Spiritual resource to share: the inevitable progress of God's creation
The impossible is possible. This is the theme of one of the many short talks presented at the TED conference. [This annual conference "brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)]. "
In a remarkably animated and clear argument, Hans Ronslings takes the issue of poverty on - proving that there has been steady progress in the alleviation of poverty. How does he do this? Simply, he gives his consent that what was thought impossible is possible and then he shows us what has been possible by taking us into a bigger picture of what has been happening. (Click on the screen to load video.)
It's an encouraging and thought provoking disussion.
I have found that giving my consent to the infinite possibilities of God and looking at the bigger picture have also brought - not only enouragement and inspired thought, but inspired action.
For example, on a much smaller but equally important scale, a friend was struggling with anxiety. As we talked, it was evident that there was something more going on. The bigger picture was that there was a deep hunger for growth in grace. Recognizing this higher view, we could give our consent to the biblical promise that says: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." This hopeful view replaced the anxiety with the expectation of good.
I think it is all about the ultimate big picture: seeing ourselves as God sees us. And in this light, we can see all sorts of possibilities for good and for healing, not only in our own lives, but in our communities and our world.
Fr more information about Hans Ronslings, visit ted.com
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
the natural nature of companionship
Spiritual resource to share: companionship
It has struck me that male and female were created at the same time. So then I reasoned that we are created in relationship already. Having relationships to one another is our natural state.
This is echoed in the first two words of the Lords Prayer that starts out: "Our Father...." This shows that we share a common heritage with others. It also points out that getting our relationship to God - our Father - right, lays the groundwork for getting all of our relationships right.
It is characteristic that Life -another word for God- demands expression and part of that expression is in relationship to others (kind of like John Donne's "No man is an island...."). We, created in the image and likeness of God (who is Life), naturally reflect engagement, companionship, as well as thinking, moving, laughing, connecting.
I remember asking this question long ago when I felt quite alone. I was encouraged by MBEddy's idea from Science and Health "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will become solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with Love."
It was a solitary time, but I got to feel a whole new concept of God as Love. There were mornings where I woke up feeling loved. This became the basis for all the new friendships that developed after that experience. It helped me to see that my happiness was not so much dependent on another person as it was about my relationship to God. But this relationship to God had a very active expression: in relationships with others.
Again, getting my primary relationship to God right, then became the basis for many lasting friendships and family relationships that followed. Wonderful, yes?
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
It has struck me that male and female were created at the same time. So then I reasoned that we are created in relationship already. Having relationships to one another is our natural state.
This is echoed in the first two words of the Lords Prayer that starts out: "Our Father...." This shows that we share a common heritage with others. It also points out that getting our relationship to God - our Father - right, lays the groundwork for getting all of our relationships right.
It is characteristic that Life -another word for God- demands expression and part of that expression is in relationship to others (kind of like John Donne's "No man is an island...."). We, created in the image and likeness of God (who is Life), naturally reflect engagement, companionship, as well as thinking, moving, laughing, connecting.
I remember asking this question long ago when I felt quite alone. I was encouraged by MBEddy's idea from Science and Health "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will become solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with Love."
It was a solitary time, but I got to feel a whole new concept of God as Love. There were mornings where I woke up feeling loved. This became the basis for all the new friendships that developed after that experience. It helped me to see that my happiness was not so much dependent on another person as it was about my relationship to God. But this relationship to God had a very active expression: in relationships with others.
Again, getting my primary relationship to God right, then became the basis for many lasting friendships and family relationships that followed. Wonderful, yes?
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
big on beauty
Spiritual resource to share: beauty makeover
I am big into beauty. Why? I think how beauty is perceived is WAY overdue its own makeover. So when I saw Christian Science practitioner and teacher Beverly Goldsmith's tips on not just beauty, mind you, but exquisite, enduring and eternal beauty, I just had to share it!
Click here to read her 7 takeaway tips for exquisite, enduring and eternal beauty that includes these ideas:
- Look for enduring beauty
- Think beautiful thoughts
- Embrace immortal beauty
- Nurture the spiritual qualities of beauty
- Utilize the recipe for beauty
- Stop worrying about fleshly looks
- Practice thinking spiritually
Enjoy!
photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ameros/147086668/© All rights reserved
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Monday, January 21, 2008
good never dies
Spiritual resource to share: peace, equality and justice
photo from 1963 March on Washington where MLKing gave his speech "I have a dream"
Thinking about Martin Luther King today brings up all kinds of inspiration and feelings. He, too, is in that league of men and women who put aside all personal comfort to bring out an ideal for all mankind. And in the popular words attributed to Benazir Bhutto and of another civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, "you can kill a man, but not an idea."
So Martin Luther King's idea lives and thrives. To celebrate his idea, one of our local area churches has been bold enough to deal with an undercurrent of racism that the community has been actively working to heal. They are sponsoring a talk tonight on "White Privilege and how it affects the relations between Indian and non-Indian Communities" being given by a woman from Wellesley and one of our own judges from the Ojibway Nation.
In MLKing's 1964 Nobel lecture, he says regard accepting the Nobel Prize:
I experience this high and joyous moment not for myself alone but for those devotees of nonviolence who have moved so courageously against the ramparts of racial injustice and who in the process have acquired a new estimate of their own human worth.
And that is the legacy I hope to preserve here in our Northwoods. A continuing effort to love beyond any boundaries and to acquire, for all of us, "a new estimate of (our) own human worth." Our dignity is their dignity; their freedom is our freedom; we are forever bound together.
I'll write more later about tonight's event.
To hear and see Martin Luther King Jr.'s talk "I have a Dream" click below:
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Friday, January 18, 2008
"a breathtaking genius for improvisation"
Spiritual resource to share: (see list below)
- close attention to detail
- strict neatness and order
- a simplified and systematic way of life
- and a breathtaking genius for improvisation
A breathtaking genius for improvisation! I love it! Since reading about this, I have made it my goal to run my house and my practice with these in mind.
So, I find it helpful to have a system in place that readies me for the day. I make sure we are stocked up well in case of a big snow or unexpected guests. I make sure I have sharing copies of Science and Health. I make sure I have time with God and me alone, before I plug in to my computer or go out. I am appreciating more and more the ways to simplify life. It is easy to cut down on our consumption here. I was never big into shopping, but not having lots of choices up here definitely helps!
So all of this helps tremendously and makes room for that most wonderful of all traits - improvisation. Because I have established some sense of order and rhythm in my life, I feel more confident and ready to take on whatever may come my way, whether it is an urgent call, friends calling to stay for a weekend, a request with a deadline that has already passed, anything! This is the fun part -- where I can rely on all of God's attributes of intelligence, love, infinite possibilities and spontaneity to bring out a needed response to whatever the demand is.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
radicals, controversial figures and troublemakers
Spiritual resource to share: pursuing Truth
Some of my favorite people include explorers, thinkers and other types of adventurers. Sometimes these people also fit nicely into the categories of radicals, controversial figures and troublemakers -- but only when they are pursuing a higher Truth which naturally challenges a stagnant status quo. Those who think outside of the box are one thing, but those who don't even take a box into consideration in their quest for Truth are on the top of my list of heroes.
Two such people are Mary Baker Eddy and the New Testament character Paul. I already knew that MBEddy was controversial in her day, and even now I consider her ideas as cutting edge. So reading this excerpt about her didn't raise any eyebrows:
The quote is from page xi of the Preface of Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill. The quote is by Mark Twain, who was an outspoken critic of MBEddy for many years, until later in his life when he felt moved to state the above.
But when I read the following about Paul, I did a major re-think on what it meant to pursue one's own Truth.
The above is from the weekly Bible resources from csdirectory.com, "Bible Characters for Your Weekly Bible Study"
So what does it mean to pursue one's own Truth? Sticking your neck out or going against the mainstream of thought can be lonely and scary. It certainly was for MBEddy and Paul. But there was a compelling story to tell, a truth to be shared. And along the way, the sense of personal ego, pride and fear had to make way for patience, a deep humility, keen self-knowledge and a constant curiosity about the goodness of omnipotent God.
I saw that it takes humility and vision, selflessness and a burning love for humanity that made their experience of Truth the foundation for the movement of practical, healing Christianity today. It gives me plenty to consider as I continue my pursuit.
Click here to read a thoughtful post on Benazir Bhutto as reformer, another hero of blogging friend, Chris.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Some of my favorite people include explorers, thinkers and other types of adventurers. Sometimes these people also fit nicely into the categories of radicals, controversial figures and troublemakers -- but only when they are pursuing a higher Truth which naturally challenges a stagnant status quo. Those who think outside of the box are one thing, but those who don't even take a box into consideration in their quest for Truth are on the top of my list of heroes.
Two such people are Mary Baker Eddy and the New Testament character Paul. I already knew that MBEddy was controversial in her day, and even now I consider her ideas as cutting edge. So reading this excerpt about her didn't raise any eyebrows:
"When we do not know a person -- and also when we do -- we have to judge the size and nature of his achievements as compared with the achievements of others in his special line of business -- there is no other way. Measured by this standard, it is thirteen hundred years since the world has produced anyone who could reach up to Mrs. Eddy's waistbelt.
"In several ways she is the most interesting woman that ever lived, and the most extraordinary."
The quote is from page xi of the Preface of Mary Baker Eddy by Gillian Gill. The quote is by Mark Twain, who was an outspoken critic of MBEddy for many years, until later in his life when he felt moved to state the above.
But when I read the following about Paul, I did a major re-think on what it meant to pursue one's own Truth.
"Paul was a controversial figure in his lifetime, even within the Christian movement.... He had many opponents who disagreed with his interpretation of the message of Jesus. In the closing years of his life, when imprisonment prevented him from moving about freely, Paul's opponents were able to make a headway with their rival interpretations. However, Paul became a venerated figure. His letters, together with the Gospels, became the foundation of the Christian movement."
The above is from the weekly Bible resources from csdirectory.com, "Bible Characters for Your Weekly Bible Study"
So what does it mean to pursue one's own Truth? Sticking your neck out or going against the mainstream of thought can be lonely and scary. It certainly was for MBEddy and Paul. But there was a compelling story to tell, a truth to be shared. And along the way, the sense of personal ego, pride and fear had to make way for patience, a deep humility, keen self-knowledge and a constant curiosity about the goodness of omnipotent God.
I saw that it takes humility and vision, selflessness and a burning love for humanity that made their experience of Truth the foundation for the movement of practical, healing Christianity today. It gives me plenty to consider as I continue my pursuit.
Click here to read a thoughtful post on Benazir Bhutto as reformer, another hero of blogging friend, Chris.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Monday, January 14, 2008
breaking through the egg
Spiritual resource to share: breakthroughs
So we talked eggs.
Now if she were a baby chick inside the egg, as she grew, the egg would seem to get smaller and smaller. It wouldn't be that the egg shell turned mean and tried to hinder her growth. It simply meant that she was growing beyond the confines of the egg and was nearing a breakthrough.
Is this a great illustration about spiritual growth??
Christian Science explains the law of God's omnipotence that says God is all power, so there is no room for ANY other power. God is omnipresent and so there is NO room for any other presence.
When we feel confined or trapped physically or mentally, we are feeling matter's limitation - the egg shell, so to speak. Seeing that God is all-powerful, we can break through any form of limitation. Being confined is not a natural state because it is not from God.
It would only be superstition that would try to claim that every spurt of spiritual growth is followed by a negative feeling. And the truth is - we are constantly growing spiritually and constantly breaking through the limitations of material beliefs.
Your thoughts?
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
So we talked eggs.
Now if she were a baby chick inside the egg, as she grew, the egg would seem to get smaller and smaller. It wouldn't be that the egg shell turned mean and tried to hinder her growth. It simply meant that she was growing beyond the confines of the egg and was nearing a breakthrough.
Is this a great illustration about spiritual growth??
Christian Science explains the law of God's omnipotence that says God is all power, so there is no room for ANY other power. God is omnipresent and so there is NO room for any other presence.
When we feel confined or trapped physically or mentally, we are feeling matter's limitation - the egg shell, so to speak. Seeing that God is all-powerful, we can break through any form of limitation. Being confined is not a natural state because it is not from God.
It would only be superstition that would try to claim that every spurt of spiritual growth is followed by a negative feeling. And the truth is - we are constantly growing spiritually and constantly breaking through the limitations of material beliefs.
Your thoughts?
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Friday, January 11, 2008
success in life
Spiritual resource to share: persistence
Discouragement is like admitting that nothingness is real. This is best explained with an example. OK, you lost a match. Your first thought might be one of discouragement– 'oh I am such a loser'. Well, a loser is defined by NOT winning. So the definition of a loser is a definition of not doing something; a nothing – no thing. But there is no substance in NOT being a thing. What needs to happen is to get thought to focus not on what you are NOT, but what you are.
And what are you? Constantly growing, constantly progressing. Accepting this does not take time or educational processes. You are the reflection of all that God is. RIGHT NOW. Now with that – you can take a loss totally on its ear – you can learn and be strengthened with what you have learned. Each match and each practice is an opportunity to let all of what is good and strong to be expressed. And when each kid accepts this potential, the way opens up for him to express that.
Coaches are great at making sure discouragement doesn’t take a hold of anyone's thought. If a wrestler loses a match, they are right there making sure the wrestler knows what needed to happen, showing how to do it, and spending as much time until the discouragement has been dissolved enough to let the light in - and the wrestler goes away learning the important lessons.
In other words, they don’t speak to the nothingness – the loser, but they speak to the good, the potential and the strength - encouraging that and bringing it out of each wrestler. They see the potential in each kid. They know that with work and persistence, the strength and skill will emerge in everyone. That's what they speak to, and that's what shows up in the kids' performance.
We know from our study in Christian Science that our potential is always growing; our abilities, strength, agility, intelligent capacity to strategize movements and anticipate actions – all this constantly improves. Why? Because we reflect the Creator - that ongoing creation of all things good.
Failure sometimes happens. But those who achieve great things know how to persist beyond failure to use what God has given them. MBEddy says it well in Miscellaneous Writings p. 230:
photo by S. Justad
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Tonight was parent's night for all those parents who have been supporting their sons' and daughters' wrestling activity. So, before the matches, all the parents got to parade in front of the crowd, and be greeted by their wrestler who gave them a hug and a flower. But I think the flowers should also go to the coaches. (See my post last year on "Wrestling defeat into victory")
These men have been so consistent in coaching and encouraging these young men into becoming solid and strong athletes. I admire them. Their basic premise in coaching is based on a number of ideas:
- We believe in you.
- You can always work harder.
- You always improve with each match.
- Don’t let discouragement win.
Discouragement is like admitting that nothingness is real. This is best explained with an example. OK, you lost a match. Your first thought might be one of discouragement– 'oh I am such a loser'. Well, a loser is defined by NOT winning. So the definition of a loser is a definition of not doing something; a nothing – no thing. But there is no substance in NOT being a thing. What needs to happen is to get thought to focus not on what you are NOT, but what you are.
And what are you? Constantly growing, constantly progressing. Accepting this does not take time or educational processes. You are the reflection of all that God is. RIGHT NOW. Now with that – you can take a loss totally on its ear – you can learn and be strengthened with what you have learned. Each match and each practice is an opportunity to let all of what is good and strong to be expressed. And when each kid accepts this potential, the way opens up for him to express that.
Coaches are great at making sure discouragement doesn’t take a hold of anyone's thought. If a wrestler loses a match, they are right there making sure the wrestler knows what needed to happen, showing how to do it, and spending as much time until the discouragement has been dissolved enough to let the light in - and the wrestler goes away learning the important lessons.
In other words, they don’t speak to the nothingness – the loser, but they speak to the good, the potential and the strength - encouraging that and bringing it out of each wrestler. They see the potential in each kid. They know that with work and persistence, the strength and skill will emerge in everyone. That's what they speak to, and that's what shows up in the kids' performance.
We know from our study in Christian Science that our potential is always growing; our abilities, strength, agility, intelligent capacity to strategize movements and anticipate actions – all this constantly improves. Why? Because we reflect the Creator - that ongoing creation of all things good.
Failure sometimes happens. But those who achieve great things know how to persist beyond failure to use what God has given them. MBEddy says it well in Miscellaneous Writings p. 230:
Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon the improvement of moments more than upon any other one thing.
photo by S. Justad
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
technology, entertainment and design
Spiritual resource to share: awesome websites
Another thing I love about Christian Science: its ideas always seem to be at the cutting edge of so many different fields - from organizational leadership to healthcare to many different fields of science and more. Mary Baker Eddy has an article on Christian Science in her book Miscellaneous Writings. She makes this point:
I picked up this website today which seems to illustrate this "reaching out towards the perfect Principle of things." The site is called TED.com which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and is a collection of inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers.
Click onto it and enjoy! And let me know what talks you find edgy and innovative.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Another thing I love about Christian Science: its ideas always seem to be at the cutting edge of so many different fields - from organizational leadership to healthcare to many different fields of science and more. Mary Baker Eddy has an article on Christian Science in her book Miscellaneous Writings. She makes this point:
This age is reaching out towards the perfect Principle of things; is pushing towards perfection in art, invention, and manufacture. Why, then, should religion be stereotyped, and we not obtain a more perfect and practical Christianity?
It will never do to be behind the times in things most essential, which proceed from the standard of right that regulates human destiny. Human skill but foreshadows what is next to appear as its divine origin.Proportionately as we part with material systems and theories, personal doctrines and dogmas, meekly to ascend the hill of Science, shall we reach the maximum of perfection in all things.
I picked up this website today which seems to illustrate this "reaching out towards the perfect Principle of things." The site is called TED.com which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and is a collection of inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers.
Click onto it and enjoy! And let me know what talks you find edgy and innovative.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Snowfall in the sunlight - revisited
Spiritual resource to share: beauty
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 rapidly falling shimmering glittery snow. It was altogether lovely.
Beauty and love have a lot 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.
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 rapidly falling shimmering glittery snow. It was altogether lovely.
Beauty and love have a lot 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.
(For those of you without snow - check out this fun site! )
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
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