Rev. Dr. Sharri's Blog

An ongoing series of inspirational musings

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TheElephant

March 11, 2024

There’s an old story about a group of blind men who encounter an elephant. Each one touches a different part of the elephant and describes the whole animal as if he has “seen” all of it. The result, of course is that none of them is completely correct. However, if they had had the consciousness to combine their impressions/wisdom, they could have developed a much more accurate description, and their experience of the elephant would have been more expansive and deeper.

I mention this story because it reminds me of our society’s view of itself. White people see a white, beneficent, prosperous and free society – because that is, in general, our experience. People with different skin colors, cultures, and ethnicities see a much different picture. All of us want to live in the society that white people see, but that requires a LOT of change. Many of us realize that change is needed and are looking for ways to bring it about, but we are like the blind men – each looking only from our own perspective and seeing only part of the situation. The first step, I think, is seeing the whole picture, and that requires a MUCH broader perspective. There is a movement afoot called DEI, for short, and that stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I attended a great workshop a few weeks ago where the facilitator told us that the expression is backwards, because it is really shorthand for the path to that wider perspective. That path can be summed up, in mathematical terms, as I + E => D, which is read, “Inclusion plus equity yields diversity”. Diversity is one of the requirements of that wider perspective. So what we, as a society, need to do is Include people of all colors, cultures, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and physical/mental/emotional health in the development of our laws, educational programs, social programs and spiritual practices. Of course, this requires more than just opening the door to the meetings involved, that’s just Inclusion. We also need to provide Equity, that’s equality with feet on it. That means we need to address any differences in language, health, prosperity and education in such a way that everyone at the table has the same actual access as everyone else, sort of like the booster seats most restaurants provide for children, and the handicapped ramps at curbsides and entry doors, but with a much deeper and wider definition.

How can we accomplish this? I wish I had the answers, but in honesty, I must confess that I do not. Does that mean I can ignore the situation? Absolutely not! It means I have discovered a problem of which I am a part, and so I have a responsibility to learn everything I can about it and make any changes in my personal life and behavior that will help me to be part of the solution. I have to be part of the solution, because that is the only way I can stop being part of the problem. Here’s the ask: consider joining me on my quest for diversity by shifting your perspective to one of inclusion and equity. I know it will be hard, and I promise it will be worth it!

I know this is not a new topic for my blog, but it is so important that I cannot fail to keep expanding it.

WAR

February 26, 2024

Since we are in the midst of the Season for Nonviolence, and I am on the Global Heart of Peace Initiative team, today’s topic has been rolling around in my head for a while. We all pray for an end to all war, but we don’t really do anything about it. Every country on the planet, even (perhaps especially) the ones currently waging war, claim to be seeking peace. Unfortunately, none of them are willing to follow the ancient advice, presently espoused by AGN, the United Nations, and HH the Dalai Lama: the best only way to win a war is to prevent it. In other words, the only way to win a war is to refuse to participate in it.

Why is this so unbelievably difficult? Because it requires fairness, equity, and compassion. It also requires us to surrender our selfish greed. People put up with prejudice, racism, and war because it’s just too much work to eliminate them, and we are too comfortable in our discomfort – most humans on the planet right now would choose to remain oppressed (the devil you know) with whatever the cost, rather than risk (the devil you don’t know, who might be an angel or a saint) the cost of eliminating the oppression. For instance, Gandhi was pretty darned skinny by the time his efforts started to bear fruit, and that was a cost he paid with his whole heart. Wouldn’t you rather be a skinny soul in a free and supportive environment than a fat prisoner in an oppressive and dangerous one?

What is the key to this conundrum? Well, it’s February, so you won’t be surprised when I say it’s LOVE. Not the mushy, flowers and chocolates, once a year love, but the lifting a car off a toddler with your bare hands LOVE. Most of us have an idea what that feels like. Most of us also think that kind of LOVE is only available in a crisis. It isn’t – it’s the essence of Divinity, the substance from which we are created. We live our lives from a human perspective – two eyes, two hands, two feet, one set of organs. That’s what mushy love gets us. We need to live from a cosmic perspective – 7 billion pairs of eyes, 7 billion pairs of hands, 7 billion pairs of feet, 7 billion sets of organs – ALL CONNECTED. And all connected to the planet, the oceans, the plants, and the animals on this planet (we can work on other planets later, after we save this one).

I know this is a HUGE ask, but could you try, for a week, or a day, or even an hour, to live from the perspective of a single cell in a planetary, cosmic, universal body – one Life, One Love, one Mind, no war. Because if you can, you will experience LOVE.

Putting FEET on it

January 29, 2024

Yesterday I attended a powerful workshop on Racial Equity. This topic has been a major focus for me for the past few years, so I felt pretty cocky when I got there. I mean, there couldn’t be too much I hadn’t heard before, right? HAH! Think again.

I should probably start with a few definitions, since that’s the basis of communication. The buzzword today is DEI, an acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, though, as our facilitator pointed out, the order is not really accurate, so I will use the order she gave. First, Inclusion – at the most fundamental level for me, inclusion is Oneness with FEET on it. That is, inclusion is acting and interacting from a place of recognizing the innate oneness of all people. Second, Equity – my favorite definition is equality with FEET on it, that is adjusting equality so that it really works for everyone. Finally, Diversity, which comes last because Inclusion and Equity are actions and Diversity is the result of those actions: a population that not only accepts, but also acknowledges and celebrates the uniqueness of its members, celebration with FEET on it. These are seriously simplified definitions, but I think everyone can wrap their heads around them pretty easily.

The most amazing thing I heard, though, was not in the definitions, but rather in their application. Our facilitator reminded us often that the responsibility for living these concepts is personal – it’s an inside job, and that is not negotiable. She introduced another term that made me just a little itchy at first, but the more she spoke, the more I saw the validity of her contention that the inside job requires “self-policing”. That means it’s nobody’s job to check anyone else’s language, awareness, or commitment. You HAVE to do it yourself, or it’s just imitation, which Emerson called suicide. That’s why my definitions all include the phrase, “with FEET on it”. In New Thought circles, we talk a lot about taking responsibility for the fulfillment of our prayers: Treat and move your FEET. In other words, when there’s something for you to do – something that you absolutely KNOW is yours to do, you best DO IT.

Another thing I learned, again, yesterday is that DEI is not a “phase” humanity is going through, it is a part of our evolution, and we have to keep growing with it until it becomes one of those things grandmas tell their grandchildren about from the distant past – you know, like walking five miles to school through the snow . . . uphill both ways. My invitation for today? Step up and put some FEET on your deepest knowing of Truth: we are all ONE and each of us is a unique gift from the Universe to the rest of us!

Poise

January 15, 2024

Poise is a spiritual term used frequently by Rev. Dr. Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science and author of the Science of Mind textbook (among MANY others). It always makes me smile, because when I hear/read this word, I get an instantaneous image of a teen-aged Sandra Dee, in a full-skirted dress and heels, walking across the room with a book on her head. This probably has a lot to do with my generation – I did grow up in the middle of the 20th century, after all. I encountered it again this week in my morning reading of 365 Science of Mind, but this time, I paid a little more attention and realized how clever his word choice was. Poise does mean the ability to remain balanced, calm, and at ease in a social setting – however, that is not its only definition. Poise also means remaining aware and conscious in any situation, especially a challenging or distressing situation. You see the metaphysics sneaking in here, right?

Another, and older, term for this ability is Equanimity, which is found in the Buddhist traditions. It means exactly the same thing: keep your cool, spiritually and emotionally, stay focused on the Truth of the situation, and keep putting one foot in front of the other. However, much as I love and aspire to equanimity, it NEVER makes me smile fondly at an old memory. I have decided that I will substitute POISE from now on, because, let’s face it, a smile will improve your outlook – and therefore your equanimity, every single time. I invite you to try this out for yourself, even if you are too young to remember Sandra Dee, I think you will experience a pleasant shift of consciousness!

Grandma's Knitting

December 11, 2023

I learned to crochet when I was five years old and to knit when I was six. Since then, these have been my “primary” creative outlet. There’s something about looping yarn around itself and creating something useful or pretty or both that just seems magical to me. I knit for my own children and they were appreciative, but it was just ordinary mom stuff to them. When I started to acquire grandchildren, though, the magic was back!

Every year at our family 4th of July picnic, my grandchildren would line up in front of my lawn chair to be measured and recorded in my little notebook. Each one would specify style (pull-over, cardigan, hoodie, etc.), neckline (V-neck, crew, turtle, boat, etc.), pockets or no, zipper or buttons, texture, and color(s). I would start knitting in August, beginning with the oldest, since they were least likely to change significantly before Christmas, and then do the little ones with some slight adjustments for growth. It only backfired once, when Bubby took a growth spurt and outgrew his sweater before he received it – and I had to knit him a new one between Christmas and New Year’s.

My grandchildren are in their 20’s and 30’s now, and having children of their own. I am now officially a great-grandma, and the tradition continues. This year’s crop included three Big Bird coats (crocheted traditional first Christmas gift), one stuffed sheep (also crocheted), and three Kangaroo sweaters that zip down the back from the top of the hood and have a pouch in front like a sweatshirt. I am looking forward to the not-so-distant future when zippers will be a choice and not a necessity – knitting and crocheting are fun, sewing zippers is work!

So are you wondering where the metaphysical message is in this blog? It’s in the tradition, the creativity, the love, and the faith – my children, grandchildren, and now my great-grandchildren all grew up feeling it wasn’t REALLY Christmas until they found something I made, just exclusively for them, under the tree. That’s the kind of faith I have in divine order, Peace, and love. This is just a reminder that we all have it, and we are most in our divinity when we practice that faith, feel that love, and KNOW that peace.

The Gifts of Thanksgiving

November 20, 2023

Most folks think giving thanks is something we do for the source of the gift, but I disagree! I believe giving thanks is part of the joy of receiving something – and it doesn’t much matter what the something is. For me, giving thanks is opening my consciousness to fully experience a blessing, even when it comes wrapped in a lesson. Until I have thanked the giver, I have not fully received the gift. It’s just that simple.

Oddly enough, not only does offering thanks increase my enjoyment of the gift, but it very often expands its range to include additional blessings – and occasionally, additional blessees! Oh, I remember those thank you cards my mother made me write, and I really did NOT enjoy that, but when the thanks is heartfelt, heart-deep, it just can’t be contained – it requires expression, and the expression is a blessing in itself. I suspect that is why Meister Eckhart said that if the only prayer you ever said was, “Thank You,” it would have been enough.

So here’s my Thanksgiving week invitation: pretend you are living in biblical times and you just got a letter from St. Paul telling you to give thanks in all things (he said it a lot) and then practice that. I promise, you will be delighted with the results. ;o)

Community

November 6, 2023

I have been thinking a lot about the concept of community for a while – ever since I moved home a year and a half ago now and then, but pretty steadily for the past few weeks. Probably the most significant realization for me is that community is not necessarily a geographic designation. Oddly enough, I did not figure this out while I still lived in two-hours-from-everything, AR. I did get a hint or two during the pandemic, but it didn’t really sink in until I came back to my origins and realized that some of my most important reasons (people) for coming here were not HERE anymore. Don’t get me wrong, this still feels more like home than almost any place I have ever lived, but my concept of community has radically expanded.

Human beings can get along with very little of most “necessities” like food, water, shelter, education, etc. What we cannot get along without is community – that sense of belonging where you are with the people who make that place home. That’s why the worst possible punishment for a prisoner is solitary confinement. We need to see other faces, yes, but even more than that, we need to feel other hearts and minds and voices – even if they are not in the same physical space as we are. We need to share who we are and know that others understand why we are who we are – that’s why support groups are so popular.

I am fascinated by this idea of community as home for a couple of reasons: first, because home is NOT a place, it’s a conscious awareness that each person carries in their heart; second, because what makes it home is its reflection back to us from those we love, and the number of reflections can be very small and still be absolutely complete. This is situational, of course – on Thanksgiving, we want/need to see lots of faces around the family table, but on your average Thursday night, one or two people who really SEE you, make all the difference in the world. One of the true gifts of our technological society is that we can be together while being in separate places, and because we can see faces and hear voices, we can also feel the connections of community. I do get tired of seeing folks so engaged with their phones that they are oblivious to their surroundings, but when a phone call or televideo session starts with, “I missed you …”, I am really grateful for the connection (pun intended!).

Poise

January 15, 2024

Grandma's Knitting

December 11, 2023

The Gifts of Thanksgiving

November 20, 2023

Community

November 6, 2023

Self-Care, Universal Spiritual Practice

October 23, 2023

I know, self-care sounds like an indulgent luxury, but that is very much NOT the case. There is a Truth that is taught in all faith traditions that says we cannot give what we do not have already. This is obvious with material things, but it is equally true with the greatest attributes of Spirit or of people: compassion, gentleness, love, peace, generosity, trust, kindness, presence. Any loving parent knows there are times when your child needs one of these gifts and you have to do what? Dig down deep and find it in yourself, right? Well, how do you suppose it got there in the first place? That is what happens with self-care.

This really is a spiritual practice, and it is necessary, not optional. Self-care does not have to be complicated or expensive, difficult or time-consuming. It does have to be heart-felt and sincere, genuine and authentic. It can be as simple as a cup of Zen tea and a moment of quiet meditation or it can be a glorious as a weekend getaway with friends you haven’t seen in years – or anything in between. The purpose of self-care is to prime your God-pump with kindness, love, generosity, and compassion, and to bask for a moment in the deep certainty that the One God who lives and expresses in, through, and as you has ALWAYS got your back. One really great form of self-care in my guidebook is falling asleep and waking up with , “Thank You, God, for . . .” . At night I run through the blessings (some of which may require squinting) of that day, and in the morning I enumerate the successes I have planned for that day. Of course, the morning list probably gives God a chuckle sometimes, but the evening lists carries me back to center. Smiling at a stranger while you are walking your dog, works, too. Any activity, prayer or thought that makes your heart smile qualifies as self-care. I think there should be a minimum daily requirement of self-care (AKA Vitamin S) that includes at least one hug. Have you had your dose today?

Love and blessings,

Rev. Dr. Sharri

The Four Questions

October 10, 2023

When I was asked to give the graduate students’ address for the Emerson Theological Institute’s 2023 Graduation, I was both flattered and stunned. I had no idea what to say or even what the topic should be. Then I thought about the way I close each episode of my interview program, “Global Focus Today”. The program is about Focus Ministers, those who have no congregation, but rather a special focus (get it?) for their ministries, which I believe is the inevitable and natural evolution of ministry. It’s mostly a 30 – 60 minute infomercial for the guest, but at the end, I ask the same four questions of each one, and as I thought it over, I realized they work for any person on any life path, so that’s what I chose for my topic. Here are the questions, in order, and I invite you to read each one twice – once to see what the question is, and once to decide what your answer is:

How does your ministry (or life), what you do, and what you are, how does that contribute to/enhance/promote/choose your own verb conscious evolution? Evolution really is the operating system of the Universe – it’s been working forever, and it will continue, but we, as a species have finally reached the point where we can take charge of how we evolve, and it’s time we did that!
This sounds like the same question, but it really is NOT: how does your ministry (or life), what you do, and what you are, how does that contribute to /enhance/promote /choose your own verb to World Peace? We have all heard the phrase, “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me,” and we have reached the time in our own history where we can see that only one heart at a time can peace happen, and it is our job to be that heart!
With the understanding that every little detail, every relationship, every event, every thought and activity goes EXACTLY the way you want it to go, 10 years from now, what does your life look like? Don’t leave anything out, nothing is too big or too little to consider.
Will you come back? I always ask this because even if my guest returned the very next week (which they won’t, since I am booked through the end of June, 2024), that guest would not be the same person I just finished interviewing – something, probably many somethings, would have changed, and I would get a brand-new interview with a brand-new guest. So when you ask this question of yourself, what you are asking is whether you are willing to return to these questions and answer them honestly, again and again – at least annually, but the more often , the better it will be for you. Congratulations on your new life!

Love and blessings,

Rev. Dr. Sharri

The Only Constant

September 18, 2023

My spiritual center is sharing a book study this Fall. The topic is The Five Things We Cannot Change, a book by David Richo about what he calls the “givens” of human life. This is the sort of thing I love to do, because it’s mostly reading and talking, my two favorite activities. The first given is impermanence – nothing stays the same and everything ends, sooner or later. For me this is the only constant in Nature, in the entire Universe, and that is the Truth that the only constant is change. Evolution is another name for impermanence. I love evolution, because it is the most wonderful spiritual truth I have ever learned: God is all there is, and God is always creating, out of Its own substance, new, different, marvelous things, in an orderly, logical, perfect way.

Why is this wonderful? Lots of reasons: 1) it means everything in existence is an expression of God; 2) it means there is no such thing as a mistake – that’s just an example of learning something the hard way; 3) nothing lasts forever applies equally to what I desire AND to what I dislike; 4) this is the proof of that old standby, “there’s a blessin’ in every lesson”; 5) it means that it is NEVER too late to grow/improve/adapt/learn; 6) it demonstrates the oneness of all Life, always expanding like the Universe itself; 7) it’s the ultimate “get out of jail free” card – all you have to do is outlast the challenge and you are automatically the victor.

The only constant is change, and it is unavoidable, no matter who you are, where you are, what you do/don’t do. This is a very freeing idea, because it means that if you don’t like your life, you are not trapped in it, you are just looking from the inside of the challenge, which Einstein taught us never works. Einstein, on the heels of every great spiritual teacher, noted that the solution is found by expanding your perspective beyond the limits of the challenge. That is to say, instead of keeping a narrow, human focus, we can lift our conscious awareness to a broader perspective and see where and what the necessary change(s) is(are), and recognizing that necessity, accept/adapt/embrace the change.

I think this is the metaphysical version of cranking up the telescope to get a closer look at a bigger picture – it almost always results in new understanding. The good news is that we all have an innate spiritual telescope that rivals the Hubble, so give it a try and see what you find!

Love and blessings,

Rev. Dr. Sharri

Three-word Affirmations

September 4, 2023

My first CSL Minister, Rev. Dr. Chris Michaels (now retired), once said that it was his dream to address the United Nations – and that his speech would consist of only three words: War Is Obsolete!, after which he would turn around and leave! This idea pops into my mind often, and I quote it a lot, so it was surprising to me when I asked Spirit for a blog topic last night to have War Is Obsolete come as the answer.

What makes this time different is that I didn’t just “turn around and leave”. Instead, the affirmations started to pour into my head and out of my heart – all of them three words, all of them powerful, and all of them forehead-slapping obvious:

Hate is obsolete.

Prejudice is obsolete.

Greed is obsolete.

Isolation is obsolete.

Injustice is obsolete.

Selfishness is obsolete.

Inequity is obsolete.

Rudeness is obsolete.

Colonialism is obsolete.

Supremacy is obsolete.

These are all characteristics or behaviors or habits of human endeavor that were once considered “good business” – don’t mistake me, I know they never WERE good business, except from a very narrow perspective, but even that perspective is no longer valid. One of the outcomes of the Technology Age is that our planet has (figuratively) shrunken so much that people on the opposite side of the planet are, for all intents and purposes, now our neighbors. Sadly, the definitions of neighbor and neighborhood have also become, for many if not most people, obsolete, too.

The good news is that it does not have to stay this way – we can revive the “village” view of neighborhoods, and thanks to that same technology, we can expand it to reach completely around the world. By releasing these negative and harmful characteristics and behaviors, we can make room for some new ones:

Generosity is natural.

Kindness is natural.

Love is natural.

Equity is natural.

Healthcare is natural.

Education is natural.

Empathy is natural.

Sharing is natural.

Communication is natural.

Connection is natural.

These are characteristics and behaviors that benefit the entire planet and all of its inhabitants – are you willing to adopt them? I guarantee you will experience a delightful change, starting with your own peace of mind. It’s really just a small shift in perspective, from I/me/mine to we/us/ours, but the effect would will be phenomenal!

Quantum Consciousness

August 21, 2023

I'm back! I posted no blogs in July and this is my first in August. I am not lazy, I have simply been given the opportunity to recognize that some things really ARE outside of my control. Case in point - Vistaprint, the company that has hosted my website for the past five years, decided to partner with Wix and migrate all of their currently hosted websites to that platform - without notice or choice. Needless to say, the migration was not short, sweet, complete or tidy. Today I am finally able to post a blog, after a two-hour tutorial with a Wix Customer Care agent - who was unbelievably calm, patient and kind!

So, today's topic is about, in an odd twist, control! Probably the single biggest challenge for the average human is the realization that we do not control everything in our lives - except, of course, for those of us who ascribe to the quantum physicists' description of infinite possibilities. A while back, at the end of the 19th century, physicists began to discuss the nature of light – as a particle or as a wave – and the gap between science and religion started to shrink, very, very slowly, but absolutely. Out of the discussion of particle vs. wave, came many new ideas, including quantum (a teeny, tiny, infinitesimal particle) physics. My favorite concept from the field of quantum physics is that all matter exists as a wave in a field of infinite possibilities, and it is only by the active observation of some person that the wave collapses into a definite/factual particle. This is a VASTLY oversimplified statement, but it supports the New Thought movement’s argument that we live in an infinite field of possibilities, and it is by our own, individual intentions that we manifest any experience.

I call this idea quantum consciousness, and it is actually supported by real, live physicists. It is also supported by philosophers and theologians around the globe, and - here's the big thing - it has been included in spiritual teachings around the globe for millennia! It is a universal Truth that changing your thinking changes your life's experience. "The Secret" was true, and manifestation through consistent affirmative prayer DOES work. The challenge is that word, consistent. You see, every thought (even the unverbalized ones) is a prayer, and their energy is cumulative. That means that when you start your day with, "I am successful, happy and healthy today!" and then spend the rest of the day ruminating on how rotten your "luck" is, the rotten outweighs the affirmation, and that's how the wave collapses.

That's the bad news. The great news is that it is never too late to change your mind, and the Universe conspires to assist you in achieving that goal. Of course, you are still in charge of your thoughts, but just becoming aware of them gives you an edge on changing them. Here's a bonus hint: Meister Eckhart said that if "Thank you," was the only prayer you ever said, it would have been enough. Believe it or not, he was RIGHT! Here's why: gratitude is the most potent multiplier of good on the planet. If you could just change one part of your thinking, this is the piece to pick: find a way to be grateful for every experience (hint: I look for what it has taught me, and am grateful for that). As you focus on gratitude, you consistently increase your field of possibilities - for prosperity, for love, for health and for joy. Give it a shot - what do you have to lose? I am grateful for the young man from Wix who kept me from tearing out all of my short, red hair today!

How's your day looking?

WISHBONES

March 29, 2021

The sculpture at the left is made out of wishbones. It is much more elaborate and beautiful than the collection of wishbones in my kitchen window, but it is an excellent representation of the reason they are there. You see, at some point in my childhood I realized that wishbones are the perfect symbol for unlimited potential. If I weren't a vegetarian, I would campaign to change the logo for CSL (Centers for Spiritual Living, my faith tradition) to a wishbone, since infinite potential is one of our most deeply held principles.

Just in case you came from a vegetarian or vegan background, I will explain the tradition of the wishbone. When two people hold opposite sides of the wishbone and pull until it breaks, each having first made a silent and secret wish, the one who ends up with the larger piece gets his/her wish fulfilled. It might not be filled instantaneously, by sooner or later, the theory goes, it gets fulfilled.

I am the eldest of five daughters, so there was lots of competition for the wishbone at the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Whenever I got the wishbone, there was dismay because I refused to break it. I was way ahead of quantum physics, you see, since I recognized that the unbroken wishbone represented infinite possibility, while the broken wishbone had been collapsed into a definite choice. Mind you, this was years before I had even heard of the field of infinite possibility. It just seemed to me that if I saved those wishbones, I was banking my possibilities, and the more of them I had (there are about a dozen in my kitchen window, collected over a couple of decades since my kids grew up and left home), the more possibilities I could realize.

Oddly enough, I never came to a place in my life where I was "desperate enough" to break any of them. Some other option always showed up to answer the challenges of life. Over time, I realized that keeping the wishbones unbroken was my affirmation of Divine support. I knew I could count on my infinite Creator to meet any upset or difficulty that might arise, so I just kept those wishbones on the windowsill. When I feel challenged or daunted, or a little afraid, I just look at my symbols of infinite potential and thank God for answered prayer, certain as I can be that it is happening even as I speak.

BOING! BOING! Bunny

March 22, 2021

Almost 30 years ago, when my first (and at that time, only) grandson was almost three years old, I did a very GRANDMA thing for which his mother has probably still not forgiven me. I sent him a BOING! BOING! Bunny for Easter. As you might infer from the name, whenever this bunny was shaken, a very loud BOING! BOING! sounded. Alex loved it, as did his cousins and friends - his parents, not so much. I still have a photo of him holding it.

This is not about goofy grandma gifts (say THAT fast three times!), however. It's about the fact that there are no "goofy grandma" gifts. You see, while that BOINGer lasted way too long for Alex's mama, it wore out way too soon for him. That's because Alex didn't hear "BOING! BOING!" He heard, "Grandma loves me!"

I have discovered that what makes grandma gifts (or any gift with the same amount of heart) so wonderful and precious is that the person who receives the gift knows instantly that the person who gave it was thinking only of that specific recipient when choosing the gift. When that happens, whether the gift makes a noise or not, the person who receives it always hears, "I love you!" whenever that gift is seen or held, or even when it pops to mind.

This is probably not a new idea to you, I'd like to invite you to squint at it just a little bit and see if it won't stretch into a new application. Suppose we chose to think of our words a gifts. We give them away, they cannot be retrieved or rescinded, returned or unsaid, and we have all suffered through the endless repetition of something we wish we had either not heard or not said. Imagine how much kinder, gentler, happier, healthier and more peaceful this world would be if every remembered word were as welcome and as comforting as a favorite childhood gift.

Easter is still a couple of weeks away, so maybe we could do some shopping - for bunnies, and blessings, for prayers and friendship. . .

The Superpower

March 15, 2021

Did you know that EVERYONE has a superpower? It's true! We all love the idea, yet most of us don't believe it is even possible, let alone true. I saw a t-shirt yesterday with the this slogan printed on it:

Prayer is my super power!

This is actually not just true, but the Truth of every single one of us.

I can see you rolling your eyes and saying, "yeah, but...", so I will explain. Prayer is our super power because it does not change our circumstances, our facts, it changes our Self, and when we change our Self, we change our world. Great news, right? But wait, there's more! Not only is prayer a super power, but it is very easy to use. We have all heard or read beautiful prayers. Some were poems or songs, some were long and some were short. Some were in languages we didn't understand, and yet we felt the deep emotional impact they made.

The most important part of a prayer is the feeling behind, beyond, within it. So far, this is all old news, right? Here's the part you might not realize: every thought is a prayer, and the Universe is ALWAYS listening...

It doesn't matter what language or location or volume or tone you use, it only matters what you feel when you pray. And since we are always praying, we need to pay attention to what we are feeling all of the time! This brings me to the Superprayer , the one each of us prays hundreds of times every day: I AM.

What makes this a superprayer is that whatever comes after it becomes our belief, and therefore becomes our experience. I'm serious - try it right now: say, "I am tired," and check how you feel; say "I am energized," is there a difference in how you feel? Which feels better, "I am strong," or "I am beaten?" How about "I am afraid," or "I am safe?"

Let's dig deeper: "I am loved," then "I am loving," and "I am valuable," and "I am compassionate," and just keep going. I invite you to consider considering what you are saying every single time you use this superprayer, and be sure it is something you really want to bring into expression in your world.

Adulteration II

March 8, 2021

I am of the firm belief that all babies are born knowing everything they will ever need to know. They come straight from the mind of God, so how could there be anything they don't know? Well, for starters, since they can't yet talk, they don't know how to tell us what they know. Parents, siblings, teachers, and of course, the media, tend to seriously exacerbate this situation.

With the best of intentions and purely loving hearts, we plaster a very thick coat (in some cases many coats) of confusion, doubt, insecurity, fear, and HUGE expectations (mostly unreasonable ones) over the perfectly designed consciousness of these little ones and call it education, socialization, protection, or "growing up". This is what I call adult-eration. We don't mean any harm - we just don't know any better, because we have forgotten what it was like to be fresh-from-Spirit beings.

At some point, once we have left the nest of our parents' home, we start to remember, very faintly, the Truth of who we are. That little tickle of unconditional acceptance feels really good, so we start to study, searching for the origin of the tickle, and we spend the rest of our lives peeling away those layers of illusion that make us feel separate and alone. The more we learn, the more excited and delighted we become. That's because removing the adulteration also removes the sense of not-enough-ness, of self-doubt, and of loveless aloneness.

I have thought about this a lot, and never figured out how it began. I am fairly certain, though, that we can choose to stop adult-erating our children and, by recognizing and honoring their inherent divinity from day one (as soon as we become aware of their impending arrival), shift the consciousness of the entire human race up beyond fear, war, violence, prejudice, and inequity. In fact, I think this is one really powerful way to begin building a world that works for all.

Eyedroppers

March 1, 2021

Somebody once asked me, in a conversation about world peace, what one person all alone could do. He thought he was shutting down the conversation, but that was not the case. I told him to be an eyedropper. Well, there was a vision to go with the eyedropper - imagine that we are, the entire human race, arrayed around a vast lake of very dirty water. Each person has an eyedropper and a bottomless barrel of crystal clear water. If each person fills the dropper from the barrel and empties it into the lake, on a regular basis, the lake would eventually - how long depends on the frequency of the dropper releases - be flushed clean.

This is, of course, another metaphor. There really is a race mind. It contains every thought that has ever occurred to a human being, the beautiful, the the ugly, the hateful and the loving, for all of time. That mind is the lake, and war and hatred, and prejudice and cruelty and selfishness and greed have made it very muddy indeed.

We are, however, the creations of infinite and unconditional Love through the eternal and unlimited Mind of the Divine. Therefore, we are possessed of infinite love and unlimited wisdom and intelligence. That's our barrel.

Our wonderful creator also blessed us with free will, which is, of course, our eyedropper. Everybody has an eyedropper. Everybody has a barrel, which is bottomless. We can, in fact, we must, therefore, flush the mud away, replacing it with love, wisdom, compassion, and Truth. When that happens, all conflict, greed, lack, and inequity will vanish and Peace will be no longer our secret nature, but our experience of Life.

My eyedropper's loaded, care to join me?

COURAGE

February 22, 2021

The interesting thing about courage, for me is that it is rarely, if ever, intentional. I have never down anything that made me feel courageous, yet I know that courage is one of my attributes, and I know I have exhibited it. In my experience, courage is something instinctive, something I don't notice until the occasion of expressing it is over and complete.

For example, when I recognize imminent danger for another person, or an animal, I don't consider whether or not I have the courage to save that "other", I just jump to protect it/him/them. I am absolutely certain this is not a characteristic unique to me. I don't think firefighters or nurses or military personnel go to work every day thinking, "I hope I am brave enough for this." I think courage, as an innate part of our nature causes us to choose actions, and sometimes whole careers, that put the welfare of others ahead of our own. That's courage.

Another wondrous aspect of courage is that it does not have to be huge. Walking up to the new kid in school and asking, "Do you want to sit with me for lunch?" is risky, so it takes courage. Speaking up when someone you don't know is mistreated takes courage. Wearing a dress you designed and made yourself takes courage. Writing a poem for a contest takes courage. Almost every day, almost everyone exhibits at least a little bit of courage. Sometimes it is recognized and acknowledged, sometimes we don't even recognize it in ourselves.

I think courage is really just allowing our inner Self to express the truth of our oneness - we are all part of the same life, so when we feel that oneness, courage just happens. It's as natural as breathing. The most important thing, to me, about courage is that it isn't optional any more than breathing is. It's part of our humanity and bringing it back into our conscious awareness is one of the greatest gifts of 2020. It seems to me courage has pulled us back from the edge of extinction and helped us to see that there is another path available to us as a species - we can choose the rainbow instead of the thundercloud.

Watercolor or mosaic?

February 15, 2021

There is ice on the inside of the windows in my house this morning - the temperature is 2 degrees, feels like -12 degrees, and it's snowing. It's the tiny, soft flake kind of snow and the prediction is for 4 - 8 inches before it stops. Are you wondering why that would make me think of watercolors and mosaics? Well, it's the beauty of the visual contrasted with frozen water pipes and space heaters. Still puzzled? Okay, I admit it, the point is really another pass at perspective.

I have always loved watercolors, and looking out a window at Mother Nature's snowscapes is a lot like seeing a watercolor painting. The colors are subtle and soft, and the curves of the brush strokes create motion and stillness at the same time. The water, the colors, and the brush all blend together to create something new and beautiful - and they disappear into that new creation. That's pretty much what our society, from its very inception, has tried to do. We have welcomed new cultures and languages and then demanded, sometimes subtly and sometimes brashly, that they dissolve themselves into the existing culture to create what we have called a melting pot. It hasn't worked very well, as evidenced by the cultural, racial (I really HATE that word, but it's the only one that works here), religious, and sexual conflict, inequity, and bigotry that have never been genuinely recognized or resolved, much less healed.

Now consider a different metaphor: the mosaic. Mosaics can be ginormous or microscopic. They are also remarkable in their nature because from the intended perspective, all of the pieces blend into a distinct picture, but as your gaze narrows and the perspective shifts from the whole to the individual, no identity is lost, or even altered. Each individual tile in a mosaic stands whole and complete by itself. Yet when they are connected together in a specific arrangement that appreciates the individuals and their attributes, the result it definitely synergistic - MUCH more than the sum of the parts with no loss of individual identity. That sounds to me like a positively Utopian society. It also sounds possible as a direction for conscious evolution to create.

I'm in - how about y'all?

Curiosity

February 8, 2021

Perspective is a powerful concept. It can literally make or break a day, a mood, or a life. It really doesn't matter what the subject is, the way you experience it is ENTIRELY up to you. It's that simple. If that sounds too good to be true, it might be because you are confusing "simple" with "easy". These are so NOT synonyms!

Simple means capable of description with a few clear phrases. Easy means capable of being accomplished with very little effort. Even here, what you see depends on how you look at it.

I have been looking at a couple of situations in my life that do not bring me joy. I can choose to take the perspective of problem-solving or I can take the perspective of risk-avoidance, or I can take the perspective of character-building, or . . . or, having exhausted all of the techniques and self-help practices that may (or may not) have worked in the past, I can take the perspective of curiosity.

Why would I choose curiosity? Because it sets aside judgement, at least temporarily, in favor of discovery. This approach is simple, and on occasion easy, but that's just part of the process. It could be challenging, but curiosity trumps challenge. It could be scary, but curiosity overpowers fright. It could be a stretch, but curiosity leads to growth. It could be daunting, but curiosity fosters courage. It could be tiring, but curiosity builds tenacity and tenacity builds strength. In the end, curiosity stretches and builds a wider perspective, and that multiplies the possibilities into infinity. Curiosity is not a solution, but it's the most interesting way to find one, just ask George!

Valleys

February 1, 2021

I have been exploring the idea of valleys lately. Some of my valleys are geographical - my retreat center is in a high valley in the Ozarks and one of my favorite places on Earth is a valley in Ireland by Lady Bantree's Lookout. Some of my valleys are financial - COVID created a lot of that! Some of my valleys are emotional - because of cold weather and isolation. Some of my valleys are spiritual, too.

The interesting thing about valleys is that they have so many perspectives, and the view is different from every single one. When I am sitting on the floor of the valley, usually in sadness or spiritual conflict, the ground seems barren and unfriendly. The longer I sit there, the emptier it seems. Eventually, though, my butt gets tired of the rocks and I stand up. Metaphorically, that might be called Spiritual indigestion. The view changes as I lift my face from the sadness or confusion. Still rocky, but I can see where a trail might offer a change, or at least the potential for change. Maybe I am not yet ready to leave, but now I see that possibility.

Even though the valley might be very deep, I can see light and I can hear a faint voice calling me. Too faint to understand, but enough to remind me that I am not alone. Now I notice that not far above the rocks there is grass and beyond the grass trees. Metaphorically that might be Grace calling me to prayer and possibility. So I start to climb, slowly and without clear direction, but definitely up. Naturally my face turns up to the sides of the valley stretching into the distance. I know it will be a long climb, but I can see the slope and it is well within my capabilities. Metaphorically, that might be Faith reminding me that I have resources. Whoa, look, there's a path - crooked and rugged, but it leads to higher reaches of the valley, and it looks like other feet have trod it, too.

I look back and realize I am halfway to the top of the ridge - there is a much wider view, and I can see the beauty of the valley from here. Now I begin to see more life in the valley and the sadness and fear are abating. Metaphorically, that might be Spiritual awareness bubbling to the surface of my consciousness. Now my upward view includes the summit and the sky, so I keep climbing.

Eventually I reach the top of the hill/mountain/challenge and I realize that the climb was growth, that I am more than I was on the floor of the valley, stronger, and wiser. When I have rested awhile at the summit, I relax, I feel happy and whole, and I think about how boring flat ground would be. I look down from the mountains and marvel at how far I have come.

I am ready for the next valley, whatever it might bring.

WHY?

January 25, 2021

The most asked question in the history of mankind is, "WHY?" Sometimes we ask it in the name of discovery - hence gravity, electricity, television, smart phones, space travel, the internet, etc. Sometimes we ask to gain understanding - of events, relationships, community, or even our own emotions. Sometimes we ask to stall, usually, but not always, when we are children. In that case, it's a ploy to either avoid what we don't want to do or be, or to acquire what we want.

The biggest "WHY?" for me is probably also the oldest one: why are we here? It seems to me this is a really multi-level question:

what is our origin as a species?
what is our function in the environment? (Why does Earth need us?)
why do we need other people?
why do we think? (more specifically, why do we ask questions?)
why do we reach inward and upward to a higher power/consciousness/intelligence?

I let the anthropologists handle our origin as a species and I think the environmentalists have shown that, while Earth may not have needed us before we started destroying her resources, she sure needs us now to clean up the mess we've made. The most obvious answer to why we need other people is procreation, but I am convinced that there's more to it than that. I believe we need other people to help us discover our own potential and our own talents. We need other people to allow us a target for the love that is our most fundamental characteristic. We need other people so that we can share and expand our experience. We need other people because we think, and thinking requires expression, which requires communication, which requires someone with whom to communicate. I believe we think because we are outlets of the infinite intelligence of Spirit/God/First Cause, and thought is the creative impulse of that intelligence. We ask questions in order to experience that creative impulse. The deepest level of this "WHY" is the essence of what we are: physical manifestations of Divine Thought. It is our nature to reach for expansion of consciousness, of expression, of love, of Oneness, so we reach inward to that point of connection where we realize our identity and unity. We reach upward in consciousness seeking the fullest experience of our own divinity.

Why is the question that brings us closest to understanding the concept of infinity. So, why not ask, "WHY?"

to manifest the Dream

January 18, 2021

Almost sixty years ago, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave us a dream. I was 13. Today I have a great-grandson who is almost 13. That's three generations of spiritual evolution. It is time we stop dreaming and manifest the vision Dr. King delivered. Surely the consciousness of our society can be stretched up and out to encompass the Truth of equity, justice, true democracy, and oneness. We have repeated his words for decades, we have heard them echo. Let us now bring them into manifestation as we become the nation we deserve, the nation we need, the nation we are destined to create. Let us choose to become the leaders of a world that works for all by becoming the citizens, teachers, legislators, and families of a nation that puts equity and justice before money and might.

We ARE the ones we have been waiting for - wait no more, act! Act now. Act with dignity, honor, and integrity to offer those same qualities to every human being, for until they are experienced by all, they are not truly experienced by any.

Donkey Kong

January 11, 2021

I have come to an interesting discovery: life, done right, is a spiritual game of Donkey Kong! It starts out easy, and then we start to walk and talk and bump up against challenge after challenge after challenge, and when we master the biggest, toughest, highest challenge? We open a door and find, not a fancy prize or a big title, or tons of money, but rather, a whole new level of challenge!

Now, the process HAS allowed us to develop skills and acquire tools and knowledge, which is why we are both able and willing to open the door and cross through into the new challenges. It's important to recognize that the person entering the next level is NOT the same person who entered the previous level. This recognition gives us confidence and courage. It should also give us pause - for rest, for inner exploration, for preparation and the setting of intentions and goals. After all, the player with a game plan usually comes out ahead.

There was a singer in the 1970's, I think, whose lyric became a personal motto for me: It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good. This is not a new idea, life IS a journey. There is a new twist, though, we can choose to direct the journey, instead of stumbling blindly down the road. We can lean into change and experience conscious evolution, spiritual expansion, and creative exploration. I like the idea of being more today than I was yesterday, more wise, more compassionate, more expressive, just . . . MORE - God is infinite, creation is infinite, why should we settle for a finite expression? "Not I," said the little red donkey kong!

Small increments of change

January 4, 2021

A shrink once told me that my biggest problem was an inability to recognize and appreciate small increments of change. I was not amused. In later years, however, especially 2020, I have come to realize the wisdom of her recommendation.

It's the beginning of a new year and the year just ended was a doozie! Now is the time to take stock of what has changed - for the better, for the not-so-great, intentional, and unintentional. Even while we have been sheltering in grace, shopping and studying online from home, attending church/synagogue/mosque via Zoom and Facebook live, we have been changing. We have grown!

How, you might ask? Well, some of us have developed technical skills we never dreamed we would need. Some of us have learned how to ask for help with things we have always done for ourselves. Some of us have learned how to accept the "personality quirks" of the folks who live with us, and even to understand them a little better. Some of us have learned what it means to be neighborly. Some of us have learned how to expand the limits of our tolerance for work, for fatigue, for challenges, for loss. Some of us have learned how important those invisible "essential" workers are, and have always been: the truckers, nurses, doctors, cleaners, and clerks without whom life comes to a screaming halt.

And there's more: some of us have learned about hidden history, abject poverty inside our own borders and around the world, the origins of prejudice, the need for true justice and equity. Some of us have learned that truth, while it may not be pleasant, is ALWAYS better than lies and love, while it may not be easy, is ALWAYS the antidote to fear. We have learned these things in spite of ourselves, as much as we have learned then intentionally. We have learned them through gritted teeth and clenched fists . . . and we have learned them through open hearts and blown kisses. WE HAVE LEARNED THEM, AND THEY WILL NOT BE UNLEARNED.

We learned second by second, tear by tear, and smile by smile. Small increments of change have made all the difference, so keep it up - and try to notice, acknowledge, and appreciate them.

Clean-up Week

December 28, 2020

For as long as I can remember, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day was set aside for cleaning - cleaning anything that stood still long enough, and a few things that didn't. The house, garage, car, yard, closets, basement, and attic all get a thorough cleaning, scrubbing, and organizing so that we start the new year at our best. Then mom would buy a new broom and sew a tiny pillowcase with the new year embroidered on it to ensure against lack. Then and only then were we ready for New Year's celebrations.

I have come to realize that my little house doesn't take long to clean and organize - and that gives me plenty of time for the REAL cleaning. Now my week is devoted to cleaning up my act - internally, spiritually, attitudinally. Yup, this is my week for intensive personal inventory - and I try to use the same process as when I swap out my closets twice a year: everything (thoughts, ideas, prejudices, opinions, likes, dislikes) goes into one of three piles. For the closets, the first pile is for stuff I really love and use; the second is for stuff I haven't used in a long time, but can't bring myself to part with yet; the last pile is the donate pile - give it to someone who can use (or sell) it. For my personal spiritual year-end cleanup, the piles are similar: one is for recognizing assets, blessings, and growth experienced in the past year (keep); the next is for recognizing "opportunities for evolution" or "growing edges" (these become my New Year's Intentions); the last is for characteristics, practices, and habits that just don't belong in my life (the pitch pile).

Some years I have to dig deep to find the growth and blessings, but this year of COVID has brought lots of both: deeper compassion, a stronger sense of community, resilient faith. The growth list is usually longer than I want it to be, but I still keep hacking away at it: listen more, talk less; DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY, even when it is meant that way; forgive more, judge less, and on and on. The pitch pile is the toughest one to empty, but also the most satisfying: let go of old hurts, resentments, and disappointments; drop SNARKY from both thoughts and speech; stop expecting people to read my mind. None of these lists is comprehensive, but you get the idea.

Clean-up week is not easy, and nobody would call it fun, but it sure provides a clear window for facing the New Year!

Blue Christmas

December 21, 2020

This is the third Christmas since my husband, the professional Santa, made his transition and I hung up my elf-shoes. It is my first blue Christmas - the other two were just ordinary, colorless days. This year, however, somehow - even in the midst of COVID isolation - I seem to have come to a small smidgen of Christmas spirit. I am not yet jolly, but neither am I morose. I have a small, sparsely decorated tree in my living room, and I took my Christmas sweatshirts, vests, and turtlenecks out of the storage closet - I am wearing them, with Christmas jewelry and a somewhat nostalgic smile.

This is not a plea for sympathy, or even empathy. It is a celebration of the resilience of the human heart! So many have lost so much this remarkable year, and yet there are still Christmas specials on television and virtual Christmas concerts over the Internet for a multitude of churches. I suspect a large part of my revival of spirit is due to the tremendous drawing together of families that has happened all over the country, all over the world, because we have been forced to shelter in grace. The commercials I see are about baking cookies together and making cards and presents by hand - about the kind of giving my grandmother advocated when she told me that a gift you made was more valuable than any gift you could buy - because it contains a part of your Self.

So here's my Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa wish for each of you: may you give the deepest part of your Self to those you love, and receive the same in return - and may you love and be loved by the whole world.

The List - Part III

December 14, 2020

This third list comes from an Interfaith meeting I attend each month. We met yesterday, and one of the topics for discussion was what a world that works for everyone, a world without racism, would look like, and how would we know when we had achieved it. My answer is this list:

nobody goes hungry
nobody goes homeless
nobody lives in fear
nobody is without a formal education
nobody feels alone
nobody feels unheard
no talent is unrecognized
nobody lacks adequate medical care
no violence is endured
no skill is wasted
no spiritual path is denied
no joy is withheld
no love is restricted

How will we know when we get there? Nobody needs to ask this question any more. This is the new normal I envision. This is the goal of my every thought, prayer, action. This is the truth of our nature - what say we return to it?

The List - Part II

December 7, 2020

A few years ago, a movie called "The Bucket List" came out and became an instant classic. The concept of a bucket list - a list of activities to be completed before one dies (kicks the bucket) - became a part of our cultural vocabulary overnight. People started writing down (okay, typing into a word processing document) all of the things they didn't want to miss. Many lists included visits to foreign countries, finishing a degree, building a business, writing a book, painting a masterpiece, etc. Mostly, folks started out with lofty goals, sort of like those resolutions that dribble away by the middle of January.

I found myself looking at the idea from the other direction - what do I want to have people saying about me at my memorial picnic? (I am not having a funeral) I want them to say their lives were better because they knew me. So, what do I need to do to make that true? Not such an easy question to answer. I gave myself a serious headache trying to quantify the requirements. Finally, I realized the only real requirement is that I be the best version of me that is possible. I ended up with something I call my "Honey, be" list:

BE compassionate (which morphed into BE COMPASSION)

BE truthful

BE in integrity

BE loving (which morphed into BE LOVE)

BE kind

BE responsible (I call this one accomplished, since I served jury duty,

and I ALWAYS vote)

BE humane

BE reliable

BE present (which morphed into BE PRESENCE)

BE aware of oneness (which morphed into BE IN ONENESS)

BE receptive

BE respectful

BE transparent

To each of these could be added " - to everyone!"

Like a bucket list, this list starts with "B", but I think this list will lead me to higher peaks and greater vistas. Maybe you could consider creating your own BE list?

The List - Part I

November 30, 2020

Once, when I was a little girl, I asked my grandmother if I could have something when she died - I don't remember what the something was, but I sure remember my mother's reaction! I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that such a request was very rude, and implied a wish for my grandma's demise! After that, I just asked her to leave me things in her will - a minor improvement for a decidedly tact-challenged child.

While I am still somewhat tact-challenged, I have changed my approach to, "When you get tired of that (fill in the blank), just call me and I will come fetch it - you won't even have to bring it to me!" This is frequently followed by, "Put that on the list! (of things I am willing to fetch)". One of my most treasured mementos is a result of this silly practice. When I left Asheville, NC, I also left my post as office manager of the Western North Carolina AIDS Project - and they threw me a goodbye party. Never having had such an event before, I was tickled pink! I was, if you can imagine it, also struck dumb by the gifts I was presented: a beautiful hand-made wooden Paul Rhudy bowl and, you guessed it - The List!

Each volunteer, staff member, client, and friend had written, on a seven-foot long sheet of butcher paper, below the title, "The List", each of the items they had on their lists, and then signed them. I carried that list with me everywhere I moved from then on (and this was in 1993). It got rumpled, torn, and taped, and when I made the penultimate move to Nebraska, it got lost, but it will always be in my heart, connecting me to those beloved and compassionate friends! Whenever I see a list of any type, I think of The List and I feel the love and comfort of that moment.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will write about some of the other lists that I carry in my heart. Perhaps some of them will be familiar to you!

Thanksgiving prayer

November 23, 2020

Meister Eckhart said that if the only prayer you ever said was, "Thank You," it would have been enough. That has always been my favorite prayer, and it is the beginning of my prayer practice every morning and every night. Recently, however, I have discovered that there are a million ways to say it, to pray it, to experience it.

This morning, as I looked out the window above my prayer altar, just before dawn, I saw a thick pearly fog, glowing in the pre-dawn dark. My heart swelled up, my mouth spread into a huge grin, and I whispered, "WOW!" That's the same prayer. Sitting in my rocker, reading a Mitch Albom book, with a puppy in my lap and a 14-year old dog across my feet, I noticed the comfort and warmth, the absolute peace of that moment. My lips turned up, my shoulders dropped down, my soul danced. That's the same prayer. Sitting at breakfast with my prayer partner, who is visiting from out of state, I realized I was not hurrying to finish. Instead I was relaxed and happy. She smiled and said, "Mmmmm!" as she tasted her French toast made with raisin bread and brown eggs. That is the same prayer. I think "Thank you!" is what we feel when our heart is hugged, and I am delighted to see, in these "interesting times", how often my heart is hugged and how often I can see another heart being hugged - usually on television or over the internet because of COVID - spontaneously and joyfully, and independent of age, color, creed, or political philosophy.

So, in this Thanksgiving week of 2020, I invite you all to let your heart be hugged, let it hug other hearts, let it be filled to overflowing with the feeling of "Thank You". We are still all in this together ('this' being LIFE), and we are up to our eyes in blessings. Happy Thanksgiving from my heart to yours!

LISTEN . . .

November 16, 2020

My late husband loved to observe me conversing with my younger sister - once he figured out what we were doing. The first time, though, he was completely overwhelmed. You see, Paula Jo (pronounced Pawjo) and I both talk at the same time, and we both hear at the same time, so an uninformed observer might find it hard to believe that any communication occurs at all. He watched us, wide-eyed and incredulous, as we chattered away, catching up on everything that had happened in our lives since last we were together - convinced that neither of us could have heard anything under the noise. Then he turned to me and said, "What did she say?" and I repeated her part of the conversation verbatim. He was surprised, but not astonished, because he knew me so well, but when he asked her the same question and she repeated my part of the conversation verbatim, he was struck dumb! Why do I share this? Because it is an example of where I used to be and how far I have come - and one I think applies to much of our society today.

Spending most of this year alone because of the pandemic, has left me much less enamored of the sound of my own voice, and much more conscious of how I use it. So, when I sat down to write this blog, I couldn't think of anything important enough to say out loud. My go-to in such situations is Spirit, so I asked, "What should I talk about today?" and the answer stopped me in my tracks: "Don't talk. Listen."

Well, since guidance isn't worth much if I don't follow it, I decided to give it a try. Did you know that, if you listen very gently, in absolute silence, you can hear your own heartbeat? Try just focusing on your breathing for a while, not forcing it, just watching it go in and out. After a while, you start to heart a very quiet thump, thump, thump. It's like centering all of your attention inside your own heart. There's no effort, no fear, no confusion, no doubt - just wonder and peace and awe.

Wow, is that cool . . .

LEAVES!

November 9, 2020

Apparently, we had a very strong wind last night at One Heart. When I went out this morning there was no grass to be seen anywhere, but boy, oh boy, do we have leaves! Gold, brown, orange and red - every where I looked the leaves were ankle-deep. All of a sudden I was six years old and only the cast on my broken left ankle kept me from skipping, jumping and rolling in the amazing carpet before me. My dogs had no such limitations, and I really enjoyed watching them enjoy Mother Nature's sense of humor.

Many of the trees are naked now, but not all of them, and I noticed that I felt no sense of ending as I scanned their bare branches reaching into the wind. Rather, I saw a mirror of their counter-balancing roots preparing to dig even deeper in the coming months, and the warm fires made possible by the fallen wood. Autumn, for me is a time to snuggle in and get comfortable, to enjoy the smell of wood smoke and the amazing variety of colors here in the Ozark mountains, to watch the deer and squirrels nesting into the woods, and to soak up those last few days of one-layered clothing.

In just a few days, we'll be baking for Thanksgiving and starting the Holiday season, so now is the time to just relax a bit and recognize all we have survived and accomplished during this challenging, exciting, difficult and creative year. I feel like I have been running full-tilt since last winter, and at the same time, COVID has forced us to stand still, shift our perspective, and consciously evolve. WOW, just look at all of the changes we have experienced - maybe it really is the case that what does not kill us makes us stronger? We have lost much and many, but we have grown deeper and stronger and learned a very great deal about ourselves and our species. There will be more challenges, and more surprises, some fun, some not. Just now, though, I don't feel the need to guess what's coming next - it's Autumn, so for the moment I choose to emulate Mother Nature and just be for a while.

Care to join me?

Our MOST important right!

November 2, 2020

My father only gave me three pieces of good advice in my whole life, and he gave them all on the day before he died. I didn't know it was the day before he would die, but I think he did, so pay attention, please!

1. Don't ever go to sleep angry. It's okay to go to bed angry, but don't go to sleep

angry - it will give you ulcers.

2. If you ever wake up and say, "Oh, God, I don't want to go to work!" you need to

find a new job! You will do what you do to earn a living more than everything

else you do in your life, so be sure it is something you love, something you

would do for free, hell, something you would pay to be allowed to do!

3. Here's the big one: if you don't vote, you don't have the right to B***H, and

THAT if the right we need to protect above all others, so whether you vote for

somebody or against somebody, make damn good and sure you VOTE!

'nuff said . . .

Michelangelo's Mistake

October 19, 2020

It has long been my contention that Michelangelo really blew it with the Sistine ceiling when he failed to give any of his angels a flute! Many years ago, when I first heard James Galway play Pachelbel's Canon in D, I learned what it means to be transported by music - and it was only a recording. I'm not sure I could survive hearing him play it live. That liquid silver sound was just overwhelmingly beautiful and it has been my go-to refuge whenever I know I need to be reminded, in an irrefutable manner, that the Divine lives in and through me. When I listen to a flute's notes, no matter what the tune or tempo, my whole self resonates with it.

At least a decade after I first discovered the classical flute, I was introduced to the Native American flute. The two instruments are vastly different in tone and yet they produce exactly the same response in me - AWE! I was blessed to be taking my Practitioner panels at Asilomar in 2013 and just happened to wake up early enough to attend the morning Spiritual Practice on the day that Christy Snow was the presenter. She played such stunning piano music that I wanted to dance, but when she stood up and unleashed her Native American flute? I heard angels sing, and my whole self sang with them!

Now, I am certainly aware that not everyone resonates with these two instruments as I do, but I am also aware that everyone resonates with SOMETHING the way I resonate with flutes. My prayer for everyone who reads this, and for everyone who doesn't, is that you find your own flute, whatever it is, because that is the greatest gift you can give yourself - it is your shortest path to experiencing Oneness. Mind you, it does not have to be music - it can be art or literature or nature or perfect, deep silence. Whatever it is, go find it and claim it with your heart. It will show you how powerful, how perfect, and how sacred you are, and it will remind you any time you ask!

Brain BURP!

October 13, 2020

Yesterday I had an unanticipated Hospice visit (I volunteer with the local Hospice organization), and somehow that one extra event pushed me over the schedule limit. I can normally keep one day's schedule in my mind and stay on track without actually crossing things off my calendar. Yesterday that was not the case. Maybe it was because it was Monday? Maybe it was because my visit required me to leave the house before the time the alarm usually rings? Maybe it was the pearly fog between my house and my patient's house? I may never know the why of it, but I am still laughing about the what of it - I forgot to write my blog!

I spent the whole day going over what was left to be done and mentally checking things off, but still with that nagging feeling that something was not right . . . I had this sense of being out of sync, almost like playing hooky, but what I did not do, the one thing that would have solved my dilemma, was look at my calendar. I just relied on my memory and relaxed into the fog. The dogs loved it because I was home with them when I would normally have been in my office. I had a long chat with an old friend who expected to leave a message. I watched Jeopardy! live, instead of DVR. I ate lunch early. NONE of these things usually happen, but the inner alarm just didn't ring.

I rather enjoyed the sense of laziness, that little voice was just too quiet to get me back on track. Then, when I got to my office this morning, there was the Reminder: Write and post blog. Picture me slapping my forehead. I giggled with my Prayer Partner, who reminded me that nobody holds me responsible for a Monday blog but me - everyone else will be content with a Tuesday blog.

So here's my Tuesday blog, with my thanks for your forbearance. Anyone who reads this and does not recognize the experience wins a free night at One Heart! Just be sure to call and get on the schedule. . .

Lose vs. Loose

October 5, 2020

Lose is an interesting word. It is rarely something to which we aspire and it is usually not a permanent thing. Consider the idea of losing weight - over half of our population is engaged in this never-ending, miserable battle! Why is it never-ending? Because most folks think the weight is in charge of the contest! This is just one example of failure based on attempts to "lose" a "bad" habit. The worst part about it is is that whatever we lose, eventually finds us again.

I think this is because we act like losing something is just a really intense form of ignoring it - as in, "ignore it and it will go away!" The trouble with ignoring an issue is that you are really just hiding from it, like the little girl who covers her eyes so we can't see her. This is especially significant when we recognize that what we are ignoring is a part of us.

There is a better option, though. We can embrace the thing we want to change, recognize it as part of our past, and then release it. That is, we can give is a hug (O) to change "lose" into "loose". In this way, we stop ignoring, we stop hiding, we stop chasing ourselves in circles and just let go of what no longer serves us.

Like the girl in the picture above? She was losing air, just by breathing, but when she hugged it with a little soap as she released it, she got to watch beautiful, iridescent bubbles float away!

No longer an option . . .

September 28, 2020

This cute little picture caused me years of confusion! Okay, it wasn't actually this picture, it was a sign on a bookstore wall that made me think of this picture, and that caused the confusion. The sign just said, "No longer an option."

Why, I wondered, would you want to advertise what you no longer considered possible? Wouldn't that be rather like being stuck in the past, or in regret, or in victimhood? Clearly, in the first picture, whatever is on the "No longer an option" path is to be avoided.

Then I began to wonder what happened to the rest of the picture. Why would I want to remove any experience from my field of possibility? Well, negative things, like loss, disease, war, loneliness, etc. could be eliminated, but I wouldn't choose those things anyway. I mulled over this for a while and the picture started to shift. It occurred to me that "no longer and option" might not mean not possible, but rather, not optional!

There are ideas, experiences, and philosophical truths that are so important to me, so vital to my sense of self, that they are absolutely NOT optional. Things like love, oneness, justice, wholeness, and compassion are essential to me. This realization brought me up short! The longer my "No longer an option" list gets, the deeper and richer my life becomes. The trick seems to be looking inward to infinity, rather than outward to limitation. What's on your list?

Sympathy vs. Empathy

September 21, 2020

I have been thinking a lot lately about the difference between sympathy and empathy, and I have come to believe that they are not two different concepts, but rather two different points on the emotional evolutionary scale. Gosh, that sounds complicated, doesn't it? The idea is really simple (which is NOT a synonym for easy). Both are emotional responses to the thinning of the border between self and other. Sympathy is what we feel when something, some event or experience, perceived as negative, happens to somebody else. It could be a total stranger we hear about on the news or it could be someone really close to us, a friend or family member. Sympathy is a sadness that we feel for somebody else's unhappiness, sorrow, or challenge. It might move us to action to try to help, but it is still not our own experience.

Empathy is sympathy that has evolved a little further on the you/me scale. It recognizes that what hurts those we love also hurts us, so the sadness becomes personal to a degree. Empathy wants to address the cause of the pain, to ease our own discomfort by soothing the other person's, but at the same time, it recognizes that we cannot truly share that experience.

When empathy continues to evolve, we feel compassion. This is evolving from you/me to we. Compassion moves us from feeling sorrow for another to recognizing that there is no other. It recognizes that, while I am me, and you are you, and the person on the other side of the planet is part of a different culture, we are all part of the same species. We live on the same planet. We use the same resources: air, water, land, love, life, energy. The continuum of sympathy/empathy/compassion leads to the greatest experience of all: ONENESS.

For me, that was a major AHA! moment - this continuum is really a metaphor for the spiritual journey of the individual back to the One. Cool, huh?

Labor Day?

September 7, 2020

I am the oldest of five stair-step daughters, so growing up, I thought Labor Day was the day before Mom and Dad brought home a new baby. As I got older, I realized that, as much work at it had been for Mom to do that, it was not the source of the holiday. It is a great metaphor, though.

Think about it: everything we have is the result of labor - lots of different kinds of labor. I saw a bumper snicker once that said, "If you have it, a trucker brought it". That's actually true in most cases, and the amazing thing is that the trucker's labor was just the last step. First, somebody had to have the idea (probably someone working in a think-tank); then, somebody had to design it; someone had to figure out how to implement the design; someone had to order the materials; someone had to assemble the product; someone had to test it for quality and safety; someone had to package it - all BEFORE the trucker could load it up and deliver it to the store where you bought it.

Suddenly, the idea of celebrating the nameless, faceless people who do all of the things necessary to keep us healthy, happy, and safe makes a lot more sense. Isn't it lovely that this idea preceded COVID? I suspect the current circumstances of our world have increased our awareness somewhat, but it certainly warms my heart to know that there were people in the US and Canada who recognized the contributions of ordinary, everyday people to the comfort and safety of our lives and considered it worth celebrating when things were 'normal'.

The next thing we need to do, in my humble opinion, is find a way to let all of the essential workers have a three-day weekend to celebrate themselves. This presents a logistical nightmare, I grant you, since we cannot guarantee a weekend without illness, accidents, fires, or crime, but I have faith in us - we can figure it out, even if we have to just let them all take turns being celebrated. You know, I rather like the idea of building appreciation and celebration into our daily routine, making it part of our new 'normal'. What do you think?

Rainy-day green . . .

August 31, 2020

In the midst of the hurricane (who'd have thought a landlocked state could be affected by a hurricane?), I found myself thinking about something that really puzzled me when I was a child. In fact, I wondered if I was just imagining it, and it wasn't until I went to college and took a class in optics (required for a minor in physics) that I discovered that colors really do change when it rains. Well, the colors don't actually change, but how we see them does.

I noticed that on a rainy day, although the skies were definitely dull and grey, the grass and trees were an amazing, vibrant, gorgeous green. What's more, the rain was silver, the flowers actually seemed to glow, and every color looked deeper, more intense, more THERE somehow. My optics instructor explained the physics of rainy day colors - the water in the air changes the wavelengths we see by bending the light. I really didn't care how it happened, I was just grateful to know I hadn't imagined it.

Then I thought, "So what if I had imagined it?" Would that have made my enjoyment of the colors any less valid? Would the rain have been any less silver, the air any less glowing, the world any less alive? NOPE!

That was how I discovered the metaphysics behind the optics. How we look determines what we see. When we look for vibrant life, we see brighter colors. When we look with appreciation, we see beauty in everyday, 'ordinary' things. This is true whether or not it is raining. This is true whether it's daylight or night.

This is even true when you look in a mirror.

BTW, my favorite color is rainy-day green . . . (just sayin')

Mind full?

August 24, 2020

Have you ever had a day when your mind was full, not just full, but FFUUULLLL? I found myself this past weekend with one of those days. It was not pretty. I was not pretty. I was grouchy, glum, ticked and touchy! I did not enjoy it.

One of the blessings of living in two-hours-from-everything, Arkansas is that there's nobody around to observe my behavior on such a day. One of the disadvantages of living here is that there's nobody around to notice when I am having one of those days. Having somebody else point it out is not fun, but it sure can shorten the duration of the explosion.

This is a beautiful spot, though, and it finally dawned on me that if my mind was full to overflowing with stuff to do, consider, decide, select, evaluate, or accept, nobody could have made it that way except me. Yup, I stuffed it all in there. I didn't notice how full it was getting because I was not paying attention to my mind, I was just collecting pictures, thoughts, ideas, concepts, and possibilities randomly.

Then I got another idea, but my mind was FULL, what could I do with this new idea? Clearly I had to let go of some of the junk that was taking up space in my head without paying any rent. How does one go about cleaning out this overstuffed mind? Well, there is only one way that is guaranteed to succeed - you have to approach it mindfully.

For me, that means letting go of any sense of urgency, cranking up the faith muscles, and sitting still to explore my mind, one picture, thought, idea, concept or possibility at a time. The process cannot be rushed, it just has to flow, gently, consciously, and with intention. If we start with our breath - just watch it going in and out, we can calm the roiling mind enough to see what's floating on top, what's ready for release, what's calling for growth, and what's deep, clear inspiration.

By allowing the breath to lead the way - it's automatic and gentle - we ease into that state of mindful presence that can be in the flow without overwhelm. We can let the storm settle and see the direction we need to go. We can stop frenetic doing and start serene being. Who doesn't love that?

The cure for a full mind is to be mindful . . .

Dog years

August 17 2020

My heart is sad today, because I just learned that a dear friend has made her transition from this planet. Her name was Mali, and she was a mixed breed terrier who was all heart. She did all kinds of tricks, but her favorite was to be in the middle of a prayer circle, down on her belly, nose firmly planted on her paws, bathing in the blessing. It didn't matter how long the prayer lasted, Mali wouldn't move until she heard, "Amen."

Not long ago, Mali's mama, who is one of my soul's siblings, was telling me about "dog years". She said dog years are not longer than human years, it's just that dogs (and cats and horses, for that matter) live much faster than we people do, so they can cram 7 years of people stuff into one dog year. I thought how much we can learn from animals who can be absolutely still, completely present, and yet be accomplishing everything they need to do in perfect peace and right on time. I started to think about the fact that dogs always have time to play or to take a nap or to dig a hole that really needs digging. I'm pretty sure they don't debate the wisdom of taking a break to sniff something interesting (smell the roses, get it?) or consider the virtue of skipping a snack, or worry that they might run out of trees to mark or grass to roll in or balls to chase.

I think it's not that they live faster, but that they live more completely, savoring every moment, every pat on the head, every butterfly on the nose, every squeaky toy. So I invite you to join me in this experiment: for the next week, live every moment with your whole self, working, playing, praying or sleeping; maybe we'll decide to live in dog years and get more out of life!

A wasted day . . .

August 10, 2020

What, exactly, is a wasted day? Is it a day when you don't make any money? Is it a day when you don't make any friends? Is it a day when nothing on your to-do list got done?

It's all in how you look at it, really. Maybe you didn't make any money because you were helping a neighbor load a moving van. Maybe you didn't make any friends because you were contemplating nature from the back porch. Maybe every single item on your to-do list is still to be completed, but every single item is also begun, in progress, or delegated to somebody else.

For me, a wasted day is one when I did not learn anything new. It doesn't have to be something big. It doesn't have to be something necessary. It doesn't even have to be something useful. It just has to be something I didn't know before. For instance, one day last week when I actually had NOTHING on my to-do list, I discovered a dragonfly resting on my car's antenna - it made me think of angels dancing on the head of a pin - and whenever I reached for it, the dragonfly would lift and hover until the antenna was clear, then settle right back onto its chosen perch. I can't imagine there is anyone on Earth who can't live without knowing a dragonfly can balance on a car antenna, but it really tickled me!

I think this is probably the deepest reason for my fascination with Jeopardy! (My students were not allowed to call for help during this show.) I have never failed to learn something while watching it. Sometimes it's a new fact for my beloved trivia store, and sometimes it's a new aspect of my own internal landscape that appears in response to one of the answers or questions. Either way, my mind gets stretched. In other words, either way, I grow. What's not to love about that?

My cup of tea . . .

August 3, 2020

I love the smell of coffee, but I have never learned to enjoy the taste. I am a tea drinker. There are a lot of reasons, stretching back to my childhood, when Grandma's answer to crisis was a cup of Constant Comment tea and a slice of cinnamon raisin toast. There are many varieties of tea, from all over the world, and many have genuine health benefits. Licorice root, for instance, makes a tea that is both delicious (sort of sweet and chocolatey) and delightfully soothing to a sore or froggy throat. Peppermint tea soothes an upset stomach. Tazo's Zen tea, a combination of lemongrass and spearmint, as its name suggests produces a calm, peaceful state of mind. I could go on (as any herbalist would tell you), but I think you get the idea.

Another reason I love tea is that it is as much a process as a drink. Really good tea has to be steeped. Steeping is a lovely process: pour boiling water over whatever tea blend you prefer, and then just wait. I like to smell the steam, as it deepens like the tint of the brew. It's soothing, comforting, calming and slow. Can you feel the metaphor coming?

Human consciousness is like a teapot, always filled with boiling water, and all we have to do to produce growth is toss in the ideas, concepts, possibilities we want to embody and then allow them to steep. It's a good idea to stay conscious of the steam as the image in consciousness takes shape, becomes solid, and takes form - after all, it is our own growth and we do get to choose how it occurs. It is a wonderful feeling to realize that actual, conscious growth is happening, by your own intention.

Here's my invitation: let's choose a new consciousness to steep into the collective consciousness of the human race. I suggest compassion, with a touch of courage, a dollop of love, and a whole lot of willingness to grow. Care to join me for a cup?

Family of Choice

July 27, 2020

This is a fairly new phrase, Family of Choice, and it has become precious to me. I an a boomer, a product of the 50's and 60's. I grew up with four younger siblings and two parents - traveling all over the country for my father's work. My mother's favorite lament was that we could not put down roots. I didn't understand her dismay because I had no idea what roots she was missing. Looking back, I remember thinking we were all of us orphans, even our parents. The seven of us lived in one house (most of the time), but we had very little in common, there were times (way too many of them) when I don't think we even liked each other very much.

Then, as a young adult in the 70's, a single parent working my way through an undergraduate degree, and not at all alone in that situation, I heard an old expression, "You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family," but I heard it from a new perspective and it morphed into the form I have use/lived by ever since, "You can't pick your relatives, but you CAN pick your family!" This was the time when Gay Pride and PFLAG (parents and families of lesbians and gays) and PWP (parents without partners) started building communities, actually families, of choice. We all needed the emotional, spiritual,and moral support this new tradition provided and we latched onto it with both hands, both feet and all of our teeth. It made us stronger, more confident, more compassionate and more powerful people.

Today, I still have four siblings, though I am only in close contact with the youngest (figures, huh?), but I have a very large, far-flung family of sisters-from-another-mister and brothers-from-another-mother. They are each of them the siblings of my heart and blessings to my life. In the midst of the current turmoil - social, political, pandemical - we all need family. In fact, we all need to be family. My prayer, my intention, my invitation to you all is that we choose to be the human family, warts and all, bonded by love.

Free TUIT

July 20, 2020

This is my gift to each person reading this week's blog, a free TUIT. I can't imagine that there is anyone among you who is not familiar with the idea of a TUIT. Nobody knows who made the first one, and they come in many styles and colors - I have a wooden one with the letters burned into it sitting on my printer.

Oddly enough, TUITs seem to be available only as gifts - I don't know anyone who has ever created their own. Likewise, I don't know anyone who would not find a spare TUIT handy. This happens to be a round TUIT, probably the most popular variety, which creates opportunities or time, as in, "when I get around to it ..." or "as soon as I get around to it."

I know it's a really old joke, but like most old jokes, it has a grain of wisdom in it. The TUIT is the only known remedy for procrastination. It eliminates excuses and delays and replaces them with intention and action. They are especially useful in these days of COVID lockdown, since we really NEED something to do to keep ourselves sane while self-isolating at home. This particular TUIT was designed to be reusable, so you can just start at the top of your "Someday, I'll . . ." list and knock off those projects, researches, tasks, and chores one by one.

It's amazing how much satisfaction comes from changing a TUIT into a DUNIT (just sound it out). Sometimes, it's even fun, like learning to knit or re-arranging the living room furniture. It also frequently involves discovery - of things thought lost, new ideas, or unimagined talent. Give it a shot. What do you have to lose? After all, the TUIT is free!

SOMEBODY

July 13, 2020

I am the eldest of five daughters, and for most of my childhood/adolescence I wondered whether my name (even though it said SHARON on my birth certificate) might really be SOMEBODY. You know, as in "Somebody clean the kitchen", "Somebody take the trash out", "Somebody get the phone" or "Somebody make a pot of coffee." Maybe it was just an eldest child thing, but somehow it seemed to have turned me into the family fixer, the solution finder, the creativity source.

Over the decades, as I grew into my own self and constructed a life, that seemed to subside. Then 2020 came and all H*** broke loose! This time it's different, though. I follow the safety protocols for COVID, but I don't feel responsible for finding a cure, though I do feel called to hold it in prayer at the top of my list. The big issue now, for me, is RACISM. Yup, this skinny, white, red-headed, straight widow is up to her eyeballs in "Somebody has to do something about this mess!"

There's that blinking SOMEBODY call again - and I can't ignore it any more now than I could 50 years ago, when I was in the third grade and discovered that there were people who thought people who didn't look like me were somehow lesser, or beneath, or inferior to them. It never stopped bothering me, but I never realized there was anything I could do about it.

I know I didn't create racism. The people who did died centuries ago. They can't clean up the mess they made, and the human race can't live with it anymore, so SOMEBODY HAS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

The good news is that I am not the only SOMEBODY in this mess, there are millions of us. The better news is that we actually recognize the situation and are willing to dig into our own minds, consciousness, and upbringing to figure out how and what to change. And we are not just going to change the name of the problem or put a bandaid over it - we are going to change how we think, how we act, how we live. And we are not just going to make changes that are comfortable and easy - we are ready to tackle the tough stuff: White Fragility, White Superiority, White Exceptionalism, and the biggie: WHITE PRIVILEGE.

It won't be easy, fast, painless or simple, but it WILL be successful, because we simply have no other options if we want to survive as a species. There is only one race, the HUMAN race, and we have to recognize, celebrate, and live from that truth. It's a big mess, but we have finally reached the point where we have pulled our our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual brooms and shovels to clean it up. We can do this. We will do this. We ARE doing this. Join the (r)evolution!

AMAZING!

July 6, 2020

I made the most amazing discovery recently - right in the middle of shelter-in-place COVID! I was feeling sorry for myself, sitting here all alone on 7.2 acres with nobody to talk to and no activity that doesn't feel like busy work, and the phone rang. It was the volunteer coordinator of the local Hospice organization. Since hospice volunteers are not considered "essential" workers, I haven't been able to visit "my" patients and their families, do I was not expecting the call, and wasn't sure what it would mean.

Imagine my delight when he asked if I would be willing to make phone visits. Turns out that just having somebody call you once or twice a week really lifts the feeling of isolation and loneliness. I guess it reminds us that there still is life on the other side of our front door. There's no travel time or gas expense, no need to dress professionally or put on make-up (or even comb my hair!), and the folks who are spending their days in the repetitive tasks of caring for a loved one in what might be their final illness get a little boost of cheerful or funny, or compassionate listening, or even an occasional poem or prayer.

I am now able to volunteer with hospice patients and their families without even leaving my home - how cool is that?!? Oddly enough, it really lifts my spirits, too. So here are my suggestions:

Call someone you love and haven't heard from for a while, then just listen to what they have to say.
Call your spiritual center's leader and ask if there are any folks in the congregation who live alone and might appreciate a phone visit.
Find a group of folks who might enjoy a "coffee klatch by phone" and set up a weekly conference call.
If you are computer savvy, set up a video chat group to discuss a book you are reading, or a movie you have all seen.
Call your local hospital's volunteer coordinator and see if there are any patients who might enjoy a phone visit, if they only want to listen, you could read them the newspaper or a book.
Call your local Hospice organization and ask if they can use your time, you won't be sorry.

Stupid mistakes

June 29, 2020

My father used to say that the only stupid mistake was one you repeated, because that meant you hadn't learned anything the first time. For most of my adult life, I thought that was absolute truth. I even told my students, in my "Burden of Learning" speech on the first day of each class, that we never learn from our successes, only from our mistakes, so they should hope to make many mistakes.

I used this concept to examine my own actions and to look for the "blessin' in every lesson". I taught it to my children and to their children. I shared it with pretty much anyone who would listen. Then came the moment of my awakening. I don't even remember what the "stupid mistake" was, but during my morning meditation one day last week I was really scolding myself for it when I had a burst of inspiration, a vision.

I remembered my personal metaphor for life - an ascending and ever-expanding spiral, on which only forward movement is possible. It's analogous to that old saying that one cannot step in the same river twice, and for the same reason: having stepped in it once (or climbed even one step upward), both the person and the river (or spiral path) have changed. It is not possible to make the same mistake twice, because making it the first time changes the person and the situation.

We all keep climbing the spiral path, and the situations we encounter, which are inside the spiral, keep changing , too. Each time we encounter an "old" challenge, we perceive it from higher on the path, that is, from a higher consciousness, a different perspective. That means THERE ARE NO STUPID MISTAKES! We always learn something, even though it occasionally takes several stops along the path to finally get the whole lesson. Is that cool or what?

ITCH!

June 22, 2020

My daughter and I spent a large part of the weekend working in the little park that is part of my retreat center. We both got into some hidden poison ivy, so it should not have been a surprise when I asked Spirit what to blog about and the answer was, "ITCH!" My first response was, "Who would want to hear about my itch?" and the answer was, "WHICH itch?"

Amused by Spirit's unfailing sense of humor, I thought: cheek? chin? forearms? forehead? belly? back? NOPE. The itch in question is internal, not physical, and immune to creams and lotions. It is sometimes referred to as "spiritual indigestion", but I think it is a soul-deep consciousness itch. What's more, I think we, as a species, even as a biosphere, ALL have this same itch. We have ignored it as long as we could. Some of us still haven't noticed it. We have tried to remove it via drugs, alcohol, work, even legislation, but not one of those remedies was more than partial and temporary.

What we need now is to address that which causes the itch: inequality, unfairness, bias, prejudice, selfishness, and social injustice. Nobody is immune to these factors in our world. Some folks feel "safe" because of their wealth, influence, or position in society, but we ALL suffer when a child goes hungry, we all suffer when a life is lost through violence, disease, ignorance, or neglect. Nobody will ever be warm while anyone is cold. Nobody will ever be healthy as long as anyone experiences disease. Nobody will ever by safely sheltered as long as anyone is homeless. Nobody will be civilized as long as anyone lacks clean water, clean air, safe shelter, broad education, satisfying work, or simple respect.

Are you nodding your head in agreement? Are you squirming at the depth of the itch? Are you thinking this is somebody else's problem? THERE IS NOBODY ELSE! We, as a species, made this mess, and it is our responsibility to clean it up. We, as individuals might (with an extreme squint or stretch of imagination) be innocent of harming another person, animal, or the environment, but that doesn't matter. If the folks who "made this mess" are gone, or even if they are just unwilling to help, we must stand up and work to clean it up - or it will get infinitely worse.

The question is not "Am I responsible?" but rather "What is my part to play?" None of us is capable of fixing everything, but every single one of us can fix something - remember the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike? Or Rosa Parks? Or Nelson Mandela? They were ordinary people who stood up and did what was theirs to do. I intend to join them, how about you?

Hurry up and wait . . .

June 15, 2020

Today I borrow an expression from the military: hurry up and wait. There is considerable excitement about the re-opening of our society. Folks are tired of staying home, wearing masks and gloves, social distancing, and all the rest of the patience-teaching tools of COVID-19. I get it. I do. AND I beg you to reconsider, in the name of prudence, safety, and common sense.

Even Noah, who was in lock-down a lot longer than three months, didn't jump off the boat as soon as it landed on Ararat. First he sent out birds to check the conditions, not once, not twice, but three times - and then only after his own experience said the rain had stopped. He didn't rush out into the drastically changed world he found at the end of the flood, and I think we should follow his example - ease back on the shelter-in-place, go slow, let the work force rebuild itself gradually and safely. Remember, waiting is NOT doing nothing, it's just aligning your timing with God's watch rather than your own, bearing in mind that God sees the whole picture.

We have made it through so much together, let's take a breath, relax the tension, and hang on until we get a solid "All Clear!" from the CDC. If I sound like your grandma, that's okay - she is pretty bright, after all. Maybe you should just bake some cookies and think it over a while . . .

A purring cat . . .

June 8, 2020

I have a beautiful black cat - well, almost black, he has a round white spot at the base of his throat, but the rest of him is black. His name is Bandit, and being his person (people have dogs, but cats have people) is a spiritual practice. This morning when I sat down to meditate, I just couldn't get my puppy-mind to settle and I was getting frustrated with the "task" of stilling my mind. Then Bandit, all 18 pounds of him, leapt up into my lap and curled up on my chest, purring to beat the band. While I was a bit startled, it took only a few seconds for that purring to settle into my heart and the puppy-mind just conked out. My morning prayer time was peaceful and joyful, needless to say, and I found myself once again in a state of rampant gratitude.

One does not listen to a purr, one feels it, vibrates with it, snuggles into it, and when that happens there is a blissful sense of Oneness. Oneness is the most fundamental, essential, grounding experience of the Presence I have ever had. I always struggled to get there, impatient for the process, and suddenly I discover, God is in the purr. No wonder cats are icons of cool, calm, serenity! They are just naturally present 24/7. Who knew, my Bandit could just as easily teach meditation as breathe - and he teaches conscious breathing pretty well, too. I have become his ardent student.

So here's my wish for everyone: may you be adopted and embraced by a purring cat, and may you become a purring cat to someone else.

One

June 1, 2020

There's an awful lot of chaos happening in the US right now, and I am done with it - I am angry; I am hurt; I am ashamed; I am saddened; and I am not going to put up with it any more!!

My mother was raised in a family and a time when racial prejudice was the norm. She had no sense of self-worth or dignity, but she KNEW that prejudice was wrong. She determined that, however she might fail, one place where she would succeed was in raising her children without prejudice. What I learned from her was that there is only one race, and it is HUMAN. There are hundreds, thousands of languages, cultures, skin/hair/eye colors, but we ALL have the same set of bones, holding in the same set of organs, wrapped in the same muscles, tendons, and ligaments. WE ARE ALL HUMANS. ONE RACE. PERIOD. What covers the muscles, etc., is what gives us individuality, diversity, depth, and variety, as does what resides in our hearts and minds. It wasn't until I was fully grown that I came to understand that we are also all one life. (Spirituality wasn't my mother's strong suit.)

On top of that, even though I grew up moving to 35 different schools in 35 different states, somehow I lived through the Equal Rights movement without any personal experience of rioting, protests, violence, or even unfairness. I was a teenager in the 60's, so I heard about what was happening all over the country, but it wasn't REAL to me, somehow. Then I went to ministerial school, and one of the classes in the curriculum was about White Privilege. Imagine my astonishment when I discovered my relatively peaceful childhood and adolescence had not been the norm; that it had been denied to fellow citizens because of the color of their skin.

History is a BEAR! I realize now that there are centuries of abuse and inequality bearing fruit in this country, right here and right now. We, the human race, at least the white western hemisphere part of it, have made an amazing mess of our societies - we have broken away from the very principles that were our foundation, (the Ten Commandments, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights)from the very moment of our revolution! We NEVER have given equal rights to most of our citizens. The entire world is now embroiled in racism and violence, murder and mayhem. We made this mess; we have to clean it up. I don't know how, but I do know it is within our capabilities - it is the reason we were born in this place at this time.

What I am saying is that we have to agree to stop the abuse, the privilege, the violence and the dis-empowerment of anyone, anywhere, any when. We have to remember, if we have forgotten, and realize, if we never have, that there is only one Life, One Creative Force, and we are ALL it! We must release the illusions of "us vs. them" and realize it has always been us vs. us. We are not our brothers' keeper - we are our brothers. THERE IS ONLY ONE RACE - AND IT IS HUMAN.

BREATHE!

May 25, 2020

When I was younger I was always in a hurry, especially when hurry was, at best, unwise, and at worst, impossible. Sometimes I would be in the midst of hurrying and suddenly heave a huge sigh - why? Because I had forgotten to breathe - actually, literally forgotten to breathe! This happened for a few decades before I noticed and began to wonder about it.

I once worked for a large communications company (which shall remain nameless), in a call center. Eventually I became the trainer of new representatives, but first I had to learn how to be an effective and productive representative. During my own training the instructor repeatedly exhorted us to "not take anything personally", but there really wasn't anything happening during training that I was tempted to take personally, so I pretty much let that go. Once I was out on the floor, however, I discovered the meaning and importance of her advice! While still a probie, I had the misfortune to take (via autodial, not intentionally) a service call from an elderly couple in a very large eastern city (which shall also remain nameless). This couple had an extension phone (remember those?), so it felt like I had one of them yelling in each ear - and neither knew a single word of more than four letters. I was raised to be respectful, and my corporate training firmly reinforce that upbringing, so I was astonished to find myself being royally cursed at by two different people at the same time. I couldn't get a word in edgewise (I will stop for a moment here so that those of you who know me can get over the shock of such an occurrence), and was nearly in tears trying to calm them both down enough to listen to my explanation.

Suddenly, one of the managers in my department - I never did find out who - stepped up behind my chair, placed her hands on my shoulders and whispered, "Breathe in, breathe out. This, too, SHALL pass." It was like a thunderbolt. All at once I heard the trainer saying not to take anything personally, and I had a vision of myself, at my desk, headset in place, elderly couple cursing at the top of their lungs, but this time, instead of my own head, sitting on my shoulders between the earphones was the globe that was the logo of my employer, and I got it! They were cursing at my employer through my ears.

Our current global experience is like that. We have done everything we can to address it, we are safe in our homes or behind masks and gloves and we are all reminding one another that we can get through this together. But how blinking long are we going to do this?!? As long as it takes. This is one of those situations where the only way out is through, so we hunker down, breathe in, breathe out, and remember, "This, too, SHALL pass."

And someday, decades in the future, we will talk about all of the things that got us through COVID; a lot more than the challenges, we will remember the growth.

Lost in the grass . . .

May 18, 2020

Did you ever think you had worked out a perfect plan and then some unforeseeable event made it blow up in your face? I have been experiencing a lot of that lately. For example, when health challenges required my groundskeeper to leave, one of my Board members came up with a plan to offer room, board, and tuition assistance to a college student in return for groundskeeping. Then COVID hit and the plan dried up. No problem, we thought, COVID can't last forever, and I can drive the zero-turn lawnmower. Then the zero-turn quit working and the person who would normally fix it got called to Florida to help his mom. Not a problem, my neighboring farmer thought - he could harvest my five acres of grass and clover to feed his pigs, rabbits, and chickens. Now that's about as perfect as it gets . . . until Mother Nature joined the party.

For the past six weeks, we have had no more than two days in a row without rain. As a result, the ground has been too wet to mow. It's two feet tall now, which is not too tall for the tractor (if the ground weren't so mushy), but yesterday, I lost both of my dogs - one a small Shih Tsu mix and the other a larger half-Cocker Spaniel, half- Yorkie mix) in the front yard! The view is beautiful, but the dogs are NOT happy! They don't like to be where they cannot see me, and when they can't see over the grass, they can't see me!

This seems like a pretty obvious metaphor for the global situation right now. We are up to our eyeballs in high grass - COVID, war, racism, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, economic meltdown - and we are finding it challenging to find a perspective that lets us see past the grass. If it weren't for the media, we might think we were in a hopeless situation. Happily, I can acknowledge that the media are reporting on the up-side of the COVID shutdowns: pollution is significantly reduced world-wide, in the air and in the water.

That tells me that like my dogs, who didn't panic because they knew I was at the other end of the leash, we also have a lifeline. It's called conscious awareness. That means that if we can tell the grass is too high, we can also remember the ladder on the porch. We have a way to get above the challenge, and find the possibilities for solution. We have the intelligence, the ability, the equipment (mostly in labs, right now) to find ways to come out of quarantine without 'feeding the grass.'

We can find alternate power sources that don't damage the environment. We can find alternate modes of transportation that don't pollute the air. We can find alternate philosophies of society and government and international trade that don't require losers in order to establish winners. We can work together for the common good. That's a very old idea, pretty much abandoned by the people of Earth, and definitely ready to be taken up and lived again.

I'm in, how about you?

Elastic time . . .

May 11, 2020

One of the things I have noticed during this time of global isolation is that time is definitely elastic. People have talked about the flexibility and unpredictability of time for as long as we have used the concept of time. Eight hours is an eternity spent at a job you dislike. Eight hours is a finger-snap spent with someone you love. One hour is an eternity spent crying alone. One hour is the blink of an eye spent watching a sunset. Nobody has enough time to do everything they want to do. Everybody feels the endlessness of waiting - for something desired or for something dreaded. Of course, time doesn't change - one minute is still sixty seconds, one hour is still sixty minutes, and one day is still 24 hours. I could go on, but you get the point.

Our perception of the passage of time is absolutely dependent upon what we are doing, experiencing, or being during that passage - that's what makes it elastic. Before COVID-19 arrived, weekends flew by at light speed. During shelter-at-home isolation, everything has slowed down amazingly. Between working in our pajamas and sleeping without an alarm clock, time has become a much less tightly managed commodity. Our attention is not so focused on completing as many tasks as possible, but rather, on getting the most satisfaction out of each moment.

I think this is a very good shift of perception/intention. I no longer "steal" an afternoon to read a novel or gobble my lunch so that I can get back to work more quickly. Relaxing into each activity has actually expanded my focus and the time seems to stretch to fit whatever I choose to do with it. Sort of the temporal version of one-size-fits-all, but with a twist: size doesn't matter any more; the concept is not relevant. It's not that I have more time, or even that I value it more, it's that my attention is on the activity, not on the time that passes during that activity.

Wow, I just realized that elastic time is the key to presence! What a blessing, especially if we can maintain the same focus/intention/attention after we are no longer sheltering in place. What do you think?

Reflections . . .

May 4, 2020

Ever since I began to explore my inner landscape, my consciousness, many decades ago, I have heard and read repeatedly that whenever something bothers, upsets, disturbs, or offends me in another person, it is actually the awareness at some level that that same characteristic or trait exists in me, a reflection in myself, that is causing my reaction. And it is definitely a reaction, not a response. Reactions feel automatic because we don't filter them as we do our responses. We don't check them for origin or accuracy, and we don't consider their possible outcomes.

For the most part, I think reactions say a lot about what we consider to be our truth. or even the truth. The challenge is that we don't always own them. Sure, we are the ones reacting, but where did the reaction start? Perhaps with my mom, or my grandfather, or the kids at school, or the television show I watched last night, who knows? If we did stop to examine the reaction before expressing it, we might find answers to that question - and the only reactions we should express are the ones we actually can explain through our own beliefs - not mom's, dad's, grandma's, my classmate's, or even my culture's beliefs - just our own. Of course that process of filtering turns reactions into conscious responses, which is a good thing in itself.

I spent a lot of time denying that I could possibly be as judgmental, arrogant, selfish, or rude as the people who offended me before I realized that my denial was judgmental, arrogant, selfish, and often rude. So as I grew in self-awareness, I worked hard to release the habits of thought and action that I found unacceptable in others, including the habit of finding things unacceptable in others. I began to catch myself asking what was in my herstory that was causing me to react, and I really started to clean up my act.

When I stopped being offended all the time, I got a real shock; the folks I encountered had cleaned up their acts, too. I started finding things to admire in those I had been judging. Yesterday it hit me - admiration is also a reaction. That really got me thinking. Perhaps admiration is also the result of a reflection? Could it be that releasing negativity allows positivity to expand? Might this be the silver lining to my cloud of resistance?

My grandma used to say, "Everything you do, good, bad or indifferent comes back to roost on your doorstep." Was she actually stating a metaphysical truth? Is it possible that there is something about myself in everything I see in another? Holy cow, that sounds like Oneness!

AWESOME!
April 27, 2020

I don't use the word 'awesome' very often, because in my lexicon, it means "numinous; having great spiritual impact', and that's not usually what I encounter. Just now, however, it seems the only word that works.

I have a confession to make: I am not suffering from isolation. You see, I live on a retreat center out in the country - it's ten miles to the nearest town. I live here with two dogs and a cat. I have been here for two and a half years, and for two years of that time, it's been just me, the dogs and the cat. I have almost all of my human interaction via Facebook, Zoom, and the Internet. Because it didn't change my personal life much, I didn't have to adjust to isolation the way most of our society has been forced to do.

Instead, since I have already learned to enjoy solitude and seek social contact over the 'net, I have found myself really examining my inner landscape. I have discovered in myself what I am seeing in my society on television - compassion, honesty, integrity, generosity, gratitude and kindness. I actually watch television just to see the "We're All In This Together" commercials; they make my heart sing. Those commercials remind me that I am not really alone, I am just physically separated - and right now, so is everyone else, so kindness, compassion, and generosity are big news now. Isn't that just AWESOME?!?

I am grateful to the front-line workers, who keep the rest of us safe, sheltered, fed, and in touch with the world. I am also grateful for the just plain ordinary folks who post signs and balloons and flowers to say, "Thank you!" I believe we, the human race, as a species, are shifting our consciousness away from our tiny little viewpoints of me/my/mine and towards we/us/our. I believe we are doing this in little ways and in big ways, and I believe the changes will be permanent.

I see the current situation as a kind of forced, but conscious evolutionary event, as I have said before, and I believe we are becoming what we were always meant to be: love, compassion, generosity, gratitude and joy - with feet on it! So I just wanted to say, "Y'all are doing a great job! Hang in there, we will grow through this, TOGETHER."

We will be more and better after this than we have ever been before!

Book it!

April 20, 2020

It's been a few weeks now that we are sheltering in place, staying home, being safe. I suspect the challenge is starting to feel intense for many of us who don't normally say at home, or those of us who live alone. I have a proposal. Why not book it?

For over six decades now, I have taken refuge in books. There has never been anything I could hide from between the covers of a book! That makes self-isolation entirely tolerable for me. But what about the folks who never had that option? Maybe you don't like to read because it's difficult - or because your vision is not up to the task, or because you don't know what you want to read about? I have always been my family's 'fixer' - whatever's broken, call Sis, Aunt, Grandma, Professor, prayer pal Sharri. So naturally I am wondering how I can help in this situation. But how?

Well, I have written some books, but they weren't novels (two and a quarter prayer primers and one computer science text). Those aren't what most folks read. Well, then what do they read? What do I read? Truthfully, I read anything with words when I am desperate - and these certainly look like desperate times. What I really enjoy, though are historical novels, biographies, and autobiographies. Hmmmm, there might be an answer there . . .

So here's my proposal: since we all have families, or had families, or would like to have a family, and families definitely have stories, why not write yours? If you live alone, you could write your own autobiography, or write the autobiography you would like to have. If you live with family members, why not write down all of those funny stories the "old folks" tell at Christmas and Thanksgiving and at reunions? Make it a family project, and if you have an artist among you, you could even illustrate it. Pick one person to be the scribe (or use a recorder and then transcribe the recordings), then start telling the stories of your lives, your triumphs, tragedies, romances, challenges, and creations.

Just think, you could wind up with the concept for a great drama or sitcom series! You might discover a natural storyteller in the household who could become a blogger or a novelist or a stand-up comic when the crisis has passed. You might learn something about the folks who live in your house, or the ones who lived in it before you. You might even learn something about yourself. you might even, maybe, perhaps, start a new family tradition.

Give it a shot, after all, how much TV/video game screen time can you stand?

Evolve!

April 13, 2020

What we are experiencing right now, around the globe, is nothing less than an evolutionary leap. The main difference between this leap and all of the ones that preceded it is that we know what is happening this time. Because we are aware of this evolution, we can take charge of it, we can make it conscious by choosing how to evolve. We lost our tails because we didn't need them. Our appendixes shriveled because they no longer served us. We shed our fur when it was no longer necessary. So, how do we want to evolve now?

I don't think we really need more hands or bigger brains. I think we have bodies that do their job pretty well on the whole. What I want to grow is all in consciousness: I want to become massively compassionate; I want to become stridently honest; I want to become completely trustworthy; I want to become unconditionally loving; I want to become devoid of prejudice; I want to release all fear; I want to adopt empathy and I want to eliminate violence.

Wait, let me restate that: I choose to become massively compassionate; I choose to become stridently honest; I choose to become completely trustworthy; I choose to become unconditionally loving; I choose to become devoid of prejudice; I choose to release all fear; I choose to adopt empathy and I choose to eliminate violence. Yes, that's more what I mean.

One more refinement, and I think it will be right: I am determined to become massively compassionate; I am determined to become stridently honest; I am determined to become completely trustworthy; I am determined to become unconditionally loving; I am determine to become devoid of prejudice; I am determine to release all fear; I am determined to adopt empathy and I am determined to eliminate violence.

Care to join me in this conscious evolution? We could eliminate, lack, hunger, war, and poverty! We can choose to grow through this event and come out the other side much, MUCH better than we were before.

Masks!

April 6, 2020

There is currently a video travelling around Facebook with a very cute young woman from the Czech Republic encouraging EVERYONE who leaves their home to wear a face mask. Her country is the only one (according to the video) to have been able to contain the spread of COVID 19, and they did it by ensuring that every single person has and wears a face mask. This, like many things, got me to thinking.

While there is a severe shortage of personal safety equipment being announced in the US, there is also a plethora (isn't that a fun word?) of videos on Facebook and YouTube showing how to create your own masks. It's easy, it's creative, it's fun, and almost anyone can do it! All you need is cloth, needles, thread, scissors, and time. I know we cannot run out for fabric, but I doubt very much that I am the only person who has old pajamas, pillow cases, and craft cloth laying around the sewing room, closets, and dressers of my house. Make it a family project, recycle those old fabrics into new face masks - they are washable, and therefore reusable, they are easy to sanitize, and one or two sizes fit everyone in the household! Make a set for each family member - one for each day of the week (in fact, you could stretch it into a week-long project by just making one for each person every day this week).

The bonus is that while the family is enjoying the creative challenge of making their own masks, you are also helping to make the world safer in this time of evolutionary change! I am making mine out of bandannas that my dog doesn't wear anymore. Don't think of them as masks, think of them as fashion accessories that protect you from viruses. Personalize the daylights out of them, then wear them with pride! You could even give them away as gifts to the Postal Person and the truck driver who delivers your Amazon orders. You could mail some to a friend (they fit nicely inside a greeting card) or to your grandma. Send a box of them to the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Health Department - and don't forget your grocery store.

This could be the new national pastime - saving lives!

Serenity

March 30, 2020

The current global situation has basically been met with one of two responses: PANIC!!! or Serenity. All I need say about PANIC!!! is that it is unhealthy and counterproductive - and produces a seriously skewed vision of life.

Serenity, on the other hand, as any dedicated 12-stepper will tell you, puts you in control of your experience. Serenity is NOT rose-colored glasses. It is also not victimhood, blame, shame, fear, head-in-the-sand ignorance or (you guessed it) PANIC!!! What we have here and now is an opportunity to stop for a minute, take a breath, and look around.

What do we see? Well, those of us under Shelter in Place orders see our families, pets, and home. Unless we turn on the television, computer or smart phone, there's probably nothing scare in your immediate environment. Oddly enough, if you look out the window, the sky is probably clearer than it was a month ago, and you hear a lot more birdsong. Those are just two of the positive results of taking a pause from frenetic industry. Maybe we could just take a step back, relax our PANIC!!! muscles and look for the blessin' in this lesson.

Since we are compelled to stay home, why not take advantage of this "staycation"? Here's an idea - I call it the Perk You UP project:

make a list of people you care about who are alone or don't have access to the internet (maybe even no television)divide the list among your family membersfor each name, create a Perk You UP card or gift, using only materials already in your house. clip them to your mailbox so the postal person can pick them up and get them delivered. If you don't have access to stamps, choose one adult to make deliveries around the neighborhood (wearing face mask and gloves), using the "ring the doorbell, drop the card on the porch, and run away" method.This is fun, entertaining, makes you and the people on the list smile, and gives everyone in the family a creative outlet. You could even adapt it to member of the household - just put all the names in a hat, everybody choose one, then do something to perk up the person whose name you draw.

An oar . . . or a lifesaver

March 23, 2020

There's an expression I used to use (a lot) that really fits the current global situation:

"I feel like I'm treading water as fast as I can, and every time I break

surface, some bleeper in a rowboat hits me over the head with an oar!"

You can probably see the connection, right? But here's the thing - I don't use that expression any more. It turns out the guy in the rowboat was trying to save my life. He knew that If I kept treading water so fast, I would get tired and drown. What I thought was an oar was really a lifesaver. It hit me because he couldn't reach me quickly, and he knew I needed to slow down - which I could do, once I let go of my panic and grabbed onto his lifesaver, so he had to throw it at me (his aim was a little off). Then he was able to row over and fish me out of the water.

That is , of course, a metaphor. I don't swim where there are rowboats in the water. So how does this still apply to the "global pandemic"? Well, the lake is the environment, the swimmer is humankind, and the rower with the lifesaver? That's Mother Nature. We have been disrespecting, disregarding, and just plain destroying our planet for a couple of centuries now. We have been so busy treading water (inventing new ways to use up natural resources without replenishing them) that we really didn't notice the harm we were doing. But Mother Nature (also one of God's creations/laws) stepped in to try to slow us down. She sent earthquakes, tsunamis, global warming. We finally noticed. A large number of people and nations realized we needed to do something to repair the damage, but . . . once again we were too busy running after more stuff, which meant building more factories, digging more mines, polluting more rivers, and burning a BBIIGG hole in the ozone, to really pay attention.

Instead, we created committees and commissions that spent endless hours arguing about what, where, when and how to fix the mess, and especially, who was going to foot the bill. The result? More natural disasters than you could shake a stick at - and we still didn't step up to take responsibility for our destructive behavior. What was left for Mother Nature to do but unleash something so small we couldn't see it and so deadly we couldn't survive it? Now people all over the world are "sheltering in place", staying at least six feet apart, staying off the roads and in their homes, trying to isolate and outlast this nasty little bug. Pretty much what you'd expect, right?

But wait, there's more! Two weeks of sheltering in place has cleared the air and water in Venice so much that the dolphins have returned to Italy. The levels of smog and greenhouse gases are steadily decreasing. People are actually using their telephones to TALK to each other.

The scientists are hard at work, and everyone I know is praying every hour on the hour for a vaccine. It will be found. This will pass. And when it does, we will realize that our self-isolation, our deceleration of industry and travel, have caused us to grow more compassionate, more gentle, more wise, more generous. We, as a species, are evolving through this crisis and evolution is a one-way street, so we will continue to grow even after it passes. We will be better people, better nations, and a better world.

All we have to do is remember that PANIC, even though it starts with the same three letters as pandemic, is only one of our options. Peace, cooperation, and compassion offer us a different result.

Now, here's a safe hug you can share with anyone (including yourself - I recommend at least three times a day):

1. Put your left hand on your right shoulder

2. Put your right hand on your left shoulder

(notice that you have crossed your heart, including it in the hug)

3. SQUEEEEEEEZE!

The Prism Proof

March 16, 2020

One of the most common metaphors for God is white light. This appears in almost every spiritual tradition around the globe in one form or another. Most people think of white as the absence of color, but it is actually (according to the science of optics) the combination of all colors. We can see this using a prism, which breaks a beam of light down into its constituent wavelengths. Each wavelength by itself produces a different color, and it is only the accumulated effect of ALL POSSIBLE WAVELENGTHS that will produce white light. What that means in practical terms is that if one were to remove a single wavelength from the incoming beam, not only would the rainbow disappear, but so would the white light. In other words, if you want white light, every single wavelength is absolutely essential - none are optional.

Are you wondering where I am going with this? Well, I have been thinking a lot about diversity and inclusion. This is a hot topic in sociological, ethical, and spiritual circles currently. In fact, before the global pandemic arose, I think it was probably in the top five topics under discussion in those groups and many others. I think this analogy of white light is highly applicable in this issue, since God/Spirit/First Cause created all of humanity (and everything else) out of Its own substance. What else could It have used, since God/Spirit/First Cause was all alone before It created our universe, our world, and us?

How does it apply, you might ask? Well, I believe it proves that diversity (the rainbow) and inclusion (the white light) are not options, they are absolute, scientific, ethical, philosophical, and spiritual mandates! Here's the structure of my proof:

1. God is all there is, so God made all that is our of itself.

2. This means the universe and all it contains is the white light.

3. That means everything, every single person, place or thing, is essential to the

existence of the universe.

4. Therefore, no color, no ethnicity, no sexual orientation, no gender identity,

no age group, no spiritual path or physical capability is optional - if we

eliminate even one tiny little specimen, the universe collapses.

As they say in mathematics, Q.E.D.

IN LIKE A LION . . .

March 9, 2020

March, it is said, comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. I am not sure about the lamb, yet, but the lion is definitely here! There are three dozen golden daffodils outside my kitchen window, and a ginormous forsythia bush bursting with buds by my front gate - certainly these qualify as harbingers of Spring - but just to make sure we have the idea, Mother Nature is treating us to gentle, steady rain. How is that a lion, you might ask? Well, it's her delivery system - wind that makes the trees dance above my house. I love watching the branches waving, in three directions at once, it seems, without breaking. I love watching the birds play tag with those dancing branches. I absolutely ADORE the smell of spring showers, even when they come before the April warmth starts creeping in, and the free car wash is appreciated, too.

It would be nice, however, if the weather could check my schedule before sending the blowing showers that sneak . . . no, they just barge right in . . . under my umbrella and inside my boots. I could have sworn I was walking - strolling, even, across to my office, but once the wind got hold of me and my umbrella, it was a sprint! Watching the rain in the trees through my window is delightful; impersonating them, not so much.

That said, in the Springtime, Spring is my favorite season - green is, after all, my favorite color. I can hardly wait to find birds' nests in the bushes by my front porch, and I have a 35-pound bag of bird seed waiting in the front closet of the retreat house. The temperatures remain above 40. The dreaded Daylight Savings Time has begun (and I have adjusted to the lost hour of sleep). The grass, the trees, the flowers are all sprouting green leaves and soaking up the showers - but the grass is not yet tall enough (or dry enough) to need mowing. How perfect is that?

Now, where's that lamb?

I KNOW You!

June 26, 2023

Did you ever meet someone, and after five minutes or so, you get the feeling that you have known them forever – like a long-lost heart-link, suddenly rediscovered? I had that experience recently, and it was familiar! I remembered having it before, and realized that I can always trust that sense of knowing, because it is a signal from my soul to remind me of a forgotten soul contract between my soul and the soul of the person in front of me.

I believe soul contracts are a very important aspect of spiritual awareness. There really is only one Life and it is expressing in and through an infinite number of souls – none of them separate or alone. Why would Spirit express in so many forms, some of them incomprehensible to human consciousness? The New Thought response, which makes perfect sense to me, is that The Creative impulse of the Universe creates in order to experience life through Its creations. Neale Donald Walsch, of Conversations With God fame, also wrote a wonderful children’s book, called The Little Soul and the Sun , a parable about this very thing. The main point is that sometimes we need help to achieve or experience the thing(s) we came to this planet for – and soul contracts are how we get that help. A soul contract, for those who haven’t considered this concept before, is an agreement made between two or more not-yet-incarnated souls about the interactions they will have when they are incarnated. Sometimes the contract is so bold and so conscious that the participants remember it the minute they meet in human form. Sometimes, as with my son, Joey, and myself, it’s a matter of prayer and hindsight.

Knowing that we truly are all connected at the consciousness level, I cannot believe ANYONE comes into this life devoid of soul contracts. I have begun to watch for them in my own life, and the insights they deliver are delightful. I invite you to explore the relationships in your life – both the ones you recognize as blessings and the other kind. Look through the filter of the possibility of a soul contract, and see how the picture changes.

The only thing I really miss from my retreat center in Arkansas is the view from my prayer room window. There was a tiny little park with the ruins of the original 19th century cabin, just the fireplace and the foundation remaining, invaded by cedar and sumac trees, birds, squirrels, and the occasional raccoon or armadillo, plus surprise lilies in the Spring. The sky and mountains provided the perfect backdrop. The birdsong brought the ideal ambiance.

I love my townhouse. I love its design and its location within a mile of almost anything I could ever need, and a quick few minutes from my spiritual center, my volunteer locations, and the largest mosaic labyrinth on the continent. I love the quiet, and the lovely grass and trees in the front of the complex. What I don’t love is the view, you guessed it, from my prayer room window, which is the same as the view from my office next door – a parking lot backed by the rear entries of the block of townhouses opposite mine.

There is always a solution to any challenge, and when I think of it as a puzzle, it’s fun to search for it. That’s exactly what I did, and the solution is really cool! I found online two different sets of window films – you spray the window with water, roll on the film, and voilà, a magic country appears! I now have a beautiful mountain scene, filled with forest and flowers from my office desk and gorgeous stained glass in my prayer room.

So, are you wondering about the metaphysical significance of this story? Here it is. It’s not new, but it bears repeating. When we change how we look at things, we change how things look! In my case, at least in this one, it was a literal change of scenery, but the principle applies in any situation: a challenging coworker, tangled morning traffic, scales that reflect significantly more (or less) than you would like, blessings that seem to be seriously delayed. It really is all a matter of perspective, starting with the frequent reminder that “Later” is not the same as “No”, and puzzles are a lot more fun than challenges. This is, unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately – for me, a recurring opportunity to learn. That is, I am required to remember it on a regular basis. It is, however, also a never-failing technique – look for the blessing in any situation, and even though you might sometimes have to squint a bit, you WILL find it!

The View

June 12, 2023

My father was an aeronautical engineer whose specialty was quality control. He did the final inspections on all of the Atlas and Gemini boosters, which were built in WAAAAY more than two places. That’s why I have lived in 37states, 34 of them before I graduated from high school. I have spoken those three sentences at least a thousand times, without every noticing the oxymoron in the first sentence: quality control.

Seriously, who would want to control quality? I would encourage it, enhance it, strengthen it, expand it, but control – doesn’t that mean the same thing as limit? Are you wondering what any of this has to do with spirituality, which is my normal topic? Bear with me, it’s in there! When I realized how funny this oxymoron is (aren’t they all?), I also realized that I had been trying to apply quality control techniques to my own spiritual path. I call it by many other names, of course, like integrity, ethics, morality, authenticity, and even vulnerability.

So what makes quality control a business field while all of the others are spiritual topics? I think it’s that quality control is the enforcement of externally developed measures and the others are, at least to some degree, based on internal, heart-connected Truth. I have noticed that there is a young trend in business today towards connecting, both minds and hearts, so that the qualities of compassion, generosity and fairness have become part of the business model. Some companies share their profits with charities, some share their products with charities, and others just share their time and love. This seems to me to be the answer to prayer – mine and many others – for world peace, because only a peaceful heart could do business in this way, and the only path to world peace is one heart touching another with peace, repeated and repeated and repeated.

I invite you to exercise your own version of quality control, in your own words, in your own life, in your own personal and professional business, by allowing your heart to drive the bus.

Quality Control

May 22, 2023

Rain in the middle of the night

May 9, 2023

Last night we had a downpour, and absolute deluge. I was so loud it woke me up – I was astonished that my little Penny wasn’t barking. Then I realized that it was the sound of the rain WITHOUT THUNDER that woke me. Penny didn’t bark because she loves that gentle vibration at the window as much as I do – when it’s not accompanied by thunder. Normally, I would have rolled over and covered my ears so that I could sink back into sleep, but this time, it was like listening to a lullaby from God, a song with lyrics so sweet that I strained to stay awake so that I wouldn’t miss a word. Eventually, sleep reclaimed my attention, gently and peacefully, no struggle at all, and when I woke again to daylight, I found I was smiling and neither Penny nor Bandit the cat was demanding my morning attention – so I could spend a while luxuriating in the peaceful morning’s second wake-up.

It occurred to me that I wake up smiling almost every morning – except when I have to use the alarm to get up early – and that’s the first blessing on my gratitude list, to wake in peace and health and timelessness. I want to share my process for assuring this kind of waking up: every evening at 7:00 pm, I turn off all electronics and take Penny for her final walk of the day. Then I go up to my bedroom, select my attire for the next day (eldest child, can’t help it!), change into my jammies and brush my teeth, turn down the bed and turn on the reading lamp by my rocking chair. The table beside the rocker is stacked with books, the top with books I own that are metaphysical or historical in nature and the bottom with novels from the library. As I settle into the chair (and Penny settles into my lap) I choose a book and relax between its covers. There was a time when I would be hiding between the covers of a book, but now I just explore and sometimes grow. The magic of this practice is that it gives me a couple of hours of quiet time, undirected, disconnected from all external stimuli, which allows the stresses, the challenges, the concerns, and the worries of the day to slip out of my awareness. That means when I slip under the covers, because I have started to nod over my book, I am relaxed, at peace, and ready to count my blessings until I drift into sleep.

The important points are: 1) disconnect from electronic media at least two hours before bedtime; 2) use those two hours to relax and nurture yourself; 3) let “Thank you” be your bedtime prayer. It never fails. Sweet Dreams!

Jury Duty

April 24, 2023

Don’t ever let anyone tell you Spirit is without humor – when I asked all 7 of my prayer partners (and Spirit) to help me finally, completely, permanently release judgment, the next day I got a notice in the mail that I have been called for jury duty! It probably won’t surprise you that this caused some serious introspection.

I love words. I love their power and their beauty, their intimacy and their magic, and I love their Truth. What I have always found challenging about words, at least in English, is their ambiguity. All of this is to introduce my struggle with the word “judgment”. Everyone needs to have good judgment, but nobody wants to be the object of judgment. (See what I did there?) In the first case, judgment is used as a synonym for discernment or wisdom; in the second case it is used as a synonym for discrimination, blame, or insult. The problem is that we, or at least I, tend to assume that because judgment can be discernment and also discrimination then discernment and discrimination must be synonyms, too. NOT!!!

My personal spiritual quest is to release discrimination, but maintain discernment, to release blame, but maintain wisdom, to release separation and maintain oneness, to release fear and maintain love. Are you wondering how this ties into jury duty? Well, for starters, I hope I will be selected on Thursday, and that I will remain conscious throughout the experience. That would give me the opportunity to practice what I am seeking, and perhaps to lift the consciousness of the whole courtroom beyond punishment and into restoration. The challenge, of course, is to stay open to the whole process, and to listen with my ears, my mind (which is also Divine Mind, thank goodness) and with my heart. So for today’s blog, instead of inviting you to share my practice, I invite you to affirm its success – for me, for the justice system, and for our collective consciousness.

AI?

April 17, 2023

There’s been a lot of hoopla around the “new” AI recently, and like most hoopla, it has engendered a significant amount of fear. It just so happens that this is a topic I have been addressing since 1982. Yup, it’s been around that long – in fact, I think the real “father of AI” was Alan Turing, the British mathematician who broke the Nazi’s Enigma code, which would add another 40 years to the story.

I got involved when I was earning my Master of Computer Studies degree at NCSU (Go, Wolfpack!), when I had a running argument with the faculty regarding the name of the field. MY choice would have been Simulated Intelligence, and my argument was both simple and irrefutable: if a woman is artificially inseminated, she has a live baby – the computer, on the other hand, will NEVER THINK!

Let’s face it, at its basic level, a computer – any computer – is really nothing more than a box of on/off switches. It is, by definition, devoid of intelligence, imagination, or volition (HAL notwithstanding – I do LOVE sci-fi). A computer can do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING unless some human being, somewhere, gives it the appropriate string of 1’s and 0’s (ons and offs). Extensive databases and complex algorithms (strings of 1’ s and 0’s) can make it look like it is thinking, but all it is really doing is regurgitating the data that has been stored in its memory , responding to a carefully phrased query.

In the movies, Number 5 might be alive, but Apple, IBM, Dell and Google? Not so much!

Reactor or Creator?

April 3, 2023

Are you a reactor, or are you a creator? That’s a New Thought question if ever there was one! I certainly never heard it growing up in a traditional Christian faith. It was the first topic I discovered when I stumbled into New Thought, though. I will admit, I thought it was silly – how could plain-jane me be a creator? I’m not artistic … that was my first response. Mind you, I found New Thought long before the Law of Attraction became a household term, and by the time it came along, I was absolutely comfortable and at home with my own creative nature.

This is the thing – we are ALL creative, and we are creating ALL the time. How can that be, you ask? Well, I think it’s a combination of the free will Spirit plants in every person and the fact that Spirit/God/First Cause, call It whatever you like, has a one-word vocabulary, and the word is , “YES!” We never shut up – seriously, have you ever tried to NOT think? It just doesn't work. Our minds, which are home to our imaginations, run non-stop – not just when we are awake, either - 24/7/365. So, are you wondering why so few of the amazing inventions that pop into your mind or the wonderful abundance that you affirm daily are actually part of your experience? Well, here’s the catch: every single thought is creative, yes, but two opposing thoughts can cancel each other out: “I am abundantly supplied in every aspect of my life!” gets obliterated by, “I never have enough _____ (fill in the blank) when I need it!” every single time. Yup, we are our own worst enemy – in fact, we are our own only enemy, since nobody else can create in your mind.

So now you are thinking, “So all I have to do is stop thinking negative stuff and life will be rosy?” Again, much easier than it sounds! There is a trick I can share that will help you to at least reduce the negative thought flow: it’s called GRATITUDE. Gratitude as a personal practice stops us from reacting negatively to every thought or event and sends a very loud “Yes, please, may I have some more of THAT?” into the Universe. The trick, of course, is figuring out how to be grateful for things you’d really rather avoid. I have found that sometimes, I just have to squint really hard to see the blessin’ in a particular lesson, but practice does make better, so I keep squinting and sooner or later the gold appears. Give it a shot – it will take practice, but tenacity IS also a virtue, and you have absolutely nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to gain!

Addie!

YOUth

March 20, 2023

My mother used to say that youth was wasted on the young. She said that because her children seemed to have so much more energy than she had. When I was a teenager, I explained to her my perspective – that we all have the same amount of energy, but when we are children, it’s crammed into a much smaller package. She was not amused.

I was reminded of this long-ago conversation when I got a video call from my great-granddaughter, Addie, who is 15 months old, and her mama, Autumn, last night. It was evening, but Addie was still going full-tilt! She blew me kisses, played peek-a-boo, showed me her toys, and invited me to help her taste the cat’s food (dry, thank goodness). After we finally said, “Bye-bye!”, I sat a while to think about my mom’s pronouncement regarding youth from the perspective of a few more decades.

I don’t think youth is wasted, nor is there too much energy in the smaller packages – I think our little ones run rings around us because they are still fresh enough from the Creator that they have not yet forsaken BEING for DOING. These little humans are so full of being and BEING (read Spirit) that there are not enough hours in their days. I also think that we CAN return to that state of constant, conscious BEING (it’s in our name, after all!) and reclaim the joyous abandon of our true nature, YOUth!

Blessings

March 6, 2023

When I was a very little girl, I heard Bing Crosby sing “Count Your Blessings”: "When I’m worried, and I can’t sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep”, and when I was an undergraduate, I learned that in the 14th century, a monk named Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever say is ‘Thank you,’ it will have been enough.” The juxtaposition of these two philosophies morphed into my nightly prayer practice: I fall asleep every night counting my blessings. I call this practice my “Thank You, God”s, because that’s how I count them: Thank You, God, for this wonderful day; Thank You, God, for my precious little Penny and my purring Bandit; Thank you, God, for my lovely home; Thank You, God, for my beloved family (named one at a time, from siblings to great-grandchildren), and on and on.

Last night, I had an unusual and exciting list: Thank You, God, that my car was already in the garage when I came home from church before the chain on the garage opener broke and the door slammed down! Thank You, God, that I was out of the car when the chain fell on top of it. Thank You, God that either the HOA or my home insurance will cover the repair of the garage door opener! Of course, this was followed by my usual list and I was just a little later falling asleep – but I was smiling when I did and also when I woke! My point, I guess, is that, even though neither Bing nor Eckhart mentioned it, that prayer is ABSOLUTELY one-size-fits-all! It works for things that happen (great-grandchildren being born) and for things that don’t happen (car not crashed by the falling door). It works for ginormous things like a deep mine rescue and little tiny things like the ability to skip commercials in a recorded program. It works when you address it directly to Spirit and when you direct it to the delivery person who brings your package. It works if you direct it to yourself: Thanks, Self, for reminding me of my many, many blessings! It even works if you use it in advance: Thank you, Universe, for bringing human consciousness up beyond selfishness and greed to generosity and Peace.

Leaves

February 27, 2023

I live in a townhouse community where the HOA is responsible for lawn care – but only for the front lawns. They have not been very good at controlling the “ground cover” in front, but that is a really big job. I have a tiny (very tiny) back yard and so far this season I have raked and bagged four (4!) 50-gallon bags of leaves. This morning, while Penny was having her morning toilette, I noticed that the overnight winds had gifted me with a significant new crop. I also noticed that there is new growth in my little flower bed, crocuses, I think.

Not surprisingly, the juxtaposition of the new leaves and the old ones put me in mind of cycles. As a religious scientist, I accept as absolute Truth the eternality of all life, and cycles are my favorite way of describing this concept. In the Spring, which by the calendar begins three weeks from today, leaves are tiny, green buds, which remind us of renewal and new birth. Then Summer comes and the leaves provide shade for picnickers and food for caterpillars, then in the Fall they turn glorious colors that folks travel miles to see before they drop to the ground to provide mulch and weather protection to the underground critters and the seeds of next Spring’s bounty.

Did you notice in that cycle that I did not mention dying? That’s because this cycle is the perfect circle of life example: buds become leaves that grow big enough to shelter us and then dry out as they change colors and drop to the ground, where they dry some more, crumble and become mulch and fertilizer to arise again as new growth. There was no death, only transformation from one natural expression to the next. The trees don’t mourn the leaves that fall because they KNOW they will return, fresh, strong, healthy and right on time. I find this a very comforting metaphor, because, even though we might not be conscious of how each life transforms to its next expression, I KNOW, just like the trees KNOW that it is guaranteed to happen, since that is the very nature of Life. So here’s how to remember it: LEAVES stands for Life Expressing As Vibrant Evolving Self – kind of makes you want to grab a rake, doesn’t it?

MUSIC

February 20, 2023

I’ve been thinking a lot about music this past week, because my center had a fundraising concert on Friday that just blew me out of the water! I wasn’t surprised, because I have known the headline artist for over a decade and his music is ALWAYS magnificent. Then, last night at a World Peace meditation I was facilitating, one of the folks there mentioned a concert he had attended on Saturday. The musicians were the pianists who had come in second and third in the Van Cliburn competition (world-class musicians, for sure!). He said the program was astonishing in its beauty – but that wasn’t why he mentioned it. What made it an unforgettable moment in his life was that the second-place musician was a young woman from Russia and the third-place musician was a young man from Ukraine – and they played in perfect harmony, with absolute grace TOGETHER. Is that proof of Oneness or what?

Music has always been the refuge of people in conflict, under suffering, when suppressed or oppressed, forever. Even the ancient peoples recognized the healing and comforting power of music. In our country, three hugely popular genres of music have arisen from the suffering of the people: Country/Western, Blues, and Jazz; and all three have spread across the globe. I think this is because, while suffering generated the songs, compassion and empathy gave them universal appeal. Don’t get me wrong, I sing along with the pop songs on my radio when I’m driving, and I LOVE to sing in church (because everyone else covers my out-of-tuneness), but there is a vibrational frequency in the Blues and in Jazz that is as potent as Pachelbel and Bach!

I doubt that the folks who invented the iPod and all of the music apps on cell phones realized that they were creating portable spiritual practices, but that’s sure what it looks like to me. In fact, for me, music is Magnificent Universal Spirit In Consciousness, and I invite you to take a break for music the next time somebody or something pushes your buttons – or the next time something absolutely wonderful happens, it’s always appropriate!

Grace

February 13, 2023

Grace is a lovely word, with only positive definitions. It can mean extra time to complete a task or make a payment. It can mean smooth and beautiful movement. It can mean to bestow a gift. It can mean a prayer before meals. It can mean that unconditional beneficence that shows up when you least expect and most desire it – I call this one a God-wink (from my very first RScP, Judy Whitcraft).

That last definition is the one I most love and the topic of today’s blog. Another way to look at this one is that grace is what we use to refill our pitcher – because you can’t pour anything out of an empty pitcher. That’s one of my favorite metaphors for spiritual awareness or conscious presence. It’s the pitcher we pour from when we pray, when we help someone feeling a need, when we hold a baby (or an adult who needs it), when we volunteer for any social or community project to benefit others. It is also the pitcher we pour into our own hearts when they hurt. The most common problem with folks who live in service to a church or a community or even a broader cause is that we don’t check the pitcher often enough – so we don’t always notice when it’s empty and we just keep trying to pour.

Eventually, we recognize that emptiness, and it’s a blessing to know we can refill the pitcher with grace. It’s as easy as turning on the tap, just stop, open your heart, and listen for the gentle flow of unconditional, unlimited, constant Love that is ALWAYS waiting for our acceptance. THAT is Grace. I always wished to have one of my grandchildren named Grace; now I am holding it out for the next great-grandchild!

Vision – ing

January 30, 2023

Vision is an interesting word – it can be a noun that names one of the five senses or a synonym for dream/goal/purpose; it can mean the epitome of some quality, like a vision of loveliness or a vision of success. Sometimes it is used as a symbol, such as the vision of freedom. It is often paired with wisdom, imagination, creativity, and foresight.

Did you know it can also be a verb? Visioning as a practice was popularized by Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith. He bases the practice on one of my favorite characteristics of the Divine – It NEVER shuts up! The mind of God is in a constant state of creativity, spewing inspirations right and left, 24/7/365. The problem is that we don’t pay anywhere near enough attention. It is just so much easier to whimper/whine/pout. According to Dr. Michael (and the crowd of us who have jumped on the visioning wagon with him), all we have to do is 1) ask the right question(s), 2) listen to the answers (without editing or arguing), and 3) implement the guidance we receive.

Now, the instructions are just a little tricky, since we might not come up with the right questions right away, but the key there is to put the first one in some form of “What does Spirit think about …” and the others pretty much fall into place. Another snag is the listening – we often just don’t know how – the key here is, “just stop talking and don’t judge what you hear.” Why would we judge what we hear? Because the voice of Spirit you hear in your visioning mind sounds just like the one that told you to buy that purple motorcycle with the rent money. How do you tell them apart? Easy, Spirit never justifies the guidance, it’s just there for you to accept or not. That ego voice? It always has a slew of reasons why you should follow its impulse. Finally, implementing the guidance is usually not a one-step task, it requires commitment and dedication – the result, however, is always greater than the challenge that sent you to the vision! The coolest thing about visioning? It’s repeatable – forever!

Forgiveness

January 23, 2023

Recently, a friend asked me if I had forgiven somebody else for something they had done. My answer surprised me. I said I had not, because that person didn’t need forgiving. Then I added that I HAD forgiven myself – for thinking anybody needed my forgiveness for anything. In fact, over the past few years, I have come to realize that, like time, forgiveness is a man-made construct.

What I mean is that, since Spirit is the essence of Love, both infinite and unconditional, It cannot include sin or forgiveness in Its vocabulary. Think about it: infinite love can recognize an error, but only as a step in the evolution of perfection. That means we should APPRECIATE mistakes, both ours and those of others, as signals of growth. That also means that Spirit/God/the Infinite, has never seen anything that required forgiveness, and has therefore never forgiven anyone for anything. Being, as we are, created in that same mold, forgiveness is not a natural part of human consciousness, either. I think the concept was born as a way to justify revenge. Ego says that if I get even, THEN I can let go of the anger/hurt/resentment I’ve been holding, but not until then. Forgiveness is the carrot we use to justify the stick of revenge.

Imagine how peacefully we could live if we released revenge and forgiveness and adopted growth and evolution. It’s pretty radical, when we look at the history of human mistakes and their concomitant revenge, but I love a challenge, so I am choosing to make this my tradition. Care to join me?

The Staircase

January 16, 2023

One of the most quotable people of the 20th century was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Almost every American adult can quote some part of his “I have a Dream” speech, and I have always loved, “Darkness cannot conquer darkness, only light can do that; hatred cannot conquer hatred, only LOVE can do that”. However, though some might disagree, I think his most powerful statement was his definition of FAITH: taking the first step, even when you cannot see the whole staircase. This speaks to faith, true, but also to the concept of Conscious Evolution – nobody will ever solve the whole problem, because it will morph into a new problem every time. The human race will never stop evolving – evolution is the engine of the Universe, the law by which Spirit bestows and executes free will. Faith is our ability to take charge of the evolution, to direct its force in positive, unitive, peaceful and loving ways. What does all of that mean? Only that the staircase is never going to disappear; life is an upward and outward spiral and faith is what fuels our spirit of adventure. Sometimes it might feel like an escalator, but each of us controls our own rate of ascent. Hop on, the ride is definitely worth it!

New Year's Resolutions or Intentions?

January 1, 2023

Resolutions: the recycling of old solutions that didn't work

Intentions: commitments with heart, mind and spirit yielding success

Resolutions comprise a wish list

Intentions comprise a transformation plan

Resolutions wither away

Intentions take root

Resolutions foster guilt

Intentions generate gratitude

Resolutions become should/could/would

Intentions become can/will/done

Resolutions are vague

Intentions are specific

Resolutions trickle top-down

Intentions grow bottom-up

Resolutions yield imaginary results

Intentions yield evolutionary results

Resolutions start big and dwindle

Intentions start basic and build

Resolutions spring from ego

Intentions spring from consciousness

Resolutions dissolve

Intentions ignite

Release Resolutions

Embrace Intentions

Happy New Year!

The Balance of Solstice

December 19, 2022

The day after tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. As long as there have been people, there have been celebrations of this significant calendar point. After the shortest day/longest night, the hours of daylight expand for the next six months, and the ancient ceremonies were intended to celebrate and insure that expansion. One of the most beautiful practices I have experienced for the Winter Solstice is walking a labyrinth, and this year, it will be a labyrinth built of luminaria – a path of light. For me, the deepest and most powerful meditation is walking a labyrinth, because it provides both spiritual and physical balancing with the same number of right and left turns and the circular pattern of the path.

This is a bonus and I want to share why it means so much to me. For many years I thought I could not meditate, because the first step, in every book, video, class, or workshop, was “still your mind” and I had no idea how to accomplish that! I was frustrated and embarrassed by this failure. Then I went to a Board Retreat at Unity Village in Missouri. It was 35 years ago and they had just created a labyrinth garden by closing off a parking lot and painting a double-size (to make it wheel-chair accessible) rose labyrinth like the one in the cathedral at Chartres on the asphalt. The explanation of how to use it contained neither “still your mind” nor “meditation” – it was just a new spiritual practice. I was entranced, and every time I have walked a labyrinth since then (dozens and dozens of different labyrinths, many more than once), I have found my steps both steadier and slower and the mental chatter is actually “checked at the entrance”. My body, mind and spirit found perfect balance.

When I learned the term “kinetic meditation”, I learned why the labyrinth speaks so deeply to me: by including physical activity in the practice, the mind is both settled and soothed – and it becomes a beneficiary of the spiritual practice. In fact, I actually realized that I don’t have to have a labyrinth to walk a labyrinth. It turns out that mowing the lawn or scrubbing the floor of a LARGE room, or painting a wall can all be labyrinth walking meditations – any activity that can put your body on autopilot can free your mind to settle and open to conscious awareness of the Presence of the Divine. Who knew? By the way, I am told that both dishwashing and laundry folding make great labyrinth meditations . . .

Advent – ure

December 12, 2022

Since we are starting the third week of Advent, and I am once again home and in the midst of all of the excitement and preparation, my mind naturally turns to wordplay. Wordplay seems to be one of the surest doorways to spirituality in my life – at least in part because my native language is English and it is the single most ambiguous puzzling language on Earth. This morning, as I was waking up in an awareness of how rapidly the Advent season is passing, I noticed that this word, from the Latin for “come to”, is not the first two syllables of “adventure” for nothing! The suffix, “ure” means “the experience of” something.

I think of Advent as a little child thinks of Christmas Eve – a time of anticipation and curiosity, of fun and excitement, of growth and deepening (well, those last two are for older “kids”, but the little ones feel them, too). This list is NOT limited to Christmas Eve! We feel these things right before our own birthday, graduation, wedding, or retirement, just to name a few events. This is the natural experience before any joyful event, the coming to change at any age or for any reason.

Since I moved home this past March, my life has been a continuous adventure – something wonderful and unexpected has happened every day – life-long dreams are being fulfilled and my ministry is blossoming in extraordinary ways. So, here’s my metaphysical take on Advent/Adventure: if life is an adventure of growth, exploration, and discovery, then every week is a week of Advent. We just need to put our focus on seeing the beauty and fulfillment in each day and spiritual deepening will be the guaranteed result. My invitation to you this Advent is to let it be the beginning of your own adventure of growth and discovery, after all, the sky is the limit where Spirit is concerned!

The Violin

December 5, 2022

There is a wonderful museum here in Kansas City – actually more than one, but the one I visited yesterday was the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures. The toys were nostalgic and fun, but the miniatures captured my consciousness in an amazing way. Miniatures are an art form of which I was never aware – and they are ASTOUNDING! Each one is a ‘copy’ of something that actually exists, but in strict proportions, called fine scale where one inch in the miniature corresponds to a larger measurement in the ‘real’ world, such as 1:6, 1:10, 1: 12, or even 1:30 or more. The art piece can be an individual item or a collection of items in a scenic setting .

The piece that captured me was a violin. It was a real, actual violin, but the front of the violin and its strings had been removed and inside the violin had been built a violin-builder’s workshop. There were tiny little bows, strings, keys, tools, and of course, tiny little violins, each perfectly detailed and arranged in a realistic layout. I was entranced - I could have stayed for hours studying the intricacies of that violin and it's shop - in fact, I am now a volunteer at the museum, because I want to see and learn more about the world of miniatures as art!

Are you wondering where the metaphysical tie-in is? Well, it occurred to me that I was looking at a world inside a world inside a world – this could go on and on – and that this world, like the one we inhabit, started as an idea in the mind of the artist. Of course, that led me to the concept of inspiration, beauty, art, and joy – all attributes of the Divine. Sometimes I can see these things and feel them directly from Spirit – a double rainbow in the mountains, a stunning sunrise or sunset, a newborn baby’s face or fingers or toes – but that was not enough for God! Seeing Its beauty and creativity is just not the same as experiencing it from the inside out, so each human mind is a receptacle for Divine inspiration. This means we not only see the effects of Divine creativity, we actually take part in it! And, because Spirit is infinite and eternal and completely unique, so are the inspirations I shares through human minds – never the same song or the same statue or the same spaceship, or the same novel.

At the same time, there is (as Ernest Holmes reminded us) a golden thread of Truth, Beauty, Life and Joy that runs through every creation; it is the Divine fingerprint that remains in the mind and heart of the artist. That is what I saw in the violin and its shop – God’s fingerprint in the heart of the artist, the gift of imagination paired with the talent to bring it into form. We every one of us have that same fingerprint and it is our sole responsibility in life to find it and bring it into form, in every field: medicine, politics, education, architecture, design, literature, manufacturing, geology (and every other -ology). Wow, what a trip to the museum this was! Perhaps there’s a hidden message awaiting in a museum near you?

Thanksgiving prayer

November 28, 2022

Last Thursday, I spent Thanksgiving with family – for the first time since 2016. As a result, I am STILL feeling the Thanksgiving vibe, so Here is the blog I posted at Thanksgiving in 2020, updated just a hair:

So, in this Thanksgiving season of 2022, I invite you all to let your heart be hugged, let it hug other hearts, let it be filled to overflowing with the feeling of "Thank You". We are still all in this together ('this' being LIFE), and we are up to our eyes in blessings. Happy Thanksgiving from my heart to yours!

A fun way to spend the day . . .

November 21, 2022

This morning at breakfast I read an article about how hard it is to be grateful on demand. The author was writing mostly in spoof, I think. I remember when I discovered the power of an Attitude of Gratitude, but I also remember my grandmother’s admonition to be grateful that I had the means to pay for something I never wanted in the first place – because I needed it. Unfortunately for me, the first event was NOT the discovery of power, so I understand all too well the resistance many folks feel when “ordered” to be grateful. I want to encourage EVERYONE to muscle through that resistance and give gratitude a chance – it really can change your life.

The irony of the day for me is that many years ago I heard a sermon about gratitude that included the idea of a gratitude journal, and it piqued my curiosity. I quickly realized that keeping it at bedtime did NOT work for me, so I added it to my morning practice. When my husband came along and joined the practice, he added a new perspective that really expanded my appreciation: when you express gratitude for something desired, it very often appears! I’m sure you recognize the Biblical reference, but it still hit me like a meteor strike, and this was before Rhonda Byrne’s ground-breaker, The Secret was released. Do not confuse this addition to a gratitude journal with the annual Christmas list you made as a child. We are not begging for blessings, but planting seeds and creating space in our hearts and lives for the blessings we KNOW already exist.

So where does the fun come into the equation? Well, at least a couple of decades ago, when I discovered Meister Eckhart’s advice about prayer, “If the only prayer you ever say is, “’Thank you,’ it will have been enough,” I just sort of adopted that as my mantra – shortened to just a simple, “Thank you”. What I realized in short order was that the more I said “Thank you”, the more opportunities I had to say it. It became a game between me and Spirit – which were in greater number at the end of a day, thanks or blessings? I doubt that this game will ever become an Olympic event, but it really IS a very fun way to spend your day!

Lesson from a Dragon Rug

November 7, 2022

About 20 years ago, a friend, who knew how much I love dragons, found a dragon-patterned area rug at a garage sale and bought it for me. It has lived in my prayer room(s) ever since. This morning, thanks to the “fall-back” of autumn time, I got a good look at it when I walked in for my prayer time. I discovered a cluster of little, copper-colored speckles where my little Penny had laid to chew up a lipstick I had left unattended on my desk (with my desk chair waaaay too close!).

I grumbled about the damage to my dragon rug, fetched the Resolve spray and a little scrub brush, and sat myself down on the floor to clean up the mess. Oddly enough, I didn’t continue to grumble. Instead, I spent about five minutes remembering all of wonderful garage sales my friend and I had visited, and all of the marvelous places that rug had lived with me. I thought about how it had made the house of a newly-widowed minister feel like it was still home and how it made this new prayer room instantly comfortable, familiar and homey.

Of course, there is a metaphysical upside of this discovery – it turns out, sometimes, that a mess is really just a mess-age from the Universe to remind us that nothing is ever a wasted moment or a completely negative event. There really IS a blessin’ in every lesson. So I invite you to keep that third eye open and focused today on the re-mind- er mess-ages in your path – the result could be a new kind of awareness or a fond appreciation that you might have missed if my puppy didn’t love to chew on lipsticks!

The Wooden Bridge

October 24, 2022

Have you ever walked across a bridge made of wooden planks and rope? Did you hold your breath just a little bit? Me, too! It doesn’t matter if the bridge is a foot off the ground, or off the water, or if it’s hundreds of feet above the surface – that bridge wobbles and sways, and my minor in Physics gives me no comfort at all. I KNOW it’s absolutely safe, but it scares me silly.

Sometimes my life is like that, too. It’s like the lights are off and the rain is pouring, and my discernment is just not working. A small bump in the road, once in a while, is no problem – I can handle it. A series of “unfortunate events”, or one REALLY big one, on the other hand really tests my faith/confidence/consciousness level. About a week ago, I had one of those wobbly bridge experiences – I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst case of vertigo I had ever experienced, and the first one in a very long time. I couldn’t open my eyes because everything was spinning. I knew I needed to get to the bathroom quickly, but I had to wall-walk with my eyes closed, because I fell down whenever I opened them. It went downhill from there. It took four days to completely recover, and those were four very looong days! Oddly enough, even though I felt absolutely awful, I was not afraid. I knew what was happening, and I knew it would eventually end - all I had to do was keep my eyes closed. Isn’t it ironic that a person who spends her whole life telling people to keep their eyes open could only heal an illness by keeping hers shut?

I think this experience is a pretty good metaphor for faith: sometimes, we have to keep our eyes closed to the conditions that surround us in order to move through them to the truth we know is there. I really did think about this metaphor while I was recovering – but not while I was in the experience. Maybe that’s what is meant by “everyone has 20/20 hindsight”?

What do you do?

October 10, 2022

The first information folks in our society share, after our name, is our profession. I suppose, since we spend a huge proportion of our adult life doing whatever our profession requires, that makes sense. I spent 35 years as a college educator before entering ministry, so for the past 40+ years, my answer to “What do you do for a living?” has been, “I talk.”

There was a time when that “for a living” thing really bothered me. I was so much more interested in what people did for a life, and that’s what I wanted them to know about me, too. Then, as so often happens, Spirit gave me a whack with that 2 x 4 and things got a bit clearer. Turns out that when one is conscious of their profession, not just committed to it, but consciously engaged in it, that profession becomes an essential component of that person’s life. Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t mean to imply that a person is defined by their profession, only that when it is a conscious activity, it cannot HELP but affect everything about that person, no matter who the person is or what the profession might be!

In my case, when I announced to my Nurture Group (a spiritual support small group) that I was going into ministry, their immediate question was, “How can you give up teaching?!?” They knew as well as I did, that education, like ministry (or any other heart-led endeavor) is a calling, not a job. Luckily for me, I was conscious enough in my path that I realized I would NEVER be asked to stop teaching in order to serve as a minister. I knew Spirit was calling me, and I knew that I had already been answering Spirit’s call. It was just time for the path to change. I still talk for a living – sometimes on a platform, sometimes in a studio, and sometimes on a keyboard. I never know what the topic will be, but willingness to be led has always taken me wherever I was needed most, and as a long-ago mentor pointed out, “Teachers are born, not made,” so I just keep listening for the next topic.

From Supplication to Application

October 3, 2022

I have been reading Neale Donald Walsch’s God’s Message to the World: You’ve Got Me All Wrong with my breakfast lately, and this is an idea that has made me slap my forehead! Not that we’ve misidentified the Divine, but that we can change the trajectory of our species by shifting that perception not very much at all. We, the human race, have for millennia held on with both hands, both feet, and all of our teeth to the idea of a punishing, capricious Deity that, no, WHO requires our obedience and sacrifice – a Deity who both created us and condemns us for having used the free will with which we are endowed in an other-than-PERFECT way.

When I was 12 years old, I realized this just doesn’t make sense! How could free will be misused and still be defined as FREE will? How could a God of Love (which is the one aspect of the Deity on which all traditions agree) condemn any creation for expressing the nature with which it was endowed by that God? Yes, I was a weird 12-year-old and yes, I really did wonder about these ideas as I walked in the mountains with my dog. What I didn’t consider, and what Walsch’s book brought to the very front of my mind, is the relationship of prayer to these ideas. Good little Catholic girl that I was, I learned to ask, no to BEG God for whatever I wanted or needed – as though God were a) denying it to me and b) capable of refusing me anything.

Here’s what I learned, in the simplest terms I can manage: before anything else existed, God existed. God was an old, white super human with a long beard and a white gown, who got lonely. Being an omnipotent God, he (catch that pronoun?) created the universe and populated it with living beings, some of them in His own image and likeness. Here’s where I always got in trouble: if God was all there was (a nearly universal belief on this planet) then the only thing from which God could create was His own substance.

The male pronouns are irking me, so I will switch to the more realistic (for an infinite and eternal Being) use of “It”. So, God created everything that exists out of Its own substance, which just about all religions say is LOVE. Not only that, but the Love is unconditional and eternal. Where in that do you see judgmental and punishing? Those attributes were added to give the clergy power to control the rest of the populace. That’s why most pray-ers beg, plead, apologize, and promise to do better, IF their prayers are answered. This is the supplication part of the title of this blog.

Seems to me, and zillions of other New Thought folks, that a God of LOVE could only create and experience perfection, and that those creations would share the creative power from which they were born. Why is this important? Because it means the only prayer we need is “Thank You, God!”, since we can express and experience anything we desire by simply applying the God-given creativity that is our nature. This is the application part of the title of this blog. That means no lack, no fear, no conflict, no shame, no punishment – I could go on for a long time with this list, but I think you get the idea. Hope plus supplication (another word for most affirmations) focus the attention, and therefore the experience, on lack, on what is perceived to be missing, so it stays missing. Faith plus confirmation (another way to say “knowing the Truth”) focus the attention on acceptance and gratitude, so the manifestation is loud and clear in our experience. WOW! I have made my last affirmation; from now on, I will confirm the truth I wish to experience and leave begging in the past. Think about it, you might want to join me.

The Metaphysics of Puberty

September 26, 2022

Puberty is not a pleasant subject. In fact, it’s not generally a pleasant experience. It is painful in many ways: acne, mood swings, shyness/embarrassment, sudden weight changes, vocal uncertainty, etc. However, it is also NOT an option. Every human being goes through this experience, and I have never met anyone who enjoyed it. The upside is that it is a finite experience and when we get through it, we find ourselves possessed of a LOT of new information about ourselves, about who we are and what we want our lives to be. This often shows up as confidence, the ability to connect with others, and a new compassion.

Are you wondering where the metaphysics comes into it? Well, I see puberty as an excellent metaphor for the upheaval we, especially here in the US, are experiencing right now with respect to diversity. This is happening in every area – religious diversity, ethnic diversity, sexual diversity, body type diversity, diversity of physical and mental capacity, financial diversity, cultural diversity. Diversity is becoming an important issue in every aspect of our daily individual and collective lives. It is messy, it is inconvenient, it is confusing, and it is often painful, because, like puberty, it is an unavoidable, non-optional part of the evolution of the human race. Just what you wanted to hear, right? But there is good news: like puberty, this upheaval is a finite experience, and like puberty, we will get through it, and like puberty, when it is over we will find ourselves possessed of a wealth of new information about ourselves, about who we are and what we want our lives to be. Instead of deeper voices, we will have clearer ones. Instead of individual confidence, we will uncover the innate oneness that connects us in the One Mind, instead of surface connections, we will discover the solidarity and security of the Oneness of all Life, and instead of personal compassion, we will realize the fullness and comfort of the One Love that created and expresses as all of us.

Morning Meds

September 19, 2022

Part of my evening routine is a quick preview of the next day’s schedule – yes, I am one of THOSE left-brain, organized people – and last evening, I realized that there were a couple of significant omissions, and they go by the same name: morning meds. They weren’t on the list because they have become as much a part of my consciousness as breathing. Like most folks who have lived as many years as I have, a selection of medications (one for high cholesterol and one for reflux) and supplements (vitamins, calcium, joint support, etc.) are the first thing I swallow at the breakfast table. My AHA last night was that another morning med that is taken BEFORE I reach the breakfast table has also become a part of my nature: morning meditation. Prayer altar, candles, and timer provide my first activity of the day (MY first, but Penny’s first, a walk to tend to nature, does come before it), and they really set the tone for my mental approach, regardless of the density of my scheduled activities or my mood upon awakening.

I generally wake up smiling, which is a direct result of the cat and dog who purr and kiss my face every morning, but sometimes events occur between the purring /kissing and actually landing in my prayer rocker that shift my mood just a tad. Somehow, lighting the candles and setting the timer are inevitably followed by a sigh – both physical and mental – and a letting go of all stress, strain, irritation, and time pressure. The remarkable thing about this med is that, while it does appear to be addictive, it has absolutely no ill effects at all. The beneficial side effects, however, are numerous and long-lasting: peaceful physical and emotional balance, stress reduction, a sense of unquestioned and easy well-being, calmness, expanded tolerance (patience), and smiles. What’s more, there is no cost for this med, either financial, psychological, physical, or spiritual! I can’t help but wonder, with delight and joy, what kind of world this would be if everyone took this morning med – you could even try it at lunch or bedtime with the same benefits – that’s a med program I could promote forever and for everyone!

Penny For Your Thoughts?

September 12, 2022

Penny For Your Thoughts? Remember this phrase from the previous century? I have discovered new expression of this concept! It is a delight to my heart to have an actual prayer room/chapel in my home. It has a couple of prayer altars, a lot of “sacred art”, many candles, a bookcase of devotional readings, a rocking chair, and a large, brightly colored floor pillow beside the rocking chair. I also have a 13-pound miniature whippet named Penny (for her copper color), who has developed an amazing affinity for my prayer room. If I can’t find her, I know to check the prayer room – she will either be in the rocker or on her floor pillow.

Penny has always operated under the theory that if I have a lap, she should be in it, which used make meditating a challenge. Penny, like my ever-active mind, has a hard time with stillness. At least, that used to be the case. Once we got settled in this new home and she discovered the energy of a prayer room, her behavior started to shift. First, she insisted on sitting in my lap while I meditated, getting down only when I reached for the books on the shelf. Then she decided that she just needed to make sure I was settled in the rocker and then it would be time to settle herself on the pillow. The chime that signals the end of my meditation period only made her jump once or twice, and then it became as much part of her routine as mine.

This is remarkable, to anyone who has met Penny, because she is the most active, constantly jumping up and down, friendly, loving little critter you ever saw – so I don’t think anyone who hasn’t seen her meditate could imagine it as a possibility! I see it as an answered prayer – since I believed for many years that I could not experience the stillness of spirit that defines meditation for me. Once again, I am reminded that “dog” is “God” backwards, and dogs are often God’s favorite facilitators of spiritual teaching. One of the jobs of this Penny for my thoughts, sent by God, seems to be to remind me that stillness is ALWAYS possible, if the energy/intention is right.

The Dive

September 5, 2022

When I was a child, my father used to repeat a sentiment that completely baffled me: I disagree with his opinion, but I will defend to the death his right to hold it. It sounded counterintuitive, at best. As I learned some history, both old world and new world, I thought I had come to understand, but I was mistaken. I thought he was expressing tolerance, perhaps even respect for the ideas of others, as expressed in the First Amendment to our Constitution. Oddly enough, I think that’s what he thought, too.

In my young adult years, when I discovered New Thought, I realized that our concept of Oneness and the golden thread of Truth that runs through all faith traditions, I came to believe that this concept was the "conscious” version of my father’s sentiment. I loved that we respect and honor all paths to enlightenment. I loved recognizing that golden thread – which I always found, because I knew it was there. Still, there was this niggling little voice in the back of my mind (the private part of the One Mind) that couldn’t quite accept, much less genuinely respect or honor, the teachings that produced exclusion and otherness.

Yesterday, I discovered, without a great deal of surprise, that I am not the only one who hears that voice. The Sunday talk at my center was about finding a balance between honoring Oneness and honoring all paths. The take-away was that I don’t have to be silent when I hear something expressed as truth that is in conflict with Truth. What’s more, I have a responsibility, as a spiritual being living a human experience, to address that issue, with respect and courtesy, yes, but also with conviction and commitment. Whether what I say changes that person or situation is beside the point, because what I say WILL change human consciousness and when enough of us speak Truth to untruth, the balance will be restored and maintained.

This is something of a challenge for me, since I have been assured for many years that I am tact-challenged, but I am accepting the challenge. Interfaith cooperation and respect are the only path to peace, inner and outer, so I am determined to dive into that stream of consciousness and find the right words to bring Truth to the surface: There is only ONE Life; that Life is God Life; that Life is my life; that Life is all life NOW. C’mon in – the water’s great!

18 inches, with Luck

August 29, 2022

Have you ever noticed that when you learn a new word you suddenly hear/see it everywhere you go? Of course, the word was already there, but you were unconscious of it because it had no relevance to you. I think that spiritual truths work the same way – with a twist. Here’s what I mean: suppose you have a surface awareness of a Truth, for instance, MY VALUE IS UNLIMITED BY MY PERFORMANCE OF ANY ACTIVITY. I can almost see y’all nodding your heads and thinking, “Of course, who doesn’t know that?” A week ago, I would have been right there with you, nodding away.

This past weekend, though, I had an experience that knocked me right on my tush, metaphysically speaking: I tried to do something that I really wanted to do well, and it did NOT turn out at all as I expected. I beat myself up pretty severely, said things about myself I would NEVER say about anyone else, and spent a few hours feeling lower than the proverbial snake’s belly. Then (thank Heaven), my inner Guide spoke up and said, “So what? You, like Edison, have just determined a way that does not work! Look for a different method.” I did a mental forehead-slap, adjusted the parameters of my plan, and felt a whole lot better.

At that point, I started thinking about how I had been thinking about the experience, and how I could have applied spiritual practice to shift my feelings about the event and ended up with a spiritual forehead-slap (not really, but you know what I mean) with a smile. I realized that the Truth given above had been sitting in my mind without ever connecting with my MIND or my heart. This reminded me of a teacher I had decades ago who always told us that (mind to MIND/heart) was the toughest 18-inch journey we would ever make – and if we were lucky, we would make it often. That reminded me of what my late husband used to say when I told him that I did not believe in luck: you are defining it incorrectly then, LUCK is simply Laboring Under Correct Knowledge. By that definition, we are only going to make that 18-inch journey, whether once or often, with LUCK.

My Shadow

August 22, 2022

One week ago today, I lost my shadow. Shadow was a 15-year-old half Cocker Spaniel/half Yorkie (we called him a Corkie), and he lived up to his name in every respect. My little sister gave him to me when he was only six weeks old, and he has endeavored to stay where he could see, if not touch me, every minute since then. Shadow was named for his coloring – he was all black with Cocker Spaniel ears, feet and tail with a Yorkshire Terrier body. The best part of the package was his personality, though. Nobody ever met Shadow and didn’t love him. He adopted people almost the instant they appeared in front of him, and everyone became his family.

Shadow moved with me from Missouri to Kansas to Nebraska and back to Missouri again. He loved to travel, and it was amazing how high he could jump whenever I said, “Ride in the car?” In fact, my late husband and I learned to spell R-I-D-E when we weren’t going to a canine-friendly destination. Shadow taught two little sisters (Dusty and Penny) how to walk on a leash, play with a ball, and potty outside. Shadow knew how to read human emotion and how to hug anyone who needed a little love. He mourned my husband’s passing for himself and for our family. By the time Shadow left this plane, his whiskers and his bushy eyebrows were snow-white, but he was active and playful until the last 36 hours in his body.

I stayed with him until he left his body and when the Veterinarian asked if I wanted to keep his ashes, I declined, saying, ” Shadow isn’t in his ashes, he is in my heart.” When I finished crying, I realized that Shadow is once again dissolved in Oneness, without the distractions of physicality, just pure love. I won’t ever stop missing him, yet I know I will also never stop feeling his presence. Just like Peter Pan, my Shadow is securely and permanently connected to me.

Retreat

August 15, 2022

I spent this past weekend volunteering at an interfaith retreat, so naturally that word was rattling around in my head. Like most words in human languages, it can have either a positive connotation or a negative one, depending on the context in which it is used. Militarily, socially, commercially, it is usually negative – stepping back, giving up, preparing to consider surrender. Philosophically and spiritually, the idea is definitely positive – taking time away from normal pursuits to focus on inner expansion, healing, or investigation.

Why this diametrically opposite meaning? It seems to be directly related to the amount of ego involved in the situation. In the first case, ego is definitely driving the bus – resulting in hurt feelings, a sense of emotional, political or financial loss, and regret that it was necessary (or perceived to be so). In the second case, instead of turning away from the Spirit withing (Easing God Out), we are actually running towards it with open arms – seeking a deeper understanding of our own consciousness, our own needs, our own spirituality, our own Truth.

I wonder what it would take to shift the governments and military folk from the fear of retreat that is so often expressed as attack to the joy of retreat that feeds the soul – both individually and collectively? Perhaps this is the focus of a new grass-roots movement – every day we retreat, as individuals, for a few moments of inner peace and renewal – might that not shift the definition of retreat in the collective consciousness away from ego and towards oneness? I see scads of ways to do this too – meditation, chanting, dance, contemplation, art, music, crafts, reading, journaling, etc., etc. take your pick! The bonus of this movement is that it not only moves us toward World Peace, but also FEELS wonderful, creative, expansive and fun. I think I will just try a new (to me) method every week until I can see the results in my own peaceful center and spiraling out into my world. I invite you to consider the options, too – you might surprise yourself!

Inter-

August 8, 2022

The Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, uses a term I love – interbeing. When I first read that word, it made me wonder about the origin of the word and the metaphysical meaning it carries. Word origins have always fascinated me, at least since my high school Latin teacher introduced me to Greek and Latin roots for English words. Inter as a prefix generally means shared or connected. That made me look for other relevant “inter-“ words: interaction, intercession, interdependence, interfaith, intergalactic, interpersonal – I could go on, but I think that’s a long enough list to make my point.

Are you wondering what that point might be? Well, here it is: all of these words involve, illustrate, or explain the concept of ONENESS. In each case, two or more people are connected, united, combined in focus, effort or result. So why do I love interbeing? Because that one word says it all: There is only one life, that Life is God’s life, that life is my life, that life is all life now. WOW, imagine the culture we would have if we taught our children about human interbeings instead of just human beings. Imagine the world we would have if we learned to thing of ourselves as human interbeings. My response to racism, or any other form of “othering” has always been, “There is only one race, and it is human,” and I think INTERBEING means exactly that. From now on, my intention is to INTERBE as fully as I possibly can – how about you?

It’s ALL connected

August 1, 2022

Did you ever find yourself in mid-grumble, suddenly giggling with God about an answered prayer? That’s what happened to me this morning. Actually, it happens a lot (both the grumbling – I have never claimed to be patient – and the answered prayers), but this morning I noticed! I was listening intently to the silence that precedes inspiration (intently, but NOT patiently) when BAM! That cosmic two by four hit me right upside the head. I usually start asking for inspiration for my blog on Sunday afternoon or evening, but this was a very unusual Sunday.

As most of you know, I am a Focus Minister and most of my ministry is online – classes, workshops, retreats, and guest speaking, in addition to my blogs and meditations. This weekend, however, I was holding an open house to celebrate the Grand Opening of the One Heart Metaphysical Research Library, which involved preparing invitations, handouts, and of course, food. I am a very organized person, so I had much of this already completed when “a series of unfortunate events” occurred.

It started with a heavy rainstorm on Monday that downed a large crabapple tree in my next-door neighbor’s front yard. It made walking my dogs a bit of a challenge, but we got around it with minor effort. On Friday, a crew finally showed up to remove the damaged tree. They left little green crabapples all over the yards and the sidewalk. They ALSO ran over the internet access hub in the courtyard on the other side of the sidewalk. Nobody noticed this fact – not even me, and I walk my dogs past it four or five times a day! This mishap resulted in the loss of internet access for the whole block for about three hours. Fortunately for most of my neighbors, their cables were unbroken, and service was reestablished in a few hours. Unfortunately for me, my fiber cable was not unbroken, and I lost access for a much longer period, until 7:00 pm on Sunday.

The open house came off without a hitch:

Access to One Heart Metaphysical Research Library, an interfaith library, available at no cost to all ministers, Practitioners, and students is by appointment only, throughout the week, except on Thursdays. Our current holdings include texts on Philosophy, Theology, World Religions, Spirituality, Quantum Physics, prayer, meditation, and other spiritual practices. We also have a selection of courses on CD, as well as spiritual and meditative music CDs. This is not a lending library, but our availability is very flexible (in days and in hours), and we can accommodate small groups (2-6 people). In addition, we have a small selection of books for sale on a love offering basis, and a large collection of back issues of Science of Mind magazine that are available to take without cost. One Heart accepts donations of books, pamphlets, and CDs as well as monetary donations. Our purpose is to provide access to a wide variety of subjects, authors and formats to enhance spiritual students and seekers. We are affiliated with the Centers for Spiritual Living (home office in Golden, CO) and are a 501c(3) non-profit, so any donations are tax-deductible.

Someday I will laugh about the experience – it was practically a slapstick routine: I called the ISP to report the outage, and they assured me that someone would be here Saturday. What they failed to mention was that the dispatcher would not send the repair crew until the dispatcher had spoken to me, personally, on the phone. Challenging? Oh, yes! You see my cell phone carrier sends anyone who is not in my contact list straight to voicemail, and dispatchers use 800 numbers that change with every call, so they go straight to voicemail. Normally, I have folks call my business phone, which does not have that feature – BUT my business phone is a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) line, so it wasn’t working, either. The eventual solution was to have my next-door neighbor bring her cell phone to my house so that the dispatcher could call it and speak to me. So, storm --> downed tree --> truck --> downed internet --> no VOIP --> neighbor --> ZOOM!

It really IS all connected. Butterfly wings and tree-trimming trucks both have far-reaching impacts. Perhaps that someday laugh is not so far away?

A Dog’s Life

July 18, 2022

In our culture, dogs have a pretty great life. Even the service dogs (military, police, personal) are showered with love and affection, are provided food, water, and treats, get lots of exercise, and sleep indoors. Service dogs notwithstanding, dogs don’t have to work for their keep. We even put “Please save the dogs!” stickers on our windows to protect them if there’s a fire and no people are home.

Why do you suppose dogs have this much-blessed life? I believe it’s because they teach us, by demonstration, unconditional love. Dogs have the most convenient memory – they only remember the good stuff, having learned how to avoid the “bad” stuff. That means they are always glad to see us. Most dogs love not only unconditionally, but also indiscriminately. No matter what we look like or smell like, who we love or vote for, where we work or went to school, if we smile at a dog the response is generally positive. Dogs get excited over the tiniest things – a pat on the head, a thrown stick, a bacon treat, or a tummy rub (who doesn’t love that?). I think that demonstrates the positive outlook dogs teach to puppies and to people.

This should not come as a surprise, since DOG is GOD backwards, but then, we often don’t recognize or appreciate the God things that happen in our lives every day, either. I choose to think of it as DOG is the reflection of GOD and having a dog’s life is living in a state of awareness of that divinity that is at the heart of every creature, every creation. Even though I do have a job (and don’t plan ever not to have one), I still am living a grace-filled, exciting dog’s life. That’s my wish for each of you, too – that you live a joyful, exciting dog’s life!

Acronyms & Anagrams

July 11, 2022

The English language has always fascinated me. It is clearly the most ambiguous language on Earth (pun intended). At the same time, it has some truly delightful idiosyncrasies. Two of my favorites are anagrams and acronyms.

Acronyms were a popular form of public shorthand long before the Internet and social media arrived in our culture. I can remember 60 years ago, when cigarette commercials were still allowed (no loss at all!) knowing that LSMFT stood for “Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco”, and there were all kinds of contests to come up with acronyms for new products. Just a few years ago, there was a contest at Mile Hi Church in Colorado to come up with the best anti-anagram for FEAR, and Faith Evokes Awesome Results won. My favorite personal anagram is Forging Ahead In Trusting Heart-full-ness, which is FAITH.

Anagrams are a sort of metaphor for connection, relativity, and pattern-recognition. Anagrams require at least two words, each with the same set of letters, such as Listen and Silent. The connection and relationship between the two is pretty easy to see – one must be silent to truly listen. I have used this one before many times, because it IS so clear.

Recently, I found another set of anagrams and a corresponding pair of anti-acronyms that connect them: the anagrams are Reaction and Creation and just a small rearrangement of the first four letters shifts us from what might be a negative mindset to one that is absolutely positive. Here are the acronyms: Reply Exactly As Culture Teaches In One Norm (REACTION) and Claim Reality Expressing At The Impulse Of Newness (CREATION). Once again, the connection and relationship are pretty clear – reaction is stuck in current “stuff”, but creation finds a different outlook every time!

Interdependence Day!

July 4, 2022

As I sit here in my July 4th finery – heart-shaped flag earrings, red/white/blue star necklace, flag scarf belt – I find myself feeling somewhat off-kilter, because of the current social and political challenges in the US. Somehow, after 246 years, I would have expected us to have evolved further, beyond bigotry, violence and tyranny. Then it hit me – our society is a collection of independent individuals, up to their eyeballs in ego. We need to move from you and you and you and me to US, WE – and not just the United States, not even just North America, but the whole, blinkin’ planet!

How can we even pretend that any action can affect a single person, let alone a single country or a single continent? We are, as Dr. Holmes, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and every other spiritual giant throughout history has reminded us, connected – intimately, infinitely, permanently connected at the consciousness level, and that leaks over into the physical, emotional, political, and global levels. More and more individuals are making this realization every day, and since evolution only moves in one direction (upward/outward), the consciousness of the human race is inevitably moving toward the cohesion and compassion of interdependence, that is, toward peace.

This peace is already present inside every heart, latent in the seed of Divinity that is our very nature. I have learned to look for it, which guarantees that I find it (even if I have to squint a little sometimes), so I know the human race is becoming aware of its interdependence. As we recognize and realize this Truth, while we will probably continue to shoot fireworks on the 4th of July (or the 14th, or May 1st, or whichever date is significant locally), I can envision a world where every person, every heart, every soul celebrates Interdependence Day, and I am ready to build a float for THAT parade!

PERSISTANCE

June 27, 2022

I was a young single mom when Roe v. Wade became law. I celebrated the wisdom of the Supreme Court and felt real pride that my country was moving out of the dark ages. Today I am a great-grandmother, and I feel disappointment and, if I am honest, shame, for the giant step backward that the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents. There are all kinds of fears associated with this event – more women with die from botched, back-room abortions; more children will be born with terminal birth defects; more families will be trapped in the cycle of poverty, hunger, and ignorance, etc. The thing that seems so obvious to me, and so completely hidden to the lawmakers and politicians in this country, is that when we step backwards, we cannot see where we are going, so there’s a much higher likelihood of tripping and falling over obstacles we have already met once!

This decision WILL NOT STAND, because we women, and the men who love and respect us, will not stand for it. The reasons have not changed: no two women are the same, physically, emotionally, or situationally; no two pregnancies are the same; nobody has the right to decide for another person whether or not she will be required/allowed to bear a child; here’s one of my deeply-held concepts: pro-choice IS pro-life; freedom is not freedom unless it applies to EVERY individual; government -mandated restriction of reproductive rights is TYRANNY. Of course, none of this is news, but all of it is TRUTH, and the TRUTH will always become the fact, that’s the nature of the Universe. I can’t suggest the best path back to reproductive freedom, but I know, however challenging it is, it is also inevitable.

We have a responsibility as human beings to lift, not only our own individual consciousness, but also the consciousness of the entire human race. The good news is that consciousness only moves in one direction – upward /outward, so every positive thought, every intention of truth, liberty, freedom and equity moves us closer to the end of tyranny and the birth of true freedom. So, as my favorite t-shirt reminds us, still she persists! WE PERSIST!

T.H.I.N.K. . .

June 20, 2022

One of the most frequently offered pieces of advice – in my life, at least – is Think before you speak! The challenge comes when we realize that this advice is hardest to implement when it is most needed. When we find ourselves in a moment of passionate opinion – good or bad – it is not human nature to stop and consider the potential effect of the words we are about to speak. This has certainly gotten me into trouble more times than I can count. It doesn’t happen as often nowadays, but then, I spend a lot of my time alone these days.

I recently had the joyous opportunity to officiate at my first wedding. It’s been two weeks, but I am still glowing with the joy of that event. It was, however, a time when thinking first became vitally important, not just to me, but to my wedding couple and to their guests. I am really grateful for the practice of asking for guidance and then LISTENING to hear it. I was reminded of one of the mottoes of the Rotary Club: T.H.I.N.K? before you speak. This expands into asking five questions:

Is it true?

Is it helpful?

Is it inspiring?

Is it necessary?

Is it kind?

Only when the answers are ALL “yes” should you speak. I will admit that, although the questions are vitally important, the time it takes to ask and answer them is probably equally important, because if requires one to slow down, breathe, and pay attention. When you do that, how can you go wrong?

The wedding came off without a hitch (no pun intended), and I got this blog as a bonus. Enjoy!

The metaphysics of slipcovers . . .

June 13, 2022

I have an 18-pound, absolutely beautiful black cat, named Bandit. Bandit is all cat, complete with claws and the indiscriminate use thereof. I love Bandit. I also really love my living room chairs. Unfortunately for me and the chairs, Bandit loves them, too. They are a very pale beige, and apparently, exactly the right height for sharpening Bandit’s aforementioned claws. So far, only one chair has received his attention, but the effect has been dramatic enough to send me searching for a solution/preventive measure.

It turns out I am not alone in this endeavor, and one can actually buy specially made, cat-claw-proof covers for furniture! WOW and WHEW! In the aftermath of this discovery and its accompanying relief, I naturally started to think about the spiritual side of the situation. Here’s a challenge for you: name three people you know who are completely happy with themselves – their appearance, their health, their emotional and mental outlooks, their finances, everything. That seems just about impossible, right? So let’s narrow the field. Just think about the one person whose equanimity you can best assess – of course, it’s yourself. Now consider the “onion theory” of personalities – we are all made up of layer after layer after layer of ideas, aspects, characteristics, opinions, preferences, etc. Each of us has been adding layers since the day we were born!

So where do the slipcovers come into the picture? They appear when we a) become aware of the layers, b) realize we have a choice in the matter, and c) decide to start determining which layers to release, which to keep, and (here’s the big one) how to select the one currently on the outside of the onion. Just like my chairs, we can have a chosen layer (slipcover, because it IS removable) that offers us protection, comfort, security, and self-esteem (who would choose an ugly slipcover?). Also like my chairs, the slipcover can be self-made, purchased, or improvised.

This is another of my “try it for yourself – what do you have to lose?” offers, and I really hope you will take a look at whatever is the current cat claw in your life and get creative!

The Dream

May 23, 2022

Last night I had the most wonderful dream! I knew I was dreaming, but I knew what I was dreaming was true – in the Mind of God, and in the realm of possibility. I dreamt I was invited to address the United Nations, and not just the Security Council, but the full, everyone in attendance, all Present, United Nations. I have no idea how that happened, but it felt completely natural and right. The amazing thing was that there were no interpreters, and yet every single person not only heard every word I spoke in their own language but understood everything exactly as I meant it to be understood. Here’s what I told them:

There are three things I think you really need to HEAR (that’s the first 80% of HEART, so listen with your whole heart, please):

First, WAR IS OBSOLETE! Nobody EVER won a war, one side just lost slightly less than the other.
Second, Earth is NOT an inexhaustible resource, and it does NOT belong to any country, political entity, or culture. We humans are here to nurture and protect the planet, not to use and abuse it – we are NOT separate from it, but intimately and integrally connected with it, and with each other.
Finally, diversity is not a catch phrase or a marketing ploy – it is the key to Peace, Abundance, and Evolution. EVERYONE is valuable. In fact, EVERYONE is necessary to the health and harmony of planet Earth and all of her inhabitants.

That’s all, but if you really get it, we will all live happier, healthier, more expansive lives!

Then I woke up - it was still dark, but I was smiling . . .

Hacked!

May 16, 2022

When I was much younger (in the previous century), there was a popular column in the daily paper called, “Hints from Heloise”. Folks would write in to the paper asking for help with everyday household challenges - tough stains, organization needs, decorating issues, etc. Heloise always came up with a solution, usually one that was inexpensive and could be assembled from whatever was at hand. Nowadays, nobody reads the daily newspaper, at least not in its hardcopy format. Instead, we have social media where you find both ads for “miracle cures” and tips and tricks for handling household upsets, which, like Heloise’s, can usually be implemented with whatever is under the sink. What’s the difference? Well, today’s solutions are called “Hacks”, which is funny, because NOBODY wants to get hacked! I know, it’s just the way slang terms develop – first something becomes common, like computer hackers who steal your identity, your work, and your money – then someone notices that there could be a flip side to the concept, like hacking the indelible ring around your toilet, or your high blood pressure, or your thinning hair. Some of these hacks are effective and some are not, but most of them are at least harmless.

So far, I am just talking about the way language evolves, but now I want to (surprise!) shift into the metaphysical side of the topic. WHAT?!? There are metaphysical hacks?!? Yup. Since there are metaphysical challenges in daily life, that is where the hacks need to be found. There are three hacks I want to mention today: prayer (DUH!), meditation, and mindfulness. “Prayer,” you say, “How is that a hack? “Prayer is the hack that empowers us to release fear and embrace divine order. That is, prayer helps us let go of the facts by focusing on the Truth of oneness, faith, and unconditional love. Next up is meditation. I could talk about this one for days – it’s my most daunting challenge, and having found the key, my most trusted comfort. Meditation is the hack that lets me shift from effects to cause, and that often eliminates the effect! The best metaphysical hack I know, though, is mindfulness, which is another name for Presence. No matter what the challenge is, mindfulness takes me out of reaction mode and into response mode. That is, it turns my attention away from whatever challenge is raising my hackles and towards that amazing well of stillness and peace that is ALWAYS at the center of human consciousness – if we give it a chance to rise to the surface.

My invitation to you is to pick three challenges in your present life and apply one of these hacks to each of them – the minimum result will be increased self-awareness, and the maximum result is unlimited! What do you have to lose – worry, dread, lack?

Freckles

May 2, 2022

When I was a little girl, I heard an adult say, “Enough freckles, working together, can make a suntan!” I thought it was a clever line, but I also thought the likelihood of freckles cooperating was exceedingly remote. Even as a child I knew freckles couldn't think!

Lately, I have been, like most conscious adults, many teens, and even a few preteen children in our society, giving a lot of thought to the increased violence in our world – not just in the US, but around the globe. I have wondered, and I suspect this is a very common quandary, “What can I do that matters, that changes the violence level in the world?!?” A major blessing for me is that I know there is a definite answer – there really is something I can do that can influence this situation. In fact, my purpose today is to remind all of my readers, and through them, all of the folks around them, that there is always something we can do that matters. It might not provide a solution, but it will reduce the impact of the problem being addressed.

Are you thinking, “She’s going to ask us to pray,”? Well, of course, that is always appropriate and beneficial, but I am actually thinking in terms of concrete, practical action right now. Let’s start with children – they can make a conscious effort to be peacemakers, on the playground and in the home. Teens, have a wider reach – they can actually create projects to promote peace (and many of them are already doing this!), and those projects are not confined to our borders. Adults, well, we are (at least nominally) in charge of things, so we have the most power for change. That power is usually felt most when we vote – with our dollars, supporting peaceful organizations, with our voices writing and speaking to groups who can increase the scope of any peace movement, and with our political power at the polls – voting really is both a sacred right and an immense responsibility. We make a difference when we choose where to buy groceries and clothing, when we choose what to watch on TV or at the movies, when we choose what to follow and how to comment on social media. We also vote when we choose not to give our consciousness to finding solutions, because that is a choice to support violence.

And yes, prayer does have an impact, even when the one praying cannot feel or see it, so definitely keep praying. I have chosen to spend 15 minutes of my morning prayer time focusing on Vladimir Putin. I encourage each person reading this to pick a person somewhere in the world who is participating in violence and pray for the awakening of that person to our innate Oneness. My commitment is for one year, at the end of that time, I fully expect to be able to see the impact of my prayers (I might have to squint a little, but I know it will be there). Consider jumping on this focused prayer train with me - become a spiritual freckle – just think of the peace tan we can make!

Peace Proposition

April 25, 2022

In The Sun My Heart, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote, “In our times, all war affects all countries.” Clearly, this is being demonstrated by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Like many of my colleagues, as well as the people we serve, this situation has caused many emotions for me: fear (it exists, whether I like it or not), compassion, anger, resistance, anguish, and others I don’t know how to name. Even though it is more than half a world away, this situation feels loud in my heart and in my consciousness, and it feels personal. Ernest Holmes reminded us more than once that there is only one Life, and we are ALL it, so I feel compelled to DO SOMETHING about the challenge of Russia invading Ukraine. Needless to say, I am not going to pack up and fly there – money, time, lack of skill, and a not-quite ended pandemic all block that avenue. So what is my proposition?

I attended a virtual retreat last Friday that included a discussion of Ho’oponopono, which I have mentioned in earlier blogs. This time, hearing somebody else mention it and then reading my daily dose of Thich Nhat Hanh, I received a serious download. Oddly enough, it came in the form of a suggested experiment for spiritual/consciousness/

anthropology researchers. Here’s how it would work: teams of volunteers on every continent (it might be a little challenging to find volunteers on the Arctic and Antarctic continents, but I don’t argue with Inspired ideas) would be recruited to devote 15 minutes every morning to doing the Ho’oponopono exercise FOR a specific world leader or would-be world leader – all of them, even the ones we like. I, personally, started doing 15 minutes of Ho’oponopono each day for Vladimir Putin about a week ago. I suspect the folks running the experiment would make a list of target-leaders and assign one to each group of meditators. They would need to provide a photo of the leader, but no other information would be needed. The meditators would then visualize their target as they chanted, silently or aloud, the Ho’oponopono affirmations, from the heart, without judgment or fear:

Please forgive me. I’m sorry. I love you. Thank you.

The goal, of course, is to lift the consciousness of those leaders in order to eliminate aggression and evolve peace. We often think about “negative” situations wondering what one person, half a world away can do to make a difference. Imagine small teams (8-10 people) scattered over every continent doing this exercise – how could it NOT make a difference? What do we have to lose by trying it?

I invite you to consider beginning such a group wherever you are. If nothing else, it will make you feel less helpless. Remember, a bucket of muddy water can be cleansed with an eye dropper and a dedicated person!

HOME

April 18, 2022

Home: an acronym for the Heaven Of My Experience. I have been thinking a lot about how wonderful it feels to be home again – surrounded by people who love me and close enough to visit in person any time I feel like it. Spending four and a half years alone in a rural – make that VERY rural – setting, it was difficult to remember that home is not a place, it’s a conscious awareness of the presence of love. My daughter, who will be 48 years old in June, was born three months early and spent those three months, plus an extra week, in the NICU of Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. On the day she came home, this poem flowed out of me:

Sissy’s Song

Home, contrary to popular belief,

Is where you hang your heart,

And not your hat.

Hats are more often welcome,

And easier to wear when crushed.

Sometimes I wish I had two hats,

Instead of one of each.

Then, again, sometimes

I would gladly have two hearts!

I always knew, in my isolation, that I carried home in my heart, but sometimes it was very challenging to actually allow myself to feel at home. COVID caused many people to recognize the difference between a living space and a home, and now that we are beginning to feel the end of the pandemic arriving, I invite you all to come home to your hearts and let yourselves feel the comfort and peace that are always waiting there.

Settle?

April 11, 2022

Now that I have completed the residential move from North Central Arkansas to Northwest Missouri, my settling in has begun. Settle is an interesting word – its noun definition is rarely used, except in antique stores, where it describes a wooden bench with a high back arms (and sometimes a box built under the seat) – and it has a ton of verb meanings, most commonly involving the resolution of a situation or a debt. As an essential part of making this move, I did need to settle my personal and ministerial debts/obligations – and it gave me great joy to do so!

In another common usage, we find a very negative connotation, because it means to accept less than the desired result in order to avoid effort, cost, or conflict. Compromise is a valuable tool, but “settling for ______” (fill in the blank) is not compromise, it is failure or surrender, and it never leads to a happy outcome. It also rarely provides a long-term, much less permanent, solution. I recommend against using this verb as a practice.

Today, however, I use it as a verb meaning to become relaxed and comfortable in a location; I am home! Everything is unpacked and the furniture, dishes, office and prayer room are all arranged exactly as I want them to be. My new home is, in every room, a clear reflection of who I am and what I love.

Now my new adventure begins: I will not settle for the comfort of being settled here; instead, I will settle into this new opportunity to expand my conscious awareness of the peace, beauty, and presence that bless this place – and my place in it. I will take advantage of the absence of distractions to find the fullest expression of my ministry, my consciousness, and my purpose, and I will use that expression to serve Life, Love and Presence.

You are invited to settle into your highest vision and purpose, too. Are you up for it? Isn’t it exciting?

Is this still me?

March 21, 2022

As you know, I am getting ready for an interstate move. The library is completely packed, except for the computer monitor and I am scheduled to pack one room per day for this whole week. I have done a ton of releasing, using the three-pile method to prepare for packing:

•One pile to keep

•One pile to give away

•One pile to pitch

Now I am dealing with the ‘keep’ pile, the things I actually need to pack. I have decided, given that this really is the beginning of a whole new life for me (my ministry is the only thing not changing, and it will grow, too!), I need to evaluate each item before I pack it. This is a slightly different evaluation process, since there won’t be a “pitch” pile. For each item, be it clothing, artwork, kitchenware, or whatever, I will ask the same question: is this still me? Does it still feel like an integral part of my nature and identity? If not, is there a strong emotional tie? If so, I will take it with me and then find someone who really wants that item and gift it to that person. If not, it goes to the thrift store before I leave here. This results in less packing/unpacking, fewer “where can I put this?” issues, and greater peace of mind.

Soooo, let’s look at that question again: is this still me? Wouldn’t this be a great way to treat self-examination, especially with regard to opinions, intentions, attitudes and reactions? We all have mental knee-jerks, and we tend to just accept or ignore them. What if we chose, instead, to treat them to this question as a sort of ongoing mental/emotional/spiritual housekeeping tool? Imagine how much lighter it would feel to no longer snarl every time you notice a certain behavior, and chose to release the person who expressed it or address it in a loving and aware-of-our-innate-oneness kind of way? What if you did that using a mirror? WOW, what a shine that would make!

SPRIIING!

March 7, 2022

I finally figured out why this season is called SPRIIING – it’s because it goes around and around as it rises up! The high temperature for yesterday was 72 degrees (Fahrenheit). The high for today is predicted to be 47 degrees. One week ago today I got really sweaty – clearing a 2-inch layer of ice (formerly sleet) from the wheelchair ramp to my administration building, without a jacket, because it was 70 degrees outside. The ice was from a WINTER STORM the week before. This past Friday, in 75-degree sunshine, I bought groceries and brought them home to find two large patches of daffodils blooming under my kitchen window. This Thursday, according to the weather app on my phone, I will need to leave the water running in all of the faucets of my house to prevent the pipes from freezing when the temperature drops to 18 degrees. In this season, the weather pattern looks a lot like a Slinky! The silly part of this discussion is that I am, and I suspect most of us are, surprised by this pattern – every blinking year! That’s why I have two closets, one for days when the weather matches my expectations, and one for the other half of the time.

So what’s my metaphysical take on all of this roller coaster weather? Well, it’s pretty much a solid metaphor for an unconscious life, isn’t it? I mean we have that lifestyle/philosophy/outlook that just sort of rolls along with day-to-day events, and then we have crisis mode, and we can go from one to the other in a HEARTBEAT! I have had days when so many “up” events and “down” events got intermingled that I was positively dizzy. I have also had days when I was so absolutely in the flow of Divine Guidance that my face hurt from smiling so much. I am delighted to report that, as my inner exploration expands, the flow days far outnumber the dizzy days. I used to think I was following guidance when I was really treating it like a “possible option”, pretty much ignoring it when it didn’t match my ego’s plan. Then one day, I finally decided to give Spirit a try. I just buckled my seatbelt and let God drive the bus – WOW, what a ride! I wish I could tell you that I never went back to the ego-driven life, but that would not be true. I have found myself climbing on the God bus with a lot more regularity lately, though – the scenery is great, and I don’t get cramps in my hands from clamping them onto the steering wheel. I recommend the practice.

Healing the Heart

February 28, 2022

My first CSL minister, Rev. Dr. Chris Michaels, said more than once that -Our world would be infinitely more peaceful if we could remember one simple truth: Every single person is in every single moment doing the very best they can do with the wisdom they possess in that moment. This really is true, and it really is simple – but simple and easy are NOT synonyms. One detail that tends to slip through the cracks when we try to integrate this truth into our personal philosophy is that it applies equally to all people, including oneself! A parallel truth is that forgiveness is not directed towards the forgiven, but rather, towards the forgiver, since the one holding the grudge is the one whose heart needs healing. Again, this applies equally to all people, including oneself - most especially oneself!

With these two truths in mind, I share a weekly ritual of forgiveness (you could do it more often, but weekly works well for me). This is an ancient Hawaiian practice called Ho’oponopono, and it consists of just four statements affirmed with heartfelt compassion:

I’m sorry.

Please forgive me.

I love you.

Thank you.

These are repeated until they resonate. They can be directed to any person or group, but I find it most helpful to direct them at myself. It’s sort of a spiritual hot soak, cleansing and relaxing, healing and wholesome!

Fertilizer

February 21, 2022

One of the amazing skills I learned (read that “gifts I received”) in Practitioner Training was something called “reframing”. Don’t worry, I am not going to talk about carpentry today – it’s a different kind of frame. This frame is actually mental, or perhaps it’s actually an issue of consciousness. It’s about shifting your perspective around an event or experience.

There’s a phrase I use a LOT: Shift happens! Some folks occasionally omit the f. I have even seen both versions on bumper snickers. Nobody escapes from this experience, so today I want to discuss how I have learned to not just deal with shift, but actually grow and benefit from it. Life is not a bowl of cherries (I learned this from Erma Bombeck back in the previous century). Every person on Earth has experienced events and occasions that were, at best, unpleasant. I have many times been reminded of the Florida expression, “It’s hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp when you are up to your a** in alligators!” I even have a friend who greets me with, “How many alligators do you have today?” Every day contains at least one potential alligator.

I am, however, a reasonably happy and exceptionally optimistic person overall. Do you wonder how I manage that? Well, it’s all about reframing. There is always at least one positive way to interpret anything that happens. For instance, if I find myself up to my eyeballs in manure, I can choose to complain about the stink or I can remember that manure makes excellent fertilizer, because it is full of nutrients that make things grow. I always (albeit, occasionally after a delay) choose to be grateful for the fertilizer and then look for the growth. Did you know that a field of sunflowers grows much taller if it was used as a cow pasture before the flowers were planted? Ask any Kansas farmer!

May I

February 14, 2022

Today, as an expression of my love for all of you, I want to share one of the most important things I learned in Ministerial School. I learned this concept in a class on Buddhism, but it is an absolutely universal Truth. Here it is: you can’t give what you don’t have, so EVERY prayer, whether it’s for healing, prosperity, peace, love, or a new job, EVERY prayer must focus first on the pray-er! That’s right, the only person for whom you can pray effectively is yourself. It makes sense when you consider that the only person you can change is yourself, and prayer is really about change.

So why do you suppose I titled this blog, “May I”? because that’s the Buddhist opening of every prayer. The reason the prayers all start with “May I . . .” is hidden in what “May I . . .” means – the key is to recognize that it is NOT a request, but rather, the setting of an intention. So, when the Metta Blessing starts with May I be happy, it means I intend to be happy, starting NOW. Here’s the Metta Blessing I use every morning, and I invite you to read it with this new definition for "May":

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering and its causes.

May I be filled with lovingkindness (aka compassion).

May I know my true nature and be at peace.

But it doesn’t stop there! Nope, once I have primed the pump with my own consciousness, the prayer ripples out:

May those I love be happy.

May those I love be free from suffering and its causes.

May those I love be filled with lovingkindness.

May those I love know their true nature and be at peace.

May those I need to love be happy.

May those I need to love be free from suffering and its causes.

May those I need to love be filled with lovingkindness.

May those I need to love know their true nature and be at peace.

May those who need to love be happy.

May those who need to love be free from suffering and its causes.

May those who need to love be filled with lovingkindness.

May those who need to love know their true nature and be at peace.

May all people be happy.

May all people be free from suffering and its causes.

May all people be filled with lovingkindness.

May all people know their true nature and be at peace.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be free from suffering and its causes.

May all beings be filled with lovingkindness.

May all beings know their true nature and be at peace.

May all life be happy.

May all life be free from suffering and its causes.

May all life be filled with lovingkindness.

May all life know its true nature and be at peace.

May you feel the love behind this blessing from me today!

GRACE

February 7, 2022

I have always loved acronyms – partly because I love puzzles, and the first time I see an acronym, that’s what it is – a puzzle. But it is also a wonderful mnemonic device, a handy form of shorthand, and usually, also a quick prayer. You have read here (perhaps more than once) that Spirit has a one-word vocabulary, and the word is “YES!!!” Today I am thinking about the form that word usually takes – Glorious Radiance Activating Creative Energy, that is, GRACE.

This is a topic dear to my heart and very much active in my life right now – well, it’s always active, but right now I am especially aware of its activity! One of my favorite Unity ministers, now retired for the second time, Jim Rosemergy, once told me that GRACE is divine electricity, and like the electricity in your home, it is always there, waiting to be used. The thing is, we have to flip the switch to activate the electricity in our home and in our spiritual awareness. I find the easiest way to flip the spiritual switch is via gratitude. Not just, “Thank you, GOD!”, which is my go-to prayer anyway, but a constant (or as constant as I can make it) conscious awareness of the Presence of the Divine, the activity of GRACE in my life on a day-to-day basis. What tickles me about GRACE is that it is so non-judgmental, so instantaneously available, so un-earned and un-earnable – GRACE just IS, the way Spirit/God/First Cause just IS. What’s more, when I am riding the wave of GRACE, I just AM, too.

I invite you to polish your GRACE lens and see what magic happens in your life – it’s guaranteed not to hurt, and you might just experience a world of delight!

SOUP!

January 31, 2022

There is nothing more comforting in the winter than a big pot of homemade soup – tomato tortellini, potato corn chowder, broccoli cheese, or lentil. Since the invention of the crockpot – a truly Nobel-worthy endeavor – it has become so easy to warm the whole house with just a few minutes chopping and stirring and then just leave it alone! I love to come home from the office to the scent of all of those blended flavors – even the dogs seem to like the smell. I love that one pot of soup will feed me for a week, and it tastes better every day. I love the hominess of it. I love the easy cleanup, and the wonderful internal hug of homemade soup – Campbell’s has nothing on my crockpot! I love to call friends over for soup and bagels – with no special occasion other than a full crockpot. Sometimes I save the last bowl and put it in the freezer for some future comfort.

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, wondering what today’s blog topic would be, “SOUP!” popped into my mind and with it, the image of my spiritual crockpot – a wooden rocker with seat and back cushions that sits in front of my prayer altar, with my God Hug draped over it. This principle is exactly the same – chop up the ingredients (distracting thoughts, concerns, challenges, possibilities), dump them in the pot of my conscious attention, stir with a few affirmations, some soft music, or a simple mantra, then meditate/contemplate with no goal but to be present in the questions and in the moment. Soul Soup (Spirit Opening Unlimited Possibilities) is my favorite spiritual practice first thing in the morning. It’s nourishing to my heart, mind and body. It is definitely comfort food for my spirit. And, like the kitchen variety, it tastes better every day – even though it is never the same two days in a row.

Three Moves

January 24, 2022

My husband used say that three moves was a good as a burnin’. Whaaaat?!? Turns out he was right – not much that is unnecessary or superfluous can survive three household moves.

I am getting ready to move – though not to a brand new state, thank heaven! This is a familiar process to me, and I know LOTS of tricks, like “pack the breakables in the towels” and “the last thing on the truck is the bed – so that it will be the first thing off!” The thing that makes this move unique for me is that I am actually enjoying the sense of freedom that comes from releasing everything I don’t need to take with me.

I haven’t found my new home yet, but the fascinating truth is that, while I am VERY curious to see where I will land, I am not at all worried about it! I have read dozens of books that recommend “living in the question”, and I have always snickered at the very thought. Somehow, perhaps because I have finally learned to let Spirit drive the bus, I have just awoken in the question – living, relaxing, and loving the mystery of it. Wow, who’d a thought?

Of course, there’s more to this idea. I am absolutely certain that the household move is NOT a requirement for the cleansing release. What’s more, it doesn’t even have to be a physical release. From the inside of the question, I find myself wondering what kind of inner issues are ready to be blessed and released. For instance, I have gone on a forgiveness binge – boy is that a hoot! I started with myself, and then just branched out – I am forgiving people I haven’t thought about consciously for decades, and the sense of lightness (in both senses of the word) is almost overwhelming. Every day I wonder how much longer this wonderful sense of presence in the moment, in the mystery, in the magnificent peace can last – and I am not at all concerned that it might end. Somehow, I know it lives in me and once it has been discovered, it cannot be lost.

So here’s my invitation: settle into a quiet place and ask yourself, “What’s the biggest challenge I have?” Then just sit there and look at it. The longer you look, the softer it gets, and pretty soon, there you are, right in the mystery with it! Trust me, it’s a little scary, but it’s REALLY worth it!

Penny in the snow

January 17, 2022

Two days ago, a major winter storm dropped a foot of snow on my part of Arkansas. Except for flickering power and loss of internet, there were no serious issues here at One Heart. Yesterday, wearing all of the clothes I could find, I trekked over to my office to attend an online CSL Sunday service. The topic, proof that God really DOES have a sense of humor, was "Embracing the Now". The talk was wonderful, as were the music and the prayers, and then I bundled up again for the trek home. After I trudged back to my house, I let my dogs out - well actually, only Penny was interested in leaving the warm house - and then I grabbed the sponge mop I use as a snow scraper and proceeded, grumbling just a bit, to shove a foot or more of snow off of my little Jeep SUV. About halfway through this task, I looked up to see this little, copper-colored dog, who has not even a milligram of fat on her body, bouncing around in the snow, flipping over, absolutely delighting in the immense, pristine white playground in front of my house!

Needless to say, after wiping away the tears from laughing so hard, I got the message Spirit was delivering through that marvelous talk and this adorable little dog: Embrace the NOW! Not just when it's warm and fuzzy, but all of the time. There is joy in every moment, if we are willing to allow it to express. Sometimes it isn't easy, like when I delivered the eulogy at my baby sister's memorial a couple of months ago, but it IS always there. It's in the love being expressed by others and by ourselves - to others and to ourselves. It's in the compassion that shows up as text messages checking to see if you have lights and heat in a snowstorm. It's in photos of a baby girl in her "I am 1 month old today" outfit.

It's also in that quiet moment, right before I realize I am awake in the morning, when I notice the soft, warm covers, the gentle light at the window, and the snoring of the cat on my chest. Joy is always, and only, in the NOW moment - grab onto it and let it lift you up to your greatest expression!

Orioles

January 10, 2022

This morning, when I sat down at my prayer altar, I was surprised and delighted to see a HUGE flock of orioles cavorting in my Cardinal Park (just across from the window above my prayer altar)! There was also a single blue jay, but the orioles pretty much ignored him. Mind you, it is the middle of winter, the middle of January, VERY cold and time for all smart birds to have flown south (more south than here)! These were not scrawny, hungry, or confused looking birds. Not at all – they were fat and healthy and appeared to be having the time of their lives. Feasting on last summer’s leftover sumac berries, bouncing (there’s no other way to describe it) from branch to branch, playing tag or just balancing gracefully on branches that look too fragile to hold them, they seemed oblivious to the cold. I, on the other hand was huddled in my jammies, caftan and God hug with the space heater going full blast!

Are you wondering when I will get to the metaphysics of this experience? Well, here it is: this was the most delightful example of Spirit’s unlimited abundance, perfect balance, and the faith and courage expressed in the very nature of these hardy birds and their complete unconcern. They knew they were safe, well-fed, sheltered and right where they were supposed to be – and they knew it, I suspect, without any inner turmoil or questioning – because they were relying on instinct, which when conscious we call intuition. I have decided one of my intentions for this year is to stop ignoring those little twinges of intuition that pop up at unexpected times, and frequently seem a bit “odd”, even counter-intuitive. They only seem counter-intuitive because I am examining them from the limited point of view of ego, coupled with my current knowledge, which is, by definition, incomplete. I often say that God never shuts up – there is a constant, continuous, and copious flow of Divine inspiration over, around, and through each and every one of us, and most of us ignore it most of the time. From now on, I am committed to paying attention to it. I am going to shift my searching for answers and direction from external experts to internal guidance. I anticipate glorious results! Perhaps you might consider joining me? Imagine how that would change our lives, our culture, our environment!

New Year's Resolutions . . . or Intentions?

January 3, 2022

Resolutions comprise a wish list

Intentions comprise a transformation plan

Resolutions wither away

Intentions take root

Resolutions foster guilt

Intentions generate gratitude

Resolutions become should/could/would

Intentions become can/will/done

Resolutions are vague

Intentions are specific

Resolutions trickle top-down

Intentions grow bottom-up

Resolutions yield imaginary results

Intentions yield evolutionary results

Resolutions start big and dwindle

Intentions start basic and build

Resolutions spring from ego

Intentions spring from consciousness

Resolutions dissolve

Intentions ignite

Release Resolutions

Embrace Intentions

Happy New Year!

Season of Light

December 20, 2021

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, which is the oldest celebration of light at this time of year. I love that light is the most common metaphor for the Divine – it’s found in every faith tradition and culture around the globe. I also love that we use candles to honor and celebrate the Light – again, in just about every faith tradition. The thing about using candles that touches me most deeply is that no candle’s flame is ever diminished by being shared to light another candle. Rather, when the flame is shared, it is also multiplied, so the light gets brighter. That is, the light appears to get brighter. In actuality, the light is infinite, eternal, and always present – even in the darkest night, we look up and see billions of points of light. There’s that metaphor again, because what we see is what we look with, or from – our own spirit’s glow.

I love this season, first, because it illustrates the unity in diversity of spiritual practice – the same basic practice in innumerable traditions, each unique and still celebrating the same Presence. I love it, secondly, because it reminds me that we really are One Life, One Light, One Presence – and even if only for a moment or two at this time of year, we KNOW it, we recognize our oneness. This season reminds me that the light cannot be extinguished – hidden and ignored, but not extinguished. It reminds me that we are not alone, and we are evolving, so hope lives.

Tiny Bubbles

December 13, 2021

Tiny bubbles of time when I become fully present keep me awake, alive, alert, grateful, satisfied, enough. Yesterday, when I sat down at my prayer altar, wearing the kaftan I knit for myself with yarn that was an early Christmas gift, wrapped in my late sister’s God Hug, blissed out by the candles and the gentle motion of my rocking chair, I realized I was absolutely glowing with a soul-deep smile of joy. These are the moments that activate and feed my attitude of gratitude, that lift the Altitude of my attitude (as Dennis Merritt Jones says), that set my heart and soul sailing into an awareness of the Presence – like a fish noticing water or a bird noticing air. In these moments, I recognize the perfect wholeness, fullness, and aliveness in every cell and fiber of my being. They sneak up on me, but I can also lay a trap for those bubbles by holding a conscious awareness, living in an atmosphere of gratitude and appreciation. Mind you, gratitude and appreciation are not synonyms. Gratitude is generalized and requires neither cause nor target. Appreciation, on the other hand is specific, responsive to some event or recognition. Together, they are the wings on which we float, like tiny bubbles of joy, through every day. I think of gratitude as the water without which life is impossible and appreciation as the champagne that celebrates our recognition of the gifts of life. So here’s a toast to life, love, joy, and presence – drink up!

Oh, no!

November 29, 2021

I am a creature of patterns – not necessarily habits, but definitely patterns. This was brought home to me this past Saturday morning in my prayer room. When I noticed the date on my Science of Mind Daily Guide, I realized that I should have received my December issue, but it was not in its accustomed spot! I grumbled for a minute, then looked up the customer service number (which I called, even though I knew they are closed on the weekends), and then settled down to wait for this morning to request a replacement copy. Then I started to giggle. You see, the accustomed spot for the upcoming issue of Science of Mind is on the top shelf of a bookcase loaded down with devotional and daily reading books. I am always using 8 or 9 of them, but there are a couple of dozen of them, so how much trouble could it be to find a temporary replacement for one? I was just rattled because my pattern had been disturbed.

This being the holiday season, I was reminded of my Grandma DeVoy’s cookie -baking marathons. Grandma would make a list of cookies and then line up the ingredients and dive in. I loved helping because I got to wear one of her fancy aprons and test every batch! Grandma was the queen of improvisation – if we ran out of pecans, she would substitute walnuts, if we ran out of walnuts, she would substitute coconut. We never baked the same cookies two years in a row, but they were ALWAYS great. Years later, with my own children and grandchildren, I tried to replicate some of those variations on a theme – with unpredictable results. Oddly enough, the cookies and the devotional readings had this in common – the variations were never a disappointment; each one became a treasured enhancement. Another commonality was that there was always a favorite in the variations that became a classic in itself.

I know it’s easy to fall into a routine during the hectic holidays, so here’s my invitation, my holiday gift to you: relax, improvise, smile, and have fun – everything else with take care of itself.

Thanksgiving

November 22, 2021

Take

Heart

Nature

Keeps

Showing

God’s

Infinite

Variety

Issuing

Never-ending

Grace

I have long believed this to be the most important and deepest reaching holiday we have. Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever say is, ‘Thank you,’ it will have been enough.” Why do you suppose that is? I believe it’s because giving thanks opens the door to continuous circulation of infinite good. I suspect that’s why in some languages (Japanese and ASL, for instance), “Thank you” and “You’re welcome” are the same words – they open the same doors in our hearts. Take a deep breath and then read slowly through the acronym above – can you imagine anything that feels better than that? Me, neither!

The Upward Spiral

November 8, 2021

A popular metaphor for evolution in New Thought is the upward spiral. It makes so many ideas easier to understand:

When we keep running into the same challenge, we can see that we are not in the same place as last time – and neither is the challenge. We have grown and are now perceiving the challenge from a higher perspective. As we continue up the spiral, we outgrow the challenge and release it.
When we feel ‘stuck’, we can see that the slope may have leveled out for a while, but we are still making upward progress.
When a challenge seems overwhelming, we can recognize that we might be just a bit too close to the issue to see all of its aspects, and we can choose to keep moving up and out until it becomes clear.
When we need to gain perspective on our own growth, we can look in and down and see every bit of progress we have made (especially the small increments of change that are so difficult to notice as they occur).
When we feel the need for rest, we can just allow ourselves to take a breather, acknowledging that the spiral isn’t going anywhere without us and we get to choose our own pace.

I doubt that any of this is news, but I did have a bit of an “AHA!” moment about this upward spiral recently that really changed my perspective. I have always pictured the spiral shaped like a Christmas tree – wide at the bottom and narrowing as it rose, with me trudging up the steep outer trail– but as I sat in meditation a few days ago, I realized I had it upside down and inside out. The spiral of my conscious, spiritual evolution starts in my own heart as a tiny spot of awareness and rises up around me, expanding as it goes, expanding as I grow. It never narrows or ends. It is as infinite as Spirit because it is my connection, my bridge of Oneness with the Divine. I can’t fall off or slide back because it cradles me in unconditional Love and guides me with infinite Wisdom. How cool is that?

Goodbye. Hello. Oh, my!

November 1, 2021

One week ago, my dearest friend, mentor, colleague and sister of my soul, made her transition. I was blessed to be able to spend time with her during her last few days on Earth. When I received the message of her passing, I was very sad for myself, for her husband, for her congregation (she was a Unity minister). At the exact same time, I was thrilled and excited – and just a tad envious – for her, because she is now completely absorbed in and by God. Her body is no longer here, but SHE is everywhere at once; she knows everything there is to know and feels the imagination of God creating as it happens! She said, “Goodbye,” to this physical existence and “Hello,” to perfect Oneness, experienced and expressed, which I am absolutely certain resulted in “Oh, my!”

I share this because it has been a blessing to me to see her transition from this perspective – there are still tears, yes, and they are tears of sadness and loss, but they are accompanied by tears of joy and celebration for her freedom, her infinite divinity, and her constant Presence. I am so grateful for the gift of her presence in my life and for the continuation of that presence now!

Enough

October 18, 2021

Enough - it seems to me we generally miss the tremendous power and value of this word. There are three common uses in our culture: time to stop (ENOUGH!), satisfaction of a perceived need, and accomplishment of a requirement. These are both common and pretty much unconscious.

The first one is self-evident and requires no explanation from me. Satisfaction of a perceived need, though, that one is open to a lot of interpretation. Did you get enough – sleep, dinner, affection, money? Not only does this use of enough vary from person to person and culture to culture, but it varies from instance to instance for each individual person. Enough is a very personal concept – enough sleep might mean the minimum required to function; enough dinner might mean anything from “no longer starving” to “stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey”; enough affection depends on the source of the affection, the moment in time, and the emotional state of the individual; enough money – that one depends entirely on the context - and these variations are for one individual person. To complicate the issue, what is enough at one time might not be enough at another time, even if all other conditions are the same. The closest analogy I can give is the idea of “a pinch” in cooking, sometimes it’s 1/8 of a teaspoon, and sometime it’s three grains, depending on the dish, the cook, and the day.

Accomplishment of a requirement is also very flexible. In fact, it’s even more flexible, because at least two people are involved in determining whether or not enough has been accomplished – the assigner and the doer. Each of them might have a different idea of what’s enough. Sometimes it’s determined by an agreed-upon contract, in which case, it’s easy to determine. Sometimes it’s determined by a casual suggestion, which is not as clear, but also not as critical. The tough one is when the assigner and the doer are the same person. In that case the human mind has to contend with the inner or higher self to determine when the effort has been satisfactorily completed – enough done. This can be complicated by the fact that the effort being measured might not be a one-time thing; it could be ongoing (like expanding spiritual awareness) or repetitive (like forgiving your brother-in-law). Enough is flexible, powerful, and open to interpretation from both directions.

Enough said?

The 18-inch Journey

October 11, 2021

I have noticed that when someone asks for guidance or moral/spiritual support, the almost universal response to whatever is offered is, “yes, I know . . .” in a sort of “What else do you have?” tone of voice. This seems to happen whether I am the asker or the answerer, and I don’t doubt its veracity for a moment, since there really are a finite number of ways to share the Truth. Most of us, as we grow into adulthood, pick up some spiritual wisdom and some common sense. We store it in our mental files for easy reference, and pull it out when a question is asked of us. The answers usually have some validity and sound familiar (hence the “I know” response), but somehow, they just don’t seem to satisfy the yearning for comfort, solace, or healing.

Long before I started Ministerial school, I had this experience for myself, and I asked one more question: if I already know that, and I recognize it as Truth, why doesn’t it help? A very wise minister gave me a clear, concise, and challenging answer: because you have to move the knowing from your head (intellect) to your heart (conscious awareness), and that 18-inch journey is fraught with resistance, ego, and fear. We can “wrap our head around” almost any external fact because it IS external. Spiritual growth, on the other hand, involves emotional connection with the facts in question. We have to personally interact with the event or person and engage our higher consciousness to allow the growth or healing to occur. For me, this has often felt like I was dragging my ego, kicking and screaming, into the Presence of Love.

Of course, I didn’t realize it was Love – it looked a lot more like loss or sacrifice or (oh my!) change. The moment I realized that I was trying to open a gift (awakening) without untying the ribbon (ego), it got a lot easier – well, simpler is probably more accurate – to let go of the illusion of control and let God be God in the situation. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean the pain vanishes, but it does become manageable, and the light does start to show around the edges. That’s the good news. The interesting news is that this is not a one-time journey. We have to keep making it in order to keep releasing limitations and expanding our spiritual awareness. This is where the old song lyric comes back to me every time: it’s got to be the going, not the getting there that’s good. Yup, the joy is in the journey and it is always worth it.

Priming the pump . . .

October 4, 2021

There is a lot of emphasis on manifesting our desires in both commercial and spiritual circles today. The methods vary greatly: commercial manifestation is based on hard work, connections, and luck while spiritual manifestation is based on internal work, connection and vision. I don’t much care about commercial manifestation, but I believe we are all engaged in spiritual manifestation – whether we realize it or not – all of the time. Manifestation, after all is the principal activity of the Universe, and as expressions of Divine Mind, we are tools of that manifestation.

What we appear to lack is the understanding of how that manifestation happens. Here’s my take on it: when we perceive a lack in our lives (always an illusion), we focus on the lack and it is intensified. Eventually we wake up and realize that we need to change our focus away from lack and towards manifestation. So far, so good. The next step is somewhat counter-intuitive – in order to shift the focus away from lack, we need to unblock the flow of manifestation and the best way to do that is to give whatever it is we think we lack. Yup, we have to prime the pump just like the pioneering farmers did. The good news is that this is definitely an inside job, that’s why I called it SPIRITUAL manifestation – first we connect with our innate divinity, then we establish the vision of what we desire – which is very rarely a physical object. When we turn inward to explore our perceived need, what we usually discover is that that car/piano/job/relationship is really just a symbol for a desired feeling. We don’t need a car/piano/job/relationship, we need the feeling that we believe having that car/piano/job/relationship would provide. So the internal work part of manifestation begins with identifying the feeling we desire. A car might represent the feeling of freedom of movement; a piano might represent a feeling of artistic creativity; a job might represent a feeling of productivity and abundance; a relationship might represent a feeling of love and affection. Once we have recognized the feeling behind the desire, the next step is to activate that feeling, which is where the giving comes into play. When we can allow that feeling to flow through our own consciousness, by giving it to another, the experience associated with that feeling flows through our lives.

So the basic technique is: if you desire love, be loving; if you desire presence, be present; if you desire abundance, share your abundance; if you desire freedom, acknowledge the freedom of others; if you desire compassion, be compassionate. In each case, be/give/know the desired feeling for yourself and for those you love and for those you need to love, and for all people, and for all life. The pump primed in this way, will not just flow, it will gush!

Donut Holes

September 20, 2021

The idea of donut holes has always tickled me. They are just so cute! However, there are all kinds of issues with this little blob of sweetness. First off, the thing itself started out as a throw-away. Secondly, it’s not the hole, it’s the dough that was removed to make the hole. Then there’s the dietary aspect: how could a hole, which is by definition, nothing, do you any harm? That perspective results in a person eating the equivalent of half a dozen donuts in a single sitting, one hole at a time! Portion control is completely non-existent.

Of course, this silliness is really just a metaphor for stinkin’ thinking. Most of us, myself for sure, have a box of donut holes tucked away in our minds. These are ideas and thoughts we have nibbled away at until only the center of the issue is still there, but we have never gotten around to finishing off that center. It might look like an unreleased resentment, an unforgiven grudge, an unacknowledged bias, or an unhealed hurt. Every now and again, we haul it out, take a taste, spend a little time considering how little value it has in our life, and then – this is the challenge – we just tuck it back away for future reference. Nobody believes it’s necessary to keep, but we somehow don’t work up the spiritual gumption to just let it go. Just as overdosing on donut holes can spoil your appetite for heathy and nourishing food, holding onto that hidden stinkin’ thinking can block your realization of the grace, peace, love, and compassion that are waiting on the other side of that release.

Let go of all those stale donut holes and bulk up on true nutrition – I guarantee the result will be a blessing that lasts longer than a sugar glaze!

Tithing

September 13, 2021

This is not a popular subject – and I believe that’s because we have mis-defined the word TITHE. This concept appears in every faith tradition and every culture. The definition is usually pretty close, regardless of the language, culture, or tradition: give back to God in gratitude for the infinite blessings we receive. The problem with this definition, is two-fold: a) it makes tithing an obligation, in essence, it becomes the bill we pay to God; b) God does not need or require either our gratitude or our money!

I’ll bet that made you sit up and pay attention, didn’t it? I am not being flip or irreverent – I am just taking a New Thought look at this essential practice. We will address problem (b) first: we live in an infinitely abundant Universe, created by God out of God’s own substance, so it is not possible for God to need anything. Spirit is, after all, all there is! Spirit is also infinite and UNCONDITIONAL Love, so it requires nothing from us except to experience life in through and as each individual creation.

Now for problem (a): at the risk of redundancy, we live in an infinitely abundant Universe, so lack is always an illusion. Why is that important? It’s important because we ignore that abundance on a daily, hourly, minutely basis and focus on fear of lack instead. We (all human beings) know God’s giving nature is unlimited, and yet here we stand, under Niagara Falls, holding out a thimble! We experience lack because that’s what we anticipate, what we plan for, and what we believe.

I prefer to think of tithing as opening up the floodgates, priming the pump, allowing the Infinite Good to flow through me. In fact, I want it to flow in a torrent, and absolute white-water cataract of good that lifts me up and moves me forward, that supports me and brings me joy. Because I take this approach, tithing is my favorite part of payday – the first check(s) I write as I allow the Good to be distributed through my checking account and my life. I get a big kick out of deciding where each month’s tithe will go, who will experience the cataract of Good this month. Oddly enough, not only has tithing ceased to be an obligation, it has become a treasured privilege. In fact, it’s really FUN!

Jump in, the water’s fine and the ride’s a hoot!

TRUST

September 6, 2021

Most New Thought folks are familiar with the phrase, “treat and move your feet”, but sometimes the movement is really hard to pin down. There have been many times when I could pray with my whole heart, but had no idea at all what my “part of the bargain”might be. That’s where TRUST comes into play. TRUST is my acronym for:

Tranquilly

Rest

Until

Spirit

Transforms

Are you wondering what on Earth that means? It means WAIT, without fidgeting, without fussing, and DEFINITELY without worrying. Once the situation is turned over to Spirit, my part of the bargain is to leave it in Spirit’s keeping, remember that God is NOT wearing my wristwatch, and remember that there is o problem too big (or too small, for that matter) for Spirit to resolve.

So far, I probably haven’t said anything you haven’t heard before – heck, I probably haven’t said anything I haven’t said before – so what’s my point? Well, it turns out that ego really cares about what other people think, and to lots of folks on the outside of a situation, exercising TRUST can look like being irresponsible, lazy, or disconnected from the facts. None of that is true, by the way. If we truly act from Faith, we cannot honestly worry. If we aren’t going to worry, and we are really listening, but not yet hearing guidance as to the next step to be taken, then what is there to do but TRUST? TRUST is the training wheels for Faith.

I have also noticed that it is MUCH easier to receive/perceive guidance from a quiet, trusting heart, than from the middle of the ego’s “HURRY UP!!!” tantrum. It is usually easier to accept and act on guidance from a place of calmness, too, because from that place, we can see the sense of it (God never does/advises anything that doesn’t make sense!).

This reminds me of that little poem by the ever-popular Anonymous,

“Broken Dreams”

As children bring their broken toys

With tears for us to mend,

I took my broken dreams to God

Because God is my friend.

But then instead of leaving God

In peace to work alone,

I hung around and tried to help

In ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried,

“How can you be so slow?!?”

“My child,” God said, “what could I do –

You never did let go!”

What are you holding onto that you could turn over to God with TRUST?

GRACE

August 30, 2021

I love this word! It is so versatile, so simple, so magical – AND it’s my favorite name for a baby girl. Grace is both a noun and a verb. Grace is universal – it appears in every language, every culture, and every faith tradition.

Grace as a noun means a blessing unearned and unexpected. It also means beauty of form and expression, like Princess Grace of Monaco, or Michelangelo’s Pieta, or a swan on a lake, or a gazelle on the run, or a ballet, or a soaring orchestral strain . It also means a prayer of gratitude, usually before meals.

Grace as a verb means to bless with one’s presence, influence, or patronage, with no expectation of return – and without inducement, simply for the sake of blessing. It means to act from love and with love without any motive at all. It means to endow joy, beauty, peace, and compassion for their own sake.

Most often, in spiritual circles, we hear/speak of the Grace of God or Spiritual Grace. The amazing and wonderful thing about this Grace is that it is constant. It is the atmosphere of the Universe. Divine Grace is the substance of which all creation is composed. It is the entirety of God’s vocabulary: a deep, resounding, forever, “YES!!!” The most important aspect of God’s Grace is that it is unearned, it is God’s “normal”. We don’t need to “deserve” grace, because it is like the electricity that runs through the walls of our homes – already and always there and ready, just waiting for us to flip the switch.

So why do we think we lack grace? Because we are ignoring (or perhaps ignorant of) it. We live inside our human minds, walled in by doubt, lack, fear, and the illusion of separation, but these are only human mental constructs. All we have to do is open up our hearts and our consciousness and Grace floods in. It only needs the smallest opening; no major transformation is required to allow Grace into your life.

Watch out, though, Grace almost always brings a major transformation along . . .

Anticipation

August 23, 2021

I have written before about my aversion to waiting, which is probably not unique to me. As I was drifting off to sleep last night, a phrase popped into my mind and I couldn’t get to sleep until I sat up, turned on the light, and wrote it down: Watchful Awareness Incubating Transformation. This gives “wait” a whole new meaning for me. In fact, it transforms (see what I did there?) waiting into anticipation.

This morning, sitting in the rocker in front of my prayer altar, I noticed the continuing ripening of the berries on the sumac trees in my Cardinal Park. The berries look like miniature grape clusters and they start out pale green, then slowly ripen to dark red, almost black. When they are fully ripe, I harvest all I can reach and freeze most of them – saving out just enough to make a batch of sumac tea. Sumac tea is loaded with antioxidants and vitamins, and it is both delicious and caffeine-free! It’s very tart, so I add stevia to reduce the pucker-power. That said, back to anticipation.

It takes about three months for the berries to ripen, but even though I see them every morning and notice the slow progression, I never get anxious or impatient with the process – I know the tea is worth the wait. This is the point I want to make – most of the things we have to wait for ARE worth the wait, yet we tap our toes, frown and fret, demanding immediate satisfaction. Since there is no way to alter the speed, why not transform our frustration into anticipation? How do we go about it? Well, according to my experience and the musicians, philosophers and chefs I have consulted, there are just three steps:

• Living in the question – that is, allowing the frustration to turn your attention

inwards, maybe it’s trying to tell you something about a possible point of growth?

• Exploring the process – maybe there are things that need to be done, that are

essential to the achievement of the goal. Making a really good cup of tea or batch

of perfect applesauce always requires time to steep or thicken.

• Appreciating the journey – as Harry Chapin noted, “It's got to be the going, not the

getting there, that's good.” Consider all of the things we miss along the way when

we allow ourselves to fall into tunnel-vision as we move towards a goal.

You might have noticed that all three of these say the same thing: God’s not wearing your wrist-watch, so just relax and enjoy the ride!

Kinetic Meditation - Knitting

August 17, 2021

I love to knit! I am very good at it, after 60+ years of practice. The only challenge is that it is very repetitive. You see, I knit on circular needles, so there are no seams in my garments. That means I mostly knit tubes of various sizes, and once the pattern (which determines the texture) is set, my hands pretty much go on auto-pilot.

You might wonder why that is a challenge? As most of you are aware, I think a lot – in fact, my mind just about never shuts up, so meditation was a tough nut for me to crack. Turns out, the same issue arises when I am knitting. This is not a problem when I have someone to talk with – my Bluetooth is really handy for this – or if there is something entertaining/engaging on television or a DVD. Knitting only uses a little bit of mind power once the pattern is set, and watching a movie or TV show similarly, uses only a tad bit of mental engagement, as a rule, so the combination creates a nice, gentle balance. So, what’s the challenge? There is very little on television in the regular season that I find entertaining – violence, gossip, “reality” shows, these all bore me to tears at best and bring out the inner judge at worst. What’s more, right now it’s rerun season and there’s not a blinking thing to watch!

The solution is in the title of this blog: meditation. Once the pattern is set, I can just soften my gaze and let Spirit play in my mind. Sometimes, the result is an amazing sense of presence and balance; sometimes, it’s inspiration for a project or a class or a retreat; every now and again, it’s the experience of Oneness, when I realize that twining yarn around a couple of pointed sticks to create beautiful fabric is just a tiny example of the infinite creativity of the Divine, and I am part of it! Who knew?

I suspect almost any talent that reaches the level of skill has the potential to become a kinetic meditation, as do many hum-drum tasks of daily life. Imagine allowing yourself to wash the dishes or fold the laundry on auto-pilot – it would be like taking a mini-meditation in the middle of the day. Approached from this perspective, instead of “who has dish-duty tonight?” dinner might end with “who gets to pray at the sink tonight?” followed by a chorus of “Me! Me! Me!” Well, that might be stretching it just a bit, but you never know.

Do you suppose this is what is meant by “pray without ceasing”?

Perfect Timing

August 9, 2021

I used to remind myself on a regular basis that “God is NOT wearing my wristwatch!” This phrase became part of my life about 30 years ago, when in a moment of utter insanity, I asked God to teach me patience. It only took about one nanosecond for me to realize my error and try to withdraw the request – and God/Spirit/the Universe is still laughing.

This morning, one of my daily readings reminded me that time, and therefore both punctuality and tardiness, exist only in the mind of humankind. We invented it/them. There is no concept of time in the mind of God, because God exists only in the infinite and eternal NOW.

As I started to relax into that reading, I realized that, while I still claim only the ability to emulate patience with a reasonable degree of accuracy, I no longer tap my foot and frown as I await a desired event. I am choosing to call that progress! I also noticed that I no longer wear a watch at all (though I still have several in my jewelry chest). The idea of punctuality and its late brother, tardiness, has also been waning in my consciousness. I suspect this is, at least in part, due to my living in the South, where urgency is an alien concept altogether. This got me to reflecting on the energy and aggravation I could have conserved by simply realizing that EVERYTHING happens with perfect timing – at least at the spiritual level. When I noticed that the answer to “When?!?” is “When Spirit is good and ready!”, I was briefly miffed. Then I started to laugh – if I have learned nothing else from COVID, I have learned that waiting can be either dread or anticipation, and I’m with Carly Simon on that one!

Letting God determine the schedule takes a huge load off of my shoulders. This is especially true when I think about self-care – God never puts self-care at the bottom of the priority list, and I am soooo grateful. I have also noticed that from God’s perspective, self-care can be simple and effortless – maybe just a Sunday afternoon spent in the rocking chair watching old movies and knitting. No preparation required, no measuring effort, effect, or appropriateness, just being.

This reminds me of those old good news/bad news jokes – the “good” and “bad” are all in the eye of the beholder, and timing (did you ever notice this?) almost always determines which way an event is viewed. Since I believe life is an upward spiral of growth, I am claiming this new knowledge: all timing is perfect, especially when viewed in retrospect. Relax, take off your watch, and let God drive the bus – your arrival is guaranteed to be right on time!

S I L E N T ~> L I S T E N

August 2, 2021

S I L E N T ~~~~~~~> L I S T E N

_ I L E N T Seek _ _ S _ _ _

_ _ L E N T Inner _ I S _ _ _

_ _ _ E N T Luminance L I S _ _ _

_ _ _ _ N T Expressing L I S _ E _

_ _ _ _ _ T Never-ending L I S _ E N

_ _ _ _ _ _ Truth L I S T E N

T his transformation came to me while I was practicing a mindful breathing meditation. I realized that the only time I can really listen is when I am silent and then I can hear my own heartbeat. Somehow, when I am silent, especially if I also close my eyes, I seem to be able to easily release the illusion of separation – from Spirit, from other people, from wholeness, from peace. The simple process of breathing in for a count of five, holding (gently) for a count of five, breathing out for a count of five, and holding for a count of five, repeated for just ten or fifteen minutes is as calming and as refreshing as a good night’s sleep. Who knew?!? You can even do this for just a few iterations to prevent an outburst of “inappropriate” behavior or speech. I sincerely recommend this practice, as a meditation, as a stress release, or as a lullaby – it never fails me. Why not give it a try?

The GOD Hug

July 26, 2021

Three years ago, when my husband was in his final illness, my little sister came to visit. She brought toys for the pets and a very special gift for me. My gift was a hooded throw, with pockets and buttons. It was made of some amazingly soft material – that has retained its softness through years of washing and drying. It’s a cream color on the outside and ivory on the inside, but somehow it never really looks dirty. It lives on the rocking chair in front of my prayer altar. I call it my GOD hug, because for all this time, even at the very beginning of my widowhood, I have been able to wrap it around me and feel the presence of love. When I couldn’t stop crying, the GOD hug reminded me that I was not alone. When I looked out the window to the beauty of my little Cardinal Park, the GOD hug reminded me that beauty is part of every moment. When I sat in meditation, chanting “I’m sorry; please forgive me; I love you; thank you,” over and over, the GOD hug reminded me that I am always cradled in the arms of unconditional love, peace, and compassion.

Then COVID hit, and suddenly the whole world was as isolated and lonely as I was. I wrapped myself in my GOD hug, snuggled down, and remembered that, even when we cannot hug with our arms, we can always hug, and be hugged by, our hearts. So my invitation to each of you is that you give yourselves, and anyone you love (whether you know them or not) a big GOD hug – it doesn’t HAVE to be a physical garment, you can just use your heart. Don’t forget to include yourself!

I wonder if this is why we give hand-made blankets to newborns and newlyweds?

The Daisy Chain

July 19, 2021

When I was a little girl, we made daisy chains to wear in our hair . Of course, they were really clover chains, but the same principle applies. Many years later, I learned that the concept of a daisy chain had become part of two major industries - information technology and medicine.

In information technology, the daisy chain, a series of linked processors, became the predecessor of both the supercomputer (a VERY large processor) and the multiprocessor (a collection of connected processors in one box) - and I thought I was clever making a chain of extension cords to get all of my Christmas lights lit! The same idea became the basis of smooth programming logic using subroutines and distributed processing which became "The Cloud"! Now an online daisy chain is called "going viral".

In medicine, the concept is used with transplant surgery. Since rejection is such a critical issue, close family members are not always able to donate an organ, so some very conscious and compassionate person figured out the way to let everyone benefit from a daisy chain. Here's how it works: person A needs a kidney, but nobody in that family is a type match. Person B need a liver, but again, no familial match. Same for person C's liver and person D's lung. However, person A's cousin is a match for person B and person B's brother is a match for person C and person C's Dad is a match for person D, and person D's nephew is a match for person A! It requires coordination, organization, compassion and grace, but EVERYBODY wins.

I don't have any family or friends in need of a transplant, but I do have another application for the daisy chain. Suppose each of us expanded our idea of citizenship just a tad - say to include the entire planet. Then it wouldn't matter where that shirt was made, because purchasing it would still feed a one of your countryfolk. It wouldn't matter where the wheat was shipped, it would still be feeding your people. It wouldn't matter where the factory was, it would still be employing members of your nation. Now let's take it a step further and expand our definition of family just a tad - to include the entire human race. It no longer matters where anyone is born, they are all our family. It no longer matters where the children live, our family needs education. It no longer matters how far we have to send the food, the clothing, the doctors, the scientists, the teachers - we are all just taking care of our family.

I have always taught my children and my grandchildren that blood makes relatives and love makes family - maybe it's time to expand the reach of that idea. Care to join the family?

Practicing what I preach . . .

July 12, 2021

Last Thursday my littlest dog, Penny, went missing. I wasn't too concerned when she didn't come in at bedtime, since she occasionally like to sleep on the front porch, but when I woke up at 3 am and went to the door, she still wasn't there. I went back to bed and tried to sleep, without success. I prayed for her safe return and my faith in said safe return, but I was praying from fear and I knew it. There's an old saying that if you are worrying, you aren't praying and if you are praying, you aren't worrying, but I felt like I was definitely doing both. My vivid imagination drew Cruella DeVille and her minions right to my gate! I kept reciting my mantra: she has a collar, with a giant rabies tag and a brass name tag - with her name and address and my name and phone number - how could anyone fail to call me when they found her?!?

I posted a plea on Facebook and all of the Arkansas lost and found pet sites. Then I worried and prayed and worried and prayed. I just knew someone had picked her up and, recognizing how absolutely adorable she is, decided to ignore the tags and keep her. I cried and ranted about the unkindness of strangers and thanked the dozens of folks who responded to my Facebook post with words of encouragement and prayers. After 24 hours, I was praying that Spirit would either send her back to me or grant me the strength to release her. I was ticked at Spirit and at myself for being ticked at Spirit.

Then some friends called on Saturday afternoon to say they were stopping by to look at a cabinet in my barn. Shortly after they arrived, I got another call from them, asking if I had guests in the retreat house (I did) and whether they had brought a little dog with them (they hadn't). It seems they heard barking coming from the retreat house garage. When I asked them to open it, Penny dashed out! Somehow she had gotten into the garage and the door got lowered before she could get back out. The garage is about 3 city blocks from my house and at least 2 from my admin building, so I never heard the barking. We agreed that Spirit had sent them to the barn so they could rescue Penny.

So what did I learn? I learned that Divine Order is not a myth, that my neighbors do not include Cruella DeVille, and that even when my prayers feel like whining, they are still affecting my world. I also learned that absolutely nothing feels better than gratitude! Of course, I also realized that applying my own advice is often a whole lot harder than giving it - the effect of emotion and attachment to the desired outcome.

Probably the most practical thing I learned is that the next time I can't find Penny, I will head straight for the garage!

Meditation Mythbusting

June 28, 2021

I spent 30 years trying to learn to meditate and believing I had failed miserably. I had grown up in the Catholic tradition, where rote prayer was the norm and no instruction at all was given in meditation - although we were encouraged to meditate. My mind was chock full of misinformation:

meditation means sitting absolutely still
meditation means absolute silence, inner and outer
meditation is the highest form of prayer, therefore not optional
meditation is simple, therefore easy
meditation is effortless
anyone who is spiritual can meditate instinctively
to meditate, one must first still one's mind

There was more, but you get the idea, and I suspect some of you are nodding your heads ruefully.

The challenge for me was the only statement above that appeared in every book or class I could find about meditation, the last one about "stilling" the mind. I mean, SERIOUSLY, who can do that in the blink of an eye? That's not a step, it's a process! Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone who could explain that process to me. I felt completely defeated and inadequate.

Then I took a class on mandalas. Imagine my astonishment when the facilitator defined "mandala" as a kinetic meditation. I thought that was an oxymoron! That was almost 20 years ago and it was an absolutely life-changing event. I discovered that when I was creating a mandala, I didn't have to still my mind. What's more, when I was working on a mandala, time didn't stop - it ceased to exist. Thinking, especially puppy-mind thinking, requires time, so my mind simply stilled itself - while I wasn't looking. Turns out, my body didn't need to be still, just focused, and the focus was near-as-makes-no-never-mind to automatic. I have created dozens of mandalas since then, for myself and as gifts for loved ones. One hangs beside my prayer altar and another on my office wall.

Next, I discovered a ginormous mandala that had already been created called a labyrinth. Once again I found myself amazed and delighted to realize I could walk the labyrinth in absolute peace and solitude, no matter how many other people were walking at the same time. The process of equally balanced left and right turns spiraling into a central point of silence and Presence was miraculous to me. This is still my most favorite form of meditation, and I will eventually have a 100' wide rose labyrinth , with a 4' wide path (for wheel-chair accessibility) and 11 circuits at my retreat center.

I also found several wonderful CDs of guided meditations, which lead the listener into stillness gently and genuinely without effort. I especially enjoy the 21-day programs by Deepak Chopra and the great variety of offerings from Insight Timer, all of which are free! I think of guided meditations as a spiritual bus ride - all I have to do is sit there and be.

The capstone miracle of meditation for me was a book by Eknath Easwaran, in which he gave not one, but two different algorithms for stilling the mind in preparation for silent sitting meditation. I am so grateful that I never gave up on this option, because sometimes it's too cold or rainy to walk a labyrinth (though I do have a couple of very nice finger labyrinths), and sometimes I really NEED to just sit still. Not only have I lost that fear of failure, but I sometimes find myself actually experiencing the state of bliss all of the meditators in my past promised me.

My last note (the last myth to be busted) is that simple, which is true of all of these meditation practices, is NOT a synonym for easy, but once I stopped struggling with the angel, it did bless me and easy just came naturally. If you have found meditation daunting, I promise you that one or more of these busted myths with fit and bless you, too.

Universal Communication

June 21, 2021

I am learning ASL, American Sign Language, and it has made me think about languages in general. Almost any thought can be translated from one language to any other language, although idioms sometimes bring a challenge. I have studied Latin, French, and Japanese in the past and I discovered that EVERY language adopts words or phrases from other languages when the concept to be conveyed is alien to the adopting language. For example, in English we might say, "Just a scosh" instead of "Just a tiny bit" or "Je ne sais quoi" instead of "I can't explain it" or "in loco parentis" instead of "parental authority". Each of these examples has a parallel in the donor language, though I suspect few of us think of these things as foreign terms.

There is one language, however, that can express ANY concept from ANY other language without words - and it is not ASL, it is music. I think the challenge in translating concepts from language to language is that people think not in words, but in pictures, and there is no way to convey the desired picture reliably. Music, on the other hand is a language of emotion, and emotions, though they are described in a multitude of ways in different languages, are universal.

There really is no picture for LOVE, but every heart can feel it in Pachelbel's Canon. There is no picture for loyalty, yet every heart feels it in a national anthem - any national anthem. Music is independent of geography or instruments or culture, although each of these can identify a style of music. The magic of music is that, no matter who wrote it or played it or heard it, the emotion is clear and pure and unmistakable. I think that's why one of the oldest forms of music, world-wide, is spiritual music. I also think dance is body music, and that is why when we pray with words, we pray once; and when we pray with music, we pray twice; and when we pray with dance, we pray three times - with our whole body.

Circling back to the beginning of this blog, I am learning ASL because it is a beautiful artform, like music and dance. It allows us to communicate and pray with our whole selves - body, mind, and spirit!

Armadillo Soup

June 14, 2021

My daughter will be 47 in ten days, so this is an old story. When she was ten years old, she went to the Brown's School in San Marcos, TX. We lived in Louisburg, KS at the time, and every six weeks, the whole family had to drive down to San Marcos for family counseling. We amused ourselves on the drive by counting the armadillos we saw on I35. We reached double digits more than a few times. So when she brought me a brightly wrapped package of Armadillo Soup Mix for Christmas, we all had a good laugh. When I opened the package and read the recipe/instructions, we laughed even more:

Ingredients -

1. This package of beans (17 bean mix)
2. One ham hock (substitute 1 tsp liquid smoke + 1 tsp minced garlic for vegetarian

version)

3. One bunch green onions

4. One large (or 2 small) carrot

5. One celery heart

6. One bay leaf

7. One armadillo

Directions:

Rinse beans and soak overnight. In the morning, drain beans, retaining 2 cups of water. Put beans and retained water in crock pot with ham hock and bay leaf. Cook 3 hours or until beans are just tender. While cooking, thinly slice vegetables. Let the armadillo watch - work fascinates him. When beans are tender, remove bay leaf and add vegetables. Cook 30 more minutes then serve with homemade bread and butter. If the armadillo is still there, give him a bowl, he loves the stuff!

This became such a favorite that I have kept 17 bean mix on hand ever since. The soup, with or without the ham, is delicious, and the memory of that long-ago Christmas is guaranteed to bring a smile to my face and my heart, every time I make or eat this dish. There are lots of these "heart-dish" recipes in most homes, even those where there were never children and those, like mine, where only one person is left in the house. Some of them, like armadillo soup, involve food. Some of them are simply memories of special, sacred events from the past. The blessing is that they don't have to be from the distant past, or even from your own past. They can be scenes from favorite movies or books or even somebody else's story that was shared with you. So the next time you are feeling a bit blue or lonesome, get out the "heart recipe" box and take a stroll down memory lane - a smile will be the result every time!

Presence

June 7, 2021

WARNING - THIS IS A LOOOONG BLOG, BUT I THINK IT'S WORTH THE READ!

I have a prayer room in my little cabin, and I start my day there every day of the world. When I realized I needed to practice some self-care in my life, I turned there. Divine order is always in operation, so when I set up my prayer altar, I put it under an un-curtained window that overlooks a tiny park on my property. There are a multitude of birds (including Cardinals, after whom the park is named) plus armadillos, racoons, and squirrels in this little park (not quite half of a city block in size) and as I sit in meditation, their movement (together with the infamous Arkansas winds) drew my attention away from my own aloneness and into the beauty of Nature. Looking out this window reminded me that I am clearly NOT alone – in addition to dogs (increased over the past year to 3) and a cat, I live with birds, wildlife, and the cows who live just on the other side of the park. That was the first gift of my grieving, the first of my Presence presents. As I allowed myself to feel the beauty around me, I began to have a glimmer of the beauty within me. My prayer practice went from one hour to two hours, and they flew by every morning. Good morning prayers, followed by reading from 8 or 9 books/booklets (including the Daily Guides from SOM magazine and Unity’s Daily Word), then 15 – 30 minutes of meditation – this routine gave me such a feeling of numinous presence around me that I just naturally allowed a spring of presence to well up within me, too. I didn’t so much get used to the idea of isolation as allow it to fade from my awareness as a negative thing. Aloneness was transformed from isolation to solitude.

My altar also has a collection of votive candles that represent attributes of divinity I want to embody, such as love, life, wisdom, guidance, joy and inspiration. About a year ago, a guest at my retreat center left behind a frosted glass candle-holder with the word “Gratitude” etched on it together with a little picture of a gift. This second present of presence has joined the collection on my prayer altar. I believe the attitude of gratitude is what makes focus possible. Actually, that attitude is what directs the focus inward and upward, which is all that is required to move from observation to presence. It turns out, at least in my experience, that presence is absolutely focused – on (or in) the present moment. It is not possible to be present in the past – not even the immediate past moment – nor in the future, not even the next breath you take. So how is gratitude connected to presence? We absolutely can be grateful for gifts received in the past and also for gifts anticipated in the future! However, we FEEL the gratitude only in the present moment, gratitude requires presence. In fact, feeling anything at all requires presence because feeling happens when we are focused in the current moment, and it requires our full attention. Oddly enough, at least for me, presence also requires gratitude, because it feels so immense, so divine, so beyond separation and into Oneness. Because I have learned to value the time with myself spent recognizing and experiencing Oneness – feeling the joy of knowing I can never actually be alone, much less abandoned.

I am absolutely passionate about presence! I KNOW it is the solution to every problem facing me or us or the planet today. Can you imagine how it would be to live in that feeling? Now expand that imagining to include the entire human race. If you can imagine the entire human race experiencing the oneness of presence, then you know that is within the realm of possibility, so let’s adopt that imagining as our vision for the world. Do you see that in a world where everyone stayed present in the presence, disease, hunger, lack, violence, racism, homelessness, discrimination of any kind, even war would simply not be possible? Consider this aspect of our vision: if we were all present in every moment, we would be living in constant awareness of our connection with divine Mind. That would put us firmly in the infinite flow of divine inspiration and guidance. We would have eliminated the concept of unreachable goals.

So how do we start? We can begin with baby steps. Determine that you will bring yourself into the presence of the present moment as you fall asleep tonight, and do so with the intention of waking up present in the morning. Give yourself the gift of self-care by setting an intention to spend the first two minutes of every hour you are awake focusing your attention on being present. Just two minutes. After a week, add another two minutes this time noticing the Presence of the Divine as it is expressing in your life each hour that you are awake.

I know that if you follow this experiment, you, too, will thrive, whether you live in the middle of a rural area or in the middle of an urban setting, no matter what your path is, without ever feeling isolated, abandoned, or alone. What do you have to lose - stress, lack, fear, loneliness?

Miracles

May 31, 2021

Einstein famously said, "Either everything is a miracle, or nothing is!" I vote for everything. I do, however, define "miracle" a bit differently from the dictionary. I can't believe in a deity who would make rules, which we call Laws of Nature, and then break those rules because some human begged nicely or made a burnt sacrifice. This just doesn't make sense. An omnipotent being, who is also omniscient and all-good, would simply not make laws that could be broken, or consider suspending them as a favor to a mortal who asked nicely.

So what is a miracle? Clearly, wonderful things we cannot explain have happened in the past and we called them miracles, so what's the story? Here's my take on the concept of miracles: miracles are the physical outworking of a universal law of Nature (aka God, Spirit, Allah, the Divine, First Cause, Yahweh, etc.) the mechanics of which humankind has yet to discern. Some examples that would have been considered miracles three hundred years ago are penicillin, telephones, manned space flight, chocolate, and heart transplants. Three hundred years ago, of these examples, only chocolate had been realized, and it might have been considered a miracle even then. Einstein was right - if God can do anything, then everything is a miracle, blessings await our scientific enquiry, and human perception converts miracles into everyday occurrences.

F.R.O.G.

May 24, 2021

When I was in Ministerial School, we had two retreats each year. I always looked for some little memento to take home to my husband. One year I learned that F.R.O.G. is an acronym for Fully Rely On God, so when I found this little green metal frog, not quite an inch long, I had to buy it for my husband's desk. He loved it and it remained on his desk until he made his transition three years ago. It's been sitting on the base of my computer monitor since then.

About a week ago, I noticed that every morning when I got to my office, the little frog was on my desktop, in front of the monitor. Each day, I picked it up and returned it to its position on the base of the monitor. After three or four days, I began to wonder what was going on here. My office is in the Admin building, so it couldn't have been my cat, Bandit, rearranging things. We haven't had any earthquakes. The spring deluge hasn't caused the building to settle. So, what's up?

I finally decided that this is answered prayer - what my first RScP, Judy Whitcraft, would call a "God-wink". I had been praying for a partner for about 18 months, and then I realized that what I was really praying for was to stop feeling so alonely (a term my late son created when he was 7 - it means lonely - on steroids). About the time my frog started dancing, I decided to change my prayer request - to let Spirit be in charge of my companionship/contentment level. Perhaps, I have decided, either my late spouse or my eternal Source is having fun with me - winking, if you will, to remind me that F.R.O.G. is always the best approach!

Fishbowl

May 17, 2021

Looking at my smart phone's app screen, I realized this morning that we have allowed social media to turn our society into a collection of fishbowls. Think about it - our Bluetooth generation has no concept of privacy or boundaries. Every moment of the day is posted online without consideration for the interests of the people involved. Gossip has acquired a whole new dimension - it's now permanent.

I believe one of the unfortunate side-effects of moving communication into the palm of the hand is that it bypasses both the mind and the heart, so that neither compassion nor courtesy are included in the message. Oral gossip could be contained, or at least minimized by geography, but social media is geographically unlimited and instantaneous. That multiplies the reach of online gossip exponentially.

So here's my plan: I am choosing to use my phone to communicate with people I know or need to know. Period. End of sentence. It is not a toy. It is not a weapon. It is a tool that allows me to communicate with others directly. If you want to know what I ate for breakfast, call and ask me during the daylight hours - or text me, directly. When I have time, I will be happy to share. If something wonderful happens, or you need my help, the same rule applies.

I no longer choose to live in a 360-degree glass house. I no longer choose to peek into other 360-degree glass houses (unless they actually contain goldfish). I choose to experience the world first-hand and interact with it one-on-one. The journey should prove interesting, and there are still some seats open, if you're game!

The Yardstick

May 10, 2021

This time of upheaval, perhaps I should say this era of upheaval, has caused me to stretch very wide, very deep, very slowly and very, very intentionally. Every time I turn on the television, my pc or my phone, I am bombarded (there’s no other word to describe the media onslaught!) by opportunities to grow. I don’t think even a rock could just stay the same in the midst of COVID, rabid racism, blind nationalism, economic upheaval, and oh, yes, let us not forget war. What has surprised me is the level of emotional trauma I personally am experiencing. I live in 2-hours-from-everything, Arkansas – there are no protests within driving distance of my home, so I cannot actually participate or be personally injured by the huge events that are happening in this country right now – and have been, loudly, for the past 18 months at least. Nonetheless, I am feeling embarrassed by and ashamed of the actions being taken in the name of society, power or money.

I have been forced to ask myself, over and over again, “What do I REALLY believe and what am I willing to do about it?” I grew up believing I lived in a country where everyone had equal rights and could expect to be treated equally under the law. It turns out this is SSSSSOOOOO far from the truth! So I am sharing my process of discovery with all of you. Today, I am explaining my personal yardstick, that is, the assessment tool I use internally to decide what I think about a person (myself or somebody else). First, though, I share the truth I KNOW: every human being has EXACTLY the same value, each is a perfect physical expression of a unique and wonderful idea in the mind of the Divine. This is undeniably true.

What I am talking about now is how my opinion/assessment works in day-to-day life. I will start with the details that are, to me (and should be to all people, countries and legal systems) irrelevant. These details have zero bearing on the personal worth of ANY human being: sexual orientation, gender identification, skin color, national origin, body size/type/ability, and faith tradition. This list is probably not comprehensive, but it’s enough to move me forward. Now for the metrics that DO belong on my personal yardstick: empathy, compassion, honesty, integrity, reliability, commitment, non-judgment, balance, a loving nature, generosity, humor, wisdom and kindness. Again, the list is not comprehensive, but it’s enough to move me forward.

If you are not already tired of my re-statement of what we have all experienced (though many more deeply than others), give yourself the gift of imagining a society where my yardstick was the only one that existed. If you like what you see, you can start to make it happen by adopting it yourself – and applying it to yourself before anyone else. This is not the easy path, there’s nothing easy about it – but I believe it IS the natural path, the path of human nature, and I am determined to walk it exclusively, starting now. Join me?

ZOO

May 3, 2021

This past weekend I attended a fascinating workshop about a personality analysis tool called the Enneagram. The workshop lasted all day and hardly scratched the surface of this ancient and compelling tool, so I won't try to explain it all to you - just enough to make sense of what I learned about myself. Of course, if I learned it about myself, I might very well have learned it about you, too!

According to this system, all people fall into one of nine personality types: the bee, the dog, the peacock, the cat, the owl, the deer, the monkey, the bull, or the whale. You are born into whatever type is yours and you remain that type for life. The curious thing for me was that as we explored each type, I could see myself in all of the assets and most, if not all, of the challenges (who wants to adopt challenges, anyway, right?) The presenters kept telling me to be patient, one of the types would really speak to me by the end of the day. I really wanted to believe them, but I just kept seeing myself in every type. At the end of the day I said, "I am exhausted - and I appear to be a zoo!" Everybody laughed, then we took a 144-question assessment quiz and I was informed that I am primarily a puppy, with strong peacock and bull tendencies. It really was a great workshop and I would definitely be interested in learning more about the Enneagram, however . . .

This whole process got me to thinking about other types of analyses, assessments, and categorizations, everything from fashion sense to cooking styles, to sexual orientation, gender identification and spiritual paths. Variety is an essential part of a happy life for me - and I suspect for most folks! Even in the midst of COVID we have found all kinds of creative ways to avoid feeling "stuck in a rut". I have decided that I LIKE being a zoo, it's a lot like the "open-at-the-top" philosophy of the Science of Mind. In fact, I think being a zoo is really just a metaphor for being who I really am, wherever I am and whenever I am there! So some days I will be a puppy, some days I will be a peacock, some days I will be a bull, and some days, I might just try out bee-ness or deer-ness or whale-ness. Think about it - you might enjoy living in the zoo!

INSPIRATION!

April 26, 2021

As I sat in meditation this morning, I was listening, as I do every Monday morning, for inspiration for my blog. All at once, I felt my soul smile, because the inspiration for today was , "INSPIRATION!" I love words and word origins - I collect pieces of information nobody ever really NEEDED to know, it's a hobby - and the origin of inspiration is one of my favorites. It comes from the Latin, inspirare, which means, "to breathe in" and that seems out of sync with its modern meaning until you link it to a philosophy that recognizes the allness of the Divine.

The modern meaning of inspiration is an idea received from another source, an expert, a book, music, art or Spirit, that is, from something outside one's own mind. However, I believe we are all connected to Divine Mind, and to human consciousness, which means we all have access to all ideas. I also believe we are all surrounded and suffused by Divine Presence, so when we breathe in, what we breathe in is that Presence. One more "I believe": God NEVER shuts up; God is always spewing wisdom, creativity, brilliance into the universe, so when we just allow ourselves to quiet the ego and just BE in that Presence, we can breathe in and absorb all of that wisdom, creativity and brilliance. We can be inspired!

So my intention, and my invitation to y'all, is - next time I need inspiration - to take a nice, deep breath in and listen with my whole self to the Presence of Spirit, fully expecting a brilliant response!

Patience

April 19, 2021

I used to think that the folks who visit a doctor's office were called "patients" because they always have to wait a long time to actually see the doctor. Not true, but intuitively sound. Common wisdom says patience is like wisdom, it comes with age. This is not necessarily so - I know some extremely patient toddlers and some extraordinarily impatient elders.

It seems to me one of the most important requirements for the development of patience is presence. I most often find myself in need of patience when I am avoiding presence, that is, when I would most like to be anywhere else but where I am. As a general rule, I am stuck wherever I am, so I have two choices: I can grumble and snarl about the situation, or I can allow myself to just be fully present in it. The former is no fun at all and generally tends to increase my discontent. The latter, on the other hand, has an almost magical effect in that it forces me to release any attachment to past issues (regret) or future problems (fear). What remains in my consciousness is a clear awareness that in the current moment I am just fine. I can scan my body to see that every system is working as it was designed to do. When I look around me, there is no danger. If I shift my outlook just a smidge, I can recognize the current moment as a perfect opportunity to just be. This might evolve into meditation or observation or gratitude, all because I let myself relax into the present moment. This can even become a habit!

I used to say, "Waiting has never been numbered amongst my skill set!" Now I realize that when I stopped defining waiting as "wasting time" and redefined it as "giving myself a breather" I was adopting patience as an attribute. This is one of my most precious reframings, because it helped me to release the negative judgment of impatience - my own or anyone else's. So the next time you reach the corner just as the light turns red, take a nice, easy breathe and just be with it. You never know, it might just grow on you!

Enemy Mine

April 12, 2021

I have been contemplating enemies lately. Oddly enough, the topic came up in my morning meditation yesterday. A person who has been the occasion of significant stress and drama in my life recently popped into my mind and wouldn't go away. My first response was to Ho'oponopono the living daylights out of the person, which led me to call to mind every single person I could think of to forgive. Ho'oponopono, by the way, is a wonderful Hawaiian forgiveness ritual that has been shown to bring healing at a deep level to both the forgiver and the forgiven. I love it because it reminds me that I am only injured when I perceive myself to be injured, regardless of the intent of the "offender".

That made think of the whole concept of enemy. What exactly is an enemy? There are lots of dictionary definitions, but to me they all boil down to the same core element: an enemy (of mine) is a person whom I choose not to love. That means I determine who is my enemy - not the other person, it is definitely an inside job. When another person intends me harm, that might make that person believe s/he is my enemy, but only I can make that identification.

This is really important because, believing, as I do, that there is really only One Life, living an infinite number of individual experiences, if I choose to make even one person my enemy, I condemn myself, too. If we are all part of the same life, then if I choose to withhold love from even one person, I am withholding it from all people, including myself. I become my own enemy - hardly a new concept, but a new way for me to think about it!

This is even more challenging than holding a grudge, which I liken to clutching a porcupine to my chest with the quills pointed towards me. If I choose to have an enemy, I have reduced the love I can give to myself or anyone else. I have created a leak in my heart space like a tire with a nail in it - and just like that tire's air, my love is being lost. The solution is quite easy, though, and the heart space can be repaired without a patch, unlike the tire, because I can always choose again. This is one of those times when simple really is a synonym for easy - all I have to do is choose to love, universally and unconditionally. Okay, the choosing is the easy part, but the loving is also easy if you remember that love is our nature and only ego makes sharing it difficult.

So, like Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr., in "Enemy Mine", I choose to make my enemies into friends by denying anyone the right to stop my loving them. I love you all - every single one of you, regardless of what you say or do or think or believe, regardless of who you are or want to be, regardless of where you are or want to be, regardless of any circumstance or condition, I absolutely refuse to stop loving you. So, there!

Skunk!

April 5, 2021

My puppy, Penny, had an encounter with a skunk yesterday. Penny didn't mind so much, until she came in the house and nobody - not me, not Shadow, not Dusty Rose, NOBODY would have anything to do with her. I got her cleaned up and de-stunk the house with a lavish application of Febreze Air, grumbling the whole time. Of course, as almost always (thank You, Spirit) happens when I go on a grumble fest, I started to wonder what the blessin' in this particular lesson was.

I realized that the reason we humans have such a challenge with undesirable aromas is that our sense of smell is pretty much unavoidable. We can close our eyes to avoid what we'd rather not see, we can plug our ears to avoid what we'd rather not hear, we can wear rubber gloves to avoid what we'd rather not touch, we can just not eat what we'd rather not taste, but in order to keep breathing - a necessary activity - we cannot turn off our noses. This leaves us, as always, at choice.

What choice, you might wonder? Well, our choice is to remove the offending odor, cover it up, or learn to live with it. And you reply, "Well, duh, that's our choice in every situation!" To which my rejoinder is, "EXACTLY! Life is a chain of choices, and it's up to each individual to determine which ones are skunks and which one are lilacs (my favorite scent).

One of my most effective tools for making that determination is Presence, frequently assisted by laughter. When I can be fully present in a moment, I have no sense of negativity or loss or anger. This is at least in part because being fully present eliminates time - another way of saying I realize that "this", too, shall pass - no matter what "this" is. Presence also makes it easier to see the humor in a situation - Penny really was funny chasing us all around - which made it easier to hold my breath while I cleaned her up and wielded the Febreze Air.

I know we can't laugh our way out of every challenge, but I also know that being fully present in any challenge increases both the acceptance and the overcoming of it. So the next time you find yourself in a big, stinky challenge, just think of Penny, grab your Febreze, and remember, Presence can handle this!

The Four Questions

October 10, 2023

How does your ministry (or life), what you do, and what you are, how does that contribute to/enhance/promote/choose your own verb conscious evolution? Evolution really is the operating system of the Universe – it’s been working forever, and it will continue, but we, as a species have finally reached the point where we can take charge of how we evolve, and it’s time we did that!
This sounds like the same question, but it really is NOT: how does your ministry (or life), what you do, and what you are, how does that contribute to /enhance/promote /choose your own verb to World Peace? We have all heard the phrase, “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me,” and we have reached the time in our own history where we can see that only one heart at a time can peace happen, and it is our job to be that heart!
With the understanding that every little detail, every relationship, every event, every thought and activity goes EXACTLY the way you want it to go, 10 years from now, what does your life look like? Don’t leave anything out, nothing is too big or too little to consider.
Will you come back? I always ask this because even if my guest returned the very next week (which they won’t, since I am booked through the end of June, 2024), that guest would not be the same person I just finished interviewing – something, probably many somethings, would have changed, and I would get a brand-new interview with a brand-new guest. So when you ask this question of yourself, what you are asking is whether you are willing to return to these questions and answer them honestly, again and again – at least annually, but the more often , the better it will be for you. Congratulations on your new life!

Love and blessings,

Rev. Dr. Sharri

The Only Constant

September 18, 2023

Love and blessings,

Rev. Dr. Sharri

Three-word Affirmations

September 4, 2023

Hate is obsolete.

Prejudice is obsolete.

Greed is obsolete.

Isolation is obsolete.

Injustice is obsolete.

Selfishness is obsolete.

Inequity is obsolete.

Rudeness is obsolete.

Colonialism is obsolete.

Supremacy is obsolete.

Generosity is natural.

Kindness is natural.

Love is natural.

Equity is natural.

Healthcare is natural.

Education is natural.

Empathy is natural.

Sharing is natural.

Communication is natural.

Connection is natural.

Quantum Consciousness

August 21, 2023

How's your day looking?

WISHBONES

March 29, 2021

BOING! BOING! Bunny

March 22, 2021

Easter is still a couple of weeks away, so maybe we could do some shopping - for bunnies, and blessings, for prayers and friendship. . .

The Superpower

March 15, 2021

Prayer is my super power!

This is actually not just true, but the Truth of every single one of us.

Adulteration II

March 8, 2021

Eyedroppers

March 1, 2021

My eyedropper's loaded, care to join me?

COURAGE

February 22, 2021

Watercolor or mosaic?

February 15, 2021

I'm in - how about y'all?

Curiosity

February 8, 2021

Simple means capable of description with a few clear phrases. Easy means capable of being accomplished with very little effort. Even here, what you see depends on how you look at it.

Valleys

February 1, 2021

I am ready for the next valley, whatever it might bring.

WHY?

January 25, 2021

The biggest "WHY?" for me is probably also the oldest one: why are we here? It seems to me this is a really multi-level question:

what is our origin as a species?
what is our function in the environment? (Why does Earth need us?)
why do we need other people?
why do we think? (more specifically, why do we ask questions?)
why do we reach inward and upward to a higher power/consciousness/intelligence?

Why is the question that brings us closest to understanding the concept of infinity. So, why not ask, "WHY?"

to manifest the Dream

January 18, 2021

Donkey Kong

January 11, 2021

Small increments of change

January 4, 2021

We learned second by second, tear by tear, and smile by smile. Small increments of change have made all the difference, so keep it up - and try to notice, acknowledge, and appreciate them.

Clean-up Week

December 28, 2020

Clean-up week is not easy, and nobody would call it fun, but it sure provides a clear window for facing the New Year!

Blue Christmas

December 21, 2020

The List - Part III

December 14, 2020

nobody goes hungry
nobody goes homeless
nobody lives in fear
nobody is without a formal education
nobody feels alone
nobody feels unheard
no talent is unrecognized
nobody lacks adequate medical care
no violence is endured
no skill is wasted
no spiritual path is denied
no joy is withheld
no love is restricted

The List - Part II

December 7, 2020

BE compassionate (which morphed into BE COMPASSION)

BE truthful

BE in integrity

BE loving (which morphed into BE LOVE)

BE kind

BE responsible (I call this one accomplished, since I served jury duty,

and I ALWAYS vote)

BE humane

BE reliable

BE present (which morphed into BE PRESENCE)

BE aware of oneness (which morphed into BE IN ONENESS)

BE receptive

BE respectful

BE transparent

To each of these could be added " - to everyone!"

Like a bucket list, this list starts with "B", but I think this list will lead me to higher peaks and greater vistas. Maybe you could consider creating your own BE list?

The List - Part I

November 30, 2020

Over the next couple of weeks, I will write about some of the other lists that I carry in my heart. Perhaps some of them will be familiar to you!

Thanksgiving prayer

November 23, 2020

LISTEN . . .

November 16, 2020

Wow, is that cool . . .

LEAVES!

November 9, 2020

Care to join me?

Our MOST important right!

November 2, 2020

1. Don't ever go to sleep angry. It's okay to go to bed angry, but don't go to sleep

angry - it will give you ulcers.

2. If you ever wake up and say, "Oh, God, I don't want to go to work!" you need to

find a new job! You will do what you do to earn a living more than everything

else you do in your life, so be sure it is something you love, something you

would do for free, hell, something you would pay to be allowed to do!

3. Here's the big one: if you don't vote, you don't have the right to B***H, and

THAT if the right we need to protect above all others, so whether you vote for

somebody or against somebody, make damn good and sure you VOTE!

'nuff said . . .

Michelangelo's Mistake

October 19, 2020

Brain BURP!

October 13, 2020

Lose vs. Loose

October 5, 2020

Like the girl in the picture above? She was losing air, just by breathing, but when she hugged it with a little soap as she released it, she got to watch beautiful, iridescent bubbles float away!

No longer an option . . .

September 28, 2020

Sympathy vs. Empathy

September 21, 2020

For me, that was a major AHA! moment - this continuum is really a metaphor for the spiritual journey of the individual back to the One. Cool, huh?

Labor Day?

September 7, 2020

Rainy-day green . . .

August 31, 2020

This is even true when you look in a mirror.

BTW, my favorite color is rainy-day green . . . (just sayin')

Mind full?

August 24, 2020

The cure for a full mind is to be mindful . . .

Dog years

August 17 2020

A wasted day . . .

August 10, 2020

What, exactly, is a wasted day? Is it a day when you don't make any money? Is it a day when you don't make any friends? Is it a day when nothing on your to-do list got done?

My cup of tea . . .

August 3, 2020

Family of Choice

July 27, 2020

Free TUIT

July 20, 2020

SOMEBODY

July 13, 2020

I know I didn't create racism. The people who did died centuries ago. They can't clean up the mess they made, and the human race can't live with it anymore, so SOMEBODY HAS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

AMAZING!

July 6, 2020

I am now able to volunteer with hospice patients and their families without even leaving my home - how cool is that?!? Oddly enough, it really lifts my spirits, too. So here are my suggestions:

Call someone you love and haven't heard from for a while, then just listen to what they have to say.
Call your spiritual center's leader and ask if there are any folks in the congregation who live alone and might appreciate a phone visit.
Find a group of folks who might enjoy a "coffee klatch by phone" and set up a weekly conference call.
If you are computer savvy, set up a video chat group to discuss a book you are reading, or a movie you have all seen.
Call your local hospital's volunteer coordinator and see if there are any patients who might enjoy a phone visit, if they only want to listen, you could read them the newspaper or a book.
Call your local Hospice organization and ask if they can use your time, you won't be sorry.

Stupid mistakes

June 29, 2020

ITCH!

June 22, 2020

Hurry up and wait . . .

June 15, 2020

A purring cat . . .

June 8, 2020

So here's my wish for everyone: may you be adopted and embraced by a purring cat, and may you become a purring cat to someone else.

One

June 1, 2020

There's an awful lot of chaos happening in the US right now, and I am done with it - I am angry; I am hurt; I am ashamed; I am saddened; and I am not going to put up with it any more!!

BREATHE!

May 25, 2020

And someday, decades in the future, we will talk about all of the things that got us through COVID; a lot more than the challenges, we will remember the growth.

Lost in the grass . . .

May 18, 2020

I'm in, how about you?

Elastic time . . .

May 11, 2020

Reflections . . .

May 4, 2020

AWESOME!
April 27, 2020

We will be more and better after this than we have ever been before!

Book it!

April 20, 2020

Give it a shot, after all, how much TV/video game screen time can you stand?

Evolve!

April 13, 2020

Masks!

April 6, 2020

This could be the new national pastime - saving lives!

Serenity

March 30, 2020

Since we are compelled to stay home, why not take advantage of this "staycation"? Here's an idea - I call it the Perk You UP project:

An oar . . . or a lifesaver

March 23, 2020

There's an expression I used to use (a lot) that really fits the current global situation:

"I feel like I'm treading water as fast as I can, and every time I break

surface, some bleeper in a rowboat hits me over the head with an oar!"

All we have to do is remember that PANIC, even though it starts with the same three letters as pandemic, is only one of our options. Peace, cooperation, and compassion offer us a different result.

Now, here's a safe hug you can share with anyone (including yourself - I recommend at least three times a day):

1. Put your left hand on your right shoulder

2. Put your right hand on your left shoulder

(notice that you have crossed your heart, including it in the hug)

3. SQUEEEEEEEZE!

The Prism Proof

March 16, 2020

1. God is all there is, so God made all that is our of itself.

2. This means the universe and all it contains is the white light.

3. That means everything, every single person, place or thing, is essential to the

existence of the universe.

4. Therefore, no color, no ethnicity, no sexual orientation, no gender identity,

no age group, no spiritual path or physical capability is optional - if we

eliminate even one tiny little specimen, the universe collapses.

As they say in mathematics, Q.E.D.

IN LIKE A LION . . .

March 9, 2020

Now, where's that lamb?

I KNOW You!

June 26, 2023

The View

June 12, 2023

Quality Control

May 22, 2023

I invite you to exercise your own version of quality control, in your own words, in your own life, in your own personal and professional business, by allowing your heart to drive the bus.

Rain in the middle of the night

May 9, 2023

Jury Duty

April 24, 2023

AI?

April 17, 2023

In the movies, Number 5 might be alive, but Apple, IBM, Dell and Google? Not so much!

Reactor or Creator?

April 3, 2023

Addie!

YOUth

March 20, 2023

Blessings

March 6, 2023

Leaves

February 27, 2023

MUSIC

February 20, 2023

Grace

February 13, 2023

Vision – ing

January 30, 2023

Forgiveness

January 23, 2023

The Staircase

January 16, 2023

New Year's Resolutions or Intentions?

January 1, 2023

Resolutions: the recycling of old solutions that didn't work

Intentions: commitments with heart, mind and spirit yielding success

Resolutions comprise a wish list

Intentions comprise a transformation plan

Resolutions wither away

Intentions take root

Resolutions foster guilt

Intentions generate gratitude

Resolutions become should/could/would

Intentions become can/will/done

Resolutions are vague

Intentions are specific

Resolutions trickle top-down

Intentions grow bottom-up

Resolutions yield imaginary results

Intentions yield evolutionary results

Resolutions start big and dwindle

Intentions start basic and build

Resolutions spring from ego

Intentions spring from consciousness

Resolutions dissolve

Intentions ignite

Release Resolutions

Embrace Intentions

Happy New Year!

The Balance of Solstice

December 19, 2022

Advent – ure

December 12, 2022

The Violin

December 5, 2022

Thanksgiving prayer

November 28, 2022

A fun way to spend the day . . .

November 21, 2022

Lesson from a Dragon Rug

November 7, 2022

The Wooden Bridge

October 24, 2022

What do you do?

October 10, 2022

From Supplication to Application

October 3, 2022

The Metaphysics of Puberty

September 26, 2022

Morning Meds

September 19, 2022

Penny For Your Thoughts?

September 12, 2022

The Dive

September 5, 2022

18 inches, with Luck

August 29, 2022

My Shadow

August 22, 2022

Retreat

August 15, 2022

Inter-

August 8, 2022

It’s ALL connected

August 1, 2022

The open house came off without a hitch:

It really IS all connected. Butterfly wings and tree-trimming trucks both have far-reaching impacts. Perhaps that someday laugh is not so far away?

A Dog’s Life

July 18, 2022

Acronyms & Anagrams

July 11, 2022

Interdependence Day!

July 4, 2022

PERSISTANCE

June 27, 2022

T.H.I.N.K. . .

June 20, 2022

Is it true?

Is it helpful?

Is it inspiring?

Is it necessary?

Is it kind?

The wedding came off without a hitch (no pun intended), and I got this blog as a bonus. Enjoy!

The metaphysics of slipcovers . . .

June 13, 2022

This is another of my “try it for yourself – what do you have to lose?” offers, and I really hope you will take a look at whatever is the current cat claw in your life and get creative!

The Dream

May 23, 2022

There are three things I think you really need to HEAR (that’s the first 80% of HEART, so listen with your whole heart, please):

First, WAR IS OBSOLETE! Nobody EVER won a war, one side just lost slightly less than the other.
Second, Earth is NOT an inexhaustible resource, and it does NOT belong to any country, political entity, or culture. We humans are here to nurture and protect the planet, not to use and abuse it – we are NOT separate from it, but intimately and integrally connected with it, and with each other.
Finally, diversity is not a catch phrase or a marketing ploy – it is the key to Peace, Abundance, and Evolution. EVERYONE is valuable. In fact, EVERYONE is necessary to the health and harmony of planet Earth and all of her inhabitants.

That’s all, but if you really get it, we will all live happier, healthier, more expansive lives!

Then I woke up - it was still dark, but I was smiling . . .

Hacked!

May 16, 2022

Freckles

May 2, 2022

Peace Proposition

April 25, 2022

Please forgive me. I’m sorry. I love you. Thank you.

HOME

April 18, 2022

Sissy’s Song

Home, contrary to popular belief,

Is where you hang your heart,

And not your hat.

Hats are more often welcome,

And easier to wear when crushed.

Sometimes I wish I had two hats,

Instead of one of each.

Then, again, sometimes

I would gladly have two hearts!

Settle?

April 11, 2022

You are invited to settle into your highest vision and purpose, too. Are you up for it? Isn’t it exciting?

Is this still me?

March 21, 2022

•One pile to keep

•One pile to give away

•One pile to pitch

SPRIIING!

March 7, 2022

Healing the Heart

February 28, 2022

I’m sorry.

Please forgive me.

I love you.

Thank you.

Fertilizer

February 21, 2022

May I

February 14, 2022

May I be happy.

May I be free from suffering and its causes.

May I be filled with lovingkindness (aka compassion).

May I know my true nature and be at peace.

But it doesn’t stop there! Nope, once I have primed the pump with my own consciousness, the prayer ripples out:

May those I love be happy.

May those I love be free from suffering and its causes.

May those I love be filled with lovingkindness.

May those I love know their true nature and be at peace.

May those I need to love be happy.

May those I need to love be free from suffering and its causes.

May those I need to love be filled with lovingkindness.

May those I need to love know their true nature and be at peace.

May those who need to love be happy.

May those who need to love be free from suffering and its causes.

May those who need to love be filled with lovingkindness.

May those who need to love know their true nature and be at peace.

May all people be happy.

May all people be free from suffering and its causes.

May all people be filled with lovingkindness.

May all people know their true nature and be at peace.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be free from suffering and its causes.

May all beings be filled with lovingkindness.

May all beings know their true nature and be at peace.

May all life be happy.

May all life be free from suffering and its causes.

May all life be filled with lovingkindness.

May all life know its true nature and be at peace.

May you feel the love behind this blessing from me today!

GRACE

February 7, 2022

I invite you to polish your GRACE lens and see what magic happens in your life – it’s guaranteed not to hurt, and you might just experience a world of delight!

SOUP!

January 31, 2022

Three Moves

January 24, 2022

My husband used say that three moves was a good as a burnin’. Whaaaat?!? Turns out he was right – not much that is unnecessary or superfluous can survive three household moves.

Penny in the snow

January 17, 2022

Orioles

January 10, 2022

New Year's Resolutions . . . or Intentions?

January 3, 2022

Resolutions comprise a wish list

Intentions comprise a transformation plan

Resolutions wither away

Intentions take root

Resolutions foster guilt

Intentions generate gratitude

Resolutions become should/could/would

Intentions become can/will/done

Resolutions are vague

Intentions are specific

Resolutions trickle top-down

Intentions grow bottom-up

Resolutions yield imaginary results

Intentions yield evolutionary results

Resolutions start big and dwindle

Intentions start basic and build

Resolutions spring from ego

Intentions spring from consciousness

Resolutions dissolve

Intentions ignite

Release Resolutions

Embrace Intentions

Happy New Year!

Season of Light

December 20, 2021

Tiny Bubbles

December 13, 2021

Oh, no!

November 29, 2021

Thanksgiving

November 22, 2021

Take

Heart

Nature

Keeps

Showing

God’s

Infinite

Variety

Issuing

Never-ending

Grace

The Upward Spiral

November 8, 2021

A popular metaphor for evolution in New Thought is the upward spiral. It makes so many ideas easier to understand:

When we keep running into the same challenge, we can see that we are not in the same place as last time – and neither is the challenge. We have grown and are now perceiving the challenge from a higher perspective. As we continue up the spiral, we outgrow the challenge and release it.
When we feel ‘stuck’, we can see that the slope may have leveled out for a while, but we are still making upward progress.
When a challenge seems overwhelming, we can recognize that we might be just a bit too close to the issue to see all of its aspects, and we can choose to keep moving up and out until it becomes clear.
When we need to gain perspective on our own growth, we can look in and down and see every bit of progress we have made (especially the small increments of change that are so difficult to notice as they occur).
When we feel the need for rest, we can just allow ourselves to take a breather, acknowledging that the spiral isn’t going anywhere without us and we get to choose our own pace.

Goodbye. Hello. Oh, my!

November 1, 2021

Enough

October 18, 2021

Enough said?

The 18-inch Journey

October 11, 2021

Priming the pump . . .

October 4, 2021

Donut Holes

September 20, 2021

Let go of all those stale donut holes and bulk up on true nutrition – I guarantee the result will be a blessing that lasts longer than a sugar glaze!

Tithing

September 13, 2021

Jump in, the water’s fine and the ride’s a hoot!

TRUST

September 6, 2021

Tranquilly

Rest

Until

Spirit

Transforms

This reminds me of that little poem by the ever-popular Anonymous,

“Broken Dreams”

As children bring their broken toys

With tears for us to mend,

I took my broken dreams to God

Because God is my friend.

But then instead of leaving God

In peace to work alone,

I hung around and tried to help

In ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried,

“How can you be so slow?!?”

“My child,” God said, “what could I do –

You never did let go!”

What are you holding onto that you could turn over to God with TRUST?

GRACE

August 30, 2021

Watch out, though, Grace almost always brings a major transformation along . . .