THE GIFT OF BEING A HOLY FOOL

We find ourselves invited by Francis to be fools. Is it really possible that what is given up will be returned a hundredfold? ***** We can neutralize the challenge and promise of Jesus and Francis by elevating [them] into the realm of sainthood and perfection,...Or we can ponder their way of living in the world and attempt to follow them, fools though we would be. -- Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 30, 2025

The flash came to me at 6:15 this morning, and I quietly understood: The "mistakes" we fear to make, the wrong way, the errors, are the tools...the U-turns...we need in order to find our new way.

Spiritually, there is no reason to ask for Jesus' help, God's intervention...we have it. We live it without realizing it. Until we act on it without thought, preplanning, or guile, we live in the material mind. 

The lesson for us now is to realize how deeply enmeshed we already are and have been in living this. The missteps with my new friend, for instance, are likely harbingers for each of us. 

Ponder not, let it be...and breathe love.

Thank you.

THANK YOU...THE PEARL BEYOND PRICE

I sincerely think Francis found a Third Way, which is the creative and courageous role of a prophet and a mystic. He basically repeated what all prophets say: that the message and the medium for the message have to be the same thing. -- Fr Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 29. 2025

If we're not living and breathing what we're saying, we are still in the material mind, no matter how advanced spiritually we feel.

 

Slowly dawns the light: We each grow at the God of our understanding's pace for us. 

Ego will always urge faster, deeper, better...but the priceless lesson we are always learning is that ego's voice takes a backseat to God's. It talks louder, but that's ego's job...all talk with little to show for it.

A recent experience I had exemplifies the learning lessons of God: In a phone conversation, a friend and I came to differing ideas...long/short: She hung up on me. I did not realize that and kept talking...until I realized it. 

The Gift: I took it as nada...in short, as spiritual work takes hold, we take less and less personally. Bottomline: neither of us flinched, and we haven't needed to "talk it over" for it to be over.  

Guaranteed, that is not material mind, but better than anything, it proves God's mind can and does work for our benefit with and/or without our knowledge or consent. 

Question answered...why thank You is the only prayer we will ever need to pray.

Thank you. 

ON LIVING THE LOVE WE TALK

Love is not only what we do; it’s how we do it. When we stand in the state of love that Jesus offers, we live inside of a different energy. —Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 20, 2025 

For a while now, I have been led to ponder love...to read about it, write about it, think about it. Then came the big reveal: to learn about love as it already lives through me.

Like many...maybe most...of us, for the early part of my life, I considered love as between a woman and a man, leading to marriage, children, happy ever after. I outlived that and simply did not care...I was around 35 when understanding awoke, and I began to accept what I was living.  

Looking back, it seems the understanding came in a flash. It didn't of course...for the fact is, it is still growing. Growing me...deeper where I am feeling more alive, with answers to unrealized questions.

My personal whys, hows, whens, etc, have all but faded away, but the political arena seems to be rotting on the vine. That scares me even as I consciously rely on the fact that the Father knows...knows what is happening everywhere, all the time, and He is protecting all...especially all who turn to Him to be peaced. 

It's not that He is protecting us more, it's that by our faith, we are awake to His presence, i.e., protection/peace, and that we have work to do for America, for our world.

What we must needs remember at all times...or the majority of the time at any rate (that's 51 percent, not to get too uptight about it), is that God has the back of each of us...man, woman, child, bulldog, crocodile, fly and flea...and white nationalist. 

We need not fret, worry or stew about anything...make note of it, do our best to follow God's will, God's way, then hug it and kiss it and let it go...or get comfortable with it as it continues to teach us spiritually.

Thank you. 

GOD'S STEPPINGSTONES...FOR OUR BENEFIT

Every human personality is something sacred, something special. We don’t have a right, as another person or as a nation, to destroy that spark of divinity, that spark of humanity, that is made and created in the image of God. —John Lewis, Richard Rohr Daily Meditation, September 27, 2025

As I read John Lewis's quote, I realized that we are each interpreted by the other...by the other's sacred inner knowledge...by the other's spark of humanity that was made in the image of the God of their understanding. 

I suspect that there are no "exactly alike" folks...identical twins look alike, and their thinking, feeling, doing and being may seem identical, but God sees, knows each of us intimately, exactly...individually. 

Now that I am in my 80s, I have come to understand that our lives have ever been heading upward...toward the welcoming of God's will, God's way...and the majority of our rues, regrets and remorses were ever God's steppingstones for our benefit. 

Ah, there it is...there's the righteous reason for love and laugh...they are God's steppingstones for our benefit.

End of discussion, thank You, Father.

Thank you.

TRY WITH A WILL AND PRAY THANK YOU

We must try with a will or fall by the wayside.

That is one of my favorite quotes...probably because the older I get, the more I wonder if I can actually do much of anything. So, I try and pray thank You.

So far, I lean on my early learning when I doubted me at every turn. Having no one but God to lean on, I leaned, repeating that which I came to realize as my newly learned mantra, I hadn't even heard the word mantra at that time...but fear is a good teacher. I learned by leaning in.

Back story: My cell phone got infected with a virus, and I finally gave up on making it work for me with a virus. 

I spent all day yesterday not bothering the genius who was clearing out my cell phone. He got it clear, but I'm finding I need to relearn how to use it...everything has changed, from sign-in to password and then...well, it is all over my head. Thus, my try with a will or fall by the wayside.

I must admit the wayside is singing my song right now. However, I choose to continue to trust the word of Meister Eckhard about the only prayer we will ever need,  I pray Thank You,...with God can and will if sought added on.

Thank you.

FEAR OF TRUSTING GOD, I

[The following is a reprint of a previous blog of mine, slightly reworked.]

I dreamed last night:

I am living in poverty. I am gifted with the Hope Diamond. I am ecstatic…all my worries are over. I’m told its value which is more money than I ever dreamed of having. I’m also told that the value may double or even triple within a day or two. 

Of course I hold onto it because if a million is good, etc. Weeks pass. I do nothing but worry and check on the value…has it gone up yet? How bout now? Any movement today? 

I do not have a buck to buy a dollar meal with. I am starving as I clutch my Hope to my heart. I think of how much more money I will get if I just hold on to my fortune another day or two. 

As I lay dying, I realize my death is not from starvation but from fear. Fear of trusting God. I hear again, "God can and will intervene in your life in your behalf." 

I realize that before God can and will...anything...I must needs let go. God will not force me...I have free will to choose.

Choose ye this day....

Thank you.

TRY WITH A WILL...AND TRUST

Idle thoughts: Is America being put to the test by self-serving Trump-ists? Or, just as likely, by our reliance on our own interpretation of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and our hopes, dreams and prayers for America.

Deep within me, I suspect (know?) that I am being that which I see in "them"...rigid, righteous and right.

Comes the startler: What if they are right? Or, maybe less of a gut punch...not entirely wrong?

None of us are entirely right nor entirely wrong, but what if they win? is my real quandary. According to my thinking, if they win, they will destroy America as we know it. But God knows that, or more to the point, God knows. 

We can trust that and worry not. But where's the frazzled what-to-do-what-to-do in that? Ah, there be reasoning mind's real goal...feeling that we are actually doing something by how frayed our nerves.

 Stay calm, trust that God can, will and does have our back, then do our part toward that end...meaning that we will need to experience necessary suffering. 

There be the knife point, what we feel that we are suffering now. We must suffer to release our self-determined objectives, or self-inflicted suffering.

Now...what can we personally do for America? Raise our consciousness and speak our truth...not lecture...speak God's will, God's way as we experience it. 

Still more spiritual growth, the ever answer.

Thank you.