The smell of rain

A dear friend sent this to me and it is so moving I want to share it with you all.

Lionel



A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor
walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy
from surgery.


Her husband, David , held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks
pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver couple's new daughter,
Dana Lu Blessing.



At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already
knew she was perilously premature.

Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.

'I don't think she's going to make it,' he said, as kindly as he could..

'There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even
then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very
cruel one'




Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described
the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived.



She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be
blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions
from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.



'No! No!' was all Diana could say.

She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed
of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four.

Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.



But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana.
Because Dana 's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw',
the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't
even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength
of their love. All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the
ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God
would stay close to their precious little girl.


There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger.



But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here
and an ounce of strength there.


At last, when Dana turned two months old. her parents were able to
hold her in their arms for the very first time.




And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly
warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal
life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her
mother had predicted.


Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with
glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life.


She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment.
Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy
ending is far from the end of her story.



One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in
Irving , Texas , Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a
local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.


As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several
other adults sitting nearby, when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her
arms across her chest, little Dana asked, 'Do you smell that?'



Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana
replied, 'Yes, it smells like rain.'


Dana closed her eyes and again asked, 'Do you smell that?'


Once again, her mother replied, 'Yes, I think we're about to get wet.
It smells like rain.'


Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin
shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced,
'No, it smells like Him.



It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.'



Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to
play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what
Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had
known, at least in their hearts, all along.


During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life,
when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was
holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she
remembers so well.

Gardening God's Way

I like this very much and thought it might appeal to you too. Enjoy!






Plant three rows of peas:
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul

Plant four rows of squash:
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce:
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be obedient
Lettuce really love one another

No garden without turnips:
Turnip for meetings
Turnip for service
Turnip to help one another

Water freely with patience and
Cultivate with love.
There is much fruit in your garden
Because you reap what you sow.

To conclude our garden
We must have thyme:
Thyme for God
Thyme for study
Thyme for prayer

Author Unknown

A Dog's Purpose? (from a 6-year-old)

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker 's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.
Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ''I know why.''

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try to live.

He said,''People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?'' The Six-year-old continued,

''Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.''

Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!

Passing Over

Of all the fears which beset modern humanity, I believe the fear of death is the greatest. How sad this is, for it is unnecessary. Our life on earth is but a brief span compared to our life in eternity. You and I have always existed and will continue to exist forever. Each phase of our life is a preparation for the next phase and we cannot omit any step of the journey. Why is it that, compared to my grandparents’ generation for instance, we fear death so much?

Part of the reason has always been there. That is that due to the overpowering influence of the five senses, we are persuaded that earth life is the total of our existence. Because the senses are concerned almost solely with material things and take little or no account of the spiritual, they easily persuade us to accept their view, especially if we have separated ourselves from the world in which we live. What do I mean by this? I mean that in former days all people lived much closer to nature and were acutely aware of the rhythms of nature and the need to work with those rhythms. Death is a regular occurrence in the natural world and it was therefore much easier then to accept death as a natural part of life. The acceptance that everything dies and is renewed was universal at one time.

In modern urban society we are closeted from nature (many children think milk is produced in factories) and we do not meet death nearly as frequently as our forebears. I suppose the exceptions are pets and warfare. In the case of the latter, because invariably it is the young who die our negative attitudes to death are reinforced. We also have a tendency to try to protect our children from an awareness of death and what it means. When I was a child, it was expected that all members of a family, irrespective of age, visited the deceased loved one lying in his or her casket or coffin in the front room. I cannot say it was an enjoyable experience but it did bring about closure, taught us that death is part of life, that life continues and the importance of accepting those things. Today, my experience is that many parents keep their children away from funerals or anything to do with death and the practice of the coffin sitting in the home for three days has long gone. Added to this, the media have gone out of their way to emphasise the macabre aspects, at no time more than just now as we approach Halloween. Instead of the spirits of loved ones being presented as loving, caring souls, we are taught to be frightened of them by the use of ghost stories or movies like 2012 aimed to frighten us with images of disaster that kills millions.

Consequently we have a generation that fears death and its results more than any previous one and treats spirit presence as a macabre entertainment. As a result stress builds up because the inner spiritual self is being denied self-expression due to the dominance of the conscious mind or ego. If only more people could accept that death itself is not a bad experience and that nobody dies alone, there is always a person who loves you from the spiritual world there to help you into your new life. Then this mindless fear would be removed, stress lowered and although we would naturally still miss our loved ones when they pass, prolonged, painful grief would become a thing of the past. It is natural to feel grief when a loved one passes but the depth of misery some experience and their conviction they will not be able to cope without him or her is not. It points to our responsibility to face the issue openly well before the end arrives. We need to discuss how the survivor will manage and what they can do to help themselves. For instance, if a man is involved deeply in his own business and has shared little or any information about it with his wife, he needs to change that. We never know when the call might come and nothing is more daunting for a widow than having to learn how to run or dispose of a business about which she knows little or nothing. There are many unscrupulous people out there ready to take advantage of such a situation and it is surely our responsibility to ensure our partner never has to face that kind of experience if we pass early.

Canon Henry Scott Holland wrote a wonderfully uplifting piece on this subject and the importance of accepting it as a natural, unavoidable but not final event:

________________________________________
“Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well."

Endings and Beginnings

“When you were born,
you cried and the world rejoiced.
Live your life so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.”

Cherokee Expression

Based on Messages supposedly from the Great White Brotherhood, given through Patricia Beirne.

What follows is an interesting view I think on the changes so many of us are aware that are taking place at present.
I have edited the content a little for grammatical accuracy. - Lionel


Endings and beginnings are what life is all about; they are the Alpha and Omega. As the autumn season appears, many of you are surprised to find time passing so quickly and you wonder what you have accomplished that has made this year better for you.

Frustrations and fears run high. This is being played out at every level of your lives. There seems to be little time to do the things you want to do, your dreams of the future appear further away then ever. What escapes most of you is the understanding that your thoughts have tremendous energy and power. When you are feeling angry, discouraged, sad, fearful, the energy becomes dense and heavy. Those around you feel it, and it is reflected back to you in many ways.

"Love" is the substance of life. From "Love" the Universe was born, and everything in it. There is no separation, except in your minds. This is part of the illusion of duality. Unconditional love experienced and shared from the heart is the key to heal all; it is your true Essence.

Humanity is in the throws of a transition that is experienced in ways that are unique to your "life contracts." You came into this life to bring together all the fragmented aspects of self, to finally understand that you live simultaneously in many realities, experience many parallel lives, but focus on one as your "only" reality. Your "true" reality is being unveiled in order to bring you back into Oneness, to heal feelings of separateness from your Creator. There is no way to escape the move of mankind to a new level of existence. The third dimension as you know it is coming to an end. It is time to raise your consciousness, and no longer be limited by the illusion you see all around you.

If you are fearful, this manifests as discomfort, and disharmony throughout your lives. Everything seems to be falling apart. There is no escape except to recognize "yourselves" as one universal family striving for acceptance and the love of all.

Change is taking place within you, and all around you; at personal, global and universal levels. Take a deep breath; find the love and peace that dwells deep inside and remember, we are here to support you in this transition.

The Angel in White - Natalie Casey

Last year Natalie Casey, 82, a nurse since 1945 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center–Passavant, was caring for a World War II veteran who was not expected to make it after major abdominal surgery. She had his wife bring in an old photo album, and then Casey sat down with him, flipping through the pages. "I told him my husband had been in the service," she says. "We talked about it for days. And pretty soon he was on the mend."


After decades of tending to the bodies and souls of patients, Casey has found that the best medicine doesn't come out of a pill bottle. "I found out that if I took a genuine interest in my patients, it took their minds off what they were in the hospital for," she says. "Nursing isn't just delivering medicine and changing bandages. If you listen to somebody, it's surprising how much their outlook can change."

How true! One of the noticeable changes of attitude in Western society since I was a boy is that towards health. In former days people accepted that a certain amount of sickness was inevitable and had an ability to tell what was serious and needed medical treatment and what was minor that they could treat themselves. When you had something minor your mother or grandmother knew exactly what was needed to treat it, added to which mothers and grandmothers lived much closer to each other then.

However, when you had a serious illness, your doctor was not so rushed off his feet that he could spare little or no time to listen to you describe exactly what your symptoms were. In addition, as Natalie Casey knows, the causes of illness are not always obvious and the wherewithal to cure them not always to be found in drugs or pills. Sometimes a kindly, listening ear is a far more effective curative than any drug. In most countries doctors no longer have the time for this. The reason they have so much less time to listen to their patients is a serious reproach to our society and individual attitudes. Many people feel because in many countries health services are funded by the State, they have an inalienable right to call on their doctor for anything. Consequently doctor’s surgeries are full to overflowing and the doctors themselves work non-stop to meet the demand. Added to this State medicine demands a great deal of administrative work for which the doctor must find time. The separation of family units that makes the passing on of traditional remedies for non-serious illness more difficult is another important factor.

Perhaps we need more “angels” like Natalie, especially as the proportion of the population who are elderly grows. There are of course many kind people who carry out voluntary work in hospitals but the sort of listening Natalie does so effectively is rare. Nurses are caring people, by and large and would love to have more time to talk to and listen to patients but like doctors, much of their time is spent filling in forms!

Elderly people often live alone and the thing they most yearn for is companionship; someone with whom to share their views on what is happening around them or even just to listen to their reminiscences. If more of us were willing to spend a little time each week with an elderly person, perhaps, just perhaps, geriatric wards in hospitals would be less crowded!

IF ONLY . . .

In the words of the old song:-

If only, if only the woodpecker sighs,
The bark of the tree was as soft as the skies.
The wolf waits below hungry and lonely
And cries to the moon, “If only, if only . . .


How often have you heard people begin a sentence with these words? Indeed, how often have you done the same? It usually happens when something goes wrong or a totally unexpected challenge comes our way and interferes with plans we have made. Nobody likes change particularly and neither do we immediately accept the results when something we have undertaken or planned, goes wrong. Yet, if we look back over the years and remember what happened on other similar occasions, I believe we can take heart.

I know we always think that the current challenge is so much worse than any previous one but that is human nature. In fact our life is full of such changes of direction or emphasis and although it is often possible to trace the cause, maybe some oversight on our part or the failure to anticipate the actions of another, they rarely turn out to be quite as desperate as we sometimes think. Indeed, many of them have forced a change upon us that has turned out to be a blessing. Whether that is so or not, there is no doubt at all that each such experience and how we meet its challenges impacts upon our character and our spiritual growth.

Our character, whilst partly formed by genetic inheritance, is chiefly moulded by what happens to us, the environment in which we live and how positively we react to challenges. In life we learn a great deal from our mistakes and although we strive hard not to make them it is impossible not to. That is because they are part of the curriculum of life. What was it the sage said? “Show me a man who has not made a mistake and I will show you a man who has not lived”. The corollary to this of course is that we should try to learn from each mistake we make.

Another “If only …” concerns our environment. "If only I had been born at a different time or place; if only I wasn’t surrounded by so much poverty, or violence, or temptation; if only I hadn’t listened to his or her advice"; the list seems endless. I believe each of us chooses the time and place of our birth as well as choosing our parents. That being the case, there must be a very good reason why we chose them. Although it is almost impossible to establish beyond doubt why we chose, we only need to look at the pages of history to see the huge number of people who have triumphed over adversity and completely overcome the disadvantages of their birth or setbacks experienced subsequently.

Instead of moaning “if only…” should we not rather be tying to work out how we can turn the new circumstances to our advantage or what it is we are expected to learn this time? Whatever it is, we can guarantee it’s important. It really is ‘part of life’s rich pattern in which nothing happens by chance and there is a silver lining to every cloud.

Fable of the Porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever - many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other. After awhile they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companion, but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story:

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

Good Wishes for Fall

Being a good person is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all of the yucky stuff -- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a bright new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see. This was passed on to me from another pumpkin. Now, it is your turn to pass it on to a pumpkin of your choice. I liked this enough to send it to a few of my favorite pumpkins in my patch.

Peace on Earth: Towards Universal Peace And Hope

Here is an Eastern view on achieving peace on earth that contains some very interesting ideas and opinions. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Lionel

Despite continuing conflict, prejudices that once seemed inherent in our nature, are giving way. However, frequently, organised religion poses a formidable obstacle in the path, especially when fanatics seek credence from it. Yet, a lot has been achieved elsewhere: Women were generally regarded as inferior. But now, globally, the concept of equality of the sexes is a universally accepted principle.

Nationalism faces a similar fate. One has to distinguish between patriotism that enriches one's life, and submission to inflammatory rhetoric that provokes hatred and fear. Nationalistic rites are as often marked by feelings of awkwardness as they are by the strong convictions and enthusiasm of earlier times. The fetish for absolute national sovereignty is on its way out.

Millions continue to endure the effects of ingrained prejudices of ethnicity, gender, nation, caste and class. Such injustices persist because the institutions and standards we devise only slowly become empowered to construct new and better orders. Nevertheless, fundamental principles have been identified, articulated, and are becoming progressively incarnated in institutions capable of influencing public behaviour.

In contrast to processes of unification that are transforming the rest of our social relationships, the suggestion that all the world's great religions are equally valid in nature and origin is stubbornly resisted by entrenched patterns of sectarian thought. Racial integration will arise from the recognition that the earth's people constitute a single species whose many variations do not themselves confer any advantage or impose any handicap on individual members.

Preoccupation with agendas that disperse and vitiate human energies has led religious institutions to discourage exploration of reality and the exercise of mankind's intellectual faculties. Denunciations of materialism or terrorism are of no real assistance in coping with the contemporary moral crisis if they do not begin by addressing the failure of responsibility that has left believing masses exposed and vulnerable to these influences.

Such reflections are less an indictment of organised religion than a reminder of the unique power it represents. Religion reaches to the roots of motivation. When it has been faithful to the example of those who gave the world its great belief systems, it has awakened in whole populations capacities to love, forgive, create, dare greatly, overcome prejudice and sacrifice for the common good.

Growing numbers of people are coming to realise that the truth underlying all religions is essentially one. This recognition arises not through a resolution of theological disputes but as an intuitive awareness born from the ever widening experience of others and from a dawning acceptance of the oneness of the human family. Out of the welter of religious doctrines, rituals and legal codes inherited from vanished worlds, there is emerging a sense that spiritual life, like the oneness manifest in diverse nationalities, races and cultures constitutes one unbounded reality accessible to everyone.

Religion and science are the two indispensable knowledge systems through which potentialities of consciousness develop. These fundamental modes of the mind's exploration of reality are mutually dependent and have been most productive in those rare but happy periods of history when their complementary nature has been recognised and they have been able to work together. The insights and skills generated by scientific advance will have always to look to spiritual and moral commitment to ensure their appropriate application; religious convictions, no matter how cherished, must submit willingly to impartial testing by scientific methods.

(Abridged from an address by the Universal House of Justice, Baha"i World Centre, to the world's religious heads)

Thought for Today

Spiritual Insight: The Spiritual Basis Of Creativity

In the mid-1980's, while William was consulting on corporate creativity, he began to recognise a similarity in the language that people used to describe their moments of creative insight and their experience of spiritual inspiration. It dawned on him that the similarities were not by accident; but rather, it's because our spiritual nature literally means we are co-creators with the Divine...as Martin Buber, a 20th century Jewish philosopher, reminds us:



"Destiny is not where we wait for God to push us. We take part in creation, meet the Creator, reach out to Him, helpers and companions."

AUTUMN

I am in Upstate New York at the moment and the leaves are changing colour. The sun is shining brightly and the leaves look so beautiful it takes my breath away. It makes me realise yet again what beauty there is in this wonderful world of ours and how sad it is that there is so much stress and unhappiness to mar the enjoyment of all this wonder and beauty.

If only – ah if only . . . !! If only we could bring ourselves to the point where enjoying the beauty of the earth and doing our best to enhance it were among the most important things we feel we can commit ourselves to. If instead of feeling threatened by those we do not understand, we can try harder to obtain understanding. If we could only see that we are all swimming in the same universal sea and that because someone is swimming in a different direction from us does not mean they are our enemy. If we could see that helping another swimmer in difficulties is so much preferable to either pushing them under the waves or ignoring their cries for help. All these things would change our perspective and create for us a much more satisfying and worthwhile stay upon earth.

As I look at the autumnal beauty all around, it is difficult not to believe in the rightness and perfection of the natural world; to believe that all nature, the animals and humanity are part and parcel of the same wonderful design and that each is as important as the other in the scheme of things that the Great Spirit has created. We are meant to enjoy it all but to work in harmony with not only the natural world but with ourselves also. Disharmony and disease are inseparable. Much of the disease we see throughout the world springs inevitably from disharmony; whether it is the disease and death spread through warfare and terrorism (which is just another word for warfare), or the spread of diseases like cancer and hypertension that are the result of the desperate unhappiness of people. Unhappiness created by the struggle going on within us between our higher, spiritual self and the ego that is ruled by the five senses.

Inside we know what is needed for happiness on earth and it is rarely to do with maximising our material possessions. Inside we know that war and violence resolve nothing, are destructive and generate a cloud of negativity that at present surrounds our globe and adds to the total sum of human misery. Inside we also know that disputes more often than not result from two things; 1)Our refusal to make a real effort to understand one another and 2) Greed, the selfish desire to possess more and more material things, especially money.

Is there anything we can do to reverse the process? There is. We can as individuals pay more attention to the beauty of the natural world. When, as we gaze upon it in wonder, and as a result feel the light of the spirit shining around and within us, use our imagination to project that light outwards and upwards. If enough of us do this it will disperse the clouds of darkness created by war, hatred and misery and the suffocating pall that hangs over the earth at present will melt away. The effects of its removal will bring about a dramatic increase in inter-personal understanding and a vast reduction in sickness.

Surely such a prize is worth making an extra effort to spread the light of the spirit as widely as possible?

SILENCE

Once again my thanks to "Spiritual Insight" for this thought-provoking piece. It brings to mind Psalm 46 "Be still and know that I am God."

In spite of whatever wisdom we may have; we can make a mistake if we have no control over our words. And we can easily find examples of this truth; those who talk much have less power than those who talk little.

For a talkative person may not be able to express an idea in a thousand words which those who are masters of silence express in one word. ... What gives power over words? What gives the power that can be attained by silence? The answer is: it is will power which gives the control over words; it is silence which gives one the power of silence. It is restlessness when a person speaks too much.

The more words are used to express an idea, the less powerful they become. It is a great pity that man so often thinks of saving pennies and never thinks of sparing words. It is like saving pebbles and throwing away pearls. An Indian poet says, 'Pearl-shell, what gives you your precious contents? Silence; for years my lips were closed.'

A Little Ice-Cream is Good for the Soul!

Last week, I took my grand-children to a restaurant.

My six-year-old grand-son asked if he could say grace.

As we bowed our heads he said, "God is good, God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Nana gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen!"

Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, I heard a woman remark, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why, I never!"

Hearing this, my grand-son burst into tears and asked me, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?"

As I held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job, and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table.

He winked at my grand-son and said, "I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer."

"Really?" my grand-son asked.

"Cross my heart," the man replied.

Then, in a theatrical whisper, he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), "Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes."

Naturally, I bought my grand-children ice cream at the end of the meal. My grand-son stared at his for a moment, and then did something I will remember the rest of my life.

He picked up his sundae and, without a word, walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile he told her, "Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes; and my soul is good already."


The End

I love this story!

Sometimes, we all need some ice cream.





I hope God sends you some ice cream today!

FEAR!

I am once more indebted to the writer of Spiritual Insights for this piece. I hope you find it enlightening - Lionel

According to metaphysics fear is caused by the lack of light. Therefore the more light there is in the heart the more fearless the heart becomes. ... When a person is afraid of a dog, he gives the dog a tendency to bite him. This can be noticed so plainly in the lower creation, that every animal is afraid of another animal, and the expectation of harm makes it fear more than does the idea of the hugeness of the form or the bodily strength of another animal. Many things in life can be brought about, not only by wanting them and thinking about them, but also by fearing them, both objects and conditions. To clear one's mind of fear is like bringing light into a dark room, and as light is needed to illuminate a dark room so the light of the soul is necessary to clear away the thought of fear. ... When one fears, this world frightens one, but when one clears one's heart of all fear, the whole world of illusion turns into one single vision of the sublime immanence of God.


There is a story of a Brahmin, a young man who was very much impressed by what his guru told him: that the whole of manifestation is the immanence of God and that, therefore, there is nothing to fear, nothing to distrust. This thought made the young man feel quite at home in the world, quite comfortable. Then one day a mad elephant came along the road on which the young man was walking. The men running before the elephant yelled, 'Away, away! The elephant is coming!' But the young man would not get out of the way. With palms joined he stood as fearlessly before the elephant as one stands before God, as his guru had told him. The consequence was that the elephant gave him a shove and he fell down. He was brought to the guru who asked him what had happened. The young man said, 'Guruji, you said that all is the immanence of God, and therefore, in all reverence, I stood before the elephant with joined hands.' The guru said, 'Did anyone tell you to get out of the way?' He replied, 'Yes.' 'Why then,' said the guru, 'did you not stand before that man with joined hands and listen to him?'

What You See Is What You Get

I am indebted to The Spiritual Insight’s website for this enlightening piece. I hope you find it as thought-provoking as I did. - Lionel

A friend of mine had an unpleasant experience with a mother of one his students who was about to be ordained a rabbi. This greatly upset and disturbed this woman who considered herself an enlightened intellectual and looked at organized religion as backward and fanatical. She was very nasty and cynical about her son's religious convictions. They were on the way to the ceremony when she turned to my friend and said, "Basically, I don't believe in G- d."

My friend replied, "O.K., fine! Don't believe in G-d." He was the first religious person who had responded to her that way, others tried to convince her. "What?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"You don't want to believe in G-d?" he said. "Fine, so live in a G-dless world."

That's essentially the choice we have. If we don't want to believe in G-d, then G-d won't be in our world. That doesn't mean G-d isn't real. G-d is real, but not for those who choose do deny that truth.

In other words, if I've never tasted papaya, then there's no flavor of papaya in my life. Whether it's real or not for others, it's not in my life. If I'm blind to the color red, then red will not be one of the colors in my life. Mammals do not see colors, so they live in a colorless world. If I'm not willing to see G-d, then my world is godless.

Once I was dating a woman, who I'll call Daphne, whom I loved very much. I wanted to marry Daphne. It took me a long time to realize that Daphne simply could not acknowledge my love. I did everything in my power to show her that I loved her. Daphne had such a poor image of herself, however, that she couldn't believe that anyone could love her. It didn't matter how much I professed my love to her, how many bouquets of flowers I sent her. She couldn't see my love. So, in a way, it wasn't there for her.

Everyone is thirsty for love, but how much love you can receive is dependent on how much you believe someone can love you. How much you believe is how much you receive. The more you acknowledge and believe in G-d the more you receive and see G-d in your life.

To the extent that we build our awareness, expand our consciousness, and acknowledge that G-d is the power directing the show, to that extent we see how G-d runs the show for us.

Each one of us has a choice. You can believe that this world is filled with the presence of G-d who cares about it and guides it. Or you can believe that this world is one big accident, a chaotic mess. The choice is yours. But remember what you believe is ultimately what you will see. What you believe creates the world you live in.

The Talmudic Sages taught: "Everything is in the hands of G-d except awe of G-d."

The Hebrew word for awe, yira, means both "awe" and "will see." Everything is in the hands of G-d, except for our acknowledging and seeing and being in awe of G-d. If we are in awe we will see G- d. If we are not in awe, if we are not open to seeing G-d, then G-d is not in our world. It's that simple and that serious.

Some people experience constant Divine presence, which means they see and feel G-d's care and guidance in their lives. They need $800 to pay for a car repair, and an unexpected check for $800 arrives in the mail. They miss a bus, so they get on the next bus, and the person they sit down next to turns out to be a friend from twenty years ago.

Why are such experiences not part of everyone's daily life? Because what you see is what you get.

SECURITY

One particular thing I notice these days that is so different from when I was a child is the growth of an almost unhealthy pre-occupation with security. I do not just mean national and international security due to terrorism, although I will come to that later, I mean ordinary, every day activities. When I was a boy, no adult worried about me climbing trees or going off cycling on my own for miles. Indeed, when I was four, I climbed onto the roof of a greenhouse in the garden. Surprise, surprise, it would not take my weight and I bear the scar on my leg to this day! I am sure that had my parents seen what I was doing they would have stopped me but they did not because they felt it unnecessary to keep watching me all the time – “just in case”. The fall and the cut resulting from it were painful but no permanent damage was done and it certainly taught me not to climb on glass roofs again!

I and my friends would have died had our parents insisted on accompanying us to school every day. We walked, sometimes alone, sometimes together with friends but never with our parents. It was perhaps a thirty minute walk and there were potential dangers on the way; not just ill-intentioned adults (although there seemed to be an absence of those, then) but a canal and two busy roads to cross. I recall no-one being hurt – oh one or two ventured too near the canal, fell in and emerged wet and smelly but that was the worst that happened. Today, even quite grown up schoolchildren are driven to their schools by over-anxious parents and local authorities are so in fear of legal actions against them for negligence that they have removed any equipment from children’s playgrounds that carries the faintest risk of injury.

What has happened to us? As we have become more prosperous, we seem also to have become more fearful. Why? Life has never been and never will be risk free. Indeed it appears logical that it is through the risks with which we are faced and what we do to meet them that we learn. If life were completely risk free I believe it would become anodyne and uninteresting. I realise that anxious parents will point to the large number of attacks on unaccompanied children and the presence of various ne’er-do-wells in their community. There have always been sick people in communities but in former times we seemed to be able to handle them rather better. Perhaps, paradoxically, we cared more then? The change in attitude is epitomised by the equally fundamental change in adult behaviour towards the children of others and the attitude of the law in this area. When I was a boy, if you dared to misbehave in any way in the presence of an adult, you were reprimanded there and then. Indeed if there was a policeman about when you misbehaved, you would probably receive a clip around the ear and be sent on your way. If you dared to tell your parents about it, they would give you another clip on the assumption that you had deserved what you got from the policeman. Today even parents hesitate before disciplining their children in this way.

I can just hear some people muttering about sadism and licence to practice it when you are in uniform or are a parent but it wasn’t like that. There was a mutual sense of pride in our communities and that included how children behaved. Children are learning to be adults and they need rules to guide them. It is surely our responsibility to not only set such rules but also to supervise them? Today bullies and the like are arraigned before children’s courts and wear their arrest and trial like a badge and become folk heroes as a result, going on to become much worse as adults. Formerly, most such bullies had their violent tendencies knocked out of them as it were, although some did not. I am citing this merely to show it could well be a reason for the growth of parental fear and our preoccupation with security. There is a big downside to all this in my opinion. Because so much risk is removed from the pathway of children, when they grow up they either yearn to take any kind of risk, especially anti-social ones, or they become mentally incapable of overcoming even the smallest risk placed in their way. They have been so coddled they cannot accept the normal risks of life.

We seem to have abdicated personal responsibility for acceptable behaviour in our communities and handed it to officialdom, just as we have with our response to terrorism. We set up official bodies to oversee national security etc., and then wonder why so many petty regulations emerge! Give people an official title and they will feel obliged to justify their existence by introducing all kinds of rules, whether they help or hinder the policy they have been appointed to administer. I will not repeat what I said about our reaction to terrorists in an earlier blog but there is a strong case for arguing we have made the terrorists’ job much easier by over-reacting, by becoming too fearful. Maybe it is time for us to take stock and re-examine the whole question in the light of experience.

Should we perhaps encourage more risk taking by our children and become less anxious for their safety? This does not involve failing to warn them about risks beforehand and giving them advice on handling them By accepting more openly that life has risks we may begin to produce a far less fearful future generation! That wonderful person Helen Keller once pronounced on the matter of life and its risks and remember what she had to overcome to make her way in the world; this is what she said:-

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

DANCING IN THE RAIN

I know that thanks to Gene Kelly, “Singing in the Rain” is more widely quoted. However, following on from yesterday’s shipwrecked sailor blog, I wanted to look in a bit more detail at how we react to difficult and unexpected circumstances in our lives; those occasions when nothing seems to have worked out as we expected and we feel lost, even betrayed sometimes. It is as though the flowing river of universal consciousness has passed us by, or at the very least, left us marooned in a pool far away from it. At times like this we discover that when the going gets really difficult, our own resources seem scarcely sufficient and any of those we hoped would help us, either cannot help very much or ignore us altogether. We are dependent upon our own devices; we feel abandoned to find our way out of the maze into which fate seems to have deposited us, all on our own.

Of course, although we do feel like that when the difficulties or challenges are extreme, we are never totally alone and how quickly it is before we become aware of those trying to help us both here and from the spiritual world, depends upon our attitude. The deeper we sink into self pity and blaming others for our plight, the more alone will we feel. Although we cannot see it, there is both a cause and a reason for us finding ourselves facing this challenge. Because we are only dimly aware of the real world, the spiritual world which is our true home, we tend to look for causes in the wrong places, in the short term, and as to reasons, we rarely become conscious of these until long after the event, if ever. This should teach us to take the long view more often but usually, the challenge we face is so acute, all rational thought deserts us. We bang around hitting out blindly, looking for things or people to blame and tend to waste far too much effort on this largely futile exercise.

It helps sometimes to look back on our lives and remember the occasions, during our youth especially, when things were difficult and see what happened to us subsequently. In many instances, we will find that the new circumstances though seeming difficult at the time, presented us with opportunities that we would never have been aware of before the difficulties arose. Why should the present situation be so different? Can we not by changing our thinking and our attitude transform the difficulty into an opportunity? It might seem impossible at first but if we try to relax, put negative reactions and thoughts out of our minds, and allow our inner light to guide us, it is amazing what can happen. We tend to make so many assumptions in life that it often conditions us against accepting change of any description. This is a shame because life is a dynamic experience. How boring it would be were our lives always predictable. Just think about those people you know who always act and react in predictable ways. Are they not, as a result, less interesting than those happy, relaxed people we know who never seem to react in the same way twice?

How do you measure up against such people? Do you accept life as it comes, adapting to changing circumstances as flexibly as you can or do you expect life to follow a fixed, invariable pattern? Do you have a wider outlook on life, realising that there is purpose behind everything? Do you accept that nothing happens by chance, no matter how difficult it might be to detect a cause? Do you have an inner conviction that physical life is not all there is, even if you cannot put that conviction into words and are not especially religious? If you do then you are well equipped to take advantage of opportunities that come your way, even when disguised as problems. You are also well equipped to allow yourself to be helped by those both here on earth and in the spiritual world that care deeply for us and always want to help. We are never alone, even when certain decisions have to be taken on our own initiative. Guidance is always available and often we accept it without being completely aware that we have been helped. This too is part of the wonderful, rich pattern of life.

So next time the rain clouds gather and it looks as if a terrible storm is approaching remember this:-

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain."

Frustrated? Nothing Ever Goes Right?

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Everyday he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. . . He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?"

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! "How did you know I was here?," asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

I am sure you must have experienced this type of frustration in your life. No matter how carefully you have planned or how hard you have worked, everything seems to fall apart. It is as though some evil genie is doing his best to ensure that you do not achieve whatever it was that you set out to do. It is especially galling if you are a religious or spiritual person and have used fervent prayer to back up your plans, or to obtain release from an intolerable situation. It seems that your God is laughing in your face. Indeed, in some similar circumstances, people have been known to lose their faith in God altogether.

Although we may think we see everything clearly and know what is best for ourselves, this is often not the case. I am not suggesting we should stop making plans or working out our own ideas as to what is best. However, when things turn out differently, I am suggesting that instead of wringing our hands and turning away from our God, we should examine carefully what has happened. We should look at the new situation and weigh up its benefits before condemning it. It could well be that with a small change in our attitude we could make far more of the new situation than we think. Indeed, it may turn out to be better for us than we were planning.

Life is full of uncertainties and as we grow older, experience should teach us to be more adaptable. In practice, the reverse is often the case. As we get older, we become more set in our ways and find it very difficult to accept anything other than what we thought was best. Adaptability is usually a quality more associated with youth than with age and it is what enables young people to face up to and overcome challenges that their parents and grandparents may have found impossible. Why should it remain the preserve of the young? Perhaps if we “oldies” were a bit more flexible, we would find our interest in life and what happens, stimulated more often. We might conceivably retain our youthful outlook longer, enjoy life more and be more fun for younger people to spend time with. I seem to remember reading sometime that “age is an attitude of mind,” and I grow more convinced about the truth of that than ever.

One of the great excitements of life is its uncertainty; we never know what is waiting just around the corner and if we are sensible we should leave it that way. Those who consult fortune tellers in order to find out what the future holds for them are making several mistakes. First, they assume that some people have the ability to see or know exactly what the future holds. Second, that we would be a great deal happier and more settled if we knew for certain what was coming. Third they are taking an almost entirely materialistic view of life.

Taking the first point, some people are particularly sensitive and can read far more into situations and emotions than ordinary mortals. However, much fortune telling is obtained by the sensitive being able to detect in the aura of a person certain strong desires or fears. By using these insights as though they were glimpses of the future, they are able either to reinforce the desire or calm the fear. This is not ‘seeing the future’. We create our own future and in my view the fortune teller merely primes the pump so that we create what we desire or avoid what we fear. That is the ‘future’ seen by the fortune teller. In this way such services can of course be very helpful to certain people but it is important for them to know what is really happening.

Would we be happier knowing exactly what was to happen and when? I very much doubt that we should. It would be yet another matter to worry about! Indeed, it can be argued that if we did know exactly what was due to happen, it would so change our mental attitude that what we would in effect change the future. Although I believe in pre-determination, the impact of free will is significant and mental attitude can undoubtedly delay or modify what is pre-determined.

Understanding the way a psychic works is very important and so few who consult them know this and indeed most psychics are in ignorance of it too. Thus a psychic consultation is often a matter of the ‘blind leading the blind”. Learn about the operation of these gifts; learn about your own aura and how it reflects all that is and has happened in your life and above all, learn to accept life’s uncertainties in good faith. In these ways life’s mysteries will become much less mysterious and your need to ‘see what is coming’ will be greatly reduced. You will be happier and more contented. This is particularly so because physical life is but a tiny part of our individual and eternal existence. Sometimes, bad things that happen to us and difficult challenges we have to face and overcome are part of our long term spiritual growth and have little or nothing to do with physical life.

Accept that we cannot see or know everything and that forces are operating around us and within us about which we cannot be aware. Remember the immediate impact of an apparent ‘accident’ is often misleading, as our hero in the story found. Take a longer view and be adaptable. This way lies inner peace.