Suffering

And that Pattern upon your soul Has the signature of God.

Hafiz, I Heard God Laughing

          Why do we suffer so much?  Do we think that somehow parlayed grief and pain will make us more holy, more acceptable to God?  I know that some people believe this but I believe that on the other hand, that “there cannot be a Law in the Universe which demands evil, lack, limitation and the experience of unhappiness to provide shades to magnify Its glory.”  It would seem a contradiction in terms to think that wholeness is dependent upon unhappiness.  Besides, who needs a God that demands human suffering when we are so good at inflicting this upon ourselves?

          Pain is a part of the human condition, and often it comes without warning.  It can be difficult to control the pain that comes with death, loss and private feelings of betrayal, but we can control our responses to the unwanted intrusions into our well-being.

          Soul-trying times are our opportunities to dig more deeply into our spiritual practices.  Prayer is always at hand, and we can contact others to engage in prayer for us when we aren’t thinking clearly.  Suffering, however, is another layer of pain we sometimes add on when we forget our spiritual natures.  This, too, can be healed, but it takes a special willingness on our part.

The Divinity within us is our true life.  It cannot be otherwise.  It leads us; it trails us; it holds us in the arms of spiritual love as we willingly release all pain to the presence of the God within us for healing.

 

Motherhood of Spirit

Today is Mother’s Day, and our mothers have been remarkable persons in their own right as well as because they had us.  If you who are reading this are yourself a mother, then you have an exquisite relationship with another human being that no one not having had that privilege can fully comprehend.  So we honor mothers.  But there’s even more to it:  an archetypal mothering aspect present in the Universe that can be drawn upon and used by anyone anywhere, and that shows up undefined by gender.  Mother-love is nurturing, unconditional, and kindly yet fierce.  If you don’t feel you had enough of that from the woman who birthed you, or long for more of it, it’s still there for in the “ethers” if you will open your self to accept it from woman, man , or both, or neither. 

‘Mother/Father God’ or ‘Father/Mother God’ is an expression that some of us us because we feel the deity is androgynous.  We don’t really consider it to be a being at all, but beingness itself, so It, having both male and female qualities, is a natural as either sunlit and moonlit qualities, or terrestrial and celestial ones.  Deity is infinite and thus contains all.  We may choose to have Its parent-like aspects stand out because these are particularly intimate and special to us in our human condition.

TODAY, and everyday, we can experience the nurturing and giving nature of the Universe we inhabit.  From every direction, unconditional love and encouragement arrive, cheering us on to be fully who we are by glorifying that Indwelling God who is the Heavenly Father and the Cosmic Mother of all. 

A Spark of Bright Fire

May, clad in cloth of gold,/Cometh this way;/The fluting of the blackbirds/Heralds the day.

Raven Grimassi, Beltane

          On the eve of May Day sits the old Celtic celebration of Beltane (“bright fire”).  Its origins in the distant past have to do with the start of the summer breeding and crop-growing seasons, as well as marking the cross-quarter point between the vernal equinox and summer solstice.

          At the back end of the Celts’ year came Samhain, which has become our Halloween.  On both occasions bonfires were (and sometimes still are) lit on hillsides across Scotland and Ireland, and both occasions were believed to be times when the veil between worlds was especially thin.  Not only that, but in those Northern climes the late-April weather was finally becoming favorable to everyone getting outside and romping around.

          Events such as these, from every age and people, have imprinted something powerful, life-affirming and obviously long-lasting onto the collective consciousness of all humankind.  Even in their heyday they were regarded as containing many layers of meaning and metaphor.  So instead of this just being another day at the midpoint of another week for you or me, we might choose to consecrate it into a celebration of long light and greater warmth, imagining ourselves emerging from a lengthy hibernation into the welcoming green of deep spring.

Today on April 30th, let the ancient fire be rekindled in you.  Draw upon this feeling and fan it into something tangible and continual in your life today.

Friends And Family

This was sent to me from a friend.  Now you can send it to your friends & family.

One day a woman's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't "anymore". 
No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more "just one minute." 

Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used up and goes away, never to return before we can say good-bye, say,..."I love you." 
 
So while we have it, it's best we love it, care for it, fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick. 

This is true for marriage.....old cars(sometimes)... children with bad report cards, dogs with bad hips, and aging parents and grandparents..(especially since I am one of those!).

We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. 
 
Some things we keep -- like a best friend who moved away or a sister-in-law after divorce. There are just some things that make us happy, no matter what. 
 
Life is important.....like people we know who are special.. and so, we keep them close! 
 
I received this from someone who thought I was a 'keeper'! (imagine that!?)

Now it's your turn to send this to all those people who are "keepers" in your life,  if you feel that way.

Suppose tomorrow should be the morning you or I never wake up,.....do all your friends know you love them? 
 
Let every one of your friends know you love them. 

 
Live today because today is the only 'present'  that we get,....and tomorrow is not promised. 

Law of Logical Sequence

I am not sorry when sun and rain make April/my life is the life of the reaper and sower…

E.E. Cummings, “Religious Leanings”

          It is Spring in our hemisphere, and we are surrounded by nature’s profusion.  The earth is producing that which was planted deliberately by man or by default nature; existing plants were free to reseed the ground and yield up pretty much what they had before.  In our lives, it’s all seasons happening at once, and in consciousness we are always planting something.

          I have read about the law of attraction, by which we cultivate certain attitudes and expectancies and then draw into our lives corresponding conditions and circumstances.  Lesser known, but just as powerful, is the law of repulsion, by which things undesired do not show up.

          In my gardening metaphor the creative process is planting (the setting out to attract), and there is reaping (or gathering in what was attracted), but there is also weeding, fertilizing and alongside the determination of which crops to plant, the decision of which not to.  The selection of one seed over another is an intellectual exercise, but the actual planning is emotional.  Therefore we want to place more of our heart-energy around what we do desire than around what we don’t.  Thus our “repulsion” is free of rancor:   what we don’t select is fine and beautiful, and it’s just not for us today.

Today select your attitudes, desires and opinions and plant them securely in the fertile soil of your mind.  Be free to uproot and set aside those state of mind you believe no longer serve you.