ALL THE WHILE PRAY THANK YOU...AND MEAN IT

When we can face our own painful situation, we will discover that hidden in the pain is the treasure—a joy that is there for us to experience here and now. -- Catholic priest Henri Nouwen

I am living in my own painful situation right now...is it dementia or is it intense anxiety disorder? My fear says dementia, my life experience says anxiety. 

There it is, the nature of my own personal beast...believing my most feared, then sitting (wallowing?) in fearful favor of that, all the while praying thank You. Thank you. 

Even with a lifetime experience of diagnosed anxiety (which, I grin to remember, once was my worst fear) today I most fear dementia. So, I welcome dementia and trust the God of my understanding to push-pull...love...me through to that result if that be God's will, God's way for me. 

God always has been there for me, cannot not be there for me, and all I need do is Let It Be So. And keep my doctor's appointment today. 

Love and laugh.

Thank you.

ON LEARNING TO TRUST GOD'S GRACE

Trust God, trust Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth. Make your intention clear that you will follow as called, without exception. Make your intention known to God and wait for the Holy Spirit to lead you into the fulfillment of your vocation. -- Dr. Barbara Holmes, Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

This is the answer to my silent question of God's will, God's way for me...for me now and as I go on with my life experiencing God’s unfathomable grace.

Right now I feel that I am getting back-handed and short-sheeted by my newbie friend. I get to trust that that, too, is God's will, God's way for me today. To accept whatever comes to me from this friendship, which for sure is looking less-than, is for the benefit of both of us and anyone in our circle of consciousness. Again, possibly just words to me now, but doesn't all learning begin with just words?

This is me working on the basics of trust...learning to trust that all the less-than feelings are for the spiritual benefit of each and all.

Walking the rough and rugged road toward still more spiritual growth cannot be self-willed. It is by God's grace that we give over, give up and give in...with reasoning mind questioning and spiritual mind loving and laughing. Please and thank you.

Thank you.

CLAIM OUR OWN AND REAP GOD'S WILL

Effective light does not call attention to itself; rather, it lights up the world…. Any faith that does not manifest itself in works is not faith; it is complacency and self-satisfaction. -- Amy-Jill Levine, Daily Meditation, January 2, 2025  

I am reminded of a long-ago friend's belief; namely, faith without works is fantasy.

That saying has been visiting my thoughts off-and-on recently. I finally stopped long enough to let it speak fully to me, and I realized that it is my self-described "80s" that is doing the nattering. As I have mentioned, when I turned 80, I experienced an entire change in my thinking, feeling, doing...being. 

The gift of change is the choice I was given...love and laugh with hitting 80 or roll around in the self-pity of being 80, i.e., old, used up, no good, etc., ad nauseum. I chose then and continue to choose love and laugh.  

So I love and laugh and learn even more. For instance, I learned the word "works" flips on my guilt switch. My egoic guilt lives to shower shame and thus gets its reward with more guilt. (Just for giggles, I call it gilted guilt.)

Here's God's way for me...since I now know the gift of spiritual communication, I am freely available to listen to anyone in need who reaches out to me. I silently acknowledge God's will so my feedback is (mostly) egoless, and the majority of the time the listener's thinking is upgraded.

We each are given God-gifts. All we need do is claim our own...with thank You.

God is so good to us.

Thank you.

ON BEING SHOWN...WITH LOVE AND LAUGHTER

 In re my April 30, 2025, 3:00 AM bolt to my belly, the thought has occurred to me, and is growing. that that was my Awakening.

I went for physical fix first and got turned around by repeatedly hitting a blank wall with doctors. It probably is too soon to make a solid reckoning, but I am becoming aware of my Journey in this. 

I was push-pulled from doctor to doctor, and I got nada. Then on May 28th I saw a shrink for 2-1/2 hours. He diagnosed me as having my already known Intense Anxiety Disorder, but definitely not dementia, my inner fear. I was not wholly freed, still have anxiety attacks but that confirmed the IAD. 

All of which has firmed up my sense of this as my Initiation deepening...possibly shedding the need for more in-depth material-mind work. I will be led...am being led...am comfortable with letting this be the likely leg of my Journey that I am to walk now.  

If I am off, I will be shown...with love and laughter.

[We are called to] a deeper, bigger, and scarier level of freedom: inner, outer, personal, economic, structural, and spiritual. Surely this is the task of our entire lifetime. -- Fr Richard Rohr

Thank you.

THE GIFT OF UPGRADED BELIEFS

[It is] prophesied what will happen at the last judgment: we shall be judged according to the way we have treated Him in the persons of the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden. -- Brazilian Archbishop Dom Hélder Câmara, from Fr Richard's Daily Meditation, July 3, 2025

There...the promise: At the last judgment we shall be judged according to the way we have treated all others in the persons of the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden.

This is the promise that we begin to realize by our changing thoughts, feelings, behavior.

We realize an upgrade to our own beliefs...we begin to believe in the last judgment. 

We find our self wondering, why not believe? We say that it cannot be proven, but if we believe, it is proven...daily in our walking around change of attitude and behavior. 

Without personal effort, we have become a walking-around joystick...we shed contentment for others to absorb. 

The best part, of course, is that the contentment is not personal, it is of God. Ah, but it is our very own.

Thank you.

WITH AN OPEN, HUMBLE HEART

The following, a reprinted note from Kathy Jo W. to Fr Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation, July 2, 2025, is my post for today.

In the note, she nearly perfectly describes how I feel today, who I know today myself to be within and without. All of which is subject to change...upwardly, we dare to believe. 

With sincere appreciation and thanks to Kathy Jo W.:

Where do I belong? Not with the rich and privileged, not with the very poor, not with the liberals and not with the conservatives, not with the intellectuals and successful, not with organized religion and social organizations—not even with some family members. I belong in Christ’s arms, in the space of paradoxes, the space of unknowing, and in the cracks of suffering. That is where I am free to feel God’s loving touch with an open, humble heart. -- Kathy Jo W. 

Thank you.

ALL EVIL STARTS WITH A SINGLE THOUGHT, 1

[The following is a reprint of my post of July 20, 2013.]

My morning blinding flash of the obvious: My only real freedom is the ability to walk free in my own head.

To walk free in my own head is...free of judgment, free of want, free of self. The responsibility for walking free in my own head is mine. I turn to God with the spiritual principles I have been given as my guide and go forward doing those spiritual principles in believing trust that God has my back.

The admonition in the Bible that lusting in one's mind qualifies as adultery may be the real nut of life itself...all evil must start with a single thought.

Thank you.