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Yesterday I bloggeth not. It was "running around the countryside doing artsy stuff" Day. Schlepping painted furniture day. On days like that, I wonder why I chose such a medium as furniture and mirrors and lamps ... heavy, ungainly, unwieldy stuff ... why didn't I choose postcards to paint? Or Styrofoam? Or even canvas? I'll stick to blogging about art on my art-blog, however, and get back to ego-exposing here ...
As always, I'm reading my way through a few books at a time, and it's uncanny how they're all saying the same thing ... love that! Confirmations and reinforcements abound! OR, is it just a matter of seeing on the outside what I'm coming to see on the inside...? I do believe, and am experiencing, that we get the world that we expect. If I expect rejection, I get it. If I expect joy, I get it. If I don't like what I've chosen, I get to choose again.
That seems to be one of the most profound messages in life: I AM NOT STUCK -- I CAN CHOOSE AGAIN!
So, here are some snippets that have jumped out at me lately, causing my heart to sing, and my mind to spin:
~ Love is what we're born with -- fear is what we learn ...
~ The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear, and the return to love...
~ Fear, when expressed, shows up as anger, abuse, disease, pain, greed, addiction, selfishness, obsession, corruption, violence and war ...
~ Love is our essence, for we are made in the image and likeness of God. Love cannot be destroyed, but can be so well-hidden, that we are not aware of it, in ourselves, or in others ...
~ The transformation of the world does not change the world itself ... but changes our perception of it ... then we shall see it as a place of love, gentleness, hope, wonder and joy... and what we see, we receive ...
~ A miracle is a shift in perception ... exchanging our limited/faulty perception for God's omnipotent/true perception ...
~ Fear permeates the world ... free-floating anxiety ... fear of failure, of success, of relationships, of lack of relationships, of dying young, of growing old, of disease, of poverty, of lack, of pain, of numbness, of even joy ... we fear life more than we fear death ...
~ There is no time, no place, no state wherein God is absent ...
~ Every moment of every day, inevery situation, and with every person I encounter, I am offered the radical choice to react with fear (in one of its many manifestations, including to deny fear itself!), or to respond with love ... fear keeps me stuck, love sets me (and the other one) free ...
~ It's universally accepted that infants need love, or they will die from the lack of it ... at what point do humans cease to need love ... at what point are they no longer beloved children of God, desperate for love ...? Never. Why do we go to extreme lengths to rescue abused children, but then go to just as extreme a length to punish the same children, once they grow up and abuse in turn ..? Why would compassion cease to be a response..? Here too, we have a choice to react with fear, or to respond with love ...
- We all need love as much as we need oxygen ...
~ Our collective fear creates a mass-hallucination ... we believe in that which is not real ... only love is real ... the rest is manufactured by our egos, and is not real ...
~ The shift from fear to love is the only miracle ... how that manifests in the material world will be variant ...
~ Love in my mind creates love in my life ... this is Heaven.
Fear in my mind creates fear in my life ... this is hell.
~ My fearful self is an impostor ... it's not real ... and yet it will seem to be real, and will run the show, to the degree that I believe in it, heed it, and thus give it "power." The spiritual journey is my awakening from the pretense to the Real... from pain to peace ...
~ Returning to love isn't the end of the adventure, but the beginning ... awakening from the ego-induced nightmare, into the Spirit-based life. It's a return to who I really am. And thus invite others to do the same. It's why I'm here. It's why you're here.
Shalom, Dena
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5 comments:
Let's keep moving and choosing, growing into that next fine version of our Selves!
I find so much, from so many disparate sources, seems to mirror the movements within my spirit - now I have eyes to see. It feels like a gentle but irresistible invitation to Life, to allways live in the truth of God Within, for therein is our Peace. On the days I'm paying attention, Life Just Works!:)
"Fear is the beginning of wisdom," not the goal or result of wisdom.
eh? how is fear the beginning of wisdom (how does fear have anything to do with wisdom)? if fear is a tool used by the ego to keep us from the Spirit and thus from love, then wisdom is surely in relationship with love rather than fear. or am i missing something?
dena - out of interest, what are the books you are reading?
Hey Bea ...
Here's how I'm seeing it. Katherine is quoting from the Bible ... "fear is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10, and Proverbs 1:7 & 9:10). First, I notice that it's OT ... much was murky.
Christians often use those passages to justify a need to fear God (& fear is a poor translation -- awe/reverence/respect is a better choice).
Fear, AISI, serves a purpose when we are young and immature. Fear is what keeps my 3 year old from touching the hot stove. It works at that age. However, I want him to mature, and to develop wisdom borne out of self-care and experience. Not to fear stoves, but to know how to use them, once he is able to understand them.
In the beginning, "fear" of God may serve us ... but if we live in fear of God, we are spiritual cripples. We're meant to mature into understanding God ... to know that He is Love, and that perfect Love casts out all fear -- including the fear of God.
Katherine is emphasizing the the inevitable fear (ego-based perspective) we initially experience is the *beginning* of wisdom, but not where we're meant to remain. We are meant to outgrow our ego, and our ego's #1 fuel: fear.
Almost forgot your question, Bea...!
I'm going through A Course in Miracles (both the text and the daily exercises) ... and I'm also reading Marianne Williamson's "A Return to Love" -- which is her take on ACIM. I love how she writes ... very much like how I think, so reading it is akin to breathing... I've underlined nearly every other sentence so far. Good stuff. I can also relate to her life.
I was drawn to her when I first saw her on Oprah, about 15 or so years ago ... loved what she was saying, and the love she exuded ... but, of course, my church leadership deigned her to be "evil" and so I wrote her off until very recently ... and I find that I'm meant to be reading her, and doing the Course, at such a time as this. I've been prepared for this undertaking ...
Thanks for asking!
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