"How can I make perfect mashed potatoes?"

Most newspaper headlines are rife with themes of "Renewal" "New Hope for the New Year" "Positive resolutions for the New Year" etc. etc. Did you know that there are over 21 million other references to New Year's Resolutions on the Web? All that being said, I have to applaud the Rhinelander Daily News (Wisconsin) for getting down to the everyday with the Community section's article on "How can I make perfect mashed potatoes?" What a bold, radical and refreshing headline for the New Year!!

I am ready for a new refreshing twist on New Year's resolutions. What resolutions come down to is basically how to be better. See the ten top resolutions for the year. These include:

• I will be kinder.
• I will lose this weight.
• I will accomplish my goals.
• (and, I am sure, some where at the very bottom of the list) I will make perfect mashed potatoes.

Been there. Done that. This year, doing resolutions seems to me to be just another list. Lists, once the backbone of my daily activities, have slowly lost their influence with me.

At one time, lists gave me a way to see who I am by what I do. I loved checking off the list and going to bed at night feeling a sense of accomplishment.

After having an incredibly full schedule in the last seven years, a never-ending list of things needing to be accomplished was just depressing. Today, my time is purely mine to determine what needs to be done and lists are total fabrications. So, lists are on their way out. They have been replaced in part with more active listening and letting inspiration move me forward toward an accomplishment or insight.

I am practicing living more simply and more closely to my prayer.

My new backbone -- the only thing on my "list" for this new year is to praise God. That's all.

If this sounds a little flaky, consider the powerful impulse of praise. It opens thought to an omnipotent force of good (God), it protects you ( there is no room for evil thoughts to grow in a consciousness filled with the awareness of good), it establishes you (praise for God means you recognize God and your ability to sing His/Her praise!), it purifies thought (singing praise uplifts and keeps going higher; the purity of happiness and joy are self-creative qualities that build on themselves and burn away any impurities).

Praise for God does more good things:

• It makes you kinder and more thoughtful
• You start to glorify God in your body
• Your accomplishments are done with more ease and grace because your motive for accomplishing anything is to glorify God
• AND you are perfectly nourished in the awareness of your tender, nurturing relationship to God who is all good. As a result, you can probably make the most perfect mashed potatoes!

Have a blessed gratitude-enriched New Year, all!

Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. (From Psalms 147 - the Song of David)

Kim




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Snowfall in the sunlight

I turned the corner into my living room and there it was...........beautiful glittering snow in the sunlight. And this against a backdrop of a field of snow bordered by black and white birch trees and evergreens and a semi frozen creek. I gasped. I have never experienced this phenomenom (or never paid attention enough), that is, precipitation falling at the same time the sun is shining. In this case, fat snowflakes were falling thick and fast, catching sunlight on every flake. Amazing.


I ran to get the camcorder. The batteries were out. I rushed about to find the digital camera. My husband had taken it. Frustrated, I realized I couldn't capture this moment on anything but my memory.

I slowed down and looked out again. I took this time to take it in. A show of beauty, just for me. It would not last, but it did not matter. I was in a natural fantasy land of fat falling glitter. It was altogether lovely.

Beauty and love have alot in common - harmony, radiance, attraction. Listen to this juxtapositioning of beauty for love in this Bible verse from I Corinthians 13 ( New International Version - UK) and you get an idea of the gentle inspiration that I yielded to while watching it snow.

(Beauty) is patient,

(beauty) is kind.

It does not envy,

it does not boast,

it is not proud.

It is not rude,

it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered,

it keeps no record of wrongs.

(Beauty) ... rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

(Beauty, like) Love, never fails.

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Expectancy and Consent

I think that I have gathered sufficient evidence in my life to be able to claim I have a truism. And this is it: There are two elements of a successful venture:

• One – you expect that good will happen and
• Two - you give your consent.
  

Expect good.

Some time ago, a friend invited me to hear a popular evangelical minister. Out of curiosity I went. The place was packed with at least a couple of thousand people and the minister had the stage with a band. What I remembered most from that evening was that at one point, everyone was standing up, swaying and saying or shouting “Jesus, Jesus!”

I looked behind me at this wave of arms. What struck me was this beautiful, openness to the One who was worshipped. I looked ahead and to the sides of me. More swaying arms. There was such clarity and purity of desire. People’s guards were down. There was no agenda, but just straightforward worship and immense expectancy to feel a holy presence. Some people were crying, others were laughing, many just quietly swaying and praying. Yes, I know, some may say that people were just getting caught up in a type of mob mentality. But you could not deny the motive and the depth and the hope that was at the epicenter of that movement of thought.

It is an understatement to say that they expected to feel God’s presence.

Give your consent.

There is a oft-told story of the time that the extension of The Mother Church in Boston was being built. Deadlines were tight and not adjustable. The person in charge of overseeing the construction, James Rome, prayed throughout its building. After it was built, he wrote a letter to Mary Baker Eddy which said, in part,

At first I thought that…it (meeting the construction deadlines) seemed impossible… (but then) I saw at once that somebody had to wake up. I raised my eyes, and the conviction that the work would be accomplished came to me so clearly…. One feature about the work interested me. I noticed that as soon as the workmen began to admit that the work could be done, everything seemed to move as by magic; the human mind was giving its consent. This taught me that I should be willing to let God work. I have often stood under the great dome, in the dark stillness of the night, and thought, "What cannot God do?" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Miscellany, p.60)

I have heard quotes from other notable thinkers that echo this idea. Expecting that you can accomplish the good you hope for and then, admitting that it can be done. Expectation and consent. Winners every time. (See also Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p.394)

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Practicing patience

Stillness.. Quiet..... Peace.....Lots of it. Lots and lots of it.
It has been a couple of quiet weeks. I started getting anxious. "Father, is there something more I should be doing?" I asked God.

Busy is good. According to my recent hospital volunteer training in culturally competent care, I learned that Americans consider busy-ness to signify importance. (As in "Love to talk with you now, but gotta run. I am very important.") It follows that busy-ness is second to the I-gotta-fix-it drive. Although I thought the I-gotta-fix-it approach was a guy thing, I started seeing how these two elements were part of my operating system and they were jamming it up.

I am not busy - I could make myself so, but that is not the point. I have little to fix. I have fixed most everything and little is coming my way to fix. Hmmmm. I thought. Not busy. Little to fix. SO then who am I?

I started thinking about patience. It didn't start off well.
I reasoned that if I can tolerate patience for a while, then later, I get to be busy and do stuff. I moved on to thinking that if I get the right thinking thing down, double that with the patience, then I get to go somewhere.

OK, I needed another angle.
I think the point may be to get beyond a busy life to a meaningful life.

When I kayaked, we had a name for those who stayed in the calm waters of the eddy, waiting to figure out how to do a rapid -- sometimes waiting for long periods of time. We called them "eddy flowers." Being an eddy flower was an anxious thing to be. You could get swamped by indecision, doubt and grow increasingly intimidated by the rapid ahead of you. Far better it was to determine your course and just do it. In fact, that is how I have handled most of my life. See. Pray. Do. Quickly, efficiently, full throttle.

The "aha" thought came today that now, in this quiet time, there is actually lots of life going on. Perhaps I am not in the eddy at all, but am flowing along with the current of life. Perhaps it is a new river, and instead of being a roaring class IV, it is a calm class I-II, teeming with life and gorgeous every splash of the way. As I am typing now, my family is going about their usual Satuurday routine, and I am looking out over a stand of birch, maple and pine trees with big, fat snowflakes falling. This is the epitome of pleasantness.

In the quiet of the last few mornings, I had a distinct thought about someone I love very much. Although I would never suspect that this person would ask for Christian Science treatment, I thought through how I would pray for this person if called on. I opened Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy at random and started praying with the ideas that I was reading.

The next day, I was told this person was in the emergency room. I went to visit him and he commented that he was going to call me to ask for treatment the night before. We talked and what he shared made me realize that in the quiet of those few days, I had been mentally preparing to be of help to him.

There was never a moment lost.

Here are some wonderful bits about presentness, moments and stillness.

The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams but you
will only enjoy them to the extent of your faith and love. The more a soul loves, the more it longs, the more it hopes, the more it finds. The will of God is manifest in each moment, an immense ocean which only the heart fathoms insofar as it overflows with faith, trust and love. — Jean-Pierre De Caussade in The Sacrament of the Present Moment

The present is holy ground. — Alfred North Whitehead quoted in Teaching Your
Children About God by David Wolpe

Yet more and more I find that dwelling in the present moment, in the face of
everything that would call us out of it, is our highest spiritual discipline. More boldly, I would say that our very presentness is our salvation; the present moment, entered into fully, is our gateway to eternal life. — Philip Simmons in Learning to Fall

Rushing around smartly is no proof of accomplishing much.
--Mary Baker Eddy in Miscellaneous Writings

Love for God and man is the true incentive incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must "have her perfect work." --Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

I am in my right place. God has graciously given this to me. Abundance. Potential. Gratitude. Grace. Stillness. This is what fills my days.





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Coming home to Truth

(Note: this is a long one, but it's good!)

I shared this with you all before, that the universal ideas of Christian Science are fully explained in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. When sharing this book with others, I often heard responses from new readers of Science and Health like

“This is what I have always believed” “I always knew this to be true” and “I have known this all along.”

To many of these first time readers (and actually for us old time readers as well!) these ideas aren’t foreign, but feel like a homecoming, welcoming us to see as real the hopes and ideals we had always hoped would be true. Reading Science and Health ideas like: God is all Love, that good is not helpless, that Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need, etc. these cherished ideals are true and can be demonstrated over and over again.

Once when I was working in a Christian Science Reading Room (a specialty bookstore focused on the practical healing ideas of Christian Science and its founder, Mary Baker Eddy), a woman came in to ask about The Christian Science Monitor. We got to talking about Mary Baker Eddy, who started this international newspaper, and her other achievements. When I told her that Mary Baker Eddy discovered a system of healing based on Christ’s work and Scripture, her eyes opened wide!

Taking a deep breath, she started pouring out her story of how she was healed through prayer while she was a patient at a hospital.

“People thought I was crazy, but I can’t explain it any other way,” she said.

I assured her that she was not crazy, and talked to her about healings I had had. This conversation felt so good! Not only was I able to validate that she had a healing, I could introduce her to hundreds of healing experiences where healing was accomplished through prayer alone. (Many Reading Rooms keep an archive of articles and testimonies of healing that had been published for over a hundred years.) My hope is that she gained some peace after her visit and realized that she was not alone.

At another time, a visitor stepped in the doorway of the Reading Room, but didn’t commit himself to coming all the way in. He explained that when he was in prison, he got a hold of some Christian Science literature and some of the ideas really stayed with him. He carefully shared an incident when he was working in the prison kitchen and accidentally poured hot oil over his arm. Immediately he said his thought went to one of these spiritual ideas and he felt that he was totally safe. Sure enough, there were no marks from the accident whatsoever.

After telling me this, he must have thought that I didn’t look amazed enough because he said,

“I don’t think you heard me, I said that it was hot oil poured all over my arm!”

(I am used to stories like this, and learned that I need to be a bit more responsive!) Like the woman mentioned above, I shared how happy I was to hear this and introduced him to scores of stories of healing through prayer and offered encouragement for his spiritual path.

The recognition of healing through prayer seems to be growing. Browsing the web there are a growing number of sites like The Order of St. Luke and their stories of healing, spirithome.com, lifechallenges.org, (and their report on the recent Harvard symposium on Spirituality and Healing), spirituality.com, etc. etc. It is fascinating to follow some of these sites.

I used to think that Christian Scientists had a corner on the market for healing through prayer. Indeed, the very purpose of the Christian Science church is “to reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.” Now, I can see that healing through prayer is broadly practiced in a wide variety of ways.

I needed to ask myself, what distinguishes Christian Science? And I came to the conclusion that it is its textbook, Science and Health. This book, dedicated to the sincere seeker for Truth, explains how healing through prayer works, and how it can be demonstrated. It continues now, as in its over 125 years of its publishing history, to heal those who read it again and again. It has the potential of bringing into sharper focus the science behind healing through prayer – taking it beyond an unexplained phenomenon to a repeating practice.

A good friend of my mother-in-law used to be a nun and shared with me her healing of multiple sclerosis through prayer. This was done under a doctor’s watchful eye, and with the help of her church’s prayer groups. She commented that she is hearing in her own church community of more and more healings being accomplished through prayer. Delighted to hear that I was in the practice of healing prayer, we had a lively and happy discussion on the growing recognition of healing through prayer.

Another new friend explained to me her work with a prayer practitioner who lived across the country, and how sessions with this practitioner were helping her gain a sense of dominion over her life. More secular in its orientation, the prayer she worked with touched on aligning thought with one’s spirituality.

My hope is that this site is one, that along with others, can help bring that validation that healing through prayer is alive and well and spreading. We are all coming home to the cherished realization that

“with God, all things are possible.”

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Paramedics, protection and prayer

I have just finished a two day orientation to my new volunteer work with Pastoral Care at our local hospital. My volunteer work will be hosting the chapel once or twice a week and being there as a listening ear; providing comfort and support.

In this orientation, every aspect of the hospital’s operations were covered, from nursing care to laundry operations. Not being a regular user of the medical system myself, I was very impressed at the lengths at which all employees were trained to accommodate and serve all people with respect for their spirituality and religion.

Another aspect of the training covered the care of the dying. Here I was moved to hear other health care workers’ stories of what moved them and what they found challenging about this aspect of their work. A young paramedic shared that he had seen so many people die while in transit that he felt he was starting to distance himself from the very meaning of death. Unfortunately, at times he also is the target of a person’s anger when this person’s loved ones dies while on the young paramedic’s watch. He takes it, apologizes and then has to deal with it alone.

My heart just went out to this guy. I thought about the bravery of his work. Just by doing his job, he brings the elements of attentiveness, effectiveness, duty, protection, and knowledgeable care to a situation. These are spiritual qualities that help to take away fear, and in many cases bring a sense of relief either to a patient, a patient’s loved ones or both. The healing balm his work brings to a patient is fundamental to that patient’s care.

He really epitomized for me a prayer by Mother Teresa that was shared at the beginning of the orientation. Here are some excerpts:

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical or self-centred.
Forgive them anyway.
.….
If you are honest and frank people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
….
The good you do today people will often forget tomorrow.
Be good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be good
enough.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway.

I have often found it difficult to look to people for recognition or a reward in doing good. Many times, it simply is not there. But, as Mother Teresa’s poem states, our actions are between God and us. We reflect God. Not partially , but wholly. It is the spiritual power behind forgiveness, honesty, creativity, happiness, goodness, unselfishness, loving and healing our fellow man -- these qualities of God in turn protect us.

Mary Baker Eddy helps define this power further. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she writes,

Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot harm us.

It is proverbial that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane labors have been able to undergo (,) without sinking (,) fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derived from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids....

Loving one another, unselfishness and good deeds HAVE power. It is this power that we can claim. We do good because we are good and God guides each one of us in channels of His Love. We are protected from fear, despair, attack, by claiming and accepting God’s protecting power and love for us.

I just also wanted to send out some major gratitude into cyberspace for all those paramedics who are doing heroic work. This article is a prayer that recognizes you cannot be harmed for doing this necessary work and that you all are greatly appreciated and loved.

I am sure I will be writing more later on this very happy new venture….


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World AIDS Day - investing in prayer

UN envoy urges "exceptional response" to AIDS crisis
Thu Dec 1
JAKARTA (AFP) - Countries around the world must make an exceptional response to the global AIDS' epidemic if they wish to stem the crisis, the executive director of UN AIDS Peter Piot warned. "On this 18th World AIDS Day, the world faces a choice in the global response to AIDS," Piot said in a message released in the Indonesian capital to mark World AIDS day. "...we can recognise the exceptional global threat posed by AIDS and embrace an equally exceptional response." He urged countries to invest in HIV prevention as well as treatment and care. "By making these investments, each and every country can reverse the spread of AIDS... With a crisis as unprecedented as AIDS, we cannot afford to neglect any vital front," said Piot, who is on a four-day visit here.

After reading this article, I realized that Piot had just laid out four main points that I am now using as my prayer agenda for AIDS. This is how I am praying:

"The world faces a choice"
Choose hope. Hope not based on wishful thinking, but on a growing recognition of the omnipotence of God. God is bigger than any disease. Hope keeps thought open to all possibilities.

"embrace an equally exceptional response"
Choose prayer. Prayer is communion with God. God is exceptional. God is omnipotent, all knowing, all good. "Neither red tape nor indignities ever hindered the divine process." writes Mary Baker Eddy. Numbers cannot hide the spread of hope; ignorance cannot stop intelligent care; bureaucractic snarls cannot stop the flow of solutions; disease cannot overcome health; addictions cannot overcome compassion. Prayer confirms this, puts the stake in the ground of human hope and is not reversed. There are no retrograde steps in prayer.

"make an investment - we can reverse the spread of AIDS"
Give your consent. Invest your prayer that affirms that the spread of AIDS can be reversed. This is possible. Give your consent to this possibility and expect to see it. Expose and target the problems and bring them down. Celebrate and cement the progress that you hear about.

"do not neglect any vital front"
Work it. Prayer is the vital exceptional response needed. It is the momentum under all effective action. Daily prayer and its accompanying affirmation of the power of good keeps the momentum going. It wears and tears away at the foundation of disease and restores us to our natural state of radiant health and robust living.

Please add your own comments or email to a friend, and visit my website at kimckorinek.com for more resources on prayer

Spirituality Matrix: An Infinite Game

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, (page 258), Mary Baker Eddy writes, “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.” And further on down the page “We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God.”

So if we are to understand ourselves and our friends and families spiritually, as God sees us, how can we understand God better?

Let's take the synonyms for God: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Life, Truth, Love and Principle (See Science and Health, page 465). Then, get out your dictionary, thesaurus, turn on your computer, or call up your crossword puzzle-loving uncle and come up with more synonyms for these synonyms, and then fill in your own matrix listing a row of synonyms on the top and a row of synonyms in a column on the left. And then ask: What is the Principle of Love? What is the Soul of Mind? What is the Spirit of Truth? You can come up with even more qualities that help explain the full spectrum of God’s qualities, and discover for example, just how creative God’s goodness is, how intelligent His beauty is and how powerful Her tenderness is – all these qualities are about God.

Knowing more about God, we know more about ourselves. As a child of our Father-Mother God, we reflect all His qualities, all of Her attributes. When we see ourselves as God sees us, and understand ourselves as spiritual, it is easier to see others spiritually as well. Then, we can see our own creative goodness, our friend's intelligent beauty and a family member’s powerful tenderness.

There is no end to this infinite exercise that helps us to understand the infinite qualities of God, qualities that each of us express in unique and individual ways.



Kim

The Book of Roberta

This could have been titled, The Book of Bill, or The Book of Linda, or the Book of You. Every individual is worthy of their own book to be written about them. Every individual has a poetry about them. Every person has a story, has someone who has brought them into this world, has experienced different degrees of love, has been fed, clothed, slept and awakened; and every person has given a bit of wisdom to this world.

Some of my favorite books would be about:

• My dad – who loves the northwoods and the harshness of winter and the stamina of the human spirit
• My cousin - artist of clay, lint, glass, etc., who has an uncommon elegance and can transform any material object into that elegance
• My friend from work - intelligent and searching, she brings her microscopic inquisitiveness to the issues of every day
• The gentle and steady nature of a new friend - although struggling through a difficult time, maintains a hope and a grace.

When I was a kid, whenever we needed to pick someone up at the airport, my cousins and I would dress up and go early, so we could watch people. We would sit quietly and just wonder at them, wonder where they were going, who they were going to see, what they were going to do. The arrivals area was always hopping. (See the opening part of the movie "Love, Actually.")

It was in this attentive watchfulness that I learned there is no difference between the young, old, rich, poor, badly dressed and exquisitely dressed. To me, people were always swirling around love, connectedness and beauty.

But there seemed to be a universal need to understand more of who we are and where we come from. We need to know this, because we are wired to know this -- it comes from the primitive nature of who we are – spiritual beings born of Love and Truth. Indeed, Love and Truth are our guiding forces, our guiding light, leading us home to where we always thought we should be. [Did you get that? I am having a hard time explaining this. Let me try again: It is a progressively ascending circuitous path. (1)We feel we should be loved, connected and beautiful, so (2)we seek out those things, only to find that (3)they have been a part of us all along, but only in a much higher way. ... Is that better?]

I'll leave you with three inspiring messages that confirm our beauty and connectedness, and our worthiness for a book to be written about each of us.

• "Wings of Desire" , a film by German director Wim Wenders whose images of angels with us reminds me that we are never alone.
• Mother Theresa, who sees the Christ in every one she helps. "I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?" -- 1974 interview
• And a confirmation from the Bible that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalms 139:14)

From the Book of Kim,

Kim

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lighting a candle of gratitude -- an ongoing Thanksgiving

Every morning for the last two years or so, I would either wake up or go to sleep feeling really grateful about something: my work, my family, what I am learning about God, etc. Looking back over those two years, I can see that this gratitude has had an amazing payback.

• In these last two years I have made major changes along with my family. These transitions have gone very smoothly.
• I have launched on a career that I had been hoping to do for almost 30 years!
• My family is closer than ever.
• I am learning more about God and Her infinite goodness in surprising ways.
• I am less afraid of things that I was afraid of.
• I am more committed to be a contributing global citizen.

Gratitude kind of feeds on itself, and I find the more grateful I am, the more I have to be grateful for! In Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she sums this up nicely:

Are we grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.

On Thanksgiving Day in the US, there will be a surge of gratitude expressed. But I welcome you all to join on ongoing gratitude fest by lighting a candle of gratitude along with others from 242 other countries. "Light a candle" is hosted by gratefulness.org - a bridge and forum for grateful hearts everywhere. The vision for their site is "to create a worldwide community dedicated to gratefulness as the core inspiration for personal change, international cooperation, and sustainable activism in areas of universal concern."

gratefully,

Kim




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Always plugged in

My son came home with the news that there had been a car accident with some kids from school. He did not know the boy who had died, but he had friends that knew him. The following days, school officials called in counselors, ministers and priests to be there for the students at any time to help comfort and support.

Hard stuff at any age. This was big news and I had the opportunity to talk to my kids and Sunday School students about the major questions this always brings up: What is death? What is life? Why does this happen?

Death ends things. Life continues and creates. It is for this simple definition that Life wins. Always. If you were to take any person, strip them of all of their labels: son, wife, niece, godparent, employer, student, provider, etc. what you would have left is the emobidiment of their spiritual qualities. Spiritual qualities are from Spirit, who is God. This is what gives our lives meaning, purpose and gives us our legacy. A spiritual quality cannot be stopped, cannot die. It would be impossible to make this happen - as impossible, say, if one were to take the number eight and try to cause it to melt. A spiritual quality cannot take on a physical quality.

Why do things like this happen? I don't know. But I do feel strongly that it is NOT God's will that there be suffering and dying. It makes no sense to me that God ( synonymous with Life) would end life; or that God (synonymous with Love) would test His beloved children to see if they really, really believed in Him. It is my belief that this boy's life (who died in the accident) is embodying the same spiritual qualities he did when we saw him everyday, and that the embodiment of his special qualities are still moving forward, alive and active.

In explaining this to my Sunday School class, it made sense to liken life to a computer. There are different things that come on the screen, like our different experiences, but we are always plugged in. We are plugged in when there are many things on the computer and plugged in when there is nothing on the computer.

We, who are left behind, grieve when we feel that death has had the final answer. Grief is healed when we catch that glimpse that Life and the lives of those we love are continuing, always plugged in and moving forward. Love takes over and we are welcomed to feel the power and embrace of pure Love, the intimate and unbroken understanding of our relationship to Him and restored hope in everpresent Life.

For those who are grieving, it has always helped me to know that the Christ is right where you are, going deeper than pity and sorrow and able to lift you, love you and restore your hope. You are not alone, and those whom you love are not alone and can feel your love.


Peace,

Kim

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Snippets and healing

There are small overlooked phrases from the Bible that have stuck with me for years. Concise little greetings and comments, that - when I have paid attention to them, have rewarded me with comforting gems and healing power. This one is from the King James version of the Bible, and it sounds so intimate and sweet. In few words it captures the feeling of God as a gentle father and wise mother:

“Oh Lord, my God, mine holy One.”

Another one: John, one of the disciples, often started his letters with a humble, loving greeting to those he had come to meet:

“My little children….”

And yet another desire of pitiful patience and encouragement:

“O man, greatly beloved, peace be unto thee. Be strong, yea be strong.”

And another one about people earnestly waiting for Jesus to come into town:

"And the people gladly received him, for they were all waiting for him.”

These snippets color the Bible with a familiarity of God that has lasted over thousands of years.

One morning, I had a Bible snippet come to thought. It was prior to a response Jesus gave to a man who had asked him a question:

“And Jesus, beholding him, loved him.”

I like the word behold. It is one of those full round embracing words. I could just imagine the compassionate look on his face, answering this rather cocky, but earnest man.

Well, one morning, my younger son woke up for school and said in a very thick voice, “I kennud talk. Muh voiy ih gun and muh thro huhrts.” (I cannot talk. My voice is gone and my throat hurts.) And then the phrase,

“and Jesus, beholding him, loved him”

popped into my thought. I love my son. So I beheld him. It then occurred to me that he might have to stay home, then I would have to get his homework for the day and then he would spend the next two days catching up. This was not helpful.

So instead, I prayed. It was a simple thought: A germ does not determine what Gabe does, God determines Gabe’s day. This day belongs to God. Period. Together Gabe and I talked about his identity as a spiritual idea and prayed with the "Scientific Statement of Being" from Science and Health (p 468). We finished. He finished breakfast. Got dressed. Said in a clear voice, “I’m off!” and took off for school, completely free of the sore throat.

Another snippet came to thought:

“Heal me and I shall be healed… for thou art my praise.”

(Bible quotes in order: Habakkuk 1:12; 1 John 3:18; Daniel 10:11; Luke 8:40; Jeremiah 17:14)

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The serenity of ice fishing and the morality of wild animals

I’ll be upfront with the lesson learned here.
Once you dive deeper into the spiritual reality of all things, you find common ground EVERYWHERE.

I recently moved from a city/suburban life to a rural life. In the city, I needed to see large open spaces – just space enough beneath skyscrapers to see the sky would suffice on weekdays, but weekends I needed to see a sweep of prairie or a vista of ocean to feel at peace.

So, I love it here: the woods, winter, wind and sky. The cold is cold to the bone. The big empty sky is expansive, the wind brings inspiration and here you see life constantly renewing itself. Here it is easy to be inspired and let my ideas and my writing flow.

However, I wasn’t prepared for the culture of fishing and hunting. This is BIG here (this is only news to those who live beyond a 500 mile radius from here). The economy, the music, the kids’ school attendance – all are effected by hunting and fishing. For some it is their sport, for others, it is how they have enough to eat. For me, I just didn’t get it.

I am fortunate to be living close to relatives who love hunting and fishing. Already my younger son is jumping at the gun (so to speak) to learn how to shoot rifles and to have my brother-in-law take him out this hunting season.

My sister-in-law explains to me that she wants to teach me the serenity of ice-fishing. Here, she explains, you are out in this wide-open space filled with stillness. Everything is white, cold and silent. Even through the hole in the ice, the slow rare sites of the movements of fish keep pace with a forzen rhythm. The peace and the time alone are nourishing. The earth, though still asleep, continues to yield bountifully.

My husband’s uncle is a big deer hunter. He, along with his lifelong wife, are good hearted and practical people. He says he will never hunt bear, however, because bear mate for life. Although this leads me to speculate about the morality of deer, it is surprising that he would take a bear's monogamy as a criteria for hunting. It speaks of our connection to all living things, of our ability to help create a balance in the life and death of wildlife, and of our personal connection and identification with wild animals.

In the Bible in Genesis 1, verse 26, indicates that God has given man dominion over the earth. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes,

"Man, made in His (God’s) likeness, possesses and reflects God’s dominion over all the earth."

This is not about domination over the earth, but God’s dominion – a loving, life preserving responsibility to care for the earth.

It is this loving caretaking, the appreciation of nature and the careful knowledge of the wilderness that I can embrace. I don’t know if I will ever hunt or fish, but I can feel at home with those who do.

Later,

Kim

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You can't be denied the fullness of life

From Science and Health (p. 288):

Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses.

What a sentence! I find myself inspired again and again by this simple Truth. We are, right now, in the midst of glorious possibilities and there is no force on earth that can take that away.

A good deal of our time here may be spent struggling or trying to overcome adverse situations. And yet, what is on the other side of those situations is a wider unlimited view of life that shows our dominion over challenges, our strength and unlimited joy.

Let me illustrate.

Sarah and I were equally matched whitewater kayaking buddies. One trip was particularly memorable. We were the rookies of a group of paddlers that were going to do a beautiful whitewater stretch on the Montreal River (Midwest USA). In the first big rapid we were going to do, there was calm water (an eddy) above and below a large drop, with some manuevering that needed to be done between several rock outcroppings. Our friends set up safety ropes and the more experienced ones went down first. Sarah was going to go before me, I would watch her from the shore and cheer her on, then I would go, she would cheer me on, etc.

Well, she left and got into the eddy above the drop. And there she stayed. And stayed. I knew something was wrong. Nervously, I got into my boat and joined her. She was scared. I was scared. This was the biggest rapid we had ever done. After a while I said, "OK Sarah, I just have to share some God stuff with you, OK? It's this. Perfect Love casts out all fear. We don't have to be afraid. We can absolutely LOVE what we are doing and we will be fine." Simple. That was it. We both took turns going down the rapids, nailing the currents just right, got the right angle in the drop and turned into the eddy below. Our friends all cheered. We were ecstatic!

Not only was it thrilling to conquer our fear, but to be immersed in the powerful currents, carving out our boats alongside the rapids was another dimension of focus, joy and harmonizing with the power of nature. We felt that unlimited nature of God.

When we are in our own eddy, so to speak, in that calm spot before a challenge, we can take that time to know that God is Love and we are immersed in God's love. This perfect Love - helps to melt away personal agendas, doubts, envy, or self -deprecation. We are free to see the glorious possibilities God has for us.

In healing, the role of prayer can help inspire us to the point that we are willing to accept our perfection, our light, our genius. God certainly does, and we are made in His image and likeness. So what is holding us back? Challenges in whatever form, do fall away, as they have no sound basis, whereas peace, health, joy, etc. have divine authority for their eternal and constantly creative expression.

We can't be denied the fullness of life. It is there. And fear cannot separate us from the glorious possibilities that God has planned for us.

gloriously yours,

Kim


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FAQ: Why are there charges for treatment and consultations? And what are they and how do we pay?

Spiritual resource to share:  answers

Paying for services rendered is a natural way for the patient to own the treatment and complete the treatment or consultation with gratitude. The Christian Science practitioner is not employed by the Christian Science Church, and charges for services enables the practitioner to pursue this line of work exclusively and full time.

Christian Science Treatment: First treatment $35; subsequent treatments $20 (reduced per Church Manualp.46)

Visits and Consultation: First consultation free; follow up consultations and visits $60/hour; phone visits under five minutes are always free

Travel time: $20 per hour

Ways to Pay
You can make payments or donations through Pay Pal or through your credit card by clicking here

Or you can send your payment by check or money order directly to Kim at:

Kim Crooks Korinek, CS,

PO Box 1134, Arbor Vitae, WI

54568

FAQ: What is a Christian Science nurse?

Spiritual resource to share: answers

What is a Christian Science nurse?

“A Christian Science nurse is one “who has a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice, who thoroughly understands the practical wisdom necessary in the sick room and who can take proper care of the sick.” (The Church Manualby Mary Baker Eddy)



FAQ: Can a person rely on Christian Science and medicine? Or is that seen to be a bad thing?

Spiritual resource to share: answers

Can a person use medical care and Christian Science care?

Experience has shown that it is not helpful to mix these two different methods of treatment. But an individual can continue to pray and talk with a practitioner if desired if they are using medical care.

In Christian Science, God’s love is constant and unconditional. A Christian Scientist strives to reflect that same love. Each Christian Scientist is free to choose how to deal with their own health issues and is never judged on his or her choices.

FAQ: What is the difference between Christian Science treatment and Christian Science prayer?

Spiritual resource to share: answers

What is the difference between Christian Science treatment and Christian Science prayer?

Christian Science prayer is general and can be shared under all conditions; some Christians might call this type of prayer, a prayer of affirmation.

Christian Science treatment is specific. It is a sacred trust between practitioner and patient, and may involve a spiritual sense of communion, confession, baptism, as well as personal revelation and spiritual reasoning. Both patient and practitioner expect healing to be the result of Christian Science treatment.

All communication between patient and practitioner is strictly confidential.

FAQ: What is a consultation?

Spiritual resource to share:answers

What is a consultation?

A consultation is a time to talk.

There are many reasons you may want to talk about Christian Science in greater depth with a practitioner.

Perhaps you have questions about the effectiveness of healing through prayer or about Christian Science. Perhaps you are reading Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesby Mary Baker Eddy and have some questions about it and about the author.

Maybe you are under medical care, but want to explore Christian Science as a possibility to pursue healing or you are interested in having Christian Science treatment, but are not sure how to go about it.

All these issues, and similar issues can be discussed thoroughly in a consultation.

All communications are confidential. For those reading throughScience and Healthand for those contacting me for the first time, the first consultation is free.

FAQ: What is Christian Science treatment?

Spiritual resource to share:  answers

 What is Christian Science Treatment?

Christian Science treatment is prayer-based help given by a Christian Science practitioner. It is based on an understanding of the spiritual nature of God and man and the principles governing the relations of God and man.

When treatment is requested, the patient has given permission for the practitioner to prayerfully treat his or her state of thought.

Thought is the center of life's experiences. And when thought is aligned with the understanding of an omnipotent God as Truth, this has a harmonizing effect on the body and on life's experiences. This brings the goodness, balance and purity already existing in life to the surface and to consciousness.

No two treatments are ever the same, because every case is individual, and the application of the universal laws explained in Christian Science are literally infinite.

Christian Science treatment is purely spiritual and includes the work of a Christian Science practitioner. It may also include the work of a Christian Science nurse and/or being cared for at a Christian Science nursing facility. It does not include any material methods of healing, neither is a Christian Science practitioner licensed to give conventional medical care.

Treatments can be given over the phone, in person or via correspondence. Because the nature of the treatment is with thought,

location and proximity of the person is not required. And because the healing thrust of treatment is through prayer, no physical manipulation or medication is used.

In Christian Science treatment, the patient is in charge of their treatment and determines the length of the treatment. All communications between the patient and practitioner are strictly confidential.

For other responses to these questions, check out these links:

What is Christian Science treatment?

FAQ: What does a Christian Science practitioner actually do?

Spiritual resource to share: answers

What does a Christian Science practitioner do?

A Christian Science practitioner gives Christian Science treatment and prays with his or her patients. The spirit of love characterizes the practitioners’ work in which healing is expected: physical ills are cured, relationships restored and discordant situations reversed.

The basis of Christian Science is that God is Love. The theology of Christian Science explains that suffering is not God’s will, neither is shunning, shaming, abandoning one needing help, or dictating what another should do.

It is important that the patient experience healing. If healing results do not come in a timely manner, the individual is free to seek a different practitioner or other means of healing.

USA

FAQ: What is a Christian Science practitioner?

Spiritual resource to share: answers

 What is a Christian Science Practitioner?

AChristian Science practitioner is a healer.

When a patient asks for help, a practitioner will prayerfully treat the patient's thought, helping to bring out the permanent basis of one's unbreakable relationship to good (God) which naturally results in good health, progress and balance.

The patient brings an expectation and willingness to be healed. The practitioner brings prayer, experience and trust in God. The practitioner and patient work and pray together. The result is healing and transformation.

A practitioner is available for treatment, consultation and can answer any questions you may have about Christian Science. All conversations with a practitioner are strictly confidential.

A world wide listing of Christian Science practitioners and Christian Science teachers is available at Christianscience.com.

Practitioners list themselves with either a "CS" or "CSB". CS indicates they have taken an authorized and ongoing course of Christian healing and are actively taking cases. CSB indicates the same as the CS designation and identifies that they are authorized teachers of the courses on Christian healing.

For other responses to these questions, check out these links:

What is a Christian Science practitioner?

FAQ: Will you pray for me?

Spiritual resource to share: answers to frequently asked questions

FAQs

  Will you pray for me?

Let's talk! Christian Science treatment is for anyone who wants to more fully experience the power of prayer in the healing and cure of life's challenges.  It is available to everyone regardless of religious affiliation, gender, orientation, race or faith. A spiritual or religious background is not necessary, but an unbiased and open thought is most desirable.

God’s healing power is universal. No one is beyond redemption, and no problem is bigger than the power of omnipotent God, Love.

To help you decide if you want Christian Science treatment, your first consultation with Kim will be free. 

Also, it would be very helpful to get a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and browse through some of the other resources that are available to you. (See healing resources page)

Kelly and the curiosity sponge

Now if my niece Kelly were to do the spirituality matrix (see previous blog) and were asked to put together the spiritual qualities that she expresses, she might include these qualities: spontaneous, intelligent, graceful, humorous, active, compassionate, witty and above all curious – curious like a sponge.

To prove just how curious Kelly is, I have juxtaposed definitions of curious (taken from a great dictionary site www.onelook.com) with a sampling of Kelly’s questions from a recent conversation we had:

CURIOUS - adjective: having curiosity aroused; eagerly interested in learning more (Example: "A trap door that made me curious")
· How do I get IM? A website? On skype? An email?
· I want to learn Chinese.
· The World is Flat – what kind of a book is that?
· Let’s find out where Rabka, Poland is.
· Can I be on your blog?

CURIOUS - adjective: eager to investigate and learn or learn more (sometimes about others' concerns) (Example: "A curious child is a teacher's delight")
· You heal through prayer? How would you heal my teeth?
· What a cool website. I know, you could start an advice column, and I would send you questions and sign it with goofy names like, “Lost in Texas”
· You mean you were divorced once? What happened?
· I don’t get stuff about electricity and technology. Do you?

CURIOUS - adjective: beyond or deviating from the usual or expected (Example: "A curious hybrid accent")
I was impressed with Kelly’s attentiveness when discussing the load bearing walls of our house and how we needed to understand how trusses worked and what we could do as a result of that knowledge. Kelly listened very closely and understandably. So much so that I thought, this kid is going to be an architect. When I told her that, she said she didn’t understand a thing I said, but if her attentive listening made me think she was capable of great things like architecture, perhaps she could use that look a bit more.

The virtues of curiosity and what others say:

“The ability to make big leaps of thought is a common denominator among the originators of breakthrough ideas.”
--Daniel Pink, author of best-selling book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the information age to the conceptual age

“I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
--Eleanor Roosevelt, UN Diplomat, humanitarian, First Lady

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."
--Albert Einstein, German born Physicist

"Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind."
--Samuel Johnson, English poet 1709-1784

“While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.”
--Mary Baker Eddy, discoverer and founder of Christian Science

“The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity."
--Anatole France, French Writer, Nobel Prize for Literature 1921

“No, really. What is it? I really want to know.”
--Kelly, curiosity sponge, middle school student, wonderful daughter, tolerant sister, loyal friend and a very loved niece

Yours in holy curiosity,

Kim

Finding Wonderland - Getting started in the Christian Science practice

Last spring, when my position with a publisher ended, I was ready for the next step, but also felt a tremendous sense of gratitude -- even a sacred sense of wonder -- of what we did, what was asked of us, what we found out and what we accomplished.

What was asked of us: My good friend and colleague and I traveled all over the world, supporting the distribution of a classic book on spirituality and healing to global book markets. The book was Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy -- which you will be hearing about often on this site.

We supported our publisher's own line of bookstores worldwide, as well as did some major exploring to place the book in markets that catered to the widest range of audiences: Muslims, Catholics, Hindis, general population, Mind/Body/Spirit groups, healthcare professionals, religion scholars, etc. etc.

What we found out -- and what I found out in particular -- was that the hunger for spirituality is here and everywhere, now and with no end in sight. The challenge of the work was to keep going in a straight line. The receptivity was everywhere!

How amazing it was to be able to go into a country, talk to book industry professionals and the public and learn what ideas their citizens are reading and valuing and to find out that spiritual ideas are the common link to us all.

As you will find out on my website and I'll continually be referring to it on this blog, the ideas in Science and Health actually heal. And as we introduced the book, hundreds of people who read it shared how they had been healed, uplifted, comforted simply by reading the book.

The largeness of this work of sharing and practicing the practical spiritual ideas in Science and Health still moves me. I remember driving into work one of my last days and saying - Well God, it is you and me again! Prior to that my prayer and work always involved many people, conversations, meetings, events in many languages. Now these experiences have time to ripen as they have deepened my understanding and confirmed my conviction that God, good speaks to every man and nation and that understanding God as good heals outward conflict and inner turmoil. These experiences have enlarged my pool of peace and expanded my hope for mankind.

Someone once asked if I miss my former job and I quickly said no. And I meant it. It is like asking: do you miss giving birth to your two sons? After giving birth to my sons, I remember being impressed at the strength and focus that women give to secure ongoing generations. What a hopeful thing it is to have a child and to care for a child as they grow! I do not miss the birthing process, but I love what is growing because of it.

Likewise, after working at this job, I am just as impressed at the possibilities that arise when there is such focus, devotion and strength of vision aligned with an unselfish love. We had a passion and love for the work of sharing Christian Science with the world. I love the focus and strength that that work demanded. And then we did it! The whole spectrum of human emotion was there: unbridled joy, doubt, compassion, relief, anger, brilliance, laughter, tears, - you get the picture. But what made it so worthwhile were the moments of prayer: the on your knees humble, winner take all prayer that didn't stop until God's presence was felt, healing was realized or a way distinctly pointed out. Some colleagues joked about wearing out knee pads....

But I am back in wonderland - wondering how my next steps will develop. I am re-inventing myself as well, and in a way that complements the width of my former experience with an opportunity to develop the depth of an understanding of our Father/Mother God and us - Her/His children. My experience includes a literal embrace of the world. Added to that is my current world full of family, art, the woods,and the blessed benefit of time to pray and ponder. Opportunities to experience a different sense of time to listen and be quiet; to act, to do and to heal in the quiet guidance of the love of God.

My newest wonder is to develop the practice of Christian Science in my own life and share with others as a Christian Science practitioner. I take patients. I have office hours and a website. I put CS after my name and tell people at parties what my new line of work is. I make myself available to others and together we fight demons and wrestle with obstacles and stand back to see God work and see the glorious possibilities that exist by understanding - even more - by experiencing the transforming power of Love. We will grow understand the minutiae and omnipresence of this Life force. How wonder-full is that?

I am again tremendously grateful for the space I now have to do this. Life is so rich. So varied. So infinite. So full of wonder. I am looking forward to hearing from you all!

Kim, CS

How big is infinite?

To understand God as infinite......

I was downhill skiing in Colorado and got off the main run and found myself in waist high powder snow. Intead of changing my weight backward on the skies, I kept it forward and landed in the snow with a soft *phlumph* I lay there, feeling of the bright sun and soft snow and views of beautiful mountains hemming the bright blue empty sky. I am a part of this, I told myself. Amazing. I am a part of this.

I did finally get up, taught myself a quick lesson in skiing powder, and joined friends at the end of the run. But the larger lesson - to have an answer as to my place in the universe, my purpose in life, which came to me in a *phlumph* - this lesson stays with me today.

"God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind of anything He does not already comprehend?" queries Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health. Understanding God as All-in-all, we have arrived home.

Chau,

Kim

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Eternity in five minutes

"To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold
infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour."

William Blake

In all respect to William Blake, his thought got me thinking...to understand infinity and eternity are daunting enough, but the possibility of experiencing eternity in an hour....I am wondering if it is possible to speed things up and hold eternity in five minutes?

OK, so this is a bit ironic. But what is eternity if not a sense of timeliness? What is time but a space between two moments? Can we feel eternity? And if so, what does that do for us?

Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "

Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely
spiritual, neither in nor of matter, and the body will then utter no complaints.
.... Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life
divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's
dominion over the whole earth."

Praying is a way to become conscious of spiritual things, the things of God: gratitude, affirmation of good and expectancy of healing. These are timeless attributes that show me a power beyond my own consciousness. This to me is getting a taste of eternity.

Filling thought with a consciousness of God opens the door to infinite possibilies, purifies thought and protects. It brings me into a place of peace and confidence and possibility.

Kim ................

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Live from the home of the World's Largest Penny

I used to live in the Boston area. Boston, as many Bostonians will tell you, is the Hub of the Universe. And they will tell you the many good reasons that they feel this is so. However, when I talked to a friend from London and visited there, I was convinced that, indeed London must play THE central role and be the center of the universe, and my friend agreed.

Then I visited Singapore. With temples that are right next to mosques which are across from the shrines which are next to some churches, surely this is the most diverse and central part of the universe. But an African colleague called Africa "Mother Africa," she said, because it gave birth to mankind. A Greek friend explained that Greece was the center of the universe because it was the birthplace of civilization. And an Argentine explained,with a twinkle in his eye, that the well known pride of the Argentines is due to the fact that God is from Argentina.

Interesting to know that every place has its central role in the universe. Every place has its mark and it is all important. My new home town, for one, is the center of the Universe for many of us, and our claim to the universe is that this is Home of the World's Largest Penny.

Globetrotting over the years has taught me valuable lessons:

• Everyone is important
• Everyone has an important claim to the universe
• The literate have nothing over the illiterate
• The rich have nothing over the poor
• The powerful have nothing over those who are thought to be powerless.

Love, purity, joy, kindness, and intelligent care ennoble every one of us. Likewise, every person has a central role in the universe.

The wisdom of Mary Baker Eddy flows on "and the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, - that infinite space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in countless spiritual forms" (from Science and Health).

Kim

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Life cannot be buried

I needed to get my feet on solid ground about the recent cataclysmic events, including the most recent in Pakistan and India. After viewing scores of pictures and many articles read, I found I could relate to betrayal, loss of control, fear of death, fear of losing the people I loved, pain, and so on. But I have never experienced it on this scale.

Even to pray, to realize healing seemed to be daunting. But how big is my understanding of God? Is it bigger than a tsunami? An earthquake? a hurricane? It was beyond my experience to answer.

I prayed with the help of two books. One is the Bible: story after story of the experience of mankind's evolving understanding of God and how we relate to God. The other is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: illuminating the spiritual laws that undergird the Bible and explaining the operation of those same spiritual laws today. The backbone of both books is the illustration of divine law operating throughout millennia, through wars, famines, political successes and failures, celebrations and the drama of ongoing life.

I was pondering over Christ Jesus' resurrection. Although he is given different offices by different religions, one thing that can possibly be agreed on is that he stood for hope, for a way out of the mire of sin, sickness and finally out of death and into peace and fulfillment. The events surrounding his crucifixion were ominous and unrelenting, even up to the time he was on the cross. And yet, right in that noise of horror, hopelessness and torture, he loved. He forgave his persecutors. He made sure his mother was cared for. And three days later, he was resurrected, which also resurrected the hope of those he taught and ultimately the hope of all those who believe in his teachings.

He not only taught that God was bigger than a hurricane, tsunami or earthquake, but he walked his understanding of the bigness, the allness and omnipotence of God every day. The result? No sin or disease could ever even be real to him. He restored all whom he met back to their normal physical and mental state of health and awakened the understanding of their relationship to God. His persecutors tried to stop, then to torture, then to kill, and finally to bury this hope of healing and reconciliation. But it simply couldn't happen.

The lively hope that Life is of God, good and that we are one with God was too powerful. In Science and Health it says,

"The persecutors had failed to hide immortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre."

Our present day persecutors -- natural disasters, terrorism, war -- would try to hide the hope that Life is eternal, Truth is omnipotent and Love is ever-present. But that is impossible. God is too powerful. It takes a determined stepping away from the human picture to see the persistence of Love in these situations. But to do so is to play a part in a resurrection.

• To let the human sense of grief yield to the warm embrace of Love.
• To let the human sense of loss yield to the divine sense of eternal Life.
• To let the human sense of fear and distrust yield to the strong arms of everlasting Truth.

This is what Jesus Christ resurrected for us.

So back to South Asia. I look at all the pictures from my news source online. I am mentally walking in the pictures of the devastation, testing if my understanding is sufficient. Looking for glimmers of hope and life. My prayer connects. I understand this:

Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to
possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love" (from Science and Health)

What the pictures show is unending care, and connection to one another. Diligent prayer. Reconciliation. Cooperation. Differences dissolve in the persistence of life. The children, the fathers, and mothers, men and women are all children of one God. They are wrapped up in one Love. There is great hope. I am putting this prayer out into cyber-space, knowing it will join the millions of other prayers. These prayers contribute to that atmosphere of thought and are renewing hope, resting those tired from helping others and strengthening the strong insistence that Life can never be buried.

News articles

Remember the children in Asia's quake: Christian Science Monitor story

A glimmer of good news in Pakistan: yahoo news

Earthquake to be treated as a national calamity: The Times of India

Healing article:

No earthquake can loosen Love's embrace by Neera Kapur: spirituality.com

Peace, Kim

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What intrigues me most about Christian Science

Recently I was talking to a number of other Christian Science practitioners and we were all asked this question. Their answers were clear and varied. One practitioner loves the sound reasoning of Christian Science. Another practitioner loves how effective Christian Science is at problem solving. Another practitioner commented how Christian Science taught her to move through the world with dominion.

As for me, not only do I love the fact that Christian Science is so many things to so many people, but I am most thrilled to know that Christian Science spells out the universal law of Love and shows how to apply it to every situation imaginable.
Let me break this down as I understand it.

• Christian Science is the science or the "how to" of Christianity.
• Science is all about a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws or the application of certain principles that bring about a consistent result.
• Christianity is based on the teachings of Christ.
• Christ is all about the expression of an omnipotent and omnipresent God (Love) in our human experience.

So, Christian Science explains "how to" do universal love, how to be loving, and be loved, and how to heal and harmonize with divine Principles of Love.

OK, so the thrilling part of this again is that these principles of Love find receptive hearts everywhere: with your immediate family members with whom you live and in situations a half a world away. Regardless of any human category you put yourself into or any situation you find yourself in, there is a principle, a law of Love, which when applied, brings the human picture into harmony.

To practice Christian Science means a never-ending discovery into the depths of understanding infinite Love and feeling the effects of Love's harmonizing influence. It has an impact on our individual lives. Christian Science has an impact on communities and nations.

It seems to me that Christian Science explains the science of genius, of all that is brilliant and good and enduring. Through the science of Christ's teaching, we can all experience the promise that "with God, all things are possible."

Another friend commented that when she first read Science and Health, she was left breathless. It still does that to me, even after years of reading and practicing the ideas in it.

Signing off,
Kim

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Downpour

Many years ago, I wrote and submitted a poem that was published in the Christian Science Sentinel (Vol. 98, No. 36). It was written after an inspiring talk with a friend who had overcome the shame of abuse from a someone she trusted and had found her way to be totally free of any effects of that abuse.

As I re-read this poem, I realized it had healing ideas for anyone who has suffered an almost overwhelming loss. I'm sending it out on the web in hopes that it will bring comfort to those dealing with loss and especially those dealing with the effects of the hurricanes in the Gulf area of the US.

Downpour

It’s all right to cry.
Let the tears take you down to a place you thought no one ever knew about, and

Behold

..........the Christ is here.

You are not alone.

Behold, the Christ is here,
the spirit of God,
giving a cup of cold water,
pouring you out a blessing,
filling up the vacant hope,
spilling over with
an endless, purifying love and assurance:

“I have overcome the world.”*

The Christ is here,
carrying you with the truth
that your life is flooded with
God’s infinite goodness.

Be comforted now with clearer, wider vision.

You are not alone.

*See John 16: 31-33
© Christian Science Sentinel Vol. 98, No. 36
Used with permission

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Ann and Emily and the magic of everyday

I have four surprise visitors this weekend, two of whom are quite short. One is Ann who wants to say hello:

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and the other is Emily who wants to do the same thing her twin sister just did. SO hello from Emily:

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A big part of my affection for them comes from the fact that we belong to one another and we are happy about that. The other part comes from our mutual attraction to strange and glorious things.

When the twins come to visit, we kind of rush together to show each other every thing that is important. They show me how my glass marbles have become jewels. They squeal with delight and invent new words as our big dog lickles their toes. (Lickles, of course, is a verb which means licking and tickling.) We go and visit our creek where sweet moss grows and look for darting minnows in the sun and shade of the waters. If it rains at night, I'll turn on our outdoor lights and show them how it looks like it is raining diamonds. One son shows them secret places in the house where they can read books and the other son tells them of big adventures he is undertaking.

Our visit is a big crescendo of kidness and I love it. My nieces, my sons and reallly all the kids I know and love, give me inspiration, hope and the earnest commitment to build a better world. They remind me how important it is to be a child at every age. I love Mary Baker Eddy's quote when she says:

Beloved children, the world has need of you, - and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives. You need also to watch, and pray that you preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through contact with the world. What grander ambition is there than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to know that your example, more than words, makes morals for mankind!" ( From Miscellaneous Writings, p. 110)

Signing off,

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and
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and
Kim


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