SEEKING OTHER GRATEFUL HEARTS, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of  October 31, 2013.]

Gratitude must be lived. A living attitude of gratitude shows forth as a beacon and draws others to It. It especially draws grateful people who are as yet unaware...seeking they know not what.

I have read that the measure of our gratitude is in proportion to the amount of time and effort we give to others, to other seekers.

That for sure keeps our gratitude replenished. In that way, it's like a hug: You give it to get it. Which is the best reason in the world to live in gratitude, knowing It will seek other grateful hearts.

Thank you.

SPIRITUAL GROWTH...NEVER ENDING

We must go beyond reason to love. -- Thaddeus Golas

My morning blinding flash: To go beyond reason has been...is...my inner being without my intellect directing.

The rest of that story is that we all f up. That's how we get to go beyond reason without rues, regrets and remorses...which, doubt not, takes time, a lotta, lotta time. 

Fully realizing the need for time is God at work...to be led through our own self to our Self cannot be done by self alone, Then of course we must come to believe until we are walking it. Early belief is based in hope. 

We must stay with the hope until it transmutes into fact. We know it when we realize we are acting without thinking it through but as we breathe. 

Our life now is to let that be...ponder not but give over, give up, give in. We will realize we are doing just that when we look back. There we see us agreeing with our adversary quickly when we know our adversary is not right, or more specifically we know that we are not wrong. And, without thought, we have let the other person "win." 

This happened for me just yesterday. I did not fully realize it until this morning in my quiet time. God is so good to me for that kept me from going directly to ego...with that how great I art feeling slithering around in my brain and shame hanging my head in regret.

Spiritual growth...never boring! 

Thank you.

MOVE ON ALREADY, I

[The following is a reprint, slightly altered, of my post of December 20, 2015.]

It was Saint Augustine who said, "What I needed most was to love and be loved. I rushed headlong into love, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful bonds around me, and sure enough, I would be lashed with the red-hot pokers of jealousy, suspicions and fear, by bursts of anger and quarrels."

It was that same Saint Augustine who is reported to have said he expected to be feeling lust three day after he was dead.

The most important word...I'm talking vitally important...in both of those quotes is the word "Saint."

The man was canonized, lifted up, sainted...by the Catholic Church! That's the same church all the p.o.'d Catholics use to justify their bad behavior...the rest of us use our mothers.

In our youth no doubt the majority of us felt the need to love and be loved, not having a clue what to love or to be loved meant. In fact, it was usually lust. But as we aged, lust gave over to other things to get hung up by...most of them leading to the rues, regrets and remorses we suffer from today.

And that's the point. Saint Augustine suffered the same pangs, pains and pitfalls...why do we hold ours so dear and feel so hopeless of ever overcoming them? Why not accept, just as the Saint did, that we may well have these till three days after we're dead?

I mean, who's kidding whom? If we could have removed them, we would have by now. I say we fall to our knees and thank God Almighty it's not a lot worse...quitcherbitchin' and move on.

A less than spiritually uplifting message...but my truth nonetheless.

Thank you.

RIGHTEOUS WONDER

We Westerners have lost the ability to frame the significance of our own little lives. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations," October 26, 2025

Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place...Fr Richard's quote describes me now. I feel as if I have lost the ability to frame the significance of my life. 

Actually, today, and for some time now, I am focused on America...For America. For America, land of the free, home of the brave, God bless America and all who live here and love it. Or want to. Live here and love it.

I am a World War II baby...a passing thought of that time in my life and I am there...not even three years old but knowing Something Ain't Right but Daddy and Mommy would take care of my sister, my brother, me and America. As time passed, we sang God Bless America a lot...and believed in America.

Oh, how I wish that today we could all have that sense of righteous wonder without the fighting, the hate, War. 

We can all have that sense...we just need to lay down our sword and shield, i.e., change our mind. Which we cannot do on our own...we must go to God for God, with a want for peace in our heart and trust in our head. 

That is a small order masquerading as holy. It is not; it is of God is all...Is All.

Thank you.

AN UPGRADED MIND IS PEACE OF MIND, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of October 31, 2019.]

Many years ago a nutritionist gave me a short formula for healthier eating: What goes in hard comes out soft; what goes in soft comes out hard.

It occurs to me a like formula could apply to our inner life...what goes in bitter comes out sweet, what goes in sweet comes out bitter.

For example, we perceive an incoming remark, action, tax bill, etc., as nasty, hurtful, unfair...bitter in a word. As long as we stay in our reasoning mind with our perception, it is a bitter pill, and we take it personally...resentment aborning. However, when we resist not but trust our inner connection God to lead us peacefully through this, we open our self to a new way of responding...not reacting but responding. How sweet it is!

Same goes when we receive a lovely compliment, delightful gift, unexpected lottery win...and that feels sweet. Then the compliment sours, the gift ain't what it looked to be, the lottery win turns costly...now we're growing resentments.

Peace of mind begins with our change of mind...from seeking a self-determined objective to seeking God's will whatever that may be. We find peace of mind in an accepting mind when we resist not but trust our inner connection, God.

Believe. Trust. Love and laugh.

Thank you.

GRACED AND BLESSED, I

[The following is a reprint of my post of December 30, 2014.]

I am convinced that the only thing blocking our doing God's will consistently is our resistance to what he's offering. And, of course, that resistance is based on our own idea of what he's offering.

We hear, "Let go and let God." We say it...repeatedly. Nine times out of ten, even as we pray for God's will, we're picturing our want, our self-perceived need. Then we're gifted with what appears to be the exact opposite of what we perceived we needed! In fact, it often seems to be the one thing we're praying it won't be.

Having no choice, we accept what we got, and, through gritted teeth, thank God for it. Then, YOWZER. it comes to be that what we got was and continues to be much...oh, so much...better than our initial desire. We are forced to realize and accept that only God could have pulled it off.

A thank you prayer: Thank you, God, that I want your will done in my life more than I want my own will done in my life no matter what. Open-ended. Knock yourself out, God. Do your thing. You got the power, use it. You're nothing but good so nothing but good can come from you no matter what it looks like to my eyes. You'll make it clear to me when it needs to be clear to me. I am graced with gratitude and blessed with love. Amen

Thank you.

THE UNFAILING GOODNESS OF GOD

I have discarded a lot of what I consider religious baggage. I now tell people that I am a “follower of Jesus,” trying to live by the “terms and conditions” of the Sermon on the Mount. —Eric F., "Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations," October 18, 2025

I connect with the Sermon more than with anything else I've read, but I still have a mental hesitancy in owning the proposal that I am a follower of Jesus. It is naming Jesus that causes me pause. 

Whoa! Blinding flash of the obvious: I need to accept the truth of the matter which is that is my teen rebellion never allayed.

Factually, I am a follower of what Jesus taught, but not a follower solely of Jesus. But who is kidding whom? It seems that everything that calls to me originated with Jesus's teachings. 

So, why do I quibble? 

What does it matter whether I credit Jesus? Believers know it, and non-believers deny it, so let it be my truth and fret not. It came to me from God by whatever circuitous route God chose. 

God is so good to me...to us. God is so good.

Thank you.