Going With The Flow

MSG-01-Jun-2017

Title: Going With The Flow

Teaser:  God for us, we call you Father. God alongside us, we call you the Christ. God within us, we call you Holy Spirit.

I have been very remiss in my messages lately. I apologize.  There are just many issues brewing in my life right now and I am going through a phase where it is extremely difficult for me to concentrate or focus. Right now I am out of state on assignment – so this unease and lack of focus will continue for a while.  So, please bear with me.

I did receive this from a friend and wanted to pass it along to each of you. It is a brief meditation/essay on the Trinity. Although I stay away from “theological” kinds of discussions, this is simply very well done, as is most of his material. It is entitled Living in the Flow

“If the Trinitarian life flows between us, then every aspect of our lives is something that we can allow, enjoy, and steward. A Trinitarian theology gives you the understanding that you are being guided and you are participating in the Great Mystery. And it has very little to do with you except, like Mary, your “yes” – seems to be crucial. It matters. God does not operate uninvited or undesired.

“You are a part of the flow. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and you too-to the degree you say yes"—are also a giving and a receiving constituted by the same relationships of love that are the Trinity. (Enjoy that for the rest of your life!) You dare not stop this flow without losing your essential self. Each person of the Trinity welcomes one hundred percent of what is offered, which is entire and unrestricted, and then pays it forward one hundred percent. This flow is the origin of our notions of Grace and an Abundant Universe. There is Divine Generosity at the center of everything.

“You can live this Trinitarian mystery yourself. Trust love, trust communion, trust vulnerability, and trust mutuality. Always seek to be in relationship, finding little ways to serve others, to serve the sick, to serve the poor who cannot bay you back. Know that your heart is given to you and needs to be handed on, just like the Trinity. And you'll begin to know yourself inside this mystery called Love. There is actually nothing more to say. We could end the book right here.

“Don't try to work this out too much with your head. Just trust the flow of the most natural, dynamic, and positive energy that's already flowing through you. It will always feel like Love, and even love that sometimes hurts.

“‘God for us, we call you Father. God alongside us, we call you Jesus. God within us, we call you Holy Spirit.’”

As I’ve stated before, “I have to understand, on a visceral level, who the “Me” or “I” really is when I am speaking or thinking. The “I” that says to myself, “I really need a newer, more reliable car” is a different “I” than the one that says to Spirit, “I can’t do this anymore; help me perceive things the way You see them.”

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#1 June 2017

FCopyright 2017

How Important Is HOW?

How important is HOW? Short answer: Very!

It was the key to my experience of my Higher Power, whom I call God. I was told in my first months in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) that the key to changing my life was to be Honest, Open-minded, and Willing (HOW). That was the key to learning new skills that would change my life. “After all,” old-timers would tell me, “I will not think myself into a new way of living; I will live myself into a new way of thinking.”

And so it was.

I asked questions about the Twelve Steps of AA. I was very, very concerned about the 3rd Step [Made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, as I understood Him] – in that I believed it was the crucial step in my recovery. And I was told I was correct. It is the crucial step.

My concern was that I would not do it perfectly or completely enough to really get sober and turn my life around. Again, when I voiced this concern, the old-timers smiled and told me not to think so much. “Don, you’ll do the 3rd Step correctly by doing Steps 4-12 for the rest of your life.”

Aha! Finally! That made perfectly good sense to me.

By doing Steps 4-12 my life began to change: My compulsion to drink left me – very quietly, I might add; my willingness to ASK questions and DO the suggested responses I received grew and grew as I went on; my open-mindedness to the experience and hope of all who honestly shared began to guide me more and more; and, voilà, my life got better and better and my thinking, I noticed, was simply following along behind me.

I worked the Steps and, as promised, I had the beginnings of a spiritual awakening along the way. The spiritual awakening is still unfolding almost 30 years later. I am not perfect but I am still a work in progress.

I have used that same approach in my involvement with A Course In Miracles (ACIM). I am working the daily Lessons again. ACIM is divided into three main parts: The Text; The Workbook for Students; and the Manual for Teachers. The Workbook for Students states in its Introduction (italics are mine):

1 A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary as a framework to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. Yet it is doing the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of this workbook to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth.

2 The exercises are very simple. They do not require a great deal of time, and it does not matter where you do them. They need no preparation. The training period is one year. The exercises are numbered from 1 to 365….

4 The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see….

8 Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

9 Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required.

For me the message of AA and ACIM is being aware of how the “HOW” and the “DOING” will change my life. My thinking will follow along like a welcome, curious puppy. Perhaps you may consider embarking on the same journey.

As I’ve stated before, “I have to understand, on a visceral level, who the “Me” or “I” really is when I am speaking or thinking. The “I” that says to myself, “I really need a newer, more reliable car” is a different “I” than the one that says to Spirit, “I can’t do this anymore; help me perceive things the way You see them.”

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#3 Mar 2017

Copyright 2017

Addendum to: “Reacting From Fear…”

Yesterday (March 11) I sent out Message 2 for the Month. It was entitled “Reacting From Fear/Anger or Responding From Love.” In that message I was trying to describe the difference it makes when I slightly begin to see with spiritual vision rather than physical, egoic sight.

Today, Sunday March 12, I was in the sunshine on a crisp cold day in eastern Tennessee reading a new-to-me novel. It contained a passage that verbally painted a secular picture of this spiritual phenomenon. I found the book last weekend in a thrift store. The title is: “The Twilight of Courage” by Bodie and Brock Thoene [Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994].

The passage is describing the return to England by an American AP press reporter (Josephine – aka Josie) who had been trapped in Warsaw, Poland as the Nazi army stormed and devastated that country in 1939. She was escorted out and finally caught a boat from Amsterdam to Southhampton, England, where she was met by a fellow reporter named Alma.

The horrors Josie witnessed, as the German Wehrmacht followed by Nazi Waffen SS units, decimated the city and its people, were indescribable: rotting, dead and dying civilians, livestock, and pets; destroyed churches, mosques, and synagogues; purposeful bombing of civilian buildings of safety – municipal buildings, museums, opera houses, and block after block of residential areas.

Her last conversations were with a Catholic nun, Sister Angeline, as they desperately tried to assuage the suffering of victims in the Cathedral of Saint John in Warsaw. Then the roof began to collapse after the strike of yet another shell. It killed Sister  Angeline.

Alma has been pestering Josie for information by asking her questions like “What was it like?” and ”How did you manage?” and “Why didn’t you bring your luggage?”

[From pages 41-42 – italics are in the original text] “Alma’s mindless chatter grated like fingernails on a blackboard.  The final words of Sister Angelina echoed in Josie’s mind. No man limps because the foot of another man is injured. England will not come to help us, Josephine. They will not think of us again once we are buried. To do so would make them ashamed. But you? Leave this place with joy in you heart, daughter. You will never see the world as you saw it before. You will find God’s presence in ways you had not imagined.

“They stepped out into the sunlight. For the first time Josie felt the glory of all that was ordinary: church steeples and slate rooftops standing as they had for hundreds of years, the tangle of chimney pots.

“The unbroken skyline of the city gleamed in russet hues: brown brick, red brick, black brick. The day throbbed with color. A seagull cried as it soared overhead. The air smelled of ocean and the musty scent of leaves about to drop from the trees. Autumn would soon arrive in England. There was a wonderful living aroma. Had Josie ever really noticed before? And if she had noticed, had she tried to define what made it so spectacular? She was suddenly filled with an exquisite joy.

“’What is wrong with you?’ Alma grumped.

“’It’s lovely here. So ordinary.’

“’Lovely warehouses? Lovely seagull droppings? Lovely screaming American tourists stumbling out of taxis?’

“’Yes, I suppose.’

Alma could not comprehend. She had not yet witnessed the world turned upside down. She had not breathed the air in Warsaw, and so she could not know the sweet air of England, even in ordinary Southhampton, was something holy. How could she understand what had happened to Josephine? Drawing a breath in safety had become an act of worship.

“’I’m really thankful to be alive, Alma,’ Josie said in a tone so serious that it made Alma laugh. Her laughter did not matter.

“’Well, so am I!’

“Josie stopped her on the sidewalk at the end of the taxi queue. ‘No. I mean . .  . I am truly glad I was in Warsaw. Glad I got left behind. That I met all those people…. It’s okay. I’m different, you know? Nothing to worry about. I mean . . . I am thankful.’”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Seeing with gratitude is seeing with love – with vision. It’s responding rather than reacting. As I closed yesterday’s message, I can close this addendum: “These are the moments of unity we need to focus on, the collateral beauty in the midst of chaos….”

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#2a Mar 2017

Copyright 2017

Do Not Forget the HOW in 2017

Happy New Year!

Very early in AA I learned about the importance of HOW – to be Honest, Open-minded and Willing. I remember asking questions of members in the fellowship about bosses, children, family members, and questions about how to handle myself. For some inexplicable reason (that I now attribute to my higher power), the questions and issues I discussed were done often in an embarrassingly honest and open way. I didn’t embellish or minimize. Then, I really listened to the answers I got. Rather than trying to explain how different I was and offering all sorts of reasons their suggestion(s) did not really apply to me, I took their experiences seriously and was willing to apply their suggestions to myself.

It worked. I made better decisions, thought through issues in a more reasoned manner, acted in better ways and, voilà, got better results. As I progressed in the development of my sobriety, I watched as others, many of whom had real severe issues with being uncomfortably honest and open with people, did the same thing and began getting better. Their level of comfort in honestly sharing improved, as did their issues or questions – and the answers they received improved as well.

A Course In Miracles (ACIM) encourages us to do much the same. In the most recent issue (Jan/Feb 2017) of The Holy Encounter, Beverly Hutchinson McNeff, the co-founder of the Miracle Distribution Center, wrote an article entitled “Make This Year Different…” In part it reads:

“ A Course in Miracles invites us to ‘make this year different by making it all the same.’ It asks us to let all our relationships be made holy for us. This is its advice on how to make the year different from all others: to consistently allow the Holy Spirit to heal our relationships for us.

“You may think: ‘What are you talking about? All my relationships are just fine.’ But let’s remember, we wouldn’t be here if we were truly healed. We can all benefit by allowing the Holy Spirit into our minds and letting Him do the work.

“So this year instead of resisting healing by saying I can’t do it … it’s too hard … I’m not spiritual enough … there’s nothing to heal…. Let’s just invite Him in. Let’s step back from what we think we know and become comfortable with the presence of God, the presence of love that only wants our happiness and healing.

Mots of the time we don’t know why we’re unhappy, depressed, or anxious. Don’t let that stop you from inviting in the Holy Spirit’s presence. He knows how to help even if you don’t. Your understanding is not necessary for Him to work; only your willingness is.” [Miracle Distribution Center, Anaheim, CA, [www.miraclecenter.org] p.11]

I don’t know about you, but I think this is a pretty good New Year’s resolution.

As I’ve stated before, “I have to understand, on a visceral level, who the “Me” or “I” really is when I am speaking or thinking. The “I” that says to myself, “I really need a newer, more reliable car” is a different “I” than the one that says to Spirit, “I can’t do this anymore; help me perceive things the way You see them.”

Although these messages are mostly for me, thanks for listening to me and getting to know me – warts and all. As always, feel free to forward this message to your friends, family, and those accompanying you on your spiritual journey.

Don

#4 Dec 2016

Copyright 2016