November 19, 2014

November 20, 2014

“Not wanting this moment to be different from the way it is [is when] the deepest and true change happens…Not wanting something that is not here now or wanting something to be different, instead of a deep acceptance of ‘what is.’ It is as it is…always.“ -Eckhart Tolle

Sometimes the thing we (think) we want most eludes us. The constant striving to “have it,” or the endless frustration from “not having it” is an obstacle to peace. Facing reality–“what is”– and accepting it for this moment in time is incredibly freeing. Looking at “what is” in the cold hard daylight, not as we wish it to be. Even to stop wanting it altogether and exploring what it feels like to give it up for good. Taking a deep breath and saying, “Facts is facts.” “So that’s the way things are, for this moment in time.” My biggest prayer has been for inner peace, but I recently realized I must pray for the ability to accept “what is” at the moment as a prerequisite to that peace.

Peace abides in every mind that quietly accepts the plan God set for it…leave all decisions to His gentle counsel…Say to the Holy Spirit only, “Decide for me,” and it is done. For His decisions are reflections of what God knows about you, and in this light, error of any kind becomes impossible. -A Course in Miracles

“Let go, or be dragged.” -Zen proverb

Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. -Luke 22:42 KJV

Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-action. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. -Tao Te Ching

November 21, 2014

I saw a friend the other day. She’s spent over a year embroiled in the paperwork, legalities and unpleasantness of a divorce. I asked her, “Are you having any fun these days?” She paused for a moment and said, “You know, I have joy.” In an instant I knew just what she meant. Joy trumps fun. It’s the big Kahuna. It’s the big fish that engulfs all the little fish in front of him. Joy feels like  a big shiny metallic helium balloon (with a yellow smiley face graphic) that can’t contain itself. Joy radiates. It expands out of the chest and can’t be controlled…it sweeps down and soars upward and takes the body with it.

I find joy in the unseen, intelligent and loving force that works its magic without my noisy, clumsy input. In acceptance, surrender and gratitude. It takes belief and lots of faith. It’s not every day. But those sparkly moments of joy are glorious. With careful observation, I see my prayers take shape through unexpected twists and turns that I did not orchestrate. There’s real love and support out there in the universe.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”
-Julian of Norwich, (c. 1342 – c. 1416), regarded as one of the most important Christian mystics

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” -2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV

“Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” -Unknown

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”  -Luke 2:10 KJV

November 22, 2014

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November 23, 2014

Light
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.
O Light Invisible, we praise Thee!
Too bright for mortal vision.
-T.S. Eliot, Choruses from The Rock

“PHOSPHORESCENCE. Now there’s a word to lift your hat to… to find that phosphorescence, that light within, that’s the genius…”
-Emily Dickinson

I was made for sunny days
I made do with grey, but I didn’t stay
I was made for sunny days
And I was made for you
Found a book you gave me 
When we were first in bloom
When I thought that you might save me
from the dark side of the moon
Instead we both went walking
through the shadows and the gloom
And we never did stop talking
And you still light up the room
And every day is Sunday
’cause the sun comes dancing down
-The Weepies, I Was Made for Sunny Days

“There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.”
-Leonard Cohen

November 24, 2014

Life is full of absurdity. Sometimes there’s just no logic, rhyme or reason. Things can seem crazy, even frightening. Better to step back and watch the circus than enter the hall of mirrors. There’s peace in simply watching the show.

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“…the observing eye sees simply what is there. The perceiving eye sees more than what is there.” -Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way

“The ego analyzes. The Holy Spirit accepts.” -A Course in Miracles

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -Shakespeare

“Not my circus, not my monkeys.” -Polish proverb

“Let sleeping dogs lie.” (It is nought good a sleepyng hound to wake. -Geoffrey Chaucer, 1374) (“Quieta non movere”/“Do not move settled things.” -Latin saying) (He that passes by, and meddles with strife belonging not to him, is like one that takes a dog by the ears. –Proverbs 26:17)

November 25, 2014

Today, may you find soothing, salve or salvation for your bumps, bruises, whacks, thacks and thumps.

“Little Alice fell
d
o
w
n
the hOle,
bumped her head
and bruised her soul
-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

“I cannot go to school today”
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
“I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps…
-Shel Silverstein

“Thinking as I do that the Creator of this world is a very cruel being, and being a worshipper of Christ, I cannot help saying: ‘The Son, O how unlike the Father!’ First God Almighty comes with a thump on the head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.'” -William Blake

“Speak soft and sweet:…try your best to apply the salve of soothing words and timely succor.” -Sri Sathya Sai Baba

“Love’s best habit is a soothing tongue.” -William Shakespeare

Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him. -Psalms 62:1

November 26, 2014

“And at night I love to listen to the stars. It is like five hundred million little bells …” -Antoine de Saint Exupéry,
The Little Prince

Where there is space, there is possibility, an opening for the universe to enter and work its magic. That’s when you hear the transmissions—the calling, the guidance, the singing–of the universe, Spirit or God. Space is found when the clutter of thinking and things and speech is pruned. In space, there is stillness; in stillness, there is space. Spaciousness brings peace. Suspension of time. Like endless slow motion between the drop and its ripple.

Meditation
Space between my thoughts
Space between the forms I see
Space between the sounds I hear
Space between my words
Space between my breaths
Space between my organs
Space between my cells
Space between my steps
Space between my fingers and toes
Space for Spirit to enter and flow

 “Be still, and know that I am God.” –Psalm 46:10

November 27, 2014

Alone and lonely or hungry and hungering. There but for the grace of God go I…

Amazing Grace
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

Twas grace that taught my
heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

-Hymnal by John Newton, 1779, verse 7 by Anonymous/Unknown, pub.1829

November 28th, 2014

Once-common accounting practices used red ink to show negative amounts, and black ink to show positive amounts. The phrase “in the black” came to represent a positive financial state; specifically, having more assets than liabilities. Gratitude, faith, surrender, love and forgiveness are probably our greatest available assets—perhaps our greatest powers—far outweighing our perceived losses and liabilities.

“Think of what starlight
And lamplight would lack
Diamonds and fireflies
If they couldn’t lean against Black. . . .”
-Mary O’Neill, Hailstones and Halibut Bones

And God separated the light from the darkness. -Genesis 1:4 ESV

The journey that we undertake together is the exchange of dark for light…there is no darkness that the light will not dispel. -A Course in Miracles

November 29, 2014

I like to think of clouds as the “forms within space” that Eckhart Tolle describes. Rather than collections of water drops, I picture them as bunches of thoughts or beliefs. We become enthralled with, attached to, and distracted by the cloud form rather than fixating on the steady blueness of the sky. This is the eternal space that observes the swelling, shrinking and passing forms, but it is not at all the transient form itself. It is a still and constant background space. Switching focus from the foreground (the clouds) to the background (the sky) is an exercise in simply being.

Lucy: Aren’t the clouds beautiful? If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud’s formations. What do you think you see, Linus? 
Linus: Well, those clouds up there look to me look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean. That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor. And that group of clouds over there…gives me the impression of the Stoning of Stephen. I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side.
-A Boy Named Charlie Brown

Are you going to lose yourself in the demands of the world, of objects and things that say, “Give me your attention!”? Can you be here as the bringer of space into any situation? -Eckhart Tolle

We are looking to the world of form for salvation. But when we are aware of space consciousness, aware of being aware, we are freed from identification with form, which is ego, and there arises within us a sense of oneness with the whole and with our Source. -Eckhart Tolle

“Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
Polonius: By the mass, and ‘tis like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius: It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale?
Polonius: Very like a whale.”
-William Shakespeare, Hamlet

November 30, 2014

…always it’s Spring) and everyone’s in love and flowers pick themselves -e.e. cummings

In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood’s bending knee;
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
-William Shakespeare

I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dropped it carelessly, Ah! I didn’t know, I held opportunity. -Hazel Lee

I suppose that flowers, when they’re through blooming, have some sort of awareness of some purpose having been served. -Kurt Vonnegut

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. –Tennessee Williams, Camino Real

Even when feeling powerless–helpless, threatened, imprisoned, boxed in, gridlocked, stuck–there remains your hidden power. The power to change your mind or question your beliefs. The power to be thankful for the simplest things, like eyes to see, air to breathe or feet that walk. There’s the power to give in, give up, let go, accept, forgive or forget. There’s the power to say “NO (or yes)!” There’s power to having faith, staying present, sending love or saying a prayer. There’s the power of waiting and allowing–of doing nothing at all and letting God take over. External “fixes” sometimes help, but rarely fix–at least not for the long-term. Inside us there’s a super power that can’t be found “out there.”

Dorothy: Oh, will you help me? Can you help me?
Glinda: You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power…
Dorothy: I have?
Scarecrow: Then why didn’t you tell her before?
Glinda: Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.
-The Wizard of Oz

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. -2Timothy 1:7 (ESV)

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. -Seneca

December 2, 2014

A case for eating your vegetables, heeding herbal remedies and believing in botany. (And yet I’m fairly certain God forgives us our desserts.)

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. -Genesis 1:29, NIV

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. -Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food

A weed is a plant whose virtue is not yet known. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favour compared with the products of nature, the living cell of the plant, the final result of the rays of the sun, the mother of all life.” – Thomas Edison

December 3, 2014

Everybody is built differently–mentally, socially, emotionally, physically and with varying dispositions, likes, dislikes, skills and talents. Just as vocations suit various individuals according to their makeups, so do forms of service to others. One woman’s volunteer hours in a soup kitchen is another man’s kindness to strangers and another person’s writing a check to the needy, without including a return address. Some people build grand businesses that provide abundance and jobs, contribute to the economy and provide needed services and products. Others are great listeners and make everyone who crosses their path feel seen. Some provide inspiration, encouragement and joy through cooking, music, art, or the written/spoken word. Some make us laugh with their comedic bent. Others simply serve their friends and families. I’ve read something to the effect that, if it weren’t for the handful of yogis living in caves simply praying for peace, that this world would be a very dark place. In the end, one size does not fit all. You were gifted with your uniqueness and individual skills and talents to be used for the good of others. Be your best self, and you will serve whom you were assigned to serve.

“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” -Mother Teresa

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace -1 Peter 4:10 ESV

The greatest service is to realize the essence, or the reality, of the other person. Everything else passes away, everything else is transitory. That recognition of the other as ‘God’, and as one with who you are, to see that – that is the greatest service you can give… it is the realization of who that person truly is beyond the form. -Eckhart Tolle

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love…I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. -Mother Teresa

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve -Mark 10:45 ESV

December 4, 2014

Did you know that the word “smile” shares the same origin as “smirk (Middle English, from Old English smearcian)?” Both involve an upward turn at the corners of the mouth. The difference? Simply the intent between the two! British researchers found that one smile can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 chocolate bars. (I’m not sure whether that’s the result of the sugar, caffeine or the pure pleasure they would supply–insert my own smirk here.) They also found that smiling can be as stimulating as receiving up to $25,000 in cash! No information yet on what a smirk will get you…

Gratitude paints little smiley faces on everything it touches. -Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway

The prospect Smiler was a manic farmer. Few men I think can have been as unfortunate as he; for on the one hand he was a melancholic with a loathing for mankind, on the other, some paralysis had twisted his mouth into a permanent and radiant smile. So everyone he met, being warmed by his smile, would shout him a happy greeting. -Laurie Lee, Cider With Rosie

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. -Thích Nhất Hạnh

If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it. -Andy Rooney

Smile wide to receive many smiles in return. But if you want a good laugh, smirk like a wicked, little imp and watch the range of expressions you’re flashed. – Richelle E. Goodrich

For a moment at least, be a smile on someone else’s face.  -Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

December 6, 2014

My vision of utter humility is a stone buddha: still, unmovable, assailed by the searing sun, pelting rains, icy snow, contracting cold, bird droppings and all other manner of indignities. His outer color transforms and is marred by stains and drippings. Pieces chip away and cracks form. And yet he endures, half smiling, eyes closed, inwardly turned. Humility: acceptance, surrender, endurance, faith. Without objection, judgment or complaint. Ouch. The word “humility” derives from the Latin word humilis, which means “‘low or lowly,” which in turn comes from the word humus, meaning “ground or earth.”  (This is not to be confused with “hummus”–into which we dip our chips and chopped carrots–which derives from the Arabic word for word chickpeas!)

Never curse a fall. The ground is where humility lives. -Yasmin Mogahed

Life is a long lesson in humility. -J.M. Barrie, The Little Minister

…it’s better to look at the sky than live there. Such an empty place; so vague. Just a country where the thunder goes and things disappear. -Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Humility means accepting reality with no attempt to outsmart it. -David Richo, The Five Things We Cannot Change

Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless. -Andrew Murray, Humility

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed. -Herodotus, Histories (8.98) (trans. A.D. Godley, 1924)

December 7, 2014

Soften me
Smooth my spiny surface
Soothe my sharp edges
Calm my prickly sheath
Make me more gentle
More tolerant
Less judging
More accepting
Less defensive
More surrendered
Heal my angry rash
and my rash anger
Forgive me my jabs, stabs, pricks and pokes
Send me a kind cactus wren
And an occasional bright bloom

But we know very well that this natural universe is neither prickles nor goo exclusively: it’s gooey prickles and prickly goo [and] we’re always playing with the two. –Alan Watts

You are like a chestnut burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it. Love will make you show your heart some day, and then the rough burr will fall off. -Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

And lest I should be exalted above measure…there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. -2 Corinthians 12:7 (KJV)

You pour out rain in buckets, O God; thorn and cactus become an oasis. -Psalm: 68:9 (MSG)

December 8, 2014

One of my favorite books is entitled “The Eye of the I: From Which Nothing is Hidden,” written by Dr. David R. Hawkins. It’s not the easiest read. Ironically, it is Eckhart Tolle who best describes the concept of that title in one of his books. About an experience that was to change his life, Tolle describes the following:

“Life seemed meaningless, barren, hostile. It became so unbearable that suddenly the thought came into my mind, “I cannot live with myself any longer.” The thought kept repeating itself several times. Suddenly, I stepped back from the thought, and looked at it, as it were, and I became aware of the strangeness of that thought: “If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me – the I [the eye] and the self [the I] that I cannot live with.” And the question arose, “Who is the ‘I’ and who is the self that I cannot live with?”

Both Hawkins and Tolle address the idea that our personality–our “constructed self,” is a temporary earthly role that can be observed from another perspective: that of our true eye, the eternal spirit self. The “I” represents our ego self of this lifetime, and all the thoughts, interpretations, perceptions, emotions and judgments that come with it. The “eye” behind the “I,” our spirit, simply observes from the background, without judgment or reaction. Shifting our focus from the “I” to the “eye” whenever possible can help lessen the sting of life events, bringing more peace, acceptance and clarity.

I [eye] am the one who sees. From back in here somewhere, I [eye] look out, and I [eye] am aware of the events, thoughts and emotions that pass before me. To attain true inner freedom, you must be able to objectively watch your problems instead of being lost in them…-Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul

…the observing eye see simply what is there. The perceiving eye [the “I”] sees more than what is there. Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way

The ego [the “I”] analyzes, the Holy Spirit [the eye] accepts. -A Course in Miracles

What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that. -Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

The ego [the “I”], or more accurately, the belief that one is the ego [the “I”], obscures the Realization of the Reality of the Self as the Oneness of All That is. The dissolution of the ego [the “I”] results in liberation from the bondage of the illusions that create suffering. -Dr. David R. Hawkins

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. -John 3:6 KJV

December 9, 2014

Maybe what you are praying for is a “placeholder” for how you want to feel, what you want to experience. For example, if you are asking for a partner or marriage, what you probably want is to feel less lonely and more loved, valuable, needed, important or known. Or if you are praying for more money, you may really be asking for peace of mind, release from worry, or the freedom of time and and self-expression. The idea is to drill down to deeper levels in order to identify the heartfelt want or longed-for feeling underneath the perceived “fix.” Then it becomes a more earnest prayer that allows an intelligent, loving God or Universe to deliver the best solution, one you couldn’t have orchestrated or imagined yourself. It’s like letting the words fall to the floor and the feelings of the heart rise like balloons.

Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. What you ask for you receive. But this refers to the prayers of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree…The prayer of the heart does not really ask for concrete things. It always requests some kind of experience in the opinion of the asker.  -A Course in Miracles

The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
-Bob Dylan, With God on Our Side

I don’t want just words. If that’s all you have for me, you’d better go.  -F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. -Mahatma Gandhi

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases… for [you] think that [you] will be heard for [your] many words... -Matthew 6:7-8 ESV

Prayer goes where it will. And when the heart gets into the prayer, every beat 
of the heart creates a miracle. –Yogi Bhajan

December 10, 2014

Your joy is your own. Don’t let the grumpy ones steal it away. And for some comic relief today, the pure fun and genius of Dr. Seuss:

You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch
You really are a heel,
You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel!
You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch,
Your heart’s an empty hole,
Your brain is full of spiders, you have garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch,
I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!
You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch,
You’re the king of sinful sots,
Your heart’s a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce!
You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch,
You’re a nasty wasty skunk,
Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch,
The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote,
“Stink, stank, stunk”!
(selected lyrics, written by Dr. Seuss)

The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy. -Proverbs 14:10 ESV

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary…prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. -Peter 5:8 ESV

Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? -Genesis 31:27 ESV

December 11, 2014

Color, in all its glorious beauty, formed by the dispersion of white light. In other words, parts of the whole, fragments of the all. They mix and blend and play, oblivious to any real borders.

The white light streams down to be broken up by those human prisms into all the colors of the rainbow. Take your own color in the pattern and be just that. -Charles R. Brown

Remember the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns; the original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifest. Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home. -Tibetan Book of the Dead

I found I could say things with colors that I could not say in any other way, things for which I had no words. -Georgia O’Keeffe

Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment. -Claude Monet

In our life there is a single color, as on an artist’s palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love. -Marc Chagall

Color exists in itself, possessing its own beauty. -Henri Matisse

It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are lemon-yellow, others pink or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance.  -Vincent van Gogh

December 12 2014

A different perspective can change your vision of reality. Get up, move around and take a walk around what you’ve been staring at. Lie on the ground and look up at it. Climb up high and look down over it. Study it from behind. Go up close, then far away. Change your angle. Use a microscope. Try a telescope. Stand on your head and look at it upside down. Play the lead role, supporting role, bit part and extra. Assume the opposite. Change your mind about it. Laugh about it. Forget about it. Miracles are simply shifts in perception.

Above all else I want to see things differently. -A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 28

Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all. -Carlos Castaneda

There are no facts, only interpretations. -Friedrich Nietzsche