Happy Independence Day

The law of God is one of liberty and not one of bondage.

          TODAY,  is Independence Day in the United States.  It is the day we Americans celebrate our independence and freedom from Great Britain.  We commemorate this day for the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.   Moreover, it has become a time of deep reflection, introspection, and gratitude.

          As independent citizens, we can choose to raise the mantel high for liberty.  Collectively, we can demonstrate the liberty of celebration as a great experiment in a culturally diverse melting pot.  The country’s independence came about because of a specific intention of its people to gain it.  The colonies’ residents knew that no matter the odds, if they were single-minded about it they would succeed; they set forth a declaration to claim it, and they achieved it.

          These same steps are required to gain one’s independence from an habitual situation, whether it is insufficient money, poor health, troubling relationships, addiction or another undesirable experience.

          First you need to know what you want.  What would independence look and feel like to you?  It helps to write about it, putting color and emotions into the new awareness of one’s independence.    We know good is happening invisibly, through our attitude and thought.  Continually giving thanks for your good helps to speed it along.  Claim your independence with vigor and joy. 

          The word “liberty” forms an acronym such as this:  Life In Bold Energetic Readiness To Yield.    When living life as a bold, energetic readiness to yield, there will be more cognizant opportunities to express ourselves because of our willingness to step aside and observe the flow of life in, through, and around us. 

Freedom is priceless.  Choose independence as your experience today and keep your focus on good.

Happy 4th of July



And God Bless our Military who are protecting our Country for our Freedom.
Thanks to them, and their sacrifices, we can celebrate the 4th of July.

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE
FLAG,
OF THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA ,
AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR
WHICH IT STANDS,
ONE
NATION UNDER GOD,
INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY
AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

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.