GOD INDWELLING IS....

Jesus became a highly contrived problem-solver for our own guilt and fear (a problem that was inevitable if God was not indwelling) instead of the Archetypal Blueprint for what God has been doing all the time and everywhere. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," May 31, 1915

There. That parenthetical phrase, "(a problem that was inevitable if God was not indwelling),"  explains everything...according to me.

God indwelling is the driver, producer, agent of our soul, always using our own chosen tools, i.e., defects of character or personal assets, to get us where we need to be for our still more spiritual growth...no matter how ego-shattering it looks and feels to us and/or our world.

I am the source of all my woes, I am the good I seek.

Thank you.

TO LET IT BE IS GRACE

Life's perfect answer...love and laugh...is in my face right now and has been for awhile. Today, I received a temporary add-on...learn.

• Love - to consciously live a life in acceptance.
• Laugh - no matter how "it" looks, because we live in acceptance, we can laugh.
• Learn - this is labeled "temporary" because it is the daily discipline necessary to develop a consciousness of acceptance so that we can laugh at our reaction to whatever comes.    

Laughing, we come to learn, is simply not taking our self too seriously when we do meet a life's "oh-no." A child's illness, for instance, or a friend's betrayal, a foe's superiority...or Alzheimer's. Within, they are all the same...us trying yet again to take control from God.

What is, is. To let it be is grace.

Thank you.

MY HEAVY LIFT

Regrets are just resentments in fancy dress. At least they are to me. Regret keeps our focus turned inward blaming our self; resentment keeps our focus turned outward looking for someone to blame.

My test: When I'm into my rues, regrets and remorses, all I need do is picture you as their source...all gone before my heart beats twice. Unfortunately, I am instantly heavy duty peeved at you...and justifying it.

I am the source of all my woes. I am the answer I seek. 

I long ago learned both of those truths in my search for still more spiritual growth. It was obvious that there was no way my reasoning mind would get me there. I might get the gist, but the actual realization? Not likely.

Here's the really good news...my "regrets are resentments" came to me this morning when I was regretting something. I picked up my God Calling, and today's first words? "Regret nothing," and I recognized my regret/resentment as an angel aborning.

Don't tell me God isn't with me, within me, all-knowing, and perfectly capable of telling me exactly what I need to hear.

I know I am blessed, and I am grateful...it's remembering it that is my heavy lift.

Thank you.

ALL IT TAKES IS LOVE AND LAUGHTER

It is such a relief...or maybe it's just a boost to my confidence...to read a really smart, well-known author write something that I already have come to believe. Eknath Easwaran writes a lot about the necessity of bringing ourselves closer to those with whom we do not particularly choose to be close. It is amazing how well this works when I choose to do it...which I call "remember to do it."

I look back and see specific instances where I've simply upgraded my opinion of another, not by their doing something that meets with my high standards for them, but by my making a decision to think kind thoughts about them...and then thinking kind thoughts about them.

What brings this on is another line of Easwaran's, "...every one of us is trying to break into the bank inside...." To break into the bank inside of ourselves. I felt absolute exhilaration on reading that...and I've already underlined it in every color ink that I own. There's the joy...every time I read it I know again its truth.

I am reminded that we started out at birth as winners with all we will ever need right there inside...love, patience, kindness, supply, forgiveness, all we will ever need, and all we need do is use them. Be loving, be patient, be kind, give, forgive. Yet, we're still "trying to break into the bank inside."

And really...all it takes is love and laughter.

Bingo!

The door to our heart swings open...we're free at last, thank God almighty, we're free at last!

Thank you.

THE PERFECTION OF POWERLESSNESS

I'm reading my Gita this morning, and there is this line: "The Self within enjoys sense objects and acting through the gunas." [NOTE:  I just call the "gunas" my "I See Me."]

This really registered as the possible explanation for my throwing mud in my face with my recent innocent/ignorant remark. That was Self within using my I.S.M. for my own personal enlightenment. I needed (and still need!) to eyeball-see how I am the source of all my woes and laugh at me in the seeing.

I did see me, and I am laughing about it...since there's nothing else I can do. There. That's the perfection of powerlessness...laugh and love.

I have no idea if that's God's truth, but it sure is mine right now.

Thank you.

IT ONLY APPEARS WE ARE LEADING

My morning's blinding flash of the obvious: Our lives are akin to snail slime...laid out behind us every step of our way, every minute of our day, always traceable right back to us, never showing someone else's trail...just our very own.

Flinching from "slime," I call that God's foot path that originates within our own self, goes to the soles of our feet and trails behind...ever pointing toward us.

Just another paradox, according to me. In leaving the tracks of our lives behind us, it appears we are leading, but it is God's path we are walking. God's will is ever done whether we agree with it or not. The longer we resist by relying on our free will, the longer it takes us on our path to reach that which we're trailing behind us...God.

Thank you.

DON'T LAMENT, PRAISE

[The following is a reprint of my blog of May 31, 2011.]

My blinding flash of the obvious this morning: Where two or more are gathered, do not lament, praise.

I’m not a big “lamenter,” but I natter to Ruckus a lot. So I pondered my BFO, and I have decided as an exercise each day to take some time to consciously praise that which I am nattering about.

Two things instantly popped up…both itsy-bitsy items of no account whatsoever, except to my nattering mind. One had to do with a cartoon that a friend sent that I interpreted and resisted as politicizing Memorial Day, the other a remark a friend had made about watering plants. I hadn’t even realized I had personalized that remark until I heard me nattering about it this morning.

I consciously took some 10 minutes to just think each of those through, being thankful for seeing each as pure, just pure, nothing personal attached to either. I felt better for just having done the exercise…we’ll see what, if any, results I get (meaning how natter-free I remain).

Thank you.

May 25, 2015 Update: Praising my two items must have worked...I have no memory of what they were about even. If , however, praising the two teeny problems isn't what did it, then aging no doubt is...so I'll praise my age because why not? Lamenting it is just a downer. There. That's proof positive that praise is better than lamenting...anything! 

Again, thank you.