humble expectations

Spiritual resource to share: a spiritual approach to new experiences

I was surprised when clicking off my Godwords* before our trip that it started with humble expectations. But as we headed off to the airport, with our bare minimum luggage and packs, long list of contacts and addresses - humble expectations were the one thing I kept reminding myself were most important.

This wasn't a trip in which we were trying to get away from it all, nor was it a luxury trip. It was a trip designed for the four of us to have time together to explore and play off our own discoveries of what we were learning and enjoying with each other and with the people we met along the way.

Humble expectations helped me to NOT outline, and to be open to new experiences. So, if the food, accommodations, travel arrangements or weather were not what we were used to, we have already set up the framework of this trip to be ready for anything and thrive outside of our own comfort zone!

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts

Humble expectations helped to clear the deck so we could see beyond what was familiar. Drawn to what is infinite and good, we weren't disappointed!

The first week, we lived in a clean and airy beach cottage with electricity and running water, just a two minute walk to the beach. Every day, we would do something - sea kayaking, ziplining, visiting an animal rescue center, hiking up through the jungle, eating and smelling our way through with the help of a new friend whose family had lived there for decades.

Every afternoon we would take in the beach, or explore the town or just relax. Dinners were out in the bohemian town of Puerto Viejo where reggae, arabic and hip hop could be heard on the streets. Nights we were together, talking, reading, writing, falling asleep to the sound of the waves or the wind....

The last two weeks were spent up in the mountains of Costa Rica where we went to language school and volunteered in the community and took in the incredible diversity of the flora and fauna and the people.

"The earth is full of Thy riches" and I was enriched by just letting go of any outlining and letting in the beauty and the fun that was there for the taking.

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.

wide awake at three in the morning

Spiritual resource to share: your prayer

Both my dog and I have not been able to sleep all night. I recognize this cue and go to my desk to listen and pray. A poem from one of my favorite poets comes to thought and I'd like to share it with you:

Someone needs my prayers
by Pam Chance

When I wake in the night
and I don’t know why
and I cannot settle,
but stare into darkness—
someone needs my prayers.

When another day begins with
feelings of disquiet,
unrest, despair for no reason—
I can be sure that somewhere
someone needs my prayers.

And on the brightest of days
when everything sparkles
and my joy suddenly
has an undertone of sadness—
someone needs my prayers.

I say I pray already and I do, for the big picture,
for the unbearable, intolerable,
the unjust, unfair, unsupportable—and still,
someone needs my prayers.

I may think of myself
as of a different race or creed,
as being more than, or less than,
or too far away to get involved—and yet,
someone needs my prayers.

Living and moving in divine consciousness—
a child of spiritual oneness
held in Love’s ceaseless heartbeat,
why am I surprised that I can sense when
someone needs my prayers?

I feel, more than hear,
the echoes of a struggler’s pain—
the reverb of the broken,
the oscillation of despair—whenever
someone needs my prayers.

And in my own struggling times,
when inner tumult renders me
incoherent and each moment
builds to incapacitating misery—someone knows
I need their prayers.

No prayer hangs in space unanswered.
No cry is lost—and as I pray,
I becomes we in the encircling
fusion of Love that heals all hurt when
someone needs our prayers.

To read more of Pam Chance's work, click here.



Photo of Copenhagen by OlliK
All rights reserved
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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.

Today is a good day to listen

Spiritual resource to share: listening

"Abiding Place" by Sonja Maneri

Today I am reminded of the importance of listening. This was prompted by a very dear friend who shared with me a song that she loves.

O may we be still and seek Him,
Seek with consecration whole,
Listening thus to hear the message,
Far from sense and hid in Soul.

He hath promised we shall find Him,
Love divine its promise keeps;
God is watching with the watchful,
God is Life that never sleeps.

If we pray to Him in secret,
Lift to Him the heart's desire,
We shall find our earthly longings
All made pure by Love's pure fire.

Then upon the precious metal
God's own image will appear,
Faithfully to Him reflected,
One with Him forever near.

This song's melody is a waltz, which just fits its harmonious message of quietness, repentence and closeness.

So today is a good day to pay attention and listen.
I know that God is constantly communicating ideas to us. God, as Love, Principle, and omni-action, is constantly actively connecting us with right ideas that nurture our growth.

I know that I can listen better.
I know that I reflect God. I know this about all God's children - we all reflect God. I can listen with the compassion and gentleness and insight I know from my relationship to God.

I can listen for openings, for new ideas, for fresh approaches; for redemption, recovery and renewal.
I can listen even if I have strayed from seeing my fellow man as less than Godlike, and I can instantly re-connect.

And then, when my listening is full, I can follow God's lead into the day.

Today is a good day for listening.







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.

listening for an answer

Spiritual resource to share: persistence



Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling agitated. After having made plane reservations for my son to go overseas the night before, I went to look for his passport. It was not in the normal place. I looked everywhere. Nothing. The angst flooded in when I realized that the plane fare was non-refundable and having to replace the passport would take more time than we had.

This same morning, I had a list of things requiring my prayerful attention. Looking at the list, I realized that it was all about things being lost! Lost passport topped the list, but there were also issues like the loss of health, the loss of confidence, financial losses, lost opportunities, and loss of peace. Hmmmmm..... interesting.

I first tackled the lost passport. I knew that the passport represented identity, adventure and global awareness. None of those things could be lost. Looking at Mary Baker Eddy's writings, she wrote "The true concept is never lost." Even though the context in which she wrote this was different, this main idea was a help.

I earnestly prayed. This means I listened while affirming that no good thing could ever be lost. The thought came, "There is an answer" right before the idea came to look again in my purse. I had looked there and even cleaned out the purse the night before. But I did look again and, sure enough, hiding behind a loose flap of an inner pocket was the passport.

I was, of course, happy to find the passport. But I was even happier to directly experience God's guidance, to hear God's voice and to know that God always has the right answer for us.

I realized that this related to all issues of being lost. And like a series of dominoes falling, each of the issues where loss was a factor, could fall based on this idea that "the true concept is never lost."

Persisting in prayer, we can see that no opportunities are lost. How can God's will for us which is good ever be lost? How can the majesty and omnipotence of God's plan for us ever be lost?

We can reverse financial losses knowing that God governs all. That "...the reign and rule of harmony (in all we do) ...cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen."

Man's identity is never lost. "The loss of man's identity through the understanding which Science confers is impossible...." "Is man lost spiritually? He can only lose a sense material."

I really cherish the fact that we are never lost or separated from God. If there is the thought of loss, we can persist by claiming our oneness with God and expect to hear God's directing us, giving us the ideas, the answers we need. Is that wonderful or what?










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.

speak once...listen twice

Spiritual resource to share: listening





Speak once, listen twice - I actually heard that at a community meeting recently. Sage advice. And powerful, too, if you can do it!

My husband has been meeting with a men's group for over 15 years. The group has actually been meeting for decades with men going in and out as they wish. There has been a core group of his friends that have been meeting now for over 10 years.

Once when all the families of this group were together, I came up to the group and joined their conversation. I had something to add and spoke. As I was speaking I had this funny sensation. It took me a while to figure out: They were all quietly listening intently. I realized that this group has so diligently crafted the skill of listening so well, that it was startling!

There are people who are excellent listeners. (I count Christian Science practitioners as some of the best listeners I know!) They take time for the person speaking. They give their full attention. They silently engage and in so doing, they create an accepting attitude so the speaker feels a freedom to let his or her thoughts flow.

There's a lot to be said for good listening. Browsing the internet proves this to be the case. Check out these quotes from the international group Listen.org:

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. — Ralph Nichols

Effective listeners remember that "words have no meaning - people have meaning." — Larry Barker

Sometimes the most revealing part of a message isn't found in the words themselves but in the subtle messages wrapped around those words. Failure to pick up on these "secret messages" may leave you blind to what is really being communicated. . . . — Dianne Booher

Our first responsibility as effective listeners is to understand ourselves as communicators. ... (listeners)should ...know themselves. — Carolyn Coakley

Every person in this life has something to teach me -- and as soon as I accept that, I open myself to truly listening. — Catherine Doucette

The first step to effective listening is to stop talking! — Ken Fracaro

And here is some more fun stuff about listening:

LISTENING STYLES

• People listen through one of four primary styles, including people oriented,
  time oriented, action oriented and content oriented.
• Females are more likely to be people-oriented and males are more likely to be action, content, or time oriented (Barker & Watson, 2000).
• 40 % of individuals choose to listen with two or more distinct styles
  (Weaver, Richendoller, & Kirtley, 1995).
• Those with a high people-orientation have a low apprehension for receiving
  information (Bodie & Villaume, 2003).

But do listening styles differ across cultural barriers? Yes, says an Oxford Study:

Do the listening styles preferred by young adults in Germany, Israel, and
the USA differ significantly?

In order to address this question, college students in all three countries completed versions of the Listening Styles Profile (LSP; Watson et al. 1995) presented in their native languages. Factor analysis revealed four predominant constructs underlying the LSP, which were designated as people, action, content, and time listening styles.

Comparisons between the three cultures revealed distinctively different patterns of listening style preferences, with Germans preferring the action style, Israelis
endorsing the content style, and Americans favoring both the people and time styles.

And now, if you are really ambitious, you can even give yourself a test!

So, if you have hung with me thus far, and are still hungry for more listening ideas, let's go to the underlying basis of listening: LOVE.

The still, small voice of Love is what we listen for, and out of that "deep listening, life happens." Regardless of culture, age, circumstance or time, the love, respect and dignity given to the person you are listening to communicates volumes. Click here to hear one woman's account of listening to divine Love.



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.