There’s so much confusion and confrontation happening in the US and the world today that people are asking me, “What’s going on? What can we learn from history?”

Well, the first thing is, this has happened before. This pattern of blustering, angry men raging at the rest of the world because the economic and political power they want isn’t easy to get any more is part of the pattern called “the breakdown of an empire.” The Western Europeans and Americans no longer control the world, economically or politically, and those who’ve benefited from that control are hurting. The US economy is tied to its overseas interests but the US no longer controls those so what was easy a decade or so ago is harder and harder to achieve today. And those men who were accustomed to, or planning on, taking advantage of how things were are angry and upset because their plans no longer work. We can see this in the history of Rome during the 300s, when Constantine vacated Rome and created the Christian church to hold things together for him. We can see this in Cleopatra’s Egypt, when she turned over her once-great country to Caesar rather than have it continue to dissolve into an economic and political backwater.

The second thing to be aware of is, whenever a culture shifts from one form to another, there’s a period in which some people flourish and many people suffer – and then the sufferers react against those who are doing well as if they’d somehow caused the problem. We’ve shifted from a culture based on production in heavy industry and 40-hour/week jobs with good benefits to one based on consumption in small, flexible, creative organizations with flexible work schedules and minimum benefits – over only a couple decades. In a mature culture there are ways to address this process – but ours is not at all mature, so we’re seeing pre-adolescent temper tantrums everywhere we look.

The third is, actually, something new. We are living in a time period where, for the first time in history, there are more adults than children, more educated than uneducated, and instant access to information for even the most isolated people around the world. This is leading to a new kind of world culture – one in which the outer world serves the inner life, rather than the other way around; one in which ignorance is no longer the norm, and in which human creativity can soar. This worldwide shift is leading to a new kind of global culture, based on sharing information, creative problem-solving, and maximizing potential.

So, not only is the empire breaking down – with all the issues that go with that; not only is a great shift in culture happening – with all the fabulous opportunities and great suffering that go with that; but a whole new level of human functioning is emerging across the planet, with all the angst that goes with anticipating anything unknown and unfamiliar.

So, what do we do?

Now is a great opportunity to organize our lives in a way that what goes on around us has the least possible impact. Now is a fabulous time to reflect, meditate, contemplate, and study whatever ideas and processes we find deeply satisfying to our hearts, minds, and souls, so that we no longer look outside us for that satisfaction. Now is the perfect time to imagine, visualize, and begin to choose in the direction of a life that is filled with joy and love and satisfaction for all beings on this planet – because that’s what all this chaotic transformation process is leading up to!

Letting go of what no longer serves us to make room for a wonderful new life is the most powerful thing any of us can do today – and one thing that no longer serves us is accepting what the commercial, drama-driven media is trying to convince us is real. Let it go. Trust your own ability to find out what you need to know, and what will move you toward the life you’ve longed for all your years on this planet. For every ugly story they focus on there's hundreds of beautiful unfoldings in peoples' lives and hearts and homes. For every time the media twists a number to convince people things are not okay, there's more evidence that things are improving and fabulous possibilities are opening up for us. For every second of paid advertising time trying to convince us there's more stuff we need to have to be okay, there's hours of loving wisdom being made available to the listening mind. Choose that. Open up to it; allow it; feel the New Heaven and New Earth merge together in your life and world.

That’s what’s happening. Isn't it awesome?

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day – or “national hearts and flowers day” as my wasband calls it – when lovers all over Western culture celebrate their romance with gifts and special outings, and young children are encouraged to give cards to everybody they know saying “I love you” or “be my Valentine.”

I’ll be working. It’s a second Sunday, which I’ve committed to the Florence Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship, here on the Oregon coast. I’ll speak at the Sunday service, helping to lead the singing, then, after the refreshments, I’ll sit in a “dialogue circle” with some of the folks to explore the ideas further. Lunch with a few congregants will be followed by an afternoon in the office, visiting and counseling with members. Then an hour or so of group meditation, and a quiet evening in the home of two women who help to maintain this wonderful congregation.

Not exactly romantic, but, truly, a day filled with love – the love between the people who attend, the love I feel toward them, the love they share with me, the love that flows through me as I open to my Higher Power for guidance in speaking, the love that built this congregation, and more…

Which is what I’ll be talking about during the service: how Valentine’s Day has kept love between mortals a part of the Christian tradition, and how that love can mature beyond the adoration of childhood and lust of adolescence to a wonderful range of emotions and actions and experiences that can lift us far beyond our norm.

For all the Abramic “people of the Book” – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – love for God is fundamental, and loving one another is encouraged: as friendly, agape in Greek, or “brotherly,” philos in Greek. To love one another as siblings means to put up with foibles and weaknesses, to support each other’s growth and development, to reach out in caring ways, to trust fully, and to share without concern. And it’s what schoolchildren are encouraged to feel when sharing Valentine cards, cookies, and candies.

All that’s good. But that kind of love is not what holds a marriage together, or drives someone to overcome tremendous obstacles to save another person or create a new lifesaving process.

No, that kind of love requires passion, which, in Greek, is eros. Romantic or sexual passion is fundamental to a good marriage, and is what Valentine’s Day symbolizes in our culture – unlike any other day in the Christian calendar.

Not that it’s really important in that calendar – the lack of data about the original saint has led the Roman church to downplay the date considerably. But they’ve left it for those who wish to honor it – which I believe is a good thing.

(to see a video of Ruth's talk, CLICK HERE)

So who was that original Valentine?

Valentinus was a common name during the Roman Empire, meaning courageous, valorous. And it seems that 3 Christian leaders bore that name at about the same time: 250-280c.e. Of these, 2 are reported to have been from the nearby city of Terni and to have been beheaded in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. These are probably actually the same person with slightly different reports.

What Valentinus did to deserve beheading is not clear, but the strongest tradition is that the emperor needed huge amounts of soldiers to restore the badly damaged borders of the empire and so made it unlawful for young men to marry until they’d served their duty. Bishop Valentinus, not wanting people to sin by coming together without marriage, went ahead and married his Christian followers in secret.

One version of the story says that he was put under house arrest in the home of a judge while awaiting the imperial decision, and that the 2 debated the power of Christ until the host challenged Valentinus to use that power to heal a young girl who was blind. She was healed and the man and all his household became Christians as a result.

The stories go on to suggest that Emperor Claudius II had a few conversations with the bishop, too, which went agreeably at first, but at some point he drove Valentinus out to be stoned to death. My sense, based on the limited knowledge we have of Claudius’ background, is that Valentinus’ Christ came far too dangerously close to the soldier’s god Mithras, a far more ancient “son of God”, and that even though Claudius himself may have been intrigued, he could not, as the head of the Roman army, allow this heretical teaching to continue – nor could he let Valentinus continue marrying Christian men.

The stoning, we’re told, wasn’t enough to kill Valentinus, so they beheaded him and buried his head outside the gates in a spot which the Christians marked, so that some time later it was dug up and carried back to his home town. The traditional date for his martyrdom is Feb 14, 269c.e.

So Valentinus was a hero to young couples and to blind children. But what about those hearts and cards?

Well, remember that little girl who had been healed of blindness? The story goes that when Valentinus was taken away from her home to see the emperor he left her a note telling her of God’s love for her and his own, and signed it “your Valentine.”

My favorite explanation is one my grandmother used to tell. She said that while he was under arrest Valentinus’ followers would gather outside the house, hoping to see him. He wasn’t allowed to preach, or even to send them letters, but there was a vine with large, heart-shaped leaves, a philodendron (and she’d point to one that we always had while I was growing up), growing outside his window and each morning he would write a few words of loving encouragement on a leaf and send it floating down to his people. They kept them long after he was gone as reminders of his love for them.

It was another 200 years before Valentinus was made a saint, and his feast day was set as Feb 14.

Now that date is interesting in itself. The next day is Rome’s “4th of July”, when the children of the city’s founders (and later, anyone who was willing) would gather at the cave where Romulus and Remus, the founding twins, were adopted by a she-wolf, go through an initiation involving sacrificing a goat and a dog, then run through the town naked with strips of bloody goatskin, swinging it at every woman in sight. On the 14th they cleaned out houses and temples, and took ritual baths, on the 15th they ran, and on the 16th they would bed and often wed one of the women they had “lashed.” Called Lupercalia (lupus means wolf) it’s the day when, according to Shakespeare, Antony offered Julius a crown as king of Rome and Julius, already calling himself Caesar, said “no,” and so died a month later.

Chaucer connects the 2 in his Parliament of Fools, commenting that mid-February is when the birds choose their mates and so it made sense that people would do so as well.

As a result many people think that “national hearts and flowers day” is a remnant of that ancient rite of purification and mating.  

So that explains the hearts and the couples.  What about the cards?

Well, those were a French invention, over a thousand years later, in 1415, when Charles, Duke of Orleans, was in the Tower of London and wrote a loving Valentine’s Day poem to his wife. It’s on display in the British Museum.

It was a marvel that caught attention, and by the late 1700s sharing love poems with hearts, spring flowers, and references to Eros’ arrows of love was very much a part of life in upper class England. Then, in the late 1800s, a British printer began to mass produce these poems as cards…and you know the rest of the story.

Oh, chocolate! Yes, well, when it arrived in Europe in the 1500s it was obviously an aphrodisiac – so of course it had to be shared on this day of all days!




But regardless of the trappings of the day the core message is still the same: we are loved by our Creator and that love is part of us, waiting to be expressed. We express it in many ways, as children and as parents, siblings, and friends – and if we are truly fulfilling our capacity as humans, as committed lovers ever deepening our affection, appreciation, honor, caring, joy, delight, understanding, empathy, and all the other qualities of a true and mature love with our beloved.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s a cool, gray day here on the Oregon coast, a bit of a disappointment after the clear, bright sunshine that’s blessed us in between storms several times this past week. We’re entering the second month of the year and tonight/tomorrow is a holy day that the Celts called Imbolc (meaning “in milk”), the high-church Christians call Candlemas, and the Irish call St. Bridgit’s (or St. Bride’s) Day.

The Christian tradition weaves all these together: it’s 6 weeks after Christmas, Jesus’ birth date, and, acknowledging the Hebrew requirement for a woman to be purified after a birth, the Roman church honors Mary’s visit to the temple pool for the purification ritual. The Irish goddess/saint Bridgit (also spelled Birget and Bride and pronounced “Breeghd”) is portrayed as Mary’s midwife, and both of them are portrayed as carrying candles to the purification ceremony, with Bridgit holding Mary’s candle while Mary is submerged in the holy pool. One Christian tradition is to take last year’s palm leaf (from Palm Sunday) and make it into Bridget’s cross.


In the Celtic/Wiccan tradition, the goddess (called, not surprisingly, Bridgit, in many lands) is in her Maiden form at this time of year. She is virginal and pure; innocent and naïve; excitedly awaiting all the delights that life has to offer. In local gatherings she is embodied by a young woman wearing a long white dress and may wear or carry snowdrops and a few tender greens, which are often the indicator of the season (which is why we call young virgin women wearing long white dresses and carrying flowers, brides). She is usually accompanied by one of the new lambs, calves, or kid-goats which are just beginning to be born at this time of year – a sign that fresh milk and cheese are now available to people who’ve been living on preserved foods from last year’s harvest.  

In all these traditions, it’s a time to wear white and honor the purification that is winter –the messiness of the earth is blanketed in white snow over most of the northern hemisphere, and the deep frost has killed off many of the troublesome insects, bacteria, and plants that are part of rural life. It’s a time to begin to connect with other people again, after being stuck inside through winter storms. It’s a time to recognize that the worst of winter is past and to look for early signs of spring.

Which is the reason for “Ground Hog’s Day” at this point in the season. One early sign is the emergence of small mammals from their dens. If they come out and stay out, then spring is definitely on its way. If they come out, sniff around, take a look, and go back in to sleep some more, then it’s best to plan for a few more weeks of snow and ice.

And that’s the indicator of whether to tighten one’s belt and prepare to fast: the annual spring fast that has been adopted by the Christians (who call it Lent as part of the preparation for the full spring of life that is Easter – more about that in another writing). This fasting may have a spiritual context, but it’s very practical in the life of a winter-bound community. If, in fact, there will be several more weeks of snow and ice, then people must make their stored food last as long as possible – so they cut back to the minimum, and carefully ration the milk the mother-critters are producing for them, supplemented with whatever fish can be caught through the ice or in thawing streams. 

Over the next few weeks, while the snow and ice turn to slush and mud, dirt roads are virtually impassable, greatly reducing trips to other homes and towns, and fields are impossible to plow or plant, so there’s not much to actively do. Waiting for spring therefore became a time of little action and more inward focus: dreaming and planning and praying, studying, meditating, and contemplating. 

Here on the coast, we haven’t had much of a winter yet, except for the early freeze in December. The pansies, daisies, and primroses that survived that continue to bloom, and my kale is just getting ready to blossom, having provided delicious greens since August. We can look forward to several more weeks of rain, with a few warmish, sunny days in between storm cycles, with typically 2-3 summery days around Washington’s birthday, the 22nd. There would normally be one good snowfall across Oregon around Lincoln’s birthday, the 12th, and often another here on the coast near the equinox in March – we’ll see if El Nino and the undersea volcanoes that are heating up the nearby ocean change that this year.

Still, there’s no signs of furry critters – no rabbits on the lawn at Surfrider in Depoe Bay; no raccoons or squirrels visible along the roadways. The ravens and gulls have stuck around all winter, and, surprisingly also, the hummingbirds. A few small birds are showing themselves – one was scratching around for dried berries under the bushes in my thicket yesterday afternoon, trying to stay out of sight while I cleaned up downed-branches from our latest storm. 

With all this in mind, tonight and tomorrow I will light white candles and give thanks for the awareness of new possibilities that this season represents, for the life-giving rain and the heartwarming flowers, and the ongoing Presence of Light, Love, Wisdom and Peace that we’re truly honoring on every holy day.

It’s high noon on New Year’s eve, which here in Oregon means the sun is almost due south, half-way up the curve of the sky above the horizon. I’m sitting on one of my favorite pieces of furniture, next to a south-facing window, absorbing as much of those warm rays as possible. 
There are a few holiday decorations scattered around the room – some of my “Father Christmas” figures, a small crystal Nativity, some greens and candles, and a small snowy village of 2-4” ceramic buildings with ½” high doorways that I’ve enjoyed collecting over the years.
They’ll stay up until Epiphany, January 6, following a tradition from my mother’s family of honoring the 12 Days of Christmas.  

 I woke up this morning as the first golden rays peeked through the branches of the old Douglas Fir tree outside my east-facing window - a wonderful sight after over a month of cloudy skies, torrential rains, and hurricane winds. A few days ago, at the solstice, it was too far south (and hidden by clouds) to see through my window.
Today, my first full day in my home for almost 2 weeks, has been quietly unfolding in small tasks, many of them outdoors in the glorious sunshine: sealing a leaky window, gathering some greens from the garden, filling the hummingbird feeder (after watching the hummingbird unsuccessfully test all its outlets), gathering the fallen branches off the front lawn, cleaning off some burned-on goop in the oven, putting together a few things to share as gifts while I’m gone, and, thankfully, a wonderfully cleansing shower-and-shampoo.
Breakfast was pancakes made with eggnog, a traditional holiday favorite in our family, ever since I invented them on a wintry coastal retreat where there wasn’t much else to eat. The other day I found some organic eggnog with no artificial flavoring and when I saw it in the fridge this morning I knew it was precisely the thing. I mixed it into a little gluten-free whole-grain pancake mix, with the added treat today of a handful of pecans. A little butter melted on the old cast iron griddle cooked them perfectly. With sliced oranges and a big mug of decaf coffee – who could ask for anything more delightful?
There’s a ham bone from my daughter Dawn’s Christmas dinner (which her husband cooked and I greatly enjoyed!) in the freezer and I have a few black-eyed peas stashed away – traditional New Year’s Eve fare in my mother’s family – maybe I’ll cook those up with some of the greens from the garden for this evening’s supper, and to share with folks wandering in.

Aren’t traditions wonderful? They remind us who we are and where we came from, and give us an opportunity to choose anew who we will be.  

Like most folks, I’ve picked and chosen which of the traditions I grew up with I would offer my children, or now, continue for myself. And like some, I’ve invented a few – like eggnog pancakes. Friends of mine tell of having made a pot of chili to celebrate their first Christmas together and continuing to do so for the over 40 years of their marriage, a tradition which their daughter shared with them via cellphone picture-sharing this Christmas day. Others tell of letting go of traditions that have, in the past, put so much pressure on them that the winter holidays were a time of dread, rather than peace and beauty. Good for them!

Tomorrow is January 1. Janus, the two-faced god, looks at the past and the future at the same time. This is his month. This is when we realize that much of what has happened in the past year no longer serves us and is no longer necessary, so we release it. This is also when we look forward to the year ahead, seeing with our inner eye what is possible and choosing which of those possibilities we will keep that inner eye focused on. 
For what we focus on is what we will experience. That’s psycho-cybernetics. It’s also applied metaphysics, or what Emma Hopkins called “the Spiritual Science.” It’s what’s referred to by “where your heart is, there your treasure is also,” and “keep your eye single.” Our attention, focused with feeling (good or bad), is what frames our experience. 
So, today, I’m basking in the warmth of the sun, appreciating the rain that filled my rain gauge several times over this past month, trusting that minimal damage was done to people, homes, and ecosystems in the process, feeling warm and content in my home, aware that I’ll soon be on the road working with others once again, and choosing to focus on a balanced Life of Love and Light for the year ahead.

A Blessed New Year be yours!

R

    Happy Holidays! Season’s Greetings!

May the Light that is born now expand in our hearts and lives through the years to come!

It’s Christmas Day and, like so many people in our northern latitudes, I am spending a few days with family. As in most households, the little ones are delighted with the many treats and gifts, while the adults, having barely slept last night, are doing today’s various tasks with moderation.

This being a Christian holy day and this part of my family being practicing Catholics, an overflowing church service was attended, where the appropriate carols were sung and the traditional story was told. This being a media-oriented culture and household, traditional films (like Polar Express) and music (via Pandora) have played in the background through the week. All my family being of a geekish nature, several of the gifts exchanged had references to star wars and dr. who, and books were the most common form of gift – several of which have already been read

My own spiritual path being interfaith, I’ve also helped lead several solstice-focused services and events over the past week, having honored Hanukah with my Jewish family and friends the week before. Tomorrow Kwanzaa begins among my African-American friends, and Sunday I’ll lead a service explaining it and the Greco-Roman origins of the “12 days of Christmas.”

I’ve always loved this time of year, but this year these holy days have taken on a special meaning for me. Ever since I became aware that we were in a transition from our old way of being (known variously as “the 4th world,” “the Piscean age,” “the empire” and more) to a new one (called, among other things, “the 5th world,” “the age of Aquarius,” and “the emerging culture”) I’ve seen our traditions in a new way. 

When I learned that the transition would last from late October 2011 to late October 2015, with the winter solstice of 2012 being the most highly publicized stage in the process, I began to pay careful attention to all of these traditional activities – and the threads of common meaning among them.

Fundamentally, across the many holy days, this is the season of the return of the Light, of contrast between apparent darkness and the reality of continuing (even when barely visible) light. 

This is, for all of us, a time to slow down and pay attention to the world around us – the wild storms and quiet beauty, the appearance of destruction and the renewal that follows, the long hours of dark and somber skies with the occasional break thru of brilliant light from the sun, moon, or stars.

This time of year is also, for many traditions, the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new one, a time when we acknowledge that new beginnings are possible – essential even. While calendars based on the moon begin at other times of year, calendars based on the sun begin when dawn and sunset once more begin their northward journey along the horizon, as the earth’s angle of rotation and revolution bring the far northern latitudes out of the shadow once more. Old ways are released so new ones may take their place – in our thoughts and actions, as well as our calendars, and the new way of being has long been represented as a newborn child – Chronos, the son of the Sun, the Christ – reminding us of love and light.

According to the ancient teachings, 2000 years ago the age of Pisces, the fish, replaced the age of Aries, the ram. At that time Julius Caesar’s protégé declared himself Augustus, Emperor of Rome, and established the Pax Romana – ending war and piracy around the Mediterranean. A new religion emerged then, based on the fulfillment of prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures, the first writings to tell us of a future different from the past. New technologies made travel easy and new ideas spread quickly – it took about 75 years for the new ways to be established, and Europe and the Americas are still living in the remnants of the Roman empire.

50 years ago a new generation, born out of the ravages of a worldwide war, reached maturity. They saw the devastation of that war and called upon the world to “make love, not war”. They saw the devastation being wreaked upon the water, air, and soil and called the world to celebrate our natural resources rather than exploit them for profit. They saw the heartbreak of social norms that forbade authentic wisdom and emotion and called for all to question authority. They saw a political process that was driven by money rather than the ability to lead and called for a true democracy. They saw, and participated in, the breakdown of racial barriers in institutions across the continent. It was the “dawning of the age of Aquarius” and both prophecy and forecast tell us that what they stood for then will become the norm by 2040, 25 years from now, and, like the innovations of Emperor Augustus and the Christians, will probably affect life on earth until about the year 4000.

In the past year we’ve seen the beginnings of the shift. They’ve showed up as, most visibly, great climatic changes. These changes alone will drive us to live and think in different ways. The people who live from their hearts and use their hands and heads wisely will thrive, while those who depend on authority to take care of them may lose much, as lands are flooded.

We’ve also seen a widening gap between those who choose to live for money or power and those who live in alignment with their heart’s knowing. Right now it looks like an income gap, a great divide between the “haves” and the “have nots,” but that is an illusion – what the “haves” have is numbers in a computer and pieces of printed paper with nothing to back them, but which give them access to some resources. What the “have nots” have is skills and loving relationships that will keep them going, regardless of what happens to those numbers or pieces of paper. This is the wisdom of the “red neck” who builds a home and family in a community with skills learned from previous generations; it’s the organic farmer, the eco-forester, and the “hippy gardener” who are learning these things for the first time.

We’ve seen the breakdown of “modernization” in many lands, especially among the Muslims who feel attacked by westerners who have come into their lands with bomb-dropping drones and feminism and demands that they create a “modern” government that will work with western governments. We’ve seen aboriginal, indigenous peoples take a stand against the environmental degradation and imposition of economic and social restrictions by the “modern” western governments who took over their lands. We’ve seen people seek popular support for the most powerful leadership position in the world who have no training, experience, or education for the job, but speak clearly and harshly about what’s wrong and what should be done and so win the minds of fear-filled people.

But when the darkness seems to surround us, we need to remember: the seeds of a brighter way have been planted. The apparent dark of winter has been covering them, but a new light has been born: the daughter/son of the Sun, the Christ-consciousness, the One Mind of humanity, the Light of Love. And this new light is calling us into the next stage in humanity’s development.

A few years ago, as I came to understand all of this, I was compelled to write a book, which I called Make the World Go Away. In it I laid out the process that I and my students have used to help us leave behind ways of thinking and acting that no longer work for our well-being and that of the world, to replace them with new thoughts, new patterns of action that lead us to light- and love-filled lives. It was my way of helping the seeds of the new way of being to germinate.

So today, as the changes we’ve anticipated for years begin to be felt, I sit here on this dark night of December, aware that behind those clouds a full moon is rising and that many people I care about have felt the unexpected warmth of sunshine this afternoon. I understand what’s happening in the world around me and I know what I need to do…

… focus on the Light of Love in, through, and as all that is, always.

Anything less will bring forth more appearance of darkness. Anything more is impossible.

May you know, always, the Light of Love that is your life, your peace, and our shared inheritance.

Blessings always,
   R

The world was a crystal fantasy yesterday morning when I got up and prepared for the 5+ hour journey from Waldport on the Oregon Coast, to DuPont on Puget Sound in Washington State. Grass and roofs, leaves and tips of branches, were all shades of white and grey as the first rays of sun touched the sky. I showered and dressed warmly, then grabbed a bag and, crunching across the frozen grass, gathered what may be the last of my wonderful supply of lettuces and kale from the raised bed in my back yard, then loaded up the car with bags and such – just as the friend I’m traveling with arrived at the front door to pick me up… 
Oops! Must be later than I thought? Ok, switch the bags to his car and off we go.

Frost was everywhere we looked as we drove up the coast, and the forest was magical as sunlight shone through ice-covered branches alongside the road through the mountains to the valley. In Corvallis, the sky was clear and sunny, and all traces of frost had disappeared. Traffic on the freeway was moving well, so we made good time thru Portland and into Washington, and I arrived at my daughter Dawn’s home just as her daughter Kara and son Jonathan were finishing lunch.

Hugs all round and a few minutes at the table while they finished eating, then it was down on the floor with, first the train set, and then the erector set. A knock at the door and Dawn’s father arrived with his current wife and daughter, and much laughter and more hugs ensued… family feels good.

The afternoon stretched into evening with children and adults overlapping conversations and sharing interests, then a delicious light supper, a bit of tv and more conversation, several opportunities to observe how wise and knowledgeable my daughter has become, and one last run through of plans for today’s Thanksgiving meal, before all said “goodnight” and headed their separate ways.

This morning the world was once more a crystal fantasy – an expanse of white lawn with scattered frosted evergreens shone through the window when I crawled out of bed to tend to the turkey. Dawn serves a mid-day feast, so the stuffed bird needed to be in the oven by 8am. All went well, so, with the turkey properly set and Kara busy coloring placemats for the table, I headed to my room for an hour of meditation and peace before joining the others in morning activities.

Which, of course, including preparing the rest of the meal – all the traditional dishes: green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, baked yams, salads, gravy, and for Dawn’s husband, ham. Far more food than we can eat today, but that’s intentional: “planned overs” are a big tradition in our family.

The timing of the early meal was originally so the kids could participate and be on a fairly normal schedule and nap after, but now they aren’t napping, so our Thanksgiving feast was an interesting overlapping dance of kids’ needs and norms with the adult traditions of blessings, toasts, roasts, and numerous side dishes and desserts. And, of course, following tradition, the adults all ate far too much.

So it was absolutely the right thing when a long walk was suggested. Sadly, my not-yet-fully-healed foot wasn’t quite up for that, so I made sure all the food was properly stored and came to my room, instead.

The foot? Well, it’s the “stop work order” that I was given on the full moon night of Samhain (just 4 weeks ago!). I stepped into the darkness and there was nothing under my foot, so I managed to twist both feet in ways bones and tendons don’t like. An almost immediate hot bath and hours of sleep, study, and meditation over the next day or so – with the acceptance that it was time for me to start living and working in a very different way – brought both feet and legs into a nearly fully functioning state by the 2nd morning.

Then, wouldn’t you know, reconnecting with the larger world on that second day, I received an email that “triggered” a bunch of old emotions that I wrestled with for most of the 3rd night – so when I woke up the next morning the right foot was all swollen and uncomfortable… clearly, I had some more releasing and replacing to do!

I canceled all activities for a few more days and did quite a bit of inner work that day, including letting the world know I would not be traveling nearly as much as I had been to meet with folks on their schedules, so I was able to walk, if carefully and with the right shoes,  that next night. I did a few errands then returned to my retreat, glad that I could get around but aware that I had not yet fully dealt with whatever was causing the weakness in my right ankle.

As I went into the Silence I realized how often I had placed divine Light and Bliss outside of me – something to reach for rather than relax into. I used imagery to experience myself relaxing into it and to feel that Power flowing through this body. I used Emma’s High Mysticism to remind me of who we Are and what we can do. I used a rolling chair to keep the weight off my right foot as I did the small things one must do to each day.

So eight days after the fall I was comfortable walking again and worked my usual schedule for 6 days. The last night – precisely 2 weeks, almost to the hour, from the first fall – I had finished my Florence weekend and, getting out of the car, the ankle twisted again – higher than before and much more painfully. Sigh! Must not have been listening to the inner voice!

So back into the Silence and Study… a thought-pattern was not serving me and must go.  And I got a brace so I wouldn’t be able to twist it again. Over the next 2 weeks I worked a little and spent a lot of time in the Silence. I relearned many lessons that I’d let slip out of awareness in my recent 30 months on the road followed by 3 months of moving in to a new office and home. Other lessons were taken deeper. The Silence became filled with awareness of forms of the Loving Presence that Is, everywhere, expressing in, as, and through this being. The Study reminded me of all the ways the universe supports us.

Slowly, the symptoms were reduced, and now, 4 weeks after the fall, my foot barely slows me down, but it has become the indicator of where my focus is – if I’m in the flow, in alignment with Love and Truth, it’s fine. If I’m thinking about limitations, or being at all judgmental (of myself or others) it complains.

And today, I forgot to reset the oven after taking the turkey out, which meant the side dishes took longer and dinner was delayed, and I felt that others were put out as a result (I also ate more than I would normally choose to, surprise!) – both judgmental thoughts – and within an hour, the foot was swollen and sore again…

Hence, no walk with Dawn and the kids on Thanksgiving afternoon. Instead, I put planned-overs away and came upstairs and now I’m sitting with my foot on a pillow writing this… I’ve done a little inner work and it’s already better. Now I’ll go back in and finish the process, then go down and play with the others in my family.

Feeling soooo grateful that I can! That I have the life and work and family I do! That so many good friends are willing to share their journey with me! That this world is, truly, becoming Heaven on Earth!!

May this day of gratitude and sharing be the beginning of a lifetime filled with such days, for all of us!

It's been one of my great joys to create an online class series for Gaia Living Systems Institute that point to what's needed for a sustainable human culture on this planet. They've released a couple of short sections to share - all on youtube... and here's one of them:

Life is truly becoming more heavenly, every day. Yay! And if we are to sustain the experience we need to find easy and enjoyable ways to continue to let go of old beliefs and assumptions – and the consequences we may be experiencing from having lived with them so long.

In Lessons in Truth Emilie Cady says,

“little vexations and fears come up in your life... Calmly and coolly say within yourself, ‘That’s nothing at all. It cannot harm or disturb me or make me unhappy.’"

Later she says,

“No person or thing in the universe, no chain of circumstances can, by any possibility, interpose itself between you and all joy, all good. You may falsely think that something stands between you and your heart's desire, and so go through life here with that desire unfulfilled; but it is not true.”

In How I Used Truth she tells a story about her ankle swelling and stopping her work (we've illustrated it in my Paths of Power biography of her life, The Power of Practice):

“Ordinary affirmations of Truth were entirely ineffectual, and I soon struck out for the very highest statement of Truth that I could formulate. It was this: "There is only God; all else is a lie." I vehemently affirmed it and steadfastly stuck to it. In twenty-four hours all pain and swelling – in fact, the entire "lie" disappeared.”

She gives guidance on how to enter into that “intersphering” state with the Christ – to FEEL the Christ within “that doeth the work”:

If, then, you are manifesting sickness, you are to ignore the seeming--which is the external, or circumference of the pool where the water is stagnant and the scum has arisen--and, speaking from the center of your being, say: "This body is the temple of the living God; the Lord is now in his holy temple; Christ in me is my life, Christ is my health, Christ is my strength, and Christ is perfect; therefore, I am now perfect because He dwelleth in me as perfect life, health, strength." Say the words with all earnestness, trying to realize what you are saying, and almost immediately the perennial Fountain of Life at the center of your being will begin to bubble up and continue with rapidly increasing activity, until new life will radiate through pain, sickness, sores, all diseases, to the surface, and your body will show forth the perfect life of Christ.

 …in thus looking to Him for health, when by an act of your will you stop looking to any material source (and this is not always easy to do), and declare the Christ in you to be the only life of the body, and it always perfect life, it needs but that you hold steadfastly, without wavering, to the thought, in order to become well.

She does the same with supply:

“Christ is my abundant supply (not supplier). He is here within me now, and greatly desires to manifest Himself as my supply. His desires are fulfilled now." Do not let your thoughts run off into how He is going to do it, but just hold steadily to the thought of the supply here and now, taking your eyes off all other sources, and He will surely honor your faith by manifesting Himself as your supply, a hundredfold more abundantly than you have asked or thought.

She quotes an epistle attributed to James, saying there can be no wavering if we are to see results…

Cady was a Christian living in a predominantly Christian culture. Not all of us are, so this language may be hard to accept.

It may help if we understand that she used the term “Christ” to describe, not a man who walked on the planet, but a state of being that is totally and continually at-one-with the divine Source of All That Is. It’s the Spirit of us – not intellect, body, or soul, for those are shaped by material experience – but that aspect of each of us that has never forgotten its Source and Supply. Jesus the Nazarene called it “Abba” or “Abwoon”, usually translated as “Father,” and his declaration of unity is usually translated as “I and the Father are One.”

So we can use the word Spirit instead of Christ. Or, if we want to acknowledge the feminine as well as the masculine attributes of the Source, we can say “Mother-Father within”. In the Hebrew tradition, we might say Adonai or Elohim. If we’re more comfortable with the teachings of the blessed prophet Mohammed, we can use the Arabic name of the One: Allah. Or, if we honor the Bhagavad Gita as a source of spiritual teaching, we can, as Lord Krishna suggests, focus entirely on Him and feel His Presence fill our being.  If Buddhist, we would acknowledge that the Atman of our individuality is part of, and one with Brahman, the ground-of-all-being.

The words do not matter, but the feeling does. We need to know at a feeling level, that there is no separation from our Source and the Good that is constantly surrounding us, being offered to us, expressing as us.

Then we can allow the Power to manifest and, as Cady says

…almost immediately the perennial Fountain of Life at the center of your being will begin to bubble up and continue with rapidly increasing activity, until new life will radiate through pain, sickness, sores, all diseases, to the surface, and your body will show forth the perfect life…

Blessed be!

It’s 5pm and the great masses of cloud to the south are lit by the setting sun – radiant gold slowly shifts to apricot and then sinks into the dark gray of the shadowed billows below. The sky around them, a brilliant blue a few minutes ago, is fading to almost white…

It’s strange to see this autumn sky when so many leaves are still on the trees! The trees think it’s September; the bulbs think it’s February; the geese started flying south in September and were flying by again this week. .. Hmmmm… I’ve suggested in the past that the climate here on the Oregon coast is feeling a lot like the way it was decades ago in the San Francisco area – is this part of that process?

Friends came to visit this afternoon and mentioned that a licensed Unity teacher read a long litany of world problems in the prayer process at church yesterday morning… clearly Emilie Cady’s admonition (in Lessons in Truth and How I Used Truth) not to describe or discuss that which we don’t wish to experience more of didn’t last through that teacher’s training, (sigh!) 

We must find a way to free ourselves of the temptation to accept unheavenly appearances as worthy of our attention!

Is it so deeply ingrained in our culture to focus on what’s not okay?

Hmmmm… the small-self/Adam man/ego operates on distinctions. If normal is everything’s fine then something is distinctly different by being not okay – and ego gets to point it out. If everything’s the same good, always and everywhere, there’s nothing for ego to play with “borrring!”. God/Higher Self doesn’t make distinctions – only ego/small self does. (“The News”, being all about distinctions, is by definition, then, an ego-trip!)

So how does development happen when there’s no distinction? Ah, A Course In Miracles tells us “by extension.”

Divinity experiences more, deeper, fuller, rather than different, better, worse, other-than. All beings within Beingness are extensions/expressions of all the same qualities – in varying patterns of wonderful…

Ah! That’s why I was inspired to look at the sunset sky! Are clouds better, worse, or different when compared to each other? No, they’re just fascinating variations of the same wonderfulness.  They billow up, they stream down; they shred into pieces, they roll on by; they take myriad forms – and none of them is permanent. But the essence we call “cloud”, with all its qualities, is.

Likewise, Being, with all its qualities, is. It make take any number of interesting forms or colors in the moment and move in all kinds of fascinating ways over time, but all of those are temporary expressions of one Being.

Humanity is the same. And mind. And spirit. And the universal Substance/quantum field. They all take myriad forms of expression in the moment and move in all kinds of ways over time, but every apparent distinction is just a temporary expression of one essence.

Hmmm…. This is the truth of the Native Elder applying the term Coyote or Raven or Deer or whatever other archetypal name to the individual expression as it appears in the moment and moves through time.

In our culture we focus on the individual expression in the moment; in theirs, the focus is on the eternal essence. In ours, the manifest form is what is important; in theirs, the ongoing, ever-changing-yet-always-the-same Spirit-as-Life is all that matters.

The European-American, trained to live and see and act from ego/small self, finds the Native concept incomprehensible and that way of seeing life “borrrring!”. The Native Elder, knowing the deep peace and joy that is possible in that way of thinking/acting, can’t conceive how or why anyone would think otherwise. Only the Native youth, ripped away from the elders’ careful demonstration of Truth, is inclined to follow the European egoic pattern – and experience its pain.

So, is it possible to live in this world without focusing on distinctions between individual expressions? Yes – but only by keeping in mind the Truth that what is being perceived is simply the archetypal Being expressing in the moment and moving through time – which is another way of saying that each individual, event, or situation we perceive is the All/Spirit/Being/God in expression.

And this means, of course, that any unheavenly distinction we perceive is our own ego/small self trying not to be bored. 

Blessings of heavenly expression/extending be yours!