kiss on the lips, pull our egoic mind back from the edge and envelop our self in the grace of gratitude.
Thank you.
I saw a PBS Deepak Chopra clip this morning wherein he said virtually the same thing as Goldsmith's quote, His words (or close enough): There is a transcendental spark within us that only desires to be brought forth into our life.
I read that 40 years ago in Goldsmith's book, then I began to notice it in most every spiritual writing with which I identify. I believe it. I know it to be true. I can prove it by the gift of my life today. Still I seek it. Still I feel uncertain in the moment...in the moment when I am faced with an uncertain outcome, the outcome that I have predetermined and really want.
In looking back, I have only certainty for there it is, the proof that all my needs have been met. And a goodly percentage of my wants have not been...for which I can now give thanks.
Ah, it is looking forward that causes us pause. As Chopra said, From this moment on is the Unknown. There's a whole new slant for that is the fact, the precious fact that we need hold in our heart. We need not fear the unknown, we need welcome it.
Maybe the unknown is just another of God's hidey-holes...like fear, the instant we feel it, we turn to God. Now, we can welcome it with a kiss on the lips, pull our egoic mind back from the edge and envelop our self in the grace of gratitude.
Thank you.
Saturday, March 9, 2019
ALONE AGAIN...UNNATURALLY
[This is a reprint of my post of December 16, 2016.]
Life is a balancing act, I'm thinking. On the one hand there is that which requires us to turn to God, on the other hand there are the dailies we must meet, greet and deal with.
The balancing rests in our acceptance of a power greater than our own self. For it is the dailies that determine how rocky our life's road will be, that require us to turn to God to keep our Self centered. For if we lose that center, we are back to being self-centered.
Our self-centeredness is where none other is allowed full entrance into our consciousness, certainly not a higher power, for sure not God. There. That is when we are alone again, unnaturally. That may be the definition of unbalanced.
Thank you.
Life is a balancing act, I'm thinking. On the one hand there is that which requires us to turn to God, on the other hand there are the dailies we must meet, greet and deal with.
The balancing rests in our acceptance of a power greater than our own self. For it is the dailies that determine how rocky our life's road will be, that require us to turn to God to keep our Self centered. For if we lose that center, we are back to being self-centered.
Our self-centeredness is where none other is allowed full entrance into our consciousness, certainly not a higher power, for sure not God. There. That is when we are alone again, unnaturally. That may be the definition of unbalanced.
Thank you.
Friday, March 8, 2019
GOD GOES BEFORE US PROTECTING OUR BACK
The Dark Night of the Soul, as John conceived it, is actually an inner state that may or may not have anything to do with external circumstances. It is an experience of being stripped of all the spiritual feelings and concepts with which we are accustomed to propping up our inner lives. It is a plunge into the abyss of radical unknowingness. This spiritual crisis, John assures us, is a cause for celebration..... Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," September 8, 2017
That quote gives me much comfort. I was introduced to such a thought many years ago, and, who's kidding whom, it scared me enough that I resisted it. By resisted it, I mean I ignored it. It was sometime later that the concept was again brought to me...and then again...and again...until one fine day: An abyss of radical unknowingness became my sliver of gold.
The reasoning mind gift is: It was only in looking back that I "got" it. An all but unrealized BFO is that most of my spiritual gifts are realized thusly...in looking back with grateful memories as my guide.
For instance, the first time I walked into a meeting of a fellowship that was to change my life, I was sick, sad and sorry. I walked out a changed woman. My reasoning mind was only impressed with the fact that I had attended the meeting. It took awhile before I realized I was changed, and only in looking back did I see that I had been changed from that one-hour meeting.
Reasoning mind: We're stewing in our own juices, begging God to make an unfixable problem go away. Spiritual mind: Our Father within has already shook it off...we are already free.
Even as we are praying to be changed, we have already been swept clear of the cobweb that had us fearfully nattering. There. That's why a thank you is called for before we are consciously aware that our crooked place has been made straight.
Not only that, but I'm guessing that the three o'clock in the morning rues, regrets and remorses are our angels arm-wrestling with our ego...we can welcome them with our thank you and go back to sleep.
If the only prayer we ever prayed was thank you, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart
Thank you.
That quote gives me much comfort. I was introduced to such a thought many years ago, and, who's kidding whom, it scared me enough that I resisted it. By resisted it, I mean I ignored it. It was sometime later that the concept was again brought to me...and then again...and again...until one fine day: An abyss of radical unknowingness became my sliver of gold.
The reasoning mind gift is: It was only in looking back that I "got" it. An all but unrealized BFO is that most of my spiritual gifts are realized thusly...in looking back with grateful memories as my guide.
For instance, the first time I walked into a meeting of a fellowship that was to change my life, I was sick, sad and sorry. I walked out a changed woman. My reasoning mind was only impressed with the fact that I had attended the meeting. It took awhile before I realized I was changed, and only in looking back did I see that I had been changed from that one-hour meeting.
Reasoning mind: We're stewing in our own juices, begging God to make an unfixable problem go away. Spiritual mind: Our Father within has already shook it off...we are already free.
Even as we are praying to be changed, we have already been swept clear of the cobweb that had us fearfully nattering. There. That's why a thank you is called for before we are consciously aware that our crooked place has been made straight.
Not only that, but I'm guessing that the three o'clock in the morning rues, regrets and remorses are our angels arm-wrestling with our ego...we can welcome them with our thank you and go back to sleep.
If the only prayer we ever prayed was thank you, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart
Thank you.
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