the surprise of God - revisited

Spiritual resource to share: spontaneity and a capacity for surprise

"Don't outline good, because you can't outline good enough!" This advice came to me from a dear and wise healer many years ago. And certainly, if we accept God as infinite and as the one Principle or law that governs all things, our own limited views and opinions might not open us up to the horizon-opening things that can and do happen when we trust God.

For instance, when my job ended years ago, the whole family felt very good about moving back to the Midwest. Although I loved my job that entailed travel and working with teams all over the world, I thought that that aspect of my work would never show up in the place where we moved - a rural area of Wisconsin known for its natural beauty and tourism.

But we trusted God "with all our hearts" and didn't limit any possibilities. This was a vigorous trusting, mind you. It involved

• a larger understanding of God governing every detail of our lives
• an experienced trust that God always takes us to a place that will expand and deepen our understanding of Him
• dismissing doubt, recognizing and eliminating impatience, and yielding my solutions
• rooting out and dropping old stereotyped expectations
• listening, listening, listening and being open, open, open to new ideas
• loving God like I love family, adventure, beauty, and gentleness

And things did open up in ways I couldn't have planned. I've been tallying up our blessings and realized that we now, as a family, have more international involvement than we ever had when we were living in one of the largest cities in the country. We are involved in international youth exchanges and a high school with lots of international students and I continue to grow my practice that includes patients and colleagues from all over the world.

This is amazing to me. And God continues to amaze me. Life is full of horizon-opening things when we trust God with all our hearts.













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.

Monday morning prayer

Spiritual resource to share: clean slate

"All things are become new." That's a great way to start the week!

When the old stereotypical view of Monday morning started creeping in this morning, I recognized it , stomped on it, and realized I had the authority to totally reverse the claim that Monday mornings are sluggish and that there is an inevitable dread with nothing to look forward to the rest of the week.

“Soul has infinite resources with which to bless all mankind and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping if sought in Soul.”

So, right here, while getting out of bed on a Monday morning, I can claim those “infinite resources” – of insightful love, intelligent care, effective solutions, and abundant supply for this morning.

God’s work is done and it was good. I can go forward, knowing that God’s work is NEVER undone. That God has the authority to fulfill His purpose and supplies us with whatever is needed to do so. God furnishes all good and we can drop all of our own planning, scheming, speculating and dreaming and fully lean on God.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,” what a full breath of fresh air that is! “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.” What a relief!

We know what we are supposed to do this week: acknowledge God, Love, Truth in everything we see and do. And we know what to expect: God will direct our paths.

God is infinite, all-intelligent, all-wise, all-knowing. God is Love. This is what is directing our paths this week. Wow. What a week is in store for us all.

2004 watercolor picture by Gabe Korinek ©2010

swinging like Tarzan

Spiritual resource to share: living fearlessly

It seems that many of life's challenges are about overcoming fear by letting go of those fears. When you let go of the fear, you open your eyes to what already exists - freedom, peace, grace and full joy. And you find that you can trust God, who is the source of all Life.

I had a wonderful reminder of this a few months ago while on a family adventure in Costa Rica. It was easy for my sons to talk me into doing another zipline tour of the Cloud Forest. Costa Rica is stunningly beautiful and to be able to soar over the jungle and steep grasslands is simply awesome! And I didn't mind the steep short hikes to get to the launching platforms where one gets locked into a pulley system before zipping down a cable that slices through the lush forests or zings high above the land and waterfalls.

But, on this trip, there was something called the Tarzan swing, and that was another story. You are still tied onto a cable, but you have to simply step off the platform into - nothing! I could do all the ziplines, but my knees were protesting the Tarzan swing. As I approached the drop off point, I couldn't move.

I decided not to do it. I confessed to the guide, thinking I would have a sympathetic ear, someone who would understand why I couldn't go ahead with this and let me go back with the others who elected not to do this event.

"This one is a little hard for me." I said quietly so as not to embarass myself in front of those who decided to do it. "You see, I am a little bit nervous ...." The guide leaned over and interrupted me, ".....so am I....." he said, and gently, but firmly, nudged me off the platform!

The rest of the group laughed. I screamed. And then, I flew!! Swinging down deep into a valley then swinging up to almost touching treetops, I could hear my sons and others laughing and cheering. I let out a perfectly articulated Tarzan yell.

Life is good.

Letting go of a limited perspective shows you how limitless life is. We can trust Life to be self-sustaining, self-correcting, joyous and eternal. All we need sometimes is that little bit of encouragement to take that first step out of a fear-based type of thinking to soar over problems and challenges and to experience the adventure of the Life that is God's.

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.

S N O W ! ! !

Spiritual resource to share: surprise

OK. I live far north. I should expect this kind of thing. But it is always a surprise. And I noticed that there is a special thing that happens here. The sun comes out when it snows. It's magic.

Here's a post I wrote when I first discovered this phenomenon:

Snowfall in the sunlight

I turned the corner into my living room and there it was...........beautiful glittering snow in the sunlight. And this against a backdrop of a field of snow bordered by black and white birch trees and evergreens and a semi frozen creek. I gasped. I have never experienced this sort of thing before (or never paid attention enough), that is, precipitation falling at the same time the sun is shining.

In this case, feathery round snowflakes were falling thick and fast, catching sunlight on every flake. Amazing.

I ran to get the video camera. The batteries were out. I rushed about to find the digital camera. My husband had taken it. Frustrated, I realized I couldn't capture this moment on anything but my memory.

I slowed down and looked out again. I took this time to take it in. A show of beauty, just for me. It would not last, but it did not matter. I was in a natural fantasy land of fat falling glitter-puffs. It was altogether lovely.

Beauty and love have alot in common - harmony, radiance, attraction. Listen to this juxtapositioning of beauty for love in this Bible verse from I Corinthians 13 ( New International Version - UK) and you get an idea of the gentle inspiration that I yielded to while watching it snow.

(Beauty) is patient,
(beauty) is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.

It is not rude,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.

Beauty) ... rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
(Beauty, like) Love, never fails.

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.