WE ARE SURROUNDED BY LOVE...SO LOVE

[The following is a reworked reprint of my blog of February 17, 2015.]

How did I get so blessed? Today I live in a world surrounded by gratitude...the grace of gratitude.

I am grateful for my little guy, grateful that my love for him is not always convenient, and I love him all the more; grateful for my friends (grateful that I can put an "s" on "friend" without lying), grateful that I care as much for more than one other as I do for myself, grateful that I am loved, grateful that I love.

The big whoopee is the realization that all my gifts are blossoms stemming from the same root...gratitude. And the process is exactly the same as that of a flower blooming...its blossoms do not come from out there, given to the flower if it is "good." They are within, and they will bloom at the exactly right time.

Same goes for mine...they are not gifts given to me from out there. These are gifts that have always been inside me waiting to be released by my own self. The right time for their release may have come the first time I reached out to another...and it didn't matter whether I reached out for help or to help. Just reaching out, away from self, is an act of grace.

Grateful...the gift of grace. Gratitude...grace's fingerprints.

Thank you.

HUG LUCY AND PRAY FOR PEACE

We know we are on the right road going in the right direction with our first denial of self...which feels less than wonderful until after the fact. Sometimes it is only much later that we realize we were touched by angels in that first deciding moment when we denied our own self for the benefit of another.

"For the benefit of another" is the key to God's gifts...not eating a pound of chocolates may be denying our own wants but proof of an angel's presence it is not.

I was reminded of that in my morning prayers as I thanked God for blessing my thoughts...which, I confess, have not improved one iota. I could almost wish I didn't know why, but who's kidding whom? It's Lucy...again. I'm about at the point of needing to admit that she may crack God up, but we are not amused.

I know I'm on the right track, etc., when I hear my innards moaning, "How long oh Lord?" That's when I know my perfected defect of character, the one that's been transmuted, is awake...I am taking myself too seriously. I smile...with a touch of grimace thrown in, but that's right track.

The thought occurs that it's time I accept responsibility for upgrading my thoughts. And here's my spiritual experience come to save the day: I accept responsibility by accepting my thoughts just as they are. Then I can re-realize that God is on the field. I am learning more about humility than I ever could by self-willing thoughts of sweet, kind, considerate, lovable and generous because it is impossible to hold those thoughts.

It is that very powerlessness that brings me to my knees, with a thank you on my lips, and a hug for Lucy who needs it, too.

Thank you.

ON TAKING A LEAP OF FAITH

There is much resistance to "sit and wait on the Lord and listen," apparently because we do not know how to do that. Our reasoning mind cannot grasp that spinning our wheels analyzing is fruitless...plus not even being a spiritual activity.

The way to sit and wait on the Lord and listen is to do the next thing.

Please note that that does not say "do the next right thing." No. That's probably the root of our walking-around problems...waiting to be absolutely certain sure that we are going to do the right thing.

The next thing we do is the next right thing. It is ego  alone that slides the qualifier in there. That all but guarantees we'll sit and ponder, analyze, cry, talk it over, talk it over some more, trying to figure out exactly what the next right thing is. All that delay is just fear of being wrong.

We'll only know by doing...if it is wrong, it'll only be wrong to the extent that the end result is not what we had in mind. That's how we learn that God's will seldom even resembles our prayerful wants. We only discover that it is infinitely better than we could ever have imagined by going forward seeking always his will over our own will. That is what's called "holding your nose and taking a leap of faith."

I've come to  believe that this is the initiation we read so much about. Initiation that is necessary for us in our coming to trust that which we have decided we believe; namely, that God can and will if sought, that God has our back, that he goes before us to make the crooked places straight, that God can and will intervene in our life in our behalf...all of our goodies.

All are just so many pretty words until we quit talking 'em and start walking 'em. Let's hold our nose and take a leap of faith.

Thank you.

THE FATHER AWAITS

When Pope Francis asked the worker on the street (who had just taken a break from work to come see the Pope pass by) to pray for him, and then grasped the man's hands and all but demanded that he promise to pray for him, we knew we were witnessing Jesus washing the feet of the beggars. That was humility...alive and breathing.

We also knew, but it took longer to travel from God's hidey hole within up to our reasoning mind, that we have that same humility within us...were gifted with it at birth.

We must recognize this as true in order to come to the realization of it. It is the time between recognition and realization that we do our hardest work. Then, here comes the slap-my-face-and-call-me-Spacey, we find out, after all our work a-thinking, it's not our job to begin with!

It's God's job. We just need to listen! Listen!! Sit and wait on the Lord and listen!!!

We'll get answers we do not want. We'll play hide-and-go-seek with our ego...that's my Lucy thinking she's God. We'll find out that trying to hide from God is akin to trying to hide in the corner of a circle. We'll also find out that all of that useless "work" was absolutely essential for our spiritual growth...that is how we come to our powerlessness.

It has been said that God’s power comes through powerlessness and humility. Pope Francis lives that...and because he does, we know we can. If not in this life, the next...or the one after.

Thank you.

GRATITUDE LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG

If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice. -- Meister Eckhart

I came across Meister Eckhart's quote this morning...twice, in two different places. I wasn't aware of praying for anything so I took a minute to ponder that. I realized that I've been resettling scores in my mind...that's fancy talk for breeding a resentment...and I thanked the Meister and God for the golden goose.

When I opened my "God Calling," there was a note I'd written sometime back. It reminded me that we are only ever alone when we're all up in our head...in our reasoning mind...that to live in gratitude is to live in fourth dimension consciousness where there is no alone.

Again, I thanked the Meister and God...this time for the golden egg.

Thank you.

GOD CAN AND WILL IF SOUGHT

Don’t be afraid of darkness, of the things that look like they’re going in the wrong direction.

That very well may be the best advice one can receive. It is paradoxical to me, and I call paradox my spiritual tuning fork, so of course I love it. Plus, it invites us to relearn from our own experience...and is there a better teacher? Not to me, there's not. But consider, when we go back in our memories and bring up that which looked so dark a-coming, it most often turned out to be our light when we accepted it.

Possibly the hardest thing I ever did...consciously with this as my intent...was to invite insanity to come get me. I was living with intense anxiety which felt like insanity anyhow, and the thought occurred that maybe this was God's will, that I lose my mind in order to find it. So I sat myself down in the middle of my bed, sobbing all the while, and said right out loud, "Welcome, madness! Come on in!" My heart was pounding like a tom-tom, I was shaking all over and my hands and head were soaked with sweat.

Believe it when I say that I fully expected to go running out the door, frothing at the mouth, tearing my clothes off, and screaming like a banshee.

Nothing happened.

After I got calm, hope began to awaken within me. Slowly hope grew into belief...belief that my fear of insanity was just that...my fear. I have never again had anxieties as debilitating as those were then...which is not to say I have not had anxieties. I just have the formula for living with them today: I welcome them, say my thank you, and think of God and the things of God...Pope Francis for example. I'm not even Catholic, but I know "of God" when I see it.

Over time and continuing to this day, I build my house on the rock that God can and will intervene in my life on my behalf.

Thank you.

HEAR MY PRAYER...THANK YOU

Hear my prayer...thank you. Hear my prayer...thank you. Hear my prayer...thank you.

Thus begins my morning meditation.

I was reminded of that last night as I watched a rerun of  "Mike and Molly." Mike had never been given a birthday party, and at the end, at his surprise party with all his loved ones around, when he was told to make a wish as he blew out the candles on his cake, he looked puzzled, then said, "I don't have to...I have everything I want right here."

I love when I find my spiritual growth in the dailies of my life. Mike reminded me why it is that I have no need...no want...to pray for anything today...why my prayer can comfortably be "thank you" and that is all. I have everything I want right here...within me.

God loves me and you and them and ours and theirs and puppy dogs and pandas and frogs and Snickerdoodles and...well, God cannot not love. Hear my prayer...thank you.

Thank you.