Eileen meets the beast

Life has been amazingly busy lately.  I've heard others of you say the same thing.  Well, the result is that I missed yesterday for blogging.  So today I think I'll tell you the story that I intended to post yesterday.  But let me first say that while things are busy it is often hard to stay grateful.  The Truth is that life is so busy that there is a lot to be grateful for.  My busy life is packed with little blessings.  When I think about all that I've been able to accomplish, all that I've learned, and the opportunities (even small ones) that have come my way in the last 24 hours I can feel that wonderful gratitude again.  However, things packed in so tight causes "stress" for my personality.  And Stress drowns out the other feelings.  So, I suppose the practice is to approach the things we stress about without resistance & to constantly step back and feel gratitude for the blessings.  Stress is one of the "wild animal" pets that we keep in our consciousness home.  We need to tame it a little and give it boundaries.  Eventually, maybe we will be able to part with this pet entirely.

Here's the STORY:  I woke up thinking about this yesterday.  Eileen was a member of my Fort Pierce congregation.  She was in her later 70's to early 80's, but amazingly spry & totally filled with life.  Eileen was short, petite, probably didn't top much more than 80 pounds.  She was always "up", joy-filled, never caught up in petty emotions.  She was still quite attractive & though at her age the men were in demand.  She's the one who had every man in the park going after her.  But she took the attention with absolute grace.  She was a joy to know.

One day she told me of an unusual encounter that she had had recently, while out doing her early morning walk around some of the roads where this manufacured home community had not yet been developed.  The community was out in the savannahs & had miles of undeveloped road through the underbrush and much of it at quite a distance from the concentrated housing.  She was out enjoying nature, putting in her 2 mile walk.  There was a little bit of fog that hid the housing in the distance, so it seemed quite remote.

Suddenly feeling a presence, she impulsively turned around to look behind her.  As she turned, this large animal about fifty feet behind her stopped following her and stood looking at her.  He was standing in the middle of the road, obviously following her step for step.  He was a tawny cat about the size of a large German Shepherd, with a very long swishing tail.  Eileen realized there was no one around, in fact, no one within hearing distance even if she yelled. 

They stared at each other quite a while.  Then, she yelled at him to "get", using her arms to wave him off into the brush.  He simply continued to stare at her instensely.  She realized that he probably out-weighed her and was stalking her.  She took a step backward and he took one forward.  So she took at step toward him & he stayed in place.  If she moved back he matched her and she decided that moving forward was totally counter-productive as he stayed in place, letting her shorten the distance between them.  This dance went on for maybe ten full minutes, which can seem an eternity in this kind of situation.

Finally, she decided to stand her ground & face him down until something happened.  She had always been protected throughout her life.  Though she'd had her moments of loss & her major challenges, life was usually beneign in dealing with her.  So with internal stamina she steadfastly faced what seemed like an eternal stalemate.  If he sprang on her it would be all over, but she intended to go down fighting. 

After another endlessly long time.  The cat yawned as it looked casually away.  It took one more good look at her, then slowly, casually, slunk off into the underbrush.  Eileen waited a moment, then began a brisk walk back to her home.  From the description it seems it could only have been either a Florida Panther, or a cougar.  Both would be extremely rare sightings in Fort Pierce, FL.  Thus the authorities told her that she must have gotten it wrong.  Surely it was only a bob-cat.  But Eileen was sure it was not.  It was much larger & had a very long tail.  I believe that Eileen had a truly rare encounter.  Something to be cherished for the rest of your life.  It is something on the order of the time my Dad punched a bear in the forehead, except that hers was all about internal intensity.  I believe these rare encounters are stupendous gifts.  And I am grateful just to have known someone like Eileen and to be able to carry her story with me throughout my life.

I'll bet you know people whose chance encounter made your life richer or heard their stories which have become part of who you are over the years.  There's a lot to be grateful for in this life.

Get the Feeling

This week we're concentrating on "Gratitude".  The idea is to make this spiritual energy a part of your "normal" state of consciousness.  I outlined yesterday at service how powerful this can be in your life.

Last night I decided to meditate on gratitude, but not by saying "Thank you God!" the whole time.  I of course did that some.  But I'm a great one for trying to isolate the "feeling" of the energy even without any object to cause it.  So, I thought of how beautiful the night was, said "Thank you, God" a few times, but then, moved into just "feeling" the energy of gratitude.  It's a feeling that isn't that hard to capture.  Then I would just sit there in easy meditation, just enjoying the feeling.  When you do this you don't need to have an object to be grateful for.  You can just live in the feeling.

A little bit of practice at this in meditation and you'll discover that you can call up the feeling anytime you like.  As we keep calling it up throughout our day, we discover that it's easy to feel this way in the background while we are doing anything that we need to do with our lives.  It's not about being grateful for any particular thing that we have chosen in our minds.  That's just to get started.  It's about living in this feeling while we go about life as we normally would.  You may have to keep calling it up periodically, but shortly it becomes natural to feel this way when we are doing any of the chores, fun things, or even challenges of life.  We do everything in some state or "normal" feeling all the time.  It's worth training ourselves to make the "Feeling", the pure energy, of gratitude that "normal state of feeling". 

I guess  Sunday is my "blog day of rest".  I did intend to put up the synopsis from the Sunday lesson for anyone who couldn't be there or anyone who wanted to review.  So I guess I'll add that here.  Good luck on living in gratitude!

“Dynamic Gratitude”

SCRIPTURES: Luke 17:15-19  Ephesians 5:20   John 11: 41-42 

1.  The Sp Power of Gratitude:   Catapults us into Harmony with the Higher Realms; Attracts Blessings & Goodness, Abundance; Empowers prayer or “creating spiritually”; Seals in a Spiritual Demonstration; Changes the way we feel; Changes our whole consciousness dynamically, instantly!

2.  Apply to Past, Present, Future:  Past = Charges Consciousness with Appreciation of Goodness & Power to Attract what Desire. Use a Gratitude List to “Kick-Start” Feeling of Gratitude when things not going well.; Present = moves us out of “feeling of Lack” into “feeling of plenty”.  Use on – Good things; Places you need MORE – “worthy over a little”;  PROBLEMS – Think of them while FEELING “Gratitude”;  Future =  stirs Powerful Prayer Activity.  Gratitude for Answered Prayer (Raising Lazarus).  Gratitude for what are you are creating Spiritually in your life?

3.  Practice:  Feeling the Energy:   (Gratitude = Like Desert! It feels good unto itself no matter what the meal was like.)  Gratitude Over-flows the Heart like a fountain.  Ask yourself, “What are you most Grateful for in you life.” & Generate the feeling.

4.  Gratitude = path from lack to abundance:  Practice in different Areas of you life that could use improvement.  e.g. Body, Protection, Finances, Relationships, etc.

5.  Remember to be Grateful that you are a Spiritual Being.

Gratitude is FUN!

This morning I've been musing on tommorrow's service theme:  Gratitude.  It's the perfect day to do so.  That humid, breezy, after-the-hurricane weather is absolutely beautiful and certainly due some gratitude.  This is going to be a fun week applying this principle.  We give gratitude a relatively restricted place in our lives - we feel it only after something really outstanding happens.  But Jesus taught it as one of the main doorways for entering the "kingdom of the Heavens".  It is one of the most dynamic qualities we have in our spiritual tool box for up-grading our lives.

Bottom line:  Gratitude is FUN!  When you feel grateful the energy that flows out of your heart is like pure honey.  It is desert.  And we don't eat desert because it is appropriate.  We eat it as a treat, a pure celebration after whatever the meal provided.  In fact, if the meal hasn't been all that tasty, it makes the time for desert all that more enjoyable.  So, this week we will take time to feel gratitude as a thread that is woven toughout all our experiences of the day.  In the end, it just feels good.  And, it also alters life for the better.  Practicing living our lives in gratitude is a powerful spiritual practice, yet one that is it's own reward.

I'm about to go off to a memorial service - a chance to feel gratitude for having shared life with someone who has become special to us.  I imagine we can weave gratitude into just about everything we do.  And it seems it would be even more important when life seems dreary.  After all nothing opens up the doors of heaven (here & now) faster than feeling grateful.  And once we master living in a constant state of gratitude the blessing that come within our reach to claim, increase phenomenally.

Tommorrow we will dynamically flood our consciousness with this quality during service.  Hope you are there.  If you can't be, at least catch it on the web.  I am grateful that someone reads this stuff I'm writing.  That means I'm grateful for you!

Creating Vortexes

Prayer can be seen as a vortex in the creative flow.  The vortex (it can look like a small tornado in mind) is formed inside ourselves.  We must actually BE the vortex, BE the prayer.  Then we can express it outward into it's particular place in our world.  This goes along with our "we create our world from the inside out" theme. 

First, create the result of the prayer inside of yourself.  Be sure to place yourself in all the correct emotional states that reflect fulfillment of your prayer.  If it is for someone else, be sure to start with deep sincere compassion for the person or situation you are creating a vortex for.  KNOW that fulfillment is being created within you.  Move into gratitude.  Then, I find it intriguing to express it out to the person or outer circumstance by actually imaging this vortex around them.  Finally you must release this "whirlwind" to do its work - releasing it with trust and gratitude.

The air is rich with emotion today.  Maybe its the energy in the air from the hurricane.  Maybe its the energy from all those feeling that this hurricane is imminent for them.  Maybe its a cycle in the thought atmosphere that is beyond all of this.  Or maybe I'm just in a sensitive mood today.  The point is, when the thought atmosphere is full of emotion, it can be beautiful or it can be overwhelming and hang over what's happening throughout the day like a cloud.  The difference is how conscious we make it.  If we make it very conscious the energy (even from impending disaster) can be felt as beautiful.  I suggest you feel it and thrill to it.  Let it lift the positive excitement level in your soul.  Move into gratitude for the energy itself.  Then we are free from the cloud and can function more clearly in whatever, we personally must face throughout the day.

See you at the Beetle Mania concert at the church tonight!

Wind Gusts in Mind

     Today, a wind gust took airborne the umbrella over our picnic table on the back porch - nearly scaring the dogs to death.  As we thrill to the energy in the air, evidence of a hurricane in the vicinity, I am reminded that it is reflective of the feeling in the thought atmosphere.  The evidence that we are getting somewhere in our efforts to live more out of our spiritual identities is our ability to stay centered, calm, and positive, in the face of all that's gusting around us in earth life right now.

     One long time member of our church came to me excited that she felt she was truly transforming into a new self.  She said, "It seems a little silly, but something happened that would normally send me ballistic.  And my response was to take it in stride and calmly deal with it.  That's a big change for me!"  I totally agreed.

      Remember, I compared the spiritual self to the qualities of the beatitudes, rather than the super-hero self that we usually hope for.  Your soul knows it extends beyond the drama that you face right now and puts it all in perspective.  It puts its efforts on a higher level.  Thus, the beatitude qualities are things like:  Humble, Meek (non-aggressive), Pure in heart, Peacemaker (harmony), and able to endure whatever life throws at you. 

     One day at a time, is all we have to maintain.  Just by calmly facing whatever life presents today while maintaining the joy inspired by the energy in the wind (the universal Mind we are immersed in), we touch the powerful yet peaceful, "in this world but not of it", part of ourselves that we call our soul.

We're Getting Started!!!

             We are beginning an exciting journey, trying to alter our whole sense of self, so that we can work in the Kingdom of the Heavens as Jesus did when he preformed his miracles.  In the 1^st Sunday session we embraced “rebirth” – Learning to live out of our spiritual identities, instead of just our human selves.  Last Sunday, we embraced creating our world from inside out – changing ourselves in order to change our world.  In particular we took on the project of erasing “complaining” from our conversations.  Each day I’ll give some thoughts I have on what I’ve been going through, what some of you have shared with me about what you are encountering, or just what’s in the news & how it affects us.

            TODAY:  I want to point out that changing our habit of seeing the human drama and complaining about it, is HARD!  Personally, the world has thrown a number of things at me that are worth complaining about.  And letting them go in order to only do what is constructive requires effort and tenacity because many of these instances elicit habitual responses.  My advice to you today is to “keep at it”. Life has a tendency to distract us from our spiritual goals.  It keeps reminding us of how human we are.  We have to keep getting back up on the spiritual horse. 

            Have you noticed the earthquake felt in 22 states that don’t normally have earthquakes (not to mention the Colorado one).  Then there is the hurricane headed for the northeast coast (not one of its normal more southerly victims).  And of course the economy has all kinds of numbers to get our attention & the stock market goes up & down.  Yes, we live in exciting times.  Our job is to take joy in all that the world is doing to attract our attention, but not forget our primary thrust is to remember that we are eternal, spiritual beings, “in this earth, but not of it”, going through this temporary human experience.  Because it is passing, we need to cherish all the experiences this life is offering us right now.  But we need to keep connected to the part of our life that is not temporary – not here today, gone tomorrow.

            Good luck!  Keep centered.  It’s the subtle, but consistent efforts that have more effect that we realize.

Come Join the Spiritual Adventure!

            “The Jesus Practices” is the title of my FALL series.  Jesus left a series of instructions for “how to” enter and use “the KINGDOM of the HEAVENS” – that invisible realm where prayers are answered & miracles are created.  Each week we address one of those practices and “implement” it into our lives.  The cumulative effect is a new and powerful spiritual experience of life.  Come be part of this transformational adventure!