One of the amazing gifts of wintering on Pine Island is the variety of plant life that flourishes in the sunshine and warmth of Southwestern Florida.
People (and plants) can be so very creative. People and plants can also be quite destructive.
This succulent was planted in the center of a landscape boulder and placed close to the road so the colors and textures playfully peek out, as if saying hello to passers by!
Succulents are plentiful. I took this photo a few days ago and sent it to Davey and Eli, Canadian friends who are not sure if they will be able to come down this season due to COVID.
The trees are also quite different here, like this “strangler” fig. Many varieties of strangler trees exist in the tropics, and they can damage or even kill the host tree.
Citrus trees certainly don’t grow in Michigan but they do thrive in this climate. Citrus blossoms are very aromatic. You can often smell the fragrance before seeing the trees!
This week, a special citrus tree was removed from the yard at the former home of my friend and fellow-poet, Katey. Katey’s home on Skipper Lane here in Cherry Estates was the first home we wintered in, way back in 2013. We were fortunate to stay in that home for three winters. Katey and I were both sad about this tree’s removal.
The following poem is a tribute to that special tree and an invitation for a more mindful living with respect to all sentient beings:
What Else?
It was obvious new owners were making changes
My intention was to leave a note on your door
Asking permission to harvest the lemons
Now the haunting question remains:
Had the note been written,
Might a precious meyer lemon tree have been saved?
Your lips will never taste a meyer lemon pie
Nectar squeezed from the fruit
Reverently picked from the branches of your meyer lemon tree
Now no other lips will curl in delight
From that sweet fruit either
Carefully shaking the trunk
Clarence taught me the secret to the best pies
Gather only those lemons that fall
Ready, succulent, ‘ripe for the picking’
Willingly releasing their hold on the branch
And offering their juices
For six winters I have known
THIS meyer lemon tree
As it predictably produced
Culinary joy for so many
Your “unwanted vegetation”
Now cleared
Left as yard waste
Was the mother of such taste!
What else is unrecognized as precious, delicious, nourishing?
What else has been heedlessly discarded?
What else offers itself without recognition?
What else awaits honoring even now….
There’s going to be pain that feels overwhelming.
There are going to be situations
that come up where
we just suddenly freeze up and say,
“I don’t know how to do this.”
~ Barbara Brodsky
This is certainly a time of accepting what is and knowing that what is, is enough. The current version of this process began for me last March when Lee County, Florida, experienced it’s first fatality from a confirmed community-transmitted case of the coronavirus.
As John and I began to self-isolate, I would gently remind myself of the truth: we can live with what we have for a long time. We can hold the desire for something else with compassion. We can notice the voice inside that habitually insists, “I want it this way!”
I was naïve enough at that time to see everyone doing what was quite difficult for a short period of time, so together we could quickly move through this pandemic with grace and ease.
Of course, I notice subtle judgment about those who continue having big gatherings, “We could be done with this if THEY would do what is needed.”
I watch mindfulness to conserve.
I still move a new sheet of paper towel from “use with food” to “use to clean,” rather than grab a clean sheet and then toss it. In the toilet, I limit most wipes to four squares, if you know what I mean.
Okay. I don’t know how to do this.
Can I give myself permission
not to know how to do it?
And then finally
I can come to the part that says,
“Yes, I do know how to do this.”
~ Barbara Brodsky
As we traveled from Michigan to Florida this past weekend, we took what we learned from our trip home last April. We had food, water, and potty preparations in the van with us. I used safe protocol when we had to stop for fuel.
We opted for a Zoom Thanksgiving with my sister, Janis, and brother-in-love, Larry.
We chose to stay in a hotel near Stacey, and to wear two masks while visiting with Stacey and Doug, Brad and Christina, and Adam — and Baxter and the cats!!!
Later today I will make a sign for the lanai door here on Bounty Lane saying we are safe-sheltering. Not at all our normal, not at all our desired — but enough.
I have some curiosity about those who have tested positive and are navigating the virus but have requested that information not be shared. My wondering about it is, “Are they experiencing guilty feelings about having contracted this virus?”
We played our first Zoom dominoes game last evening with Linda and Larry while we are here on Bounty Lane and they are still at Lot 101 at home in Glenaire. While our location has changed, much remains the same.
The theme of our meditation retreats has been about what remains.
What remains in my cupboard? What remains as we continue to navigate a global pandemic? What remains when a loved one passes?
What remains is LOVE. What always remains is LOVE. And LOVE is enough.
It was great to take Michigan apples to Stacey. It was wonderful to deliver her favorite sauerkraut casserole. We loved seeing the beautiful improvements to their home. It was sweet to share homemade caramel corn with Christina.
The ego doesn’t
know how to do this,
but the deeper self does.
The heart mind,
the wisdom and compassion heart,
knows how to do it.
~ Barbara Brodsky
We have already started getting mail here. In addition to having sent John his usual insulting (it’s a game they have played for years!) birthday card, Lee Mapes sent us a very impressive Christmas card, appropriate for snowbirds!
And he gifted us with an Echo Show 8!
Lee is a loyal friend, but it is not about what he buys (although he is generous that way too). Lee remains. Lee’s love remains.
Lee navigated Stacey’s adolescence with us as John was on the road for Morton Shoes. Early one Sunday morning he went to our house in Saint Joseph, broke into our garage to get the suitcases that were inadvertently left there, and drove them to Midway Airport in Chicago.
I took him to the hospital when he had hernia surgery. I brought him to our home and cared for him until he was able to go home. Stacey is Lee’s legal and medical representative.
There is enough love, enough generosity, enough wisdom and kindness to get through this with grace and ease, regardless of how long it takes, because what remains is enough….
Even a wounded world is feeding us.
Even a wounded world holds us,
giving us moments of wonder and joy.
I choose joy over despair.
Not because I have my head in the sand,
but because joy is what
the earth gives me daily
and I must return the gift.
My meditation this morning included listening to Ho’oponopono, chanted by Celeste Yacoboni, author of “How Do You Pray?”
Listening and chanting along inspired a poem:
How Do I Pray
Prayer is so much more than bowing our heads or folding our hands. We pray by breathing in the life force our Earth Mother offers and releasing all that blocks that. Like evergreens, we pray by growing upwards. Like potatoes, we pray through roots deep down in the soil. Gratitude for our life, kindness toward all beings, generosity of spirit; wisdom, honesty, integrity, joy — each an example of prayer. As gravity holds us safely on our earth home, prayer holds us securely in the universal heart.
Daily Aaron Quote for November, 26, 2020
It’s very helpful to wake up each morning with the commitment, or even consecration, “I consecrate this mind and body to the light, to service to all beings for the highest good. Today may I be of service to others and do good for others and for myself. May I be loving to all beings with whom I am involved today, including myself.”
Joy to forgive
and joy to be forgiven
hang level in the balances of love.
~ Richard Garnett
Last evening after our Zoom dominoes game ended, Linda asked us when we are planning to head south. One of the realities of the pandemic: It is difficult to plan.
The one thing we have put into place is a reservation at a hotel in Smyrna for Saturday night. It feels undeniably awkward to not be pulling into 1500 Clayton Court and having Baxter come running out to meet us, followed closely by Thor and Butter and Stacey and Doug.
Also undeniable is the lump in my throat and the tears running down my face.
For some reason, this move is triggering an avalanche of sadness and missing and fear of the unknown that staying safe at home since April has held back.
On the surface, it would be easy to blame our son-in-love, Doug, for the emotions. Doug has expressed his unwillingness to wear a mask in his own home over the four-day weekend. Since Stacey let us know that mind has been spinning, churning up the hurt.
Listening this morning to a talk by Pema Chödrön on the “Mindful Gap” allowed space for the wisdom mind to look at the neurotic mind, and now I am feeling what I am feeling: I don’t know what will allow me to feel safe visiting the kids.
You see, it is not just that I am afraid of John or me getting the virus from them. I am afraid of having them give the virus to one or the other of us and then them having to live with that.
Shantideva, an 8th-century CE Indian philosopher, Buddhist monk, poet and scholar cautioned against letting the mind be wild with impatience, gossip, attachment to things going your way. “When the urge arises…. do not act, be silent, do not speak, and like a log of wood, be sure to stay.”
So this morning, I am staying with the truth of the painful feelings that things are not going to go my way.
Suffering is transcended
by total surrender.
~ Shantideva
Meeting with our Grief Journey group yesterday brought home this universal suffering of arguing with what is, and the universal necessity of surrender.
One mother lost her adult son in August of 2020.
One wife lost her husband in January of 2020.
One wife lost her husband 15 years ago… In 2020 she is still navigating life as it is. As we all are.
This quotation by Hermann Broch, shared by a 70-something woman who lost her mom at age 5, points wisdom mind to the truth: No one’s death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humanness.
In our collective humanness, we are not just navigating the loss of persons. In the year 2020, we are collectively navigating the loss of the way things were, and the loss of the insistence things go our way.
Weather permitting, perhaps we could gather a picnic and meet at a park. (Right now the forecast says 50% chance of rain.)
Perhaps we could get take out from our favorite Thai restaurant and meet at their church fellowship hall.
Neale Donald Walsch says, So, don’t try to “figure it out.” Stop it. Just focus on what you now wish to create. Keep moving forward. There’s nothing behind you that can possibly serve you better than your highest thoughts about tomorrow.
In whatever ways it unfolds, all thoughts today about tomorrow deserve to be our highest.
Every day we pray for the willingness
to make sane choices about our lives.
~ from the book Answers in the Heart
We will be having left-over Thanksgiving for dinner tonight. Last evening, John and I shared the traditional fare with Janis and Larry!
We bought the turkey. She roasted it. She made deviled eggs and gluten-free brownies. I made mashed potatoes, corn (cut off the cob), and lemon pie. We each steamed garden peas, and we made our own gravy. Larry shared his cranberry sauce with John.
I even included two cloth Thanksgiving napkins along with my contributions. And, of course, chocolate chip cookies for Larry.
Our dining room was on ZOOM, where we could see one another, and hear first-hand the murmurings and moans. The food was delicious, and the company was delightful. True thanksgiving.
The four of us have been very mindful to avoid unnecessary exposure to the coronavirus. We mutually decided virtual was the best choice. It was Larry’s first Zoom experience. He said we will definitely have dinner together via Zoom while John and I are in Florida for the winter.
I finished another journal.
A mixture of emotions always accompanies the ritual of writing the date of the last entry on the cover. I chose to let a poem be my final entry.
Truth-be-told, the poem was begun on the evening of November 21, 2020, and completed on the morning of November, 22, 2020.
Perhaps the poem, like our virtual thanksgiving, is a bridge:
The Last Page
Years of journals
Pages yellowed from
Decades of moments
Unfolding like
Butterfly’s virgin wings
Each new volume
Filled with possibilities
Nothing hidden
Raw experience splayed out
Telling the ancient tales
Momentous occasions
Now lie perfectly flat
Letters etched with
Precious precision
Fading with great haste
Someday perhaps
These words will land
Upon lips of one who can
Treasure what was
Just because it still is
… within the heart
Debra Basham 11-22-2020
The first page of the new journal begins with: One week from today we expect to head to Florida. Willing to have all of that go easily and safely. The greatest unknown is seeing the kids. Weather will play a role in all of that.
Word for the Day
What gives me hope
is that life unfailingly responds
to the advances of love.
~ Nipun Mehta
The final words on that first page in the new journal are from the “voice” (what I call Holy Spirit):
When you stay in the relative reality box, you create the kind of fights with each other, ‘I’m right.’ ‘No, I’m right.’ ‘No, I’m right.’ You can’t hear each other. You become more and more polarized. And this of course is consonant with the lower stages of consciousness, the magical consciousness that believes that somehow it can prove to everybody that it’s always right. I think you all know that one! If you don’t remember it in your own experience, go and find a 2-year-old. It’s very much engrossed in the magical consciousness and very certain that it’s always right. Slowly you begin to open out, and as the stage of consciousness rises you move more into the openness that can view infinite possibilities. ~ Aaron
From my journal this morning:
D: I fully recognize the thought, “when I make a choice that is right for me, it is right for everyone,” as a relative reality thought. The thought holds a subtle distortion because of the separate self.
What is whispering to me is awareness of the interconnection of everything. Like waves in an ocean.
So how do I navigate?
V: The awakened heart knows one person is planning a picnic — a big event serving lots of people. A “thank you” event to many, for great service to humanity. That heart also knows the farmers in the region need rain. The time is crucial. The seed has been planted but rain is needed to bring forth the sprout. Many will feed upon the bread made from the farmers’ wheat.
What happens to support highest good for all beings?
D: This is exactly what I am asking!
V: In relative reality, a conflict-of-interest seems to exist. This is not real.
Imagine an all-night, slow, steady rain. Imagine the rain nourishing the soil and causing the conditions that bring forth a healthy harvest. Now imagine the sun coming up, a light breeze blows over the face of the earth, drying up the surface moisture. The picnic takes place now on a ground that is well-watered.
When you are drawn to notice a seeming “conflict-of-interest” simply greet the situation with an open heart, saying, “Hello, Teacher.”
All of the elements: earth, air, fire, water, and energy — they all know how to collaborate. You are made of these elements. You do know what to do for the highest good of all beings, and harm to none.
As Aaron says in the opening quotation, slowly, you begin to open out, and as the stage of consciousness rises you move more into the openness that can view infinite possibilities.
From Neale Donald Walsch:
On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know that most dramatic conflicts are perhaps those that take place not between men, but between a man and himself.
What are you battling with right now? What unwanted habit? What undesirable behavior? What old pattern? Claim victory over these, and your entire life can change.
Last evening I looked up and saw a soft pink haze in the western sky. I stepped out on the front porch and saw a rainbow out to the north. I grabbed my phone and took a photo, and as I turned around the western sky was ablaze with color.
On May 11, 2020, the poem of the day was “Keeping Quiet” by Pablo Neruda. Please go to Duke Trinity College and read the entire poem. Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He transitioned from this earth plane in 1973, but “Keeping Quiet” is his perfect gift for us at this time. Sharing here the next to the last stanza:
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Michigan has gone back under stay-safe-at-home orders as the numbers of coronavirus cases from community contact skyrocket. This is happening across the globe as the second wave of the pandemic crests.
Humanity is invited by this “teacher” to view infinite possibilities as we are keeping quiet….
I am back in the tiny house. It was such a gift going on retreat. Being in Carol’s Cozy Cottage felt so much like Still Waters, where my soul has been nurtured for decades.
While on retreat, a dharma sister shared a powerful poem she saw in a post by a Chicago Cognitive Behavior Therapy practice. Here are a few lines from “The Felt-Sense Prayer” from a podcast by Tara Brach:
I am a messenger with good news, as disturbing as I can be at times.
I am wanting to guide you back to those tender places in yourself, the place where you can hold yourself with compassion and honesty.
If you look beyond my appearance you may find that I am a voice from your soul.
Solitude, contemplation, meditation…. to many people these sound like torture. To those of us who are on this path, solitude is the place where our soul can breathe deeply.
Saturday morning was brisk, but the sky was clear so I bundled up and went for a walk. Carol’s husband, Steve, has been on a mission of planting trees. LOTS of trees….
The early morning frost had created an enchanted forest.
Before leaving on retreat, I received word about a friend seriously ill with the coronavirus. Another friend is in the hospital. One of the women at the retreat was going to be with her mom, and might not be back to the retreat. Her mom passed that night. Buddhism is no stranger to impermanence. Quite the opposite. And just as I was so moved by the beauty of the ice crystals , I was also inspired by the brevity of its existence.
A Haiku by Debra Basham
@ Carol’s Cozy Cottage
November 14, 2020
“Fleeting”
Icy crystals cling
playfully to willing plants
Glistening for now
Nothing lasts beyond
this moment – precious and full
Can you see it too?
Like fairy dust spread
just when you are not looking
To surprise and bless
Shapes, angles, light wait
to be seen in their glory
By humanity
Bounteous beauty
beauty in ALL the being
Lay waste the longing
Frozen in this time,
asking the frost to linger
Is futile at best
Vanishing quickly,
our lives like this autumn frost
must be loved right now
They too are fleeting
I had some internet instability so much of the time I was only able to call in and listen to the dharma talks. Not being seen or heard was a sort of solitude in and of itself.
Some amazing insights came during my yoga practice Saturday morning when I noticed my shoulders were trying to support the low core. I began hearing, “Trust the low core to do it’s work. You can trust it. It is safe.”
The SCS/NLP material on the drama triangle came into my awareness and I realized the way all three roles on the drama triangle work together is perfect: playing all the roles balances karma!
We have been studying a Mahāyāna Buddhism concept of the three bodies, or modes of being: the dharmakaya; the sambhogakaya; and the nirmanakaya. For this post, suffice it to say that I could see how the drama triangle corresponds to the nirmanakaya.
These sorts of insights often get stifled by the busyness and distractions of every day life. A doctor who expressed concern seeing a lot of severe burnout among his colleagues closed the retreat with a comment about the pandemic also bringing a gift to slow things down.
And when I opened email after I got home, I saw this message from Matt Kahn, author of Whatever Arises, Love That: Personal growth is only a means of improvement when seeing how miraculously you are able to grow when improving the way you care, treat, and speak to yourself. From this space, personal growth is a choice that only love can embrace.
It seems New Hope was the perfect way to describe this retreat…. Namaste’
Elizabeth Lesser wrote a New York Times bestselling book, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow (Random House). That book has sold more than 300,000 copies and has been translated into 20 languages. Lesser says, “When you feel yourself breaking down, may you break open instead. May every experience in life be a door that opens your heart, expands your understanding, and leads you to freedom.”
Her newest book, Cassandra Speaks: When Women are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes, reveals that humanity has outgrown its origin tales and hero myths, and empowers women to trust their instincts, find their voice, and tell new guiding stories.
It is not only women who have outgrown the original tales and hero myths. Men, women, children, and societies are capable of skillful relating — seeing each relationship as the fertile soil in which we come to rest in our spiritual maturity.
Resting in this “spiritual maturity” is our authentic self, and at our core it is always alive and well. Please take a moment to watch an amazing video of former prima ballerina, Marta C. González as she instinctively moves to the music, in spite of advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
Focus on what I can learn about myself all the time, especially from my reactions (such as anger, fear, jealousy, resentment, and impatience), instead of judging or blaming others or myself.
Pay attention to my emotions by feeling the physical sensations in my energy centers (such as my chest, solar plexus, and throat areas).
Pay attention to my thoughts (such as judging, analyzing, comparing, daydreaming, planning my reply, etc., or thoughts of gratitude, appreciation, contentment, openness to Life, etc.).
Pay attention to my intention such as blaming, judging, needing to be right, seeking admiration, escaping into thoughts (intellectualizing), trying to convince, etc., or cooperating, sharing, creating harmony, and revering Life.
Indra’s Net symbolizes the universe as a web of connections and interdependencies among all its members, wherein every member is both a manifestation of the whole and inseparable from the whole. (Photo: Indra’s Net)
During this chaotic time, pay attention to the quality of your relationships. Like the jewels in Indra’s net, our relationships are a web of connection. Each strand is both strong and vulnerable. In The More We Find in Each Other, Mavis Fossum and Merle Fossum remind us that when we feel the pain of separation from each other, we need to reach back and reopen communication.
Nature does not preserve species,
nature preserves purpose.
~ Barbara Marx Hubbard
When Barbara was preparing to move to New York City in pursuit of her life’s calling as a futurist, she asked her 9 year-old son, Wade, if he was willing to go with her. In his wisdom and love, Wade responded, “Mom, you’re doing what mothers are supposed to do. You’re trying to create a better future for your children. I want to come with you.”
Barbara Marx Hubbard did not just move to move, she moved be-cause of her commitment to the vision of humanity’s Conscious Evolution.
When I look at the places I have moved while following my life’s purpose, I see a 5 year-old walking into a Sunday school class, hearing a song and knowing Jesus loves ME.
At sixteen years of age, I moved to become a wife and a mother.
My move to being an ordained minister was first in the United Methodist Church, and then as an Interfaith Minister of Reunion in 1997.
I moved to create Holistic Alliance – the first holistic entity granted tax-exempt status by the federal government – and I moved with others to disband the organization in 2005.
Paul Loeb writes in Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time, “Working toward sometimes difficult dreams of social justice requires hope. At times we gain it from seeing tangible results from our efforts or the efforts of others. More often, it’s a way of viewing the world that can be strengthened and refined through experience, helping us persevere despite all the obstacles.”
I admire the move Barbara Marx Hubbard made. I greatly admire the move of her young son, Wade.
We are all being asked to move again. Moving means we know how to be-causal. What are your thoughts causing? What results do your words cause? What reactions are caused by your actions?
This is not the first time we have been divided fifty-fifty. The previous time the citizens of these United States of America were so divided on an issue was during the Civil War, where brother fought brother over the idea, “Is it OK for some people to own other people?”
I asked John which side he thought he might have been on, had he been alive during that time. He said, “Probably the North.”
He went on to say that he is in favor of freedom, he believes an individual should be allowed to make his or her own choice.
I asked about an individual’s choice to go camping in the high hills and have a camp fire.
What if it is in dry season?
What if the winds catch that individual’s camp fire and the sparks take on a life of their own and destroy hundreds of homes, cost millions of dollars, and destroy lives? Be-cause of an individual’s right?
Only as humans raise our individual consciousness does true freedom and an individual’s right mean harm to none. It is time we move.
Would you steal if you knew you could get away with it? I have. But I would not now, because now I know the truth: I cannot harm another without also harming myself.
We are be-causal.
In “The Genius of Second Maturity” Jean Huston says: For many of us, our years are being extended as our options and opportunities are being increased. We now have the time to become who we are; no longer men and women working a few short years in search of subsistence, we now are gaining a life span that allows us to become sages, richly actualized human beings able to transcend the particularities of our local selves, able to deal wisely and creatively with the enormous personal and planetary complexities of our time.
We are be-causal. What are your highest intentions? When Dr. Mary Jo Bullbrook led a ceremony of intentions on December 16, 2012, I wrote the following be-cause writing intentions helps bring desires into the physical realm.
I intend to continue healing on all levels and for all times as the ONE
I intend to lavishly share my light and love in the world
I intend to move into the new year with ease and joy and grace in my heart and mind and body
I intend to be open to spirit’s leading as to the ways and places and specifics of how this will all express itself in the world
I intend to laugh more
I intend to love more
I intend to balance work and play
I intend to be generous with my time and energy and money as I experience the endless supply that is our spiritual reality
I intend to give thanks for the simple joys of living in physical body: eating, drinking, sleeping; drawing nourishment from all and eliminating the waste
I welcome the next right steps with regards to John (and the selling of his business), Joel (and the expression of SCS in the world), and to our living in a simpler, elegant, peaceful space here in Michigan
I intend to continue practicing Vipassana
I intend to be open to highest good and to welcome the continuation of that red carpet being rolled out for all
A friend mentioned Russell Boulding’s Earth Energy Healing work last Thursday and I finally got around to checking his website out. Russell says this of himself: “All of my life I have been inclined towards a left-brain rational approach to thought and action. I have a BA in geology from Antioch College (1970) and an MS in water resources management from the University of Wisconsin/Madison (1975). From 1977 to 2003 I worked as a free-lance environmental consultant, specializing in environmental problems related to coal mining and contamination of soil and ground water.”
That was before the winds of change blew Boulding beyond his intellect.
It certainly might be that the human intellect is overrated.
Machaelle Small Wright’s procedures for gardening with nature spirits blew the winds of change for Russell. You can visit his website to read the amazing details of his life-changing experience after he blurted out without forethought, “I’m ready, take me as far and as fast as you can.” (See: Russell Boulding/Earth Energy Healing.)
Late in the spring of 2004, a mother robin built her nest in the crook of the downspout just outside our bedroom window. On May 22 of that same year, a 2.5 mile wide F4 tornado tore through Nebraska with its 200 MPH winds of change. The storm damages totaled $160.22 million. Our friends, Roger and Sharon, survived to rebuild their home when their entire town was blown away.
In the 40 years John and I lived at 4230 Lincoln Avenue, only that once did a robin built a nest in that location.
When the storm system that had devastated Nebraska raged through Southwest Michigan, John and I watched out our basement window as the wickedly wild winds blew trees near horizontal to the ground. Our beautiful bluff a few miles away was cleared of its majestic mature trees, hundreds of roofs were ripped off area homes, and tens of thousands were left without power for weeks.
Four baby robins weathered the storm in a secure nest.
We can be sure it was not “intellect” that guided the mother robin to place her nest in that unusual location.
Boulding says, “It has been necessary for me to develop my understanding of the larger reality that lies beyond our physical world primarily through intellect rather than through direct experience.”
Once you know beyond a doubt the source of the winds of change is Divine, like Russell, you and I are able to say, “I’m ready, take me as far and as fast as you can.”
Daily the world grows smaller, leaving understanding the only place where peace can find a home. ~ Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions
P.S. — A core benefit of the Imagine Healing process is the “evidence procedure.” Because you can see something you know is following its natural progression, you can pair up something else with it. Since late yesterday I am watching the progression of healing of a very sore little toe. Healing is natural. As that heals, I am saying to the whatever it was that moved the mother robin, “Take this healing as far and as fast as you can.”
P.S.S. — Imagine my surprise to see my friend, Dottie, in the photo with Russell Boulding. He had come to Friends Lake Quaker community to give a workshop.
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