WISDOM TAUGHT BY THE SPIRIT

Now comes the part that makes the 'belly bitter'...the living of these truths. -- Joel Goldsmith

Oh, how true that is. It seems whenever I come upon those words, I am smackdab in the middle of "bitter belly" time.

There are so many less-than-wonderful happenings in my life right now that I do know, if only from my eyebrows up, that this time is vital to my spiritual growth...this is of God time. This is focus, pay attention, pray thank you and mean it time.

To debitter, sweeten. To strip bare, resist not. To pay attention, hug the ugly.

Ah, but to do any of those, first we must upgrade our attention...away from the disgruntled "godblessit" to the spiritual "God bless It."

When our scared self-pitying bewilderment is consciously gentled, our angry thoughts and feelings are out in the open. Linger not...hug them, kiss them on the lips and let them go.

We'll know we have made the inner turn when we consign them not to the devil...but to God. What else needs God...the Power greater than ourself...more than angry, spiteful, put-upon feelings!

This is the rough and rutted road back to that higher Power: This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.

Thank you.

START...WITHOUT A PRECONCEIVED GOAL

Blinding flash of the obvious:  I trust me. 

For so long now my focus and my energy have been aimed toward trusting God. Yet, all along, my assuring God I trust you has had a feeling of whistling in the dark.

I must admit that I was surprised...stunned? gobsmacked?...to have the words I trust me thrust into my consciousness this morning. I step out in hope without a preconceived "how to" as my goal. 

Clearly, the BFO is the gift, proving it is our work after the fact. Getting the quiet word may be the first nail in the ladder we are building...we dig deeper to climb higher.

As I went into my quiet time, my homing-pigeon thoughts returned to my most recent less-than-wonderful; namely, my teeth implants...enough said. But that thought led to how like my cataract surgery this recent implant tangle has been, and, holy-moly, same goes with my hearing aids...all taking place within the past year.

As I stilled myself, a strong feeling came to me that the destruction of our planet is being caused by the thinking of such as the January 6-ers and the betrayers of Ukraine and me with my cataract/hearing aid/teeth discord. 

Today, I choose to take this as my proof that the consciousness of the Universe is broken...and fixable...by every soul, each in our own time. 

Best we turn our thoughts, our service, toward a spiritual consciousness, a consciousness not of self but of Self. We need one honest (God-conscious) person, or, Diogenes, wherefore art thou? According to me, our leaning there, our seeking that, counts. 

Then there's my take on Fr Richard Rohr's "Daily Meditation" today: The aim is to induce personal and societal transformation in making choices that respect [our planet] as sacrament.  -- John Chryssavgis,

Thank you.

CLING TO NOTHING...FLY!

Less-than-wonderful has been roiling around within me for awhile now.  Usually with the generic Gertrude's name on it...John, Evelyn, Bill, Mary, et al. 

Clearly, our need is to change our attitude, and our behavior will follow. We so often get it backwards. We change our behavior by currying favor and expect to feel good inside. No.  Nobody I know is a fool...we know when we're being schmoozed. 

We upgrade our attitude toward the other...not outside, by compliments and the like, but inside, by the Spirit.

We need to realize the God-ness of the other. If we never see them again, their memory will leave a shadow of peace behind in our head and heart. 

It is written that by the thought, it is done. That I believe. I believe, too, it is by our actions that we prove it so. 

My actions take longer. At one time I thought that takes as long as I choose, but I'm coming to believe that takes as long as God deems it necessary for me to to give over, give up, give in...as in, loose it and let it go. 

Not until we are emptied of our own self are we filled with the Spirit. 

We begin our journey detaching from one defect at a time...the deeper we go, the higher we fly; the higher we fly, the lighter our load. 

Cling to nothing...fly! - advice in 1978 from David S., my beloved mentor.

Thank you.

LOOSE OUR WANTS AND LET THEM GO

Slowly, slowly, we come to understand that we have enough spiritual growth to accept that all our needs...love, peace, harmony, joy...are within us right this minute. But there's the glitch in the happy-pot...the difference between knowing and realizing is of God and not an easy get...almost a never get since realization comes not by our reason but by gift from a higher Power than reason.  

Our wants...money, power, favor...are always in the "out there," ever out of reach. Even when we are brushed by any or all, it is never enough. Which spurs our egoic mind to try harder, to grasp tighter, to deny all but its expectation for more.

Ah, but our "enough spiritual growth" has brought us to another U-bie...to get what we want requires that we change our mind. We must detach from our wants and accept our needs, i.e., switch out our oh-so-pretty wants for no-frills needs. 

Our needs are floating free within...where else?.. just waiting to be tapped. We begin the process of realization when we first experience the love, peace and joy of giving. All that is needed to live in love, peace and harmony is to give it away...indiscriminately. 

The storehouse of love, peace and joy within is full to overflowing! The more we give away, the fuller that storehouse gets. Pass it on.

Thank you.

THE SACRAMENT OF HERE AND NOW

Can we...will we...come to believe, to trust, that God goes before us to make the crooked places straight? Which is to say that God goes before us to clarify the unknown for our benefit. 

"The unknown" is that which we resist...that which is not our own idea...that which is incomprehensible to the egoic mind.

Currently, my incoming tide of changing mind relies on my reminding myself to trust God...to trust  that my latest, or most recent, regret is God flowing through me...God's handiwork for my benefit which invariably benefits the other. Whether in the moment either of us knows it or not. 

It makes its first appearance as an oh-well-rats! Looking wrong is when we are doing it right...why else would we change our mind? There...a glimmer that God's will is not of our reasoning mind.

The how of it is not ours. 

The how of it is to pray thank you as we turn our thoughts into action and do something about something. Trusting God brings the right action...whether we know it or not. 

[SIDEBAR: It is important to realize that we do not waste our time or our efforts when we are trying to make "it" happen..."it," that which we know not of. We must ponder, think on, analyze, to come to complete defeat...to come to the ego-dreaded "Gift Of Despair," the pearl beyond price.]  

The purest form of spirituality is to find God in what is right in front of you—the ability to accept the sacrament of the present moment. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation,"  April 24, 2022 

Thank you.

TRUST GOD...LOSE SELF...LOVE

Trust is an essential factor, but trust requires kenosis, emptying oneself of control and power, and making space for the other to enter in. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," March 8, 2022

To quote another great read: Well-grounded [people] seem to be able with God's grace to take the calamities of life in stride and turn them into their demonstration of faith. -- Anonymous

We have two avenues for experiencing our life, via egoic mind or via spiritual mind. 

We can ponder, analyze and over-analyze, staying put in the egoic mind...or we can trust God as he reveals himself, obscurely, in the mystery of each new situation.

Thank you.

WHETHER WE KNOW IT OR NOT

Whether we know it or not. There. The key to unlocking our recalcitrant self-will is the acceptance of those six words. 

It is important to realize that we can have a recalcitrant self-will and not even know that. From our eyebrows up, we can want, desire, wish to have the feeling of God...the real God...in our life. 

Our very want blocks our very want. 

When we figuratively beat our breast and wail for our God to come to us, we stand in the way of God...the real God...for our wailing is our will and our focus...our God in that moment.  

We quibble and quarrel when we'd best get quiet...and wait. All qualifiers notwithstanding, there is but one God, and It is in the spark of Divine within all. 

Whether we know it or not, God has already worked out for our benefit any perceived problem in our life. In trust, we sit and wait on the Lord, but because we trust, we get up and do something about something. 

It is most beneficial to our own self when our doing is in the service of the Lord...who is always disguised as an "other." Which may be a sick pup, a bedraggled flower bush, a elderly person in need, a piece of loose trash on the street...the Lord comes in many ways his wonders to perform.

Whether we know it or not.

Thank you.