THE SECRET GARDEN OF GOD, Redux

[The following is a reprint of  my post of December 1, 2015.]

...you have to let God reveal your real faults to you, usually by falling many times, and by other people's opinions of you. -- Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 29, 2015

The secret garden of God fits on the point of a pin, is within, and is nearly always only accessible through our own falling and failing.

Every time we have a disagreement with another, we are in conflict with our Source within, our own Self. Until we get right with our Self, we will project our failings onto the other and call her responsible...obsessing on ways to hurt him the way we're hurting and/or to apologize for our hurt.

We waste so much mental, physical and spiritual energy trying to fix our own feelings so we can feel good about our self, and we do it by thinking of ways to hurt another...setting her straight, making him pay.

There is that secret garden within each of us that we can go to and in that instant be free. Finding that garden must needs be our singular search. All else is self on parade.

Thank you.

WATCH THE SEAGULLS...FIND THE RHYTHM

 As I watched the seagulls, I thought 'That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust.' -- Nikos Kazantzakis

I came across the Greek writer Kazantzakis' quote this morning, and it spoke to me. 

I wondered, is it possible we found the absolute rhythm and followed it...minus the trust? Maybe our life has been about building that trust. 

But how do we build trust? 

Oh, yeah...by making mistakes. Then finding the God in the mistake, sharing that now-blessed mistake and tucking it in to be shared again...repeatedly, or as needed.

I'm finding the longer I live the more I am becoming the person I started out as...all the while trying so hard not to be. Only I'm getting a kick out of that me today.

My new definition of self-acceptance: Find the God within ourself, love it, take it for a walkabout...often...and be prepared to love and laugh at our mistakes in the doing.  

Trust this: If we don't make mistakes, we're not doing it right.

Thank you.

A REAL LIVE STUDY IN MINDFULNESS

Simone Biles is my spiritual study today. Probably everyone who knows who she is and what she is experiencing at the Olympics today has if not an opinion a feeling about her, her actions, her thoughts, her goals.

I am going to use a favorite quote, "Knowing nothing I speak freely," to opine about her Olympic experiences these last few days. I have no personal  knowledge of Biles, much less her inner life, but I am touched from my toes to my nose with what I am seeing her walk through currently.

Based entirely on my own anxiety experience, I'm thinking she has been feeling anxiety for a while and is now caught in an ongoing panic attack. I suspect she suffered a major panic attack in midair while doing an intricate flip and rightly feared this was too dangerous to continue. 

That she openly and immediately admitted that she suffered no physical harm, it was entirely mental, to me was spirituality speaking. She knew she was inviting the slings and arrows of outrageous ignorance, and she held true to her Self anyway and all the way. 

That reminds me of past spiritual leaders, Jesus, Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King, Jr., et al., who, upon being unfairly judged, neither admitted nor denied anything. They showed, in the vernacular, "Judge if you must, God's got my back...I'm cool."

It will be interesting, enlightening even, to watch for the rest of Biles' story. I have learned from my own self that doing the right thing immediately, while clearly God inspired, can make a U-bie in a snail's crawl and, too slow to be aware of, become a self-determined objective. Where self-will rules.

Which does not mean we did it wrong...no. It means we need to remain true to that God-inspired action but pull ourself back from the glory of it, from both the putdowns and the praise. They are but our own out picture appearing as others' public blather. Best welcome it all with love and laughter and let it go. 

In my opinion, Biles has started on this journey God inspired. Her gold may come from her actions in response to what may have been her worst fear come true. She is self-honest, admitting her pride is hurt but that's all, being a cheerleader for her team, making herself useful in whatever way she is asked. Giving over, giving up, giving in...for others.

There she is, a walking, breathing model of mindfulness. Let's shoot our thank you and help her stay the course.

Thank you.

THE GRACE OF MIRACLES HAPPENING

If God is our goal, "spiritual in nature" is the true guidepost for life itself.

If God is not our goal, likely personal profit, "money, Honey," is the primary guidepost. 

If that be true, I'm thinking that a true non-believer, a good and honest person, may well be the best person to be in charge of a for-profit business...not, however, the best person to be in charge of the business of a spiritually based fellowship.

There are profit-loss decisions to be made daily...hourly often. To gutbucket trust God has our back therefore I need to give over for the benefit of the other has got to be a stretch for the rational mind.

But that's the ask. That is precisely what is asked of us if truly God is our goal. 

The unimaginable, but flat-fact wonder, is: We will be taken care of...we will come out for the better...probably not even close to the way we go in hoping for...but beyond our reasoning mind's reach, for the good of all concerned.

The even more unimaginable, but flat-fact wonder, is: We will not get there by our working it, but by our trusting It. I'm guessing all miracles begin in God-consciousness and are usually carried out by our hands and feet always at God's direction.   

Again, we will not get there by our working it, but by our trusting It...by faith in the Father.

Thank you.

MIRACLES HAPPEN IN THE IMMEDIATE NOW

The secret code is the miracle happens immediately upon our realizing our want is our need for God in our life.

The budding miracle begins our healing from within. We fall to our knees and beg God to do our will, mainly "Stop the pain," "Lift the mental burden," "Take the physical, mental, spiritual hurt away." Then we deny healing and double the pain by hating ourself for our misbegotten begging. 

Wait! What if our idea of misbegotten begging is not the wrong way to go about realizing our want is our need for God? It may not be the right or the better way but since it is what we are giving to God to use, use it he does. 

Ours is to accept it with grace and gratitude (or, quitcherbitchin' and think thanks). The point being, we clear the way for our need to be met.

It's akin to when we cut ourself...we wash the cut, put some ointment on it, slap a bandage over it, and let it heal from within. 

I suspect our begging God to do our will is tantamount to cleaning, treating, letting healing begin...from within. Face it, that is all we know at the moment, what we have to offer...our widow's mite, if you will.  

Regret nothing, get grateful! Going down that wrong road again is a lesson in learning. Love it...the sooner we can love it, the sooner we can make our U-bie, as in shoot a thank you and move on.

This is life's lesson in learning: There are no future miracles waiting for us out there. All miracles happen Now. It is our realization of the miracle that needs fine tuning...which starts with trust. Our willingness to rest our (unseen) reasoning mind and rely on our (unseen) divine source is the first step up toward trust in God.

All this amounts to hold your nose and take a leap of faith. But, who's kidding whom? That leap of faith requires a lot of prior proper planning before our reasoning mind is willing and our will is ready...to let go and let God.

Thank you.

FROM FEAR-DRIVEN TO LOVE-DRAWN

 We come again to Rohr's statement, In meditation, we move from ego consciousness to soul awareness, from being fear-driven to being love-drawn. 

The trouble with relying on the reasoning mind is we want as our own such a sound-good (albeit true) statement, believe because we want it that we have it...then quote it as if it is our own.

We are at the point of change, or, more like, the point of exchange...of exchanging our mind to Oned  from binary. There's our Gregorian knot...the knot being "want to," or my will, as opposed to "need to," or Thy will. 

Our instinct is to natter unto haranguing ourself for not immediately moving from fear-driven to love-drawn...from self to Self in a single bound. Instead, we kiss our instinct on the lips...hug it and kiss it and let it go...for we are at the door of God's will. 

Welcome to Gratitude Row. We are about to begin to learn that the way of praise, our  Gratitude Row, gives detachment its due, a whole 'nother level of nonresistance. 

Our changing mind releases our reliance on commonsense and opens us to still more spiritual growth, the place where hair shirts are satin-lined jackets in waiting...for when we are ready.

Commonsense says Gratitude Row is the way of peace of mind forever, so hush. The "Oh, No" is finding Gratitude Row is paved with self-will, good intentions, coulda, woulda, shoulda, and "Oh, Rats!"  All of which are God's upside-down tools for building our peace of mind forever. 

We often hear, "Don't quit five minutes before the miracle happens." The secret code is, the miracle happens immediately upon our realizing our want is our need for God in our life. It takes as long as it takes for our reasoning mind to unclinch a tish and accept that..to give over, give up, give in. To loose it and let it go. 

Thank you.

PERCEPTION...LOOSE IT AND LET IT GO

Wisdom is not the gathering of more facts and information, as if that would eventually coalesce into truth. Rather Wisdom is a different way of seeing and knowing. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 17, 2020.

Our greatest teaching is not the words we talk but the model that we walk. If we set our mind to it, any one of us at any given day or time could sound right up there with NMandela, MLKing, JFK and Churchill all as one...to our own self at any rate, but isn't everything? 

We remind ourself often and oftener...it is not how we sound, it is how we live that proves our truth. And doesn't that sound all right and good rolling around in our mind? But because it sounds good doesn't mean it isn't, it's just not settled truth within...yet.

I have a friend who I admire greatly...we can see her inner goodness by her living. I have another friend I also admire greatly but who seems to me to need guidance...I see his need by his zipped- lip silence. 

Well. There it is. There is the thorn amongst the roses...my perception. 

I have been unconsciously rolling my perception around in my mind, not consciously aware of it until my blinding flash of the obvious: My need is to silently praise his silence by shooting a thank you for his quietude. 

I'd best hug, kiss and loose my perception of zipped lips since that is my thorn, my judgment signifying my need...for silence. 

Proving Rohr's further "Meditation": In meditation, we move from ego consciousness to soul awareness, from being fear-driven to being love-drawn. 

Mine now is to model that...how grateful am I that He goes before me to make the crooked places straight?

  
Thank you.