Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself

 “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” - Martin Luther King

Last night, after five days of feeling the anxiety in our nation, I took my nightly walk around my neighborhood waving to my neighbors as they worked in their yards and played with their children.  It was a surreal experience with all the videos and news of the riots and looting in cities across the nation.  Most of my neighbors are African Americans with other races mixed in including Asians, whites and Hispanics.   I am blessed because I feel wrapped in the presence and love of God in my neighborhood.  

It has been hard week because I have communicated with two of my nieces, who I love, who sometimes spread disinformation with their Facebook posts.  I suspect from their posts and comments, they are being fed information by trolls and others who inflame all our biases.  They classify news sources such as the New York Times and Washington Posts as biased and without facts.  At one point, one of my nieces said she realized I thought she was racist just because we held different viewpoints. She said she believed in the constitutional rights for everyone.  I said ignoring African American legitimate grievances, oppression and injustices because some were rioting (especially when we don’t know yet who is instigating the violence), never solves the underlying problem that caused the anger and unrest.

My niece also believes fraud can’t be prevented and detected when voting by mail.    She holds this position, without understanding all the controls that have been implemented to prevent mail voting fraud.  The fact is, most Americans don’t have the time or expertise to know all the controls, and this requires faith in our institutions, both political parties, and press to set up and monitor these controls.  Often, political arguments, such as turning out or suppressing the vote depending on our perception of the outcome, make us for and against something instead of evaluating the facts and the process to ensure that rights are protected for all Americans. 

Right now, we are in a crisis of faith and trust because of partisanship and misinformation.  It is critical that we trust other people and our institutions but verify the facts, for our society to function.  For me, every American should vote, and we should make it easy.  As members of our society we need to demand political, economic, and social systemic changes for all the underprivileged, especially for African Americans.  The fact is working class and middle-class whites are also experiencing growing wealth inequity and this is increasing tension and resentment and the recent economic and health crisis has accelerated it.   But real fundamental change will require out of the box thinking by a diverse group trying different solutions focused on long-term measurable goals.  The recent success of Space X shows a partnership between private industry and the government when focused on goals that benefit us all, can accomplish amazing things successfully.   We need to find a balance between our private, social, government, and corporate interests.

This leads me a discussion I had yesterday with a friend and her husband; we were talking about discrimination.  Her husband said he doesn’t believe that discrimination exists anymore because he said hasn’t personally seen it lately and asked us to give a personal example.  He said he believed the conflicts with blacks is really a problem with whether or not someone respects authority. My friend’s husband is a white male in his sixties.  My response to him was that we all exist in a bubble of our own personal experience that determines how perceive the world.  First, we must acknowledge and respect that other people have experiences different than ours, before we can make fundamental changes to the systems and attitudes underlying our society.

I told him of a recent PBS show I saw where two couples in their thirties, one white, one African American with a moderator discussed race.   When asked if discrimination was still present, the white couple said no.  They said they weren’t prejudiced, and they did not think it really exists now.  The African American man looked at them incredulously, and said angrily, “I have been pulled over by the police seven times.”  In our white “bubble,” if we get pulled over by the police, we didn’t follow the law.  In the black experience it is sometimes because they don’t fit the race profile in the neighborhood they are driving in and there is an underlying suspicion on the part of the police.  Unless you are a black man driving in a car every day who shares your experience with your black friends, you would not know this experience is more common amongst blacks.  Your experience as a white person is very different, because you don’t live every day in a black skin. 

Some whites observing the violence against George Floyd on the video or other instances of violence still assume that that the black must have resisted authority.  In a time of phone cameras, more violent acts are being questioned, but it still does not capture the systemic violence and discrimination.  Another recent example is that Ahmaud Arbery out jogging who was murdered by two white vigilantes in Georgia were only arrested several months later after a lawyer of the man following in a car filming the murder released the video.  For blacks, this is another act of violence accepted in four hundred years of ingrained slavery, oppression, and murder in our society.   We have made progress as I have experienced in my neighborhood, but we have a long way to go in our country.

At the end of all this, I am reminded how grateful I am for my neighbors, my friend and spiritual mother Ethel, and my close friends who are black.  My relationships with blacks have moved me and changed me in powerful ways.  My friend Ethel who passed away from cancer in 2007, showed me unconditional love and support.   And she gave it to me at risk to herself and her family if she had lost her job in the process of supporting my complaint of discrimination.  Ethel was the first person that truly modeled the love of God for me and shared her faith.  My experience with black women who are close to me is that their love and faith in God is unmatched.   I think this is due to the pain and suffering inflicted on them due to discrimination, suffering and abuse unique to black women.   Instead of harboring anger, they give their grief and pain to God and in return God loves them back and they feel peace and joy.  An example for us all.

My concluding thought is we need to create a society that works for all of us, because in the end all of us benefit.  We reap what we sow.  When we love others, we receive love back. 

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

The Spirit Within

“Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”  David Bowe.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  John 3:6

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law”.  Galatians 5:22-23

Today I have had a series of conversations by text and by phone with two very special women in my life.  In the first conversation, my sister-in-law and I were texting selfies where we were both comparing different aspects about our appearances.  I had found a box hair color (thank you L’Oréal!) that did an amazing job of covering my gray hair and my sister-in-law has recently lost thirty pounds.  This exchange turned into a conversation about love.  My sister-in-law has struggled with boundary issues all her life because as she put it “she was desperate for love” after a difficult childhood. As a consequence, in the past she has suppressed her own needs always being in the position of giving, until finally her emotions explode.  I on the other hand, was raised in a military family and was taught discipline, the need for self-control and proper appearances, and the importance of not making mistakes.  As a result, I was always critical of myself, never feeling I was perfect enough to be loved.

As the conversation progressed from sharing photos, talking hair color and weight, and our mistakes in love, we both came to the same conclusion.  When we learned later on in life that God is love and when we put our faith in God, we gradually began to grow past our insecurities.   What I love about my sister-in-law is that she has the most beautiful way of bringing up a Bible verse when we are talking.   This time, I sent her the quote by David Bowe I had just found on Pinterest, “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”  We both agreed our lives have been evolution and knew our choices and responses would have been wiser in our youth if we had been the person we are now.

Next I talked to on the phone to my cousin’s wife who is a devoted prayer warrior.  We too, have the most amazing conversations about God, family, life, love, heartbreak and challenges.  I shared David Bowe’s quote and her response was that she saw her life as a series of encounters led by God to prepare for the next battle, her core compassion always present.   This conversation made me think more deeply about the essence of David Bowe’s quote.  As I have aged, I have grown in patience and thoughtfulness which are fruit of the Holy Spirit that I lacked within my younger self.  I am now the person I should have been because the Holy Spirit is present within me as a result my life experiences and my faith in God.  And because my soul has grown within nurtured by the Holy Spirit, so has the depth and contribution of my human gifts.   So perhaps one could say, “Aging is an extraordinary journey where God awakens the spirit and soul within and therefore the person that God always intended you to be.”  

We Are Warriors

“Every victorious warrior draws his strength from the highest source; his love.” ― Tapan Ghosh

Yesterday I was engaged in a Facebook conversation with my fitness instructor.  She was depressed and angry that the stay at the home order in Illinois had been extended.  She thought the danger was exaggerated and she needed to lead her classes and interact with people and she just could not stand it any longer bashing the governor and Illinois.  Her posts were uncharacteristic because she is joyful and a great leader.  I love taking her classes because if we are slogging, she kicks our butts into high gear.

She hasn’t been the only one expressing cabin fever and economic frustration amongst the public.  I have heard others including members of my family who say open up the economy.  They state people die from the flu and we do not shut down the economy, the danger is exaggerated, and then they say people will die anyway no matter what we do.  These comments reminded me of a commencement speech (one of my favorites) given by Admiral William H. McRaven on May 7, 2014 based on his training as a Navy Seal.

In the speech he said, “SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed.  Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.  If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.”  He went on to say, “Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission, is the time when you must be calm, composed – when all your tactical skills, your physical power and your inner strength must be brought to bear.  If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.”

As Americans we need to reframe our thoughts to exemplify a warrior in a battle.  Only forty percent succeed SEAL in finishing training, and they are not the strongest, the most physically fit – they are those that have the mental discipline not to give up and to keep going no matter how difficult the conditions.

A military motto drummed into me by my father’s military service is we never leave another person behind.  There is a bound of comradeship in the military because lives depend on it.  Americans who shout about their freedom that they have the right to do what they want at the expense of others, don’t know what it is to sacrifice and place their life on the line for others.  They are weak in brandishing their guns in capitol buildings without understanding true discipline or unification under the American flag.  They seek to intimidate, not to protect their rights.

So those who can, should help those that are struggling who don’t have the means to live.  We need to make our voices heard, we are all in this together and we won’t sacrifice the lives of anyone for the sake of money.  We are better than that.  We do not leave anyone behind.  We are warriors.  We are Americans.

New Beginnings

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” – Lao Tzu

We have been blessed this year in the St. Louis area with cooler weather and rain with the dogwood, red bud and other trees slowly blossoming and leafing out on the branches.  It seems like so many of our springs lately have been missed as we transition from winter directly into hot summer temperatures.

Yesterday I planted my three remaining shrubs I purchased this month and as I dug the holes, placed the shrubs in the holes and packed the dirt and mulch around them I thought about a lot of things.  For one thing, it is much easier to plant shrubs after several days of rain.  So next time, I will buy the shrubs, but wait for a cool day after a steady rain to plant.  I realized that I need to use the shovel to slice around the hole before digging and that I had learned that from watching my nurseryman Joe, who has helped plant gardens at my last four homes who is now retired.  I remembered he used a tarp to throw the dirt and grass clumps keeping the area tidy.  I improvised with several buckets. I loved sitting on the ground and running my fingers through the dirt to break it up the clumps.  I loved how the bushes looked with the fresh mulch circled around.

When I realized how much I loved sitting on the grass looking out, versus the view I have from my elevated deck, I decided to bring two chairs from the garage to place in the backyard so I can sit on the ground.  I visualized where I want my Iris and butterfly gardens to go and vowed to build my square foot garden this fall to be ready for planting vegetables and herbs next spring.  I envisioned a small stone patio outside the sliding glass door to my walk out basement with a bed of perennials around it.  The backyard was so beautiful, and I know I am blessed with the view to the natural area behind me.  I am excited that the birds are flocking to my feeder in the front of my house again this spring after being absent from it most of the winter and I decided to get another birdfeeder for the backyard.  I’ve been really worried about the twenty-nine percent reduction in the bird population in North America since 1970 and I want to encourage everyone to feed the birds and restore natural habitats.

Although the coronavirus has been stressful on everyone, I realized that the reduction of carbon dioxide may be improving our spring and that birds are now singing outside my windows.  After reading about how pigs are raised in warehouses and slaughtered quickly as the news covered the coronavirus effect on farmers and packing industries, I realized that I really don’t need to eat pork and subject pigs to those conditions.  I didn’t eat much pork before because of health reasons, but now I know I can do without it.  The empty freezer cases at the grocery store reminded me of that fact.  I thought about installing a bidet in the toilet, so I don’t need to use toilet paper.

It is as though God has said to us, we can help our planet survive by making simple changes – working from home, installing bidets, eating sustainable food, get back to nature, plant a vegetable garden and spend time with family playing board games or hoops instead of rushing them to activity after activity.   It has been pointed out that although financial experts say we should have six months to a year of cash for living expenses for an emergency, the majority of corporations, small businesses and Americans don’t have that safety net.   We need to ask ourselves why?  Is this solely a problem of wealth distribution and expenses rising faster than income, or is it also a consumer-based economy always on the move which tells us constantly to spend and, in the process, we are destroying our natural resources with our greed?

I am not sure of what the solution is, but I hope as Americans and world citizens we can envision an economy that is better balanced in wealth, built for resiliency and better for our environment.  I believe this is a wake-up call for a new beginning if we will listen.  

The Glory of Gardening

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.”– Alfred Austin 

“Life begins the day you start a garden.”– Chinese proverb

“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.”– Minnie Aumonier

“Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.”Rumi.

The three weeks stay at home order in my state was a welcome relief for me, although I know with deep appreciation that others are still busy working at home, caring for others especially the sick and providing much needed services, while others have lost their job or loved ones. I hope they will all be relieved of their stress soon.       

For me I have series of projects that need some deep reflective thought and this time will allow me time to concentrate on beginning those projects.  I also look forward to the warmer weather in spring and the chance to open up my home and to work in the yard.  My evergreen bushes need trimming and within a week I will need to mow my lawn.  Of course, I love my walks around the neighborhood waving and saying hello to my neighbors. It is a chance to turn off social media and the world which can be so distracting.  I have read that pollution and carbon dioxide levels are dropping here and around the world.  It reminds me that we all reduce global warming if we plant trees and shrubs, purchase less products in plastic and paper, eliminate harmful toxins in our home and yard, compost our yard and home waste, and make fewer driving trips.  It also signals that we need new broad-based economic and progressive social thinking that is required in a digital and service/gig economy where all stakeholders are considered, not just the stockholders.  Instead of just reacting, we need to envision the world we want to live in and build the systems to achieve it.  This requires slowing down and planning.  We seem to think that economic activity is necessary to be happy and productive, when often the opposite is required.  I loved how in a visit to Europe years ago, one waiter served the entire restaurant and guests just enjoyed visiting and savoring the food. There was no rush to vacate the table for the next customer so the restaurant and waiters could make money. Although as Americans we pride ourselves on our independent culture and our economic power, we can combine the best of all worlds.

My first week’s focus is to research basic steps and products to reduce waste in our lives primarily focused on paper and plastic to share with friends and neighbors.  I also want to encourage my neighbors to plant trees and shrubs and to spend more time in their yards visiting with neighbors.  The global climate crisis stems from living in a world disconnected from nature.  The more we encourage wildlife and nature in our neighborhoods, the more we value the Earth and feel closer to God and to each other.  

This week I am also researching landscaping planning software to download to my Mac and begin to plan a bird and butterfly garden for my yard as well as other areas.  I was excited to see plant nurseries are open for business during this stay at home order. I look forward to placing an order with them.   So far since in moving in, I’ve planted three trees and ten shrubs in addition to the landscaping and tree provided by the builder. For years I have collected gardening and landscaping books and magazines.  My favorite garden magazine is English Gardens.  I know that cultivating gardens takes years of expertise and I am just beginning.    

The final project these three weeks is to begin a website on wordpress.org to move my blog Sacredsouls to and begin in earnest my goal to open minds to possibilities.  I expect this project will take the remainder of the year, but I need time to outline a plan for a book, the website, and classes.  I want us to remember that our Earth is a garden and within us the power to live in unity with it and each other and to create a better life for all of us, diverse in our cultures and individuality.  

Remember in these times to plant a garden this spring.

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." – Greek proverb

  

God's Plans

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

I have an older friend who has spent her life as a missionary devoted to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and studying the Bible. She is extremely disciplined in her prayer life asking God for both guidance and help in carrying out his plan. Her focus is on a deep understanding of man’s separation from God, the reconciliation and redemption through Jesus Christ and the final fulfillment of his word and eschatology through the study of the Bible.  Everything for her is based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the word as revealed to her in the Bible.  Her belief is grounded in Evangelism which believes to experience and know God and understand his plan you must immerse yourself in the Bible. She knows that verses within the Bible evoke a deep sense of comfort in his love and his protection.  Although very disciplined in her approach to immerse herself in the Word, she also has a longing to tap into a spirit or intuitive guidance from God, a direction from within by the Holy Spirit.

My life has been very different.  I worked until my early thirties never reading the Bible and without a faith in God or consideration of what happens at death.  But then at the age of thirty I found myself suddenly fighting injustice and abuse, but in doing so experiencing a sudden vision in which I felt an evil presence that was part of a more insidious plan to get a spiritual stronghold and spread destruction.   I found myself racked in terror sobbing because I was going to have to face it in order to stop it.  But the problem was I had no foundation in the Bible, no understanding of God as love, no faith of trust in God that goodness will prevail in life and death. In the process I lost everything, but I knew from that experience that humankind will not survive unless there is a higher power.  My saving grace was that God then showed me a vision of a sinless earth with no illness or death -  an immersive experience in a different reality.  

As a mystic I experience the presence of good and evil and I can sense the progression.  I am aware of alternative realities and outcomes.  My challenge has been to not be overwhelmed by the visions, not to feel responsible for the outcome, but to trust that God will handle the plan and that I need to be in the moment acting from love.  And step by step, God has opened doors to bring me closer to him and gave me the grace to make mistakes as I learned to manage my gifts.  My joy and inspiration come from feeling God in the human experience as expressed in nature, my friends and family, my pets, and the arts and science.  My relationship to God is also a deeper connection to the Universal Christ in the cosmos and spiritual realm as inspired by scripture.  I communicate with God and others through knowing or wordless thought. 

Although I possess these gifts, I understand a carpenter (like Jesus) can experience God through by practicing his or her craft or an environmentalist can experience a deep connection to God through nature.  To know or experience God can be to feel a deep appreciation for this gift of life and beauty of this world -  the joy in fulfilling one’s purpose.  My experience is there are no limits on how God can communicate with us his plan or his love for us and it is not limited to the Bible.  Love is the universal language and God is love.

My spiritual journey has not been an easy road, but I am confident that God has been preparing me in a plan that is unfolding and to have joy knowing I am part of that plan.  My thoughts come from a deep intuitive connection and experience with God that I find again and again reflected in scripture.  

Music as the Body and Spirit

This Saturday morning as I drank my coffee and the cats took turns cuddling in my lap with the sun streaming through the windows, I played the music of Queen, contemplating the beauty of the human experience. The night before I had attended a concert by the St. Louis Symphony performing Queen with a front band and singer. The crowd stood and sang, clapped, danced, and rocked to songs such as Do You Want to Live Forever, Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody to Love, and We Are the Champions.  Music is the soul of life and the universe, bringing together in lyrics and sound the individual and collective human experience.  It is a form of prayer and worship because it calls us to celebrate both the pain and joy in our lives.  God is truly in all things, and music is a powerful voice from within.  The incredible human gift is to experience not only emotions, but to touch, hear and see.  To interact with God’s creation and to create with him.  

As I think about the future, in striving to fulfill my inner purpose in God’s plan focusing  on the love of God and each other,  my spiritual growth has come from my human experience and emotions.  We are not meant to live in a world devoid of human emotions.  The diversity of music in the world is a call to unity based on our human experience, not division.  I know as I write that the spirit and the body is both energy and mass, nothing speaks to that truth more than music.

So, play your favorite music, feel your emotions, and celebrate today the gift of body and spirit.