KEEP IT SIMPLE...TRUST GOD AND LOVE

Today, I joy in the memory that my goal in life is, and has been for some time now, to keep it simple..."it" being life itself. As I have noted many times, I identify myself with Grandma Moses...stick figures, primary colors and unfancy talk. 

I was reminded of that when I came across a post of mine from 2017: [I]t is a comfort for me to believe every conscious 'thank you' we pray, every conscious thought of a spiritual nature that we have, that is God making contact with us....Simply put, we can quit trying so hard...for God will be loving us, even as we are straining to change our own self. He will be seeking us even then...maybe especially then.

Apparently, I needed a reminder today...that which I knew back then is true still only deeper at a higher level. My "new" state of consciousness, trust, is on the field!

Trust...God never does not love us. 

Thank you. 

OUR THOUGHTS HELP MEND THE WORLD

The Joy of Perpetual Guidance. Wait for Guidance in every step. Wait to be shown My way.... All the responsibility of Life taken off your shoulders.... [T]he wonder of this--a God-guided life. - God Calling, December 13, 2023

My recent blinding flash of the obvious, All our changes will now be God-guided...trust, is affirmed.

 
With that recent BFO in mind, God Calling today is particularly meaningful to me. I shared my BFO with a friend just yesterday, and today's entry puts the Period to it. I am grateful it is called The Joy of Perpetual Guidance.

 

To me, this means that all my new self-determined objectives, no matter how spiritual I believe them to be, will now be put through the crucible. When they emerge, in this lifetime or the next, they will be my gold...my trust in God. 

I take Fr Richard's Daily Meditation today for my initial directions. Quoting teacher Mirabai Starr about mending our broken world: How are we to do this? The answer is: with every act of loving-kindness and generosity. ... It means slowing down enough to let the pain of the world all the way into our hearts, allowing our hearts to break open, and acting from that broken-open space. It means stepping up with humility, with curiosity, with love....our loving, kind thoughts count too...[they] make a difference. They help mend the world.

There. Necessary suffering again shows true as the Way of the Lord...not for self, not for glory, not to get but to give with humility, with curiosity, with love.

A must-remember:  ...our loving, kind thoughts count too. They help mend the world.

Thank you.

GOD IS IN THE BROKENNESS...BEAUTIFUL

Like Kintsugi—the Japanese method of repairing pottery using gold, silver, or platinum to fill in the cracks—this doesn’t hide our brokenness but makes it beautiful. -- from Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, December 11, 2023

Morphic resonance! Or I am reminded of that...reminded by the gift to me nearly 50 years ago that I need to find the sliver of gold in any less-than-wonderful appearing in my life. Until yesterday, I had never heard of Kintsugi...but, oh my, I do love it.

Repairing pottery is my new metaphor for upgrading attitude. Using gold, both pottery and attitude love the brokenness...show, don't hide. It is our attempts to hide the damage that cedes power there.

I'm guessing that Kintsugi is the material way of life for the Japanese potter...upgrading our attitude is the spiritual way of life for us. 

We need to remember that whether we are repairing pottery or upgrading attitude, we must make way for a Power greater than self...God, in a word...to form the beautiful for us.

Thank you. 

BY GRACE, SURRENDER BIRTHS ACCEPTANCE

Thaddeus Golas in his book "Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment," wrote that we must go beyond reason to love...and as Origen claimed, We must dig out the deep meaning in the scars and scandals in our lives. 

The scars and scandals are just that...finding the slivers of gold hiding in the reason for our scars and scandals head us in the better, spiritual, direction. 

Invariably, self-centered fear leads the way, but, again, that is just so many words. We must discover the reason for our self-centered fear...and then go beyond that reason for beyond is where love...now realized as God...lives.  

To the reasoning mind, surrender equates with you lose which we resist, until we learn, repeatedly, that love lives in surrender. The reason for our self-centered fear will remain forever hidden from us until we resist not by turning for help to a Power greater than our self. 

It is through the Higher Power that surrender is transmuted...and acceptance is ours! We accept ownership of our scars and scandals, and forgiveness releases self to give over, give up, give in with love and laughter.  

Depending entirely upon our need and our want-to, this entire process can take a heartbeat...but never, never, never count on that. For the likes of us, it takes a lifetime...and maybe longer. I haven't gotten there yet, but through the grace of God, I am willing.

Thank you.

DEEPER GOD-INTIMACY, BELONGING AND UNION

First thought is nearly always from the material mind, and payback in kind is as like as not to be its goal. Our long-time search for spiritual growth is put to the test. We bless that first thought...hug it and kiss it and let it go...and welcome the realization that this is not to be hated but to be forgiven.  

I wrote and posted that just a couple of days ago; just this morning I realized that it proves to me that refusal to gossip, or to speak a less-than word about anybody, is the correct end result but not the first step toward a spiritually based life. 

We must accept that first thought as our own...otherwise we try to deny it by pushing it down inside where it will fester and not die. It will not die but it will rise again tomorrow or way later...at something unrelated that an innocent someone says or does...wreaking havoc beyond comprehending. We bless that first thought...hug it and kiss it and let it go.  

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I lean toward the belief that all of our woes are born as self-determined objectives. (It should go without saying that woes do not include brain cancer and the like.)

Since I know...and I have proof of purchase...that I am the source of all my woes, it is no stretch to intellectually accept that all my woes, bumps in the road, irritations, aggravations, ad nauseam, are born in self...and are grown by blaming others. 

I believe peace of mind through surrender are found in Rohr's unitive consciousness, my raised consciousness...in short, out of reasoning mind into spiritual mind.

God is preparing and drawing us toward deeper intimacy, belonging, and union. -- Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, December 10, 2023

Thank you.

ON FINDING GOD IN THE LIMINAL

To encounter the holy in the ordinary is to find God in the liminal. (I neglected to note from whom that originated, but it fits my life-trip today.) 

I shared with friends recently my "new" mindset, that is, to detach from trusting my will in God's hands to trusting God in my life...to DO my life.

For the past 50+ years, my life has been based on turning my will and my life over to the care of God. I've primarily concentrated on my will since, face it, if we truly turn our will over to the care of God, our life will follow.

At around 40 years I was gifted with a BFO suggesting I trust God, loose my will and DO my life...which went over my head like a hairnet, but I know my BFOs so I was willing to be led. 

For the past ten or so years, I've been open to being turned away from my will toward DOing my life. DOing my life by trust in God...through trusting the Father within me. Trusting by going with what comes forth from me...words or actions...little things that I do and say that may surprise me...and may not always seem reasoning mind-good, but so far have not led me wrong. 

Trust me, all of this has been and is being done very imperfectly...that I am willing gets my grateful bow. 

One lesson learned that felt unwonderful at the start: I made a remark to a friend without thought but not without care, and it came out borderline snark. It was not a major muff, I apologized, and it was gone, but that told me clearly that I must go slowly, slowly on this unknown road of DOing my life by trusting God.

To always remember...or try not to forget...God is always present, but so is ego. We will never go wrong by turning our will and our life over to the care of God. 

It is our own self that gives God the edge.  

Thank you.

GO TO GOD FOR GOD...IN GRATITUDE

Concerning the Hamas war, too recently the word started coming to the general public of the hideous torture of the Israeli women. 

What happened there...raping women to death, torturing them beyond description, parading those still breathing through the streets to the cheers of crowds...is for us to learn of but not for us to dwell on. 

First thought is nearly always from the material mind, and payback in kind is as like as not to be its goal. Our long-time search for spiritual growth is put to the test. We bless that first thought...hug it and kiss it and let it go...and welcome the realization that this is not to be hated but to be forgiven.  

Forgiveness is of God, not something we alone can do, but each of us is responsible for our forgiving thoughts. It is the likes of this that keeps us seeking higher for deeper spiritual growth.

We recall an early BFO, upgrade your thoughts, downgrade your problem. We must constantly be aware of our thoughts, to upgrade them as we think them, not to control them, but to give over control through thank you to God...to do with them, build of them, upgrade them as God wills, God's way.

Each of us individually is responsible for our thoughts...for turning them to God. Sincerely. Plain and simple. No frills. No ideas original to anyone but our own self.

We go to God for God and that is all...He knows what to do.

Thank you.