“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.”
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Friday, May 1, 2020
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
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.
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
Saturday, March 7, 2020
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.
Sunday, March 1, 2020
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.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
If Only We Believe
26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:26
“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy, this is physics.”
Albert Einstein
In our last Magis Writing group, we discussed what we hold onto in our lives that prevent us from moving forward. When it was my turn, I said that we are holding onto a reality that only exists as a result of our combined consciousness. I pointed out our world is both energy and mass, but we focus on our humanity and the world around us, not the energy that is within us and outside of us which creates an interconnected field. Some scientists and philosophers postulate that energy is actually consciousness and that consciousness is present even in a seemingly lifeless object such as a rock. One of the greatest mysteries in physics is that there is no theory that adequately reconciles the behaviors predicted in quantum mechanics and general relativity. In quantum mechanics, because particles also act as waves, observation of a phenomenon will inevitability change the phenomenon. Quantum mechanics also shows that a particle across the universe can be entangled with a particle on Earth with no observable cause.
So, as I ponder Albert Einstein’s quote that “matching the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality,” I have to ask the question. “If some scientists and philosophers are right – that energy is a frequency and consciousness is energy are we participating in the creation of the universe with our thoughts?” It goes back to a simple philosophy question, “if a painting exists in your mind, does it exist in reality?” My answer is yes. Everything we imagine can come to be if we match our thoughts to the frequency of the reality that creates that painting. As Einstein says – “it can be no other way.”
In a world focused on the physical we assume that the physical exists independent of our consciousness. In a physical world we think and then act assuming that the action is independent of the thought to act, but in an entangled world it is not. Our thoughts are interrelated in a field of consciousness and one feeds the other. However, a single thought cannot outweigh the combined thoughts of billions of people believing that the physical world is fixed within certain parameters and cannot change. Therefore, we are locked into a reality that we are actually creating universally both by our thoughts and our actions. The sad thing is that mystics who can actually envision a different reality and perceive thoughts within the field of consciousness, which contains both love and fear are often then classified as pathological and mentally ill. The focus of the medical profession is to explain what can be observed and attribute it to a physical condition, discounting the experience and intuition of the mystic of the unobservable, the painting in our minds.
What many Christians fail to understand because they focus on the literal, that Jesus in performing miracles was God because he was not confined by the reality of the world. He knew physical death could not hold him. In his teachings, he showed his disciples and others how to heal with their minds and touch. What is also amazing is that a billion people believe he was the son of God based on a few repetitive chapters in a 2000 year old text. Which based on a psychological analysis, could be due to a mass delusion of a billion minds. But is it a delusion or part of the consciousness of God? We fail to realize the significance of the words “with God all things are possible.” Jesus was teaching us that God is the creator and as his children can actively participate in creation. Yet we persist in the belief that our existence is solely human and not part of a larger consciousness. I do believe there is a God, a consciousness that pervades everything and who is our creator, but he is asking us to participate in his creation and he sent his son Jesus, as God incarnate to show us the way.
To transform our world into the Kingdom of Heaven, we must understand first that our thoughts as experience do affect the outcome and that love (the consciousness of God) is the most powerful force in the Universe and it must be our focus. Secondly, we are eternal beings in a field of consciousness a manifestation of God. Third, prayer as taught in the Bible is a powerful force because it a focus of energy.
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (KJV Matthew 18:19-20)
We must pray, act and reflect on a daily basis. Prayer includes asking for guidance and light, reflecting on a Bible verse and our day, asking forgiveness, giving thanks, and resolving to do better the next day. To act is to use our gifts and training to serve God and others. To reflect is to think deeply after acting and before praying. We must practice the fruits of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control and ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit. The amazing thing is that God can be found in all things within creation and our individual differences are unique and beautiful gifts. We must see ourselves as eternal beings or spirits first before our humanity. We are not bound by this mortal existence.
Within us with the grace of God is the power to transform our earth home and to travel to the stars because consciousness is not bound by physical laws when sufficient numbers of us focus on love together. We can bring into creation what we imagine (the Kingdom of Heaven) if we come to God like children. “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (NKJV Matthew 18:3)
If only we believe.
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