citizens of the world - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: our humanity

I read this book and loved it from the first page! M. L. Rossi, author of the smart and sassy book, What Every American Should Know about the Rest of the World writes “Just call me a cultural romantic. I love to explore other worlds. I love to live where the history is unfamiliar; the architecture thrills me; the language, the food, the rituals are altogether exotic. I love being immersed in the entirely foreign, being in a place where I have to learn about life there from scratch.” I could so relate!


Her book has pointed out simply and clearly what is needed to become a well-informed global citizen. She goes on to share two of the ways to do this:

1. To understand where you are in the world, you need a map
2. Life is a lot easier if you know the language.

Maps and vocabulary are going to be key ingredients to becoming a global citizen. But there may be more to it.


Prior to becoming very familiar with traveling to other countries, I did some coursework with intercultural communication at a university. It was interesting to know of different customs, cultural mores, the development of a people’s pride, etc. These were almost like mental exercises to test one’s level of credibility of other cultures and determined how static or flexible was one’s sense of values. I learned that the more unlimited the mindset, the more unlimited the life experience.


So maps, vocabulary, tolerance, credibility, flexibility and an open mindset are all part of being a global citizen. If we add to each of the qualities above a more spiritual view, I think we have it all. Here are some key spiritual qualities that I have exerised along my travels and stays:

Equality - To understand where you are in the world - you need to understand we all have an equal place in the world. It is knowing that there are other ways to think and to live. This means respect, humility and accepting that you will need to lean on a power higher than yourself to be able to truly love mankind.


Speaking love - Life is a lot easier if you know the language. To be able to speak another’s language is an act of humility and respect (especially if you can speak the language well!). However, it is even more important to actively love the individuals I
am coming into contact with for the first time whose ways and culture are quite different from mine. “When the heart speaks, however simple the words, its language is always heard from those who have hearts.” writes Mary Baker Eddy. Love is a universal language.


And “Love is the fulfilling of the law” as it says in the Bible. I have found when I nurture those qualities of humility, and love, and respect and wisdom, I am shown the appropriate ways of showing respect and care. I will be welcomed in to more people's experiences and experience a richness and depth to life that I have come to love.


Credibility – understanding that you can love, help, heal, receive gifts from others graciously gives you a humble authority to see and do good.


Tolerance – comes easily when you are open to learn, to not judge and to ask questions. There are other ways to see beauty, progress, success, fulfillment. There are an infinite number of ways to think and to be. Be firm in your understanding that we are all rooted in universal qualities such as Truth, intelligence. The expressions of these qualities are infinite, but we can be confident that these qualities are evident in every experience we encounter.


Discernment - The exciting thing I have found is that we DO have one Father and Mother - Everyone IS my brother and sister! Understanding cultures helps me to see what in my thought is original thought and what may be a result of my picking up influences around me. It also helps me protect my thought against prejudices and stereotyping.


Flexibility – always be ready to be surprised. Realize that you don’t know what you don’t know and be open to learning. In a world of infinite good and infinite possibilities, goodness blooms in many different ways. On the other hand, I enjoy other cultures, in that i enjoy seeing how diverse, how infinite is God's expression in His children. There are whole new ways of expressing marriage, family, education, commerce, leisure and more.


An open heart – let in the glory of Life. Life’s lessons are learned from everyone and everything. Seeing with an open heart puts infinity on the faces of strangers and places. It is also knowing that there is one heartbeat – a pulsating force of Love that flows through each of us. I have grown so much in the atmosphere of those who have grown up in cultures different than my own. The largest lesson is to learn to
love and listen.

I have come to see that each one of us is a country, a continent, a compound idea of infinite Spirit. Did you know that MBEddy defines both earth and man as a compound idea? My ability to have a little more compassion has grown, as I exercise my thought in contemplating others' perspectives. My relations with others have improved as I learn to listen more and be open to new ideas.


Two of my favorite citizens of the world are my mother and a former colleague. What they have in common was that they love people deeply and unconditionally. My mother has not yet traveled outside of her country, but every friend I have ever introduced to my parents, from Ethiopia, Iceland, Germany, Cameroon, Colombia, Brazil, Colorado, next door – it almost doesn’t matter where they are from – she just loves them. Likewise, a former colleague: She speaks nine languages and moves from one culture to the next with hardly a blip. They both know what it takes to be a global citizen. The best "global citizens" I know are those who love most unconditionally. They love beyond cultures and borders. It is to know that we are all God’s children and we are all welcomed and at home in the world.


Being a citizen of the world, we know each of us has a place and a purpose. Each nation has its own color and unique contribution to the world. With love, humility and respect, we can all find our way to bring more progress and peace to all mankind at the street level and on a global scale.











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 insistent peace

Spiritual resource to share:  paz = peace

photo by Domingos Peixoto for Brazilian newspaper O Globo/Rio

Recently, my friend Amy posted on facebook the story of the drug wars going on in Rio and this picture. It brought me back to my short stay in Rio, where I was working with a team of others to distribute Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures more broadly in that area. One special late afternoon, a colleague and I walked Rio’s beaches, with the twinkliing lights of the favelas on one end and the luxury hotels on the other.  We were wrapped up talking about healing and peace in the Middle East. Now I find all those ideas for peace and healing equally relevant for Rio now.

Newspapers were all over this story. It was humbling and frightening to read of it. I felt small.  What can I possibly say to such a massive display of aggression, violence, danger and conflict?  How can I pray?

Then, quite simply, I was reminded and humbled that God is greater than all these things. 

People have responded to this chaotic mayhem with a simple word: Peace. The photo above reminded me of the childlike purity and permance of peace.

Peace is what will prevail. It always has and always will.
Life is insistent and will prevail.
Love is the cornerstone of all spiritual building and will prevail.
And in the midst of the deepest disorder, order will stand its ground and spread.

I am so grateful to Amy for bringing this to my attention, for those journalists letting the world know, for those whose vision for justice and peace emboldened and trumped parasitic greed and fear.  And I am grateful for all of us prayer warriors, who get to work affirming what is permanent, good and true in the glaring face of chaos. Effective prayer has as its foundation the law of God --the law of the Creator as defined in Science and Health:

CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Principle; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.

Although there is great relief that this recent – and some say the worst  - battle has been won ( click here for today's news) the mission to break the grip of the drug gangs continues. So does our prayer.

random acts of culture

Spiritual resource to share:  connections through all time

This came to my email today and I knew I had to share it!   It brings the beauty and brilliance of Handel right between the makeup and accessories aisles of Macy's, connecting all ages to what is timeless.  Enjoy!



For another inspiration involving the Hallelujah Chorus and parenting, click here.

dance with the world

Spiritual resource to share: caring hearts

Very recently, a former editor of The Christian Science Monitor, Richard Bergenheim, passed on. A beautiful article of love and appreciation was written up in the Monitor. You'll need to read the article to get the full force of the contribution he made to others personally and internationally. The article closes modestly enough with these words:

Richard liked travel because he loved humanity. In June, he told a group of college students, "Think of the world as filled with friends. We don't let our friends be in trouble without trying to figure out how to help them. We care. And part of what the Monitor exists to do is increase the caring capacity of our hearts."

When this delightful youtube video showed up on my screen, it reminded me of the thousands and millions of people who love humanity and who work, love and dance with others and in so doing, increase the caring capacity of all of our hearts. So enjoy watching it, and I hope you'll find your heart dancing to find even more ways to love and care for one another.





You can click here to subscribe to The Christian Science Monitor now!

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.

Zum Geburtstag viel Glück! - Happy Birthday - Feliz Aniversario

Spiritual resource to share: we are all in this together

Two of our "sons" Kyu-Po from Korea and David from Germany

It was the best scene. My older son and I were a part of an international youth conference full of about 1,000 kids from 40+ countries involved in Rotary's international youth exchange. Someone (!?!) told the conference organizer that her son's birthday was that day, and so my son was called up during one of the major sessions to his great embarrassment and joy (you know how that goes). There was lots of whooping and hollering and clapping and laughing as these thousand kids sang "Happy Birthday." Where I was sitting, I could hear a group of lively Brazilian students and some strong voiced German kids singing "Happy Birthday" at the top of their lungs in their native tongue.

I love this stuff. So does my family. In the last ten years, we have been deeply involved either in working internationally or hosting people from other countries in our home.

The big neon sign lesson in all of this has been the experience of the universal nature of God and man. We all celebrate life and birth and connections and wisdom. We are all connected. We are all one.

Dr. Dennis White, one of the many speakers at this conference, gave parents and kids an opportunity to think through what it means to be bi-cultural -- as the ability to move gracefully from one cultural orientation to another as the situation calls for it. Culture is explained as everything outside of the natural world and it defines how we think feel and behave.

I realize that harmonious relations - either with our fellow church member, our neighbor, or an exchange student or even international dignitaries - all have a basis that goes even deeper than the behavioral, emotional, or identification with a group. Harmonious relations are based on the idea of oneness. And, in my practice of Christian Science, this oneness is based on one God, one Truth, one Mind - all synonyms of God. Mary Baker Eddy helps to define and clarify this:

This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace.

It is delightful to learn about other's cultures, but even more so to see how affirming it is that we each are a part of that oneness that comes from an infinite God. So the basis of our identity is to reflect an infinite range of possibility stemming from an infinite God. Who I am becomes clearer as I love who you are and all of us are children of one God.

We are never diminished by including a wider sphere of individuals and experiences into our lives, but can only be blessed.





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.