too blessed to be stressed - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: blessings

Did you ever notice how familiar the word 'bless' is to the word 'bliss'? Bless has many meanings: to endow, to preserve, to protect, to approve, to praise and to glorify and to invoke divine care.

When we bless others or feel blessed, we feel the protection, our endowment of good, the approval of God and stand on the understanding that God is all powerful and all good. This is blissful!

The preface to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy starts out "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings."

Leaning, yielding, accepting, acknowledging God's sustaining control - these ring out peace and wring out stress.

Love is what it is all about. Love is what brings forth the coming of Christ. Love is what we are given, "filling up and spilling over" an endless waterfall.

And now for a cute kid story: A mother was badly stressed out. Details, responsibilities and the fear of lack must have all ganged up on her that day. She was quietly sobbing to herself "Oh, I am such a flop as a mother!" Her little girl heard her and came up to her and said "Mommy, don't be so sad. In the Bible it says, 'Fear not, little flop, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.'"
No matter who we feel we are, what struggles we have, God is right there pouring forth more than we can even fathom. We are being given the kingdom, if we only will accept it. Mary Baker Eddy helps to bring this point home:

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? Do we expect to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which is pouring forth more than we accept? The unspoken desire does bring us nearer the source of all existence and blessedness.

What that quote says to me is that we are home. We cannot go any farther than God. We have arrived right at His door.

And I'll close with yet another cute kid remark made as a response to the question "What does love mean?" (love those cute kids!):

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.

Such blessedness, such bliss! Any blessings come your way lately?





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 contagious nature of unselfishness

Spiritual resource to share: letting go




This little story has been making the rounds on the 'net. It's a tearjerker. But one that inspires me to go a little farther with others in being kind and doing good things. It demonstrates these ideas of MBEddy when she writes:

If only the people would believe that good is more contagious than evil, since God is omnipresence .... (then) would faith in the power of God to heal and to save mankind increase, until the whole human race would become healthier, holier, happier, and longer lived. (Miscellaneous Writings p. 229)

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: "When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?"


The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. "I believe that when a child like Shay, physi cally and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child."


Then he told the following story: Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?" Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.


Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning."


Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted.


In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands.


In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?


Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.


However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.


The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.


Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.


Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.


Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay" Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third! Shay, run to third!"


As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, "Shay, run home! Run home!" Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.


"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world." Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!







Thanks to the lovely LL for sharing this story!
Bottom drawing "Baseball Love" from breathingplanet.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.

too blessed to be stressed

Spiritual resource to share: blessings
















A word game: Did you ever notice how familiar the word 'bless' is to the word 'bliss'? Bless has many meanings: to endow, to preserve, to protect, to approve, to praise and to glorify and to invoke divine care. When we bless others or feel blessed, we feel the protection, our endowment of good, the approval of God and stand on the understanding that God is all powerful and all good. This is blissful!

The preface to Science and Health starts out "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings." Leaning, yielding, accepting, acknowledging God's sustaining control - these ring out peace and wring out stress.

We have a new baby in the family - a new niece - plump and healthy, she is just radiantly beautiful (and this after only seeing one picture of her!) For all the flurry of activity and details that happen this time of the year, her arrival has helped to put all things into perspective. Love is what it is all about. Love is what brings forth the coming of Christ. Love is what we are given, "filling up and spilling over" an endless waterfall.

And now for a cute kid story: A mother was badly stressed out. Details, responsibilities and the fear of lack must have all ganged up on her that day. She was quietly sobbing to herself "Oh, I am such a flop as a mother!" Her little girl heard her and came up to her and said "Mommy, don't be so sad. In the Bible it says, 'Fear not, little flop, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.'"

No matter who we feel we are, what struggles we have, God is right there pouring forth more than we can even fathom. Mary Baker Eddy helps to bring this point home:

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? Do we expect to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which is pouring forth more than we accept? The unspoken desire does bring us nearer the source of all existence and blessedness.

What that quote says to me is that we are home. We cannot go any farther than God. We have arrived right at His door.

And I'll close with yet another cute kid remark made as a response to the question "What does love mean?" (love those cute kids!): "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Such blessedness, such bliss!

Any blessings come your way lately?






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.

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

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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