Category Archives: Spiritual Practices

Peace

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We are a week into the E-course on A Course in Miracles and I am finding it a useful addition to my spiritual practices. In the first week, a very helpful lesson was the reminder from the ACIM Workbook (Lesson 34), entitled “I could see peace instead of this.”

The text from the Workbook encourages the reader to “search your mind for fear thoughts, anxiety-producing situations, ‘offending’ personalities or events, or anything else about which you are harboring unloving thoughts.” Then as each one arises in your mind, you are to repeat: “I could see peace in this situation instead of what I now see in it.” With that, you let go of whatever thought was troubling you.

Unless you’re a hermit in a remote desert (and maybe even then), you’re going to have situations arise in the course of day-to-day interactions with people that irritate you, frustrate you, annoy you, frighten you, disgust you, or upset you in some other way. As your normal, usual reactions occur, you can put the brakes on immediately with the thought from Lesson 34: “I could see peace instead of this.”

Another expression for the same rethinking is: “I could experience peace in this situation instead of what I am experiencing now.”

God be with you in increasing the peacefulness of your life.

       

A Course in Miracles

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I am stoked! On Sunday, August 4, I am starting a 28-day E-course entitled “The Wisdom of A Course in Miracles with Diane Berke.” I’m excited at the prospect of again focusing on love, forgiveness, peace, gratitude, joy, etc., as only A Course in Miracles can do.

Years ago these books were my main source of spiritual nourishment for an entire year, and they were definitely up to the task. The result was that I created a quarterly spiritual newsletter that I ended up sending to a mailing list of 700+ recipients – and this was all postal service, before the days of email transmissions.

What I most look forward to for the upcoming month is to see the texts through someone else’s eyes. What will she choose to emphasize? What gems have struck her as important enough to bring to everyone else’s attention? Maybe it will be one like this: “Every loving thought is true. Everything else is an appeal for healing and help, regardless of the form it takes.” Or how about these:

“Can you imagine what it means to have no cares, no worries, no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time?”

“What you perceive in others you are strengthening in yourself.”

“You are altogether irreplaceable in the Mind of God. No one else can fill your part of it, and while you leave your part of it empty your eternal place merely waits for your return.”

Lovely! Maybe you should think about signing up for this E-course too!

       

Waiting, Trusting

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My recent posts are starting to fall into a theme: waiting on God, trusting in the slow work of God, being patient, staying in faith.

Last night was a meeting of a group of women friends – we’ve been meeting on a semi-regular basis for over 18 years. As I thought about the things I would share with them, I realized how much of my life right now feels like waiting and trusting. That’s been the case for a number of weeks. My spouse’s health has taken a new, mysterious turn and the doctors are doing more guessing than diagnosing, so we wait in faith for a return to a more stable place. My novel manuscript has been for seven weeks now with the agent I most want to represent it, and I await his decision. The major project that has been the source of our livelihood for many months is coming to an end, and the questions are beginning about what will come next.

These are all important matters for our peace and security, and all of them are outside my direct control. But I take the steps I can see to take, and for the rest, I stay in faith, waiting and trusting.

Lately, the people who come to me to share their personal journeys are mostly in that place, too, of seeing avenues they would like to walk but that aren’t quite available to them yet and having to trust that God will open the doors that are right for them and keep closed the ones that aren’t. Maybe they are seeking me out because they sense that that is my journey too.

       

Clarity

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Yesterday an episode of Bones included an observation that went something like this: “It’s a barbarity that clarity is such a rarity.”

Since much of my delight comes from words, I stopped paying attention to anything else in the show and devoted myself to rolling variations of that sentence around and around my mind.

But apart from the clever sounds, the message hits home with me because of the importance of clarity in our spiritual lives. It’s tough to have clarity these days, with so much in the way of images, sounds, and messages coming at us nonstop. We have to find a way to be still long enough to process what’s come in, determine what’s real and meaningful, and absorb what is of value while discarding the rest. Clarity, once we get to it, enables us to know our own opinions, to say what we really mean, to be who we are meant to be. Many of us rely on our spirituality to bring clarity to the rest of our lives.

One avenue to clarity is meditation, the kind where you quiet your mind for long enough periods to come to rest in the cosmos of your soul; another avenue is prayer, the kind where you take your time and say out loud everything – everything – that’s on your heart and then listen to what response there may be. A common avenue is journaling.

Whatever your method, arriving at clarity makes your entire life work better. The rarity of clarity is a barbarity.

       

Patience

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Recently on Twitter a great post by @Kekris provided me with a perspective on peace and patience that I’ve been thinking about ever since and want to share. This was her tweet, a quote from Adel Bestavros:

“Patience with others is Love, Patience with self is Hope, Patience with God is Faith.”

When I can’t always feel love toward other people, I can still (nearly always) muster patience toward them, and it gives me peace to know that that is a step toward loving them. It makes me more willing to try.

Patience with myself – I’d always perceived patience with myself more as acceding to a tendency to procrastination, and never viewed it as something positive. Maybe if I can see it as Hope, I can loosen that particular fight.

And patience with God reminds me of my previous post on “waiting for God,” which must be about the same thing because both suggest the quiet assurance (read: Faith) that God will come through, even if it takes a while.

How do you see these definitions of patience in your own life?


       

Waiting for God

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Today has been a day of complete rest: sleeping late, then meditation, then a nap later, then lying about reading all day. I’m sure it’s been years since I have taken a day like this, and I am grateful for the complete quiet, the extraordinary peace. I would not want to live like this every day, but something negative happens if a day like this is never taken. It’s probably the buildup of how seldom such a day is enjoyed that makes it become imperative. It’s been a retreat day without going anywhere or paying anything for the privilege.

So, why am I writing about this? My purpose is really not to push this sort of “not-doing” day as a spiritual practice, though maybe it should be – it’s certainly benefited my spiritual being. I’m writing this because yesterday a friend of mine said (in gentle ridicule, I think) that my blog posts happen when God tells me what to write. Today, after many days of silence in this blog, this is what I felt compelled to write … so could be she’s right. I think that’s how I’m going to approach this blog from here on. Thanks, Erin!

       

Appreciation: Staying Current

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Expressing gratitude is something you’ve heard about hundreds of times. We all know the values to be gained from bringing a thankful attitude to all situations.

But here’s a twist on gratitude: appreciation. When you are at a crossroads in your life, it’s time to think about the people who have been instrumental in your success or your daily well being to that point and make a conscious point of expressing your appreciation for what those persons have done in your life. You may never have another opportunity. It will cost you little to tell them they are appreciated, and it will likely make a huge difference to them.

It’s not only at the turning points in your life, though, that such expressions of appreciation are important. Regularly there are people making an extra effort to make your life better. It might be your spouse; it might be someone at work; it might be the clerk who exerts herself to be efficient and responsive. Make a point of letting these people know that you noticed.

       

Daily Miracle

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I belatedly heard today a fabulous interview conducted by entrepreneur Brendon Burchard of author Paulo Coelho (the new Manuscript Found in Accra as well as the earlier book The Alchemist). I use the reference “belatedly” because the interview was published on the Internet a couple of days ago, and only today did I hear it.

In the course of it, Paulo Coelho made reference to his frequent prayer: “Lord, give us today our daily miracle and forgive us if we are unable to recognize it.”

You will see your own blessings in this quotation. Here are a few I find: (1) We can pray boldly and ask for miracles to occur in our lives. (2) We apparently have a right to at least one miracle every day. (3) When the miracles come, we might miss them if we aren’t paying attention. (4) Even that oversight can be forgiven, if we but ask.

My best miracle for today was hearing that interview!

       

Every Day

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Something new has just been added to my “every day” schedule: giving our overweight Pomeranian a quick walk down and back up the steep-incline hill near our house. It’s a medical necessity: if she continues to gain weight, she will very soon have serious health issues. But she’s young enough that if we can get the excess weight off, she’ll feel better and remain healthy for, presumably, several years yet.

Helping Hillary lose weight won’t be achieved quickly – no instant gratification here. We will have to make the commitment to do the walk every day for the foreseeable future, and we probably won’t actually see the improvement happening. But we will continue the commitment in the faith that we are doing a good thing that will benefit her.

That’s like most things worth doing, including writing projects and spiritual practices and even working on good relationships. Do a little bit every day toward what you want to achieve, and ultimately what you want to achieve will be yours.

       

Faith Enough to Take the First Step

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Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered in a number of maxims he spoke that have proven to be truths that we can live by. On and around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we will be hearing them again, from “I have a dream” to “The ultimate measure of a man.” I hope that hearing them will spur us to take the time to think about them for the strength and value they can bring to us.

My personal favorite of King’s memorable quotes is: “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” So many times in life we find ourselves at that first-step place. It’s a decision point and sometimes we can’t muster the courage to lift a foot, so that particular staircase is never mounted. That’s likely the greatest tragedy of most people’s lives.

King is giving us the secret to avoiding the tragedy of lost might-have-beens. Taking the first step in faith means that it’s not your own strength alone that lifts your foot. A source of divine assistance is always available to you. It’s an acknowledgment that though you cannot see the whole staircase, Someone can, and you have the right and the empowerment to borrow from that visionary assurance and begin.

The invitation for all of us is to look at where we have been hesitant to take the first step, overwhelmed by the lack of foresight and inability to know the future. Instead, we can be willing to accept that we don’t see the whole staircase and embrace the faith to begin anyway.