Health now determined to be contagious - revisited

What would happen if you were to see this in your local paper's headlines? "Health now determined to be contagious."

Headlines are popping up about the swine flu. And there is a great fear of impending disaster. This has always been the case throughout history. It is easy to be manipulated when one is fearful about the unknown, about being separated from help and about being made vulnerable. It is enough to be scared out of knowing that we have what it takes to deal with these issues! So, how do we un-scare ourselves?

Most of us probably agree on the following:

• Fear spreads disease and in many cases is the cause of disease. Even my one cousin (a medically trained doctor) said that about 90% of his cases come in because of stress, and another cousin (a hypnotherapist) said that most of her cases come in due to a fear of loneliness.
• Loneliness, stress, fear, these are all mental causes to illness. Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures over 125 years ago, “Sickness is a growth of error, springing from mortal ignorance or fear.” (p.188)
• Health is natural. Even the body will fight disease in an effort to cure it.
  

But let’s take this a little farther. Mary Baker Eddy gives a brilliant look at contagion in an article aptly named Contagion. In it, she asks that “If only the people would believe that good is more contagious than evil, since God is omnipresence, how much more certain would be the doctor's success…”

Health is good. Health trumps illness. Health is from God and is powerful, self-creative and permanent. Health, like God, is eternal.

As children of God, we reflect the power of health, the ability to see and experience the fact that good overcomes illness. We can experience a release from fear and feel God's perfect love. “Perfect love casteth out fear" the Bible writes. God as Love tenderly cares for us. And the natural attraction of Love compels us all to share the truth that makes us free: Health is contagious.

For more discussion on the issue of ensuring healing and protection from swine flu and other contagious elements, please see spirituality.com.

nature's healing balm - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: stillness and awe


A friend and I were talking about a recent transition we had made. During that time, we both needed to find healing and a new direction. And we both took off to the outdoors to give ourselves a space to do so.

I have always found it nourishing and reaffirming to be out in the open prairie, or under a pitch black sky looking at the startling clarity of stars and planets. These are the things that prompt my thought to consider the largeness and tenderness of God.


But I also know that wherever I am, I have my thought. And thought can be aligned with God in any situation, under any condition, and in any place.

I love this prayer and promise from the Bible: "For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."

The fortitude of mountains, the yielding and playful spontaneity of rivers, and the permanence of the very air we breathe teach us lessons about God. And the biggest lesson is that strength, spontaneity and permanence is everywhere God is, everywhere we are.

Click here for an incredible display of life on earth.

What prompts you to feel God's presence?



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!

an honorable man is not so easily dismissed

Spiritual resource to share: integrity

Conserve School's values and operating principles

“The man of integrity is one who makes it his constant rule to follow the road of duty, according as Truth and the voice of his conscience point it out to him. He is not guided merely by affections which may some time give the color of virtue to a loose and unstable character.

”The upright man is guided by a fixed Principle, which destines him to do nothing but what is honorable, and to abhor whatever is base or unworthy; hence we find him ever the same, — at all times the trusty friend, the affectionate relative, the conscientious man of business, the pious worker, the public-spirited citizen.

“He assumes no borrowed appearance. He seeks no mask to cover him, for he acts no studied part; but he is indeed what he appears to be, — full of truth, candor, and humanity. In all his pursuits, he knows no path but the fair, open, and direct one, and would much rather fail of success than attain it by reproachable means. He never shows us a smiling countenance while he meditates evil against us in his heart. We shall never find one part of his character at variance with another.”

From Miscellaneous Writings p. 147 by Mary Baker Eddy




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's all about parenting......

Spiritual resource to share: the inspiration of friends





I loved this story that was embedded in a Christian Science practitioner's comments on a weekly Bible study. (Thank you, Janet Hegarty, C.S. of St. Louis, Missouri! To read her full comments, click here.)

One summer two robins built their nest on our back porch. It was fascinating to watch the nest come together and then, eventually, to see the baby birds appear. The tiny birds were well fed and carefully protected. They grew quickly and each day the nest became more crowded.

One morning we looked out the kitchen window and saw one of the young birds perched on the edge of the nest. As we watched, he eagerly flapped his wings and flew to a nearby branch and then he joyfully hopped about in the tree and continued to test out his flying skills. Soon, another young bird perched on the side of the nest and took flight, and then another.

The last bird, though, just couldn’t bring himself to take off. He perched on the side of the nest all right, but he just stayed there – for hours.

Out in the yard, the other young birds, under the watchful eyes of their parents, had made great progress with their flying skills.

About mid-afternoon, when the early flyers had gained their full independence, flying freely and finding their own food, the parents turned their attention to the little fellow still perched on the nest. The mother bird found a worm and sat on a branch in full view of the nest. Her message was clear, “This worm is for you, but only if you come and get it yourself.” Time passed, the mother bird didn’t give in, and at last the young bird gave his wings a try. The mother bird gave him his reward and then watched over him from a distance until he, too, had gained his full independence.

This scene illustrates the kind of loving persistence that our Father-Mother God showers on each of us as we work to discover who we really are. This is our probation, our time for trying our wings under the watchful eye of divine Love. And the good news is, this process continues to go on, even after what we call death, until each of us discovers and proves our true, perfect, spiritual selfhood.





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.

more, more, more

Spiritual resource to share: being present

Garden by Sonja Maneri

Have you ever thought that if you had more time, more faith, more money, then things would be better? This just might be a major distraction to what you already have!


More time
MBEddy defines time in part as a mortal measurement. So, do we need more mortal measurements? Hmmm.... probably not. Being present and being grateful for the moment, and improving this moment is all that is called for. You will find that right now, you have everything you need. And then you move from now, to now, to now. Moment by moment, you have the ideas you need and these give you the right supply.


More faith
Do you feel that if only you had more faith, then you would be healed, satisfied or guided rightly?
Ask yourself a different question: to what am I faithful?
In this moment, you are faithful to Truth, to Soul and to Mind. You are faithful to your understanding that God as Mind is always present, always moving intelligently and efficiently. You act according to your faith in God as Truth and rightfully reject any thought that obstructs healing. You move in relation to your faith in Soul, completely aware of the satisfying sense of beauty, balance and purity that permeate your life.

More money
The spiritual substance of money is value. And the recognition of value is tied to gratitude. A favorite hymn sings out "gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty." Gratitude for what we already have opens our eyes to see even more good and opens our thought to receive more.

MBEddy has this to say about more, more, more:

"Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have."*

*From the article on Angels in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 306





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.

the happy thing about doing good

Spiritual resource to share: your time

 

 

So what's the big happy thing about doing good?

• You realize that God does indeed have infinite resources to bless mankind.
• You find yourself in another's good.
• You see the nature of grief transform into the nurturing opening nature of goodness. 
• You understand that giving and receiving are one. 
• Time flies when you are doing good things. 
• The love that we have for one another - for those who have passed and for those with us now - always leads to more love. We can never lose that.

And besides that, "Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it."

    

And I can prove it.

 

 Last week, my son and I drove across the state to a friend's house to help her clean out her lower level.

 

This is a very dear friend and a special situation as her lower level had become the recipient of the many pictures, slides and memorobilia of her parents both of whom passed on in the last three years. At least twice a day, she walked through her lower level to get to work, reminding her of the need to organize, discard, shelf and repair those things that held such good memories. It was just hard to do on many levels.

 

"Can we help?" I asked. And soon, Gabe and I packed up and were up and out the door.

 

Once we arrived, we set a plan in place and while our friend was at work, we got to work! We were surprised at how quickly we were able to get the placed cleared out! Photos were stored in airtight containers, other memorabilia were boxed and labeled, new shelves were put up and stocked, a couple trips were made to the Goodwill and soon, the unobstructed windows were pouring in light, letting us see a beautiful view of the harbour. A final sweep and wash down of all counters and shelves and we had a whole new space of possibilities!

 

I loved the look on our friend's face when she came in to her house! Happy, surprised, grateful.....and we felt the same way! Immediately, we were talking possibilities of what to do with that sunny open space! How quickly was something that seemed so heavy turned to lightness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Easter rising

Spiritual resource to share: gifts of friends

Our family has just spent a wonderful weekend visiting friends in St. Louis. Two of my new favorite soccer-playing girls, Tanya and Yulia, shared this inspiring video with me, and so now I share this with you.

With Easter evening fast turning to Monday morning, the power and beauty of Christ's resurrection continues to renew and inspire us. Every day is an Easter. Every day, we are raised up to see new views of God's goodness and love. Enjoy!









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 reassure depressed hope

Spiritual resource to share: hope

Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere and with it, nature is sweeping away the cold and muddy, and is persistently bursting forth with new growth.

Sweeping away what is muddy to reveal new growth reminded me of healing depression. I came across this quote from Mary Baker Eddy's primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims, for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease and ward it off, as positively as they can the temptation to sin. ....... The fact that Truth overcomes both disease and sin reassures depressed hope. It imparts a healthy stimulus to the body, and regulates the system.

I found it helpful to break down this whole paragraph - to get a deeper look at its healing influence. Walk with me on this one:

Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims,

This has to do with rightly identifying ourselves - we are not thrown to the winds of chance, bad luck or bad circumstances - but have the ability to think, to choose, and to love. The qualities of intelligence, discernment and authority are spiritual, not subject to limitation.

...for if they will only accept Truth...

Openness or receptivity to Truth keeps the channels of thought open to receive new ideas. Accepting Truth, we give our consent to Truth and open our thought to the power of Truth and Love in our lives.

...they can resist disease and ward it off, as positively as they can the temptation to sin.

Truth is not a naive brush over illness, maliciousness or lack. Truth is active and transforming. Just as light dissolves darkness, Truth annihilates anything untrue. Love annihilates anything unloving. Life destroys death or anything that limits or restricts good. Physical disease can be resisted in the same way that the temptation to sin can be resisted.

The fact that Truth overcomes both disease and sin reassures depressed hope.

The active expression of Truth (of purity, honesty, principle, Love) is the antidote to depression. Understanding the omnipotent nature of Truth lifts off the burden of self-doubt and of thinking that evil has power. Hope is released.

It imparts a healthy stimulus to the body, and regulates the system.

Seeing that Truth is always operating on our behalf, frees up our thought which leads to expressions of freedom, flow and growth. Circulation of new fresh ideas becomes the norm. Balance is achieved. Systems in the physical body and systems of organization are regulated in accordance with efficiency, harmony and progress.

Check out these links to read about how people have overcome depression in their lives:

Drug-free answers to treating depression
What got me going again
Freed from depression
I shone a spiritual light on Seasonal Affective Disorder
A healing of manic depression

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.

dance. dance! DANCE!

Spiritual resource to share: universal jumping joy

OK folks - off to Liverpool.... and do the twist!



and then to Belgium....



and then a little bit of tango in front of Shakespeare's statue in Central Park



Dance brings out the childlikeness in us all!







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.

Hello - I am still here!

Spiritual resource to share: apology

Hello friends!

I am traveling and thought I would be able to blog a bit while on the road, but it will have to wait until I get back next week.

Much love and enjoy my other past blog posts and explore other friends' posts and other features on the right column!

Happy week!

Kim