to the fairy cheerleader pilgrim in us all

Spiritual resource to share:  play

My twin nieces and their daddy

I opened the door to squeals of delight and hugs and questions.   Can I have some pie?  Where's Mocha?  Can we play now? What's in those boxes? Can we have a fashion show?  What do you think of my new boots? 

The nieces have arrived. 

The eight-year-old twins and the equally boisterous four-year-old had barely gotten off their winter jackets before the fun was to start. It was Thanksgiving.  But I am not too sure that that mattered that much.  What DID matter was that here was a time to be together and to see and experience everything in a new way.  We, of course, had to see the new boots, the new haircuts, and the new book and the newly developed talents of reading and drawing and cookie making.  Later, all the adults were treated to a fashion show, which is where we stood breathless, as we saw the incredible fairy cheerleader pilgrim outfit.

I blame it on the girls.  Kids tend to bring out the childlikeness in us all - and our innocence, laughter, joy, and goofiness just tumble out.  All inhibitions go out the door when the nieces come in.  So the challenge is -- can we have that same level of joy with one another?

Here's a wish to you all to give it a try -- pump up the volume of joy.  And do this in whatever occassion you find yourself in where there are others, just like you, with a latent reservoir of mischief and awe.  Remember that we are all made to play.  God is good.  All is well.  And may you surround yourself with extraordinary measures of  laughter and unselfishness and fairy cheerleader pilgrims this holiday season.

Home - the dearest spot on earth

Spiritual resource to share: acceptance

Home. As my sons are off to their new schools and we are preparing to blend households with my parents, thoughts about the spiritual significance of home keep coming into thought.

Every so often, I volunteer to read to a conference call full of people who, after my readings, share inspiration and healings that have come to them through their study of Christian Science. So the topic of the readings tomorrow will be on home.

Feel free to join in! Wednesday Testimony Meeting begins: 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Here are the details:

• To participate, call 1-201-793-9022Participant access code: 7040344
• Or attend using Skype from anywhere in the world for free. Click on button (right): (add our conference number to your Skype contacts)
• In Europe? call in from your regular phone at national rates (no international long distance charges) Click here for a list of European call in numbers. [This call-in number is available 15 minutes before the service.]Click here for more instructions.

Hope to hear you there!

from the King James Bible:
Ps. 90:1
Ps. 91:1 -10
Ps. 23:6
Ps. 84:3
1 Kings 17: 8-16
Josh. 1:9
Prov. 3:5, 6
Prov 24: 3-5, 27
Prov 31: 10, 27
Matt 4: 17
Matt. 6: 25, 26, 28-33
Matt. 7:24-29
Rom. 8:28
Phil. 2:13
Acts 17:28 (to ;)
John 14:2
Heb. 3:4





from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy:
254: 31
58: 21
587: 25
454:5, 18
566: 1-9
60: 29
65:7-8, 11, 13
61: 4-11
205:22-32
206: 1-3
58:5
530: 5
62: 22
63: 5
66: 11
1:10
506:18
151: 23-24, 26
124: 20-31
494:10
578:16





from the Christian Science Hymnal




Hymn 213
Hymn 278
Hymn 3






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.

Ideas about home - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: home

I've been thinking about home lately, with two kids ready to make new homes for the coming year. Home is such a dynamic idea, centering us as well as giving us that strong foundation that we can jump from.

I'm reminded of a conversation I had last year with a group of close family friends and my family about home. Here are some excerpts from a blog written a year ago:

Our German exchange student son will soon be leaving for home in two weeks and is taking my son who will visit with his family for a month. One of my two goddaughters is leaving for Sweden in a few days. Actually, there is a lot of coming and going, as our Korean exchange student son will leave also be leaving for home next month, and my other son takes his first plane ride alone to another adventure. So, last night, we talked a little about adventures and what that means about home.

"Home is the place where you grow up", said my goddaughter who has lived in one town her whole life. She's got one stamp of Scotland on her passport, and will be soloing into Sweden soon and next year has plans for Chile.

"Home is wherever I am now," said my son who has lived in four homes and three different states in city, suburban and rural areas and is packing for his first trip out of the country soon.

"Home is right here," said our German son, who has already done a fair bit of globetrotting for one his age.

I loved hearing their ideas about home as a presence and place to grow. Home is about the present tense.

A friend of mine, who was temporarily homeless at one point, carried in her pocket a toothbrush, a comb and a card that reminded her "Home is not a place, but a power." (She did get situated in a nice home and a neat job shortly after, by the way.)

This line is from MBEddy's main book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and has been a foundation stone for us as we build our own sense of home:

Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the centre, though not the boundary, of the affections.

Home to me is an active force, open and as free as a breeze and stable as a rock. When my husband and I got married, we both loved the idea of home being a center and not having boundaries. We have opened our home to, well, it's almost twenty people, both individuals and small families, who have shared our home - some for a few months, others for over a year. Some were near homeless, others were transitioning into new jobs, schools and homes. We've all progressed and grown together and are the richer for these shared experiences.

We've had the added benefit of showing our sons that there are many loving people in this world, and everyone has something worthwhile to teach, and everyone has something interesting to learn. Our sons have learned how to collect feathers, identify gypsy moths, play piano and sing, and learn about opera, babies and other cultures - all from those who enlarged our family for a time.


Knowing that you can take home with you is a comforting and powerful idea. As my dad taught us kids, home is a safe place where you are always welcomed, and then encouraged to go back out again and have adventures.




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.

mothers of men - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: no nonsense mothering

As a kid, I always wanted sons. I fell in love with the idea of having boys after watching Bonanza, (a television western series in the US). For some reason, I was stuck on having five -five boys who would be raised to respect men and women and their elders, and to be well rounded, robust and educated gentleman. Now that I have two boys (the more realistic and perfect number for our family) I have been totally captivated with them and have had to do some major re-thinking about boys.....They are not all like Bonanza’s Cartwright family.

To me, doing things right, means understanding the spiritual dimension of things. Parenting boys is no exception! So many ideas in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures have helped me focus on spiritually parenting.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health some strong facets about the role of parents, mothers in particular:

A mother's affection cannot be weaned from her child, because the mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal affection lives on under whatever difficulties. (p. 60)

Under the heading of “A mother's responsibility:”

A mother is the strongest educator, either for or against crime. Her thoughts form the embryo of another mortal mind, and unconsciously mould it, either after a model odious to herself or through divine influence, "according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount." Hence the importance of Christian Science, from which we learn of the one Mind and of the availability of good as the remedy for every woe. (p. 236)

MBEddy understood God as Father and Mother. In her definition of Mother, she writes

MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life, Truth, and Love. (p. 592)

My visits with old friends who are also mothers of men reminded of how important it was to have the support of other mothers. Raising children is intense. But boy energy is a chapter in itself. As one friend said, “You have to laugh often! It’s either that or go nuts!”

Hillary Clinton wrote a book named after the African proverb: It Takes a Village (click here for a talk by HB on the book). Whether or not you like Hillary’s politics, the sentiment is sure. Having a village to lean on, help, support, laugh and cry with has been a major blessing to me in raising my sons.

As they grow and leave home to make their own way, I am reminded that we are all children of God and my sons, my husband and I will always be connected. Our home gets enlarged to include more of their friends, their new experiences and even new locations. Home is redefined as "not a place, but a power." And I know that wherever they are, home 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.

the natural nature of companionship

Spiritual resource to share: companionship

I just had an "aha!" about relationships. From the book of Genesis, we read that "...God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

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.

Home in the present tense

Spiritual resource to share: your home



These last few days, I was at our friends' house (with our two goddaughters) in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. I'm also with our two sons and our two other "sons" from South Korea and Germany. We're showing them another part of the USA, known for its niceness, abundant lakes and its innovative arts scene.

Our German son will soon be leaving for home in two weeks and is taking my son who will visit with his family for a month. One of my goddaughters is leaving for Sweden in a few days. Actually, there is a lot of coming and going, as our Korean son will leave also be leaving for home next month, and my other son takes his first plane ride alone to another adventure.

So, last night, we talked a little about adventures and what that means about home.

• "Home is the place where you grow up", said my goddaughter who has lived in one town her whole life. She's got one stamp of Scotland on her passport, and will be soloing into Sweden.
• "Home is wherever I am now", said my son who has lived in four homes and three different states in city, suburban and rural areas and is packing for his first trip out of the country soon.
• "Home is right here", said our German son, who has already done a fair bit of globetrotting for one his age.

I loved hearing their ideas about home as a presence and place to grow. Home is about the present tense.

A friend of mine, who was temporarily homeless at one point, carried in her pocket a toothbrush, a comb and a card that reminded her "Home is not a place, but a power." (She did get situated in a nice home and a neat job shortly after, by the way.)

This line is from one of MBEddy's main book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and has been a foundation stone for me as we build our own sense of home:

Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the centre, though not the boundary, of the affections.

Home to me is an active force, open and as free as a breeze and stable as a rock.

When my husband and I got married, we both loved the idea of home being a center and not having boundaries. We have opened our home to, well, it's almost twenty people, both individuals and small families, who have shared our home - some for a few months, others for over a year. Some were near homeless, others were transitioning into new jobs, schools and homes. We've all progressed and grown together and are the richer for these experiences.

We've had the added benefit of teaching our sons that there are many loving people in this world, and everyone has something worthwhile to teach, and interesting to learn. Our sons have learned how to collect feathers, identify gypsy moths, play piano and sing and learn about opera, babies and other cultures - all from those who enlarged our family for a time.

As a special tribute to my dad on Father's Day this Sunday, I have to give him credit for instilling this idea in me - that home is a safe place where you are always welcomed, and then encouraged to go back out again and have adventures. And it is my husband who has helped make home an adventure in itself!

Summer is a great time of coming and going and spreading one's wings. And knowing that you can take home with you is a comforting and powerful idea. What are some of your thoughts about home?

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.