A SIMPLE CHANGE OF MIND CAN RIGHT US

Sages speak of the immutable Tree Of Life, with its taproot above and its branches below. -- Sri Krishna (Bhagavad Gita) from Eknath Easwaran's "Words to Live By"

I read the above this morning and had a blinding flash of the obvious: That which we seek, we must give. 

If we seek praise, we must give praise. If money is our mental need, we must give money. If we seek love, we must give love. When we're feeling unloved, unneeded, unwanted, unappreciated, we must needs look for the one we don't love, don't need, don't want, don't appreciate...for to love and give succor to.

That which we feel we are lacking, we will find with the Father within...all our needs are met within (where else can we go for them?). All of our answers are there within us for us and only there will they be fulfillable. We seek until we find, then we pass it on.

 

It helps if we remember: Seek ye first the kingdom of God....oh yes, and his righteousness (isn't that always the hardest part to remember?), and all these things shall be added unto you. (And that's the part we nevernevernever forget...more's the pity.)

Thank you.

FROM ACCEPTANCE TO LOVE AND LAUGHTER

Pondering the many depths of acceptance...doesn't acceptance sound soft, all warm and fuzzy, altogether acceptable? It is altogether acceptable, it's the getting to acceptance that is not so soft much less warm and fuzzy.

Face it, acceptance is the guiding light and the final word that spells out the necessity for changing our mind...or more like exchanging our mind.

My blinding flash of the obvious: acceptance is code for crash and burn. Now tell me that's not anathema to our reasoning mind, (We slowly learn that to be the goose for exchanging our mind.) There's not much that does that better than the Gift Of Despair...when we've run out of ideas and given up all hope of being able to fix the fix we're in. 

Without an idea, with no hope, with all of our self-determined objectives proved useless...acceptance hovers near albeit looking like our worst fear come true. That's God's will for you. If it were just another good or even great idea, it'd be implemented and forgotten. We'd have no need of a new way of thinking, feeling, doing and being. 

Acceptance of our inadequacies, of our fears, of our defects...of our very own self...can only come from a Power greater than ourself. Our block to God's gift of our self is unacceptance of that self. We fall into the egocentric trap of thinking we could or should fix ourself, and start by finding someone to blame for the way we are...look out Mom, Dad, Sis, Bro...we're coming for  you!

Crash and burn is God's gift to those who admit defeat...who realize our losing has won us the pearl beyond price...acceptance.  And not just of ourself but more importantly of others, starting with Mom, Dad, Sis, Bro and then of whomever comes into our life.

Crash and burn, that which we've fought so hard to avoid, leads to God's will, acceptance. Which invariably leads to the pearl beyond price, Love and Laughter.

Thank you.

THE DIVINE PARADOX, II

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 27, 2014.]

How privileged we are to understand so well the divine paradox that strength rises from weakness, that humiliation goes before resurrection; that pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth. -- Anonymous

There is a divine paradox and it is just that...strength does rise from weakness, humiliation does go before resurrection, pain is not only the price but the very touchstone of spiritual rebirth.

We who are forced by our own decisions to know this paradox for truth...to realize it by walking through our weakness, our humiliation, our pain...we are blessed. But the greater truth is that this is a divine paradox for all, everywhere...or it is not truth at all, it's fantasy...or luck...or magic thinking.

We who are "privileged to understand" are blessed because we gave away our choice to accept or not such as "divine" or "spiritual" or "God." If we want to live happy, joyous and free (and who doesn't?), we throw in with divine and spiritual...with God. According to me.

Thank you.

THE FATHER IS WITHIN...PROVE IT

 Blinding flash of the obvious:  'The Father is within' must live. 

My morning quiet time consists primarily of the 23rd Psalm and the Prayer of Saint Francis. The few prayerful thoughts I have and say are just words...humbling to realize, they are basically wishes made to sound holy. 

I wonder if my sliver of gold isn't that I've just been given the word to silence my so-called holy thoughts in order for a deeper realization to be birthed.

Maybe our quiet-time thoughts are directed within to the Spirit, the Soul, from which they are perfected by God, and in the silence are returned to us as we come to realize their truth. 

It is then, as we come to make them ours by living them, that we prove them.

Thank you.

THOUGHTS ON FREE-FLOATING FEAR

Fear: I doubt we are ever going to be able to completely loose fear and let it go.

We can hug it and kiss it and tell it we love it till our face falls off, fear is not going to feel good...fear is never going to feel good. The human condition is such that if it (whatever "it" maybe)  doesn't feel good, it's right next to impossible to love. 

I say fear's true colors are puce and brown. We can cozy up to it all we want, even calling it lilac and crème brûlée, but puce and brown are puce and brown, and renaming it in order to love it only jacks up the fear. Face it, fight fear, invite panic.

Now then, a positive word about fear. Fear's greatest asset is that nothing turns us to God faster than fear...in which case we can call fear "blessed." And without lying. 

I submit anything we can sincerely call blessed, we need to let be, try to understand...certainly not cultivate, but not deny, try to hide or lie about. 

It helps a tish when fear is on the bloom to say to ourself, "God calling!" Then turn our attention to God and things of God...lilies of the valley, rainbows, panda cubs, puppies...pick one and focus on it. That has never removed fear from me, but it does calm my racing mind...fear's playground. 

There is no standing still...our choice is to move forward toward God or backward toward fear. Keep it simple: Toward feeling good or to not feeling good.

Thank you.

THE FOREVER ANSWER...TRUST AND WAIT

For the past few weeks (months?) my life has felt pretty much at sixes and sevens. I suspected that Murphy's Law may have taken up residence not only in my thoughts but in my very home. Long/short, I didn't get to sleep until after midnight last night due to the latest (I thought) less-than-wonderful happening in my home. Through my angel Mark, everything got fixed, and I went to bed.

This morning the water in my kitchen quit...gave up the ghost...went out on strike. Without even a by-your-leave.  Not knowing whether to laugh, cry, scream or leave town, I sat down to watch a little "Morning Joe." 

As I sat there, came a blinding flash of the obvious: No matter the upset, the breakdown, the calumny, the answer is the same: Know that this is for your benefit. Trust God and wait.

I cannot even speak to how comforting that was. It gave me my answer, and I went into my quiet time. 

My first read was "God Calling," and whoa! I am gobsmacked by the message for March 26: So leave your foolish fears, and follow Me....My message to you is, trust and wait.

 

My second read was Fr Richard, and I felt personally touched by the message: It is that steadfast, unyielding, courageous commitment to the eternal Will of God for Creation—whatever the cost to themselves—that is the prophetic tradition. It sustains the eternal Word of God while the world spins around it, making God’s Word—Love—the center, the axle, the standard of everything the faithful do in the midst of the storm of change that engulfs us as we go. -- Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation," March 26, 2021

Don't tell me God doesn't hold me in the palm of his hand...not to mention, have my back.

Thank you.

ON A BLINDING FLASH OF THE OBVIOUS

Transformation comes by realizing your union with God right here, right now—regardless of any performance or achievement on your part. That is the core meaning of grace. But you have to know this for yourself. No one can do this knowing for you. I could tell you that God is not elsewhere and heaven is not later, but until you come to personally and regularly experience that, you will not believe it. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 20, 2017

But you have to know this for yourself.

There it is. We have to know this for ourself, and our knowing comes from within not from book learning, not from hearing it said, not from other than our own consciousness...albeit each is a planted seed in our rational mind.  

We can read the Bible, we can study our personal literature, we can hear Shakespeare, repeatedly, and quote each of them with all the  commas and semicolons in the right place...but until we are actually doing unto breathing that which we are quoting, we are holding ourself from grace.

We can speak others' thoughts and convince ourself we thought of them...especially the deep ones...but there will always be someone who heard the words originally and isn't shy about saying so...in public and loudly. We learn to credit the one we're quoting as opposed to silently cursing the ratfink...hey, that ratfink is our angel in disguise. 

Until our spiritual growth is our own, until it  comes from within and never on demand, it's somebody else's pony we're riding. According to me, that's the fourth dimensional meaning of Meister Eckhart's If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.

 

Thank you.