I SHALL NOT WANT

A worldview of enoughness will predictably emerge in us as we realize our naked being in God instead of thinking that more of anything or more frenetic doing can fill up our infinite longing and restlessness. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," June 30, 2020

Meditating on the 23rd Psalm is an ever-changing lifting up within me. I suspect I knew from my eyebrows up when I started my journey taking care of the IRS that the phrase I shall not want would be my base for a peaceful mind. Ah, but it is by looking back that I realize its truth. 

Now that I am able to see the whole pattern, I realize how I got through that so basically unruffled...it being a given that anxiety has ever been my go-to tool. (I call it my BFF for it is anxiety that sends me to God quick, fast and in a hurry, so how can I hate it?)

The fact that after the opening words, The Lord is my Shepherd, comes I shall not want tells me now how important those words were then, are now. I shall not want means I have enough...I shall never not have enough as long as I know and show by my living, the Lord is my Shepherd. 

Follow the Lord, kill self now...all those words and phrases that we often read just to get beyond  them...then learn by rote just to quote...are truth and must be lived. The more we quote them the less they mean to us personally. 

We must live them and be quiet about it for it is in our living...not talking, not thinking...that we realize our naked being in God.

Thank you.

THE BEATITUDES, SKIMMED DOWN

Matthew 5:1-12 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain...and taught them saying [The Beatitudes]:

These are all the blessings that are ensured if we seek the kingdom of heaven, which to me is God consciousness. The first ten boil down to, the poor in spirit get the kingdom of heaven, the meek inherit the earth, the merciful shall get mercy, etc.

Those that speak most to me are 10 and 11-12...10, in short, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous sake (my emphasis) get the kingdom of heaven; then the biggies in full:

11-12 Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account (my emphasis). Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Stripped down for the likes of me and my ego Lucy, I am blessed whenever I feel persecuted by a snark, a perceived snub, a self-interpreted slight...face it, that's as persecuted as I'm likely to be, and they are heavy duty when I See Me along with my ego and my reasoning mind.

My job is to exchange my thinking from reasoning to spiritual and through willing meditation and study learn to know the blessing as it happens.

This, too is of God for it is on His account they happen for my benefit! For my entry into the kingdom of heaven...my consciousness raised higher at a deeper level.

I can know by my self-perceived snarks that God loves me a lot...which I doubt is the message but it gives me a giggle even as God grins and rolls his eyes.

Thank you.

LOOSE IT AND LET IT GO...LOVE

Knowing nothing, I speak freely:

In my spiritual world, I see this pandemic as God scrubbing the world to rid it (specifically, the U.S./us...my world, my sight) of our self-centered, utterly selfish, ways. I believe in our world that Money Honey...getting it, not giving it...is All, and there is no God in that. 

As long as a consciousness of anything other than love rules, runs and reproduces, ego holds sway. Each power seeker's ego, separate and unequal, is driven to be the single force to gather all power thus get all the money. 

Until our one shared desire is to love and returns us to the consciousness of the likes of the Christ, the Buddha, the Dalai Lama,  et al., we will be as lost souls either whistling past the cemetery or riding scared through a wasteland leveled by a pandemic. 

Ponder this: Those whose egos are of the money hungry will either be the specter in the cemetery or the driver of the bus...in control of us. 

And our job, our peace, depends entirely on our loving them. God is All, and God is love.

In order to live in this world, you have to be truly and completely in love. -- the poet Rumi

Thank you.

AND IT IS GOOD

Most important was the realization that all our problems could be solved by spiritual principles:

In the material world, our eye sees what is here and now...what we experience is our own interpretation of that momentary sight. How we interpret what we see, determines how we live. Without some guiding principles, we are an open invitation to an aimless life...kinda like living the luck of the draw. Since life goes in circles and cycles, we sooner or later come to realize our life is ever the same-old-same-old. 

Comes the Light: Either through great love or great suffering, we realize we can change course...it is never too late to seek. We know not what to seek which is the gift. In not knowing, we are shown. 

We can continue living in the material world, self-willing our way...meaning getting a little good, a lot bad but mostly indifferent, i.e., boring. In the spiritual world, we pretty much get the same mix, only we are given the gift of understanding that is, upgrade our attitude, we upgrade our problem. So the bad is upturned and we find our giftee, the grace of Truth, which removes the boring altogether. Truth is unchanging...we can rely on it even, as and when it feels risky. Resist not evil is a primary.

To live in the truth that the Father and I are one is to know I AM  (i am) the source of all my woes. Though my woes to my reasoning mind are my rues, regrets and remorses, to the God of my understanding, they are my pearl beyond price, my blessing in disguise. Which makes clear that we must needs seek ye first the kingdom of heaven...ah, again, upgrade our attitude, upgrade our problem. Now we see not through our reasoning mind's eyes, but through God's eyes...and it is good.

Our spiritual principles' bottomline: We go to God for God, invisible, unknowable, incomprehensible God. And it is Love.

Thank you.

CEASE FIGHTING, SUBDUE THE ENEMY WITHIN

We have ceased fighting anything and anybody. -- Anonymous

When first we read or hear that statement, if we're doing it right, we think it is a misprint. It is not. It is truth, and one how-to is in the following statement of Saint John of the Cross: It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others. 

Face it, all disagreements, arguments, fights, wars begin with a simple difference of opinion. One judging the other as wrong, the other judging the one as wrong. Fight!

It is fear, of course, that holds judging close. We find we must seek the cause of the fear within us, then seek to understand the thing about the person we are judging...for that, not the person, is the cause of the fear. The thing we fear is within us...what we see is always ourself.

Our help comes in seeking (whether we find it or not) to understand that which we are judging. The seeking is the changeup. Seeking to understand changes our mind...from self, deeper to a higher level within. 

When we are perceiving a problem, count on it, it is our interpretation of what we are seeing that is the source of our upset. Upgrade our attitude, upgrade our problem.

To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. -- Sun Tzu

Thank you.

CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER...AND SMILE

Someone said the words "chop wood, carry water" at a recent gathering which brought back to me wonderful memories of the book "Chop Wood, Carry Water" which was published in 1984. It's dedication reads: For all of those, past, present, and future, who make everyday life an adventure of the spirit." 

Reading that dedication, I knew I had to gift it to my friends since they, too, were making everyday life an adventure of the spirit.

This is one of the few spiritual books I have that I never even attempted to mark all that spoke to me as it was clear the book would end up unreadable for my many markings. Which is not to say I didn't hi-lite and underline in plenty of places. 

Here's one of my many favorites:

...the supreme and ultimate miracle: art becomes 'artless,' shooting becomes not-shooting, a shooting without bow and arrow; the teacher becomes a pupil again, the Master a beginner, the end a beginning, and the beginning perfection.

My written note next to that: This, I think, is the description of me now with anxieties...it is not to overcome them, it is to become them.

As I read that this morning, I realized that was the key that opened the door to thank you being my go-to when (not if) I felt anxiety nearing. By welcoming with a thank you, anxiety and I become one.

I remember the first time I consciously thanked my way through an oncoming anxiety attack. I was on the Metro, heading under the Potomac River, and anxiety's claws were about to sink into my being. I thought "Welcome...come on in...sit down here inside me...make yourself at home." Repeatedly I thought that until we were at my getting-off stop. 

I am remembering that this morning with a refeeling of getting off that train, big-time smile on my face, just knowing I could walk on water. 

Don't tell me God doesn't know my needs...anxiety was with me recently; I thanked my way through it, but it left me with a down feeling. And here's me this morning, big-time smile on my face and thank you singing in my heart.

God knows not only what but when we need.

Thank you.

PONDER, PRAISE AND GO FORWARD

The thought flits by whenever it wants to that I need...something. "Fixing" seems to be the filler there with which I chat God up with little hints like: You've got the power, Lord...use it! Fix me already. 

God always answers, You are fixed. This is you at your best. Pray your thank you. 

Many years ago I had a blinding flash of the obvious that I was not a leader, would never be a leader, and, except from my egoic mind, had never wanted to be a leader. The relief I felt was unbound freedom.

I saw again this morning that mine is to realize my right size...teeny, wee, smaller than small. I can rest in that knowing that my inner Self is doing for me. Another thought flies by: Study the Saints Francis and Clare. 

I am freed to ponder, praise, and walk toward the inner edge.

Thank you.