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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The Climate Is Changing Henny Penny

It must be "1984" with "Stop Think" in full bloom. One day alarm over something or other and the next alarm over the exact opposite.

Not so long ago all the news was we were entering a new ice age, then more recently global warming and now just climate change -- and in all cases it is the fault of humans. I'm not sure why it is always our fault. Is there some power to be had over guilty people? Are we so arrogant that we think we can change earth's weather, when in fact it has been constantly changing since the very beginning of its existence?

Yesterday I read an article about a 139,000 square mile lake in the Sahara. 1,000 years ago it evaporated in only 100 years to be reduced to 137 square miles. It had been the largest fresh water lake in the world. Now the dust blows across the ocean and fertilizes the Amazon Rain Forest. Interesting.

In Kansas there used to be a large ocean. Thousands of animals have become extinct, as evidenced by archaeologist's findings of bones, etc. I wonder why the alarmist reporters have not taken the time to study the history of our planet. Change is it's middle name and also for all who come here.

Once we were a 1 cell creation, which divided and divided until we became babies. The baby became a toddler, etc. Change, Change, Change. All we know and see is change. We DID NOT create the earth and its rules.

I suggest instead of wasting time and money on pretending to address an imaginary problem, we would do well to address real problems made by humans and therefore subject to fixing. Let's think of a list.

Maybe: pollution, clean water for everyone, food for everyone, education, mental health, studies on peace, and so forth. Instead of being paralyzed by guilt over making something happen that we did not make happen, lets put energy and time and resources into doing useful things that we can do.

The sky is not falling Henny Penny.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Meister Eckhart's Themes

One of Meister Eckhart's themes applies to me precisely, so probably to you too. It is almost as if he knew me, but more likely he knew the larger themes in the experience of coming to earth.

Let me share a quote:
The shell must be cracked open
if what is inside is to come out.
If you want the kernel,
you must break the shell.
We must learn to break through things
if we are to grasp God in them.

Probably all of us have read the Bible, at least the New Testament. We are familiar with Jesus saying that people look everywhere and cannot find the Kingdom of God, but in fact it is within.

That is a meaty sentence! A huge amount is implied. First - there is such a kingdom, it exists. Second - it can be found, and with a little humor he said you've looked everywhere but where it is. The big announcement is that it is WITHIN! It is already inside of us. Therefore, we can find it!

Meister Eckhart addresses this in many ways, and one of my favorites is his idea that it is encased in a shell, and our job is to break through that shell to let it out.

Out and about, I see people who have no light in their eyes and walk in a defeated kind of way. Eyes and body language tell so much. The shell cannot be cracked open from a defeated set of mind. We must break through things, Eckhart tells us, not let them break us.

My Daddy used to say Pull yourself up by your boot straps. That's exactly right. Pull yourself up and get on with it. The people with light in their eyes and a confident posture have cracks in the shell and are going for more. I suppose only a handful of people have totally fractured the shell and dropped it entirely. But I do know that is possible, for others have done it.

I am sure that the hard experiences of my life each have given me an opportunity to make another crack in that shell, I make dents and then fractures as I stand on faith, even in the darkness, even in the deep valleys of my journey. As the shell fractures, I can see streams of light shining out of the fractures. I am encouraged to shed the shell and embrace a life of awareness of God in and through all there is and was and ever shall be.

God in the valleys, leading me.
God in the darkness, shining Light.
God in the pinnacle days, encouraging me.
God in the sorrows, urging me onward.
God in the joys, celebrating in me.
God everywhere, always.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Mastery of Most Anything

According to Eric Fromm, in order to master any area from love to art to medicine requires 3 behaviors: self-discipline, concentration and patience. And, he says, modern life is geared to the exact opposite. Below is the gist of what he said, interpreted by me,

1) Self-Discipline - Life in the modern world is very routinized, and as a reaction against this we see laziness, entertainment done for us and to us, and rebellion against routine and self-discipline. Anything done sporadically, when convenient, when we're in the mood, can only rise to the level of an amusing hobby, but not to mastery of it.

2) Concentration - This is even more rare in our culture, Fromm says. We are distracted, doing multiple things at a time and can rarely sit still without doing several things such as watching television, eating, drinking, reading the paper, talking on the phone, etc. We see people who are unable or uncomfortable with just being with themselves, being still.

3) Patience - If we want quick results, we will not arrive at mastery. The Industrial Revolution has led to the opposite. Machines do things many times quicker, more economically, and better, and then are improved to do so even more effectively. Modern man [woman] tends to think he loses time if he does not do things quickly, but then does not know what to do with the time except kill it.

Eric Fromm says: "Eventually, a condition of learning any art is a supreme concern with the mastery of the art. If the art is not something of supreme importance, the apprentice will never learn it. He will remain, at best, a good dilettante, but will never become a master. This condition is as necessary for the art of loving as for any other art."

It seems to me, mastering love underlies all else in life and is the common assignment of each human being who gets to come to earth. It is the central message of the spiritual greats, of the great scriptures, of all those whom we admire,

Let's spend the time, self-discipline, concentration and patience needed to become glowing beings of love. Let's see how much of the shadow side we can eliminate from our beings. Let the Light of the Christ shine through us and therefore encourage others to let go of the shadow. Love leads us to be the highest possible version of ourselves. We are called to LOVE (which includes respect, care, knowledge, and responsibility). For more, read "The Art of Loving" by Eric Fromm.

May Love go viral.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Paul

For a long time, I have had conflicted feelings about St. Paul. On one hand he is quoted as saying some wonderfully profound things - such as his words on love which I have used so often when performing weddings. On the other hand, he sometimes says some rather strange and even ugly things that are not what I would consider love or from spiritual light. Of course, we are all human and sometimes are not at our best. Then there is the delay from the speeches of 1st century people to the actual writing down of them by someone or other. There are edits and mistranslations, and various interpretations, just look at all the versions of the Bible.

This morning I was reading his statement about testing the spirits and also his words about gifts of the spirit. It just struck me that when someone speaks prophecy in a church or as a psychic, the reaction of various people is different. Not considering the fakes and charlatans, there are people who consistently have been tested by researchers to be able to say amazing things, often with great detail - from history of a person to predictions to messages from beyond. There are those that tune in to the Light and those who fall prey to the shadows of the dark side. There are those who come from pure ego and there are those who come from pure service with no hidden agendas. But then that is true of actions in the outer of life too.

As for me, I have had numerous spiritual experiences in my life, some amazing healings, some visions and some words spoken from seemingly the invisible realm. This week I decided to start making a list. Things keep coming to me, and my list now has reached 30, but some are categories with multiple experiences within that category. I am sure my list will be longer in a short time as memories pop up.

I will share a small example. I was leading a workshop on compassion which requires empathy. One exercise was to pair up, look gently at your partner and just feel their energy, merge with compassion and love spiritually. We ended up with an odd number, so I paired up with someone so she wouldn't be without a partner. I did not know this person. During the exercise, I kept seeing a black August 12 but with sparkling, shooting light all around it. When we concluded the exercise, we spoke to each other about whatever we felt, etc. I told her about this black date and she burst into tears. It turned out that was the date her beloved sister had died. The day was so sad, but the light showed that good came after. She was comforted,

All my life things have come to me. I have no special preparation other than my usual devotional times of prayer and meditation and reading. Until this week, when I read a book by Mark Ireland, I'd not really thought of how the many things I've experienced could fall into both categories of spiritual and psychic, which led me to think of Paul's edict to test the spirits and the gifts of the spirits. And, I saw how it merged. If your tests show you the light, you are having a spiritual or a positive psychic experience. If your tests show darkness, better stop right now, you are in the collective unconscious or some other place of shadow and not spiritual. And if you are not spiritually mature, such excursions into other dimensions can lead to real instability in your mind. I have sadly seen this happen.

If you want to be more intuitive, there are a few suggestion I want to give you. You cannot come from an egotistic place, or ill will be the result. It is essential to sincerely be devoted to God and to only the Highest and the Best, and to participate in regular spiritual practices.

This is all to say, that from countless personal experiences, I know fully and completely that God is with us, those who loved us but have passed on check in on us, angels seek to guide us, we are not alone. We can intuitively tune in to the spiritual realm and know more than is evident on earth in the 3rd dimension, And we can directly commune with God while still on earth. One day we shall pass though a tunnel, have a life review in which we feel the feelings of those we hurt and those we helped, and we shall continue on the journey of awakening until we live always aware of the Presence of God.

As Julian of Norwich said all is well.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Creating





You may have to click on me as we're having technical issues. I'm okay in edit and only partly in blog??? If you only see my corner, click on me please - it won't hurt or anything :)

I've been playing. I drew a modern art face, tried out McTavishing for the quilting and made a pillow.


So much fun.

I must have a create gene :) as I feel a compulsion to create new things in many areas of my life. My playtime. Going to make a couple more along this line. Come to show and tell at Valley of the Mist Quilters Guild in July to see them.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Perspective

In re-reading Emerson's Essay on Nature this morning, a sentence stuck out as if it had flashing lights "We know nothing rightly, for want of perspective."

My mind began surveying my perspectives. I am an earthling, so I have a perspective from being based here and not somewhere else in the vastness. I am an American, so I have a uniquely American perspective, even though I've traveled and have a more expanded perspective than those who have not gone to the corners of the earth. I was born into a particular family with its biases and perspectives. I was raised a Methodist and then Presbyterian with their biases and then went off on a quest to discover Truth, which has given me a wide array of perspectives. I have been an educator and a clergywoman, each giving me more perspectives. I've had spiritual experiences which have blown apart many boxes in my life and opened me to cosmic perspectives. I am creative in all I do, so outside of the lines is my way. I have many more, but you get the idea I'm sure.

So, I look at life through Marlene colored glasses (see that chapter in my forgiveness book).I see through my experiences, decisions, and perspectives in a unique way - different than others with different ingredients in their perspectives.

It seems to me that the more expanded our perspective, the more we know rightly. The more narrow our perspective, the less likely we are to know rightly.

One of Einstein's stories popped into my mind just now. Imagine you lived your life in a cabin surrounded by dense trees and thought this to be all there was. Then somehow you got through the trees and to the hilltop. Now you had the valley, the view beyond, but also the cabin with its trees. Your world expanded for you. It was always there, but you didn't know it until you expanded your perspective.

I challenge you to look at your perspectives and begin to expand them. Scary, exciting, challenging, fun, wonderful. Go for it.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Aftermath and Beyond

Well, almost a week later and still in pain. There was the mesh removal plus they also found a tumor the size of a grapefruit. A bit of recovery each day.  I am thankful. Soon it will be a faded memory. I try today to move forward.

I was contemplating a statement by Goethe: "Choose! Choose well! Your choice is brief and yet endless."

The ripples of our choices can last a lifetime. We are constantly being presented with choices, some will have long ramifications, a few will not.

This morning I listened to Joel Osteen speaking about the moments of Grace we can take before we make bad choices. David had a moment he could have let her go and a moment before he killed her husband. Jacob had a moment before he stole Esau's birthright. etc etc etc. Then he went on to say even after making a bad decision, a person can humble him/herself and ask forgiveness.

My heart was drawn to a bad decision by a beloved family member that tore our family apart. In his righteous indignation, totally sure he was right, not listening to the truth, he acted viciously and cruelly, I tried to imagine him humbling himself and asking forgiveness. I know that with God all things are possible. I also suppose I'd faint if he walked humbly back into our lives with forgiveness requests.

I have tried to live my life with as few regrets as possible, being current, truthful, faithful, and helpful as possible. Sometimes I mess up. I hope you will forgive me if I have failed you in any way. It is and was never my intention. I endeavor to live always aware that all I do and say is done in the very Presence of God. Sometimes human emotions rise up and deflect me from this path, and I am sorry and embarrassed that this still happens from time to time. I strive to live aware and awake of God's Presence. I am better, but not there yet. Maybe I cannot get there while on earth, but I will keep trying. Thank you for walking this journey with me. I choose God.