The Arbor in the Dream Garden

Last year I started my Sacred Souls blog in March with an entry title The Road not Taken in reference to my favorite poem by Robert Frost.  I was at a crossroads and I needed to start down a path so I began writing down my thoughts that had been accumulating for twenty years about God and humanity. This week I realized again I am at a crossroads.

The hair salon I use, called the Louve, displays artwork of local artists.  This month a series of beautiful watercolors painted by Susan Winter filled the salon. Her painting of an arbor in country garden on a hill reminded me of a garden spot that has special meaning to me.  As I initially walked around the salon I realized that the watercolors depicted my dream home.   On Saturday I returned to the Louve and purchased five watercolors – the arbor in the garden, Iris, a cat on a chair in a garden, a young boy with a dog, and a little girl with a Teddy bear looking out the window with a snow scene.   None of the watercolors depicted a house, but had all the elements of what I wanted in a home – my Christmas House.   I realized this week that in my heart that what address I am at doesn’t matter only that I am surrounded by the love of family and pets and that is what is most important to me.  God has given me many blessings and gifts but I have never had a family and everything else comes second to that dream.  I will be fifty-five in October and the dream seems impossible, but I have faith that God answers our innermost dreams whether it is on Earth or in Heaven.

The Experience of the Holy Spirit

“ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

- Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

I have not written a blog entry before about the presence of the Holy Spirit lest someone would believe that I am crazy.  Although I think God speaks to each of us in many ways - through nature, pets, friends, and loved ones, I believe the Holy Spirit is a direct conduit between God and each other where thoughts are shared.   After one sermon at church by the Pastor, I thought about the order of the books in the Bible and wondered if the order was important, and got a resounding yes by the Holy Spirit in my head.  When experiencing the Holy Spirit I feel a warmth, peace, and expansiveness (feels like warm air expanding inside out in my brain).  Sometimes it is when I am thinking of others I love, I feel the expansiveness connected to God and to the other person I am thinking about.  It is a physical sensation of affirmation without words.  I am never sure that others are experiencing the same sensation, as I am when I think of them, but it feels like it.

Sometimes I feel like I am sharing thoughts with a group and I feel so connected to the love of others.   I once read that the Jesuits when traveling alone to other parts of the world with no way to communicate with the Jesuits in Italy were connected to each other in thought through the Holy Spirit.  I know many people don't believe in telepathy, but if we can communicate through wireless, then why should not we also have the ability as humans to communicate by telepathy using the Holy Spirit as a conduit?  The sharing of thoughts through the Holy Spirit is not like speaking with words, but it is a different form of communication with God and others.  Perhaps the more we are open to it; the more we experience the Holy Spirit.  I feel the Holy Spirit the most often when I go for walks and the experience makes me happy, loved and at peace.

Easter is the Fulfillment of the Promise of Christmas

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

- Franklin D. Roosevelt,  32^nd President of the United States

As my daffodils are beginning to bloom at the first sign of spring I have been thinking about what spring means to me.  It is renewal and a sign of life after a period of dormancy.  During winter when the sign of life appears to die, we are reminded in spring that nothing truly dies in God's Kingdom.  Easter has now replaced winter as my favorite season.  It is because spring and Easter is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus' birth at Christmas.  But as I truly love Easter, I am reminded how divided the world is and that even Christians forget what Jesus life represents.  He didn't die just for Christians; he died to reconcile the holiness of God to the sinfulness of all humans at a time when there were few Christians.  Jesus represents forgiveness and love, which is offered by God the Father.  My favorite Christmas card I sent out years ago reads:

 "Every time a hand reaches out to help another... that is Christmas.  Every time someone puts anger aside and strives for understanding...that is Christmas.  Every time people forget their differences and realize their love for each other....that is Christmas.  May this Christmas bring us closer to the spirit of human understanding, closer to the blessing of peace."  

This is Jesus' promise for all.  Those who instill fear divide us.  Just because my brother commits murder, doesn't make me a murderer, yet I may also be classified as a murderer causing others to fear me.  We must bring those who commit murder to justice, while realizing extending that belief to others based on culture, race, or religion is directly in opposition of Jesus' teaching and for American principles.  My dear friend Fay, who is Muslim, said all true religions represent the love of God and the presence of peace.  We must not let murderers committing heinous crimes that need to be brought to justice, divide us from moving closer to understanding, love, and the blessing of peace for all who love God and each other. 

All Things Work Together for Good Who Love the Lord

"Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. 

- Philippians 4:8 (NKJV)

I have been contemplating this passage of the Bible that my dear sister Jan sent to me in answer to my question - when does God answer our inner desires and dreams?  And the answer is when our will becomes closer to that of God's, which is love.  This requires relinquishing our own selfish will and let God's will work in our life.  It is not about what we receive, but truly what we give and it does come back to us, but not how we expect.   God's choices are always better than ours and that is what is so wondrous.  It reminds me of Jesus feeding thousands from a few loaves of bread.  The lesson is that there is enough for everyone when we follow the Lord.  But what comes to us is not in physical possessions, but the peace and love in this life and thereafter. But as humans we struggle to truly believe there are sufficient resources when we focus on others competing for their own gain for limited resources.  We fail to see the generosity is so many people, especially in those who are poor.




That Which is Unseen

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

- Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

The metaphysical, "that of, or relating to the transcendent or to a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses."

- Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

Yesterday I was standing at the train station beside a small, older woman poorly dressed, who was muttering incoherently.  I could tell she was not present, but I listened to her as she spoke.  As I listened I was acutely aware that at one time of my life, I was also not present.  I acted out of the delusions and thoughts in my head that only made sense to me.  But when I was again present, I realized the truth in my delusions and thoughts.  I recognized the battle between that which is good, God, and that which is evil, sin manifested in the metaphysical and physical on Earth.  With time I was able to sort through my thoughts by focusing on God and love in order to experience both the metaphysical and the physical without fear.  I began to express what I saw as the good metaphysical using symbols and actions to build a network of ideas to communicate with others.  

Today I was reminded again of how the metaphysical manifests itself through physical symbols.  One of my coworkers today passed around a poem about a snowman.  The poem reminded me of my Christmas house on Church Street which was decorated with white stucco, green shutters and roof, and a bright red front door.  I had a concrete Snowman doorstop outside the door with the words "Let it snow."  When I sold my home, I sold it to a young woman named Noel who promptly placed a wooden Snowman outside the door saying "Warmer Weather Welcome."  The snowman poem from my coworker said the snowman was kept in a freezer and not in a garden where it would surely melt. 

I am now building a small home in the Summit Springs subdivision in Fairview Heights on a hill overlooking a common ground with a beautiful view of woods.   After I placed the contract to build my new home, I realized that summit means the pinnacle or top of a mountain and that spring means a season, to be released, and a source of water.  In 2007 at a creativity workshop in Florence Italy the participants exchanged thoughts by writing in response to each other’s words, and I longed for this conversation with another person through symbols and metaphors.   

Do I trust my mind now enough to work at the metaphysical level, to let my thoughts flow to others, to see the endless views, and to experience God without constraint?  To see the multifaceted meanings in all of us that others do not see who are earth bound in thoughts and actions – to experience it all in my new home?

The Promised Land

"Then Moses climbed Mount Bebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho.  There the Lord showed him the whole land-from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negrev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar.  Then the Lord said to him.  "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, " I will give it to your descendants.  I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it."
(Deuteronomy 34)

When reading this passage which is at the end of forty years of wandering by the Israelites in the desert who were led faithfully by Moses, I could not help but feel deeply distressed that God would not let Moses enter the promised land and instead ended his life.   God explained to Moses his reason earlier in Deuteronomy.  Moses had disobeyed God in striking a rock with a staff to produce water and then attributing it as his own power, not the Power of God.

So many times in my life including the present, I have acted against the will of God which is to act out of love and serve others in the name of God.  Because of my innate selfishness, I believed that I was somehow responsible for the good, when in fact it is God working through my own sinfulness with the use of grace.   Therefore, I can now only acknowledge my sinfulness and ask God to shine through me even with my imperfections while asking for forgiveness.  This is a daily struggle as difficult in today's society as it was in the time of Moses.

Like Moses, I too have been shown the Promised Land.  I pray that when I die, Jesus will wipe away my sinfulness so that I can live within the Glory of God - the Promised Land.   I also pray that God showed mercy on Moses and that Moses is now in the Promised Land.